Signs of the Times: Stephen Page, Sacred Symposium, Adelaide Biennale

Stephen Page is the first Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts to be indigenous and his program for 2004 includes indigenous works but perhaps not many more than most Adelaide Festivals, which have always had a significant indigenous component. Yet there is a sense that the commissions that Page has initiated represent a maturity in approach and development that signifies a watershed for Indigenous culture in Australia. Page expects it to be optimistic, philosophical, constructive, to reflect on the fusion of the old and new without bastardization.

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Scape

CAST Gallery, Hobart 8 - 30 November 2003 Curated by Celia Lendis

Briony Downes

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Art Gallery of South Australia 31 October 2003 - 26 January 2004 Curated by Vivien Johnson

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Sophie Forbat

Young South Australian Art

This article is about hip young artists working outside the field of contemporary art. Even if the changes of the last forty years have meant that liking things for being cool and fashionable has generally lost its polemical significance, my sense is that this still may hold some currency with regard to the specific condition of contemporary art in South Australia. Strickland examines the work of South Australian artist Magosia Miow.

James Strickland

Ara Irititja: Protecting the Past, Accessing the Future - Indigenous Memories in a Digital Age

White fellatechnology was once considered a threat to Anangu culture and identity, but when iMacs, data-projectors and printers turned up in Anangu communities, they attracted a great deal of interest and excitement. The above mentioned title was an exhibition that opened at the South Australian Museum in October 2003 and comprised of three remarkable multimedia interactive databases which stand to offer unique opportunities to investigate pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples history and culture.

Chris Nobbs

Kurtal

Nyilpirr Spider Snell Raft, 3 - 20 December 2003 Fitzroy Fusion, Mangkaja artists Raft II, Darwin 6 - 20 December 2003

Maurice O'Riordan

Beyond Adelaide

Brook looks at the role of geographic location throughout the ages of art theory and practice. The metaphor of adverse location prompted some baroque theorising about the metropolis as contrast-partner to the provinces...with the onset of neo-conservatism and the supervenience of economically rational accounts of virtue and of value the idea that art is peculiarly sensitive to location because it is more cultural than clothing and footwear came under challenge... Addressed in a context that concerns the locality of Adelaide, and beyond.

Donald Brook

The Dave Inside

About the work and fame of Las Vegas based art writer Dave Hickey. Like all icons Dave comes with a portable, pocketable, mythology. A pungent blend of his own statements, press hype, rumour and dubious speculation.

Robert Cook

Visual Arts Program

Melbourne International Arts Festival October 2003

Natalie King

Community Arts and Artists in the Community

The Parks Arts & Functions Complex is situated in the Parks Community Centre in the Western suburbs of Adelaide, a region made up of many disadvantaged and minority groups. Weekly and fortnightly groups meet to explore different mediums and creative processes, and working without the assistance of a tutor means they rely on each other to develope their skills. The social benefits of these groups are often as important as the creative concerns. The centre invites guest artists to run various workshops to help sustain this interaction amongst members of the community.

Margaret Edgecombe

Lost and Found

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane 18 November - 1 February 2004

Pat Hoffie

To Begin With: Five Tasmanian Artists

Bett Gallery, North Hobart 28 November - 24 December 2003 Curated by Richard Wasteil

Mary Knights

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