M/other love: the first relationship & the photography of Toni Wilkinson

Toni Wilkinson’s 'm/other' exhibition of photographs at Perth Galleries, North Fremantle earlier this year confronted the viewer with a series of atypical representations of the mother child relationship. She give a glimpse into the privacy, and reality, of a mother’s world by showing us mothers and their children at their most naked, physically and emotionally.

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Len Lye: An Artist in Perpetual Motion

Len Lye: An Artist in Perpetual Motion Curators: Alessio Cavallaro and Tyler Cann ACMI, Melbourne 16 July – 11 October 2009

Adrian Martin

Notes on melancholy and anxiety in the works of Sanja Pahoki

The artworks of Sanja Pahoki walk a zigzag between melancholy and its contemporary cousin, anxiety. Curator and writer Hannah Mathews interviewed Sanja Pahoki about her recent work while thinking about Daniel Birnbaum's comment about the relationship between melancholy and the arts: "The idea of the melancholic as someone not only passive and depressed but also creative is the basis for the Renaissance idea of the genius – the dialectic between darkness and light, destruction and creation."

Hannah Mathews and Sanja Pahoki

Speed of dark: Boris Eldagsen

Artist Boris Eldagsen and writer Robert Cook are both looking down the barrel of forty. Cook is fascinated by other members of his exact generation. In his words: 'They are alternative selves, part of my body. Mid-life is hard life, the life as lived not the life not lived, the other path, the no stepping back.' Cook and Boris did not meet.

Robert Cook

53rd Venice Biennale: Making Worlds

53rd Venice Biennale: Making Worlds Bantin Duniyan, Hacer Mundos Director: Daniel Birnbaum 7 June – 22 November 2009

Joanna Mendelssohn

Inside Sydney's new Outsider art centre

Outsider Art is enjoying increasing attention in Australia. STOARC – the Self-Taught and Outsider Art Research Collection – at the University of Sydney opened its public face at Callan Park Gallery in March 2009.

Colin Rhodes

The Underpass Motel

This project grew as an extension of a Fellowship awarded to Stuart Elliott in 2006 from ArtsWA – the major arts funding body of the WA Government. Artists involved: Stuart Elliott, Graham Taylor, Patrizia Tonello, Amanda Williams, Peter Dailey, Ben Jones, Richard Heath and Si Hummerston. The Underpass Motel, DVD premiere and gallery exhibition opens at Turner Galleries 9 October - 7 November 2009. www.turnergalleries.com.au Visit the website: http://members.iinet.net.au/~reuham/theunderpassmotel.html

Stuart Elliott

The Second Life of Pye: Daniel Jay Mounsey

Social media is the new buzz word and trend - like it or not. Daniel Jay Mounsey is ahead of the pack in having Pyewacket Kazyanenko as his well-established alter-ego in Second Life, AND collaborating and performing online through an avatar with Stelarc and others, AND(!) performing onstage live as anime character Hell Girl. Curator and writer Charity Bramwell interviewed all she could find of him.

Charity Bramwell

Not Absolute

Not Absolute Curator: Janice Lally Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide 24 July – 27 September 2009

Annika Evans

Artrave

Artlink

Astra and the ventilation hypothesis

Astra Howard’s 'Action Research/Performances' necessarily require participation by members of the public. This makes them unpredictable. Astra’s presence is not about entertainment. It is not a show. There is no star. There is no attempt to expose any individual. There are simply sincere attempts to understand them. Astra acknowledges and responds sincerely to one of our deepest and most affective human needs – our need for emotional expression. Our need to have our voice heard. Our need to vent.

Eliza Muldoon

Upturns, Props and Portals: Bec Stevens

Upturns, Props and Portals: Bec Stevens Curator: Sean Kelly Kelly’s Garden Curated Projects Series 1 Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart 5 June – 3 July 2009

Philip Watkins

Strange bedfellows

Why write or think about the work of Patricia Piccinini and Richard Billingham together? Because the work of each of them elicits a visceral response, a response characterised by emotion and gut feeling. Because the border between humans and animals and the relationships between us are examined by both Piccinini and Billingham in a manner that emphasises our relatedness. These are intensely moral artworks with a strong documentary flavour that ask us questions about responsibility and connection that go to the very heart of our lives.http://www.artlink.com.au/admin/article_edit.cfm?id=3280

Stephanie Radok

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