Fragile packaging
| 
Janet Laurence
Carbon Capture, 2007-08
duraclear, oil, ash, acrylic,glass
3 panels, total 100 x 182 x 9.5 cm
courtesy the artist and Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
photo: Gary Warner |
Every two years, to use a familiar catch phrase,
Adelaide comes alive. It’s the time when the Adelaide Festival
takes over the streets and entertainment venues of the South Australian
capital. Since 1990, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has
provided the flagship visual arts event the festival’s program;
and that tradition continues in 2008.
The 10th Adelaide Biennial is built around the theme
Handle with Care. The exhibition, which is devoted solely
to contemporary Australian art, explores the fragile state of
our world. From anxiety over nature and the environment, to the
erosion of cultural traditions, Handle with Care presents diverse
responses to contemporary issues.
Curator Felicity Fenner has selected 22 of the nation’s
most innovative artists and artist collaborations to examine the
theme from all angles.
The exhibition features solely works of art created
since the last Adelaide Festival in 2006. Fenner has selected
prominent Australian-born and immigrant artists, as well as lesser-known
artists and filmmakers from around the country to present their
works in the exhibition. She has also created what might be termed
a “clean slate” in that none of the artists has previously
appeared in an Adelaide Biennial.
The 2008 Adelaide Biennial artists are: Alfredo
& Isabel Aquilizan; Dadang Christanto; Lorraine Connelly-Northey;
James Darling & Lesley Forwood; Dennis del Favero; Janet Laurence;
Anthony Mannix; Tom Mùller; Dorothy Napangardi; James Newitt;
Bronwyn Oliver; Gregory Pryor; Kate Rohde; Sandra Selig; Kylie
Stillman; Warwick Thornton; Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri; Hossein
Valamanesh; Suzann Victor; Guan Wei; Catherine Woo; and Ken Yonetani.
| 
Catherine Woo
Blue Sky Project – puff, 2007
mixed media on canvas
194 x 133 cm
private collection
courtesy the artist and Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
and Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
|
Consistently with the theme, the works on display
are diverse, and include paintings, sculpture, installation and
film; all encompassing the notion of fragility or vulnerability
of some kind. While some focus on the tenuous relationships between
individuals, societies, and the urban and natural environments;
others make symbolic or metaphoric use of delicate and ephemeral
materials. Some of these materials include water, light, glass
and organic materials among the eclectic media used by the exhibiting
artists to convey the fragility of the world we live in. An example
of this inventive use of materials is to be found in Janet Laurence’s
piece ‘Carbon Capture’; which uses duraclear, oil,
ash, acrylic and glass.
Linked to the familiar “Handle with Care”
removalist stickers, a sub-theme of the exhibition is the experience
of shifting between social cultures; of crossing national as well
as psychological borders. In addition to works that address environmental
issues, there are installation and film-based works that reveal
the personal trauma of troubled geographical, political and psychological
realities.
“The works in Handle with Care all
respond to contemporary issues which generate disquiet, divide
communities and incite debate” according to Fenner. “I
want this exhibition to stimulate ideas and provide a meaningful,
hopefully moving experience of a range of recent art practice
in Australia”.
The exhibition’s accompanying catalogue features
illustrations of work by all artists in the exhibition, a major
essay by Fenner and texts on each of the artists by twenty-two
Australian and international contributors, including John Barrett-Lennard,
Hou Hanru, Binghui Huangfu, Victoria Lynn, Claire Roberts and
Nick Waterlow, among others.
The exhibition is supported by a range of events,
including floor talks, guided tours and a special artists’
week from March 1 – 8. See the AGSA
website for more information.
David Edwards
