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How migrating to the 'wild' world of Darwin as a child inspired Franck Gohier's artistic career
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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7/5/2025
Artist Franck Gohier is part of the artistic fabric of Darwin, but, when he arrived from France with his parents 50 years ago, the cyclone-ravaged outpost was like an alien universe.
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00:01
Here's an example of one of my prints.
00:05
It's a screen print and letterpress poster
00:08
commemorating when the Beatles came into Darwin
00:11
to refuel their plane.
00:15
Growing up here has influenced a lot of what I do here with my work.
00:18
When I was a teenager I was a bit of an amateur archaeologist
00:21
so I'd go in the mangroves foraging around looking for bits and pieces.
00:26
My name's Frank, I'm a visual artist on Larrakir Country.
00:31
The history of Darwin has been very influential in my practice over the years.
00:36
My parents had heard about Cyclone Tracy and we'd moved from Paris to Sydney to Darwin
00:41
which was totally wiped out.
00:43
It was just like being on another planet or in a science fiction movie.
00:47
It was pretty wild.
00:49
Mum and Dad had a demolition business, they helped with the clean up
00:52
and so that still informs my work to a great deal as well too.
00:55
There's lots of strata, lots of history, the detritus of other people's stories
01:00
which I bring into new contemporary storytelling I suppose as well too.
01:03
Some of those objects that I find are also incorporated into the artwork as well too
01:07
to give them more layering and more meaning.
01:09
I was playing with the words Smith Street and the words Smith
01:12
and just all the different connotations as it had to do with Darwin at the time.
01:16
So it's just a bit of a haiku to Darwin really, Darwin history.
01:20
This painting's like the culmination of I guess lots of different things.
01:25
When someone's commissioning a work or asking me to work on a project
01:29
I ask that person like what they want from that idea.
01:33
Or I'll ask that of myself as well too.
01:35
So if I'm working say on a series about the bombing of Darwin
01:38
the first port of call would be the Ordinary Territory Archive
01:41
then probably on Google as well too.
01:43
And then I'll probably just go and try and find sites around Darwin
01:46
where there's still remnants of that history.
01:48
I just keep making things, I keep exploring things.
01:52
I get all sorts of jobs and I'll just take them all on.
01:54
It's like, it's always the next job that's the most interesting job.
01:58
You know what I mean?
01:59
It's like you kind of go, I've just had this huge show in Sydney or whatever.
02:01
What am I doing today?
02:02
Oh, I'm doing a screen print for someone's gig somewhere.
02:05
It's all fun.
02:06
I just make my own art and the people who like it like it
02:09
and the people who don't don't.
02:11
So love you.
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