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Australian Art in Asia

July 30, 2008

Australian Art in Asia (external link)
Asialink Arts Director, Alison Carroll on ABC Radio National show "Late Night Live", hosted by Phillip Adams

Summary:

Arts Director Alison Carroll showcased Asialink’s arts program to a national radio audience on Late Night Live this week, highlighting a current exhibit in Jakarta that features the work of video artist Shaun Gladwell, and outlined the critical need to further promote Australian art in Asia.

“Our culture is confusing to these countries. We could and should do more.”
Ms Carroll discussed the developing markets in the Philippines and Singapore, and the need to promote the strength and wonder of indigenous art as the simplest, but not the only way, to demonstrate Australian art.

Also topical were the ways Australian artists navigated their works in Islam cultures in Asia.
“We want to engage with people in way that is rewarding, that is not being overtly offensive,” said Ms Carroll. “We are sensitive to issues of sexuality and aware of sensitivities of politics. That isn’t to say it should be sweet and easy, art should be challenging and engage with issues of the day.”

Among artists taking on the Asia challenge is contemporary artist, skateboarder and mountain bike rider Shaun Gladwell, who uses a hybrid meld of his skills to come up with his unique brand of contemporary video art. Gladwell described the union of these parallel interests as the connection those two distinct worlds. Essentially he captures the fast paced, high impact imagery of the extreme sports on a large video projection. A feature piece of the show is a single figure – Gladwell himself - on a concrete parapet at the ocean’s edge. When an oncoming storm picks up the swell and laps it over the concrete edge, the two worlds collide in what he describes as ‘a distortion of nature’.

“I love concepts in landscapes like romantic sublime; the huge force of nature,” said Gladwell.
Ms Carroll underlined the importance of touring contemporary Australian artists in the realm of Asia.
“It’s grappling with issues and interests of young people today and how they are engaging with the world; literally with things like skateboards but also interpreting it into another stratum, into the sublime, into the poetic. I think that is a universal area of interest. It is great that his [Shaun Gladwell’s] work is in Jakarta at the National Gallery. I’m sure it will be hugely successful and rewarding to all those other young people, especially those in Indonesia, who are interested in what is going on in the world today and with artists of Shaun’s great eloquence.”

Asialink, The University of Melbourne

Australian Art in Asia