It has been several years since news from the Northern Territory has been posted. As the recently appointed regional representative on the Executive Committee, an overview of who’s who in the visual arts, beginning with Darwin and the Top End, is well overdue. I have also included a few preliminary links and contacts for Alice Springs and the Desert regions, and will provide further information as the year progresses. It’s a big Territory! The focus of this report will be on recent and existing visual arts appointments, research, teaching and learning through publications, exhibitions, projects, artists’ residencies and new arts infrastructure in the Northern Territory.
Anita Angel, Curator Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Art Gallery
CHARLES DARWIN UNIVERSITY
The Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Art Gallery is located in the Chancellery, Building Orange 12 of Casuarina Campus. Our first exhibition for 2012 is LOOK – learning to look at art from the CDU Art Collection. Taking its cue from philosopher John Gray’s question ‘Can we not think of the aim of life as being simply to see?’ (2011) and Kenneth Clark’s observation ‘No doubt there are many ways of looking at pictures, none of which can be called the right way’ (1960), the exhibition features more than 70 works in various media, by artists inspired by Northern Australia and adjoining regions in Southeast Asia.
The University Art Collection’s chief strengths are works on paper, in particular limited edition prints gifted since 1993 by artists-printmakers and the University’s Printmaking Workshop, Northern Editions.
The CDU Art Collection’s permanent holdings now number more than 2000 items with a focus on Northern Australia and Southeast Asia, in particular where it relates to the Northern Territory.
As a feature of the Darwin Festival this year, the CDU Art Gallery will host the South Australian Museum’s Images of the Interior – Seven Central Australian Photographers, curated by Dr Philip Jones.
The third exhibition in 2012 will be roads cross: contemporary directions in Australian Art, developed in partnership with Flinders University Art Museum.
The Nan Giese Gallery is the School of Creative Arts and Humanities’ staff and student gallery on Casuarina campus (Building Orange 10). In March, the Gallery mounted Here &/Or There, an exhibition curated by Dr Cornelius Delaney, Studio Lecturer and Post-Graduate Program Coordinator at the School. Comprising 30 works on paper by Northern Territory Indigenous and non-Indigenous visual artists, the exhibition was well-received at its first showing at Jogja Gallery in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in November 2011. Formerly at Southern Cross University, Lismore, Dr Delaney currently supervises three PhD and two Masters candidates at CDU. He delivered a paper at the 2011 ACUADS Conference entitled What Does The Singing of Birds Mean?. Enquiries regarding gallery programming can be directed to Dr Delaney: 08 8946 6321.
Dr Andrea Ash is Lecturer in Art Theory and History in the School of Creative Arts and Humanities. Her research and publications reflect post-structuralist, feminist and post-colonial perspectives, particularly in relation to regionalism and globalisation in contemporary art and culture. Her current research focuses on trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary art and aesthetics. She is a member of the Asian Australian Research Network. Her most recent publication ‘Beyond Boundaries of Space and Time: Transmigrations in Contemporary Art’ was published in Access: Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural and Policy Studies, vol 30(1), 2011. Dr Ash is currently supervising three doctoral and four Masters candidates at CDU. Contact: 08 8946 6314.
Simon Cooper is Post-Graduate Supervisor and Visual Arts Technician at the School with a Masters degree from the College of Fine Art, Sydney. He maintains a multi-disciplinary practice as an artist, working primarily in sculpture. He has been involved in more than 50 exhibitions in Australia and abroad, and participated in residencies in Thailand, Taiwan, India and Vietnam. In 2010, he joined an international artists’ residency in Manila under the auspices of 24HR Art – the NT Centre of Contemporary Art. The project included artists from Yogyakarta, Manila and Darwin, with residencies and exhibitions in all three cities. The Darwin exhibition, Immemorial – reaching back beyond memory, was also shown at the Chan Contemporary Art Space, Darwin (see below) in October-November 2011. The catalogue for Immemorial can be downloaded from this site
Past and present staff and students of the School of Creative Arts and Humanities (Katie Saunders, Rob Brown, Anna Reynolds and Fiona Morrison) have also participated in 24Hr Art and AsiaLink’s International Studio Residency Program in Beijing, China between 2011 and 2012. Anna Reynolds and Fiona Morrison will be exhibiting their collaborative Beijing work in Reconstructed Empires, an exhibition opening at the Museum and Art Gallery (MAGNT – see below) of the Northern Territory, Darwin on 7 July. Fiona was also awarded the inaugural 24HR Art New Territories prize in November 2011, for a photographic work inspired by her Beijing residency that year.
Other past and present staff and students of the School of Creative Arts and Humanities were recently represented in Art of the Nomad, an exhibition held in the Northern Territory Government’s Chan Contemporary Art Space, State Square, Darwin. CDU related artists included Simon Cooper, Ian Hance, Hayley West, Bronwyn Wright, Bill Davies, Leanne Waterhouse and Franck Gohier (Darwin), and Ben Ward, Suzi Lyon, Henry Smith and Rod Moss (Alice Springs). The exhibition also featured work by Chips Mackinolty, Sia Cox, Rupert Batheras, J9, Siying Zhou, Colin Holt and Darwin’s ‘rubbish warrior’, ephemeral sculptor and homeless advocate, Trevor Jenkins.
Brokered by Darwin Visual Artists Association, six curators (Sarah Pirrie – CDU VET Lecturer/Coordinator Visual Arts, Siying Zhou – Program Manager, 24HR Art, Suzie Lyons, Leanne Waterhouse – Administrator, Darwin Visual Artists Association, Chips Mackinolty and Chris Raja), were invited to respond to the notion of ‘Territory nomads’ – a term coined by Mackinolty in his opening speech for MAGNT’s exhibition, Activate – Cultivate: a survey exhibition of Red Hand Print posters. A series of panel discussions, floor talks, and an art/critical writing workshop delivered by Stephanie Radok, General Editor of Artlink, were also held throughout May.
CDU Masters graduate and artist Talitha Kennedy was awarded the 2011 Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award (NT) and will be spending most of 2012 working and travelling in New York, Europe and other cities abroad.
In February 2012, Jacqueline Gribbin, Workshop Manager at Northern Editions Printmaking Studio, was one of four artists invited to participate in a five-week residency at the Mokuhanga Innovate Laboratory in the foothills of Mount Fuji at Lake Kawaguchi, Japan. Jacqui undertook advanced training in non-toxic water based woodblock printmaking (mokuhanga) techniques, including cutting and printing, specialist paper preparation and book binding. Her residency was supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, and endorsed by the Australian Embassy in Japan. Whilst in Japan, Jacqui also exhibited a selection of her own mokuhanga prints, inspired by the Top End seasons and changing environment of the Northern Territory. The suite of works (currently in progress) is based on all six seasons recognised by Indigenous cultures in Arnhem Land and other parts of the Top End of the Northern Territory.
Jacqui was invited to join the residency after giving a presentation at the inaugural Mokuhanga Conference last year in Japan, based on her work with Indigenous printmakers on Tiwi Islands in 2010. The mokuhanga workshop on the Tiwi Islands was a first, culminating in an exhibition at Northern Editions Gallery of 37 prints. The workshop proofs have been gifted by the artists and the print workshop to the CDU Art Collection.
Jacqui Gribbin has also recently been appointed Northern Territory representative on the Print Council of Australia Committee.
Northern Editions Printmaking Studio (Building Orange 9) will feature two exhibitions as part of the Darwin Festival in August 2012 on Casuarina campus: one in the Northern Editions Gallery (Building Orange 9), the other in the Nan Giese Gallery (Building Orange 10). Following on from the success of the ANKAAA – Big Family printmaking project in 2011, the workshop has produced a limited edition concertina book of drypoints representing approximately 30 art centre Indigenous artists. CDU printers have also developed a series of etchings and drypoints with renowned Bathurst Island Tiwi artists Jean Baptiste Apuatimi and Maria Josette Orsto that will also be launched at the two exhibition openings on 11 August 2012.
24HR ART – the NT CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Since 2006, 24HR Art’s exhibition program, offsite projects and residencies have built upon and significantly expanded the organisation’s presence and profile in the Territory, Southeast Asia and China, expanding Territory and other Australian contemporary artists’ opportunities in the region. The First Life Residency Project in Landscape (a jab at ‘virtual’ or web-based, as opposed to ‘real’ life, experiences in art), brought together contemporary visual artists from Australia and China to experience the landscapes and cultures of Northern Australia and regional China. Invited artists were: Sam Leach, Tony Lloyd, Ben Armstrong, Can Xin, Shi Jinsong and Wu Daxin.
Designed to be an intensive ‘real life’ cultural and creative exchange, the project culminated in artists travelling by road through the landscapes of Northern Australia and visiting remote regions and communities in Arnhem Land and the Kimberley. The group undertook a road trip through the south-western provinces of China, from Lanzhou to Llasa. In the final stage, artists underwent an intensive studio session in Beijing, producing works in response to their experiences, exhibited at the Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing in May 2011, as a feature of the Year of Australian Culture in China. A lavish and beautifully produced publication, authored by Ashley Crawford, accompanied the exhibition.
The First Life project is the springboard for Director of 24HR Art Steve Eland’s curated exhibition at the Chan Contemporary Art Space in May-July this year: First Life: unworldly encounters. Featuring work by Tony Lloyd, Sam Leach, Can Xin and Shi Jinsong, as well as Northern Territory Kune and Rembarrnga clan artists, including Charlie Djinmalala Brian, the exhibition will encompass a major installation of contemporary works ‘concerned with subjects beyond the measurable physical world’. The exhibition will be opened by Dr Geoff Raby, former Australian Ambassador to China.
MUSEUM & ART GALLERY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
Canadian art historian and curator Pierre Arpin was appointed Director of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin in May 2011, arriving from Melbourne where he held the post of General Manager, Collections and Exhibition Management at the National Gallery of Victoria for more than two years. Prior to this he held several senior positions in art institutions in Canada, including Head of Visual Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, Director and Chief Executive of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in British Columbia, Director and Curator of Ontario’s Art Gallery of Sudbury and Director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Listen to a recent interview with Pierre Arpin on ABC Darwin here: http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/02/08/3425788.htm
In his first year at the helm, collections-focused research and exhibitions have included Activate – Cultivate: a survey exhibition of Red Hand Print posters (8 October 2011 – 19 February 2012) and Gone Fishin’ … The Reel Top End story (17 March – 16 September 2012). The 29th Telstra – National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award opens on 10 August and runs until 28 October 2012. The Museum recently posted its new on-line database of works acquired through the history of the NATSIAA since inception in 1984. Funded by the Gordon Darling Foundation, the image repository includes 228 works in various media including paintings on linen/canvas (101) and bark (33), works on paper (33) and three-dimensional works (61). The on-line collection ‘effectively traces the signatory developments in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art over the last 29 years’.
Recently announced was the appointment of John Waight as Curator Indigenous Art and Material Culture at MAGNT. He replaces Dr Christiane Keller. John’s past curatorial experience includes management of Maningrida Arts and Culture Darwin, the retail arm of the Maningrida community art centre, and Indigenous Curator and Liaison Officer at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney. The position of Curator – Visual Art at MAGNT has remained vacant since Daena Murray’s departure after 14 years in the position, between 1993 and 2007. Joanna Barrkman, Curator of Southeast Asian Art at MAGNT between 2003 and 2011, has recently taken up the position of Senior Curator at Te Manawa Museum of art, science and history in New Zealand.
The newest ‘museum’ in Darwin is in fact an ‘experience’: the Defence of Darwin Experience. Managed by the Darwin Military Museum on behalf of the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport, the $10 million facility is adjacent to the Darwin Military Museum, together comprising a military museum ‘precinct’. The new facility’s opening took place on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin during World War Two (19 February 1942). Telling the story of Darwin’s little known role during war time between 1932 and 1945, and the impact of war on the Territory’s civilian and military inhabitants, the complex includes exhibitions of objects from the MAGNT, the Australian War Memorial and other collections. It deploys state-of-the-art ‘immersive, interactive and multimedia’ installations and displays. Experiences of Australian war artists, related in word and image, are featured.
CHAN CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE
The Northern Territory Government’s exhibition venue in Darwin’s CBD, located within the refurbished Legislative Assembly building opposite Parliament House, was launched in 2010. Its aim is to ‘increase awareness of the diversity of Territory contemporary visual art including new media, craft and design, and provide creative development opportunities for Territory curators, artists and art organisations’. In 2012, 24HR Art – the NT Centre for Contemporary Art, was appointed to manage and deliver the current exhibition schedule and public programs, devised by ArtsNT in partnership with Northern Territory arts and crafts organisations.
GODINYMAYIN YIJARD RIVERS ARTS & CULTURE CENTRE (GYRACC)
The Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre is a new cross-cultural enterprise and impressive facility in the Katherine Region that has been in development for more than twelve years. GYRACC is due to open to the public in July this year. The facility’s extensive size, amenities and landscaped surrounds will comprise a significant ‘meeting place’ for ‘two-way learning’ in arts and culture in the region. It will deliver a ‘model for reconciliation’ through the presentation of ‘exhibitions and performances of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural expression together’. Dr Cath Bowdler, former Director of the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and lecturer at Charles Sturt University, was recently appointed new Director of GYRACC. Jayne Nankivell, GYRACC Project Officer, has worked on the building project since inception and has extensive experience in community arts in the Katherine region.
For Northern Territory Government collecting /exhibiting institutions in Alice Springs, see Araluen Cultural Precinct. The Alice Springs artists-run contemporary gallery is Watch This Space. (More on the Desert regions in the next posting.)
The annual Portrait of a Senior Territorian Art Award and Exhibition curated by A/Curator Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Art Gallery, Madge Fletcher, will be held in Parliament House between 27 July and 15 August 2012, with the Award winners announced on 1 August 2012.
The annual Togart Contemporary Art Award will be held at the Chan Contemporary Art Space between 6 September and 13 October 2012. Professor Sasha Grishin’s remarks in his 2010 review of the Togart Award (‘The Togart Test’, Art Monthly Australia, Issue #235, November 2010) provide a fitting coda to this posting:
The greatest concentration of artists in the world per capita is not in Paris or Manhattan, but in the Northern Territory in Australia. What is not widely acknowledged is that they are not only Indigenous artists, but also include non-Indigenous artists, making the whole place into a creative crucible of hybridity.
Anita Angel
Curator, Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Art Gallery