Melbourne: Clinton Nain 'a e i o u', Lorraine Conelly-Northey at the NGV

Melbourne:
Clinton Nain: Nellie Castan Gallery
Contemporary Commonwealth, LandMarks: NGV Australia, Federation Square

I saw the almost completed work in Clinton Nain’s studio a few weeks ago for his just-opened show 'a e i o u' at Nellie Castan Gallery, and was once again blown away by the way this artitst’s work continues to evolve. I think this will be seen as his most powerful and resolved show to date, but it is very much a progression from the multiple themes and metaphorical use of materials for which he is well known. The recurrent use of words in his work moves centre stage as he comments on the 'tyranny of English’ (my expression), as colonial langauge, and also as an arbitrary sign system, mindset and coloniser of thought processes. Nain's linguistic references are compemented by his own recurrent language of personal symbols - the cross, the 'mission' dress, the target, the winding road – and metaphorically through his chosen materials – such as bleach, bitumen and PVA “house paint” in Aussie 'heritage colours’. This is an important exhibition. For a full and excellent review by Robert Nelson go to The Age : http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts-reviews/clinton-nain-a-e-i-o-u/2006/05/31/1148956385544.html

Nain has a large bitumen on canvas work titled Erub has a bitumen road now in LandMarks, an Indigenous show on a theme of (obviously) relatonship to the land. The show is curated by Judith Ryan, and well worth seeing, but could be much better – both hung and conceived. The relatively few contemporary ‘urban’ works (for instance Julie Gough’s amusing Indigenous heads as soaps-on-ropes) seem somehow ‘tacked on’ to the show, and not very convincingly. Standout for me was a vitrine of tiny woven baskets in many different materials by Lorraine Conelly-Northey, who also has a large, whole-room installation upstairs at Contemporary Commonwealth which is a must-see if you are in Melbourne, with a huge and cutting-edge screen-based component at ACMI next door. Conelly-Northey exhibits a fascination with transformation of materials and meaning, and while her work is coming from an Indigenous tradition, it would not be out of place in Catalan Spain, that land of blood and rusted, twisted iron. Beautiful stuff. Both shows at NGV are on for just a few more weeks (June 25).