Vernon Ah Kee

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Vernon Ah Kee
Portrait of Vernon Ah Kee.jpg
Born1967 (1967) (age 57)
NationalityAustralian
Education Queensland College of Art
Known for Painting, text art, installation art, mixed media
Notable workTall Man
MovementUrban Indigenous art
Awards2012 Finalist, Archibald Prize
2012 Visual Artist of the Year, Deadly Awards
2014 Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize
2018 Australia Council Visual Arts Fellowship

Vernon Ah Kee (born 1967) is a contemporary Australian artist, political activist and founding member of ProppaNOW. Based primarily in Brisbane, Queensland, Ah Kee is an Aboriginal Australian man with ties to the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples in Queensland. His art practice typically focuses on his Aboriginal Australian identity and place within a modern Australian framework, and is concerned with themes of skin, skin colour, race, privilege and racism. Ah Kee has exhibited his art at numerous galleries across Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and has also exhibited internationally, most notably representing Australia at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2015 Istanbul Biennial.

Contents

Ah Kee has a very diverse art practice, using a broad range of techniques and media such as painting, installation, photography and text-based art. He is particularly renowned for his manipulation of colonial language and imagery to highlight racial issues in Australia. His works are hosted in both public and private collections around the world.

In 2003, Ah Kee, along with other Indigenous Australian artists Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd and Joshua Herd, created ProppaNOW – an organisation dedicated to supporting urban Indigenous artists in Brisbane and combating cultural stereotypes.

Personal life and education

Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland, in 1967 to Merv and Margaret Ah Kee, who were Indigenous rights activists. [1] Like most other Indigenous people in Australia, the family was not included in the population census until 1971. [2] As well as his Aboriginal heritage, he also has some Chinese ancestry from his great-grandfather, but Ah Kee has stated that he identifies more with his Indigenous heritage, [1] saying "I think of myself as a Rainforest Aboriginal, a Buma". [3]

His family moved to Cairns when he was 12 years old, [3] and Ah Kee sketched avidly at this time. [1] He attended only Catholic schools, in Cairns going to St Augustine's College [3] (a Marist Brothers school [4] ).

Queensland College of Art Queensland College of Art Sidon St.JPG
Queensland College of Art

After attending Cairns TAFE where he learned screen printing, [3] Ah Kee started his Bachelor of Visual Art at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane in 1996. He majored in Contemporary Indigenous Australian art and earned his degree in 1998. He then went on to do honours in fine art from 1999 to 2000, and then completed a doctorate in fine art from 2001 to 2007. During his studies, he had two solo exhibitions hosted at his college's art gallery as part of his postgraduate work – whitefella normal blackfella me in 2000 and con Text in 2007. [5]

In 2014, his father died in a car accident. In 2017 Ah Kee drew Portrait of My Father, a task that he described as a "labour of love". [6]

Ah Kee suffered a heart attack in 2016 but managed to recover in time for his 2017 exhibition Not an animal or a plant. [1] [7]

Career

Art practice

While Ah Kee incorporates a broad range of different art mediums, from life drawings to video installations, a consistent theme across all of his artworks is his examination of racism in Australia. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [6] [13] Ah Kee has said that his art practice has been influenced by a wide range of artists and styles, but most significantly by other Indigenous artists such as Kevin Gilbert, Trevor Nickolls, Richard Bell and Gordon Bennett, stating that "I can see my own life and history" [14] in their artworks. In particular, Bell and Bennett's manipulation of colonial text and images encouraged him to broaden his art practice and experiment with media beyond drawing - the text art, in particular, is a common technique among ProppaNOW artists. [15] He also credits the politics of Malcolm X and James Baldwin, two prominent African American activists, as early inspirations for both his art practice and personal activism, as well as Barbara Kruger's propaganda-inspired art. [16]

Many of his text-based artworks ("word art") contain colonial language that have been manipulated and rewritten to create a secondary meaning, such as his 2003 austracism being a play on the word "ostracism", [12] and 2009 becauseitisbitter appropriating a poem from American poet Stephen Crane to portray an Indigenous experience of contemporary Australia. It has been suggested that the black and white text introduces the concept of racial relations in Australia [10] and that the word play makes the audience think more deeply on the issues represented. [17] The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia described his text-based art as "...point[ing] to prejudices and agendas embedded in Australian society and politics. These puns and words-within-words fuse the history and language of colonisation with contemporary experiences and issues". [18]

Ah Kee has also engaged with drawing and painting mediums to highlight the modern Indigenous experience. fantasies of the good (2004) is a series of 13 detailed charcoal life drawings of different members of Ah Kee's family, who are all identified by name. The series uses a mug-shot style and is suggested to reference the documentation of Indigenous Australians by some anthropologists in the twentieth century; the Indigenous people who were documented were unnamed and the works were rather referred to by numbers. Ah Kee wanted to convey Australia's history of racism and has stated that "These drawings and what they represent are my evidence". [19] His 2012 portrait, I see deadly people: Lex Wotton, depicted the titular man through bold paint strokes. [20] Ah Kee explained that Wotton's actions during the Palm Island Riots led to him being negatively misrepresented in the media, and the artist decided that "Lex should look bold and brave" in his portrait. [20] His 2012 exhibition of large, detailed charcoal and crayon portraits featured in the exhibition Transforming Tindale at the State Library of Queensland [21] was based on that library's collection of anthropological photographs taken by Norman Tindale, [22] and included some of Ah Kee's relatives. [21]

Ah Kee has used video installation art, most notably in his exhibition Tall Man, to create confronting reflections of Australian racism. In Tall Man, Ah Kee collected and edited, alongside filmmaker and producer Alex Barnes, footage from the Palm Island riots, an event that occurred after the death of Indigenous man Cameron Doomadgee in police custody, and retold the controversial story from an Indigenous perspective. [23] [24] The installation played across four screens and juxtaposed a peaceful representation of Palm Island with the chaos of the riots, concluding with footage of protesters holding up signs with Christian-related statements such as "Thou shalt not covet the land no more". [25] Maura Reilly suggests this was to reference the hypocrisy of white Australian Christians in their treatment of Indigenous peoples. [23] In 2021, Tall Man was included in Tate Modern's 2021 exhibition A Year in Art: Australia 1992, an exhibition dedicated to Indigenous art relating to land rights and the 1992 Eddie Mabo High Court Decision. [26] [27]

His recent work, the island, also features a video installation, in which Ah Kee highlights Australia's "brutal" immigration system through the recounting of an Afghani refugee couple's story, rather than wholly focusing on the experiences of Indigenous Australians. [28]

proppaNOW

Along with Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd and Joshua Herd, all artists based in Brisbane, Ah Kee is a founding member of proppaNOW. [15] Bell had stated in 2002: "Aboriginal art – its a white thing", saying that the industry was controlled by white people, [29] a sentiment echoed by Ah Kee. [16] The ProppaNOW artists seek to refute the white belief that remote Indigenous Australians are the only true Aboriginal people, and to re-establish the presence of urban Indigenous people in society. The founding members created the organisation after the government's Queensland Indigenous Artists Marketing Export Agency (QIAMEA) appeared to focus more on Indigenous artists from rural communities than on those from urban areas. [15]

At a Canberra proppaNOW exhibition in 2007, Ah Kee displayed his artwork You Deicide. Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia, Margo Neale, suggested that the work's deliberate misuse of deicide was a comment on the role of Christian-based religions in the "cultural terrorism" of Aboriginal people, and that the manipulation of colonial language in the work was a common "tactical device used by the proppaNOW artists". [15]

Dark + Disturbing

Dark + Disturbing is a curatorial project by Ah Kee. [30] In August 2015, he mounted the exhibition Dark + Disturbing: Gordon Hookey for proppaNOW at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, featuring the work of fellow collaborator in proppaNow, Gordon Hookey. [31]

Reception

Reviews and criticisms of his art

Ah Kee has generally received positive reviews of his art, often being praised for his clever reinventions of colonial language to highlight racism in Australia and noted for the dual personal and political nature of his art. [13] [20] [11] [32] His Tall Man exhibition, a video and text installation of the Palm Island Riots, was called a "smartly composed yet painful examination of racial relations in Australia" by Art Asia Pacific Magazine . [23]

Art critic and broadcaster Andrew Frost reviewed some of Ah Kee's works at the Sydney Festival and quotes the artist: "this is not history, this is my life" and "this is not political, it's personal". Frost gave particular praise for the artist's charcoal drawings of his family, the form referencing the documentation of Indigenous peoples by 20th century anthropologists, finding that Ah Kee was personalising a traditionally impersonal genre. [11]

When Ah Kee was awarded the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, one of the judges, National Art School curator Judith Blackall, also noted the dual political and personal nature of Ah Kee's work and how it impacts the audience. In regard to his portrait of Lex Wotton, she stated that “Vernon’s masterful drawing technique of charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas goes from strength to strength. This portrait is particularly powerful as it shows Lex Wotton – who the artist knows well as he is married to Vernon’s cousin – in profile, with an intense gaze. Importantly, the story behind the portrait is of great significance, both personally for the artist and politically for Australia". [32]

In Ah Kee's 2020 exhibition, The Island, Andrew Brooks suggested that the show was criticising the romanticised, white settler mythology of Australia and was trying to remind the audience of Australia's indigenous presence. Unlike Frost, Brooks determined the inclusion of the Yuendumu doors to be "a powerful statement about the continuity of Indigenous sovereignty in this country", especially in their juxtaposition with the Walpiri Dreamtime paintings. Brooks judged that the contrast between the racist graffiti of Yuendumu doors and the "vibrant" Dreamtime paintings indicated that indigenous culture was more than what white Australian culture limited it to be. [33]

Awards

In 2012, Ah Kee was a finalist for the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Archibald Prize with his portrait I see deadly people: Lex Wotton. Wootton man is Ah Kee's cousin-in-law and was a key figure in the Palm Island Riots of 2004. [20] In the same year, Ah Kee was also awarded Visual Artist of the Year in the Deadly Awards, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment & Community Awards. [34]

In 2014, the A$25,000 Redlands Konika Minolta established artist prize was awarded to Ah Kee for his charcoal rendition of Lex Wotton. [32]

In 2018, Ah Kee was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship by the Australia Council for the Arts. The fellowship is worth up to A$80,000 and awarded to prominent artists in mid-career. Ah Kee planned to use his fellowship grant to exhibit his work in England and at other galleries abroad, as well as to produce new artworks. [35]

Media

In 2020 Ah Kee featured as one of six Indigenous artists in the ABC TV series This Place: Artist Series. The series is a partnership between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Gallery of Australia, in which the producers travelled to the countries of "some of Australia's greatest Indigenous artists to share stories about their work, their country, and their communities". [36] [37]

In 2010 Ah Kee was also featured in the ABC Arts documentary "Not A Willing Participant" directed by Alex Barnes and Produced by Justin Morrissey, which followed his exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale. [38]

Exhibitions

As of 31 December 2019, Ah Kee had displayed his art at 30 solo exhibitions and 100 group exhibitions, all around the world. [5] He continues to create and exhibit his art in 2020, [8] with plans to exhibit more of his work abroad. [35] His exhibitions include: [5] [8] [33]

Exhibition History
YearExhibitionExhibition TypeGalleryPlaceCountry
1999If I was WhiteSolo Metro Arts Centre BrisbaneAustralia
2000The Which WaySolo Queensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2001whitefella normal blackfella meSolo (Postgraduate)Queensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2002non-PeopleSoloBellas GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Transit NarrativesGroupCentro per la Arti Visive LE VENEZIE Treviso Italy
Salone espositivo Auronzo di Cadore Italy
MunicipioGroupQueensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne Australia
2003consentSoloGallery 1 of the Institute of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Places That Name UsGroup Ian Potter Museum of Art MelbourneAustralia
1 Square Mile, Brisbane BoundariesGroup Museum of Brisbane BrisbaneAustralia
AbstractionsGroupThe Drill Hall Canberra, ACTAustralia
This Is Not AmericaGroup(unmentioned) Düsseldorf Germany
Queensland College of ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the RainforestGroupQueensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
4 x 4GroupInstitute of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
5 White CubesGroupForum Kunst Art Residency Rottweil Germany
Feedback: Art, Social Consciousness and ResistanceGroupMuseum of ArtMelbourneAustralia
2004fantasies of the goodSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
skinGroupLong Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre Hobart, Tas.Australia
Cultural Copy: Visual Conversations on Indigenous Art and Cultural AppropriationGroup Fowler Museum of Cultural History Los Angeles USA
blak insights: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art GalleryGroup Queensland Art Gallery BrisbaneAustralia
ART TV 2004: Australian Culture NowGroup Australian Centre for the Moving Image MelbourneAustralia
Spirit and Vision: Aboriginal ArtGroupSammlung Essl—Kunsthaus Klosterneuburg Austria
2005you must hitSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
mythunderstandingSolo Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia Adelaide Australia
ARC ArtGroupDesign & Craft Biennial, Brisbane City Hall BrisbaneAustralia
Thick and FastGroup The Powerhouse BrisbaneAustralia
Art Urbain du PacificGroupDiff’ Art Pacific, The Castle of St-Auvent Saint Auvent France
The Grey VoiceGroupTin Sheds Gallery Sydney Australia
UntitledGroupThe Lane GalleryAuckland New Zealand
Face Value: Video portraiture from the PacificGroupIvan Dougherty GallerySydneyAustralia
Museum of BrisbaneBrisbaneAustralia
2006not an animal or a plantSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Yours, Mine, Ours: The ABC of EverythingGroup Campbelltown Arts Centre SydneyAustralia
There Goes the NeighbourhoodGroupAmbleside Street StudioBrisbaneAustralia
Colonial to ContemporaryGroupDell GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
The Sixth Drawing BiennaleGroupDrill Hall Gallery, ANU CanberraAustralia
MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2006Group Museum of Contemporary Art SydneyAustralia
Radical Regionalism: The Empire of ShadowsGroup Museum of London London United Kingdom
(unmentioned) Ontario Canada
Queensland LiveGroup (tour)Queensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
(unmentioned) Gladstone, QldAustralia
(unmentioned) Logan, Vic.Australia
(unmentioned) Bundaberg Australia
(unmentioned)CairnsAustralia
(unmentioned) Ipswich, QldAustralia
(unmentioned) Cleveland, QldAustralia
(unmentioned) Mackay, QldAustralia
(unmentioned) Toowoomba, QldAustralia
DancelinesGroupGeorge Adams Gallery, The Arts Centre MelbourneAustralia
2007cant chantSoloInstitute of Modern Art (IMA)BrisbaneAustralia
unwrittenSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
conTextSolo (Postgraduate)Queensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
DrawingsSolo Brisbane State High School BrisbaneAustralia
Power & Beauty: Indigenous Art NowGroup Heide Museum of Modern Art MelbourneAustralia
RegionalismsGroup University of Queensland Art Museum BrisbaneAustralia
National Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture WarriorsGroup National Gallery of Art CanberraAustralia
The Amersham TrophyGroupAmbleside Street Studio, West EndBrisbaneAustralia
Sunshine StateGroupSmart State, Campbelltown Arts CentreSydneyAustralia
Friendly FireGroup (ProppaNOW)George Petelin Gallery Gold Coast, QldAustralia
Thresholds of ToleranceGroupSchool of Art GalleryCanberraAustralia
Raised by WolvesGroup Art Gallery of Western Australia Perth Australia
2008belief suspensionSoloArtspaceSydneyAustralia
borninthisskinSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Revolutions: Forms that TurnGroup2008 Biennale of Sydney SydneyAustralia
In the space of elsewhereGroupStanley Picker GalleryLondonEngland
New MillenniumGroupLismore Regional Gallery Lismore, NSWAustralia
On PaperGroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
OptimismGroup Gallery of Modern Art BrisbaneAustralia
2009Once RemovedGroup53rd Venice Biennale of Art Venice, ItalyAustralia
Terra Nullius: Contemporary Art from AustraliaGroupACC Galerie Weimar Germany
I walk the line: new Australian drawingGroupMuseum of Contemporary ArtSydneyAustralia
Avoiding myth and message: Australian artists & the literary worldGroupMuseum of Contemporary ArtSydneyAustralia
2010Tall ManSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Vernon Ah KeeSolo City Gallery Wellington New Zealand
WaruSoloGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Kick Arts, Contemporary Arts Cairns, QldAustralia
Blow your house inSolo Mackenzie Art Gallery Regina Canada
becauseitisbitterSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
roundabout.Group City Gallery Wellington WellingtonNew Zealand
Basil Sellers Art Prize,GroupIan Potter Museum of ArtMelbourneAustralia
National Works on Paper AwardGroup Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery MelbourneAustralia
Jus’ Drawn,GroupLinden Contemporary Arts CentreMelbourneAustralia
PUTSCH proppaNOWGroup (proppaNOW Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Adelaide Australia
2011Tall ManSolo Gertrude Contemporary MelbourneAustralia
Bad SignSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Barack CommissionsGroup National Gallery of Victoria MelbourneAustralia
The Black Sea.GroupKickarts Contemporary ArtsCairns, QldAustralia
Counting Coup,Group Museum of Contemporary Native Art New Mexico USA
Evolving Identities: Contemporary Indigenous ArtGroup John Curtin Gallery Perth, WAAustralia
Erased: Contemporary Australian DrawingGroup (Asialink)Nanwang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery (NAFA)(unmentioned) Singapore
PSG Art Gallery, Silpakorn University Bangkok Thailand
Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Art Gallery Chiang Mai Thailand
Khon Kaen University Art Gallery Khon Kaen Thailand
National Art SchoolSydneyAustralia
Ten Years of Contemporary Art: The James Sourris CollectionGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2012Hallmarks of the HungrySoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Everything Falls ApartGroup Artspace SydneyAustralia
Propositions Part 2GroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Negotiating this World: Contemporary Australian ArtGroupNational Gallery of VictoriaMelbourneAustralia
unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial GroupNational Gallery of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
The Future’s Not What it Used to BeGroupTouring Chapter Gallery Cardiff, Wales Australia
Newlyn Art Gallery and Exchange Cornwall England
Making Change: Celebrating the 40 Years of Australia-China Diplomatic RelationsGroupNAMOC Beijing China
COFASydneyAustralia
Transforming Tindale [21] Solo State Library of Queensland BrisbaneQueensland
2013Invasion PaintingsSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
My Country: I Still Call Australia HomeGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Voice and ReasonGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Sakahan: 1st International Quinquennial of New Indigenous ArtGroup National Gallery of Canada OttawaCanada
ShadowlifeGroup Bendigo Art Gallery Bendigo, Vic.Australia
2014BrutalitiesSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Saltwater CountryGroupGold Coast City Gallery Gold Coast, QldAustralia
Subject to RuinGroup Casula Power House Casula, NSWAustralia
Four RoomsGroup Adelaide Festival AdelaideAustralia
2015EncountersGroup National Museum of Australia CanberraAustralia
Propositions ThreeGroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
When Silence FallsGroupArt Gallery of New South WalesSydneyAustralia
Brutal Truths,Group Griffith University Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
The 14th Istanbul Biennial SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought FormsGroup(multiple venues) [39] Istanbul Turkey
GOMA QGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Imaginary AccordGroupInstitute of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
BlackoutGroupSydney College of the ArtsSydneyAustralia
See You at the BarricadesGroupArt Gallery of New South WalesSydneyAustralia
2016Sugar Spin: You, me, art and everythingGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia

Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia,

Group Harvard Art Museums Cambridge, Massachusetts USA
With Secrecy and DespatchGroup Campbelltown Arts Centre SydneyAustralia
Frontier ImaginariesGroupInstitute of Modern Art and QUT Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
Black,White & RestiveGroupNewcastle Art GalleryNewcastle, NSWAustralia
Endless Circulation: Tarrawarra Biennial,Group TarraWarra Museum of Art TarraWarra, VictoriaAustralia
Over the FenceGroupUQ Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
On the Origin of ArtGroupMuseum of Old and New Art Hobart, Tas.Australia
Shut Up and PaintGroupNational Gallery of VictoriaMelbourneAustralia
2017OdeSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
Will I LiveSoloApartment der Kunst Munich Germany
Not a plant or an animalSoloNational Art School GallerySydneyAustralia
A Change Is Gonna ComeGroupNational Museum of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
Australian CollectionGroupPermanent Hang, Queensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
BOARD: Surf and Skate Cultures Meet Contemporary ArtGroupLake Macquarie City Art Gallery Lake Macquarie, NSWAustralia
2018Boundary LinesGroupGriffith University Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Divided WorldsGroupArt Gallery of South AustraliaAdelaideAustralia
Riots: Slow Cancellation of the FutureGroupifa-GalerieBerlinGermany
Playback, DobellGroupAustralian Drawing Biennial, Art Gallery of NSWSydneyAustralia
Hunter Red: CorpusGroupNewcastle Gallery Newcastle, NSW Australia
2019Shadow LightGroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
cantchantGroup Art Gallery of Alberta Alberta Canada
Body LanguageGroupNational Gallery of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
I, ObjectGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism,Group Gertrude Contemporary MelbourneAustralia
Australia. Antipodean StoriesGroupPadiglione D'Arte Contemporanea Milano Milan Italy
2020The Island [40] SoloCampbelltown Arts CentreSydneyAustralia

In 2010 Vernon Ah Kee was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for the State Library of Queensland's James C Sourris AM Collection. [41] In the interview Ah Kee talks to journalist Daniel Browning about his art, his family, the artist group proppaNOW, and being an Aboriginal artist. [42]

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References

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Further reading