A very personal view. And finally there is a need for us to allow art and artists to develop from their own roots, regardless of their country or culture of origin.
Cultural Iconographies is an exhibition of work by migrant and refugee artists who have been in Australia for a relatively short time. To take place in the Bondi Pavilion, Sydney during Carnivale October 1991.
At times, life feels like a collection of unrelated events, a necklace without the string. Christl Berg writes of her experiences of leaving Germany when she was 25 and having lived in three different continents with three different cultures at varied stages in her life.
In December 1990 the South Australian Government announced a new 'Multiculturalism-in-the-Arts' Program to encourage major arts organisations in receipt of government funding to increase their activities for people from linguistic and culturally diverse backgrounds.
...Underlying this linguistic fertility is a migrant intuition of the relativity of language, of the lightness and mutability of its phonology, inflections and syntax. Less portentously there is no migrant to this country who has not experienced those punning co-incidences, echoic repetitions, mutual misunderstandings and mishearings which are the basis of my scripts. It may be no accident that in 1992 Australian voices evoke first contact with the New World.
The artist writes about her art practice, in particular her preoccupation with the Australian landscape and how people perceive it. Two images are included: 'Secret Self' and 'Blanket' both from 1990.
Palimpsest...Vision of a multicultural Australia. An exhibition co-ordinated by the Multicultural Arts Trust of South Australia, December 1990 Chesser Gallery Adelaide. Great colour photos.
The Fairfield Community Arts Network is a community - based organisation which aims to develop cultural awareness in Fairfield with particular emphasis on the multicultural nature of the area.
Looks at the art practice of Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, born in 1937 at Ngukurr in the Northern Territory. Good colour photos of the artist and some works.