Artlink has not only set a standard of readability that is exceptional in the field. It has stood firmly against temptations that much of the comparable literature has found irresistible. One of the most insidious of these is the invitation to embrace the artworld’s profitable association with the dealership system and the art market. Another is the pressure to acquiesce in a conception of its role as the public relations arm of the culture industry.
Donald Brook, arts writer and philosopher
This issue takes an ecological view of the restorative role of art in rebuilding connections between people and the land. Amidst the wave of writing, thinking and activism coming from our cities and regions, artists across Australia are redefining ideas of practice as land art, expanded forms of landscape art, “eco” and environmental arts to support a diverse range of broadly connective and interdisciplinary outcomes.
Cover image: Henry Jock Walker, Open Road Painting, acrylic on HiAce. Commissioned as part of the Kickstart program for the Next Wave Festival, 2014. Photo: Che Choreley. Above: Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski, And the earth sighed, video installation exhibited at Arts House Melbourne as part of Performing Climates 2016. Image courtesy the artists
