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.

More from this Issue

Artrave

Stephanie Britton

Sitting & connecting: Goulburn Art Class 2-0-1-1

Goulburn Class 2-0-1-1 was an exhibition curated by Djon Mundine at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery of work made by prisoners at the local Correction Centre in response to ten one day workshops in the prison by seven Aboriginal artists whose work was also in the show. Writer and editor Maurice O'Riordan reviews the exhibition and more importantly the processes it involved.

Maurice O'Riordan

Archie Moore: drilling deep

Freelance curator and writer Tim Morrell studies the art practice of Brisbane-based Archie Moore which is emphatically free from any signature style and is concerned with sharing his experience as an Indigenous Australian in order to put viewers 'in his shoes'.

Timothy Morrell

A place of our own

This conversation between curator Hetti Perkins and co-editor Daniel Browning looks at Perkins call for a National Institution, or Centre, of Indigenous Art, which might become, as she puts it, “a living space that breathes culture”.

Daniel Browning and Hetti Perkins

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.

Gay McDonald

Artefacts of authenticity

Artist and lecturer Garry Jones is undertaking a Phd at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra. In this article he reveals some of his investigations of Aboriginal artefacts in museum collections and questions notions of authenticity, reclamation and reinvigoration of the past in contemporary Aboriginal art.

Garry Jones

The performative print: Alick Tipoti's Girelal

Jan Hogan

Long Way Home: A celebration of 21 years of Yunggorendi First Nations Centre

Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research at Flinders University, celebrated 21 years of operation in 2011 with an exhibition of work selected by staff and students from the collection of Flinders University Art Museum. Artist Ali Gumillya Baker critically reviews selected works in the exhibition and the issues they raise.

Ali Gumillya Baker

Editorial: Making history

Stephanie Radok takes the temperature of Aboriginal art and history in 2012.

Stephanie Radok

Andrew McQualter: A partial index

Daine Singer, Melbourne 27 January - 3 March 2012

Emily Cormack

How did Aborigines invent the idea of contemporary art?

Brenda L Croft, artist, curator and Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Experimental Arts, UNSW, reviews and finds gaps in the big pink book put together over many years by Ian McLean that collects iconic bits of writing about Aboriginal art and knits them together.

Brenda L Croft

Spaced: Art out of place

Artistic Director: Marco Marcon Fremantle Arts Centre 4 February - 11 March 2012

Nien Schwarz

View all articles in this issue