Issues

Issue 40:1 | March 2020 | It's Time
It's Time
Issue 40:1 | March 2020
Issue 29:1 | March 2009 | Time
Time
Issue 29:1 | March 2009
Issue 21:4 | December 2001 | Best Practice: Export Quality
Best Practice: Export Quality
Issue 21:4 | December 2001

Articles

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Nicholas Folland: Secondhand time

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

Sometime on from this provocative trueism attributed to Fredric Jameson or Slavoj Žižek, attempting to capture the momentum of the climate crisis and an associated distrust of the ability of governing bodies to tackle the systemic imbalances has proved to be a growth industry for die-hard aesthetes. This is the new normal, a contagious meme, signalling the putative end times.

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Art in the time of the burning

As Samuel Johnson said to Boswell, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

I thought of this definitive comment on time as I was writing this article in late December 2019 in the Blue Mountains, in forty degrees temperatures as smoke swirled around outside from fire storms only kilometres away. We had been told to evacuate but we didn’t, we’d been through this before. The car was loaded up, the cats locked in the house and their cages ready to pack and run. But immanent immolation did not concentrate my mind, or only in the wrong way as I compulsively checked FiresNearMe and messaged friends to check they were okay. They often weren’t: several were burnt out, many had life-threatening escapes, and evacuations were commonplace. My friend Ronnie Ayliffe was posting videos of burning trees falling onto the road as she fled her farm and headed for Cobargo, itself already on fire.

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dreamTime
An analysis of Aboriginal conceptions of time and its similarity to the ideas of modern physics, science fiction, and those of artists such as Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Breton, Klein and Richter, and philosophers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Benjamin, Deleuze and Derrida. They too have sought to feel and know spacetime in the pressing and intimate way that Aborigines do.
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Daniel Crooks: the future of the past
An edited version of a lecture by Laurence Simmons, Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at the University of Auckland, given in association with Daniel Crooks' exhibition everywhere instantly curated by Justin Paton at the Christchurch Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu in 2008. Simmons links Crooks' work to Walter Benjamin's Angel of History and the experiments of Etienne-Jules Marey, the inventor of chronophotography.
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About visual imagery, intuition, and teleportation
Melentie Pandilovski's article is adapted from a paper he gave at the ISEA conference in Singapore in 2008. He writes about interactions between the arts, science and technology through looking at the work of British artist Lei Cox's work Teleportation Experiment.
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Joe Felber: Moments of time
Joe Felber's art practice is interdisciplinary and acquisitive, absorbing, assembling, composing and de-composing, playing and re-playing elements from a vast collection of fragments collected across the world in cities and art galleries.
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Atomic Clock: microtime of the molecular and good old-fashioned molar beer
The responses of digital artists David Haines, Jon Hunter and Pete Newman to the molecular scale on which our world is now micromanaged are contrasted with the work of the late Jon Wah whose work stopped time with a saddhu-like discipline of the will. Jon Wah died in August 2008, aged 27. A posthumous retrospective was held for him at Serial Space, Chippendale, Sydney, 8-18 December 2008.
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Life and times: Eternal wake in three chapters
Life. Death. Thereafter was at Silvershot Gallery in Melbourne from 16 September  29 November 2008. Melbourne-based curator Mark Feary produced a relatively new exhibition model, three separate, distinct, but thematically entwined shows, running end to end for eighteen days each showing the work of Kate Just, Steve Carr, Patricia Piccinini, Paolo Canevari, Rob McLeish, Ronnie van Hout, Jesper Just, Jason Greig, Sally Blenheim and Blair Trethowan.
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On talking walls
Recent sound and electronic media work by two Tasmanian artists Scot Cotterell and Matt Warren remaster images and sounds from older technology to make a past-present present.
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Enduring duration
Two video artists William Mansfield and William Lamson whose recent works pay homage to the 'poetics of the banal' and the history of durational practice.
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Crystalline signs of the small and poetic
In Audrey Lams Under Development (2007), two detectives investigating a murder seek answers in an ominous, half-built structure. Close attention to the lush, inky compositions reveals the frozen temporality of a Brisbane landmark: the film records the historic erection of the Gallery of Modern Art.
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Time and motion studies: Twin strategies
Gabriella and Silvana Mangano undertake their art as a shared style of communication between siblings. Now showing at MUMA (Monash University Museum of Art) their collaborative work embraces intimacy and repetition in performance, drawing, video, sound and installation.
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OK with my decay: Encounters with chronology
Susan Milne, Izabela Pluta, Annie Hogan and Hannah Bertram work with the idea of the theatre of decline set within the grounds of the domestic environment.
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Ghost in the backyard
Using the work of two current Antipodean artists, Amy-Jo Jory and David Pledger, Melbourne-based Kate Sandford explores the place of suburbia in our consciousness and the way that even though real suburbia has changed, some representations of it have stayed the same.
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Keep your eyes on the prize: Hold on, Aboriginal art competitions, ethical dilemmas and mining companies
In this article Djon Mundine poses a prolific and detailed insight into the world of art in relation to what art is, how can it be judged and as a re-occurring theme, the alleged honesty in contemporary art. Mundine predominately focuses on Aboriginal art and the political, ethical and criterial implications modern society imposes on it. That is to say what can be deemed an honest work of art that expresses the artists intentions but also allows the artwork to speak for itself. Mundine talks about indigenous artwork and how it was viewed by the original colinisers of Australia. Particularly how the colinisers set down criteria towards what a valuable artwork was. Further elaborating on competitions whereby artworks are judged in accordance to rules that pose more questions in relation to what an honest or pure artwork is. Mundine cites several quotations that portray interesting examples that reinforce his argument towards modern day criticism and objectivity. The final message being to what extent can any one person be declared appropriated to criticising artwork and judging its authenticity, quality and honesty. Mundine states that we should only hope for honesty in today's artwork irrespective of its outside marketed criticism. All in all Mundine presents the reader with an insightful article that will leave you questioning the integrity of today's critical approach to fine art.
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Jeffrey Smart: The question of portraiture
Jeffrey Smart: the question of portraiture, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 4 March - 13 April, 2009.
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Avoiding myth and message: Australian artists and the literary world
avoiding myth and message: Australia artist and the literary world, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 7 April  12 July 2009, curator: Glenn Barkley.
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Contemporary Australia: Optimism
Contemporary Australia: Optimism Curatorial Manager: Julie Ewington Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane 15 November 2008  22 February 2009
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Open Air: Portraits in the landscape
Open Air: Portraits in the landscape Curators: Wally Caruana, Michael Desmond, Andrew Sayers National Portrait Gallery (NPG) 4 December 2008  1 March 2009
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Rosalie Gascoigne
Rosalie Gascoigne The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia 19 December 2008  15 March 2009 Curator: Kelly Gelatly
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Patricia Piccinini: Related Individuals
Patricia Piccinini: Related Individuals Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney 12 November  6 December 2008
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Discord: Art from MONA
Discord: Art from MONA Curator: Nicole Durling 9 January  1 February 2009 Salamanca Arts Centre and various locations
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Silver Artrage 25
Silver Artrage 25 Curators: Andrew Gaynor, Marcus Canning Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) 18 October  21 November 2008
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Gooch's Utopia: collected works from the Central Desert
Goochs Utopia: collected works from the Central Desert Curator: Fiona Salmon Flinders University Art Museum 3 October  23 November 2008 Riddoch Art Gallery 5 December 2008  8 February 2009
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Lockhart River 'Old Girls'
Lockhart River Old Girls Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane 26 November  20 December 2008
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Girls, Girls, Girls
Girls, Girls, Girls Carlton Hotel, Melbourne Curators: Lyndal Walker, Nat Thomas 23 October  8 November 2008
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Better Places
Better Places Curator: Melissa Keys Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) 4 December 2008  1 February 2009
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Passage
Passage Sara Maher Moonah Arts Centre, Hobart 10  23 December 2008
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Trades
Trades JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design 24 October  7 December 2008
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The Christmas Tree Bucket: Trent Parke's Family Album
The Christmas Tree Bucket: Trent Parkes Family Album Australian Centre for Photography 21 November 2008  24 January 2009
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Brook's way with kinds, categories and memes
The Awful Truth About What Art Is by Donald Brook, published by Artlink 2008 RRP $38.50 Reviewed by Lucas Ihlein The Awful Truth About What Art Is can be ordered online at www.artlink.com.au
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Light Years: William Robinson and the Creation Story
Art for William Robinson has always been an intensely personal exercise, from the early domestic interiors, suffused with love for his family, to the hard-won intimacy of his relationship with the wilderness in which he now lives. Yet the animating principle of his work in its ever changing fashion is its expression of faith. Robinsons landscape is unquestionably a God-revealed world; what is in question is the relation of man to that universe. As much as Robinson's art is a faithful reflection of his immediate environment, it is drawn from the memory of an experience in a landscape.
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Post Natural Nature: Rosemary Laing
Brisbane born Rosemary Laing is one artist who is fully up to speed with the photographic and technological changes in supermodernity. Her work conveys better than most the strange double life we lead today: one half viscerally embodied, the other half immaterial and virtual. Like an aviation physicist Laing tries to push the envelope of what can be represented in photography. Works such as Natural Disasters (1988), Flight Research (2000) and Groundspeed are here examined.
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Gordon Bennett's Art: The Aura of Origin
With a directness and clarity born from genuine insight, Gordon Bennetts art gives form to the structure of an invisible repetitive history haunting the psyches of non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians alike. This text gives rise to Bennett's fierce artistic practice - including an examination of the works Outsider, Am I scared? and the Notes to Basquiat and Home Decor series. These works are looked at to reveal his recent concerns with the mechanisms of doubling, moving beyond the fatal powers of representation and indeed beyond a primary concern with Australian heritage to take on the world.
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Ginger Riley Munduwalawala: A Seeing Artist
Ginger Rileys superlative colour sense sets him apart from other Indigenous Australian artists. His unique landscape manner, studded with icons of identity and place, is instantly recognisable yet it has attracted both passionate acclaim and vitriolic criticism. Riley has forged his own way of encapsulating and celebrating the grand sweep and detailed minutiae of a particular tract of land in Southeast Arnhem Land, over which he now holds native title through his role as djungkayi (caretaker). In order to understand why Riley stands alone as an Indigenous painter, Ryan looks at his personal life history and the wellsprings of his art: his intimate connection to his mother's country.
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Imants Tillers and Positive Value
Artlink asked Ian North to interview Imants Tillers for this issue, in view of North's longstanding interest in both Tiller's work and the landscape genre generally. North introduces the artist from his early recognition as a leading conceptual artist in the 1970's and pre-eminent postmodernist thereafter, working consistently according to strategies he evolved during the 1980's. This interview examines some of the key works and local concerns of Tiller's ongoing artistic practice.
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Rosslynd Piggott: Perfect/Sense
In the context of Melbourne art, Rosslynd Piggott could be linked to a significant movement of young artists who emerged in the 1980's. Her earlier works were figurative compositions which presented painterly/philosophical essays upon the nature of water, clouds and impermanence through surrealistic juxtapositions. This article follows her career from the early painting days through to her current concerns with mediums such as sculpture, installation and more recently performance.
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Fiona Foley: Knowing Where to Look
Fiona Foley's career as an artist has resulted in a diverse practice united by a dedication to indigenous issues that are of relevance to all Australians. Her presence as an artist, advocate, activist and identity in the Australian cultural scene has remained poised and proud for over two decades. From her involvement in the formation of the Boomalli Ko-operative to her often hard-hitting presence as a public speaker and the lyrical and enchanting nature of her images, Foley has continued to disturb assumptions and challenge clichés about the way Australians think of themselves and the place we inhabit. Ephemeral Landscapes (1990), Ya Kari - speak for (2001), Kunmarin - wooden shield (2001) and other works are here discussed.
Polemic: The Undoing of Art History (Part I)

In this part 1, the viability of the subject called Art History is challenged, using the terms art and work of art in a conventional way. The nature of histories as they are ascribed to kinds, especially art as a kindcultural kinds, the problems associated with generalisations and the dilemma for the Macho art historianare ideas addressed through this text.

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Jeffrey Smart Drawings and Studies 1942-2001
Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Melbourne 13 October - 4 November 2001
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Nicholas Folland
Greenaway Art Gallery 39 Rundle Street, Adelaide 1 - 26 August 2001
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Green Line: Pip McManus
Watch this Space, Alice Springs June 23 - July 7 24 HR Art, Darwin July 20 - August 11
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NO MUTTERING
Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney 4 October - 3 November 2001 

Queensland College of Art Gallery, Griffith University, 25 Jan - 24 Feb 2002
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18th National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Award
Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory 15 September 2001 - 6 January, 2002
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swallowswenson
Sculptural works by Ricky Swallow and Erick Swenson Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 1 August - 4 November 2001
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KaltjaNOW
Wakefield Press in association with the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute - Tandanya Softcover 170pp 
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LOUNGE - Daniel Gottin & Jurek Wybraniec
8 - 29 September 2001 Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, Perth
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Compulsion: Stewart MacFarlane
Brisbane City Gallery 25 October - 9 December
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Wide Open
Lawrence Wilson Gallery, Perth 14 September - 21 October 2001
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Paul Hoban
Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide 1-26 August 2001
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Too Strange, Matt Calvert
CAST Gallery, Hobart 7 - 29 July 2001
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Blighted Paradise: Colonial Visions of Northern Australia
Rockhampton Art Gallery 12 October - 25 November 2001
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Home is where the heart is
University of South Australia Art Museum, 13 September - 20 October, 2001
Kathleen Petyarre: Genius of Place

Essays by Christine Nicholls and Ian North, Wakefield Press in assoc with SALA Week

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