MEDIA

Critical Response

“Daubism is a landmark achievement in art… wicked, funny, pointed — the work of a true maverick.”
— Samela Harris

“City blight or artistic revelation? Armstrong’s work provokes debate wherever it lands.”
— City Scene

“Armstrong reconciles Australia’s past with the restless present.”
— The Australian

Overview

For more than four decades, Driller Jet Armstrong has remained a magnetic, confrontational and mischievous figure in Australian art. His work has sparked praise, debate, controversy and national conversation — from the early days of Daubism in the 1990s through to current discussions of cultural visibility, appropriation, and artistic freedom.

This archive brings together selected media, reviews, controversies and public responses that have shaped and accompanied Armstrong’s career.

Major Controversies & Public Debates

The Bannon Landscape Incident (1991)

The Australian — 27 September 1991

“Jet Armstrong with one of the Charles Bannon paintings he has ‘transformed’ for his controversial exhibition.”
Photograph by Tony Lewis. Article by Richard Sproull.

This early newspaper profile marks one of the first major public flashpoints in what would later be recognised as the birth of Daubism. In 1991, Driller Jet Armstrong was already challenging the sanctity of the Australian landscape tradition, presenting a series of “transformed” Charles Bannon paintings that ignited a national debate about ownership, intervention, and the moral rights of artists.

The article captures the moment Armstrong’s practice collided with long-held cultural assumptions. Using spray paint, symbols, and conceptual overlays, he forced a confrontation between the inherited calm of colonial landscape painting and the disruptive energy of contemporary critique. Bannon’s work—representative of a lineage of pastoral and nationalist imagery—became the site on which questions of authorship, permission, and artistic sovereignty were contested.

Arts lawyers, collectors, and cultural commentators weighed in. The piece describes Armstrong as unapologetic and fiercely articulate, insisting that art must interrogate the structures it inherits: “It’s all part of a statement about landscape paintings in general.” His interventions were framed not as vandalism, but as a deliberate rewriting of the Australian visual archive.

Three decades later, this article stands as a key historical document—evidence of the moment Armstrong first disrupted the polite mythologies of the landscape and, in doing so, laid the earliest foundations of Daubism:
the transformation of the already-made; the refusal to accept images as fixed; and the belief that painting is a living argument.

The first Daubist artwork — a crop circle sprayed over a Charles Bannon landscape — triggered national outrage, legal threats and widespread press debate. This moment became the public birth of Daubism and ignited long-running discussions about moral rights, censorship and authorship in Australian art.

Hahndorf Academy Shutdown (2017)

After a single complaint, an entire solo exhibition was closed prematurely, prompting statewide and national coverage. The closure highlighted how volatile the boundaries between art, politics and public institutions can be.

SALA Dispute (2019)

A regional SALA exhibition dispute led to significant coverage in The Courier, ABC Radio and online arts media, cementing Armstrong’s reputation as an artist whose work consistently challenges cultural comfort zones.

Mural & Public Art Controversies

From Hindley Street to the IMAX stairwell murals and the Austral Hotel umbrella commissions, Armstrong’s public works have provoked ongoing debates about graffiti, value, artistic ownership and Adelaide’s evolving visual identity.

Selected Press Highlights

Recent (2017–2025)

  • Parliamentary Transcript of Evidence (2025)

  • National Geographic Traveller profile (2016)

  • Hahndorf Academy closure (2017)

  • SALA Festival controversy (2019)

Daubism Era (2000–2015)

  • Features in The Australian and The Advertiser

  • Art Rocked

  • Art Row Over…

  • DJ Driller interviews & cultural commentary

Foundations (1988–2000)

  • Crop Circle on Bannon Landscape (1991) — national coverage

  • Early mural press (Rundle St, IMAX, Austral)

  • Fringe 1990 Poster Award

  • “City Blight”

  • Underground arts profiles and early interviews

Selected Articles

  • Art Rocked — The Advertiser

  • Art Row Over… — Sunday Mail

  • Centre of Legal Wrangle — The Australian

  • City Blight — City Scene

  • Gift of Wings — The Australian

  • Going Back to Reconcile the Past — The Advertiser

  • Daubists Damned — national commentary

  • Amazing Geoffrey — feature profile

  • National Geographic Traveller — 2016

  • SALA Controversy — The Courier

Interviews & Broadcasts

Radio & TV

  • ABC Artist-in-Residence

  • ABC Radio interviews

  • Channel 7 / Channel 9 coverage

  • Fringe Festival features

  • Community TV arts programs

Print & Online

  • The Australian

  • The Advertiser

  • City Scene

  • The Courier

  • National Geographic Traveller

  • Fringe catalogues

  • DJ Driller interviews and dance-press features

Timeline of Media & Public Response

  • 1988–1990 — Early press: murals, Fringe, underground arts scene

  • 1991 — National controversy: Crop Circle on Bannon Landscape

  • 1992–1999 — Daubism grows; moral rights debates intensify

  • 2000–2010 — DJ Driller era; annual exhibitions; national presence

  • 2011–2017 — Add-Original series; Hahndorf Academy closure

  • 2018–2025 — Renewed national interest, parliamentary citations, AI-era context