Snapshot of a Culture

Cover of Snapshot of a Culture
1.128
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
AFF
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Revisiting colour problems: Emily Vanderpoel, Hilma af Klint, Becca Albee, Clare Milledge
Feature
Amelia Wallin

Published 01 March 2019
1.126
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
Riddoch
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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

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.

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More from this Issue Full Issue Contents

Challenging boundaries: Indigenous Art in Three Dimensions
Feature
Doreen Mellor

Recent Indigenous 3-D work is regarded as both art and craft. The materials range from shell and rushes to scrap steel, grass, ceramic, glass and bull kelp; the works may be vessels, installations, necklaces, small figures etc. The works often contain explicit references to cultural or historical truths eg the figures by WA artist Joyce Winsley which recall characters from her youth in the country, or Lola Greeno's water containers made in the traditional way from bull kelp .

Published March 2000
Queenie McKenzie
Tribute
Patricia Vinnicombe

A tribute to the Western Australian artist Queenie McKenzie who died in 1998. She lived her whole life in the Texas Downs area and before taking up painting in old age she worked on the cattle station there and was a stalwart supporter of 'women's law business' and language. She was a confident and prolific painter mostly of her country but sometimes of social topics. When her work was recognised by the art market she shared her material success generously with her adopted family.

Published March 2000
New insight into old North Australian Rock-Art
Feature
Paul Taìon

The rich rock art of Australia, especially of Arnhem Land and the Kimberly continues to be the subject of research, as well as fierce debate about their meaning and age, with obvious implications for Aboriginal cultural history. Three signficant styles are identified : the 'Bradshaws', (named after explorer Joseph Bradshaw who discovered them in the 1800s) the 'Dynamic' and the 'Wanjina' paintings. Most of the more than 100,000 ancient sites are not effectively protected but are of great importance to living Aboriginal people.

Published March 2000
George Milpurrurru and David Malangi
Tribute
Michael O+Ferrall

Tributes to two painters from Ramingining in Arnhem Land, George Milpurrurru and David Malangi who helped to place this region on the map. Paintings were included in the 1979 Sydney Biennale. The iconography, style of painting and the public response to their work and interaction with the wider art world is discussed. Both of these major artists died during the 1990s after careers of around four decades.

Published March 2000
Art in Warmun community
Feature
Susan Hartley

A new art centre at Warmun in the Kimberly of WA is a showcase for the talents of the artists of the area, some of whom used to work on big pastoral stations in this remote area. Celebrated founders of the centre were Rover Thomas and Queenie Mckenzie. There are tensions between their interests and those of white landowners in relation to access to 'country' being denied. Young people are unable to have a traditional education and are becoming westernised through videos.

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
The House of Aboriginality
Feature
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
Lin Onus
Tribute
Margo Neale

A tribute to the celebrated artist Lin Onus who died prematurely in 1996 aged 47. 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. He was a cultural terrorist of gentle irreverence who bridged divides in a way in which very few are able.

Published March 2000
Polemic: From the 21st Century and Through the Telescope
Feature
Janet Maughan

Polemic: There has been a paradigm shift in Australia with the development of Aboriginal art, which may be as consequential as that of the Impressionists. Over the last 30 years Aboriginal artists have been making their voices heard and now make up at least 25% of the country's working visual artists though they are only 1.7% of the population. Their art will go down in history as providing new perspectives with which to view the world

Published March 2000
Black Glory: Erotica Old and New
Feature
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
Charting Co-existence
Feature
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
Nomad to TV star in three years: Walala Tjapaltjarri meets the world
Feature
Lotte Waters

In late 1984 Walala Tjapaltjarri and other Pintupi tribespeople walked out of the Gibson desert in WA and met Europeans for the first time. Within a few years Walala adapted his traditional ground and body painting to painting on canvas and was filmed by Robert Hughes for his TV series Beyond the Fatal Shore.

Published March 2000
 
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