VICTORIA Georgia Cribb & Emily Jones
artnotes@netsvictoria.org
Making sense of history
Funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage grant as a part of a broader research project, The Art of Making Sense is a new temporary exhibition at The Cunningham Dax Collection in Parkville. Taking a uniquely critical enquiry into the display of creative works by people with an experience of mental illness or psychological trauma, the exhibition aims to highlight the complex nature of the works, including the psychological, historical, aesthetic, cultural and biographical aspects. Over 70 works have been selected from the Collection including paintings, drawings, collages, textiles and sculptures, dating from the 1950s to recent acquisitions. In addition to the works on display, historic photographs, archival documents and other writings provide a glimpse into daily life in a Victorian asylum. The Art of Making Sense continues until 1 November 2008. EJ
New Indigenous curator on the block
Linden – Centre for Contemporary Arts has received funding from the Sidney Myer Fund to develop and expand its Contemporary Indigenous Art Program. For the past 10 years, Linden has been presenting an annual exhibition aimed at showcasing the best of contemporary Indigenous Australian art. This year it will be extended to a new program which will include the mentorship of a young Indigenous curator. Julie Gough is the guest curator of this year’s important annual exhibition The Haunted and the Bad, which includes the works of Tony Albert, Joel Birnie, Nici Cumpston, Andrea Fisher and Yhonnie Scarce. 4 July to 10 August. EJ
Smokin’ Blindside
6 artists from regional Victoria take their charm to Blindside Exhibition Space, Nicholas Building in Melbourne with The Big Smoke. Starting with the conceptual idea of ‘monuments’ within regional Victoria, the exhibition uses this as a springboard to consider the region’s sometimes symbiotic, sometimes antithetical relationship with Melbourne’s urban society. Curated by Julian White, artists Noah Grosz, Kathryn McCool, Jacques Soddell, Greg Pritchard, Tara Gilbee and Andrew Goodman, through diverse practices including sound, video, sculpture, printmaking and photography, revisit the nostalgia of the monument and create anew the shifting smoke of the anti-monument. EJ
Prize-winning predicament
Canberra-based Indigenous artist Danie Mellor’s 2008 National Works on Paper win, with his witty and poignant an unsettled vision (the predicament), is considered a brave and challenging choice for this Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG) hosted award. With the primary aim of presenting and promoting contemporary works on, or with paper by emerging, mid-career and established artists, 9 works by artists including G.W. Bot, Rose Farrell & George Parkin and Arlene Textaqueen have also been acquired through the prize for the gallery’s permanent collection via the Mornington Peninsula Shire Acquisition Fund and the Friends of the MPRG Acquisition Fund. These works can be seen until 6 July 2008 among those by the award exhibition’s 46 shortlisted artists. GC
Articulating the Book
Illustration, typography and binding – and the artistry therein – are features of The Art of the Book at the Hamilton Art Gallery until 27 July. Experts from the region (south-west Victoria), Roz Greenwood, Kate McDonald and John Hayes, have overseen the selection of books which date from the 1770s through to now, and covers a range of subjects including early travel and exploration, Colonial and Victorian periods including natural history, through to Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, modern typography and contemporary art. The exhibition reveals the diverse manifestations of the book form including contemporary artist books and rare books from private collections from the Hamilton district. EJ
Musings on a centenary
VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery’s latest exhibition, A Time Like This, marks the centenary of women’s right to vote in Victoria. Presented in association with the National Council of Women of Victoria, the exhibition curators Samantha Comte, Jirra Lulla Harvey, Kate Rhode and Meredith Turnbull were invited to contemplate the impact of the suffragette movement, the subsumed histories of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous women and current issues women face today. 8 artists including Louisa Bufardeci, Bindi Cole, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Eliza Hutchinson, Wietske Maas, Kate Smith, Salote Tawale and Annie Wu have been commissioned to create new works that consider the status of women past and present. Runs 18 July to 16 August. GC
Design festival expands its vision
Strength in numbers is the fourth annual Melbourne International Design Festival, presented by the National Design Centre. The new title (formerly the Melbourne Design Festival) reflects its expanded focus and the global nature of contemporary design. From 17 to 27 July more than 50 events including exhibitions, installations, workshops and forums will occur across Melbourne and beyond. A living Vertical Garden, pioneered by internationally renowned French artist and scientist Patrick Blanc, will transform Melbourne Central’s historic brick Shot Tower. The Centre’s curator Kate Rhodes has developed another major project, Melbourne Unbuilt, which maps the city’s unbuilt architecture. Visitors are invited to undertake a walking tour of these unrealised spaces, which are made visible via an audio guide by the architects that designed them and the historians who studied them. The tour is accompanied by a printed guide of drawings, models and maps. Another exhibition at the e.g. etal venue, Location Devices, presents a new collection of jewellery by Phoebe Porter which explores the way people locate themselves both literally and metaphorically. GC
