Inkahoots, "New Anthems" variations, 2009. Photos: Stefan JannidesPedestrians in Brisbane, Queensland, are invited to rewrite Australia's patriotic songs by sending text messages to an installation in the windows of the
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts on Brunswick Street. Commissioned from the Australian design studio
Inkahoots, "New Anthems" consists of illuminated typographic sculptures with temporary gaps left for others to fill in. The first installation, which was displayed from July 22 to August 20, quoted "Advance Australia Fair," the country's official anthem: "Australians all let us ____ for we are young and ____," omitting the words "rejoice" and "free." Variations of the line supplied by onlookers via cell phone were, “Australians all let us ditch the Queen, for we are young and she’s so Elizabethan," and “Australians all let us fixate on celebrities, for we are young and they are digitally enhanced.” A full complement of revisions can be viewed at this
website. The next "New Anthems" installation, which is adapted from Sydney-born
Dorothea Mackellar's 1904 poem "My Country," will be on view September 14–28. It will read, "I love a ____ country, a land of ____ plains." (Original words: sunburnt/sweeping.)
