For his upcoming solo exhibition, the Dharug artist has made 11 colourful clay sculptures that represent a counter-image to the bronzed Aussie beachgoer
As a teenager in the mid 2000s, Billy Bain would ride waves around Sydney’s northern beaches, having travelled the world watching his champion surfer father Rob Bain compete. But even though he was minutes from his home in Avalon, he was often made to feel an unwelcome outsider.
“I’d be told that I’m not from there, so I need to go in [to shore],” he says, seeing these warnings as veiled threats of violence. “Otherwise, you know, ‘something’s gonna happen to you’.”