Boomalli: Fact or Fantasy: you decide!

Cover of Boomalli: Fact or Fantasy: you decide!
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Wardlipari Homeriver: Vulnerable observations
Feature
Uncle Lewis Yarluburka O’Brien and Ali Gumillya Baker

Published 01 March 2019
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Local colour: Dyeing and women's wealth
Feature
Julie Ewington

Published 01 March 2019
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Hi-vis commodities: A body corporate's toxic economy
Feature
Tessa Laird with Debris Facility

Published 01 March 2019
NAVA
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Revisiting colour problems: Emily Vanderpoel, Hilma af Klint, Becca Albee, Clare Milledge
Feature
Amelia Wallin

Published 01 March 2019
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Queer uses of colour: A tinted hermeneutics
Feature
Abbra Kotlarczyk

Published 01 March 2019
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Meet Lisa Walker in her workshop: VR in the museum
Feature
Justine Olsen and Prue Donald

Published 01 December 2018
Artlink Subs Promo
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Eugenie Lee's Seeing is Believing: VR in pain management
Feature
Dylan DeLosAngeles

Published 01 December 2018
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Artificial imagination: Deepfakes from latent space
Feature
Sean Dockray

Published 01 December 2018

Boomalli, founded in 1987, enters an unlikely future where anonymous benefactors help them to buy premises in an inner city suburb, to employ curators and become independent of funding bodies. Tax-free havens are set up for indigenous artists in NSW and Boomalli members exhibit regularly at MOMA in New York.

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More from this Issue Full Issue Contents

Photography with Intent
Feature
Gary Lee

Various indigenous artists began to use photography to express ideas about their social and political position in the 1980s; the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations were a strong catalyst. Formerly they were always on the other side of the lens, as anthropological subjects. The exception was Mervyn Bishop, employed as a press photographer in the 1960s, and pioneer in the medium and role model for younger artists including Fiona Foley, Ricky Maynard, Peter McKenzie.

Published March 2000
Tribute: Lin Onus
Tribute
Margo Neale

Onus had a remarkable career, from motor mechanic and political activist to maker of marvellous, witty and original paintings and sculptures. He was also widely loved and respected for his compassion and willingness to lead the cause of Aboriginal advancement. 

Published 01 March 2000
Snapshots of Contemporary Sound, Movement and Words from Broome
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Cynthia Coyne

Broome is a town in WA with a long history of many cultures living and working together. It is the home of a vibrant Indigenous music industry, its most famous sons being the Pigram brothers and Jimmy Chi, author of the musicals Bran Nue Day and Corrugation Road . Magabala Books is flourishing, and the Stompen' Ground Festival is gaining in strength and reputation.

Published March 2000
Printmaking Gains Momentum
Feature
Basil Hall

The first Aboriginal prints were linocuts made in jail by Kevin Gilbert. By the late 1970s Aboriginal printmaking in collaboration with print studios had begun. The Canberra School of Art, Port Jackson Press and now Northern Editions have been catalysts for the many enthusiasts at the Yirrkala, Papunya, Tiwi, Munupi, Oenpelli, Ernabella etc communities and workshops are run in remote centres at their request. Some like Lockhart River are now setting up their own facilities.

Published March 2000
Charting Co-existence
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Maurice O+Riordan

Mapping Our Countries was an exhibition at the short-lived Djamu Gallery in Sydney, curated by artist Judy Watson and archaeologist Dr Paul Taon. They collected objects and works of art to illustrate how
they relate to the idea of mapping land or sea. Mapping is done for a huge variety of reasons, for exploiting resources, for proving theories, for simply finding one's way.

Published March 2000
Homeland: Sacred Visions and the Settler State
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Marcia Langton

In spite of supporting a vast artworld of curators, critics and collectors, the 'otherness' of Aboriginal art in the Western canon persists, fuelled by white settler reluctance to acknowledge history. The valorisation of the life and work of Emily Kame Kngwarray is one of the great imponderables of our time. Her extreme age, traditional origins, style of painting and prodigious output were the causes. Most significantly she demonstrated the possibility of human intimacy with landscapes.

Published March 2000
Black Glory: Erotica Old and New
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Gary Lee

The exhibition 'Love Magic' explored Aboriginal male erotica and reveals a little-known dimension in traditional spirituality which has been echoed by contemporary artists. Images of phalluses, couples embracing and testicles going walkabout refer to legends and stories of the Old People. This very large exhibition was a life-affirming spectacle with humour and poignancy as well as some powerful eroticism.

Published March 2000
The House of Aboriginality
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Vivien Johnson

The House of Aboriginality is an evolving multimedia project about the merchandising of Indigenous imageries. A CD-rom sets out the story of the circulation of this in mainstream culture through the metaphor of a house entirely furnished with products bearing Aboriginal art designs.

Published March 2000
Snapshot of a Culture
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Philip Morrissey

A conference about Indigenous arts and crafts was held in 1999 and was a useful sounding board for issues from the new Label of Authenticity and copyright, to the new Goods and Services Tax and art in cyberspace.

Published March 2000
New Ways With Clay: Tiwi Pottery
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Margie West

The Tiwi people on Melville and Bathurst Islands just north of Darwin have a 30-year tradition of pottery. They have absorbed a range of influences from the British Michael Cardew to visiting potters from Australia or via annual workshops with a Swiss potter Claude Presset. Some pots were collaboratively done - thrown by experienced potters and decorated by local artists. Slab and coil pieces drew on artists' experience in wood carving and painting.

Published March 2000
Good Brother Working with our Kids
Feature
Tjalaminu Mia

Ron Gidgup was the first Aboriginal fashion designer in WA. Since getting the Aboriginal of the Year Award in 1997 he began to turn his skills towards helping Aboriginal youth in crisis. He runs workshops in textile and clothing design and brought many young people back from the brink of death from substance abuse. He has worked in urban and rural settings, with schools and other groups.

Published March 2000
Health and Art: Can art make people (feel) well?
Feature
Felicity Wright

Art can function in a wide range of ways beyond what is normally regarded as its arena. It can empower by raising confidence, providing income which can be used to improve diet and living conditions, it can be therapeutic, liberating and provide an emotional and intellectual outlet, while posters and TV ads can convey important messages about health issues. When a culture is strong the people are healthy.

Published March 2000
 
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