Queensland Art Gallery Annual Report

26 QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY ANNUAL REPORT 05/06 / exhibitions and audiences collection. ‘Sparse Shadows, Flying Pearls: A Japanese Screen Revealed’ explored the iconography of a pair of seventeenth- century Japanese screens by Unkoku Toeki (1591–1644), which were gifted to the Gallery by James Fairfax, AO . The exhibition provided a fascinating insight into how the arts played an important role in validating the political authority of the period. In addition to the Toeki screens, the display included calligraphy and paintings on paper and silk; ceramics; and lacquerware on loan from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, and private collections. The accompanying publication, produced in conjunction with the exhibition, was supported by the Gallery’s Australian Centre of Asia–Pacific Art. The ‘Design Excellence in Queensland’ exhibition was again hosted by the Gallery during the year. Presented by the Design Institute of Australia (Qld) in association with the Gallery, it showcased the finalists and winners of the Queensland Design Awards 2006. Featuring the work of the best designers and design students in the state, it profiled leading design in more than 20 categories including interior design, three-dimensional design and visual communication design. EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN The popularity of the Gallery’s annual summer holiday exhibition for children was again demonstrated by ‘Made for this World: Contemporary Art and the Places We Build’. Featuring works by both Australian and international artists from the Collection, the exhibition introduced children to artists’ interpretations of themes exploring the home, the city and the built environment in a number of different cultures. Interactive art works were again a popular feature for kids: Olafur Eliasson’s The cubic structural evolution project 2004 put thousands of pieces of Lego at the disposal of young hands and minds, in order to create an ever-evolving metropolis; Cai Guo-Qiang’s Bridge crossing 1999 invited children to design and construct a bridge using small pieces of bamboo and tape; and Yayoi Kusama’s The obliteration room 2002 invited children to obliterate the completely white surfaces of a life-sized Australian living room with coloured dots. The Gallery also collaborated with Yayoi Kusama to produce a web-based interactive game for children based on The obliteration room . Launched to coincide with the ‘Made for this World’ exhibition, Kusama’s World of Dots was the first in a series of planned online interactives to be developed for children focused on different works in the Gallery’s Collection. Kusama’s World of Dots won the multimedia category at the 2006 Museums Australia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards in May, as well as the best in show design excellence award at the 2006 Queensland Design Awards in June. As part of the ‘Made for this World’ exhibition, the Gallery staged a special Summer Family Day on Sunday 15 January. The focus of the day was Box City — the largest interactive art project for children the Gallery has ever commissioned. Hundreds of children and their families worked with more than 30 Queensland artists to build a sprawling cardboard metropolis over the course of the day. The ‘construction crew’ recreated the many buildings of concrete, wood and steel found in any modern city — but this time they worked with colourful paints and papers. Houses turned into homes, buildings were painted to look old and new, and Chinatown came alive with bright red paint and gold collage. The frenetic pace of the city increased over the day as paper people moved into the suburbs, and vehicles and river craft filled highways and waterways. During the Summer Family Day and the making of Box City, the Honourable Rod Welford, MP , Minister for Education and Minister for the Arts, announced that the Gallery’s expertise in the area of children’s and family programming would continue with the opening of the Children’s Art Centre in late 2006. Though based in GoMA, the Centre will operate across both sites of the Gallery and its programs will allow children to explore both historical and contemporary art. A full-colour, 28-page booklet on the Centre was released to coincide with the announcement. The Gallery’s popular programs for children, Toddler Tuesday and Sunday at the Gallery, continued to regularly offer young visitors and their families an exciting range of workshop programs. EXHIBITIONS AND PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE The annual ‘Education Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Art’ exhibition featured the outstanding work of students from secondary schools throughout Queensland. It displayed a selection of 29 works from 14 000 entries by senior art students from throughout the state. Once again, the exhibition proved popular with the next generation of young artists, with 209 school groups visiting the Gallery over the course of the exhibition. The Gallery’s Starter Space exhibition program for Queensland artists aged 25 and under showcased the work of three artists during the year — Natalie McComas, Genevieve Staines and Natalie Masters. During National Youth Week, April 2006, Natalie McComas joined Jonathan Jones, winner of the inaugural ‘Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award’; and Paul Adair, Hobday and Hingston bursary winner, in a series of artist talks. New Wave continued to offer engaging programs exploring contemporary art and ideas for tertiary students and young people. Providing an arena for students to actively explore the Gallery’s Collection and exhibitions, New Wave events John Baldessari United States b.1931 Prima facie (second state): Apprehensive 2005 Archival digital print with UV varnish coating on canvas; synthetic polymer paint on canvas, diptych: 168.9 x 137.3cm (each panel) Purchased 2006. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund