Much of the vibrancy of Hong Kong's contemporary culture manifests itself in unexpected new forms...explores how four artists construct images of sexuality within the compact (post?) colonial environment.
Ecologies of Place and Memory (Lauren Berkowitz, Rosemary Burke, Torquil Canning, Lola Greeno, Ruth Hadlow, Sieglinde Karl and Louise Weaver)
Time & Tide (Rowena Gough, Gay Hawkes, Lin Li, Pilar Rojas and Catherine Truman)
Both curated by Bridget Sullivan
Plimsoll Gallery, Centre for the Arts, Hobart
May 22 - June 14 (Ecologies)
June 19 - July 12 (Time)
Gone from Carrick Hill before it became a public collection are three Stanley Spencer erotic paintings and William Dobell's 'The Duchess Disrobes' (two versions). Smith examines the nature of the collection of works by Sir Edward and Lady Ursula Haywood.
Explores the difficult issues surrounding artistic expression and censorship (both self censorship and public) with the associated threat of legal action.
Editorial: hypocrisy in our attitude to sex. It is both celebrated and maligned, and the censorship laws allow young people to view explicit violence while classifying sex for adults only, based on psuedo-scientific analysis of 'normal' or 'aberrant'. This history of public attitude from the Enlightenment on, libertinism a radical opposition to status quo, advertising and porn, and artists exercising self-censorship.
Curated by Neville John O'Neill for the Canberra Contemporary Art Space.
Tandanya, National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
10 July - 16 August 1998
Julie Robb is the executive director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia. The centre advises artists and those involved in exhibitions and publication of risky material of the cultural responsibilities to make efforts to find ways of exercising their privileges. Looks at the current practices.
From the perspective of one who has worked on the SA Classification of Publications Board. Argues that censorship is becoming increasingly unmanageable due to two trends which are detailed in the article. Also argues that public debate (with the exception of child pornography) in the media has declined. In contrast there is rising debate about sacrilege.
Explores the 'pornographic' in the public domain. Art isn't an excuse for pornography, because pornography simpy exists. Art has remained a realm within which a vast range of ideas can be explored and tested. There are no questions of ethics or morality in art. This starts to get more exciting as art gets closer to life.