March 2011 Issue 237
1 EDITORIAL
2 Slow, wide and dangerous – The River Project, Campbelltown Arts Centre: FIONA DAVIES
Ringo Bunoan, Bridge, 2008, installation view, The River Project, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
3 Art: the academic misfit: GEORGIANA ARCHER
Joe Frost’s article, ‘Joe Frost: Five Observations’, summarising his experience of teaching art in the university sector struck a chord with me. His points regarding the role of the teacher, the relationship between teacher and student, the difficulties faced as artists in a university environment, and the lack of philosophy in art schools have fuelled my following response
Art schools are losing, or have lost, their individuality. The homogenisation process is largely imposed by the structures of the universities that they are housed in. VCAM (formerly VCA, Victorian College of the Arts) has only just managed to escape having the Melbourne Model (Melbourne University’s 2008 curricula changes) imposed on their programs. However, they are now in a position where they are offering one degree with eight disciplines falling within its scope. As of 2009 they also lost their independent identity; they are now a school within The University of Melbourne. The RMIT School of Art is about to face what seems to be radical changes to their curriculum which will likely reduce the close mentoring of students by staff members which has been a vital ingredient in art education to date.
See full article in print edition
4 Resistance to change, DONALD BROOK
McLean Edwards, Art Student # 1, 2010, oil on canvas, 122 x 122cm. From the exhibition McLean Edwards: Bad Habits.
Image courtesy the artist and Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney
5 Natural Digression: to see what we don’t yet know we’re seeing: KIRSTEN RANN
Rose Montebello, Night watch, 2010, paper, mountboard,, 41cm diameter. From the UTS Gallery exhibition Natural Digression. Image courtesy the artist
6 Susan Sontag’s Legacy to the Visual Arts: JOHN CONOMOS
Peter Hujar, Susan Sontag, 1975, vintage gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 inches. Collection: The National Portrait Gallery, Washington© 1987 The Peter Hujar Archive LLC
7 Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990 – 2005: ANDREW QUILTY
Patti Smith with her Children, Jackson and Jesse, St. Clair Sho res, Michigan, 1996. All photographs © Annie Leibovitz; from Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990 – 2005
8 Head – Into the Black: McLean Edwards: ANDREW FROST
Disco Boat, 2010, oil on canvas, 153 x 153cm. All images of work by McLean Edwards, courtesy the artist and Martin Brown Fine Art, Sydney
9 Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrek AO: JEREMY ECCLES
Ngalyod The Rainbow Serpent, 1980, natural pigments on bark. Collection: Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory. Image courtesy the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. IMAGES OF WORK BY BARDAYAL LOFTY NADJAMERREK AO, © THE NADJAMERREK ESTATE
10 Telling Secret Tales: The World of Linocut Artist Angela Cavalieri: SALLIE MUIRDEN
Tell tales, 2010, hand-printed linocut and oil paint on canvas, 121 x 372 cm. Photograph by Tim Gresham
11 roundabout° at the City Gallery Wellington: BILLIE LYTHBERG
Lonnie Hutchinson, Monumental Black Comb Form, 2009, stainless steel and two-pot paint, 98 x 134cm. Images courtesy the artists and roundabout˚
12 John Kelly – Probe: LAURA GASCOIGNE
Halo, 2007, mixed media, installation view, Agnew’s Gallery, London. Photographs by Todd White & Associates
13 Sam Leach’s Platonia: PAVEL S. PYS
Walrus Configuration 1, 2010, oil and resin on linen on wood, 26 x 36cm. Images courtesy the artist Sam Leach, Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney, and COMODAA, London
14 Tom Moore’s glass-roots vision: DENNIS COLEMAN
Shelf, 2008, blown glass, wooden shelves, steel fittings, below right glass object 50 x 35
x 25cm; installation view, Moore is More, 2009, Jam Factory Contemporary Craft & Design,
Adelaide, and Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney. Images courtesy the artist, Tom Moore, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, and Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne. Photographs by Grant Hancock
15 In search of the Gellibrands: DANIELLE WOOD
Artist unknown (possibly Augustus Earle), Four Children of Joseph Tice Gellibrand, c.1828,
oil on canvas, 63.5 x 75.3cm. Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Presented by
John Gellibrand under the Cultural Gifts Program, 2004
16 Letters to the editor
1. Accessible Dobell FROM Elizabeth Donaldson
2. Impressions of ‘Impressions of Japan’ from Dr Anne Kirker
17 A Tale of Two Biennales: Gwangju and Busan: EN YOUNG AHN
An unidentified Prisoner, S-21 Prison, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from Tuol Sleng Prison Photographs, 1975-1979. © Doug Niven and Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, Cambodia. Image courtesy Doug Niven
