Have You Seen the Listers? (2017) - full transcript

[voicemail] Please leave
a detailed message after the tone.

[voicemail beeps]

[Lister] Hey, Kye. Just calling
just to say I love you, and I'd love to

talk to you and, man,
if you could find it in you

just to give me a call
and we just have a chat.

I would really appreciate that, and I
really hope you're doing all right, man.

Thinking of you every day. I love you.

[line beeping]

Good morning, Australia.

It's Monday, February the first.
I'm Kerri-Anne Wright.

And I'm Gordon Elliott.
Good morning and welcome.



[rock music playing]

[cheering]

♪ Baby, you were always gonna be the one ♪

♪ You only ever did it just for fun ♪

♪ But you run to paradise ♪

♪ Jenny, I'll meet you
at the grocery store ♪

♪ You don't need a friend
when you can score ♪

♪ You run to paradise ♪

[siren wailing]

♪ Johnny, we were always best of friends ♪

♪ Stick together and defend ♪

[engine revving]

♪ But you run to paradise ♪

♪ Run to paradise ♪



♪ Run to paradise ♪

♪ Run to paradise ♪

♪ Run to paradise ♪

[Lister] Brisbane.

Bum end of nothingville.

Bum end of nothingville.

I am Anthony Lister
and I grew up in Keperra,

which was a kind of army suburb.

I didn't even understand, really,

the meaning of culture,
coming from Brisbane.

My parents split up when I was...

on my sixth birthday,

and Dad left and never
talked to Mum ever again.

My mum had to raise three boys by herself.

And she worked really hard to do that.

The only time I spent with my father
was in a classroom

learning how to kick and punch
in taekwondo.

The attitude comes with the more training.

The more you do, the more you gain.

[Lister] He was a martial arts fanatic.

[interviewer] And you do it just for fun?

No, it's more than fun for me.
It's very much a part of my life.

[Lister] It took up all of his time.

He was consumed in his interest.

I never had a real male role model
from early on.

I was raised pretty much, you know,

after school on TV and two-minute noodles.

But I really liked Mr. Squiggle, as a kid.

-[Mr. Squiggle] Hurry up.
-Blackboard, I am hurrying.

This is a very tricky one.

[Mr. Squiggle]
Nothing is impossible, Miss Jane.

[Lister]
To see magic happen in front of me...

It's a koala.

[Lister] ...was exciting.

My dad's mum was a painter.

She talked to me about her painting,
and I'd smell the oils.

She would always encourage me
to draw everything I saw.

I was fascinated with Spider-Man.

I remember I would draw
my version of the characters.

And to see her excited by it,
it excited me.

I was like, "What's going on here?
It's another world."

But it wasn't until I was about 13 that
I started catching the train into the city

and I'd see amazing artwork
all along the lines,

and I couldn't read it
and I didn't know who did it.

I didn't know how they did it,
but it was beautiful and I loved it.

That's when I was hanging out
with the skaters in the city.

The sort of mates that I had
barely went to high school

and were just causing nonsense, really.

-[engine revving]
-[tires screeching]

[Lister] Mags, I met in the Valley Mall,

and he was trying to be, you know,

as reckless as possible.

He was funny, but I was funnier.
[laughing]

[Lister] There's only been
a few people in my life

that I've actually just gone, like,

"Fuck, you know, we can relate."

We had no friends,
and we just ruled the world.

[Lister] I was big into acid as a kid.
Like, every weekend and at school,

we would take Red Dragon tabs

and just sit there
and bend on it, you know.

[squawking]

[Lister] Year eight, I just saw this
beautiful girl in my grade,

and I was immediately attracted to her.

I think I noticed Anthony
before he noticed me

because I was, like,
a really shy young girl.

We just liked hanging out together
and drawing.

[Lister] In year 12, we went
to our high school formal

and I was completely bent on acid,

completely bent on acid, and I'm just
smiling with these fake glasses on.

But she went to Paris after high school

and I just started my uni and shit.

And that was that.

Then Datura happened,

when me and some friends went to
the Botanic Gardens and found it.

You know, it's a native plant.

And we picked this shit, man, and fuck,

like, nobody else
really lost it except for me.

I almost died, I'm sure.
People have gone blind on it.

I didn't hear that before I took it.
We just thought, "Yeah, cool, free acid."

I was found on the roof of the shops
near where I worked

in my underpants,
picking leaves out of the gutter.

And I have a vague memory
of all the neighbors out on their lawns

just wondering what the hell I was doing.

A couple of weeks after it,
after the kind of toxins wore off,

I just knew that I wanted to be a painter.

From that point on, that's what
I put my soul energy into.

Then in second year uni,
I reconnected with Anika.

I called her and we hung out.

That was very special, you know?
We fell in love.

[Anika] My heart was wide open,
and I just... I adored him.

[Lister] We'd spend long periods
of time together,

and then she'd have to go to work,

and I'd have to go to university
and things like this.

There was one day that she said,
"Look, I need to talk to you.

I have something to tell you," and I said,
"What's that?" She said, "I'm pregnant."

[Anika] I was terrified. Anthony was
feeling pretty confident.

[Lister] And I said, "That's fantastic."

And we had this baby, and his name's Kye.

It was great. I was just so...
I was so happy.

We didn't have any money
and no one was supporting us.

I needed to get my hustle on
and get smart real quick.

Civic leaders are worried
about Brisbane's image.

It seems everywhere you go these days,
someone with a can of spray paint

has left their mark.

[news reporter] Brisbane Council
is looking at alternatives,

steering graffiti off public property

and onto areas set aside
for legal aerosol art.

[Lister] My nana had cut out of the paper
this clipping that said, you know,

"Artists, please apply to paint
traffic signal boxes."

So I wrote a business plan for
a $10,000 contract, and then I got it.

Which was, like, everything to me.

I was just like, "Fucking A,
I'm a businessman. Shit."

I went and started painting these boxes,

knowing nothing about

outdoor paints and just going at it.

I painted over a hundred boxes,

and actually there was a pivotal moment.

I felt like I was making
a more beautiful city.

I was also contributing to the community.

I really felt like I was
a part of the town.

Thanks, Brisbane City Council.

[tinkling]

[Anika] It was a really sweet time
in life. Everything was simple.

We had no idea what we were doing.

[Lister] Those early years,

it was such a beautiful period.

It was really fucking wonderful.

His family was his main motivation
and him needing to support them

was the oomph that pushed him.

[Lister] I knew that there was nothing
going to go on in my town

if I just sat there and waited for it,

so I was doing interviews
with international artists

so that I could meet them.

Max Gimblett was one that stood out.

I developed a relationship with him
enough for him to say,

"You know, if you are ever in New York,
you should look me up."

I mean, I had a massive
hard-on for New York.

You know, we had this six-month-old baby,

and it was all fresh as hell days,
and we had four grand,

we had a terribly shit car...

We had a conversation and I said,

"You know, with this four grand,
we could either buy a new car

or I could chase this lead
to go to New York."

And she said, "Chase that lead."

I loved him and I believed
in his visions and, you know,

I could see where he was coming from.

It just seemed natural for him to go
because Kye was young... Yeah.

I encouraged that.

[Lister] So I went to New York on my own
and it was just a culture shock.

It was an absolute culture shock.

He lived above a homeless shelter
as well, on the Bowery.

So it was a fucking ruckus, you know.

[exclaims]

I'd go and see him every day
and then work and then leave

and go back to my hostel,
you know, in Brooklyn.

I was so homesick.

I remember finding
one of Anika's hairs in my jacket

and just, like, putting it in my mouth
and going to sleep with it.

I just missed her so much.

Missing people just can be
the most painful thing.

I knew I needed to get back to my family.

Not long after I arrived home,
we found out we were pregnant again.

I said, "Oh, awesome. "

You know, we had a little girl
and I named her Lola Lister.

We were living at my mum's place by then

because we had stopped living in West End.

And it was perfect.

Lola. Hello, baby.

Yes, hello, baby.

-[Lola giggles]
-[Lister chuckles]

[Lister] It's all happening.

I see you. I see you. Kiss.

[Lola babbling]

[both laughing]

[cell phone beeps]

[line ringing]

Hi, I'm Anthony Lister.
I'm a local painter.

-[cell phone beeps]
-[line ringing]

Hello. Anthony Lister speaking.
How are you?

[line ringing]

Hi, I'm Anthony Lister.
I'm just calling to discuss

having a meeting with you
about showing in your gallery.

The pressure was on to survive
and make work that was going to sell.

[Anika] You don't know when
the next paycheck is coming.

It's just all an act of faith.

We were both prepared to do what
we had to do to keep the family going.

[Lister] Well, here we are.
Don't know how we got here.

It was estimated to be about four hours,
turns out we meet someone on the plane

who knows exactly where we're going.

Hello?

[Anika] What do you
think about this, Lola?

I gave him the freedom
to kind of go out and be the artist.

I could see that it was worth it.

[Lister] Trying to make a show,
you know, and get a solo show.

It was out of the norm of what
other artists of my age were doing.

I just felt like it was natural for me
to make these steps.

It's Friday, we're in Brisvegas.
We're going to have a show tonight.

Just set it up. You'll see it.

See all the hard work. I need a lot of
energy drinks and a lot of punk music.

That'll keep me going.

First solo show was in 2001,

and I was 21 and it was in Brisbane,

on Ann Street at Fox Galleries.

All right, I forgot that I had a camera,
so I did all the hard work without you.

I guess you will just see it tonight,

and that's what it will be about.

Yeah, it took a lot of hard work from me
to get that first show.

I really had to kind of, you know,

convince the art dealer
that I could do it.

And my grandmother came to it
and she's there in the crowd

and that's the grandmother
that taught me to paint.

Yeah, it's cool.

My wife Anika, and my two kids
that put up with me

-and give me the time I need and all that.
-[Lola crying]

And they give me
all the inspiration in the world,

so really it's for Anika and me tonight.

[cheering and applauding]

[Lister] Yeah,
it really was screaming out,

"Hey, I'm here," to Brisbane.

So that's when things started to,

you know, flow more as far as, like,

the artwork and income from the artwork.

[Lister] Somehow I'd made about
30 grand from paintings.

And I sat down with Anika's dad
and I said, "Look, I've got 30 grand.

It's just more money than I've had
in my life. Like, what the fuck?

Like, what should I do with it?"
And he said, "Buy a house."

So I just took his advice.

I know we bought the house for the studio.

[Lister] I was just, like,
"Look at this fucking shed. Killer."

I need this setup.
You know, it's a house here,

this giant shed there.
And that's where I painted.

I had a very optimistic view on life

and what I was going to accomplish and...

I thought I was going to take over
the world with my art, really.

And it was totally crap.
My art was totally shit.

You know, I just felt like I could
accomplish it based on the fact that

I was the only one of my family
on both sides

to ever even finish high school,
let alone go to university.

[whooping]

[Lister] I was killing it,
but I had to get out of Brisbane

because there wasn't
anything going on there.

To realize that a space that
you'd grown up in your whole life

is just not sufficient,
it's a sad feeling, you know.

I didn't want my children
to grow old in shopping centers.

We needed to get out.

He just said, we could sit here and, like,
do the same thing for five years

and not really remember it, or we could,

you know, really go for it
and try moving to New York.

[Lister] Because I've already
been in New York,

and I knew that the potential there
was maximum.

[man on p.a.]
This is the third call for...

[Anika] I would get
really caught up in his enthusiasm.

It was exciting.

[Lister] First time for the family they've
all been in a foreign place with me

and at the same time.

[laughing]

My name's Lola Lister. Look out, people.

Hey, I'm Anthony Lister. Look out, people.

I'm going to the city.

[whooping]

[giggles]

[Lister] So, 18 days in New York.
What do you reckon?

Pretty heavy.

I managed to secure
an apartment in Brooklyn.

The kids were having a fun time at school,

and I was comfortable in my studio
and it felt good.

The environment was such
that I could re-establish myself.

I was lucky enough to be
blessed with the timing

to get involved with an exhibition
that was happening,

and I got a major spot
on the outside of the building

and on the inside of the building.

And it so happened to be printed
on the front cover

of the New York Times art section.

So I arrived on a good strong foot
and just kept running.

Through the summer we'd go, you know,

out on adventures as a family,
just to parks and stuff.

There are a lot of really beautiful times
when the kids felt very special

and very a part of the scene there,
and I felt very welcome.

Lola and Kye were the leaders
of the Deitch Art Parade,

where they walked along with these
giant balloons at the head of the parade

and walked into Deitch.

[indistinct chatter]

You know, someone's always
got to be there for the kids,

especially when they're younger,
and Anika did take that.

And she did that pretty selflessly.

I remember being really,
really appreciative

for being able to have time
in the studio, you know?

We were a team.

[laughing loudly]

We were a very functioning,
functioning team.

I started focusing on what it was like
to be a New York artist with potential.

I was in my Brooklyn studio in about 2007,

and I really didn't like what I was doing.

It just hit me that I needed to

start painting pictures that
I wanted to hang on my own wall.

Stories I'd heard from my mum's mum,
as a kid, you know.

Triumph and failure and good and bad
and battles of forces,

in the language that
my peers could understand,

which happened to be Superman,

Darth Vader, Bugs Bunny.

I wanted fucking heroes on my wall.
I wanted superheroes.

Just the reaction and the support
that I got for those few paintings

really launched me into

my next level of international
awareness of my practice.

[train moving]

As far as timeline goes,
it's a bit of a blur.

There was a lot of partying involved
and a lot of traveling.

I just want a drink, man.

-We're going to have...
-[Anika] Surely, yes.

We're having fun.

[Lister] Yeah, look,
everyone was doing drugs.

Everyone was doing coke.
Everyone was like...

It was where people were getting naked.

[heroic music playing]

Anthony Lister, that's hot.

[Lister whooping]

[Lister laughing]

[Lister whooping]

[Anika] I would join in when I could.

It's not me. You have to get everybody.

The artist inside me that wanted
the lifestyle and the fun,

and so in that way, I was kind of
burning the candle at both ends.

It got to points where
I'd be up all night at a studio

and then be taking the kids
to kindergarten,

you know, in the middle
of the New York winter.

[Lister] I would stay up all night
and catch a train

back from Brooklyn at, like,
6:00 in the morning,

and Anika would wake up
and we would take the kids to school,

and then I would go to the studio
and work into the night

and we would live alternate routines.

It was hard and sometimes
she didn't make it to the party.

Most times I did, you know,
and that's hard to see your best friend

have to sit it out, you know,
and watch fucking Bugs Bunny again.

[Anika] Come on, mate. Let's not take
all day just getting dressed.

[Kye protesting]

[Anika] I'd pretty much prefer to do
anything other than...

I was very much the one
that all the family and home life

fell back on, and I just got exhausted.

[Kye] We're making a movie
about the family, Mum.

[Anika]
I wanted to make it work, but being mum

and being partner
to this insatiable artist

and living in a large city
without solid support there...

[Lister] This is where
the water is coming in.

[Anika] That was hard.

You little fool!

Kye! Oi.

[yelling indistinctly]

It was the night before Easter,

and he was tagging the street.

We were about to go home and plant eggs
all over the place for the kids,

and I got picked up
and thrown down, handcuffed,

and there's fucking 20 cops there,

and they've all been watching me
go from one spot to another spot,

calling each other and getting them
all together and they just took me out.

I'd got arrested for graffiti,
which was a pretty shit experience.

Yeah. That wasn't any fun.

Especially not coming home
and telling the kids

why, you know, their dad's not there.

Just couldn't handle the pressure.

Haven't left this house
in about two years.

Well, that was your decision, right?

No. Haven't you seen the deadlocks
on the front door?

Are you talking in metaphors?

[Lister] And that was when
Anika was like, "I'm over this.

We're moving back into the house
that we bought."

Hey, Lol.

So that's what we're going
to go back to Australia for.

What?

[Anika] Do you know how many days left
you've got of that school forever?

Mmm-mmm.

You've got this many times left there
and you're never, ever going there again.

-Is that the same with me, too?
-[Lister] Yep.

I remember when I used to get told
to go to sleep at school, at preschool.

We're back from New York
and we were in the house.

[Anika] We came back to Australia
where I had a real support network,

and it was just not
such a hectic lifestyle.

[Lister] Naturally she was so happy
to be back in Brisbane.

[Lister] Anika came from
what we call a solid family,

and I came from
a typical broken family.

There was heaps of pressure
and I felt extremely insecure.

Simple things like we have to make
conversation at dinner tables

when you've never ever
sat at a dinner table.

I mean, these are basic things
that a solid family, they do.

But I... It was foreign to me.

What was more natural for me
was that I just keep painting.

Okay, today we are
going to paint this picture

of Francis Bacon,

on this canvas right here.

[spraycan shaking]

I'm Anthony Lister,
and I'm going to paint Francis Bacon.

While I was in New York, I discovered
that I had been training myself

to be painting on the street

the whole time I'd been painting

but never applying it because
I considered it my studio practice.

But I realized,
"Oh, I know how to do this,

and I'm good at actually doing this,"
so I just started painting

faces and pictures of weird characters
out of spray paint.

And once I found a style,
then I was up and running.

And I was rewarded for it. Like,
people actually found it pretty good.

So, I had a meeting with David Hinchliffe,

who was the guy
who instigated the box project.

We've had a lot of tourist agents
from around the world in Brisbane.

They were asked to fill out a form

saying some of the things that
they thought were great about our city,

and among the top three
were the traffic signal boxes.

[Lister] And he said,
"Hey, I've got this wall,"

and I said, "That's great, let's do this."

And I thought, "Right,
I'm going to leave this town a gift."

That was a beautiful thing for me.

It's one of the places I want to be at,
is sharing creativity

and it having its place in society.

There was an underlying sense of pride
for me to be able to do that.

[female reporter] A mural on vacant land
in the heart of Fortitude Valley.

Art or graffiti?

A good graffiti is artistic.

[female reporter] Brisbane Council's
graffiti reduction unit didn't think so.

They painted over it less than 48 hours

after artist Anthony Lister
finished the mural.

It took Anthony Lister three days
to paint the wall, and he's furious.

[Lister] It was heartbreaking.
It was soul-crushing

because it was really one of the biggest
paintings that I have painted

to that time, and I thought I was
going through all the right channels,

and I really got a big slap in the face.

And the next thing I know,
the Liberal Lord Mayor

has gone around me and had
whitewashed the whole thing.

I wanted to see creativity flourish
and be accepted,

but it was just an indication
of the backward nature

of some politicians
in Brisbane City Council.

There is regrettably a view amongst
some people that this is actually art.

It's an obscenity. It's something
that people want cleaned up.

We have a policy that is going to do it.

[Lister] You know, the definitions
of what is art and what is graffiti

and what is beautiful
became very blurry in my eyes

through the support
of the Brisbane City Council,

and they are now trying to condemn me

for doing exactly what they gave me
the power to do in the first place.

But I've always just felt like making work
was what I was meant to do.

So I got back in the studio.

That energy to just want to get into it
is present every time I make work.

[Anika] There would be some days
where I wouldn't see...

Like, he would be at home,
but I wouldn't see him for days

unless I went into the studio to see him.

And sometimes try and lure him out,
you know, like, "Come back to us."

He gets energized just being out
with other people,

feeding off the energy of the crowd.

[man] Bro, that's fucking mad.

[Lister] I set it up exactly
how I wanted it, you know, a big studio

and had a few friends who would come over.

I did a lot of really breakthrough
paintings in that studio

and with a decent body of work,

I was able to, yeah, secure shows
in every city in Australia.

Okay, so we're going
to put a show on with Magnus,

dressed up at the Powerhouse.
It's going to be awesome.

What do you reckon, Mags?

I got clean underwear on.

We didn't do it with any rules,
and that was the first rule.

This is the remix.

[Lister rapping]

♪ When I get down
When I get around ♪

♪ When I'm looking down
To the sound of the... ♪

♪ Raise up the bar
To the toast the ghost ♪

♪ I don't realize that
I'm a clown to the frown, most ♪

♪ Oh, no, please stop me from being me ♪

♪ Because me is a dream
That I just don't scheme ♪

♪ I am the self-realization ♪

♪ A manifest of the equation ♪

♪ That requested data entry, yes ♪

♪ Data entry, yeah
Get your hands off my data entry... ♪

This art is a hard thing.

Putting a square and a circle
together is hard.

And he can just go... Bam!
So, you know, that's God's gift.

If there's a God.

[Lister] The studio was just
absolutely pumping.

Yeah, it really was pumping.

And I was being asked to do
both of my street practice

and studio practice overseas.

I could actually spread my wings
the way that I knew I could.

I went to a lot of great shows,
met a lot of amazing people.

[Anika] I wasn't part of those trips,
yeah.

Often I was here, with the kids.

I would be doing shows, a month here,
three weeks there, ten days here.

I was being sent to Miami to do jobs.

Flown to San Francisco to do a show.

Can you look in the camera?

I want to kind of tell a story
actually about, like,

a SpongeBob story that he knows.

I miss them. I miss them terribly.

[Kye] I can see the picture.

Look at you.

[Lister] You know,
the shows are getting bigger.

And I took a show to London.

From there, I flew to Italy
and back to Australia.

[Anika] It's probably a very
disenchanting thing to come home

and have to face the fact that he was
a normal person just like everybody else.

[Lola] Okay, okay, it's on, it's on.

[Lister] Okay. Come up close.

[Lola] It's not... It's not a movie.

-[Lister] Is it a movie?
-[Lola] Yeah.

[Lister] Good girl. And then walk away
real far and show the whole thing.

[Anika] He'd had all these experiences

and all these things
that he wanted to show us,

and it was amazing and photos.

It was interesting, but also
kind of sometimes a bit like, whoa!

'Cause, you know, I'm living
quite a different lifestyle.

[Lister] With my growing success, it meant
more time away from the family.

[Anika] Anthony is the sort of person
that wants to be out seeing things,

experiencing things, meeting people,
you know, achieving things.

But for me, it's about families.

Since I'd had Lola, I'd just always
had this sense in my soul

that there was to be one more child.

[Lister] And I remember going, you know,
"Have we considered everything?"

[Anika] I spent many a night going round
and round in circles about my options.

[Lister] The kids are, like,
eight and seven.

We are at a stage where we can
travel with these children,

that we could do the world.

In the face of Anthony
saying it was a crazy idea,

"No, don't want to do it,"
I made the decision to anyway.

[heart beating on ultrasound]

That was a very lonely
and really solitary decision.

[Lola shouting]

[giggling]

[Lister] Is it cold? Lola, is it cold?

I've had faith and trust
in Anika's ability

to be a mother and make good decisions.

Either way, I was there to support her.

We brought that wonderful being
into the world.

[Anika] Polly just felt like she was
meant to be here for me.

[Lister] Polly's the most amazing thing.

Like, she's really something
I treasure so deeply.

[Anika] I really wanted to keep
the family together.

That's what I wanted, you know.

[Lister] I'm just so thankful for them.

-Who's present is this from?
-Lola.

[Lister] Whoa! What is it?

[Kye] Bubblegum. There it is.

[Kye] There's even
a jar of more bubblegum.

[Lola] More bubblegum.

[Lister] Oh, my gosh.

-Happy birthday.
-Thank you, Lola.

[Lister] That's the way.

[Lister] Lola, look at the camera.

Lola.

[kids screaming]

[screaming continues]

[Lister] While I took the family,
I had the idea to have a show in Sydney

in a space that was not a gallery.

Had the intention to use it as bait
to get a gallery that I wanted.

A gallery that isn't in it
just for the money.

I felt like if I built a pop-up space,
there would be no politics

and then every gallery would come

because there was no gallery associated.

But this project was about just
bringing it back to showing, you know, art

and selling nothing, just as a statement.

Yes, the places that you send me,
Sunday Arts, right in the thick of it.

It is an apt description.

But this is Kings Cross.
This is the infamous strip.

It's full of bars and clubs
and fast food joints.

But for tonight, one night only,

it's Anthony Lister's installation
"No Win Sitch,"

smack-bang between Porky's and DreamGirls.

[Lister] It was kind of a lucky hit,
but it made a lot a sense

and that's why it stayed with me
because it just

was like finally my voice
reached my style.

And they felt it
and I was feeling it, too.

It just started blowing up.

You know, the energy shift was real.

I started seeing people's attitudes
change towards me,

the credibility and the real respect,
and I genuinely felt great excitement.

[Anika] So you started to get a reputation
that inflates the ego,

and if you are not careful, it can
kind of get run away on you.

Anthony loved it, you know.

He totally let it get to him.

And that was frustrating because
the discord and the disharmony

started to really become apparent.

[indistinct chatter]

Stop it!

[Lister] Come make me.

Oh, yeah?

[Lister] Sometimes I've been so lost
in my process and my target,

my goal, that I'm blind
to the needs of others.

[Anika] Anthony has always
prioritized his work.

[Lister] You know, it tested, tested us,
it tested Anika in so many ways.

[Anika] It gets to a point where
you realize that enough is enough.

[Lister] The pressures of, you know,
paying a mortgage,

feeding a family...

[shouting]

[Anika] Okay, time out.
It's Lola's turn tonight.

[Lister] The pressures
of keeping kids happy

and tying shoelaces
and getting them to school on time.

Dealing with real parenthood.

It definitely strained the relationship.

[thunder rumbling]

[Anika] So we decided that
we would take a campervan

kind of around the coast of Australia,
just not really planned,

just see where it takes us.

[Lister] It was kind of like our way
to put the family back together, in a way.

[Anika] Brush, brush. Good girl.

Anthony is more of an airplane,
hotel-type guy,

but I love camping and I love road trips.

[Lola] Here, Mummy, here.

[Lister] I was never
really trained to camp.

I'm not much
of a camping-type motherfucker.

All right, I'm ready.

Yeah, girl. [whooping]

But we had fun.

-Hey, Dad, have you seen Polly?
-No.

Where is Polly?

Polly? Polly?

[shouts]

[Lola] One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight...

[Lister] I expected to be back
in three weeks.

That trip took a bit of a detour.

While driving around in a campervan
visiting Ned Kelly's father's gravesite,

my manager called and said that
I was given a solo show

with the big-time gallery
in Sydney in Australia.

Fuck, yes. I got the Olsen Gallery.
That's exactly what I wanted.

Surprise, kids, we're moving to Sydney.

So then we came to Sydney.
George Street, right near Central.

Got some mattresses, painted upstairs,
set it up a bit with some team...

And the next thing I knew
we were living in a squat, baby.

Living in a four-story abandoned building,

with a makeshift kitchen on the top floor.

A hose running up the side of the building
with a trigger spray as our kitchen tap

in buckets, you know, like,
it was full squat style.

[Kye whooping] Go, Polly.

Turn around, turn around.

[Lister] I started, you know, feeling like
I was doing it in Sydney

because I was getting prepared
for the Tim Olsen show.

Boom, it's going to be for real.

The space, yeah, it was perfect for it,
and I was just making the work about it,

but it was hard on Anika.

[Anika] You know, I felt like it was
almost my obligation

to stretch myself as far as I could
for this person that I loved.

[Lister] It's just like old times.

You should have drawn your artwork there.

It's your show, man.

[woman screams]

[man laughing] Jesus.

[Anika] That was true mayhem.

That was one of the more,

I'd have to say,
the most chaotic point in my life.

Not a very healthy,
kind of family environment.

I kind of went into survival mode
at that point.

I realized that it wasn't...

It was no longer possible to be
in a relationship with Anthony.

[Lister] I could see her
kind of getting over me.

My magic had worn out.

[Anika] It just got too dangerous
and it just got too difficult and painful.

I found a place on Gumtree to move to

and just said to Anthony
that he couldn't come.

[Lister] We were a very functioning team,

and I think I took it all
for granted one time too many.

[Anika] Come on. We're going this way.

[Lister] That's when I got a garage
in the Cross,

and Anika got an apartment in Darlinghurst
and we separated.

You know, I was... I was in shock.

-[Anika] Beautiful.
-[Lister] Beautiful. Give me kiss goodbye.

Three months into living in this garage,

I was really trying to patch up
what had gone on,

but at the same time I was
kind of getting visited by a girl

that was frequenting the studio.

And so Anika sat me down

and said, you know,
"Did you sleep with that girl? "

And I said no. And she said, "I'll ask you
one more time, did you sleep with her?"

And I said no and I lied.
And that was a wrap.

I kind of feel like I can deal with
a lot, and relationships aren't easy

and all that sort of thing,

but it's, like,
lying-to-the-face type stuff is

a definite dealbreaker for me because
there's nowhere to go from there.

And I felt the death
of the relationship right there.

I was absolutely certain.

[Lister] See, I hate it. I hate that
I've gone and done that,

and I didn't have the courage
just to own up to it, you know?

I was just an idiot. I was a fool.

But Anika left Sydney for good.

It was hard. It was definitely hard, man.

I was definitely going through some shit.

That was right when I had
my Olsen Irwin show.

It was called The Beautiful Misery,

and it was completely about
the breakdown of my marriage.

You know, there was a portrait of me there

with my mouth full of flowers,

voiceless, and I was having
a very hard time.

But all the works sold,
did hundreds of thousands of dollars.

You know, whether the room
is full of red dots or it's not,

I'm sacrificing time with my kids.

-[man] And I love that number one there.
-[Lister] Yeah.

[man] I think it's absolutely fantastic.
It's in-your-face...

-Yeah.
-It's confronting...

-Yeah.
-It's pornographic.

-Yeah.
-I think it's just magnificent.

Thank you.

There's that song in my head,
how's it go...

"Is that all there is?"

You know that song?

At the end of the day,
I got what I wanted,

but I felt terrible.

So I found a place in Bondi,
right on the beach.

I didn't have a network of people,

definitely not in Bondi,
let alone in Sydney.

You know, I was paying
the people around me

that were listening to me to listen to me.

They were getting paid by me
keeping on working,

so it was in everyone's interests
just to hope for the best.

I was pretty convincing when anyone
asked me how I was or anything.

"Yeah, I'm all right, good."
You know, and I wasn't, really.

A month goes by and I'm like, I'm sending
messages, I'm sending flowers and nothing,

nothing, nothing,
so I have to just go up there

and I have to see her, you know?
I have to try.

And Anika's there and I'm like,
"Anika, I'm sorry. Here's some flowers."

Anika was not having a bar of it.

I was trying to work out
how to win her back, you know?

Flowers weren't going to work this time.

I'm like, "What the fuck?"

And then I returned to Sydney, and I was
making some pretty shit work at the time.

I didn't deal with it.

[indistinct chatter]

I trained this family how to live
without me, you know,

but I never trained myself
how to live without them.

[cheering]

I had no anchor.

I mean, I was just self-destructive.

Like, I did not give a shit.

[Lister rapping]

♪ What do you do
when you are going through a divorce? ♪

♪ And you're fuck bored out of your brain
And you're by yourself? ♪

♪ Yeah, sure, coke, ice, fucking speed
I mean, marijuana ♪

♪ Sure, mate
Got mates come down, flying up ♪

♪ Going here, there
And fucked-up crazy, mate ♪

♪ Going hard, listening to Dire Straits
Boom, boom, click-clack, taking it out ♪

♪ Doesn't everybody? ♪

♪ Doesn't everybody? ♪

♪ Don't they? ♪

I hate cocaine.
I just like the smell of it.

[man laughs]
Let's do some more.

[Lister] I just...
I immersed myself in my work.

It's that safe treading-water place

where it's like,
"Do what I know. Stay calm."

And that's when that Vogue shoot
happened and stuff.

Now it's not even my art that's
making money and helping me survive.

You know, it's just the fact that
I've gone and made myself.

By making art, and now it's just my face
that people can market

for Telstra or Optus or whatever else,
doing whatever else.

Yeah, I made money,
but it didn't make me feel better.

I was depressed.

You know, I was trying
to mend the situation,

but it wasn't mending.

But I still wanted her to love me,

and it was just abstract to her.

She was just like,
"I'm taking this motherfucker down."

Yeah, another studio bites the dust.

Here I am, just, you know,
doing the usual.

The click and the clack.

Fuck. Fucking women.

So disgustingly malicious. Fuck.

[Lister] After Bondi,
I was living in this warehouse.

It was a no-brainer that she was getting
the house and the child support,

but I just wanted to see my kids
and keep my art collection.

And it goes from bad to worse.

[Anika on phone]
Anthony, why are you not just going,

"Okay, this has got to be done."

We own stuff together.
I have to raise three children

for the next ten fucking years
while you have a lucrative career.

I was there every step of the way
and I raised our children

so you could have that time and space
to create that career.

But you have to look at it like that
for one second instead of sitting here,

thinking, "Oh, well,
she's trying to rip me off."

You are a famous fucking artist.

You're never are going to
have to want for again.

I'm a single mum now, okay?
Do you understand that?

[Lister] I just wanted her to be happy,

or at least lenient on me,

and I thought that by giving her
everything, she would be cooler with me,

but it wasn't the case.

[Lister] Do you want us to be friends
and do want us to maintain a friendship,

or do you just want--

[Anika] I don't think that's even possible

-with you, honestly.
-Why? I'm not a difficult guy, Anny.

[Anika chuckles]

[Lister] All right, anyway, look,
we shared a lot of years...

[Anika] As long as everything's going
your way, you're not a difficult guy.

[Lister] This is how you play. [hums]

This is how you play Tinder.

[man] You can't fucking do that.
[Lister] I don't like being single.

What is this thing?

I mean, I was doing a lot of,
you know, art around the place.

I was hoping to see the kids, you know,
this weekend, if that's okay with you?

-[Anika] This weekend?
-Yeah. If that's all right?

I'm sick.
I went around and around and around.

-Around...
-[Lister] Yeah, we got dizzy

-on the spinning bits.
-And around.

[Lister] What have we been doing?

Oh, you found a shark. Good.

[Lola singing]
♪ Give me a home among the gumtrees ♪

♪ With lots of plum trees ♪

♪ A sheep or two and a kangaroo ♪

♪ A clothesline out the back
And a veranda out the front ♪

-♪ And an old rocking chair ♪
-♪ And an old rocking chair ♪

Anthony Lister is charged
with willful damage

over a series of murals
he painted across Brisbane.

The 36-year-old is charged
with willful damage

after Council blacked over five pieces
he painted across Brisbane

between and 2009 and 2014.

Prosecutors say
it was not art but graffiti,

and that he didn't have
appropriate consent.

[Lister] They pulled me over randomly

when I was back in town
a couple of months later,

and that's when I went
to jail for the night.

Because I lived in Sydney, they were like,
"Well, you're a risk,

you've got to sleep over the night."

Yeah, it was fucked.
That was shithouse, man.

'Cause I was there to see the kids. I was
there to meet these interviewers for CNN

to talk about Brisbane as a city
and how much I loved it

because I was an international identity
that was associated with the city.

And I was stuck, you know, in this bubble
of hypocrisy once again, you know?

And then when I found this letter
from Anika to her new partner,

you know, that was...
I was in denial, man.

I mean, I was just being slapped
left, right and center.

I was on drugs. I was fucking dealing
with mad shit, you know.

[operatic song playing]

[Lister] I had gotten back from overseas.

Soon as I hit the ground in Sydney,
I caught up with a mate

and he just happens to have,
you know, drugs there.

I was leaving his house and these
fucking cops came out of nowhere.

They were saying,
"Can we just search you?"

It was payday for them.
They were loving it.

I go, "Honestly,
do I look like a drug addict?"

And they go,
"Yeah, you kind of do, actually."

I realized that I had to get a lawyer.

Substance abuse seems to beset
the entire artistic community

at some stage, particularly
those who are avant-garde

and out there and the most creative.

And a conviction in relation
to anything involving narcotics is fatal

to any career internationally,

specifically to gaining entry
to the United States,

with a narcotic conviction
is essentially impossible.

[Lister] To realize that, like,

if I actually got found guilty
for that situation

and that I wouldn't be able to travel
and, you know, all my work is overseas.

I mean, I'm staring at
the face of a gun, you know?

Any wrong turn in any sideways direction
could have me all fucked up.

I don't want to put my mind
in the place of having to not

being able to leave
this country to do my job.

It's embarrassing to realize my naivete.

To have to tell Anika what had gone on,

you know, give her more ammo
in the gun of "Fuck you,

you're a shit dad," is devastating.

It fucked shit up with my kids,

being told about the life
that I kind of had

been living and keeping,
you know, quiet from them.

It was rock bottom,
but it wasn't unfamiliar territory.

It just seemed like the rock bottom

was just, you know, another opening
for another rock bottom.

I was distracting myself with drugs
and, you know, I was hiding from emotions.

I knew that something had to change.

And so I decided that it was best for me
to go over to a rehab facility in Bali.

It's a bit tricky coming to grips
with that whole drug thing.

Everyone just takes it one day at a time.
That's how you have to do it.

God, I just want my kids to have
a happy life where they're proud of me.

I'm a romantic,
and I believe that there's hope.

After arriving home, I realize...
I mean, everything was different.

I needed to rebuild
the relationships with my children.

So I went back and forth to Brisbane
as much as I could.

[Lister] Yeah, Lola!

Yeah, you're copping mad air, girl!

Yeah. Don't go too hard.

Meanwhile this possession charge
was definitely on my mind.

What could happen if this goes wrong?

I'm supporting myself,
Anika and my three children.

If I couldn't travel,
then I couldn't make enough money.

Everyone loses out. It's fucked.

At the end of the day,
that's my responsibility.

I was very lucky.

My lawyers got me off the drugs charges
without having to go to court.

I was given just a Section 10,
which means, you know,

"Don't do anything else wrong
or you'll go to prison."

The relief that washed over me,

to think that I could carry on
with my career as I had been,

it was overwhelming.

It's what I do from this point on
that's going to define

what my children
and the wider world think of me.

I went overseas, and I'm just
hell-bent on solving problems,

moving forward, being positive.

It's not a job, and I fucking love it.

I actually fucking love it.

That's a blessing that
I'm making people happy with my work.

In environments like Europe and America,

there is history of respecting creativity,

and it having its value in society.

Australia, not so much.

Brisbane, fuck no.

But I believe the change is possible,
and I have to fight for it.

So I ended up coming back into Brisbane.

I had to go to court to fight against

the Brisbane City Council
and the Queensland police.

Art collectors and celebrities have paid

tens of thousands of dollars
for Lister pieces.

But he is passionate about
leaving his mark on public places

so anyone can see it for free.

Stewart, how are you? Good to see you.

Should I have a tie on?
Should I tuck my shirt in?

[female reporter]
He's accused of willful damage by graffiti

at five locations dating back to 2009.

[Lister] For me, it's about the definition
of willful damage.

When my intention is to actually
make something beautiful

and to enhance the quality of its value,

then it's not damage at all,
so it comes down to semantics.

It was important to me that
I showed my children who I was.

I believe in what I'm doing.
I honestly believe in what I'm doing.

In relation to the charge of graffiti,
the laws were toughened

very much during
the Campbell Newman period.

We are going to go out and actually
gather evidence, conduct surveillance,

and then seek to prosecute people
through the court system.

You need to have some deterrent, really.

Some of the penalties handed out

don't really deter vandalism
or graffiti, do they?

[male reporter] The writing has been
on the wall for graffiti artists

since the state government's new laws
were announced on Monday.

Today, outside the
Community Crime Prevention summit,

there was no masking their anger
at the five-year jail term.

[Lister] To think that kids are in jail,
in prison

around hardened, vicious,
violent criminals for making art?

It's fucking insane.

World-renowned street artist
Anthony Lister

may never paint in Brisbane again

after he was found guilty
of willful damage.

He said the four artworks
were a blessing to the city,

but he will now pay the price
for his gift to the community.

[female reporter]
Former Deputy Mayor David Hinchliffe

gave evidence and launched
a scathing attack on Council.

If anyone can be accused
of willful destruction,

it was Council in blanking out his murals.

[female reporter]
Lister was ordered to do community service

as part of a graffiti removal order,

and he will pay the $440 cleaning bill.

On his own undertaking, he will donate
more than $4,500 to Council

to promote street art in the city.

[Lister] I got off relatively lucky,

but it's a sad day for the freedom

of visual expression
and creativity in Brisbane.

I don't know if I care
for my presence to be understood

as much as I just want art to be accepted.

In Brisbane, I feel like an alien
because I'm not fitting into a mold.

It's funny because before
my grandma died, like, I'd always...

I felt most myself
around my grandma, my poppy,

because they didn't expect
anything from me.

I only ever felt that
since then with my children.

I'm genuinely super real with my kids,
and I've always been that way.

You know,
they really do know me and I think

through these last few years
of me being kept away from them,

they've been led to question that.

So then Anika began to let the kids
visit me in Sydney.

And Kye decided that
he wanted to live with me.

It was great, so I needed
to provide a stable environment.

I bought this house in Darlinghurst,
and I moved from my warehouse location.

Moving in meant sanding all the walls,
scrubbing all the walls,

painting all the walls,
sanding all the floors.

Putting Kye in a new school
was also thrown in that.

I was getting ready for a tour,
I'd just got back from a tour.

There were so many
compounding kind of factors,

and he was just kind of
on the wayside of that.

I neglected him.
And, you know, it's totally my...

Yeah, it's totally my fault.

He went home, and that was
the last time I saw Kye.

It was a fuck-up.
It was a real bad fuck-up for me,

like, "You can't play like that."

I just was stupid, you know?

It was just my dad
repeating himself in me.

I realized that growing up without
a major consistent male role model,

in fact, plays such a huge role

in how we become pieces of shit
or awesome individuals.

Here we go again.

Dad, you know, I mean,
I'm battling the same shit

he's always battled, I guess, when it
comes down to being self-obsessed

and breaking everything in the meantime.

I mean, I send him texts
and I call him, you know, all the time.

But there's no answer.

[beeps]

Hey, Kye. I hope you
get this message, mate.

Just calling just to say I love you,
and I'd love to talk to you, and...

Man, if you could find it in you just to
give me a call and we just have a chat,

and that it would mean
so much to me, and I really...

I would really appreciate that, and I
really hope you're doing all right, man.

Thinking of you every day. I love you.

[sighs]

I don't want to cry today.

I don't want to cry today.

The only thing I can do
is communicate through my work.

This is the still before the storm.

It's going to be a return

to me using my work as a mode to
communicate to my loved ones, pretty much.

Which is going to be a bit confronting
'cause I've got a lot to say.

They're not paintings,
they're not objects,

they're actually not even things,
they're journeys

and they are going to be
emotional journeys.

I mean, how many ways can you say,
"Hey, sorry, son.

Sorry I wasn't there"?

How many ways can you say, "Hey, babe,
we could have done it differently"?

You know, these are letters
of my acceptance and my...

You know, my gratitude
in the face of my sorrow

and, like, you know,
realizing some fuck-ups.

To think that Anika could understand
and, bigger than that,

forgive me for, like, the absence that
I've been there and the kind of, you know,

shit time that she's had
raising our children

on her own in the last few years.

It means a lot to me to let her know,
let my kids know that I actually...

I wanted to be there and...

It's, yeah, I know it's hard.
This is going to be a tricky body of work.

I've tried to replace
my presence with presents,

and it works when kids
are into Kinder Surprises,

but, you know, when
they work out how to put those

puzzles together, it's just a chocolate,

and you can't eat chocolate before dinner,

and then you are
the bad guy again, you know.

I was going through the motions,

and I was playing being the artist.

But reconnecting to the kids,
it's everything to me now.

When I started these works,
I was crying a lot.

I was so woeful painting
that Kye painting.

It just broke my fucking heart, man,

because I was really, really thinking
about the situation that had gone on.

You know, distance is hard enough,

but to have distance and
some sort of disagreement that,

you know, stops them from talking to you,

it's a heavy weight, and it never
leaves your mind, you know?

In this one, Snakes and Ladders, I mean,

I was definitely playing a game
when it came to juggling the family,

juggling the tasks, and, you know,

and traveling the world
and being this art person.

So that's the World Tour 2017,

with Polly included
because Polly's never been included

in any of the family portraits
because she wasn't around.

So that one's for Lola,
and it's going to be a...

I'm going to put something in there
like a... What would have her name on it?

Schoolbag, her schoolbook?

I've always had it in my mind
that, you know, Lola's...

She's always going
to be there, you know. She's stable.

Anika. Smiley face.

How's my little darling Polly?

She's the best ever.

Well, no thanks to you, Anthony.

That's long-distance parenting
right there.

It breaks your heart.

That's obviously me.
Good and Evil on my shoulders.

Too bad Good is pissing on me,

and Evil is whispering
sweet deadlies in my ear.

And then there's the one
at the back of Anika weaving.

I ran into my ex-mother and father-in-law
on the street while coming back yesterday,

on my skateboard, and I said,
"Amazing to see you guys,"

and then they came in here
and saw, like, the entire fucking

family portraits and shit,

so they were just like,
"Not really getting over it, huh?"

I may have looked like some sort of
crazed, obsessed ex son-in-law.

But then, no, not like that,
they were flattered, you know?

They were really chuffed.

[birds chirping]

At first, I went into the natural gear of,
"Okay, I'm putting on a show

so let's find a big gallery,
get PR sorted.

Who's going to sponsor it?"

But as I considered
what this show is actually about,

the natural building of a show that
I'm accustomed to started to fall away.

It was just about them seeing the works
and having a little fun.

This is a show for my family.

So I took the show to their
local park in Brisbane.

There'll be that family portrait,
then there'll be

Kye, Lola, Polly.
I'll mark out where they go.

So we should get on
that white now, I reckon.

-[Tommy] Yeah, boys.
-Yeah.

Team white. Go.

This is where the art
of not breathing comes in handy.

Oh, yeah, Tommy.
Nice one.

We need a bin.

Hey, now this side. Hey, hey, stop.

Tommy. Now this side.

Here we go.

I'd tie it before the other one.

I'm not a fisherman
by any stretch of the imagination.

You hold this, I'll do that.

Don't like the top.
How it's hung like that?

[Tommy]
I haven't done this before.

Don't say that, Johnny two-cars.
You're my team, you're my A-1 team.

Let's get the next one up.

Okay, let's do it.

No, in the middle of these Vs, too.

The ability to deal with,
you know, my sense of urgency.

[Tommy] It's a skill, isn't it?
[Lister] Yeah, it is.

He knows the procedure.
Hands on the wall. Spread 'em.

-You're doing good. You're doing great.
-[Tommy] I know.

I'm trying to call Kye right now.

[voicemail]
...isn't available right now.

Please leave a detailed message
after the tone.

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hang up or press one for more options.

[Lister] It's just us, girls.

So look at this. Come here.

[Lola] This is so cool. I love it.

It's awesome.

[Lister] You know what that is?

That's a show.

In there,
there's an art show just for you.

All right, so check this out.
Do you remember this?

This is you in this photograph.
Remember this photo?

-So there's Polly in it.
-[Lola] This is so cool.

[Lister laughing]

[Lister] Yeah exactly,
it's a jumping castle art gallery.

[Polly] Did you make this?
[Lister] Yeah.

That’s a big one... Yeah, look over here.

There's a big painting
over here, on the tree.

Over there and then one over here.

It's so hard for you to get up.

[Polly] Are you allowed
to do this at parks?

[Lister] Yeah, you're allowed
to do it at parks. Parks are for people.

I was expecting maybe, like,
your mum and Kye...

[Lola] Please don't, please don't...
[Lister] No, no, no, no...

[Lister chuckles]

Some extreme gallery opening right here.

Check this one out, Lola.

Sir Obi, the loving,

is ripping apart Lola's diary.

Oh, my God.

Did he rip apart Woody?

[Lister and Lola laughing]

That was for you, baby.
That's your painting.

-That's my painting?
-That's your painting in the show.

I love you, darling.

I love you, too.

Relaxing, huh?

Can I lounge with you?

No, I'm comfy. I'm staying here, man.

Nice.

Give me five.

It's since putting that show together,

I'd like to think that I've learnt to be
more honest with those around me

and more importantly, myself,

which is something that
I didn't quite comprehend,

that I could confess my weaknesses.

You know, I'm beginning to feel at peace.

But Anika...
Yeah, she's obviously still very angry

and that will need time to resolve.

I see these kids being good kids,
and I just love them to bits.

Without a question,
I'll be there to support them,

and I really look forward
to sharing their lives with them

in everything they want to do.

Well, it was seven months
since Kye had spoken to me,

and it was wonderful to have him
agreeing to come down to Sydney.

Hopefully, he's back in my life
for good, you know?

There's a lot that happens in life,

but there's only handfuls
of real memories.

What I hope is that my kids
have got more memories of me

than I do of my dad,

and I hope that those memories
are big and strong.

I can see the product of my change

with the compassion and the love
and the understanding

that my children have for me, you know?

That's really where it shines through.

Activating change in your life,

and, you know, it's the way
that you look at yourself

and that's a powerful thing.

Yeah, it's been a long road, Eddie.
It's been a long, long road, mate.