Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

r "Vr ArtC i The real live thing By DANIEL THOMAS A REAL LIVE artist and a real live poet, on view for ten days at the Waiters Gal- lery. Aleks Danko, artist, and Richard Tipping, poet, are mit really inviting you to look at them as art objects-there are other objects to look at, and obstacles of timber, barbed- wire and light bulbs to negoti- ate, diaries and notes and books to read and, above all, processes and changes to watch. They do, however, invite you to talk to them. If they explain themselves it will imply that they don't yet think of themselves as works of art. A work of art never explains it- self. Tim Burns's famous TV piece had live participants who talked, but never about the work :1 art. I f, however, Danko and Tipping remain enigmatic about their art, it might mean that they have converted them- selves into art objects. Tipping certainly has converted copies of his book of poems, "Soft Riots," into objects for col- lecting, owning, looking at, but not for reading. So the two young men might he art objects, and therefore he described and reviewed. They are extremely charming. They have attractive voices. They are clean and courteous. They have a most pleasing gravity and brevity of dis- course. Probably they feel deeply guilty about the privileged role of art, and their privileges as artists. They want to share their privileges and worries. Ideally, everybody should rea- lise that they, too, can he artists. It is a matter of self- awareness, awareness in gene- ral, including awareness that everything changes, nothing is ever the same. So, go along, t.ok . and go again to see how the exhibi- tion changes day by day. To- morrow there is a special night; take a cushion and $1 for the performance pieces. * * * Vivienne rengilley, Gallery A. Wonderfully romantic col- lage -tapestries. The hits of old silk, padded velvet and lace imply cushions, pillows, sofas and beds on which to dream; the free -form, non -rectangular hallvn shapes are the right vehicle for fantasies, following the example of comics, She is, in fact, a kind of pop artist, "MORNING HERALD" Sydney, N.S.W. NEW EXHIBITIONS Hogarth: Paintings by kale Briscoe. Walters: Readings, events, processes, etc, by and Richard Tipping. Gallery A: Hangings by Vivienne Pengille). Sebert: Batiks by Stephen Eng. Strawberry Hill: Drawings by Heinz Steinmann. Education Department: Students of John Oghurn studio. David Jones: "Special gifts for special people." Holdsworth: $1011 and under. Aleks Danko interested in Indians and drov- ers and fast cars. Women artists are different from men. I don't mean the painters and sculptors like Janet Dawson or Marge! Hin- der, hut the artists working oil the borderline between crafi and art are mostly women. I'd like to see an exhibition of them all gathered together: Pengilley, Dodd, Grounds, Binns, Creaser, Hessing, Pach- ucka come to mind. * * * Jeffrey Smart, Rudy Komon Gallery. Much the same as usual in content (terror of de- humanisation), subject matter (modern technological objects filling the world at the expense of people, nature or history) and style (neat, deadpan real- ism, brightly coloured). In quality he seems rather im- proved. Italy, where he has now lived some time, suits him; 'there the threat is more serious, there is more to lose, and others share his feelings, for example the film-maker Antonioni. * * * Kate Briscoe, Hogarth Gal- leries. Abstract landscape paintings worried about their Australianness (who cares) by an English artist here since 1969. Emptiness, flatness, heat, light are conveyed in mainly blue and white, a change from the standard Australiana red. Quite nice; but Australian artists were in- terested in the abstract land- scape problem 15 years ago, and today Kate Briscoe's photographs, or etchings from photographs, seem fresher. She teaches photography at the National Art School, whose end -of -year displays show that photography is livelier there than painting. * * * Architecture In Finland. A very professional small touring exhibition, now at the Art Gallery of New South Wales; a photographic environment of landscapes and sonic of the world's best early modern buildings. plus some pieces of real furniture and a lounge full of books to read. Alvar Aalto naturally dominates. Supplied by the Museum of Finnish Architecture, and sponsored by the Royal Australian Insti- tute of Architects. Good cate- logue, introduction by Harry Seidler. * * * Theatre art. William Con- stable, an old trouper, a theatre designer in Australia since the thirties; films in Eng- land more recently, for example "Hieronymous Mer- kin." Designs for some of these are at the Sculpture Centre. As always with theatre art, not too interesting in their own right, but of great interest to students of theatre, $150 to $350. * * * Christmas ragbag. The usual seasonal outbreak. Some have an upper limit of $100, for example Holdsworth, where drawings by Donald Friend, lithographs by Marcel Janco, ancient Ethiopian illuminations or cortemporary American posters are the most worth- while. David Jones, of course, has the impeccable gift exhibition; absolutely no risk of finding rubbish there. Pots at low prices, old sculptures, Islamic miniatures, and still on view are the four enormous Sidney Nolan tapestries. Lord of the Rings has a round -up of its jewellers in silver; the Potters Gallery of its members. At the Macquarie, pots by Vic Greenaway, of Melbourne. and drawings by Allan Gamble, an architect, of old buildings in Sydney. At Harrington Street, posters, re- productive lithographs and screenprints from large editions allow prices as low as $50 for a Matisse composition, u to $600 for a signed post by Miro. 1913