Culture/Agriculture
Issue 15:1 | March 1995
This issue explores the practical and epistemological divide between culture and agriculture, and concerns surrounding the ecological threats to our lands and waterways that impact on evolving perspectives of land management. Responding to interpretations of the food chain as both biological and socio-political, it is driven by diverse cultural perspectives and registers in thought and practice.
In this issue
Culture/Agriculture
Agriculture and culture go back a long way. The fact that they actually meet and marry in the word 'cultivation' makes this clear....when it comes to direct experience, city and country are more distinct in Australia than in many countries.
Art about farming, farming as an art
The daily experience of tending a tract of land in the south-east of South Australia is the raw material of artist–farmer James Darling. The land which comprises Duck Island is watercourse country where sand, water, salt and native vegetation are the elements from which, over decades of passionate attention, he and his partner Lesley Forwood have developed a farm which includes a special salt-tolerant grass for their cattle. His exhibition, Define the Country, at Riddoch Art Gallery in Mount Gambier is a response to this farmed landscape.
A Piece of EcoCity
The Halifax EcoCity Project is not just the seed for a future ecological Adelaide; it is the embodiment of a new paradigm that is sweeping the planet.
Asian Tucker in the NT - new trend, old ecology
An installation work 'Guarding Civilization's Rim' a collaborative effort by 'The Personal Museum' comprising three Queensland artists opened in Townsville in September 1994. The project has been specifically created for and about northern Australia - the last frontier.
Cultivated anatomy: Fiona Hall's Garden of Earthly Delights
Culture/ Agriculture
Story 1: A story about land owners and nomads. Story 2: Never terra nullius. Story 3: Genetic imperialism. Story 4: The politicization of hunger. Story 5: Kunde and the perception of order.
Harsh Realities: Artists and the Land
Even in the shiny spaces of the big cities, for some the dirt of the paddocks is only just below the surface. Michael Eather talks to three artists who were born and raised in the country, about their current attitudes to the land as a place of production.
Husbandry and the Coporate Collection
Making taste? Making money? Melbourne historian Juliet Peers scrutinises a group of books and catalogues on corporate art collections to see whether boardroom fancies and their lavish publications reflect a wider role in shaping popular visions of Australian painting.
Living with the Land
If there is a contemporary issue for landscape artist to engage with, it must be the process of developing a relationship with the landscape, even if it is at the level of s sustain[able] failure, a low level antagonism or an uneasy peace. It is as difficult and as complex as any other issue, and it ultimately speaks of the human condition.
Photographing the Drought
"I used to think there was no link between farming and art...well, most art reflects the environment in which it is produced and the artist who produces it..."
Plant a Yam, Paint a Yam
Explores the relationship between food and its representation in the northeast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Remember, dangerous themes make dangerous art.
Portrait of the Farmer as a Mature Potato
"As with everything else, the country that I have been talking about is frequently regarded as a commodity, be it in relation to yields of primary produce or to spectacles and hypothetical experiences marketed for tourist consumption. Here's the main thing to understand: this commodification is entirely at odds with the appreciation of landscape that I've been trying to tell you about."
Rene Boutin: An Artist and His Garden
New Caledonia has become the first Pacific nation to hold a Biennale of Contemporary Visual Art. Lucienne Fontannaz travelled to Noumea to interview artist Rene Boutin and discovered an artist who takes more than the gallery and his studio as his milieu.
Rice on the Terrace
The artist grew up in Baguio, which looks to be quite close to Ifugao on the map, and although I was taught that the rice terraces of this region of the Philippines were the eighth wonder of the world it was many years before he was able to see them.
Saved by the Demon - Hemp Lives
Cannibis Sativa as a drug, as uses of hemp - textiles, fabric and paper - as building materials, as oils food and protein, for medical and therapeutic applications, biomass energy... so why is there a prohibition?
The Cultural Biography of Plants
The cultural biography of plants provides an extremely fertile field for artists to explore. It also encourages artists, and viewers, to explore the interface between cultures and between culture and agriculture.
The food chain starts here: Larrtha’puy, from the mangroves
The Struggle for LESS Interesting Pictures
Beth Field is a farmer and a photographer in the WA wheatbelt facing a curious loss, one she is happy to accept - the dramatic colours of sunsets reflected in the salt lakes which she used to photograph may soon be hard to find as revegetation reclaims the soil. She recounts the changes she has seen in the last decade.
The Terratransformers of Planet Three
Re-creation of a living landscape has to happen in farmyards, back-yards, and city squares, it has to be understood and practised at the small scale as well as the large. The remake the landscape for an ecological future we must make it fit for all living beings.
The use of Aesthetics: Food for Thought
Aesthetic value is determined by commonly held notions of taste, beauty and attractiveness and differs from culture to culture. How does this influence us in our choice of nourishment - our daily bread, fruit or snack food? Why does food today look like it does?
Wolseley and Majzner Read the Land
Looks at the recent work of John Wolseley and Victor Majzner.
Cate Jones on Photography
Exhibition review Lifeworks: Aboriginal women photographed in action and at work by Aboriginal women photographers
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute
Adelaide South Australia
7 October - 4 December 1994
David Bromfield on Sculpture
Exhibition review The Games Room
Stuart Elliott at Lawrence Wilson Art Galley
University of Western Australia
21 October - 4 December 1994
Death of a Myth
Michelle H Elliot at Gomboc Galleries and Sculpture Park
6 - 27 November 1994
Ingrid Day on Phil Mullaly
Exhibition review Other Refuge Have I None
Phil Mullaly
New Land Gallery
16 November - 30 December 1994
Kay Aldenhoven on Annie Taylor
Exhibition review Doggone: Goddog: godingo: dingod
Works by Annie Taylor
24 Hour Art Darwin, Northern Territory
21 October - 5 November 1994
Maggie Baxter on High Fibre Diet
Exhibition review High Fibre Diet
Fremantle Arts Centre
Western Australia
29 October - 4 December 1994
Margot Osborne on Marijana Tadic
Exhibition review Passionate Habits
Marijana Tadic
Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia
11 November - 4 December 1994
Mark Stephens on 600,000 Hours
Exhibition review 600,000 Hours (mortality) exhibitions
Experimental Art Foundation
Adelaide South Australia
15 September - 4 December 1994
Paul Hay Diary
Exhibition review Four Point Bearing: Simon Barley, Paul Hay, Ian Parry and James Smeaton
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
26 December 1994 - 25 February 1995
Artist's journal by Paul Hay
Robyn Daw on Elsje King
Exhibition review Elsje King: Textiles
University Gallery
University of Tasmania, Launceston
9 September - 7 October 1994