As it rushes headlong towards the stock exchange, lining its tattered pockets by devilishly offering students the educational stock of the deepest desire, university art schools shed its role under modernity of defining and transmitting cultural value. Mammon replaces machismo in the squeezing of art. And yet....?
Exhibition reviews Blak Beauty February 6- May 2 1999
Curated by Brook Andrew
Images from the Sea December 5 1998- June 27 1999
Djamu Gallery:
Australian Museum at Customs House,
Sydney NSW
Discussion of the issues for artists of Asian descent in the Australian milieu, exploring issues of identity and displacement. Unheard voices could also characterise emerging artists as well as those from a multicultural background.
ANAT Australian Network for Art and Technology devised its 1999 National School, me.d.ia.te, to assist curators and arts workers in gaining a technical and theoretical understanding of new media art exhibition practice. It aimed to provide a 'world's best practice' model.
Education is the second most depressing non-subject in the entire catalogue of non-subjects, beginning with the Aardvark as Social Construct and ending with The Flagant Signifier in Finno-Ugric Zyrian,
Art and sport both attempt to construct value and meaning within our lives. For art this is a likely outcome. For media sport it is a contrived ingredient. Artists and art schools have perpetuated a myth about the importance and value of art objects. Suggests possible answers to the issues of teaching art in art and design schools.
The measure of an artist's public success is the extent to which his or her art matters to a particular community. David Keeling aims to present a critical discourse that participates in existing social and political debates. His turning point was not completing his post-graduate degree, not moving to the big smoke or winning a grant or prize, or having a sell-out exhibition but a revelation.
New media art has developed a close if troubled relationship with the figure of the future. Discusses Troy Innocent's ICONICA, Mousetrap by Ian Haig, RAPT by Justine Cooper, OSMOSE and EPHEMERE by Char Davies and Immersive Conditions a forum held at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney. Examines concepts of virtual reality and apparent reality.
Explores the relationship between art making in the city and the regional areas. How much do curatorial strategies or templates order and determine what we see in State galleries and large exhibitions? Looks at the exhibition 'Palimpsest #2' to raise questions of curatorial control or whether it should continue without such controls.