Symposium: Artlink Indigenous
Artlink Indigenous is a new enterprise of the contemporary art magazine on Australian and Asia-Pacific art from Australia. In response to national and international demand for a magazine that records and critiques developments in Indigenous art in Australia, Artlink has embarked upon a three year project to bring out a bumper Annual issue; the inaugural issue comes out in June 2011. Guest editors are Daniel Browning and Stephanie Radok. Part of the Artlink Indigenous agenda is to reach readers outside Australia. In collaboration with Framer Framed and the October Gallery the UK has been chosen as the site to launch the inaugural issue.
Artlink Indigenous comprises 34 feature articles plus a section for short items of interest. The 160 page issue reflects the huge contrasts in contemporary Indigenous art in Australia. The editorial mirrors the complex geographical, philosophical and cultural matrix of remote and regional area art, city-based art, projects which bridge these, and others that link into other countries.
Some of the contributions
– Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, a museum curator, opens the debate on what it means to be urban and Indigenous today and make art, with his essay Branded: the Indigenous Aesthetic. Others look critically at recent art museum hangs and at artists who have subverted institutional constraints through sheer daring to do it.
– Diverse artists are profiled, from Mary Anne Mugatopi to Jason Wing, Dennis Nona, Jo Rootsey, Darren Siwes and Trevor Nickolls.
– Long term research-based major exhibition projects include the Marika family’s Yalangbara which maps their coastal Arnhem Land ancestral country and culture.
– Authors explore legacies of art produced under colonialism in the Torres Strait, Tasmania and Queensland, including magic realism; a neglected collection in the Vatican from the 1920s and the redesign of the Aboriginal displays at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
– The international perception and understanding of Aboriginal art is revised in light of the Ludwig Museum’s historic Remembering Forward exhibition and conference, bestowing the white-cube mantle of High Art on traditional paintings.
Several features which could not be fitted into the print magazine will be uploaded to the Artlink website. Magazines will be available for purchase at the launch, and there will be special international subscription offers.
Furthermore, this year Oceania is being celebrated in the City of London Festival. The October Gallery is participating with an exhibition from New Zealand. Australian Indigenous art will be profiled at the British Museum and at Rebecca Hossack Gallery.
The launch of Artlink Indigenous has been made possible with the support of the Australian High Commission in London, Framer Framed and the October Gallery.
Contemporary Aboriginal art / Bookshop Selection / Book Launch /
