An Unlandscape of words and painting: from Meenamatta to paradise

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.

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.

Neil Fettling asks; 'Why does an Australian-based artist like David Griggs, living and working in the first world, have such strong connections with a third world community, and how do these linkages affect his work?' and answers this question through an analysis of Griggs' recent art as well as comparing it to the work of Pat Hoffie and Wim Delvoye.

Timothy Morrell provides the reader with a keen description in relation to the role that the art organisation NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts) has within Australia's government but also the empowerment they claim to provide practicing artists. Morrell also includes some insight towards the rights of the common artworker by presenting some examples as to where they stand within Australian society but also how they operate in co-relation with the governments guidelines and in particular the controversial portrayal of nudity in art. A conclusive article articulating the importance of government organisations such as NAVA, Morrell provides an insightful discussion towards the role of the artist within Australian society but also the co-operation needed from the government to enable a sufficient means of expression from artists.

On a residency at the Taipei Artists Village in Taiwan in 2007 Gregory Pryor researched a plant from which tongcao or pith paper was traditionally made. The complex collaborative journey to find the plant and the way its pith is removed forms a celebratory echo to his previous work Black Solander 2005 about endangered plants in Western Australia.