Book review The Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870
Edited by Joan Kerr
Oxford University Press Melbourne
RRP $200
As a sculptor working in metal I have been interested for some time in combining plants with the hard surfaces of copper and steel. The issues involved in using shrubs and trees are many, including that the work isn't trivialised or lacking in credibility, transport and of course storage.
Artists of the modern era have always been fascinated by the primitive, be it the obsession of the surrealists, futurists and modernists for the art of the Negro, the passion of a handful of British in the 60s for the work of the Cornish primitive Alfred Wallis or Jean Dubuffet's exploration of children's art and the art of the asylum which he termed Art Brut.
In country towns, suburban lanes and backstreets, tucked behind barricades and fences or alternatively displayed for all to see, are the gardens and decorated outdoor spaces of many 'other' artists. These gardens or 'exhibitions' could generally be called quirky. Many coloured photographs.
Book review Tivaevae: Portraits of Cook Island Quilting
By Lynnsay Rongokea
Photographs John Daley
Published Daphne Brussell Assocs Press Wellington New Zealand