Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art
A series of specially commissioned works displayed in the Art Museum's North Terrace window, held during breaks in the exhibitions program.
Mark Kimber – Ash Wednesday Evening
Stephanie Radok – Translation
Christine McCormack – Deadbunny (mirrored)
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 transition of Australian textile design from its largely English frame, to a modernity, content and style which celebrated the spirit of Australian subjects and colours. A 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 University of South Australia Art Museum exhibition. Curated by Erica Green. Catalogue essays by Erica Green and Peter Harding.
John Andrews, Scott Drake, Michael Geissler, Rachel Hurst, Jean Jones, Roger Kemp, Peter King, Jane Lawrence, Gini Lee, Ross McLeod, Andrea Mini, Patricia Pringle and Angelina Russo
Field notes: S(c)ite Works is an exhibition of objects which realise the research ideas of designers and architects working in the academic environments of the University of South Australia and RMIT University, Melbourne.
Design research is mostly grounded in examinations of a multiplicity of the sites and cites (s(c)ites). Through field notes, the specificity of the s(c)ite is often redescribed through text. Field notes: S(c)ite Works revisits this reportage, seeking to theorise lived environments as object through experiment.
The designers and architects exhibiting in Field notes: S(c)ite Works include, from the University of South Australia: Scott Drake, Michael Geissler, Rachel Hurst, Jane Lawrence, Gini Lee and Angelina Russo; and from RMIT University: John Andrews, Jean James, Roger Kemp, Ross McLeod, Andrea Mina, and Patricia Pringle.
A University of South Australia Art Museum exhibition. Curated and catalogue essay by Gini Lee.
Steve Davidson, Wendy Grace Dawson, Terri Hall, Anna Henry, Katherine Rodriquez and Valerie Witt
Selected works by University of South Australia Master of Visual Art students and graduates.
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.
A University of South Australia Art Museum exhibition.
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 aesthetic 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 Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and assisted by Visions of Australia. Curated by Claire Baddeley. Catalogue essays by Claire Baddeley, Glenn R. Cooke, Brenda L. Croft and Nicholas Thomas.
Kay Lawrence and Marcel Marois
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.
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
A University of Queensland Art Museum touring exhibition.
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
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.
A National Gallery of Australia touring exhibition. Curated and catalogue essay by Kelly Gellatly.
