Backyard BBQ ten years on

Continuing on from talking with artist Jamie Cooper, Dan Toomey takes a deep dive on Shane Warne's amazing artwork and a twitter mystery a decade on.

This piece follows on from Dream Machine published the other day. If you haven’t read it yet it’s a good idea to read it first before diving into this.

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“Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth.” Pablo Picasso

When I last left you, Shane Warne had been offering artist Jamie Cooper a cigarette in his northern Melbourne studio during a sitting.

‘He had no pretension. A really genuine guy,’ Jamie recalled.

Warney, it transpired, had already seen some of Jamie’s earlier dream scenes, created over a number of decades for sports clubs, and had a few ideas himself. ‘I did one for his charity many years ago, just of him, and they auctioned it off,’ Jamie said. ‘From there, he said I've got other stuff I’d like you to paint.’ He’d call Cooper up with ideas for a scene he was keen to capture on canvas.

Like so much attached to Shane Warne, one of them inadvertently drew quite a bit of attention.

…

One night back in 2015, Nick Toovey saw a documentary that caught his eye: ‘Shane Warne: Living the Dream’.

Shane Warne walked the camera through his house and was describing a large canvas in his office.

‘There’s Bruce Springsteen… just asking me a few questions about cricket’

Warney then talked the viewers through an amazing scene that he’d had commissioned.

Its seemingly incongruous collection of characters around Shane Warne’s pool enjoying a barbie and a hand of poker stood out from the narrative of Warne describing his numerous achievements.

Warne had asked Jamie Cooper to create a scene for him in his distinctive style for his home.

Knowing full well how significant this was, Nick captured the scene of Warne proudly explaining the artwork on his phone and uploaded it to YouTube and Twitter.

It’s fair to say that 2015 pre-Trump Twitter lit up at the discovery.

The full artwork as found on Twitter

The online uncovering of the painting raised many questions for the cricket twitter community. The identities of the 21 characters were identified on Twitter, where Nick had promptly uploaded the video.

‘Twitter was a much more fun place back then,’ said The Age Reporter, Tom Cowie, who got to work identifying the figures depicted over an evening. ‘Twitter was perfectly set up for this sort of stuff. It unfolded over an evening like a bit of a treasure hunt’

Before the online true crime genre had taken off in earnest, a crowdsourced internet investigation was underway. Cowie and others had completed the list of guests by replying on Twitter.

Cricket is a sport that lends itself to granular detail. Its legion of Twitter based nuffies got to examining the artwork like seagulls to a hot chip. Who was in this painting and why? Who had painted it for Shane? What was that briefing meeting like? Why was JFK drinking a VB?

‘The artwork just seemed to distil Warney’s character perfectly,’ Tom remembers.

‘It was very good fun’

…

Once the video of the painting was revealed on Twitter a screen capture was published online with a guide as to its characters.

The complete cast

It was confirmed that Shane Warne had commissioned Jamie Cooper to create a dream scene around his pool at his Brighton home.

The guests included;

• Bruce Springsteen

• Mick Jagger

• Frank Sinatra

• Muhammed Ali

• Sharron Stone

• John F Kennedy

• Marilyn Monroe

• Michael Clark

• Chris Martin

• Jack Nicholson

• Joe Hachem

• James Dean

• Elvis

• Sean Connery

• Jason Warne

• Angelina Jolie

• Anthony Hopkins

• Tony Hachem

• Dimitri Mascarenhas

• Aaron Hamill

Australia had just been soundly beaten in the 2015 Ashes and it felt like a dose of Warney kitsch was just what was required to cushion the blow.

Has Jack Nicholson stopped to pick up a VB slab? Is that Hannibal Lecter on the BBQ? Why is Aaron Hamill there?

The reaction to Backyard BBQ was mainly one of shock at the seeming excess of it all.

‘What in the flippin’ heck have I just seen?’

‘Warnie painting fever grips social media’

‘The fact Warnie is in his own painting … he has a rather high opinion of himself’

Mainstream media’s uncovering of Backyard BBQ was certainly in for the lunacy of its cast and the brashness of commissioning such a scene.

“Presumably Ghandi, Nietzsche and Beethoven didn't make the cut.”

“…the unadulterated gaucheness of the thing”

“a terrifying insight into the mind of Shane Warne”

…

The classic dinner party trope: ‘Name 5 people living or dead to have to a dinner party’ is at the heart of Backyard BBQ

‘The artwork is literally the dinner party question from profiles in the AFL Record in the 1990s:’ radio producer Rudi Edsall was not the only one to recognise this.

‘This felt like a look into Warney’s psyche that we never expected…We were getting a look at the things that he loves’

‘All his kind of aspirations all sort of seem to be there in one place,’ said Tom Cowie.

‘What was so amazing about uncovering this artwork was that you could so clearly see his thought process in creating it.’

For Geoff Lemon, the fun lay in the details of the artwork, and that it offered more questions than answers.

‘Something like this was perfect for us cricket nerds on Twitter because it was so granular. You could get into so much detail. You could get into deep arguments about not just about who was there, but why that at what did they mean in the life of Shane?’

The group that caused the most confusion was the ‘lesser’ known figures in the scene. Had they not been there and had it been Warney alone with a set of A-Listers, ‘Backyard BBQ’ would have been simply a vanity project. Their inclusion made the whole thing more intriguing.

‘These were the hardest to figure out. We got to uncover who these people were and get an insight into Warney’s interests’

For Tom Cowie, it was the cultural icon of ‘Warney’ that was celebrated in ‘Backyard BBQ.’

‘He’s happily leaning into what he likes and he doesn’t care what you think about it.’

Then there’s the fact that he’s paid a bit for it. Not only is Warney unapologetic about his tastes, and that his wealth had furnished him the means to put these figures together.

‘Warne was at the height of his (post playing) powers really. What was amazing about this artwork was you could see that he’d given this scene some consideration’ Yep. That’s the fun of the piece.

‘I was a bit turned off by Warney’s schtick for a while. Now I can see that he’s a huge character and we don’t have that same kind of connection to cricketers anymore. I just don’t think we’ll see that type of figure again’

And that’s the inherent charm of the painting; that Warney thought it up and spent a fair bit having it made for fun.

Awesome.

…

This is a story about just that: fun.

So, ‘Backyard BBQ’ was uncovered without a lot of context back in 2015. Fun ensued on the internet and there were some wild ideas about what it was all about.

I’d always wanted to ask the artist what it was about. The answer was as frustratingly straightforward as I’d expected.

‘So he just said, this is what I want, you put it together, and then, you know. That was it,’ Jamie Cooper says.

Shane Warne had the means to depict a fantastic party and outrageous list of guests by commissioning an artist….So that’s what he did.

So, is this a window into Shane Warne’s psyche?

‘I don’t think you need to examine it too deeply, but I do understand the fun of it. It’s kitsch as all get out,’ Cooper said

‘He was a successful guy with a bit of dough and he chose to indulge an idea he had. It was a teenage fantasy. He’d call me up with ideas of what he wanted’

Cooper chuckles at the memory of random calls from Warne talking about concepts for ‘Backyard BBQ’ and other projects.

‘It was a fantasy. These were some of the people that he really admired at a BBQ with some of his best mates. I reckon he was like a kid. A kid who has his idols.’

…

Lost at the time this artwork was uncovered was that Warne had never intended this to be a public artwork. But Warney was always public property.

This was an indulgence for the man himself in his private space. Warne to a fault was generous with his own personality and that along with generational skill made him an icon. He knew he lived a life in the public eye and didn’t begrudge it.

This wasn’t meant for us and it’s easy to ridicule the private when it’s presented without context.

So now it’s out there; a little tale about Shane Warne and the type of things Shane Warne did. Not always to everyone’s taste but always sensational and with a good dose of humour.

Jamie Cooper agrees: ‘It’s very, very funny’

The painting reads like its own in-joke that Australians love that very few others get (drop bears, anyone?). If you know Shane Warne’s career and public persona then the gaucheness of the whole thing makes sense.

…

The key to the artwork is in fact the ‘lesser’ characters in Jason Warne, the Hachems, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Aaron Hamill. The answer to why they are at the table with a set of Hollywood icons is because Shane Warne has placed them there.

Mascarenhas and Hamill were to become key figures in the aftermath of Warney’s passing. Their insights to the man and his loyalty were truly endearing and highly entertaining.

Rudi Edsall says that Warne’s friends are at the centre of the image tells us about the man that created this incredible scene: ‘I think it’s quite touching. It’s reads a bit as his personal mission statement, that his friends are in there and that he created this amazing party for them.’

‘And for me that’s the vulnerability of Shane Warne that we never got. He had this public image that he liked to show off but this a way that he’s showing his love and care for his mates. And I don’t feel like we got a heap of that out of the public image of Warney, but we all really knew that there was this side to him.’

So ‘Backyard BBQ’ could be a fantasy scene Warne would love his friends to experience with him.

For Geoff Lemon, the scene of ‘Backyard BBQ’ tells us about Shane Warne’s humility.

‘This is one of the only instances where Shane Warne is not the centre of attention,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it’s a coincidence he’s the most peripheral character in the frame’

Lemon points to the fact Shane is modestly dressed. Almost reclusive at the side of the frame.

‘So I, I think that's Shane, the kid, you know? He’s the starstruck, overwhelmed twenty-year-old who doesn't know that he belongs yet. I think it's him commissioning that painting. It's a teenager's fantasy. It literally is that because it's a Dream Barbecue, isn't it? It's dream dinner party, but classically Warney.’

Geoff hastened to note that there were plenty of problems with Shane Warne’s ‘laddishness’ on commentary at the time Backyard BBQ was uncovered. Lemon’s own criticisms of Nines Comms team in 2015 are well documented.

For Geoff, ‘Backyard BBQ’ was a way to be brought back to this childhood hero of ours. To remind us of how he entertained, with a great deal of humour, often at his own expense.

‘I used to be able to name all 21 figures in the painting, but can’t manage it now.’

Jamie Cooper is still keen to paint Warne into a dream scene befitting his status. ‘I always found him really nice, really funny and just never had airs or graces,’ he said.

‘We had a talk about creating a number of works but we never settled on anything’

‘A while ago I found this photo of Ian Chappell, Lillee and Thommo sitting in the locker room together, having a post-match beer from those 1970’s long neck bottles. And I thought that's where Warney belongs. With those greats, as he was suited to that era.

‘He and I tossed that idea around for a long time. Who would be in that locker room with him? His favourite Aussie players, or the best players he played with or against? Perhaps Brian Lara and Viv Richards had popped in also to have a post-match cigar and a drink, as they use to in those days. I'll do it one day.’

…

Part of putting this together was about getting to chat with Jamie Cooper, an artist I greatly admire and to clear up a few suspicions that I had from seeing this artwork emerge online a decade back.

I’d always suspected there was more to this artwork than met the eye. That there was something I couldn’t put my finger on but wanted to figure out.

When I told a friend, a cricket fan and a someone clued in to culture, I was writing about this they said

‘You know, I reckon that artwork belongs in the Sports Museum. It’s just great.’

And it is great. It’s weird and its strange and really doesn’t make sense when you first view it. It makes you think that one thing is happening when there’s something else going on.

Like Shane Warne the public persona it’s brash and loud. Like Shane Warne the cricketer it’s beguiling and creative. Like Shane Warne the human it’s generous and unguarded.

It’s not high art but it’s loved. And like great art it’s many things at once and many things to many people.

Dan Toomey plays cricket with Royal Park Reds. He works as a Digital Producer and makes graphic art for Fisher Classics.