Pretty Baby
Collecting and making dolls grows in popularity in Australia, but members of Australia's arts industry are relatively under-represented in the ranks of doll collectors. Original dolls speak of the culture that produces them.
More from this Issue
Made in WA: A Sculptor's Alternative Practice
Although well known in regional art histories, Western Australian sculptor Edward Kohler has a far wider importance. Economic survival led him to blend popular and high art long before it was standard practice. With the Piccadilly Theatre reliefs of 1938, the sheer exuberance and infectious quality of a positive (if unconscious) kitsch aesthetic entered professional Australian art 60 years ago: Hollywood meets Olympia.
Kitschville - The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
...But the Mardi Gras will always be a child of the seventies. Remember that mantra 'the personal is political'. In spite of the co-option and mainstreaming of Lesbian and Gay culture this wonderful spectacularly amateurish display (of difference) cannot help but be a politicised intervention.
It's Things That Matter
Book review The Barossa Folk: Germanic Furniture and Craft Traditions in Australia
By Noris Ioannou
Craftsman House
1995
Motor-Cross Dressing
Issues of stereo-typing, conforming behaviour and fun and practicality are looked at in an observation of an MG driver.
Bruising as R & D
Livid Festival was launched in Brisbane in 1988 with the broad altruistic aim of 'giving a go' to local Brisbane bands, performers and visual artists. Within three years the festival had grown exponentially and included a wide range of feature guest artists.
The Other Big F-Word
Monash University Gallery presented Fashion, Decor, Interiors, curated by Natalie King 7 June - 15 July 1995, high-lighting aspects of advertising, mass production and architectural design through the work of Lyndal Walker, Tony Clark and Stephen Bram -- extracts from the exhibition catalogue.
Bigs R Us
Australians have a natural thirst for objects of grand scale, however ridiculous their theme or location or context. From big sandfly, big axe to big oyster and beyond, we are the big desert island that experiences big wets and big dries, little wonder someone made a Big Tap to remind us...we are big drinkers.
Inflecting the Museum
Exhibition review Litteraria
Simryn Gill and Robert MacPherson
Artists in residence at the South Australian Museum
16 September - 31 December 1995
Worms and Roses
The first Australian garden books put vegetables first but by the mid 19th century the language of flowers was in vogue. Gardens, flowers and art...
Wer ist Unschuldig?
This issue of Artlink meanders (with kitschy loucheness rather than formalist stringency) around 'taste' bad and good, the workings of taste and various permutations of cultural expression in present day Australia. Kitsch is scrutinised.
Ethereal Days
Exhibition review Defrosting Familiar Tales
Jo Crawford, Bev Hogg
Jam Factory Gallery
Adelaide South Australia
7 July - 27 August 1995
Making and Breaking
Exhibition review Cross Fibre
Lia Gill Pam Lofts and NT women working with fibre
24 Hour Art Darwin, Northern Territory
18 August - 2 September 1995