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

What would you do?

A number of practising artists were invited to respond to a scenario in which a local council asked them to organise an exhibition featuring local artists from a sister city in a third world country. It seems a noble gesture, but one fraught with potential missteps. How would they proceed?

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

Big Bad World

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

Published June 2009

Hired hands: the Filipino collaborations of David Griggs

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.

Published June 2009

Caitlin Yardley

spill, the insistent body
Caitlin Yardley
6 March – Sunday 12 April 2009
Heathcote Museum and Gallery, WA

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

Gosia Wlodarczak

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

Published June 2009

Exhibitions 2 watch: June - August 09

Published June 2009

21 Ada St - the DVD

Published June 2009

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

Nam Bang!

NAM BANG!
Curator: Boitran Huynh-Beattie
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
4 April - 21 June 2009

Published June 2009