Beauty and Terror
Artlink Indigenous #1
Beauty and Terror
Guest co-editors Daniel Browning and Stephanie Radok.
A bumper annual survey of current developments and issues in this rich and diverse field. Artlink Indigenous: Beauty and Terror 2011 follows in the footsteps of the groundbreaking blak on blak issue of 2010 with abundant images, profiles of contemporary Indigenous artists, analysis of exhibitions of Aboriginal art in Australia and overseas, and polemics on the politics of Aboriginal art. Writers include Larissa Behrendt, Greg Lehman, Brenda Croft, Ian McLean, Tom Mosby, Margo Neale, Una Rey, Georges Petitjean, Simon Wright and Christian Thompson.
Subscribe or Order this issue » (from $20 inc. postage)
Articles in vol 31 no 2, 2011
Alive and Kicking 
Editorial by Daniel BrowningThis issue is subtitled 'beauty and terror'; let me explain.
I often think of the natural environment of the continent as a metaphor that mirrors the history of colonisation; a kind of infinite pathetic fallacy redoubling on itself. —
Rewriting the Labels
Editorial by Stephanie RadokIndigenous culture is moving out of dedicated spaces and into the mainstream. Ultimately all Indigenous culture is claiming the space for experiences that have not been widely told and this broadens the space for the stories of everyone whose stories are untold. —
A Third Path: the Musée des Confluences
Feature by Arnaud MorvanFrench curator Arnaud Morvan, who recently completed his Phd at the University of Melbourne on the art of the East Kimberley, writes about the new approach to showing and consulting about Indigenous art taken by the still-under construction Musée des Confluences (due to open in 2014) in Lyon.
"It represents a first step towards an abolition of the segregation endured by non-Western art in Europe and an attempt to rise above the antiquated opposition between art and ethnography." —
Aboriginal art at the Vatican
Feature by Margo NealeThe National Museum of Australia's Margo Neale writes in depth about the curation of a 100 year old collection of Aboriginal art at the Vatican in Rome. She asks: "How do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, previously captive to the anthropological gaze and to unequal power relations, not only interrogate the histories that defined them as 'other' and ‘lesser’, but also regain their voice and agency over historic cultural objects that reside in collections around the world?" —
Action at Canopy Artspace in Cairns
Feature by Paloma RamosCanopy Artspace first opened for the 2009 Cairns Art Fair. It houses the Australian Art Print Network, New Flames Foundation and Editions Tremblay NFP (no Fixed Press). Paloma Ramos who works at Editions Tremblay vividly decribes the intense and fertile work in printmaking and sculpture that happens at Canopy. —
An encounter with the National Galleries
Feature by Odette KeladaLecturer in the Australian Indigenous Studies program at the University of Melbourne, Odette Kelada describes her visit to the National Gallery of Australia's new Indigenous galleries and the National Portrait Gallery that is just next door and views them as sites of contemporary Frontier warfare. —
Ben McKeown: Sunshine and Lollipops
Feature by Daniel BrowningMelbourne-based Ben McKeown was the overall winner of the 2011 Victorian Indigenous Art Award with a mysterious photograph called Untitled of an Aboriginal man concealing hinself behind two heavy boomernags. McKeown's artwork is inspired by a quest for belonging, by the genealogical researches of the anthropologist Norman Tindale, by the city and the suburbs. —
Blandowski's Illustrated Encyclopaedia
Feature by John KeanFreelance curator, honorary associate of Museum Victoria and Blandowski-ite from way back John Kean analyses this prickly Prussian polymath's Illustrated Encyclopedia on Australia at last brought together and to light by the efforts of New Zealander Harry Allen. The book includes contributions by Mark Dugagrist, Brook Andrew, Luise Hercus and Thomas A. Darragh. —
Branded: The Indigenous Aesthetic
Feature by Glenn Iseger-PilkingtonI hate the word brand. People have forgotten the importance of sub-culture. We are a community and an intervention.
Ben Watt, Founder, Buzzin'Fly Records
—
CoBra and Aboriginal art at AAMU, Utrecht
Feature by Khadija LaNewtown fellow at the University of Cambridge Khadija La visited AAMU (the Musuem of Contemporary Aboriginal Art) in Utrecht to see "Breaking with Tradition" an exhibition curated by Georges Petitjean that hangs works by CoBrA artists together with work by Indigenous artists and Roar artists who work or worked in Indigenous art centres. —
Darren Siwes: dialogue with Rembrandt
Feature by Marianne RiphagenDutch art historian Marianne Riphagen, whose PhD looked at contemporary Indigenous photo-media artists, draws togther the dark and light in the artwork of Rembrandt and South Australia-based Darren Siwes to question the Dutch Golden Age. —
Denis Nona: Art Terroir-ist
Feature by Simon WrightGriffith Artworks and Griffith University Art Gallery Director Simon Wright reviews the stellar career in sculpture and printmaking of Torres Strait Islander Denis Nona whose newest commission at the Musée des Confluences in Lyon is eight metres high. —
Donning Oxford
Feature by Christian ThompsonChristian Thompson who is one of the two inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholars at Oxford University writes about this experience and how it makes him think of his upbringing and the responsibility it entails. "...it is our arrival at Oxford that reminds me of how much work we still have ahead of us as young Aboriginal people and future leaders of our communities. This is something you feel as an inherent responsibility when you meet people daily from all around the world, whose communities are facing similar hardships and the symptoms of the ravages of colonisation; time is of the essence." —
Elcho Island: Morning Star over London
Feature by Jo HigginsArtlink's UK contributing editor Jo Higgins interviewed Melbourne-born London gallerist Rebecca Hossack about her Indigenous art program and her attempts to raise its profile in London. She has two galleries and each summer for three months both galleries show only Australian Indigenous art in her Songlines series. Recently Elcho Island art featured. —
Euraba Paper Company, Boggabilla
Feature by Tess AllasAssociate Lecturer at the College of Fine Art in Sydney Tess Allas writes about when she was NSW Regional Indigenous Cultural Officer and first met the women of Boggabilla who formed the Euraba Paper Company which won the Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize in 2010. —
Fiona Foley: Public and Political
Feature by Louise Martin-ChewFiona Foley's recent public work has gone from strength to strength most recently at Mackay where her six large new works form a trail commemorating the Pacific and black history of the region. —
Jason Wing: In Flight
Feature by Larissa BehrendtLarissa Behrendt writes about both soothing and painful installations and paintings by Jason Wing that explore his Chinese and Aboriginal roots. —
Jo Rootsey: Painting Country
Feature by Dina IbrahimDina Ibrahim looks at the Joe Rootsey Retrospective curated by Bruce McLean at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2010 to find an artist who in his short life achieved compelling evocations of his relationship to country. —
Mary Ann Mungatopi's Tiwi Portraits
Feature by Una ReyArtist and curator Una Rey tells the moving story of the life and work of Tiwi artist Maryanne Mingatopi. —
New displays at Pitt Rivers Museum
Feature by Susan LowishIn 2009 eight new case displays were added to the legendary 1884 Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Indigenous art scholar and lecturer Susan Lowish examines how Aboriginal art fared in this rejig of history. —
Remembering Forward at the Museum Ludwig
Feature by Georges PetitjeanCurator at AAMU Georges Petitjean describes the 'Remembering Forward' exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in detail, how it came about, what surrounds it and what it might mean. —
Rising Queensland Indigenous artists
Feature by QIAMEAAs leaders of unique working partnerships between the Indigenous art industry and the Queensland Government, pioneers like Judy Watson, Dennis Nona, Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell and Sally Gabori have established strong international reputations. —
Romantic Landscapes
Feature by Laura FisherLaura Fisher worked for three years on indigenous artists' biographies for the DAAO (Dictionary of Australian Artists Online) and is now completing a doctoral thesis on the indigenous art market at the University of NSW. Here she brings her wide knowledge to bear on representational and romantic landcape paintings by indigenous artists. —
Sell-Abrasion of our Nations
Feature by Brenda L CroftCurator and artist Brenda Croft gets experiential in telling about Australia Day, her latest exhibition Stop (the) gap and what is shared by indigenous people around the globe. —
To hold and protect: Mulka at Yirrkala
Feature by Rob LaneThe Mulka Project is a Yolngu archive and production centre incorporating a theatre, media lab, project office, audio video library and museum. "As the Mulka Project is growing up we need to be clear that it is just a resource and the law and culture is coming from the land where people are staying, even where there is no one staying, its patterns, the designs and culture, are coming from the country." states Djambawa Marawili. —
Torres Strait Islander watercolours
Feature by Tom MosbyThe Queensland State Library Executive Manager of Indigenous research and projects Tom Mosby writes about the Margaret Lawrie Works on Paper Collection and the role of art in the lives of Torres Strait Islanders. Between July and October 2011, the watercolours in the Margaret Lawrie Works on Paper Collection will, for the first time, be exhibited together as part of 'Strait Home' at the State Library of Queensland. —
Trevor Nickolls: Other side Art
Feature by Ian McLeanThis is the first time that noted historian and writer on Aboriginal art Ian McLean has written a substantial interpretive artcile on the work of Trevor Nickolls. Nickolls began working in the 70s and is still painting his own particular brand of cross-cultural art. —
Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 2011
By Nicholas BosleyArticle on VIAA, Indigenous arts in Victoria - from the VIAA Curator. —
Why is there a donkey in that painting?
Feature by Cate MassolaThe painting is by Madigan Thomas of her first contact with pastoralists. She painted her family watching - for the first time – whitefellas traverse donkeys through her country.
ANU PHD candiate Cate Massola who worked at Warmun Art Centre for a year describes the way art and education complement each other in Gija country. —
Working in Indigenous Art Centres
Feature by Felicity WrightFelicity Wright speaks from long experience, as a worker and as a reviewer of art centres on Aboriginal lands. Her thoughtful article teases out many do's and don'ts in this highly contested field. —
Yalangabara: Art of the Djang'kawu
Feature by Cath Bowdler'Yalangabara: Art of the Djang'kawu' curated by Banduk Marika and Margie West includes art made from 1939 till recently. All works are about the same creation story and all comprise a history of creative and spiritual custodianship by the Marika family of the Rirratjingu clan. —
Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route
Feature by Sarah ScottSarah Scott reviews and questions Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route exhibition at the National Musuem of Australa. She asks: "Why don't the NMA’s collections of Indigenous material culture feature more strongly in their exhibition program? Why are both the NMA and the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) collecting the highly sought after and expensive works produced by major Papunya artists? If the commissioning of art and associated documentary material is a priority for the NMA what other Indigenous material culture may they be neglecting?" —
John Barbour
Obituary by Dr Mary KnightsJohn Barbour (1954-2011), a complex, intelligent and much loved South Australian artist and academic, was in the prime of his life and at the height of his career when he died on Sunday 17 April 2011. —
Ulli Beier
Obituary by Thorolf LippUlli Beier (1922-2011)
I remember a Yoruba saying that Ulli often quoted: "If an old man dies, you shall not weep but congratulate his family for that his life has come full circle." —
Bruce Reynolds: Air Percussion
Review by Louise Martin-ChewRyan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane
3 - 26 March 2011 —
Conjure: Zoe Porter
Review by Carmen AnsaldoLevel Gallery, Brisbane
12 March - 1 April 2011 —
Dialogues with Landscape
Review by Paul UhlmannExhibition Co-ordinator: Katie Lenanton
University of Western Australia Cultural Precinct
15 February - 6 March 2011 —
Dis-covery
Review by Peter HughesLong Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
25 March - 1 May 2011
Curator: Colin Langridge —
FELTspace Gold
Review by Peter DrewFELTspace, 12 Compton St, Adelaide
9 March - 3 April 2011 —
Ken and Julia Yonetani / Janet Tavener
Review by Megan FizellStill Life: The Food Bowl: Ken and Julia Yonetani
Artereal Gallery, Sydney, June 2011
Mildura Palimpsest #8, 9-11 Sept 2011
GV Art, London, October 2011
Melting moments: Janet Tavener
Incinerator Art Space, Willoughby
2 -27 March 2011 —
Landscapes and Horses: Ivan Durrant
Review by Tom McCulloughCurator: Rodney James
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
16 February - 26 April 2011 —
Paperartzi '11
Review by Barbie GreenshieldsPerth International Art Festival
Albany, WA
5 - 20 March 2011 —
Space Antics: Sue Henderson, David Marsden, Penny Mason
Review by Geoffrey DobsonBurnie Regional Art Gallery
19 March - 8 May 2011 —
TextaNudes: Arlene Textaqueen
Review by Naomi GallSullivan and Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney
3 - 27 March 2011 —
Tracey Moffatt / Stop(the)Gap /
tall man
Review by Sarah WhiteTracey Moffatt: Narratives
Curators: Stephen Zagala, Maria Zagala
Art Gallery of South Australia
26 February - 20 March 2011
Stop (the) Gap: International Indigenous art in motion
Curator: Brenda Croft
Samstag Museum of Art
24 February - 21 April 2011
Vernon Ah Kee: tall man
Australian Experimental Art Foundation
23 February - 26 March 2011 —
Other articles & reviews
in this issue
- New Exhibitions Projects Initiatives
Related Events by Artlink - Report on Remembering Forward Forum, Cologne
By Ian McLean - Artrave
Artrave by Blog Ed - Paint every hill: Billy Benn
Book review by Stephanie Radok - Exhibitions to Watch
ETW by Stephanie Radok - Victorian Indigenous Art Awards 2011
By Nicholas Bosley - Where the Dust Settles
By Claire Eltringham