Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report 2004-05

16 17 EXHIBITIONS AND AUDIENCES Focusing on works produced from 1988 to early 2005, ‘The Art of Fiona Hall’ was the first survey exhibition of this leading artist’s work to be staged by an Australian gallery in more than a decade. Organised by the Queensland Art Gallery, the exhibition revealed the breadth of the artist’s work — photographs and Polaroids, intricately carved sardine tins, vibrantly beaded sculptures, precise botanical illustrations on bank notes — and her curiosity for contemporary life and the world around her. Featuring the previously unseen major works Understorey 1999–2004 and Tender 2003–05, the exhibition was officially opened by Ron Radford, AM , Director of the National Gallery of Australia. Public programming accompanying the exhibition included an artist talk, exhibition floortalks and lectures, as well as a forum on object-making in contemporary art. A beautiful monograph, by the curator, Julie Ewington (Head of Australian Art), was published by Piper Press to coincide with the exhibition. Organised by the Art Gallery of South Australia, ‘Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’ showcased three decades of the artist’s revolutionary career. Featuring the series of five large canvases produced in the late 1970s, in which the artist mapped his ‘corroboree country’, the exhibition revealed Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri as a pioneer of the Western Desert dot-painting movement and a charismatic ambassador for his culture. Public programs included a lecture presentation by the exhibition’s curator, Dr Vivien Johnson. The exhibition was promoted to general audiences via a television commercial produced by the Art Gallery of South Australia and aired for the Gallery by media sponsor Network Ten. From the National Gallery of Australia came ‘No Ordinary Place: The Art of David Malangi’, an exhibition featuring the life’s work of this leading figure in the development of the distinctive central Arnhem Land bark painting movement. Malangi’s characteristic use of wide white lines and dense matt blacks, rärrk (cross-hatching) and bold graphic depictions of iconic ancestral beings made him a true innovator in the medium. This exhibition brought together around 50 works from private and public collections to reveal powerful stories of land and culture. A Grotocéans (The treasure of the Grotoceans) 1980; and Lee Bul’s cyborg body parts made from porcelain, all of which encouraged children to imagine future worlds. The exhibition featured interactive ‘play’ areas, including a Battery Cattery where children could play with, and care for, robotic cats; and Create-a-Creature where young visitors could use their imaginations to create weird and wonderful animals. Sparky, the cyborg-dog mascot, created by the Gallery’s curatorial, education, communications and design staff, featured in the accompanying children’s activity book and Summer Festival program. A highlight of the exhibition was ‘The Nature Machine’ Summer Festival, a nine-day program of performances, workshops, artist talks and fun activities for children. Artists’ workshops — with exhibiting and local artists Beata Batorowicz, eX de Medici, Douglas Watkin, Lisa Roet, Kim Demuth and Guan Wei — were particularly well attended, as was ‘The Nature Machine’ Quiz Show, which ran twice a day due to popular demand. Performances by Tubby the Robot, the Surfing Scientist and Conan the Bubbleman also featured during the festival, while Canine-cam, where family dogs had tiny video cameras strapped to their backs to record dog’s-eye views of the world, rounded out the festival program. Sparky, the exhibition mascot, featured in the comprehensive marketing campaign undertaken for the exhibition and festival, encompassing an animated television commercial, and press and outdoor advertising. Another major initiative for young audiences during the year was ‘Blak Insights’ for kids, which accompanied the exhibition ‘Blak Insights: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection’. Children and families explored the exhibition with the help of exhibition mascot Kuril — the hip, urban water rat, who featured on children’s labels, audio activities and in the free activity book. Kuril’s hideouts were special places in the exhibition where children could discover more about Indigenous culture. Workshops were offered to children of all ages during the September–October school holidays. Local Indigenous artists Mayrah Yarraga Dreise, Archie Moore, Janice Peacock, Jenny Fraser, Alvina Lund and Bianca Beetson taught children how to create clay sculptures, landscape collages, spirals for the seasons, sea animal prints, sand pictures and ‘superhero’ characters based on native Australian animals. Youth-focused programming featured in the first quarter of 2005. The annual ‘Education Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Art’, organised by Education Queensland, again showcased the diverse talent of young artists from schools throughout Queensland. A selection of 47 works, selected from submissions by 15 000 senior art students, was displayed, and was accompanied by a video documentary featuring the artists discussing their work. As in previous years, the ‘Education Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Art’ proved especially popular with visiting school groups. In 2005, the Gallery’s annual Prime project was an exhibition by young Queensland artists. Showcasing the new work of eight contemporary artists aged 35 and under, ‘Prime 2005: New Art from Queensland’ highlighted the strength and diversity of current art practice in Queensland. The exhibition included a major sculpture by Daniel Templeman; paintings by Peter Alwast, Natalya Hughes and Jemima Wyman; photographs by Chris Handran; a new video work by Grant Stevens; a series of sculptural works by Alasdair Macintyre; and an installation and new works on paper by Sandra Selig. A specially designed website was produced for the exhibition and featured videos of artist interviews. Several artists presented artist talks in conjunction with the exhibition. Starter Space, an initiative for young Queensland artists, continued at the Gallery with the work of five artists under 25 exhibited during the year. Wilkins Hill, a collaborative team comprising Wendy Wilkins and Wesley Hill, presented a playful text-based work which was followed by Joshua Feros’s Phrase , a site-specific installation comprised of coloured discs mimicking the raised dots of the Braille language system. Sebastian Moody’s text-based work was the next presentation for Starter Space, before Natalie Masters’s work comprising black, stained, cut-up and resewn doilies referencing her Maori ancestry went on show in late June. The Queensland Art Gallery’s 2004–05 exhibition calendar saw audiences treated to the enchanting work of Fiona Hall; the innovation of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and David Malangi Daymirringu; the hyper-reality of Ron Mueck’s monumental Pregnant woman ; and the serious fun of serious art in the children’s exhibition ‘The Nature Machine: Contemporary Art, Nature and Technology’. GENERAL EXHIBITIONS EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE series of lectures and floortalks was presented in association with ‘No Ordinary Place’. ‘Ron Mueck: The Making of Pregnant woman 2002’, also toured by the National Gallery of Australia, was an intimate study of the Melbourne-born, London-based artist Ron Mueck’s extraordinarily ambitious work. A contemporary portrayal of motherhood, Pregnant woman is a monument (at 2.5 metres high) to universal themes of fertility, birth and life, and is both lifelike and hyper-real. Preparatory sketches, maquettes, and a video documentary of the artist at work helped complete the picture of the artist’s painstakingly detailed processes. Through the work of John Baldessari, Andrea Fraser, Aernout Mik, Nam June Paik, Song Dong and Erwin Wurm, ‘I am Making Art’ explored performance art in the Gallery’s Collection from the 1960s to the present. With equal measures of absurdity and humour, the exhibition examined idiosyncratic languages of the body and human movement, captured through photography, text and video. An exhibition preview for tertiary students and a program of children’s workshops were held in association with the exhibition. Since 1998, more than one million people have visited children’s exhibitions and programs at the Queensland Art Gallery and, once again in 2004–05, children and their families experienced the latest in exhibition programming designed specially for young audiences. ‘The Nature Machine: Contemporary Art, Nature and Technology’ explored ideas about nature, technology and visions of the future, and displayed works by 29 Australian and international contemporary artists. Works included the recent acquisition and video installation From here to there 2003 by Jana Sterbak, featuring footage filmed entirely by her dog Stanley; Co Hoedeman’s 16mm animated short films exploring environmental themes, including Le trésor des EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN From left to right: ‘Blak Insights’ exhibiting artist Djambawa Marawili presents an artist talk during NAIDOC Week in July 2004. Julie Ewington, Head of Australian Art, speaks to students at the tertiary preview of the exhibition ‘The Art of Fiona Hall’. Young architects at work on The cubic structural evolution project 2004, by Olafur Eliasson, installed at the Gallery for ‘The Nature Machine’ Summer Festival. Tubby the Robot and his remote-controlled baby, Little Tub, entertaining visitors at ‘The Nature Machine’ Summer Festival. Joshua Feros installing his work in Starter Space, an initiative for young Queensland artists.