In True Blue, Liam Benson is dressed in a pale blue ‘hoodie’ which conceals his hair and takes on the quasi religious aspect of a cowl. Behind is an austere backdrop of panelled wood grain veneer, a material that both suggests and encompasses notions of bush, suburbs and boardroom. Liam repeatedly and laconically intones the refrain of ‘True Blue‘, the almost ‘anthem’ to ‘dinki-di’ Australian mateship and identity, written by folk balladeer John Williamson.

Liam brings a studied and subtle poignancy as a queer male thirty year old, to the refrain of that iconic paean:
True Blue, is it me and you? 

Liam Benson, True Blue, 2005, single channel digital video, sound, 3.42 min. Courtesy the artist and Artereal Gallery.