Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 2004-05

12 13 Enola 2004 is the most recent video installation by Australian artist Susan Norrie, and adds to the Gallery’s expanding collection of moving-image works. The work’s title refers to the Enola Gay , the World War Two B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. The installation shows footage from a Japanese theme park of world architecture in miniature. It reflects on the past and present, as well as a potentially doomed future. A panoramic painting of Brisbane’s skyline by Robert Brownhall was the first work acquired under a new program, which commissions new work every two years by young Queensland artists for the Gallery’s Collection. Afternoon storm , Brisbane 2005 is a modern interpretation of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century genre of capturing picturesque vistas of a sprawling city. The three-metre-wide canvas depicts a view from Parliament House looking north east across the Brisbane River towards the Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art under construction. Acquisition highlights for contemporary Asian art during 2004–05 included Sara Tse’s visually haunting and delicate cast porcelain clothing works Trans/form no.9.1 and no.10.2 , and Dress no.66 , no.68 and no.69 , all 2003. Ah Xian’s porcelain China China – bust no.63 2002 was another significant acquisition for the year. This brings the total number of works by the award-winning artist now in the Gallery’s Collection to seven. The acquisition of several major works by Korean–Japanese artist Lee Ufan continued the Gallery’s policy of acquiring substantial bodies of work by key artists. Three significant works by the artist were donated and the Gallery acquired a further nine. They included the drawing Push up 1967, four From line 1981–82 drawings, a From point 1972 drawing, and five lithographs from In Milano 1992. Wei Dong’s Snapshot 1999 was another important acquisition for the contemporary Asian collection. The work engages with a tradition of Chinese landscape painting and Western figure painting, and critically addresses the changing history of China in relation to contemporary globalisation, growing consumerism, and the decline of communism. Several key acquisitions expanded the Gallery’s holdings of Australian art. The Yidinyji Rainforest people are best known for their shields and swords, and in the major suite of shields, Bama (The people) , Michael Boiyool Anning represents his Yidinyji ancestors. In this work, Anning honours them as being inspirational to his revival of traditional cultural forms and themes. Maningrida artists are renowned for their fibre art, a key collecting focus for the Gallery, and Lena Yarinkura is one of the most innovative contemporary artists from Arnhem Land. The artist’s Ngalyod (Rainbow serpent) 2004 is a dramatic realisation in sculptural form of this important totemic figure, and adds significantly to the Gallery’s developing holdings of this genre of Indigenous art-making. James Eseli’s spectacular Ubirikubiri (Crocodile) headdress 2004 portrays song and dance from Mabuiag Island. Dance is regarded as the most vibrant form of contemporary expression in the Torres Strait, and the acquisition of this piece enhances the Gallery’s existing collection of work by this artist. Another key acquisition for the Indigenous Australian art collection was Poyarri 1988 by Sunfly Tjampitjin. Produced before the Balgo painters developed their own distinctive style and use of colour, Poyarri suggests links between the Balgo group and other contemporary dot-painting groups, such as Papunya. Through the annual Foundation Art Appeal, the Gallery acquired Café tables 1957 by one of Australia’s pre-eminent artists, Ian Fairweather. Café tables is a vibrant scene of café life, based on the artist’s memories of travels through China, the Philippines and Indonesia. The work unites examples of Fairweather’s early paintings and his later great abstract works in the Gallery’s Collection. COLLECTION One of the Queensland Art Gallery’s key goals is the development, management and conservation of the Collection to the highest art museum standards for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future audiences. In 2004–05 the Gallery acquired 340 art works. AUSTRALIAN ART ASIAN AND PACIFIC ART top: Susan Norrie Australia b.1953 Enola (still) 2004 DVD: 8:37 minutes, colour, sound, with 10 steel and ply stools, hand-painted, ed. 2/6 10 stools: 37.9 x 45 x 29.9cm (each) Purchased 2004 with funds from the Estate of Lawrence King in memory of the late Mr and Mrs SW King through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Robert Brownhall Australia b.1968 Afternoon storm, Brisbane 2005 Oil on canvas Diptych: 122 x 330cm (overall) Commissioned 2005 with funds from the Queensland Government