July 2008 Issue 211
1 Collateral Damage: DENISE FERRIS & MARTYN JOLLY
Ella Dreyfus, The Ladz: Nadz and Dax, 2005, silver gelatin print. This photograph won the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture (2005) yet as an image is similar to the artist’s partly censored Under Twelves series/exhibition. Courtesy the artist
2 Humbert or Humbug?: ADAM GECZY
Bill Henson, Untitled, 2007/08, type C photograph, from the Untitled series, 2007/08. Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
3 Art and (not or) Pornography: DONALD BROOK
From time to time there is a great fuss made about whether some object is a work of art or pornographic. Experts are invited to testify, and mostly ridiculed for their trouble. Witnesses with no expertise at all are treated more courteously; often being commended for their assistance in establishing a community standard. This manoeuvre is prejudiced in two ways. First, those without expertise are not invited to testify in statistically significant numbers, and their opinions are mainly selected and filtered through the calculating minds of lawyers. Second, and perhaps more importantly, no conservative judge and jury seriously believes that a change of mind will ever be the appropriate response to evidence that a more radical opinion than their own is the community standard. (Or vice-versa, for more a radically minded judiciary and a more conservative community standard). All these good people are determined to do the right thing, and no evidence that in the domain of nutrition (for example) eating beef is the community standard will persuade a vegetarian to approve of it
Read more in this issue of AMA
4 Shashinjinsei: Nobuyoshi Araki’s photo journey: MANAMI OKAZAKI
Nobuyoshi Araki, from the Sentimental Journey series, 1971, black and white photograph. Courtesy the artist
5 Ai Weiwei: Under Construction: JEREMY ECCLES
Ai Weiwei, Fountain of Light, 2007, glass crystals, lights and metal on a wooden base, installation view, Ai Weiwei's studio, Beijing, 2007. Courtesy the artist
6 Keep Calm and Carry On: new work by Mel Robson: LOUISE MARTIN-CHEW
Mel Robson, Keep Calm and Carry On (detail), slipcast porcelain 2008. Courtesy the artist
7 Sex in the Country: David Laity’s Laid Bare: JACQUI VERROCCHIO
David Laity, Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, 2003, oil on hessian on board. Courtesy the artist and Metro5 Gallery, Melbourne.
8 Survival, Decay and Excavation: curating Arthur McIntyre: DANIEL MUDIE CUNNINGHAM
Arthur McIntyre, Birth Pains II, c. 1975, collage on paper. Courtesy the estate of Arthur McIntyre
9 Bent Western, Sydney: CRAIG JUDD
Liam Benson & Kenzee Patterson, Lock it or Lose it, 2004, photographic print. Courtesy the artists
10 Dual purpose: Otto Dix’s Hugo Erfurth with Dog: JUSTINE BAYOD ESPOZ
Otto Dix, Hugo Erfurth with Dog, 1926, tempera and oil on panel. Courtesy Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Madrid, Spain
11 Sam Leach: ghost in the machine: ASHLEY CRAWFORD
Sam Leach, Self in Uniform, 2007, oil and resin on wood. Courtesy the artist, Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne and Peter Walker Fine Art, Adelaide
12 The Brisbane Sound: DANNY ZUVELA
Gary Warner, Cassettes, 1975–86, 2008, 91 audio cassettes, installation view, The Brisbane Sound exhibition opening, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 8 February, 2008. Courtesy the artist and David Pestorius Projects
