Old Gods new lives: Exhibiting traditional Cook Islander art

In late 2008, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) established its first Pacific Arts department. From the opening of the controversial Musée du quai Branly in Paris in 2006, to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s creation of permanent new galleries for Oceanic art in 2007, there has been an international surge of interest in Pacific art, accompanied by hot debate surrounding exhibition protocols. Among the many works exhibited at these institutions are rare carvings of traditional gods from the Cook Islands: works that are still of great cultural significance to many Islanders today.
Jacqui Durrant asked artists, curators and cultural professionals in the largest of the Cook Islands, Rarotonga, their opinions as to how images of their ‘old gods’ might be best exhibited, to see what a Western art gallery might take on board.

Published June 2009

Transforming East and West dialogues

Haema Sivanesan, Curator and Executive Director of SAVAC ( South Asian Visual Arts Centre) in Toronto Canada, analyses the current situation of Asian contemporary art by looking at work that is not only cross-cultural but concerned with bridging cultures and being a form of social action rather than simply engaging with commodity culture.

Published June 2009

Collapsing the Bilateral: creating consciousness

The Long March Project founded by Lu Jie is an ongoing art project that began with a philosophical evaluation of the complex role and meaning of art and selfhood, in all its political, economic, cultural, and social guises.
It is critical that new opportunities are found for artistic reciprocity that exist beyond the presumed centres of art validation (ie. America and Europe). The Long March directs the gaze of Chinese cultural producers to re-assess how art can be a tool through which ideas of making – self, thought, object – can be critically empowered and conceived.

Published June 2009

Big Bad World

Little Red Riding Hood
Curator: Victor Medrano
Inflight ARI, Hobart
11 April - 2 May 2009

Published June 2009

Exhibitions 2 watch: June - August 09

Published June 2009

Gosia Wlodarczak

Gosia Wlodarczak: Conversation
Helen Maxwell Gallery, ACT
22 February – 28 March 2009

Published June 2009

Artrave

Published June 2009

Anne Ferran

Anne Ferran: The Ground, The Air
Curator: Craig Judd
Wollongong City Art Gallery
21 March - 17 May 2009

Published June 2009

New climate for an old world: Paul Carter's Nearamnew

Paul Carter's Nearamnew, a public art work which is embedded in the 7,500 square metres of paving at Federation Square, asks for multiple, inclusive and open-ended responses.

Published June 2009

Island improvisations: Nathan Gray

In 2008 Nathan Gray spent two months on Itaparica, a Brazilian island in the Bahia region, as part of an exchange initiated by The South Project Inc. At the end of the year the exhibition Tudo Que Acho was held to show the work created and produced as a result of the residency. The title in English means ‘everything I think’. In Portuguese the phrase also denotes discovery, as ‘to think’ and ‘to find’ signify the same act.
Tudo Que Acho: Nathan Gray was shown 4 – 20 December 2008 at The Narrows, Melbourne.

Published June 2009

21 Ada St - the DVD

Published June 2009

Paul Zika

Paul Zika: Home and Away – reconstructing artifice
Curator: Philip Watkins
Carnegie Gallery, Hobart
26 March – 3 May 2009

Published June 2009