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

Presences in the land: Nici Cumpston

Adelaide-based artist and curator Nici Cumpston's work is examined by Newcastle-based artist and curator Una Rey. Cumpston's work studies her family and ancestral history as well as being inextricably concerned with environmental issues.

Published June 2012

Restless - Adelaide International 2012

Curator: Victoria Lynn
Flinders University City Gallery
Samstag Museum of Art
Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia
Australian Experimental Art Foundation
March 2012

Published June 2012

Tandanya: the case for home

The National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, known as Tandanya, was established in 1989 in Adelaide. Philip Watkins, Artistic and Cultural Director of Tandanya, 2006-2011, said: “This is Tandanya’s role – to show our world through our eyes, to tell our stories and to sing our songs with our voices.” Curator, educator and writer Sara White reviews Tandanya's 23 years of art and asks "Does Australia need more Tandanyas?"

Published June 2012

The performative print: Alick Tipoti's Girelal

Torres Strait Islander artist Alick Tipoti has developed a rigorous and passionate art practice to ensure the maintenance and survival of his cultural traditions. Printmaker Jan Hogan explores the making and the experience of Tipoti's 8 metre long linocut Girelal hung in the 18th Biennale of Sydney 2012.

Published June 2012

Postcards from China

Multi-disciplinary artists Jason Wing, who has both Aboriginal and Chinese forebears, undertook a residency in Xucun, a remote village in China, where Chinese artists Qu Yuan and Shen Shaomin have established the Xucun Art Commune in order to protect the village's beauty and heritage.

Published June 2012

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”.

Published June 2012

The Ghost Net art project

Program Director for Ghost Nets Australia Sue Ryan describes how the Ghost Net Art Project began and what it is all about - people using eco-trash to share stories and express their creativity.

Published June 2012

The elephant in the room: public art in Brisbane

Artist-activist Fiona Foley recounts a recent incident of the commissioning of a public art work for Kurilpa (place of the kuril or native water rat). Kurilpa is the cultural precinct where GOMA is located. Foley imagines works by prominent Queensland Aboriginal artists dotted along that place.

Published June 2012

Parallel Collisions: 2012 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

2 March to 29 April 2012
Art Gallery of South Australia
Curators: Natasha Bullock, Alexie Glass-Kantor

Published June 2012

Into Cosmos: Adelaide Festival Artists' Week 2012

Published June 2012

I Forgive You: Bindi Cole's seventy times seven

Bruce McLean, Curator of Indigenous Art at the Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art, writes about Bindi Cole's work and how it links personal and historical notions of forgiveness.

Published June 2012