It was ... 4.15ish and we introduced ourselves at reception, just politely said hello and Demetrios had brought along our camera and he had the camera equipment around his neck and in a backpack and we went upstairs. As we were going upstairs I noticed a ... huge warning sign and I pointed that out to Demetrios, look at this, and we just kind of went huh and then more quickly went into the space and arrived in the space and we could see that there were disclaimers in various locations. Nearer the open studio section of the space we were just conversing and ... Demetrios was preparing the camera equipment and Mr Cripps appeared from the other end of the space. ...
He appeared at the other side of the room. ... I was facing that way, he'd come from the upper level. He saw us and charged over, racing across the floor, very angry, calling out, 'You and you, I want to talk to you. People saw you attack me, Demetrios and I told you to call me', he said to me. He was working his way either side of us. We just were a bit stunned. We just stood there and I stepped back a little but didn't say anything at that point until he said, 'I told you to call me', when he was looking at me and I said, 'When did you do that, was that before or after you kicked us out of the gallery and called our work and our exhibition racist'. And he said to me at that point, 'You are a sarcastic woman', and then he told Demetrios that we were trespassing ...
He said he had called the police to evict us, they were going to arrive. I said to Mr Cripps, 'Good, we could use them right now.' Mr Vakras, Demetrios said to Mr Cripps that we had hired the space, we were legitimately in the space, we have rights similar to that of a tenant and that if he wanted we would remove the show if he would refund our money, what money he'd owed. Mr Cripps dismissed that, scoffing and saying, 'You've breached the contract, because you've breached the contract I don't owe you anything. You've breached the contract because of your racism,' he said. And at that point I got quite exasperated and said, 'What racism, where?' And he gestured to the entire exhibition, 'This.' And I said, 'Well, this,' in a similar gesture, 'is surrealism, Robert. What were you expecting?' 'Not this. This is racist, I won't have it in my gallery.' And I said, 'What is racist? Show me the racism, take me to the racism.' And he gestured over to ... Secular Muse. So he took me over there ... Just myself.
And we had a discussion about what he thought was racist. I said, 'Show me which part is racist.' He said, 'All of it. It's not poetic enough, it's not artistic enough, it reads like legalese.' He was repeating pretty much what he said on the opening night. And I said, 'Well, what part, what don't you get?' He said, 'I don't understand any of it.' And I said, 'Well, perhaps we can read it.' And he became angry and told me that it was indeed racist. And I said, 'Well, show me which part?' He said, 'Well, the quotes from the Koran.' I said, 'OK, the quotes from the Koran are there as proofs, they're there to provide context to the criticism made and what we have here is,' and I described the visuals of what we were looking at. We've got a bomb crated landscape, a muse, a secular muse and that secular muse is being assailed by violence and it's a religious violence, it's a criticism of religious values, religiously derived values. He's dismissed that said, 'Look, I don't care, even the women,' or the girls, he interchanged either the women or the girls when referencing his staff, 'don't understand it, their eyes glaze over.' I said, 'Well, bring them here and I'll talk to them, we'll talk to them about it.' And he didn't have a response to that. ...
And the next thing I remember is I observed that there was a visitor who had entered the space, a young woman. I think Mr Cripps may have observed her, I don't know why, but he said, 'Look, I've got things to do,' and he left quite abruptly. He returned - we were a bit shaken, I was talking to Demetrios and I said to him, 'What an awful man.' And Demetrios said, 'Don't worry, Lee, you did well.' And we observed the visitor was still in the space so I engaged her and I said, 'I'm sorry you had to hear that.' She said, 'Oh, is he the director or gallery manager or owner?' And ... Demetrios and I said together, 'Yeah,' in a dejected way. 'I don't know what he's on about,' she said, 'I've read everything and I don't understand. It's excellent.' ...
Mr Cripps made the accusation to my partner that he was not frightened of him, he'd known more serious people than him in the past like wharfies and truckies, and we took that as a threat. ...
[The visitor] took one of the flyers. We invited her to take a flyer, and she left the area and Mr Cripps returned with Ms Pickett at that point. ...
She did say she knew that her partner would love this work and that she would return with him, and we don't know if she ever did. ...
Ms Pickett came back up with Mr Cripps at that point and, again, Mr Cripps said, 'Look, I don't have anything more to say to you, I don't care. The exhibition is racist, the disclaimers stay.' And I said, 'Well, that's the prerogative of yourself and the gallery but it says more about the gallery and you than the show.' And I looked at Yolande and said, 'Yolande, do you think it's racist?' And she wouldn't make eye contact with me, she ... looked at the floor, she wouldn't respond. Mr Cripps said, 'That doesn't matter anyway, I'm the director, I say what goes into my gallery.' And I said, 'So, Yolande, do you agree with this, you agree it's racist?' And she didn't respond again. And he said, 'Look, finish what you're doing, I want you out of here and I want you out now.'
