Senior Lecturer at the Power Institute, University of Sydney, Catriona Moore writes bout the recent work of Fiona MacDonald in terms of its connections to locality and history.
In the Balance: Art for a Changing World Museum of Contemporary Art 21 August – 31October 2010 The River Project Campbelltown Arts Centre 28 August – 24 October 2010
Stephanie Radok reviews eleven recent publications in a long celebration of the book: Before Time Today: Reinventing Tradition in Aurukun Aboriginal Art; Once Upon a Time in Papunya; John Davis: Presence; Ingo Kleinert: Two Decades; Joachim Froese: Photographs 1999-2008; Renata Buziak: Afterimage; Substance of Shadows: Jutta Feddersen; Khai Liew; Rounds (PICA); Barbara Hanrahan: A Biography; and Ken Bolton's Art Writing.
Chief Curator at the National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA) at the College of Fine Arts, Uni of NSW, Felicity Fenner discusses the HotHouse Symposium the launch event of a longer-term research project called 'Curating Cities' being conducted by NIEA in association with Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design and the City of Sydney. Other research partners include the Melbourne-based group, Carbon Arts, which facilitates opportunities for artists to generate awareness and action on climate change. The central premise of the project is that we can no longer simply curate art, but need to think more holistically, instead curating space in ways that are environmentally sustainable.
Adjunct Professor at RMIT Kevin Murray contrasts the idea of Australians as xenophobic 'moat' people with the idea of 'poor craft' which uses detritus to alchemically create a new preciousness.
Joanna Mendelssohn examines a new book on photography, second in a series, this time juxtaposing German and Australian artists. Mendelssohn writes "What Germany and Australia have in common is a certain navel-gazing obsession about what it means to belong to their particular nationalities."
Curious Colony: A twenty first century Wunderkammer Curator: Lisa Slade Newcastle Region Art Gallery 11 July – 29 August 2010 Curious Colony will be touring to the SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 11 January – 20 February 2011.