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The Paradox of Autistic Art
Certain autistic children whose linguistic ability is virtually non-existent can draw natural scenes from memory with astonishing accuracy. In particular their drawings display convincing perspective. In contrast, normal children of the same preschool age group and even untrained adults draw primitive schematics or symbols of objects which they can verbally identify.
The Child in Photography
In the century and a half since photography allowed humanity an historical moment of self-consciousness - a way to see ourselves as never before - photographers have been drawn to recording youth, especially children. A child standing before the photographer's lens provided a dual perspective on humanity - at once eternally young and yet, clad in clothes to be soon outgrown, ephemeral. McFarlane looks to the work of Bill Henson, Tracey Moffatt, Ian Dodd, Sebastio Salgado, Deborah Paauwe, Anne Ferran, Sandy Edwards, Jon Rhodes and Roger Scott.
Remembering Jesus: The Child in Australian Aboriginal Art
Andrew discusses the work of various Australian artists under a generic theme of the blakborg, a term he uses with regards to the re-creation of the blak body. A fleshy cyborg, much like the Star Trek Borg family, the blakborgacts as a symbol: alluding to the Western preoccupation with aliens and simultaneously reminding Europeans of their own alien status in the Australian landscape . The works of Julie Gough, Tracey Moffatt, Destiny Deacon, Bianca Beetson, John Packham, Les Midikuria, James Gleeson, Richard Billingham and Marc Quinn are here examined.
Children Who Hurt: A Film Made by Young People
Not a documentary, but an eloquent testimony, Hurt was made by 250 kids from five New South Whales country towns. After a series of workshops they shot, recorded, wrote and performed in this collage of vignettes, dramatised scenes, songs and memories, aided by writers and directors Philip Crawford and Matthew Priestly. Their stories are often unbelievably sad - what they make of them is intense, lyrical, stoic and heartbreaking. Hurt was made by the award-winning arts company BIGhART, whose brief is to pilot arts based projects designed to re-engage 'outsiders' or marginalised people with their community.
Play Things: Some Contemporary Artists and their Objects
The function and materiality of the art object, when investigated by artists, often evokes a childlike sense. Be they miniatures, process-related installations or large minimalist works, these objects call upon the viewer to look at them as if for the first time. As so much contemporary art retreats from theory and aims to locate itself squarely in the everyday, the art objects social function is also more assured, bringing the artist and the audience closer together. Paradoxically, this use-effect is best achieved by artists by emphasising the dysfunction of the object and some of those who best achieve this are Paul Saint, Stephen Birch, Jean Arp, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Tom Friedman, Robert Pulie, Simryn Gill, Mikala Dwyer and David Griggs.
Focus: No Man is an Island: A Two Part Reading
Radok here recognises the issue of nationality present in the work of German artist Nikolaus Lang, an artist who often visits Australia to make field trips, to research, to make art and to exhibit. Since his first visit as a participant in the 1979 Sydney Biennale, Lang has been collaborating with Aboriginal people, as his work strongly relates to the origins of art and the origins of the materials of art, often literally the pigments that form artworks. Parts I and II discuss these facts and some of the ideas imbedded in his collaborative works with Indigenous artists Dorrie Gibson, Andrew Gibson and John Turpie.
Teenage Riot: Representations of Adolescence in Contemporary Art
The child has always been a favoured subject for artists. Recent exhibitions both in Australia and internationally address the shift from a sanguine vision of childhood to alternative representations, where children are presented as desirable and desirous, menacing yet vulnerable, widely unpredictable and ultimately mysterious. Artistic works by Robert Gober, Ronnie Van Hout, Larry Clark, Katie Siegel, Justine Kurland, Anna Gaskell, Diane Arbus, Di Barrett, Mark McDean, Anne Ferran, Polixeni Papapetrou, Bill Henson, Pat Brissington, Tracey Moffatt, Deborah Paauwe, Mona Hatoum and Nic Nicosia all help to illuminate the complexities of adolescence, a subject of ambivalence wedged between contradictory discourses and spaces of transition.
Engaging a Young Audience at the Queensland Art Gallery
The Queensland Art Gallery's recent series of exhibitions aimed specifically at young children represents a dramatic shift in many of Australias leading art galleries to create a more stimulating and interactive space for children to visit. For children to be involved with the material present, the design of each exhibition is a critical factor with the height of an artwork being altered to allow children to easily view it, as well as the way the artwork is arranged in the space and importantly the use of colour. Some of the childrens exhibitions which have been held by the Queensland Art Gallery are located through this text, including a day at the beach, the Kid's APT and animals who think they are people.
Kidding Around: Children in the Visual Arts
Throughout the twentieth century the spontaneous, vibrant art of children has provided inspiration and insight to avant-garde artists the world over. Although artists and educators have acknowledged the potential of children's art and the importance of nurturing creativity for over a century, it has taken considerably longer for government and the arts infrastructure to realise the needs of young artists. Lindquist looks at some of the international and local initiatives fostering young artists, concluding that a greater respect and nurturing of child art via a shift in the priorities of the Australia Council and other arts funding bodies is essential.
Children's Art Program at Sydney Children's Hospital
The childrens art program at Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, has revealed that exhibitions of children's art, in the context of a child-oriented environment, are at least as significant to their target audience as art by adult professionals. The children's art program is administered by a company called Identity, Environment and Art, which specialises in developing art and cultural programs, primarily in health facilities. The plan included commissioned artworks by professional artists, murals, interactive wall panels and integrated mosaics.
Sampling our Child-Friendly Museums
This text samples three innovative programs situated in Melbourne, Cairns and Canberra for kids of various ages. The Cairns Regional Gallery held an exhibition of lino prints by Torres Strait Islander artist Alick Tipoti which attracted 35 school bookings (over 500 children). The Children's Museum at Melbourne Museum opened in October 2000 and held the exhibition 123 Grow!, about the magic of how things, including ourselves, grow. The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra had a showing of student portraiture entitled Hearts/Heads: Headspace II in September 2001.
The Child Guides Program
One of the challenges facing galleries dealing with contemporary art is to persuade visitors to be open-minded about whats on display. All too often it's not the art that's the problem, but the context in which it is placed. Macgregor is here responding to an issue she feels strongly about, especially as it relates to the viewing of art amongst children. The Child Guides program was an initiative at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham which Macgregor was involved with. The program recruited children from local schools to guide visitors informally around the exhibition, and helped to enhance the childrens communicative skills, gain knowledge of a range of contemporary art practices and to develop a sense of self-importance.
Primary Non-Producers: The Arts in Crisis in Public Education
In this article Orchard is looking at the nature of art teaching in primary schools rather than focusing on the debate surrounding the value of arts learning and education. Although art has in the past decade become a formal part of the curriculum across Australia there is still a huge dearth of support material for teachers, particularly those in isolated areas. Orchard introduces some of the support programs which have been implemented in various schools, including the Department of Education & Training & Employment (DETE) and South Australian Living Artists (SALA) programs.
Polemic: Two Myths about Blue Poles
By now - fifty years after the painting was made and thirty years after if was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia - there are two well-established myths about Jackson Pollack's Blue Poles. Brook here outlines and discusses these, but draws particular attention to the myth that the celebrated museum exhibit called Blue Poles is intrinsically, and not merely by fleeting reputation, a great work of art.
Unchain my Art: Notes on the role of myths and preconceptions in shaping perceptions of women's art
This article notes the role of myths and preconceptions in shaping perceptions of womens art. In framing art reputations in Australia, the most disputed and uneasy component is gender. Peers looks at the 1970s feminist art movement which was important for providing the blueprint for an ongoing understanding of art as an interrogative gesture and the works of women artists such as Grace Cossington-Smith, Stella Bowen, Joy Hester, Clarice Beckett, Janine Burke, Kiffy Rubbo, Margaret Preston, Hilda Rix Nicholas, A.M.E. Bale, Margaret Olley, Meg Benwell, Judy Perrey and Anne Marie Graham.
Frank Bauer Goes Public
German born artist Frank Bauer was raised on the philosophy that art, design and industry could work together to achieve a more visually coherent and democratic society. Over the past thirty years he has produced a huge body of work in metal, which includes jewellery, hollow ware, furniture and lighting. Through this text Fairlamb focuses on Bauers wind sculptures, exhibited at the Powerhouse Museum and JamFactory, which stand over four metres high and bring together his considerable knowledge of balance, precision engineering and sculptural metal work.
Asher Bilu: Doing Business with the Cosmic
From the beginning, Asher Bilus work has had two loci of concentration: the mystery of matter, its structures, boundaries and possibilities, and Mystery itself, space, sound, reverberations of the invisible, the very universe. Bilu takes on the physical demands of his experiments like a workman, he manipulates them like a technician. This article examines Bilus art practice from his early days as a migrant in Australia and winner of the prestigious Blake Prize to his recent work the Infinity Series.
Beyond Mertz and Whitechapel: 'contemporary' Australian Modernism
Furby raises the issues of women artists role in Australian society and the considerable lack of recognition for this minority. The radical art group, the Contemporary Art Society (CAS), which was founded in Victoria in 1938 to counter attack academic art and to foster original and creative contemporary art, had its majority as women artists. The works of Mirka Mora, Erica McGilchrist, Nancy Borlase, Elsa Russell, Jacqueline Hick and Barbara Robertson are included in this discussion.
The Art of Living Dangerously: Victor Meertens
Documents the life and work of Victor Meertens: his journey to Europe where he became inspired by the work of the early Flemish painters and Grunewalds Isenheim Altarpiece (c.1505-1510), his involvement with the Third Australian Sculpture Triennial and the Australian Biennale 1988, his various solo shows and other notable achievements within the contemporary Australian art scene of the late 20th century.
Public Art Boom in Western Australia: It is the edges that make it interesting
The difficulties of public art are universally acknowledged - they are the same across state and national borders and usually result in compromised solutions - however if they are to be considered more as collaborative efforts between artist and community rather than works of 'art' the outcomes become interesting. Millers article addresses this notion through a discussion of recent Western Australian public art programs and in particular the achievements of ArtSource, an employment agency for visual artists. Key figures in this text are Brian McKay, Ahmad Abas, Tony McClure, Jon Tarry, John Elkington, Linnea Glatt and Michael Singer.
Space adventures: Collaborations in public art and urban design in Victoria
Local government bodies in Victoria are demonstrating a range of approaches to the development of public art in urban design with recent project examples indicating new possibilities between artists, residents, designers, architects, business and even neighbouring councils. The Skewed Arch example in the City of Yarra is one discussed along with the works of Inge King, Chris Perk, Diane Mantzaris, David Davies, Alistair Knox, Ian Sinclair and Jackie Straude.
Heroism in the Public Domain
The two most heroic commitments to public art in Australia since Parliament House, Canberra, are for the refurbishment of the Sydney International Airport and the Olympic 2000 Homebush Bay site. These aspirations are eloquently expressed in forms and structures that are surprising , beautiful and of varying quality. The Airport Project features the work of Michael Riley, Robyn Backen, Ron Smith, Kerry Clare, Lindsay Clare, Brook Andrew and Fiona McDonald. Those included in the Homebush Bay Project are Peter Cripps, Terri Bird, Ari Purhonen, Neil Dawson, Paul Carter, Ruark Lewis, Janet Laurence, James Carpenter, Elizabeth Gower and Robert Owen.
Will we get real artist's moral rights?
With the recent boom being enjoyed by public art in Australia, the issue of moral rights legislation has become more pressing. It was in recognition of the power differential between most artists and the users of their work that Australia became a signatory to an international agreement, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works designed to redress the imbalance. Some of the clauses and conditions of this legislation are briefly discussed.
Gateway to Adelaide: The Process, The Result
Undertaken by Transport SA from 1996 until 2000, the Adelaide-Crafers Highway project resulted in major route reconstruction along a 10 km section of the Prince Highway. This has resulted in artist/ designer/ architect collaborations for the production of three major walls, elements of paving, bus stops and two bus shelters, a water feature and a freestanding sculptural piece. Artists and architects included in the project are George Popperwell, Greg Healey, Tony Bishop, Marijana Tadic, Neil Cranney, Mark Butcher and Rob Williams.
A far cry from waiting room wallpaper: Ian North's The Intelligence of Blood
Adelaides newest art commission has recently been installed in the Department of Surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital: The Intelligence of Blood, a challenging work by Ian North. The painting is large, about six metres wide and almost two metres high and abounds with references to surgery, blood, medicine and much more.
Texas: Artists Move in on Project Row House
A tidy little row of identical white houses, glowing in the Texas sun, has become the unlikely home of a cutting-edge experiment in public art. Seven houses are for artists installations, while another seven of the houses have been modernized and furnished for young, single mothers and their children. This text discusses the works of artists Vicki Meeks, Tracy Hicks, Radcliffe Bailey, Pat Ward Williams, Natalie Lovejoy, Joseph Havel, Fred Wilson, Shahzia Sikander, Nari Ward, Chen Zhen, Jens Haaning, Annette Lawrence, Deborah Grotfeldt and Rick Lowe.
Melbourne's Public Art goes Temporary
The City of Melbourne has made some sweeping changes to its public art strategy that focus on the town hall as a place where public and government meet; an essentially civic space open to the scrutiny of its citizenry. Examples of such change are indicated by Fiona Foleys Lie of the Land installation, Town Hall Transformed by Melbourne artist Ian de Gruchy, a collaborative piece by construction / performance group Bambuco which created a stage for two performances by the Five Angry Men collective entitled Bells. Holt discusses.
Wendy Mills in the Mall: The 'Water Table'
Wendy Mills was invited in November 1998 to design an artwork that would engage, intrigue, amuse or challenge but not intentionally outrage members of the public . This article discusses Mills piece On This Auspicious Occasion and the ongoing challenges faced during its creation and thereafter.
Stafford and Staff: Queensland's Public Art Agency
Morrell examines the recent structural developments which have taken place at and around the precinct of Brisbanes Roma Street Transit Centre. Under Queenslands Art Built-in policy approximately $1.4 million was proposed to be spent on works of art to feature in the new precinct. Morrell was the public art curator for the Roma Street project and this article developed out of conversations held with the Public Art Agencys Executive Program Officer John Stafford.
Signage to Confuse and Amuse
Richard Tippings installation Signs Signed was in Munichs Salvatorplatz during August 1999. Twenty two reflective signs were placed in the square and streets around the Literaturhaus as a part of the Piazza installation art project, curated by Art Circolo. This feature includes images of Tippings Signs with accompanying text.
Polemic: GO BACK You Are Going the Wrong Way
Brook breaks this argument down into sub categories: The rationale of the art history museum, The cabinet of curiosities, Evolution, Cultural evolution, Art as the source of memetic variation and The cultural museum.
Why You Should Join VISCOPY Now!
While the eyes of many artists glaze over at the mention of copyright, the explosion in use of visuals in communication means that artists creating those images need to be well-informed and well-represented in copyright issues. Mark Ferguson spoke with VISCOPYs new Chairman, Adelaide photographer Mark Fitz-Gerald, about the role of VISCOPY and the developing awareness amongst visual arts and craftspeople of the importance of copyright royalties.
Auctions and Copyright: Moratorium
Recent auctions held by Christie's, Sotherby's and Deutscher-Menzies have clearly demonstrated that the market is now looking towards artists in their fifties and even younger. The relationship between artists and auction houses is here discussed with reference to artists Juan Davila, Charles Blackman, Imants Tillers, Mandy Martin, John Wolseley, Howard Arkley, Lloyd Rees, Emily Kngwarray, Lin Onus and groups Desart, Balgo Artists and Utopia Arts.
Modern Machine Art
Information processing technology influences our notions about creativity, perception, and the limits of art ... It is probably not the province of computers and other telecommunication devices to produce works of art as we know it; but they will, in fact be instrumental in redefining the entire area of esthetic awareness.
Artlink - The Second Decade 1991-2000
Britton recaps on the decade that was and discusses some of the significant challenges she and her team at Artlink faced such as marketing, distributing, staffing, staying solvent and avoiding terminal burnout. Also looks at some of Artlinks major achievement over the past ten years.
Artlink and Museums, Past and Present
The issues raised by revisiting in some degree the past within Artlink touch upon a more general invocation to the authority and precedent of history in an Australian context. Some of these issues are here discussed with reference to key figures such as the Papunya Tula movement, David Kerr, Jude Adams, Drusilla Modjeska, Joan Kerr, Anne McClintock, Louise Dauth, Penny White, Zara Stanhope, Stuart Hall, Nicholas Rothwell, Paul Carter and Donald Brook.
Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery
The new Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery, the spearhead of the new and improved South Australian Museum development program, set out to unlocked one of the great ethnographic collections of the world and give insight into one of the worlds oldest, most continuous living cultures. Some of the artefacts on display included totem poles from Elcho Island, headdresses from Central Australia, Darwin area and Mornington Island and wooden shields from across Australia.
The Link Exhibition
The Link Exhibitions were a series of contemporary art exhibitions run on a very low budget by the Art Gallery of South Australia between 1974-1979 to increase communication and understanding between Australian artists . This article is a retrospective account of the events and responses to the Link Exhibitions. Key figures discussed are Imants Tillers, Jim Cowley, Bob Ramsay, Brian Medlin, Terry Smith, John Baily, Noel Sheridan, Donald Brook, Hank Vischedyk, John Kaldor, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Ann Newmarch, Hossein Valamanesh, Aleks Danko, Tony Coleing, Marcus Beresford, Alison Carroll, Ian Maidment, Dick Richards and Barry Pearce.
Craft Theory
The twentieth anniversary of Artlink has provided an occasion for an article on the current state of craft theory and its ramifications. This article gathers and presents a knowledge that eddies around craft and engages in the ontology of craft theory. Its aspirations: for craft theory to be not only approached from the point of view of the useful, instrumental or skilful but as offering new ways of moving and thinking. William Morris, Adolf Loos, David Walker, Sue Rowley, Grace Cochrane, Justin Clemens, Mark Pennings, Kevin Murray, Gilles Deleuze, Nicole Tomlinson, John Rajchman, Felix Guattari, Tony Fry, Frances Lindsay and Paul Carter are discussed through this text.
Design Practice: Trawling the Speculative Field
This article is a response to a renewed interest by design practice into the cultural and natural environment for inspiration, and a renewed focus of design education and practice on investigations in the field. The recent installation works of two architectural practices - Lyons: City of Fiction inspired by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Shop:Dunescape by PSI New York - are here described.
Art/Body the Liminal Experiences of Indigeneity
Art from an indigenous context cannot be transferred wholly into another context for reading. This denies the fact that indigenous contexts do have ways of seeing and making sense of their art. Mel presents a discourse for alternate ways of viewing such indigenous artwith reference to terms such as postmodern, objectivity and subjectivity. The Mogei people of Mt Hagen area in Papua New Guinea are examined through this text.
Social Ecology
In March 2000, Stuart Hill attended the Mildura Palimpsest #3 Science and Art Symposium organised by Sunraysia TAFE and La Trobe University. One of the speakers was Stuart Hall, scientist and ecologist who, in his talk introduced the concept of social ecology, a cross-disciplinary field of which he is the inaugural professor at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury Campus. Here is Hill's interview with Stephanie Radok.
Regional Art: Theorising the regions
This article seeks to challenge regional communities away from the self-prophesying defeatism of whingers from the bush towards a concept of growing communities . The arts have an intrinsic contribution to make within the chosen future. Fettling discusses this with reference to globalisation, de-centred cultural and ethnic hybridization and individuality. Featured artists include Megan Jones, Andrew McDonald, Janet Gallagher, Vicki Reynolds, Danielle Hobbs, Chris Booth, Craig Christie, Rodney Spooner, Michael Doneman, Motoyuki Niwa and Lee Salomone.
Art for Social Change: Footsteps from the Past to the Future
We have arrived at a point where we are constantly experimenting with and experiencing a new understanding of diversity in Australia. Art discovers new directions through the development of strategies that enable it to penetrate and interpret the unknown other in a more profound way. This sets up the topical discussion for this article with references to exhibitions Boghcheh (Bundle), Defiling the Object, Embellishing the Family Photograph and The City which showed at the Gabriel Gallery in 2000. Featured artists include Karen Lunn, Mehmet Adil, Peter Bok, Alan Cruickshank, Helen Fuller, Catherine K, Pramod Kumar, Michelle Nikou, Deborah Paauwe, Bronwyn Platten, Hossein Valamanesh, Zita Weelius, Mei Wong, Anthony Figallo, Fassih Keiso, Samia Mikhail, Yatzek Szmuc and John Tsiavis.
Unsentimental Experimental: The Experimental Art Foundation 25 years on
Bilske looks at the history of EAF: Experimental Art Foundation and some of the significant events which have contributed to its success since its inception in 1974. Discusses briefly Stephanie Brittons publication A Decade at the EAF written in 1984 and the role Donald Brook has played in tackling head-on the problem of just what the experimental in Experimental Art Foundation means. Some of the artists involved with EAF include Aleks Danko, Mike Parr, Michael Craig-Martin, John Barbour, George Popperwell, Shaun Kirby, Craige Andrae, Nic Folland, Hayley Arjona, Sam Wilde, Samantha Small, Jim Moss, Chris Chapman, Sally-Ann Rowland and Michael Newall.
Donald Brook's Art Theory
This text is a dedication to Donald Brooks literary contributions to Artlink magazine over the years. Different from his specifically theoretical writings on art, those featured in Artlink focus on temporal and local issues, and are often written in a wittily ironic style that leaves readers unsure whether they have understood his position.
Culture Without Limits: a reflection of art, politics, and shabby nationalism
In this article Kapetopoulos reflects on the watersheds which reinforce her attachment to multiculturalism. The watersheds are the works of certain artists involved with Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) and the rise of One Nation. The artists Kapetopoulos writes about are: Yumi Umiumare, Tina Yong and Sung Ping; Charito Saldana; Renato Cuocolo and his innovative theatre company IRAA; Emmanuel Santos and Sandor Matos.
Adelaide Studios
This article celebrates the diversity of some of the groupings whichlink artists within the city that is Artlink's birthplace, Adelaide. Gray Street Workshop, Central Studios, Experimental Art Foundation (EAF), Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design, Jamboree Ceramic Workshop, SAAW (South Australian Artists Workshop), Red Door Facing East, Butcher's Studio, Blythe Street Studios, Rice Art, Zu Design, SEAS Studios and the Electronic Writing Research Ensemble are all examined.
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
Gaytime in Sydney: Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Arts Festival
Once a very marginalised group, the gay and lesbian communities have now become a part of mainstream Sydney culture.
Sydney: The Big Shift
Sadomaschism, Art and the Lesbian Sexual revolution
Black leather, blood, piercing and tattooing, glamourised dominance and submission should be approached with political discernment and discrimination.
Art & the Feminist Project
Shedding Skins: Identity and 'Lesbian' Art Practice
What does it mean to present as a 'lesbian' artist? The very identity categories 'gay', 'lesbian', 'heterosexual' are extremely problematic. Now that 'I' am out, I find that I am in - inside a category that reduces rather than expands possibilities for me, not just as an artist, but as a person.
Art & the Feminist Project
A memorial for the dead: Commemorating 200 years of loss
In 1988 the artists of Ramingining, a remote Central Arnhem Land community, were responsible for perhaps the most-moving political statement made during Australia’s bicentenary year. Djon Mundine tells UK-based anthropologist Howard Morphy, how this extraordinary monument came to be made.
Art Co-ordinator: No ordinary job
Howard Morphy interviews Djon Mundine at Ramingining in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
Changes in tertiary education: Design education and bridging the Great Australian Cultural Divide at RMIT
Artlink 9:4