Willetton Library is playing host to a mystery not meant to be solved this month, with an exhibition of artist Martin Shaw’s Three Well Known Australians.
The piece, painted in 1982, depicts three figures – one blue, one red and one green – with the public invited to interpret who these three well known Australians might be.
The guesses, or theories, are recorded in yearbooks, painting a picture of how Australia has changed through the guesses made.
During the current Western Australian tour, for example, Mark McGowan has been a popular guess, despite the painting being 40 years old.
For the record, Mr McGowan proposed the three figures were Rover Thomas Joolama, Dr Fiona Wood and Nat Fyfe.
Mr Shaw said the answer may not be as simple as a mere person, and he will never divulge the real identity.
“The real art is in the responses, the guesses that are made,” Mr Shaw said.
“If I tell people who the three Australians are, the whole project dissolves.
“What people will do in 50 years’ time, 100 years’ time, will be very different from today.
“I know who they are, absolutely, but I won’t tell anyone who or what they area. I’m the loose glue that keeps it all together, like a magician.
“A magician should never tell you how they do their trick, once you know the trick it’s not interesting, and it’s the same with my project, if I tell people who I intended, you don’t get this recording in the yearbooks.
“The portrait is in the yearbooks.”
More to the point, while he knows that some responses have been on the right track,
“I haven’t looked too closely.
“I’ve seen some that have been on the right track but getting the right answer isn’t really the point, it’s not meant to be solved and even if someone were to nail it, I almost wouldn’t want to know.
“It’s a much bigger field than any Melbourne Cup.
“Ned Kelly is one of the more popular guesses, but at the end of the day it’s how you interpret the painting that really matters.”
The painting will be at Willetton Library until September 30.
