Poster Boy

I’ve stuck up thousands of posters across Australia to interrogate our national identity. With each, the response has grown. You might expect I have unshakable convictions about social justice, but I don’t. I reject the label ‘activist’. So why do what I do? Maybe it’s time I made sense of my motivations.

Artist Peter Drew wanted a better Australia. In 2013, frustrated at the political discussion around asylum seekers, he put up a poster, commenting on Australia’s offshore detention. What followed was an outpouring of community support, and a national, then global, following for his art.

As Peter’s profile rose, he began to question his beliefs – a struggle that led to destructive behaviour and affected his relationships. When compelled to face a painful family legacy, Peter realised that his behaviour and his motivation to make art shared a common thread: his father. Their relationship had been shaped by an outdated Australian machismo – a mix of bravado, inadequacy and shame that not only affects sons and their fathers, but informs social relations more broadly, including the way we as a nation treat outsiders.

Told with humour, sincerity and an attentive eye, Peter’s story is both intimate and inclusive, drawing a parallel between our personal relationships and Australia’s national narratives. This is a book about family and identity, about the lies we tell ourselves and the past we bury. It is an expedition to be a better citizen of his country.

About the Author

Peter Drew was born in 1983 in Adelaide. He holds a master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art. His work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, though his most prominent is installed on city streets.