Boys and Girls: Pierre et Gilles' Sydney Mardi Gras Poster

Cover of Boys and Girls: Pierre et Gilles' Sydney Mardi Gras Poster
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Writing through the archive: the art writing marathon
Feature
Jacqueline Millner
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Ethics and aesthetics: D Harding, Luciano Benetton and Terra Incognita: inclusiveness is a good way
Feature
Ian McLean

Published 30 March 2022
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In conversation: Sebastian Goldspink and Una Rey
Feature
Sebastian Goldspink and Una Rey

Published 30 March 2022
Japan Foundation
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The museum fell silent
Feature
Elspeth Pitt

Published 30 March 2022
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Kings of wishful thinking: internet irony and its illusionary critics
Feature
Olivia Bennett

Published 30 March 2022
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Damper is a language word for art
Feature
Dominique Chen

Published 30 March 2022
Samstag Museum
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Someone has to be innocent: a reflection on the post-2020 art critic
Feature
John Mateer

Published 30 March 2022
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A case for writing contemporary art history
Feature
Aneta Trajkoski

Published 30 March 2022

Examines the 1995 poster for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. How appropriate though, at the moment when Mardi Gras had successfully commodified itself as a cultural event, that its key representation should be through international glamour product photography.

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More from this Issue Full Issue Contents

Made in WA: A Sculptor's Alternative Practice
Feature
Robyn Taylor

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.

Published December 1995
Bigs R Us
Feature
Paul Ryan

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.

Published December 1995
The Other Big F-Word
Feature
Juliette Peers

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.

Published December 1995
Worms and Roses
Feature
M E McGuire

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...

Published December 1995
Mary MacKillop Kitsch
Feature
Anne Loxley

I confess to a feeling of great affection for Mary MacKillop (1842 - 1909), vernacular culture and kitsch, and great enthusiasm for the idea of an Australian Vatican - an extravagant museum which is also a major site of pilgrimage.

Published December 1995
Making and Breaking
Review
Suzanne Spunner

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

Published December 1995
Pretty Baby
Feature
Juliette Peers

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.

Published December 1995
The Taste Factor
Feature
Christopher Heathcote

When I was an art critic, I quickly grew to dislike the word 'taste'. It was a convenient tool used to dismiss reviews by people who didn't like what I had to say. Whenever I delivered a negative crit upon a widely revered artist, or a positive crit on a very minor figure, they complained that I was allowing my taste to undermine my professionalism.

Published December 1995
Kitschoprenia
Feature
Robert Nelson

Our affection for kitsch is a benign form of aesthetic hypocrisy. My generation, give or take 15 years, adores kitsch. We want to have some badness; it's fun: you laugh both at your dismay for an object and your perplexity over the delight that it brings. In a broad cultural sense, my generation is kitschophilic; and this means, I suppose, not that we love the kitschy object with innocence but that we love the contempt which the kitschy object arouses.

Published December 1995
Wer ist Unschuldig?
Editorial
Juliette Peers

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.

Published December 1995
Cakes for Show: The Last Great Undigested Art
Feature
Joan Kerr

That these same institutions have never seriously attempted to digest the great crafty, feminine art of traditional cake decoration is more regrettable. Icons, after all, are as valued as the most avant-garde compostion if made of oil paint and gold leaf on wood. When future generations visit our hallowed aesthetic halls, let them meet cake!

Published December 1995
Reathing, Writhing and Fainting in Coils: Richard Grayson
Review
Linda Marie Walker

Exhibition review Received
Richard Grayson
Greenaway Art Gallery
Adelaide South Australia
12 July - 6 August 1995

Published December 1995
 
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