Exhibition reviews Blak Beauty February 6- May 2 1999
Curated by Brook Andrew
Images from the Sea December 5 1998- June 27 1999
Djamu Gallery:
Australian Museum at Customs House,
Sydney NSW
Valamanesh has developed a unique and characteristic art vocabulary and his eloquent work occupies a distinct and prominent position in Australian art. Looks at 'the Untouchable' 1984, 'Pyramids with Light - Inside/Outside' 1980, 'Change of Seasons'.
The measure of an artist's public success is the extent to which his or her art matters to a particular community. David Keeling aims to present a critical discourse that participates in existing social and political debates. His turning point was not completing his post-graduate degree, not moving to the big smoke or winning a grant or prize, or having a sell-out exhibition but a revelation.
Education is the second most depressing non-subject in the entire catalogue of non-subjects, beginning with the Aardvark as Social Construct and ending with The Flagant Signifier in Finno-Ugric Zyrian,
One would have to be a marketing executive, or just extremely sanguine, to see much that is good in the current system for funding teaching and research in our universities. This is not to claim that the Dawkins reforms replaced something wonderful or fair. But we now have a system that is actively promoting mediocrity ona a national, even international scale. Let me explain, for the uninitiated how it works.
Art and sport both attempt to construct value and meaning within our lives. For art this is a likely outcome. For media sport it is a contrived ingredient. Artists and art schools have perpetuated a myth about the importance and value of art objects. Suggests possible answers to the issues of teaching art in art and design schools.
Discussion of the issues for artists of Asian descent in the Australian milieu, exploring issues of identity and displacement. Unheard voices could also characterise emerging artists as well as those from a multicultural background.
Fortunately not all critics are so urgently in need of friends that they write hymns of praise after every long lunch. Some even relish being labelled 'ungrateful'. I would argue that the only critic worth reading is an ungrateful critic. Looks at the role of visual art criticism in the newspaper columns of the daily press.
Explores the relationship between art making in the city and the regional areas. How much do curatorial strategies or templates order and determine what we see in State galleries and large exhibitions? Looks at the exhibition 'Palimpsest #2' to raise questions of curatorial control or whether it should continue without such controls.