See you at the Barricades @ Art Gallery of New South Wales

See you at the barricades @ Art Gallery of New South Wales

Protest is a powerful human process. I have been involved in several protests over my lifetime. The exhibition covers a wide range of issues over decades and show the declarative style of content and the common artistic styles used in the genre.
One wall is devoted to a collection of posters from The Guerrilla Girls. This part of the exhibition is one I am glad to be aware of as a male consumer of art in galleries. It focuses on the dominance of white males in the art and gallery world. Many of the posters are striking in their lack of art. Raw facts and questions printed horizontally on the page in black and white is no doubt a deliberate choice. I loved the idea that the posters themselves are now on the wall of a major gallery in which the dominance of males is still ever present.

Without Consent @ National Archives of Australia

20 March 2015 to 19 July 2015

The National Archives of Australia has a great exhibition programme. The current one is a textually dense and story rich account of the past adoption practices in Australia.

today the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme of where it was. Adoption in the current society is almost a bad word. This exhibition takes you into a different world where the dominance of the adoption model in response to some social situations was almost unquestioned. The exhibition looks back from this world to that world and tells the story of many victims of the past world view.
The photos, stories and letters are touching and often confronting. The context for this exhibition is the aftermath of the parliamentary apology by Ms Gillard as Prime Minister to the people impacted by the adoption practices.
I have attached a couple of pics and a web link to their page with a couple of public lectures that are coming up at the exhibition. I have also included a couple of pics of a letter that I found touching that gives an insight into the tone of the exhibition

http://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/events/without-consent/

Women’s Power to stop war @ Canberra Museum and Gallery

As a man viewing this there is some tough stuff to read. The exhibition tracks women anti war activism. War is usuall waged by men and is a centre of misstreatment of women. The posters state truth bluntly. The text material reveals women of courage and organisations of resiliance. The artifacts are connected and convey the community vividly. Below is the breat brochure that goes with the exhibition and some pics

Women Together Conflict courage and Hope – UNHCR @ Nishi Gallery New Acton

Some photography is art – some is powerful messaging. The photographer Thomas Mukoya is in the later category. In the Nishi Gallery for the next week there is a stirring exhibition of large format colour photographs of women who are surviving in the “most dangerous place on earth to be a woman” The Democratic Republic of the Congo is riddled with war and all sorts of social disfunction and violence. These photographs tell a story of violence and victimisation and the use of sex to control and terrorise women and girls.
The photographs tell a story of hope and courage as the women face and deal with life in the presence of conflict, oppresion and systematic violence. The women work with education, health care, food supply and every other necessary part of life with cooperation and care.
I have attached the brochure with donation details and some of the images from this powerful exhibition.

Great shops at Canberra galleries

Art and creativity is not just on display in galleries in Canberra. For many of the venues there are attached shops that are a rich delight to behold because of the atractiveness of the artistry and creativity on display.

The Canberra Glassworks shop is a constant magnet to us whenever we attend an exhibition there. The shop is small with lit display cases around the walls and some glass topped display areas in the middle. The range of material in this shop is wonderful. The jewellery is winsome – colourful, intricate, often uncomfortable looking to wear but always has a “wow” element to it. The shelves are a constant delight of colour, form and function to various amounts. If you are ever short of some creative stimulatio,n the shop is worth a visit by itself.

The Beaver Gallery Shop is a constant surprise to us. There is a range of glass created by artists who exhibit at the Beaver but there are lots of other objects made of metal, ceramics and other materials. The space is light and the layout is easy to move around in. It is a rich visual feast every time.

Beaver Gallery
http://www.beavergalleries.com.au/
Canberra Glassworks
http://www.canberraglassworks.com/visit/shop/online-shopping/

First Ladies

The image above is one of the striking portraits that is part of the First Ladies exhibitions.

A delightful small exhibition of portraits of some Australian women who have achieved significant firsts is on at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). The portraits are linked with timeline information on the wall tying the exhibition together.
A wide range of women are included in a great range of media. The blessing of using only 26 portraits made it easy for those of us who like reading all the wall panels.
The great thing about the NPG is they supplement the exhibition. For those who come to the gallery they have published an informative brochure with full biographies on all the women. For people who do not make it to the exhibition it.is backed by a great section of their website that includes all the biographies and timelines with pictures included.

The exhibition is part of the Canberra 100 programs.

The section of the website is on this link: http://www.portrait.gov.au/site/exhibition_subsite_firstladies.php