Trepang: crossing cultures / creating connections

by Alison Inglis and Susan Lowish

Published June 2012

Trepang: Crossing cultures, creating connections

The exhibition 'Trepang: China & the story of Macassan-Aboriginal trade' opened in the Capital Museum, Beijing on 1 April 2011 and at the Melbourne Museum on 23 July 2011.
Melbourne-based academics Susan Lowish and Alison Inglis describe the exhibition's genesis and some of the issues that it raises in terms of cultures, history and collaboration.

Published June 2012

Science Fictions: Tricky Walsh

Bett Gallery, Hobart
9 – 31 March 2012

Published June 2012

Tu Di Shen Ti, Our Land Our Body: the Ngaanyatjarra poetic goes to China

The exhibition 'Tu Di Shen Ti – Our Land Our Body, Masterworks of the Warburton Collection', was seen in China by about a quarter of a million people, across seven venues, throughout 2011. Director of the Warburton Arts Project Gary Proctor describes how the exhibition came about, what it looked like and what its goal are.

Published June 2012

Big wave: Desert Country

Legendary curator John Kean looks at three recent large exhibitions of Aboriginal art - Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, Desert Country and Living Water, and questions whether the same spirit sings in all of them.

Published June 2012

No Place without Other Places: Spinifex Arts Project at fifteen years

University of Western Australia lecturer Darren Jorgensen examine the Spinifex Arts Project from its inception with reference to a new exhibition happening August-October 2012 at John Curtin Gallery and asks the big question: "What would it mean if Aboriginal artists were not tied to language groups, communities, art centres and regional styles?"

Published June 2012

Reviewing Our Mob: A state-wide celebration of South Australian Indigenous art

Our Mob is a state-wide celebration of South Australian Indigenous art held annually at the Adelaide Festival Centre since 2006. Curator Susan Jenkins who worked on it for three years from 2009-2011 analyses what works about Our Mob and what the future might be.

Published June 2012

Culture Warriors as cultural diplomacy

Senior lecturer at the College of Fine Arts (CoFA), University of New South Wales, Gail McDonald analyses the exhibition Culture Warriors, the first National Indigenous Art Triennial curated by Brenda L. Croft, that travelled to Washington in 2009. McDonald argues that, rather than diplomatic blandness, real political confrontation was present in the exhibition.

Published June 2012

Into Cosmos: Adelaide Festival Artists' Week 2012

Published June 2012

Andrew McQualter: A partial index

Daine Singer, Melbourne
27 January - 3 March 2012

Published June 2012

FotoFreo 2012: The City of Fremantle Festival of Photography

Perth, Western Australia
17 March – 15 April 2012

Published June 2012

Obscured by Light: Pamela Lofts and Kim Mahood

Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs 25 February – 25 March 2012

Published June 2012