New Zealand: Taika Waititi's 'Boy'

Boy
Dir: Taika Waititi, New Zealand
88 minutes

Sundance Film Festival January 22, 2010
World Cinema – Dramatic

Audience Award Winner at Sydney Film Festival QANTAS BEST FEATURE FILM

The highest grossing NZ film of all time may be the best movie to come out of Australasia this year. Many films attempt to get inside the mind of a child, with mixed success. Here, success is total. James Rolleston (pictured) and his little brother Rocky, played by Te Aho Eketone Whitu, are both superb on screen. Their feckless father Alamein is played by director Taika Waititi, also to good effect.
The narrative maintains a fine balance between deadpan Maori humour, poignant observation and profound insights into the world of a child teetering on the edge of adolescence. Often played for laughs, there are also heartrending moments. Feelgood? Well, maybe, but in a way that is truthful and universally relevant.

More info: http://www.boythemovie.co.nz/

Vale, Kevin

Kevin Hough
Outsider artist
May 27 1956 – July 9 2010

Vale Louise

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois
25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010
Image: © Estate Robert Mapplethorpe

Biennale of Sydney: a few standouts from preview day

Newell Harry

Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay

Cai Guo-Qiang
Cockatoo Island

Brook Andrew

Cockatoo Island

Janet Laurence

Botanical Gardens

Janet Laurence

Botanical Gardens

Fiona Hall

Botanical Gardens

Choi Jeong Hwa
Sydney Opera House

More to come soon.

Biennale of Sydney: AES+F – The Feast of Trimalchio - part 1

This work was also shown at the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2009.
Three simultaneous channels are projected onto a circular screen, each taking up a third of the space.
The three channels are shown here as layers.

Vale, Lena

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne 
June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010

Mexico: Daniel Lezama

Daniel Lezama showed some extraordinary new works at Zona Maco 2010. This series shows highly stylised encounters between colonial/literary and Mexican archetypal/mythological figures, combining beautiful facture with potent symbolism. Characters such as Malcolm Lowry’s fictional Geoffrey Firmin (from Under the Volcano), explorer/artist J.M Rugendas and other ‘nomads’ are depicted in complex allegorical tableaux. Lezama is highly articulate about his work, and his website is worth a visit (www.daniellezama.net). 

El Ecuador (nuevo pintor, nuevo modelo), 2009

Oil on linen, 320 x 240 cm

Cortesía Galería Hilario Galguera

Cita bajo el volcan, 2009

Oil on linen, 320 x 440 cm

Cortesía Galería Hilario Galguera

El dia de Diablo, 2007

Oil on linen, 320 x 240 cm

Cortesía Galería Hilario Galguera

Cape Town: Dada South

Dada South? 

Exploring Dada legacies in South African art, 1960 to the present.
Curated by Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith with Lerato Bereng
Iziko: South African National Gallery
12 December 2009 - 28 Feb 2010


Above: Installation view, courtesy the artists, curators and Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town

This is one of the most fascinating exhibitions we've seen in recent times, even without any special knowledge of the South African contemporary scene. Works by some of the original European Dadaists  (Picabia, Duchamp, Ray, Tzara et al) are mingled with a wide array of local artists perceived to have a neo-dadaist connection, covering a period from the 1960s to the present day. Many of these artists are of some renown in their home country, and a number of them (e.g. Jane Alexander, Candice Breitz, William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Robin Rhode) have significant international reputations, with a few living, working and/or teaching abroad. 
There was no catalogue published to coincide with the show, but this may emerge in the future. The independently-curated exhibition is 'an ongoing, participatory project of documentation and research' and more information is available at: http://dadasouth.blogspot.com. To contribute to the Dada South archive of experimental practices, you can email dadasouthza@gmail.com


From the Dada South blog:
It is nearly a century since Dada first touched the central nerve of western culture, attacking its logic, denouncing its ideas of community and nationhood, and demanding total freedom of thought. One of Dada’s primary revolutions is the reinvention of art as a form of tactics. Seen in this way, their work represents the origins of many of the forms we see in contemporary art. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dada attitudes found refreshed expression in Neo-Dada movements such as Fluxus, Arte Povera, the Situationist International and Pop Art, which preceded and deeply influenced Minimalism and Conceptual Art. It was in the 1960s that these ideas began to filter into South African art. Dada South? presents a collision of artistic strategies and forms that reflect the impact of Dada; works that are conceived and enacted in the spirit of Dada, which seek to question the conventions, values and function of art in a troubled society. The exhibition surveys an alternative history of resistance in a culture of isolation and repression, one that intersects with the canon of ‘resistance art’, but which deviates into forms that are less didactic, more eclectic and experimental. In the recuperation of these lesser-known histories, Dada South? proposes new vocabularies for South African art.

One of Dada’s lasting legacies is a style of provocation that postures as politics, but in fact ridicules its forms and institutions. Is it not paradoxical then, to host museum exhibitions about a movement that sought to destroy conventions, institutions and value systems? How we can talk about anarchy and the radical when we are bound by conventions of display and the inevitable fetishisation of the art object that the art museum supports?

South African art is often thought to suffer from an ‘anxiety of influence’ from Western artworld centres. Part of this perception is a poor understanding of our own art history. Dada South? intends to invert this by asserting South African practice as part of international art history; acknowledging a range of remarkable artistic positions that have called upon western influences selectively, even randomly, to develop local, indigenous responses to specific conditions of South African history.A major part of this process is about recuperating lost histories, practices and experiments. It is difficult to tell this story, as many works produced in a radical spirit were temporary interventions. They were not necessarily intended as art objects in the traditional sense, and certainly not expected to be purchased by museums for future preservation. As such, many such gestures exist only as oral histories and anecdotes that are occasionally backed up with an ephemeral document, like a poster, photograph, flyer or newspaper article found during an archival hunt.



Above © Robin Rhode Juggla 2007, digital print, courtsey the artist


One has indeed to come to the end of the world, and for me at least to Africa, to find the most ancient, the most archaic things and also – surprisingly though it may seem – the most up-to-date, the most extraordinary things which were dreamt of forty or thirty years ago and are now becoming a reality on this soil of Africa…this new world, which is in a state of ferment…is clearly going to be the world of the future.
- Tristan Tzara, after visiting Zimbabwe and Mozambique, 1962


Interesting? You betcha.

Vale, Ruby

     Ruby Hunter 1955 – 2010

Sydney: a ketchup edition

Apologies for the break nos chers lecteurs, even bloggers have to have holidays. Normally we try not be retrospective, but unavoidably this is something of a rear-view take on some Sydney exhibitions that caught our eye from late 2009 into 2010. We'll try to be more current in future.

MCA SYDNEY: SPRING/SUMMER 09/10

• Olafur Eliasson Take Your Time 
• Fiona Foley Forbidden
• Making it New: Focus on Australian Contemporary Art
• Primavera 2009
• Almanac, the Gift of Ann Lewis AO
• Louis Bufardeci & Zon Ito
• Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World

It has been a strong season for the MCA, with a good blend of local and international offerings, and none of them too obvious.


Above: © Olafur Eliasson. 360° room for all colours (2002) courtesy the artist and SFMoMA.

Eliasson (Denmark/Iceland) is of course approaching art megastar status, and it's the sort of international contemporary one-person survey show (initiated by San Francisco MoMA in 2007 and already seen at NY MoMA and MCA Chicago in 2008) at which the MCA excels - a youngish artist of great international interest, but not yet a household name. It is one of the few Australian institutions to do this, with some credit also to AGNSW, GOMA and NGV.

Eliasson  is famously anal, demanding and precise, and it has to be said that the production/installation values of this show are fabulous. This particular body of work, dating from the early to mid noughties, is all about precision and the 'science' of light, yet it delivers quite playful results, sometimes merely interesting, at times poetic and transporting. The absolute standout piece for us is one of the less 'optical' ones, Beauty (1993), achieved by projecting dim white light through a fine mist of falling water in a darkened space. While obviously an installation challenge for the electricians, the work is very simple in execution and effect – a wraith-like 'entity' dances just above floor level, a hallucinatory will-o-the-wisp. This piece is one of the few in this exhibition that gives the clue to Eliasson's wider preoccupations with natural phenomena, and that is a pity, because at his best he is an artist that can deliver an almost theatrical magic and, like Andy Goldsworthy, a simple wonder at the beauty of the elements.

At Primavera, Michaela Glaeve's Cloud Field (2007), explored similar territory, though with less vivid effect, possibly because the space, with a fine mist rising from jets at floor level, was brightly lit. Christine Eid's installation Your Place (2006) featuring taxi-top lights with various Anglo and Middle-Eastern names was another memorable piece. Whatever one may think of individual Primavera selections (09 was curated by Jeff Khan), they are always worth seeing and a good MCA tradition.

As is the (biennial) Focus on Contemporary Australian Art (FOCAA) series, of which this was the fourth installment, curated in-house by the recently appointed Glenn Barkly. Unlike Primavera, which features only artists under 35,  FOCAA has a mix of old and new, emergent and venerable. Featured in Making it New were Alison Alder, Micky Allan, Jon Campbell, Lou Hubbard, Matthew Hunt, Bob Jenyns, Linda Marrinon, Archie Moore, Tom Moore, Marrnyula Mununggurr, Raquel Ormella, Alwin Reamillo, Khaled Sabsabi, Neil Taylor, Ken Thaiday Snr, Ruth Waller, Toni Warburton and Ken Whisson. This was a very strong show, with our standouts being Neil Taylor, Bob Jenyns and Micky Allen.

Fiona Foley's recently-closed mid-career retrospective Forbidden was also very solid, but somehow failed to be more than that. She is an artist working across a wide repertoire of contemporary media, and it's appropriate for a survey show to cover the gamut, but therein lies the problem - it fails to satisfy in the way that a more concentrated or themed body of work may do. She undoubtedly has many exciting years ahead of her. A fine independently-published book is available.

The Bufardeci/Ito collaboration was a worthy offering, and the Ann Lewis bequest is a very fine collection indeed, but very special mention is due for Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World, featuring mainly work from the collection. For anyone curious about text in contemporary art this was a fascinating exhibition for which the catalogue is still available. 

Martin Sharp, Sydney Artist

Museum of Sydney


Until 14 February, 2010

This exhibition closes soon. it feels like an age since LF attended the packed opening in late October. And quite an event it was, with the OzMag generation out in force. For quizzical bystanders that weren’t around in Sydney or London during those heady days, it was a who’s who of the era, resplendent in a flurry of silver manes, white goatees and embroidered waistcoats.

Before Mambo there was Martin Sharp. Much has been written about the show, hung salon style in that single large shoebox on the first floor, the walls painted cobalt blue for the duration. Even if you’re not a fan of Sharp’s oeuvre (and this writer is not especially), the massed Tiny Tims, Luna Parks, Harbor Bridges and Eternities achieve definite critical mass in a riot of primary colour. It’s vaguely chronological, and some of his very early work is included, offering a useful if eccentric survey of one of Australia’s most distinctive painter/designer/savants. If you ain’t seen it you should have, shame on you!

Martin Mischkulnig  Smalltown

Museum of Sydney


Until 14 February, 2010

Also closing soon is this excellent photography show, the subject of a handsome book with a text by Tim Winton. Highly reminiscent of Trent Parke’s Welcome to Nowhere series (2006), this is fine stuff.

The exhibition is described ‘a dialogue between photographer Martin Mischkulnig and author Tim Winton, travelling through out-of-the-way parts of Australia’, and Winton says ‘The wild landscapes of Australia are routinely described as desolate and forbidding… [yet] for all the talk of hostility and harshness, there is nothing so bleak and forbidding in country Australia as the places humans have built there…"


The same images were also featured at the Evan Hughes Gallery in October/November 2009. The book is excellent, so if you missed the show, get that.

Vale Claude

Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1908 - 2009

Sydney: White Rabbit Gallery

Jonas Burgert
Hitting Every Head
Haunch of Venison, London
Until 7 November


German painter Jonas Burgert (b.1969) makes huge, fantastical paintings that evoke weird hybrid mythologies, apocalyptic dreamscapes, disturbing and horrific visions, whimsical or spooky childhood worlds. He has often been described as a latter-day Heironymous Bosch, however his very painterly approach is utterly contemporary, and somehow very German.

© Jonas Burgert

Hitting every Head, 2009, Oil on Linen, 380 x 500 cm

© Jonas Burgert

kopfschluss (head end), oil on canvas, 2008, 260 x 340 cm

© Jonas Burgert

laengst vertraut, 2008, Oil on canvas, 140 x 120 cm

© Jonas Burgert 

Waffenschwestern, 2004, oil on canvas. 300 x 280 cm

Courtsey Saatchi Gallery, London

Sydney: Clinton Nain

Clinton Nain
re-dress
GRANTPIRRIE GALLERY, Redfern
until 19 September 2009

Left: © Clinton Nain Pay 5, 2009, Acrylic and bitumen on canvas

This exhibition closes on Saturday, Nain's first Sydney show for 2 years. It has slipped under Sydney's art radar somewhat, possibly because it doesn't feature his better known motifs of weeping hearts, mission dresses and potholed roads. One of Nain's great strengths as a painter is that he is constantly exploring new expressions of his familiar themes, and refuses to just keep doing what has sold well in the past, which must be tempting, especially with his work of the last decade doing well in the secondary market.

To those that are familar with the artist's many themes, this exhibition is an exciting progression from his explorations of written language seen in his shows AEIOU (2006), and Resistance to Resilience (2008) at Nellie Castan Gallery in Melbourne. Bitumen and white acrylic on canvas are the media, and here scrawled and iterated words have decayed and merged to the point abstraction. The impact of the whole room hung with these works is quite extraordinary - go see.

Sydney: Tim Silver

Tim Silver – Coming around again & Rory
Breenspace
until 26 Sep 2009

Left: Tim Silver Untitled (Rory) 2009, watercolour pigment, initial dimensions 105 x 40 x 34 cm irregular

Much written about, this exhibition is worthy of note, if not a physical visit. Sally Breen devotes almost the whole of her enviable warehouse space to a single work, Rory (pictured), which 2 weeks into the show should be considerably reduced by the dripping water from above - and soon to be no more than puddle of blue pigment on the floor.

In a small separated area are a series of photographic pieces - each a progressive record of the watery decay of different objects - beach jetsam such coke cans, plastic bottles and thongs cast in solid pigment, cinnamon and other metaphorical substances, but always water soluble. These works are for sale, each a series of 5 A4-sized prints, but it's the cast multiples in the backroom that exert the real fascination and are, we understand, not for sale. Silver keeps the concept pure - he is all about ephemeral decay.

Some of this work will also be seen at the upcoming 'Wax-On' group show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in December, curated by Nell Schofield.

Rachel Ward's Beautiful Kate

Beautiful Kate
Australia, 1hr 41min‎‎‎
Written and directed by Rachel Ward

This has been pretty much universally praised by the critics, while other commentators have characterised it as just another depressing Australian flick about suicide and despair. This latter response may arise from the casting of Ben Mendelsohn (Ned) and Bryan Brown (Bruce, Ned's father), with their strong associations with suburban angst and urban nastiness. Have no fear, despite being very angsty and very nasty, they are both excellent, giving arguably their best performances to date, and ably transcend the 'Oh not them again' factor. All the performances are exceptional, with a special mention for newcomer Sophie Lowe as Ned's twin sister Kate (the beautiful).

It's certainly a bleak and unforgiving movie in parts, but we found it to be quite a redemptive tale - an age-old one really, involving a 'prodigal' son's return, and dark family secrets finally brought into the open.

Director Rachel Ward based it on the by American Newton Thornburg's 1982 novel of the same name, transposing it from 70s Idaho to a remote outback community in South Australia's Flinders Ranges. Its form is a (mostly) well-constructed and dramatically successful dual narrative, with the contemporary-ish story (son returns after 20 years to visit dying and despised father) interwoven with flashbacks to the 1970s and 80s (the childhood and adolescence of the four siblings, two of whom are now dead).

It's the flashbacks (and the poster, UK version shown) that have evoked the Bill Henson comparisons, particularly the 'Dam Scene', and this was calculated. Ward, speaking to Andrew L. Urban (Urban Cinefile) has said "My aesthetic for the flashback narrative is inspired by Bill Henson’s work. Like Beautiful Kate he inhabits a world of teenage alienation and sexuality. A world lit by pole lights, car headlights or torches. I like the way he reveals only small poetic fragments, fragments of alabaster skin, of silhouetted breasts, of bruised lips, the glint of a tear. He too treads that fine line between beauty/romance and desolation/realism. There are a number of fairly explicit sexual scenes throughout. While I do not intend to enter Larry Clarke territory, I hope not be prudish. This film is sexually provocative.”

Like Samson and Delilah, this film deals with things that many families would prefer not to think about, and it will be confronting to many, but Ward and her team have created a fine movie about things that matter. Go see.

Sydney: Kosky's Poppea

Barrie Kosky's Poppea

Based on L'incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi, libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, based on historical incidents described in the Annals of Tacitus. (First performance: Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, 1642)
and the songs of Cole Albert Porter

Sydney Opera House, Playhouse Theatre
until 22 August

You know you're at a Kosky piece when there's a blood-smeared nude man on stage most of the time and you barely notice him. The Baroness's sublime reinterpretation of Monteverdi's last opera was a sensation at the Vienna Schauspielhaus where it originated, and at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival, programmed by that other Australian arts wunderkind, composer Jonathan Mills. Now it has finally arrived in Sydney, at the Playhouse, SOH for a 2-week run.

We loved this. We are fans of Kosky from way back. But still, you try to be objective.

A minimal set and 4-person orchestra pit is all there in the way of evocation of place. Six performers sing the roles. And what performers! Much has been written of Melita Jurisic (Poppea)'s stage presence. She is mesmerising, with a throaty tenor purr that evokes a debauched pre-war Berlin, molassses-rich with visceral and obsessive love. The others are all equally fine, moving easily between (presumably) Busenello's words transposed to German, and some of Cole Porter's best-known songs. Sounds ghastly? It works, surprisingly, because these actor/singers could carry anything off. It's worth it just for 'De-Lovely' - it's in the second half, which really is worth staying for, we promise.

In the pit, three cellists weave a seductive path through Monteverdi and Porter, while the Baroness von Kosky herself punishes the ivories. This is piano as storyteller - cartoon-like, often, in true burlesque spirit. Sometimes all shrill arpeggios, sometimes discordant breaking glass, sometimes pounding and thunderous, it's hard to subtract the director's bravura turn from the whole. There were times I found the piano insistent and relentless, at other times delicate and moody... on the whole I think he pulls it off rather well. It's brave, and there's no hiding behind the actors here.

This is one of the best things to hit the Sydney stage this year - tix are only about $40, so go see if you can.

A la prochâine

Vale, Merce

Mercier (Merce) Philip Cunningham
April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009

A sense of place? The new City of Melbourne Identity

THE NEW CoM IDENTITY by LANDOR ASSOCIATES
has aroused torrents of invective, and Melbourne's design fraternity are up in arms. The debate still rages, not least in the comments area on AGDA's open blog, arising from Andrew Ashton and David Pidgeon's 'Open Letter to the Lord Mayor' (see below for text and link to forum).

Nous, les flâneurs, added this statement to the discussion:

There's a saying which goes - If it's Melbourne-based entity the designers have to be from Melbourne... if it's Sydney the designers have to be Australian. But in the really confident design capitals of the world, eg New York, Paris or Tokyo, they don't give a damn, as long as it's visionary. Think of architectural commissions... Pei, Rogers and Piano in Paris, Gehry in Bilbao, Hertzog and De Meuron in China. Sydney dared do it once with a Dane.

The problem really is that this new identity is not visionary, exacerbated by unfortunate mayoral comments, and the fact that Melbourne's internationally renowned studios weren't invited to pitch.

The ' design local' issue arises mainly because the new identity conveys no feel for Melbourne's unique soul and is widely seen as a missed opportunity to do something really good. It's not certain that local designers would have managed this, but surely more likely?

What were they THINKING? We give it a year, max. Maybe MCC could sell it on to a casino?

-----

An Open Letter to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne
24th July, 2009

The City of Melbourne’s rebranding has attracted a veritable storm of controversy, not least because of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle’s inaccurate and unfortunate comments about Victoria’s design industry. Below is an open letter to Robert Doyle, written by Andrew Ashton and David Pidgeon from AGDA Victoria, asking him to outwardly support and promote Victoria’s design industry. We urge those of you who are interested in supporting the industry to take the time to leave your name, studio name and location in the comments section below. We will then pass on the collated signatures and comments to Robert Doyle, Lynne Kosky and John Brumby.

24 July 2008

Th Right Hon the Lord Mayor of Melbourne,
Councillor Robert Doyle
City of Melbourne PO Box 1603 Melbourne VIC 3001

Dear Lord Mayor,

We are writing to you to express our concern over the recent release of the new brand mark for the City of Melbourne. It is of concern to us that the City of Melbourne seems to have ignored the stated Victorian Government policy of supporting and promoting the State’s design industry.

Mr Doyle, the pool of communication and brand design talent in Melbourne is unrivalled in this country and is arguably the most diverse in South East Asia. It is this fact that leaves us dismayed when trying to understand why you chose to appoint a Sydney based / American owned firm to complete a task that could have been just as successfully completed by any number of Victoria’s internationally acclaimed graphic designers.

As for the issue of the “daggy” incumbent design, we would have rather hoped that your significant experience in politics would have taught you to more deeply consider the implication of any public comment. It was frankly insulting to the original creator of the incumbent City of Melbourne brand Mr Richard Henderson of FHA Image Design. We all acknowledge that time waits for few styles and aesthetics but Mr Henderson’s work served the City very well for twenty years and such a glib, final assessment of this legacy does no marketing or design professionals any favours. It tends only to decrease the sophistication of community discussion around communication and brand design.

We urge you to consider and support fellow Victorian designers as you will find that many of these professional are in their own right symbols to the world of “how cool, intellectual, CREATIVE and urbane” Victorians are.

Yours faithfully,
Andrew Ashton – Studio Pip and Co. Balaclava, Victoria / AGDA and AGI Member AGDA Victoria Treasurer

David Pidgeon – Design by Pidgeon East St KIlda, Victoria / AGDA and AGI Member AGDA Victoria Councillor

LINK TO THE ONGOING DEBATE (AGDA):
http://blogs.agda.com.au/suite7/view/post/an-open-letter-to-the-lord-mayor-of-melbourne

Vale, Pina

Philippine 'Pina' Bausch
July 27, 1940 – June 30, 2009

Vale, Michael

Michael Joseph Jackson
August 29 1958 – June 25 2009

Samson and Delilah

Samson and Delilah
Australia, 2009
101 minutes
Director, Screenplay, Cinematography: Warwick Thornton

Winner, Caméra d'or 2009
Festival de Cannes 2009, Un Certain Regard

There are some films where it’s no consolation telling yourself “It’s just a movie”, because you know that they reveal an appalling truth, irrespective of the fact that these are actors playing parts. The Australian film Samson and Delilah, whose director Warwick Thornton took out the Camera D’Or for best first feature, is one such film.

From the first frames we seem to inhabit the skin of these Indigenous teenagers, and Thornton’s unflinching depiction of their physical and emotional world is all the more powerful for the almost total lack of dialogue between them – early on we surmise that Samson (Rowan McNamara) has speech problems and may be partially deaf – it is never spelled out, but would explain certain incidents. He only utters one word in the entire film (his name), and Delilah (Marissa Gibson) only really speaks to her aged grandmother, charismatically played by Mitjili Gibson.

I found the film quite harrowing, which is no doubt the desired effect, but I didn’t expect to be so completely absorbed into the world of these youngsters. The moment when Samson, having ‘lost’ Delilah for the second time, covers his head in a blanket and begins to quietly keen with grief, is a moment of utter human despair, and we feel ourselves there with him, in his haze of petrol fumes and hopelessness and loss. Thornton’s close-up photography and extraordinarily subtle direction of his two young principals, whose faces express what no dialogue could, conveys an almost unbearable tenderness, even as we recoil in horror at their plight.

Yet when the protagonists are in the ‘big town’ trying to get food and money to survive, Thornton skillfully distances his audience, turning us into uncaring supermarket workers, indifferent café dwellers, an arrogant gallerist, a suspicious priest (in a church with a black Madonna and Christ-child, a nice touch). Suddenly we see the characters we have been empathising with, through other eyes - as dangerous-looking Aboriginal kids, trouble best avoided. Thornton makes us ask the questions: Are we these cold-hearted people? The next time we see a brutalised Aboriginal youngster will we try to imagine how it came about? Or try to help?

This is skilful and potent film-making, and a towering achievement for a first-time director, but especially for one dealing with a subject many Australians would prefer not to think about. And there is truthfulness too in an, if not happy, then at least hopeful ending. It is not about being saved, but saving yourself, and love is probably all we’ve got.

Go see if you haven't already.

Decima Bienal de la Habana

Decima Bienal de la Habana
Integración y Resistencia en la Era Global

10th Havana Biennial
Integration and Resistance in the Global Era

Havana, Cuba, 27 March - 30 April 2009

This article was first commissioned by Art World Australasia Edition.

Since Havana’s 4th Biennial in 1991, the sprawling complex of 16-18th century fortifications known as Parque Morro-Cabaña has been the event’s principal venue. Situated across the harbour mouth from Habana Vieja (the old town), this austerely beautiful setting provides an exceptionally fine venue for the exhibition of contemporary art. Long pavilions of vaulted storerooms contain a series of discrete yet linked chambers, accessible from both the outside and through connecting doorways. The absence of distracting architectural detail (walls are simple whitewashed plaster), creates a satisfying focus for the work of individual artists, collective and interactive projects. The Biennial also has a long tradition of including independently curated Projectos Collectivos (group shows) and one-person shows by Invitados Especiales (specially invited luminaries) in its program, mounted in diverse colonial and 20th century buildings throughout Habana Vieja and Vedado. The result is an event that enlivens an already vibrant city and encompasses most of its museums and public galleries.

The theme ‘Integration and Resistance in a Global Era’, as well as providing a broad curatorial framework, conveniently summarises Cuba’s wider cultural and economic dilemma in the early 21st century. There is a real prospect, at the time of writing, that the 50-year old US blockade may soon be lifted, or at least eased. Add to this the spectre of internal generational change, and the country appears poised on the verge of immense upheaval, restless for it, yet fearful that the modest gains of socialism may be lost in a frenzied capitalist free-for-all. Cuba occupies a unique frontline position, both geographical and political, in relation to the ‘Northern hegemony’, and many participating artists have no doubt been selected with this in mind. The brandmarks of Western capitalism are a recurrent presence through the work of many, along with the visual ephemera of financial meltdown, but this is not the ironic work of cultural insiders, rather the view from outside, looking in.

Installation, photography and screen/time-based work predominates, with little contemporary painting in evidence, and that mainly from China. Given Cuba’s strong painting tradition, this is slightly surprising, with José Bedia the only contemporary Cuban painter of note, featured in a 3-person tribute show (with the late Wilfredo Lam and Raúl Martínez) Risistencia y Libertad, at the Museum of Fine Arts. Elsewhere senior figures such as Abel Barosso and Raul Estrada Aguilar (Cuba), Ronald Duarte and José Paulo (Brasil), Marcus Lopez (Argentina), Marcela Diáz (Mexico), Claudia Aravena Agughosh (Chile), Raul Quintanilla (Nicaragua) and Alex Burke (Martinique/France) rub shoulders with emergent collectives and individuals from across Latin America, the Carribbean, Africa, Australia and Europe (mainly Spain and France). USA-based artists tend to have Latin American connections and an overtly political practice, for example Erica Lord, Titus Kaphar, Loring McAlping. Asia is under-represented, and the Indian subcontinent not at all. China’s presence is boosted by a small but solid group show China: Contemporary Art Revisited, and new Cuba-based work by painter Liu Xiaodong, whose large-scale Hot Bed (painting/installation, 2005-06) will be remembered by Australian audiences at the 2006 Sydney Biennale. Invitados Especiales include León Ferrari (Argentina), Paulo Bruscky (Brasil), Guillermo Gómez Peña (Mexico), Fernell Franco (Colombia), Sue Williamson (South Africa), Hervé Fischer (Canada), Shigeo Fukuda (Japan) and Pepón Osorio (Puerto Rico), and some of these gave performances and talks during the inaugural week.

Australia achieves critical mass with work by Tony Albert (photographs), Darren Siwes (photographs) Guan Wei (installation/painting), Michael Goldberg (video/installation/performance), Gerry Wedd (ceramics) and Danius Kesminas’ Jogyakarta-based group Punkasila (installation/performance). Much of this work is not new to Australian audiences - Tony Albert’s ironic 50 Percent series of self-portraits dates from 2007 and Guan Wei’s whole-room installation Rising Sea Level was seen at Campbelltown Regional Gallery as part of News From Islands in 2007. Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser’s profound and moving installation Home Security (2007) is part in the independently curated (by Régine Cuzin, France) touring show Latitudes, as is New Zealander Lisa Reihana’s impressive installation Digital Marae (2007). Mounted in the accessible Centro de Desarollo de las Artes Visuales in Habana Vieja, this show has excited considerable interest among ordinary Cubans, and is one of the more substantial Projectos Collectivos.

This 10th Biennial takes place on the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Revolution, and marks the 25th anniversary of the event’s founding in 1984. There are 200 artists from 40 countries. These numbers have a pleasing symmetry, suggesting curatorial consolidation of an event that has long punched well above the weight of Cuba’s 2nd world economy and 11.5 million population. This can be said of many Cuban achievements, and the contradictions are ever-present: the highest life expectancy (76) and literacy rate (95.7%) in Latin America; a command economy centralised in a pervasive state apparatus; doctors earning less than taxi drivers. All the more extraordinary then that such a large, professional and confident Biennial has been mounted, comparable in depth and breadth to many of the world’s best. This extends beyond curatorial and exhibition production values to superb publications and contemporary graphic branding, signage and wayfinding systems. Only the rather rudimentary website is a letdown – a pity for those unable to attend.

Ruben del Valle Lantarón and his curatorial team are in fact building on a long tradition of excellence and internationalism established under the remarkable Lillian Llanes, who directed 5 Biennials between 1984 and 1999, spanning the years of the ‘Special Period’ when famine stalked the land after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is Llanes who is credited with developing the decentralised Biennial model, taking the art out of the museums and into the streets, and initiating numerous ‘collateral’ events – workshops and installations across the city – an approach which has been broadly adopted the world over. Havana has long had an emphasis on the art of the Third World and the ‘Economic South’, along with a commitment to nurturing dialogue among participants through corollary ‘theoretical’ programs, approaches which are now de rigeur in Europe. Llanes’ legacy can be seen in Okwui Enwezor’s memorable multi-platform Documenta 11 (2002) and Charles Merewether’s Zones of Contact Biennale of Sydney (2006), both of which eschewed the inclusion of many well-known western artists in favour of broad representation from 2nd and 3rd world countries, and work which interrogates the evolving economic and cultural nexus between developed and developing worlds.

This is a Biennial with depth and, dare I suggest, heart. A landslide of challenges confronts Biennial organisers, yet their passion sustains them, aided by an army of cheerful young volunteers. During the memorable inauguraçion at La Cabaña, with the sun setting over Habana Vieja, the music pulsing and the mojitos flowing among a United Nations of artists young and old, it seemed for a moment just possible that the energy of their ideas and creativity might change the world.

Hasta lluego

Sydney: Taking a line for a walk

I WALK THE LINE: NEW AUSTRALIAN DRAWING
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
17 March - 24 May 2009

Despite the frequently heard assertion that 'art schools don't teach drawing these days (hrrumph)', a worldwide resurgence in drawing is undoubtedly being led by a younger generation of artists. One factor may be that it isn't an expensive medium to work in, and Phaidon's impressive 'VITAMIN D' compilation published in 2006, showed an astonishing breadth of practice globally, which is evident in microcosm in Australia. The 29 artists chosen range from young and emergent to moderately well known, and are drawn from all over the country, with a number of NZ artists now resident in Australia.

Purists of the old school (the same ones who claim drawing isn't being taught?) may well shudder at the inclusion of video, performance and sculpture under a very broad definition of drawing, but this adds to the strength and depth of the show. It's about time we had a significant survey of drawing and curator Christine Morrow has done a fine job.

It's hard to name names in such a strong and varied show, but personal faves include Michelle Ussher, Laith McGregor, Patrick Hartigan, Elvis Richardson and the late Cassandra Laing. Among the more established figures are Maria Kontis, James Morrison, Gordon Hookey and Vernon Ah Kee.

The only negative thing that can be said about this exhibition is that we wish there was a lot more of it. It might have been interesting, space permitting, to contrast the 'young and not so young turks' with more venerable figures (such as Godwin Bradbeer) and perhaps included a couple of printmakers. These are small gripes however, go see.

New York: Marlene Dumas at MOMA

Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
22 June 2008 - 22 Sept 2008

Museum of Modern Art, New York
December 14, 2008–February 16, 2009

If painting is female and insanity is a female malady, then all women painters are mad and all male painters are women.”- Marlene Dumas, 1993


Above: © Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave, 2003, oil on canvas. Courtesy MOMA


Above: © Marlene Dumas: Dead Marilyn, 2008, oil on canvas. Courtesy MOMA


Above: Installation view. Courtesy MOMA

Marlene Dumas may well be South Africa's most famous art export. Born in a small rural community in 1953, she has lived in Amsterdam since 1975, and was for several months last year the world’s Most Expensive Female Artist, with her painting 'The Visitor' (below) selling to New York private dealer Nancy Whyte for US$6.34 million in July 2008 at Sotheby’s London. The sales figure overshadowed Dumas’ preceding record of £1.8 million in February 2005. Dumas is far better known in Europe than the USA, but the auction result and now this prestigious mid-career review, originating at MOCA LA and now at MOMA NY, will change all that. The exhibition includes approximately seventy paintings and thirty-five drawings, starting with early mature works from the late 1970s. Dumas is well-known for always working from photographs, not from life, and has said “Secondhand images can generate firsthand emotions.”


Above: © Marlene Dumas: The Visitor, 1995, Oil on Canvas

New York seems to be hot for her. Well... some people, anyway. An artworld frisson erupted around a rather scathing review by influential NY Times critic Roberta Smith (The Body Politic: Gorgeous and Grotesque, Dec 11 08), which began: "The figurative painter Marlene Dumas has been characterized as an artist who leaves you either hot or cold, but that’s not necessarily so. “Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave,” a midcareer survey at the Museum of Modern Art, cuts right down the middle. It left me warm."

While offering some positives, the review compared her unfavourably to the likes of Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois, suggesting that "Ms. Dumas’s best work may lie ahead..."

Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker was more enthusiastic, yet in his way even more scathing, and much, much funnier, referring to her "punctilious inelegance". Of her heritage he says: "In common with the draftsman and animator William Kentridge, another white South African of political bent, Dumas channels a direly exotic heritage of collective guilt and personally redemptive anger. She adds to it an element of truculent but breezy feminism, often expressed in her lively writing".

Dumas came to international fame on the wave of resurgent interest in painting in the last decade of the 20th century. She was included in the 2005 Saatchi show 'The Triumph of Painting', along with such superstars Luc Tuymans and Peter Doig, and her painting 'Young Boys' (owned by Saatchi, see below) created a considerable media stir at the time.


Above: Marlene Dumas: Young Boys, 1993, Oil on Canvas. Courtesy Saatchi Gallery London

LF thinks she's a very interesting painter, but the veneration and prices she now inspires are puzzling. There are many excellent artists working in this genre, and of this quality, and as some have pointed out, Dumas has been doing much the same thing for several decades without much apparent progression. Perhaps this is her special quality - a resolute determination not to grapple with complex conceptual conundrums, and just keep on doing faces?

Having said that, it's a large and varied show, and the top floor may be the most interesting, showing some very early drawings and collage works. It's on till mid Feb, so go see if you can.

A toute a l'heure