Glory, glory, glory curated by Elizabeth Gertsakis

Melbourne public culture, curator/artist Elizabeth Gertsakis assembled a visual arts project around the life and work of early twentieth century Melbourne entrepreneur, sports and entertainment manager John Wren1871-1953. Artmaking, curating, presentation and display in a broad not narrowly discipline-centric definition are explored and unpicked. His world is, as Gertsakis argues, a constructed, directed one of effect and presentation within which Wren emerges as exemplar and victim in a process of image creation and narrative spinning that is central to social life in a media age.

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A new alphabet? Guan Wei goes bush

A project coordinated by 24HR Art in Darwin brought artists of Chinese, European and Japanese origin to the township of Injalak in Gunbalanya, Western Arnhem Land. Ashley Crawford looks at the time Chinese-born, Sydney-based artist Guan Wei spent with three members of the local community and the stories he learnt to accompany the ancient rock art of this region. Subsequent to discovering the similarities between Indigenous Australian and Chinese visual narratives, Wei wanted to use the images as an alphabet to tell the story of his own encounters and experiences with the people and the landscape of Gunbalanya.

Ashley Crawford

Words and things

Concrete Poetry is both a form and an attitude to poetry that emphasises the visual and material elements of letters and thus words in relation to their meaning. 'Words and Things' is a project Patrick Jones set out to produce to represent concrete poetry and text-based art in Australia. A project that took him four years and that has attempted to dissolve the traditional form boundaries between art and poetry. The material considerations of 'Words and Things', both environmental and aesthetic, lead the reader into a work that is more like a sequence of short films than a standard book. Contributors to the book included Richard Tipping, Aleks Danko, Alex Selenitsch, Peter Tyndall, Geoffrey Baxter, Peter OMara, Jeff Stewart and Marie Sierra.

Patrick Jones

RAPT

Rapt! 20 Contemporary Artists from Japan Nobuya Hoki, Tomoaki Ishihara, Yuki Kimura Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) Clayton, Victoria 6 Sept - 18 November 2006

Olivia Poloni

Skywriting

The idea of four-dimensional sculpture proposed by the Dimensionalist Manifesto of 1936 has found its realisation through the continuing use of skywriting as a medium in contemporary art. Here Richard Tipping briefly discusses the phenomenon looking at artists Mary Lou Pavlovic and Guy Warren who produced works in association with major public, sporting and political events within Australia. Tipping also raises the question of how such a temporal practice as this is to be considered within the realm of contemporary art.

Richard Tipping

Shane Forrest

Shane Forrest: Float A-Space on Cleveland Sydney November 8-15, 2006

Tracey Clement

Adam Cuthbert

Warporn Adam Cuthbert CAST Gallery Hobart 28 October - 26 November, 2006

Colin Langridge

Hiraki Sawa

Hiraki Sawa New Media Gallery, Level 3 National Gallery of Victoria International Melbourne 7 July - 3 December 2006

Anna Zagala

Northcliffe Sculpture Walk

The Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Northcliffe, Western Australia Permanent artworks, launched 25 November 2006

Thelma John

Postcard from China: 900 years of kneeling - censored

In his work, Chinese artist Jin Feng maintains a continuing interest in 'problem people'. Concerned with socio-philosophical issues, he is testing the limits of tolerance. He is also interested in challenging public prejudices against the too easily condemned. Tamara Winikoff interviews Jin Feng about his sculptural piece 'We Want A Rest By Standing Up' depicting two infamous figures from China's history. This was the subject of much recent controversy and was censored by the authorities.

Tamara Winikoff

Megan Walch

Doppel Lecker: Megan Walch Criterion Gallery Hobart 12 October - 11 November 2006

Sean Kelly

The book, the poet, the artist and the breakthrough

As a container of information in text form, the book is designed in a linear fashion to move the reader along line by line. Many artists seek to break this convention and direct the reader/viewer into a more exploratory realm, as is true of the work of Jan Davis. This article leads the reader (in a somewhat linear sense) through Davis seven-volume artist book simply titled SOLOMON a journey developed out of the artists concern with the operation of space in visual imagery and her interest in writing.

Noreen Grahame

Nick Mangan

The Mutant Message Nick Mangan Sutton Gallery Melbourne 21 October- 15 November 2006

Melissa Amore

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