Aboriginal art: it's a complicated thing

Tim Acker, an independent arts consultant working with Aboriginal artists in remote and regional Australia, writes about the current situation. Questions of ethics in the sale, and making, of Aboriginal art are under review and an Australian Indigenous Art Commercial Code of Conduct has been developed though the 2008 Federal budget failed to fund its roll-out. Acker suggests that consumers become more educated about the art and about the provenance of the works they buy.

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Problematic artworks or my doctor told me to take up painting to help me cope with the panic attacks

Suzanne Spunner, a graduate of Melbourne University's Art Authentication Program at the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, writes about the successful landmark prosecution of Pamela and Ivan Liberto for forging Rover Thomas paintings in November 2007. Meanwhile in April 2008 artist Nat Thomas, half of the art duo Nat and Ali, in an exhibition entitled 'Appropriation: how appropriate is it?', made and showed fake Rover Thomas paintings as an art prank. 'My doctor told me to take up painting to help cope with the panic attacks' is a quote by Pamela Liberto from the transcript of the case, appropriated by Nat Thomas as the title for one of her fake Rover Thomas works.

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Craig Walsh transfigured nights, surprising days

The artworks developed by Craig Walsh over the last sixteen years in Australia and around the world take the immediacy of the moving image and place it in unexpected places doing unexpected things. With a strong global profile he is increasingly being asked to participate in prestigious international events, most recently Drift 08 in London and Koganecho Bazaar in Yokohama.

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Performances at Biennale of Sydney 2008 Revolutions - Forms That Turn

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Bal Tashchit: Thou Shalt Not Destroy

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Landscape and complexity: Raquel Ormella

Raquel Ormella's art is political and takes many circuitous approaches to complex issues. Her recent work Wild Rivers: Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney shown in the 2008 Sydney Biennale called up a political landscape of maddening complexity even as it emphasises the need for direct action. Bec Dean writes: 'Ormella is a kind of critical idealist who understands not only the effectiveness of lobbying and the power of the individual in bringing about change but also the slow-burn persistence of such change.'

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Kate Rohde: flourish

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Aberhart

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Deborah Kelly's gods, monsters and probable histories

Each of Deborah Kelly's projects has multiple identities and is cut to fit a certain idea. They are 'both nomadic and site-specific, traversing worlds from art institutions to supermarket shelves and creating multifarious audiences along the way'. Her best known work 'Beware of the God' was first projected over the MCA in 2005 and was last seen at the 2008 Singapore Biennale.

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Translating from the dead to the living, Karin Lettau

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Lynette Wallworth: shared moments of revelation

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Rose Farrell and George Parkin: home (operating) theatre

Rose Farrell and George Parkin's art consist of photographs of tableaux involving the artists in sets that they build in their home. They frequently copy old medical illustrations in which the reality of the past is both made to live and to seem ever more mythical. Dylan Rainforth takes an informative and affectionate approach to the complexity of Farrell and Parkin's modus operandi and their newest photographic series called Restoration.

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