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.

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Plant a Yam, Paint a Yam

Explores the relationship between food and its representation in the northeast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Remember, dangerous themes make dangerous art.

Michael Christie

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

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 food chain starts here: Larrtha’puy, from the mangroves

Djon Mundine

Saved by the Demon - Hemp Lives

Cannibis Sativa as a drug, as uses of hemp - textiles, fabric and paper - as building materials, as oils food and protein, for medical and therapeutic applications, biomass energy... so why is there a prohibition?

Jamnes Danenberg

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.

Santiago Bose

Ingrid Day on Phil Mullaly

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

Ingrid Day

Culture/ Agriculture

Story 1: A story about land owners and nomads. Story 2: Never terra nullius. Story 3: Genetic imperialism. Story 4: The politicization of hunger. Story 5: Kunde and the perception of order.

Pat Hoffie

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

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 use of Aesthetics: Food for Thought

Aesthetic value is determined by commonly held notions of taste, beauty and attractiveness and differs from culture to culture. How does this influence us in our choice of nourishment - our daily bread, fruit or snack food? Why does food today look like it does?

Anna Jean Bonshek

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

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