The Spiritual, the Rational and the Material: Spirit and Place Art in Australia 1861 - 1996

Since 1984 there have been five major exhibitions which sought to engage aspects of the spiritual in art and which attracted international comment. Spirit + Place, Art in Australia 1861 - 1996, which opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney on 22nd November 1996 and closed on 5th March 1997, was the most recent of these.

Published March 1998

Collaboration by Satellite

Satellite link-ups between continents have upped the telecommunication ante, intensifying the exchange of ideas and impressions by participants. The sense of sight is now added to the teleconferencing capacity for hearing everyone at once, making it easier for participants who have never met to know who is speaking when, and simplifying the task of managing a given session.

Published March 1998

Beyond the Bleeding Heart...

Rosemary Crumlin discusses the sacred and the secular in contemporary art, starting with the exhibition she curated at the National Gallery of Victoria

Published March 1998

Caboodle: Work from the Jam Factory Studios

Jam Factory Gallery SA
Ceramics, Glass, Furniture, Metal
14 November 1997 - 11 January 1998

Published March 1998

Urinating to Windward

Artists asserting a commitment against ignorance have recently called for the resignation of the Director of the National Gallery of Victoria.
There seems to be no particular matter of fact about which Dr Potts stands accused: his ignorance relates somehow to an issue of principle that was flouted (as his critics assert) when he prematurely closed the exhibition in which Andres Serrano's photograph, Piss Christ, provoked some complaint, some minor violence and (as we are told) unspecified threats.

Published March 1998

Grandmother's Mob and the Stories

Julie Dowling interviewed by Lavinia S. Ryan
In the past five years, after graduating from Curtin University, Julie Dowling has been painting professionally. Recently Julie took part in the artists' forum, Wijay Na? (which way now) for the Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art.

Published March 1998

Migration and Faith: Places of Worship in a Multicultural Community

"The cosmopolitan character of the residents of Australian cities has often been shown and it is in their worship that the various nations represented in our midst receives most definite demonstration. The Greek Orthodox Church has a small but increasing community in Melbourne, numbering about 150 Greeks and 50 Syrians, and it is now decided to build immediately, at a cost of about $3,000 a new Greek Church".

Published March 1998

Maria Ghost: Rick Martin

Experimental Art Foundation Adelaide SA
December - January 1998

Published March 1998

David Jones' sculptures in the landscape - a spirit of place

Spirituality in western art is not necessarily ecclesiastical. There are artists who make work which is imbued with a deep spiritual connection to the land. The works may be temporary, ephemeral installations surviving only in the photographic record or they may be of more permanent substances.

Published March 1998

Where Eagles Hover

Any discussion of the sacred and spiritual in Australian art must surely defer to the art of Aboriginal people for theirs is the art and culture which speaks most directly and profoundly about the connection of human spirituality to the Australian landscape.

Published March 1998

Building a picture: Interviews with Australian Artists by Gary Catalano

Published by McGraw Hill Australia 1997
RRP $36,90

Published March 1998

Artrave

Published March 1998