1999 Exhibitions and public programs

Frances Burke Fabrics 1937 - 1965 and Gerry Wedd and Mambo, draw a relationship between cutting-edge practices and achievement in fabric design some sixty years apart, and present an opportunity to examine the dynamic issue of Australian content in our design arts and popular culture.

Frances Burke (1907-1994) was a prime influence in the transitition of Australian textile design from its largely English frame, to a modernity, content and style which celebrated the spirit of Australian subjects and colours. Graduate of Melbourne's legendary George Bell School which placed emphasis on originality, imagination and experimentation, Burke's unerring commitment to innovation in design separates her as a creative leader of special character.

The exhibition presents a range of Burke's fabrics from the Frances Burke Textile Resource Centre, RMIT University, with period furniture and decorative arts.

The Gerry Wedd and Mambo exhibition gives perspective to another, more contemporary Australian design style. Adelaide-based ceramicist and Mambo artist Gerry Wedd is one of the more distinctive voices in Australian art. He has produced a new series of ceramics inspired by Frances Burke which are presented alongside a selection of his Mambo fabrics - as well as those by Bruce Goold, Paul McNeil, Jim Mitchell, Reg Mombassa and Robert Moore - which illustrate the persistent evolution of Australian fabric design.

A catalogue essay accompanies the exhibition, by curator Gini Lee from the Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design, University of South Australia.

27 May - 19 June 1999

1999 Masters

Selected works by University of South Australia, Master of Visual Art students and graduates: Steve Davidson, Wendy Dawson, Terri Hall, Anna Henry, Katherine Rodriquez and Valerie Witt.

8 July - 7 August 1999

Uh Oh

UH-OH is an exhibition at the University of South Australia Art Museum which continues Aleks Danko's Songs of Australia project begun in 1996 and, complements the major sculptural commission songs of australia volume 3, At Home currently being undertaken by the artist for the University in the Lion Arts courtyard. Aleks Danko, born in Adelaide, a graduate of the University of South Australia and currently living in Daylesford, Victoria is one of Australia's foremost conceptual artists.

In the spirit of the prior Songs of Australia, this installation explores aspects of Australian cultural beliefs and events in an ongoing desire to be critical of, and discursive about, the social and political upheavals that have dominated life in Australia in recent times.

In the face of the gravity of certain events, humour, in its various guises (irony, parody, satire etc) is extensively employed to provide entry points for one's sanity (for the artist as well as the viewer).

The focus in UH-OH is on the so-called 'yellow/red peril', the invasion of Asian hordes from the north. These fears and phobias have been interwoven within the social and political fabric of Australian society since the Gold-rush days of the 19th Century; enmeshed in the White Australia Policy of the 1950's and stitched-up by the rhetoric One Nation's protagonists and supporters in the late 20th Century.

With its underlying humour and irony the installation UH-OH attempts to exorcise and confront those aforementioned xenophobic fears and highlight Australia's commitment or ability to promote tolerance and equity in our troubled geo-political region.

(UH-OH) The viewer is acknowledged as an active participant in the exhibition.

Hear the colour red. See the colour read.

(UH-HUH) Exhibition talks will be available for booked school groups.

19 August - 18 September 1999

Motif and Meaning

Motif and Meaning explores the use of Aboriginal motifs by Australian artists during the period 1930 to 1990.

The use of Aboriginal motifs by artists, across a diverse range of media, reflects a strong sense and consciousness of Australian history, as well as respect for the visual, technical and aethetic elements evident in these motifs.

The exhibition examines the impact of this appropriation, and the interchange between Aboriginal and 'white' Australia from a cultural and social perspective.

Australian artists who have incorporated Aboriginal designs and motifs in their work during this period did so for a variety of reasons, creating works that were nationalistic, educative and modern.

A touring exhibition curated by Claire Baddeley, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and assisted by Visions of Australia.

30 September - 30 October 1999

Close Ties

An exhibition of woven tapestry art works by South Australian artist Kay Lawrence and Canadian artist Marcel Marois. Links can be drawn between the work of these two artists, who each use traditional tapestry techniques to explore relationships between tapestry and the critical issues informing art practices other than tapestry. Lawrence's works however are concerned with feminism, representation and identity, whilst Marois' works express the fragility of various ecological and cultural identities.

Close Ties is curated by Ruth McDougall, Queensland University Art Museum. Ruth is a graduate of the South Australian School of Art and recipient, in 1993, of an inaugural Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship.

11 November - 11 December 1999

Re-Take

Aboriginal people have been photographed since the invention of the camera. These early images were viewed as records of a 'curious people', photographs of a supposedly dying race, who were also 'captured' or 'shot' by the camera for 'scientific' purposes. It was not until the 1980's however the Aboriginal photographers assumed a prominent position in both the Australian and International art scene. Taking the camera into their own hands, these artists re-take, re-present, re-claim and largely re-configure representations of Aboriginality.

Re-Take showcases the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander photographers from the 1960's to the 1990's. Undeniably political, the photographs in the exhibition focus on issues such as the history of European occupation of Australia, Aboriginal sovereignty and the nature of photographic representation, while remaining an up-beat celebration of indigenous culture.

The artists represented include: Brook Andrew, Mervyn Bishop, Brenda L. Croft, Destiny Deacon, Kevin Gilbert, Alana Harris, Ellen José, Leah King-Smith, Ricky Maynard, Peter McKenzie, Rea and Michael Riley.