Darcey Bella Arnold was born in 1986, then North Carlton, now Princes Hill, right next to the Footy Oval and the Melbourne General Cemetery. Footy, Art Attack, pet budgies and left-wing politics dominated her childhood. Darcey is technically Generation Y (digitally familiar) but is it ever that simple? Confronted with the incredibly viscid mixture of opinions passed on from grandparents through parents, through siblings, through school and friends, Yeah Nah feels like an apt oppositional position, a pause, a tentative stance. In a generational flip, a ferocity of denial and attempted change occurred, slang words deemed of a ‘colonial’ nature were denied a valid place in our generations lexicon. This collection of drawings, in a combination of pop and digital imagery mixed with song lyrics, slang and a truism is an attempt to sincerely connect with a culture born into but only recently accepted. Through these works Darcey appears to be translating this culture into a voice she can call her own with positive honesty.

Darcey Bella Arnold with Hugh Egan Westland 2014

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