“In a climate crisis, where it seems people would instead do anything but listen to Indigenous peoples, our practice of endurance is a radical tradition,” writes Lilah Benetti @easylilah in AMA’s latest issue.
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Read the full

“In a climate crisis, where it seems people would instead do anything but listen to Indigenous peoples, our practice of endurance is a radical tradition,” writes Lilah Benetti @easylilah in AMA’s latest issue. • Read the full article by purchasing a copy of the Autumn edition or subscribing via the link in bio. • Images: Lilah Benetti, from the series ‘Black and Blur’, 2024; commissioned by Photo Australia for PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography @photofestivalau; courtesy the artist • #PHOTO2024FESTIVAL

Art Monthly Australasia is pleased to announce Oliver Giles @oliver.giles as the magazine’s new Editor.

Oliver Giles is a writer and editor with extensive experience in print and digital publishing. He has covered developments in contemporary

Art Monthly Australasia is pleased to announce Oliver Giles @oliver.giles as the magazine’s new Editor. Oliver Giles is a writer and editor with extensive experience in print and digital publishing. He has covered developments in contemporary art for international news organisations such as The Guardian, CNN and Forbes. He was previously the Executive Editor of the Tatler Asia Group, where he managed the editorial team in Hong Kong and oversaw art coverage for the eight Tatler titles in the region.

Our Autumn quarterly issue, guest-edited by Hayley Millar Baker @hayleymillarbaker and Emily McDaniel @emilymc_d is out now.

The latest edition, ‘On endurance’, is a photography special featuring Lilah Benetti, Hannah Brontë, Carme

Our Autumn quarterly issue, guest-edited by Hayley Millar Baker @hayleymillarbaker and Emily McDaniel @emilymc_d is out now. The latest edition, ‘On endurance’, is a photography special featuring Lilah Benetti, Hannah Brontë, Carmen Winant, Raphaela Rosella, Hoda Afshar, Brenda L. Croft and Julie Rrap (@easylilah, @hannahbronte, @carmen.winant, @raphaelarosella, @hodaafshar, @brendalcroft and @julierrap). • Read Issue 338 by subscribing or purchasing a single issue via the link in bio. • Cover image: Hoda Afshar, ‘Untitled #11’, 2020–23, from the series ‘Aura’; courtesy the artist

“When indigenous people gather for the first time and all formalities observed, a flurry of information sharing begins and commonalities as well as distinctions are understood, carving ways forward in a harmonious way,” writes Nathan Pōhi

“When indigenous people gather for the first time and all formalities observed, a flurry of information sharing begins and commonalities as well as distinctions are understood, carving ways forward in a harmonious way,” writes Nathan Pōhio @nathanpohio (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tau Iwi). • Read the full piece ‘Observations from the Arrival Lounge’ by subscribing or purchasing the Summer 2023/24 quarterly issue via the link in bio. • Images: [1] Lisa Reihana, ‘Ihi’, 2020, still from two-channel UHD-Video video with stereo sound, installed at Aotea – Te Pokapū/Aotea Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland; courtesy the artist; [2] Fred Graham, ‘Kaitiaki’, 2004, installation view, Auckland Domain, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, 2023; photo: Nathan Pōhio; [3] Michael Parekōwhai @mikepltd, ‘The Lighthouse: Tū Whenua-a-Kura’, 2017, installation view, Queens Wharf, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, 2017; courtesy the artist and Michael Lett @michaellettgallery, Tāmaki Makaurau; photo: David St George, courtesy Auckland Council

“From the psychological interiors of the female experience to the creative rendering of one child’s experiences of war, the NGV Triennial represents a range of landscapes and dreamscapes, which turn matter, memory and subjects inside and

“From the psychological interiors of the female experience to the creative rendering of one child’s experiences of war, the NGV Triennial represents a range of landscapes and dreamscapes, which turn matter, memory and subjects inside and out,” writes Vanessa Francesca. . For the latest AMA blog review, Francesca interviewed artists Prudence Flint @prudenceflint, Petrit Halilaj @xixellojme and Sheila Hicks @hastingshicks on their works at the NGV Triennial. Read the full piece via the link in bio. . The NGV Triennial is on display at the National Gallery of Victoria @ngvmelbourne until 7 April 2024. . Images: [1] Sheila Hicks, ‘Nowhere to go’, 2022; courtesy the artist and Alison Jacques @alisonjacquesgallery; [2] Prudence Flint pictured in her studio; photo: Karina Dias Pires @karina.dias.pires; [3] Petrit Halilaj, ‘Very volcanic over this green feather’, 2021; photo: Guy Martin @mrguymartin

“Rather than shining a light, we might fold into the depths and complexities of black skies – as political spaces, as imaginative projections, as an unfolding grappling with devastation and a gesturing towards the limitless,” writes

“Rather than shining a light, we might fold into the depths and complexities of black skies – as political spaces, as imaginative projections, as an unfolding grappling with devastation and a gesturing towards the limitless,” writes Jessyca Hutchens @jessycahutchens (Palyku) on the ‘Black Sky’ exhibition in our latest issue. • Read the full article by purchasing a copy or subscribing via the link in bio. • Curated by Michael Bonner @bonnermick22, Jessyca Hutchens and Lee Kinsella @kinsella.lee, ‘Black Sky’ was presented by the Berndt Museum @berndt.museum, the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery @lwagallery as part of the 2023 Perth Festival @perthfest, and ran from 11 February until 22 April 2023. This article forms part of a new series of essays sponsored by University Art Museums Australia (UAMA). • Images: [1] ‘Black Sky’, exhibition installation view, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Boorloo/Perth, 2023, with the work of the Tennant Creek Brio @tennant_creek_brio; courtesy Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre @nyinkka.nyunyu, Tennant Creek; photo: Rebecca Mansell @rebeccamansell; [2] Joseph Williams Jungarayi and Lévi McLean @__serge_de_nimes, ‘Walala-ka (The Hunt)’, 2020, film still, 1:20mins duration; courtesy the artists; [3] Jimmy Frank Japarula @jimmyfrank1356, ‘Kooloongka’, 2023, installation view, ‘Black Sky’, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Boorloo/Perth, 2023; snappy gum, yakula resin, sinew, earth pigment, metamorphic rock, 64 x 25 x 5cm; courtesy Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek; photo: Rebecca Mansell

Art Monthly Australasia was glad to attend the ‘Parallel Structures Symposium’ @_parallelstructures this week on Wiradjuri country/Albury.

Working in partnership with Murray Art Museum Albury @mamalbury, Parallel Structures is an Austra

Art Monthly Australasia was glad to attend the ‘Parallel Structures Symposium’ @_parallelstructures this week on Wiradjuri country/Albury. Working in partnership with Murray Art Museum Albury @mamalbury, Parallel Structures is an Australian Research Council Linkage project @arc_govau developed in collaboration with artists, writers and researchers based at UNSW Art & Design @unswada the Institute for Culture and Society @westsyduniics and Sydney College of the Arts @sca_sydney. Parallel Structures aims to move away from the common method of ‘diversifying’ art museums via audience development, instead turning to curatorial methodologies as offering new ways to think and feel structural change. Parallel Structures commissioned several curatorial fellows to develop projects, including Evenia Anagnostopoulou @hithisisevgenia, Kelly Dezart-Smith @girlwhereyouat, Sebastian Henry-Jones @turbochargedseb, Ruha Fifita @ruhafifita and Lana Nguyen @l_a__n__a . As part of ‘Site School (is cool)’, an offsite project by Lana Nguyen and Sebastian Henry-Jones, participants were taken on a tour of the Community Farm, located on the banks of the Murray River in Wodonga. Motivated by the question of how the museum and its networks can have a more sustainable and reciprocal relationship with the culture from which it collects, ‘Site School (is cool)’ asks local artists and farmers to re-imagine their relationship to creativity and place through skill-sharing workshops. Images: ‘Site School (is cool)’, 2022-24, Community Farm, Dhudhuroa country/Wodonga; photos: James Farley @jamestfarley

“For Janet, the public art projects have involved many layers, from adapting her hand-built ceramic pieces to considering the site-specific context of where the installations will be integrated into First Nations land and place,” writes F

“For Janet, the public art projects have involved many layers, from adapting her hand-built ceramic pieces to considering the site-specific context of where the installations will be integrated into First Nations land and place,” writes Freja Carmichael @frejacarmichael (Ngugi people of Quandamooka) in our Summer issue on Indigenous art commissioning. • Read more on Kalaw Lagaw Ya/Meriam Mir artist Janet Fieldhouse’s @janetfieldhouse practice in the full article for a limited time via the link in bio. • Images: [1] Janet Fieldhouse at Urban Art Projects (UAP) @uapcompany in Meanjin/Brisbane; courtesy the artist, National Gallery of Australia @nationalgalleryaus, UAP, Art Makers @artmakers_editions; © UAP, Art Makers; photo: Rachel See; [2] Janet Fieldhouse, Sister Charm, 2023, installation view, National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Kamberri/Canberra, 2023, on loan from the artist and Art Makers; courtesy the artist; image: NGA, Kamberri/Canberra

Work with us!
Art Monthly Australasia is seeking an outstanding Editor to help shape the future of the publication. The Editor will be responsible for producing, commissioning, and publishing quarterly print content, along with collaborating with com

Work with us! Art Monthly Australasia is seeking an outstanding Editor to help shape the future of the publication. The Editor will be responsible for producing, commissioning, and publishing quarterly print content, along with collaborating with commissioned guest editors, and managing digital publishing for national and international audiences. • Read more about the position and apply via the link in bio. • Image: Art Monthly Australasia covers, 2022, photo: Aishah Kenton @aishah_k

“A building or a wall isn’t just a surface, it is a material with history and politics, which can be reconfigured to convey Indigenous knowledge,” writes Tristen Harwood (Ngalakan) in AMA’s latest issue.
•
‘Continui

“A building or a wall isn’t just a surface, it is a material with history and politics, which can be reconfigured to convey Indigenous knowledge,” writes Tristen Harwood (Ngalakan) in AMA’s latest issue. • ‘Continuing a Commissioning Legacy’ examines Indigenous art commissioning through the practice of Kent Morris @kent_morris_artist (Barkindji). Read the full article for a limited time via the link in bio. • Images: [1] Kent Morris, ‘Unvanished’, 2022, installation view, Federation Square @fed.square, Naarm/Melbourne, 2022; created in collaboration with Studio John Fish @studiojohnfish, with soundscape design by James Henry @jameshenryphotos and augmented reality by PHORIA @phoria.io; courtesy the artist and Vivien Anderson Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne; photo: Kristian Laemmle-Ruff; [2] Kent Morris, ‘Cultural Reflections – Continuous Connections #1’, 2022, installation view, Monash University @monash_uni, Naarm/Melbourne, 2022; photographic print on aluminium, acrylic paint; Monash University Public Art Commission with the support of the Faculty of Information Technology, 2022; courtesy the artist and Vivien Anderson Gallery @vivienandersongallery, Naarm/Melbourne; photo: Andrew Curtis @andrew.curtis.photography

Art Monthly Australasia is pleased to announce Oliver Giles @oliver.giles as the magazine’s new Editor.

Oliver Giles is a writer and editor with extensive experience in print and digital publishing. He has covered developments in contemporary

“When indigenous people gather for the first time and all formalities observed, a flurry of information sharing begins and commonalities as well as distinctions are understood, carving ways forward in a harmonious way,” writes Nathan Pōhi

“From the psychological interiors of the female experience to the creative rendering of one child’s experiences of war, the NGV Triennial represents a range of landscapes and dreamscapes, which turn matter, memory and subjects inside and

“Rather than shining a light, we might fold into the depths and complexities of black skies – as political spaces, as imaginative projections, as an unfolding grappling with devastation and a gesturing towards the limitless,” writes

Art Monthly Australasia was glad to attend the ‘Parallel Structures Symposium’ @_parallelstructures this week on Wiradjuri country/Albury.

Working in partnership with Murray Art Museum Albury @mamalbury, Parallel Structures is an Austra

“For Janet, the public art projects have involved many layers, from adapting her hand-built ceramic pieces to considering the site-specific context of where the installations will be integrated into First Nations land and place,” writes F

Work with us!
Art Monthly Australasia is seeking an outstanding Editor to help shape the future of the publication. The Editor will be responsible for producing, commissioning, and publishing quarterly print content, along with collaborating with com

“A building or a wall isn’t just a surface, it is a material with history and politics, which can be reconfigured to convey Indigenous knowledge,” writes Tristen Harwood (Ngalakan) in AMA’s latest issue.
•
‘Continui

September 25, 2016

Ajit Ninan: The Searing Art of Political Commentary

September 25, 2016/ Caitlin Seymour-King

AJIT NINAN, Installation view, MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY, CANBERRA; image COURTESY CAITLIN SEYMOUR-KING — AJIT NINAN, Installation view, MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY, CANBERRA; image COURTESY CAITLIN SEYMOUR-KING

As part of the 'Confluence' festival celebrating India in Australia, the Museum of Australian Democracy brings us an exhibition on prolific political cartoonist Ajit Ninan. Snuggled inside Old Parliament House in Canberra, the grand building features a series of small spaces that shoot off broad sweeping corridors, a perfect site for this intimate exhibition.

The main exhibition space is the size of a decent bedroom, or what would have been a mid-sized office for the ministers of old. The colours are warm reds and oranges with soft lighting. There are several small illustrations framed around the room, and a silent projection plays in the far corner. The modest display mimics the way that Ninan’s cartoons first present to the viewer. They are simple small sketches, some in colour, and mostly unassuming in presence. But when you look closer, there lies the searing political commentary, the unashamed condemnation of political figures, the concisely captured complexities of everyday life.

Political cartooning is a very intriguing artform. It is a practice prevalent across the globe and shows us how active critique is absolutely essential for political and social systems. The simplicity and humour indicative of the artform is the key to its success. Refined 'just so' to a single image, it allows the artist to deliver an impactful message and reach audiences.

A further dimension to this is the state of the modern democracy: over-saturated with media, news and information. Ninan steps outside of the circus to remark on just how absurd things can become as we attempt to navigate our way through a democracy increasingly directed by bureaucracy, technology and economics. Furthermore, the modern democracy is heavily peppered with individual egos, committed to their own agendas. Ninan assertively examines the double speak of politicians to determine what they are in between the vapour of what they say.

For those of us not expert in the political landscape of India, do not fear: each illustration is accompanied with a helpful explanation to fill you in. Otherwise the show resonates very comfortably with Australia's own rich history of political cartooning and age-old tradition of vocally challenging government.

AJIT NINAN, Installation view of 'politrix' series, MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY, CANBERRA; image COURTESY CAITLIN SEYMOUR-KING — AJIT NINAN, Installation view of 'politrix' series, MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY, CANBERRA; image COURTESY CAITLIN SEYMOUR-KING

Art Monthly Australasia

Art Monthly Australasia is Australasia’s flagship visual arts publication, providing a critical platform for its artists. Published since 1987 under six full-time editors (Peter Townsend, Peter Timms, Philippa Kelly, Deborah Clark, Maurice O’Riordan and, from 2014, Michael Fitzgerald), it is Australasia’s only monthly visual arts magazine placing visual arts in a contemporary, historical and regional context.

Based at the ANU School of Art in Canberra since 1992, Art Monthly Australasia is a non-profit charitable organisation whose income is derived from sales of the magazine, advertising, sponsorship and government funding. Its board comprises leaders in their fields of visual arts scholarship, practice and curating, along with business and finance.

Since 2015, Art Monthly has also fostered critical discourse across the Asia-Pacific region with a new International Council, which, along with increased participation at international art fairs and biennales, is helping to provide a meaningful new context for its artists.

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