Rice on the Terrace

The artist grew up in Baguio, which looks to be quite close to Ifugao on the map, and although I was taught that the rice terraces of this region of the Philippines were the eighth wonder of the world it was many years before he was able to see them.

More from this Issue

Husbandry and the Coporate Collection

Making taste? Making money? Melbourne historian Juliet Peers scrutinises a group of books and catalogues on corporate art collections to see whether boardroom fancies and their lavish publications reflect a wider role in shaping popular visions of Australian painting.

Juliette Peers

Harsh Realities: Artists and the Land

Even in the shiny spaces of the big cities, for some the dirt of the paddocks is only just below the surface. Michael Eather talks to three artists who were born and raised in the country, about their current attitudes to the land as a place of production.

Michael Eather

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.

James Darling

The Struggle for LESS Interesting Pictures

Beth Field is a farmer and a photographer in the WA wheatbelt facing a curious loss, one she is happy to accept - the dramatic colours of sunsets reflected in the salt lakes which she used to photograph may soon be hard to find as revegetation reclaims the soil. She recounts the changes she has seen in the last decade.

Beth Field

Ingrid Day on Phil Mullaly

Exhibition review Other Refuge Have I None Phil Mullaly New Land Gallery 16 November - 30 December 1994

Ingrid Day

Photographing the Drought

"I used to think there was no link between farming and art...well, most art reflects the environment in which it is produced and the artist who produces it..."

John A Williams

The Cultural Biography of Plants

The cultural biography of plants provides an extremely fertile field for artists to explore. It also encourages artists, and viewers, to explore the interface between cultures and between culture and agriculture.

Susan Cochrane

Culture/Agriculture

Agriculture and culture go back a long way. The fact that they actually meet and marry in the word 'cultivation' makes this clear....when it comes to direct experience, city and country are more distinct in Australia than in many countries.

Stephanie Britton

Cate Jones on Photography

Exhibition review Lifeworks: Aboriginal women photographed in action and at work by Aboriginal women photographers Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Adelaide South Australia 7 October - 4 December 1994

Cate Jones

Portrait of the Farmer as a Mature Potato

"As with everything else, the country that I have been talking about is frequently regarded as a commodity, be it in relation to yields of primary produce or to spectacles and hypothetical experiences marketed for tourist consumption. Here's the main thing to understand: this commodification is entirely at odds with the appreciation of landscape that I've been trying to tell you about."

Malcolm McKinnon

Rene Boutin: An Artist and His Garden

New Caledonia has become the first Pacific nation to hold a Biennale of Contemporary Visual Art. Lucienne Fontannaz travelled to Noumea to interview artist Rene Boutin and discovered an artist who takes more than the gallery and his studio as his milieu.

Lucienne Fontannaz

David Bromfield on Sculpture

Exhibition review The Games Room Stuart Elliott at Lawrence Wilson Art Galley University of Western Australia 21 October - 4 December 1994 Death of a Myth Michelle H Elliot at Gomboc Galleries and Sculpture Park 6 - 27 November 1994

David Bromfield

View all articles in this issue