Art and the Economy
Issue 12:3 | September 1992
What does the recession mean for artworkers? Looks at all the hard issues providing for the art worker a guide to the economy. Includes reflections on people and place, artists exchange with the usual abundance of reviews and points of view. Reviews
In this issue
Aboriginal Art, the Nation State Suburbia
In Englishwe use the word 'country' in two main senses: to refer to nation states, and to speak about rural lands beyond the big cities and their suburbs. In Australia there is historically a third zone out past the country; the now quickly shrinking Outback.
What is Australian Work?
I am often asked where I originally come from. And, if I am in a wicked mood, I will try to embarass the questioner with some non-answer. A persistent enquirer will ignore the flippancy and further qualify their question by rephrasing the terminology to ask whether I was born in Australia (which incidentally, was the form the question was usually couched in up to the 1980s when issues of multiculturalism introduced a so-called obscure politeness.
Proposals from Invisible Worlds
This paper is almost all stories. Each one is part of much larger ones about cultures changing and moving to occupy the same geographies. We can speak of the conflicts and possibilities that seem to ignite by spontaneous combustion in these sites. But there is a series of sites from which I wish to speak: spaces of crisis that seem to lie within my person. B/w photographs of ritual and shrine.
The Recession and the Arts
The theme in this article is that the recession will have significant implications for the arts community. The argument is that the recession is not just a temporary phenomenon, related to a decline in demand, but is the product of weaknesses in the Australian economy and of the peculiar nature of economic growth in the 1980s....
Art, Sports Stars and the Depression: Knocking at the Door of the Special World
Our sports stars are successful because they are not burdened by funding programs which dribble a meagre supply to an army of unknown novices....the arts need radical strategies to help them survive the recession and achieve greater audience participation. (this article is responded to by Norm Austin, the Deputy Director of the Art Gallery of NSW).
A response to the Article by Nelson English
A response to the article by Nelson English in this issue of Artlink Volume 12 no 3.
Arts and the Economy?
Just recently I was giving a lecture to a large group of arts people when a person in the audience had a go at me for talking about the economy of the arts and not about art. I, too, am very conscious of the intellectual dilemma in this regard.
The Silence of the Lambs: Before Leaving for a Trip Abroad
Looks at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Circular Quay in Sydney and the issue of economics.
The Artist, the Gallery and the Recession
In thinking about the repercussions of the recession for artists and galleries, I am worried that our dismay at the present hardship and heartbreak may blind us to the fundamental recession related changes to the artist-gallery system which tend to the detriment of artists and forever endanger the quality and excitement of the Australian art scene.
The Arts- Survival of the BIGGEST?
The arts community of Australia has weathered the recession extremely well. While shopkeepers are shutting their doors, factories are shedding their workers, and the average Australian contemplates life in the same house for the next five years, the average artist continues on pretty much as always.
Incidental Benefits: Arts Industry Rhetoric and Policy Objectives
The notion of the arts as an industry dates in Australia from about 10 years ago with the beginnings of statistical data measuring the economic impact of artistic activity. ... (Response to this article by Anna Ward, Director of the National Association of Visual Arts also in this issue of Artlink.)
A Response to 'Incidental Benefits'
Response to the article by Peter Anderson in this issue of Artlink examining arts industry rhetoric and policy objectives.
The Australia Shop -- EXPO 92 Seville
The Australian Government's decision to participate in Expo 92 in Seville, the biggest Expo this century, has culminated in a presence recently described in a 'Best of Expo Guide' as "high spirited in mood and one of the most distinctive pavilions at Expo."
The Ham Museum ARCO 1992
Critically examines the 11th manifestation of the international art fair ARCO in Madrid. Photographs of the art fair included in the article.
Predicaments of Furniture Design
No matter what we say about furniture, it seems to have been said before. Small wonder that painting and installation attracts our writers more than furniture, when discourse about tables and chairs is confined to the rehearsal of so many grim platitudes. But if banality beleaguers the objects themselves, it is still more oppressively unavoidable in discussion of the unfortunate Australian industries of furniture design and manufacture.
The Business of Art
It's not easy to make a conference look sexy - especially when it's about regional galleries. But the team at the five year old Regional Galleries Association of Queensland managed just that in the late winter sunshine of Cairns last year.
Culture as Transformation: ARX
Artist's regional exchange (ARX). Events such as ARX in Perth are rare and potentially of such value for me that, although not a participating artist this time, I was determined to travel from the east to attend. Four views on the exchange See also the articles by Ian Howard, Anne Kirker and Adrian Jones in this issue of Artlink.
Towards a Legitimate Interest
The most important questions that arose from ARX3 related to the issue of legitimacy of interest. Four views on the exchange See also the articles by Vivienne Binns, Anne Kirker and Adrian Jones in this issue of Artlink.
Dialogue with Thailand
Interview format with Dr Poshyananda One of Four views on the exchange. See also the articles by Vivienne Binns, Ian Howard and Adrian Jones in this issue of Artlink.
Managing ARX
Written by the co-ordinator of the past three ARX events which have taken place in Perth Western Australia. Four views on the exchange See also the articles by Vivienne Binns, Anne Kirker and Ian Howard in this issue of Artlink.
There's Magic in your Hands
Looks at the artist in residence program for Thancoupie at the Hamley Bridge Primary School South Australia in May 1992.
Vicious Circles: Women's Exclusion from Contemporary Visual Art
Written with Cassandra Cavanaugh with graphs illustrating participation of women in the various sectors of the visual arts.
The Brush-Off Syndrome: Stage Design, History and Visual Art in Adelaide
Clear discussion of the issues facing stage and set designers in the visual arts world.
Incomplete Identities: A Critical Study of the Work of Mike Parr
Book review Identities: A Critical Study of the Work of Mike Parr
David Broomfield
University of Western Australia Press
330 pp
Demystifying Art Criticism
Book review Art Connections
Jenny Aland and Max Darby
Heinemann, Melbourne 1991
RRP $29.95
The Money, the Means and the Info...
Book review The Money and the Means: Grants, Scholarships and Opportunities for Professional Development
Art Museums Association of Australia 1992
RRP $8.00
Between the Clues Lies the Evidence
Exhibition review Suzanne Treister
Post West Gallery
22 - 31 May 1992
Metaphors of Mortality: Catherine Truman
Exhibition review Life Boat: Carvings by Catherine Truman
Jam Factory Gallery
South Australia
10 July - 9 August 1992
The Fourth Side of the Triangle: Bronwyn Oliver
Exhibition review Bronwyn Oliver
Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre Adelaide, South Australia
29 May - 18 July 1992
Uncertainly Thinking
Exhibition review Blink
Contemporary Art Centre
Adelaide
May 1992
Give Me a Home Among the Gum Trees...
Exhibition review Backyards Exhibition
Prospect Gallery
21 June - 12 July 1992
Sites in Relation to Themselves
Exhibition review 42 Degrees South and 175 Degrees East
Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre
16 June - 1 August 2000
Putting in the Boot - Nicely
Exhibition review Do Something with a Blunstone
Chameleon Gallery
Hobart Tasmania
A Belgian Artist's Work in Tasmania
Exhibition review Chantal Delrue: Recent Works
Dick Bett Gallery
Hobart, Tasmania
February - March 1992