Wild Art at the World's End

During the 1970s and 1980s conservation battles were fought over the meaning of wild places such as Tasmania - previously regarded as Australia's deep south - a pioneering place where the normal rules hardly seemed to apply. Grant looks at some of conservation battles both lost and saved during this time, and at one of the key agents for change, a wilderness photographer, the late Peter Dombrovskis. As a result of Dombrovskis' important work, the Tasmanian arts community and two government bodies have come together to try and ensure that this arts/environment symbiosis continues. Some other key artists discussed in this article are Julie Gough, David Martin, Tim Pugh, Anthony Curtis and Kim Kerze.

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9 November - 9 December University of South Australia Art Museum

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Thirsty Work

This article tells the story of the Irish engineer CY O'Connor who was appointed to oversee the construction of the pipeline that would supply the Kalgoorlie goldfields with fresh water and whose suicide caused much controversy in the region. The O'Connor monuments throughout the south of Western Australia are now being joined by contemporary sculptures that tell the other side of the story and play on the anxieties buried below. Anne Neil and Adrian Jones have developed works such as Death by Water which acts as a thirsty allegory of CY's life and Water Carrier which encourages visitors to listen to the trickle of despair that is so ingrained in the history of Kalgoorlie.

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On Reflection

Brian McKay: recent works Galerie Düsseldorf 29 October - 19 November 2000

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Artrave

Artlink

7th Havana Biennial Uno mas cerca al otro

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Nola Farman's Wind Tree

Nola Farman's The Wind Tree is one of a series of three permanent public artworks commissioned in 1998 by Griffith Artworks, Queensland College of Art, and installed at the new Logan Campus of Griffith University south of Brisbane. The Wind Tree stands on a site that was once occupied by indigenous inhabitants and from the time of white settlement until the recent sixties, the homestead site of the dairy cattle stud Ellerslie. The Wind Tree has been christened according to a traditional pedagogical symbol: the Tree of Knowledge. Ross examines Farman's site specific work in relation to its complex functional and aesthetic qualities.

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Wasted

Metis is a remarkable fusion of art and science. The first of these biennial events, held in May 1999, was inspired by Rebecca Scott from the CSIRO and Canberra artist Jill Peck, and featured works which resulted from a range of collaborations between artists and scientists. Metis 2001 - Wasted focuses on environmental themes including detritus, recycling, toxic waste and land degradation.

Jane Barney

Staring at the sea, staring at the sand: the work of Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion

Humanity's universal relationship to the environment has always been at the heart of Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion's work, and in large part stems from their own working and living proximity to the ocean on the coastline of Scotland in the fishing village of St Combs. Kubler conducts an examination of some of Dalziel and Scullion's installations, many of which offer that most magical and rare thing in art, the miraculous. Kubler looks at their collaborative works General Release, Sargassum, Rain and Melt and the various ways they have explored the Nature/Culture dichotomy. In particular cyclical weather patterns and mankind's evolving interaction with Nature.

Alison Kubler

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