More from this Issue
Robyn Daw on Elsje King
Exhibition review Elsje King: Textiles
University Gallery
University of Tasmania, Launceston
9 September - 7 October 1994
The Cultural Biography of Plants
The cultural biography of plants provides an extremely fertile field for artists to explore. It also encourages artists, and viewers, to explore the interface between cultures and between culture and agriculture.
Living with the Land
If there is a contemporary issue for landscape artist to engage with, it must be the process of developing a relationship with the landscape, even if it is at the level of s sustain[able] failure, a low level antagonism or an uneasy peace. It is as difficult and as complex as any other issue, and it ultimately speaks of the human condition.
David Bromfield on Sculpture
Exhibition review The Games Room
Stuart Elliott at Lawrence Wilson Art Galley
University of Western Australia
21 October - 4 December 1994
Death of a Myth
Michelle H Elliot at Gomboc Galleries and Sculpture Park
6 - 27 November 1994
Art about farming, farming as an art
The daily experience of tending a tract of land in the south-east of South Australia is the raw material of artist–farmer James Darling. The land which comprises Duck Island is watercourse country where sand, water, salt and native vegetation are the elements from which, over decades of passionate attention, he and his partner Lesley Forwood have developed a farm which includes a special salt-tolerant grass for their cattle. His exhibition, Define the Country, at Riddoch Art Gallery in Mount Gambier is a response to this farmed landscape.
Culture/ Agriculture
Story 1: A story about land owners and nomads. Story 2: Never terra nullius. Story 3: Genetic imperialism. Story 4: The politicization of hunger. Story 5: Kunde and the perception of order.
Rice on the Terrace
The artist grew up in Baguio, which looks to be quite close to Ifugao on the map, and although I was taught that the rice terraces of this region of the Philippines were the eighth wonder of the world it was many years before he was able to see them.
The Terratransformers of Planet Three
Re-creation of a living landscape has to happen in farmyards, back-yards, and city squares, it has to be understood and practised at the small scale as well as the large. The remake the landscape for an ecological future we must make it fit for all living beings.
Harsh Realities: Artists and the Land
Even in the shiny spaces of the big cities, for some the dirt of the paddocks is only just below the surface. Michael Eather talks to three artists who were born and raised in the country, about their current attitudes to the land as a place of production.
Cate Jones on Photography
Exhibition review Lifeworks: Aboriginal women photographed in action and at work by Aboriginal women photographers
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute
Adelaide South Australia
7 October - 4 December 1994
A Piece of EcoCity
The Halifax EcoCity Project is not just the seed for a future ecological Adelaide; it is the embodiment of a new paradigm that is sweeping the planet.
Photographing the Drought
"I used to think there was no link between farming and art...well, most art reflects the environment in which it is produced and the artist who produces it..."