Media
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Broadsheet, ‘Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale Is Returning to the Skies’ by Anna Murphy, 19 October 2018
‘…Skywhale will take to the skies of the Yarra Valley to mark the opening of Patricia Piccinini and Joy Hester: Through love … at the TarraWarra Museum of Art. The exhibition looks at Piccinini’s work alongside that of Australian modernist artist Joy Hester, exploring themes of intimacy, relationships and maternal devotion.’
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New York Times, ‘The Skywhale Returns to Australia’s Skies, and Its Creator Braces for Impact’ by Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, 17 October 2018
‘The buxom hot-air balloon was widely condemned when it first appeared five years ago. The artist who created it is hoping for a warmer reception this time…On Nov. 22, weather permitting, the Skywhale will float over the picturesque Yarra Valley in Victoria. The area is famous for ballooning, and the flight will coincide with the opening of the exhibition “Patricia Piccinini and Joy Hester: Through Love …” at the TarraWarra Museum of Art.’
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Broadsheet, ‘Molten bronze and vomiting milk – TarraWarra’s Biennial is all about moments of creation’ by Will Cox, 10 September 2018
‘In the Yarra Ranges, one of the state’s most spectacular contemporary art galleries is hosting new work from dozens of Australian artists. TarraWarra Museum of Art’s sixth biennial consists of 23 individual artists and one group, addressing the act of creating art itself, from will (the idea and the drive to create) to form (the tangible work, through sculpture, painting, performance and film).’
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Australian Financial Review, ‘How TarraWarra Museum of Art is part of the art’ by Theo Chapman, 17 August 2018
‘For this year’s Biennial at Victoria’s TarraWarra Museum of Art the gallery itself was the starting point for the 19 commissions that are among the 50 works on display. “This museum is not an empty white cube,” says Emily Cormack, guest curator of the exhibition. “The architecture feeds into the show; it’s a symbiotic relationship.”‘
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ABC Radio National The Hub, ‘Vomiting, whistling, and lamenting at the TarraWarra Biennial’ by Alice Walker, 8 August 2018
‘What is this energetic force we call the will, and how does it manifest itself in artists’ works? That’s the question Emily Cormack posed as she curated the sixth TarraWarra Biennial: From Will to Form, featuring two dozen artists and almost 20 new commissions of visual and performance pieces.’
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e-flux, ‘TarraWarra Biennial 2018: From Will to Form’, 3 August 2018
‘From throwing liquid bronze to whistling for three days straight, the TarraWarra Biennial 2018: From Will to Form considers how the wild, intangible forces that animate behaviour might find form within an artwork.’
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Art Guide, ‘Channelling wild forces in From Will to Form, the 2018 TarraWarra Biennial’ by Jane O’Sullivan, 3 August 2018
‘“I want people to be jolted into their bodies,” says curator Emily Cormack about the unnerving opening to the 2018 TarraWarra Biennial.’
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The Age, ‘Artists call upon unseen forces at TarraWarra Biennial’ by Hannah Francis, 31 July 2018
‘A swirling hunk of earth topped with grassy tufts has taken up residence on the gallery floor. There are worms and bugs – it is a living ecosystem, after all….In Your Place, An Empty Space is one of more than 50 artworks – 19 of them new commissions – at this year’s TarraWarra Biennial.’
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Ocula, ‘The Melbourne Lowdown: Institutional art shows to see’ by Carol Que, 27 July 2018
‘Northeast of Melbourne in the Yarra Valley lies TarraWarra Museum of Art, where the 2018 TarraWarra Biennial is set to open with a collection of sculpture, painting, performance and film works by 23 artists and one artist group.’
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Art Guide, ‘Edwin Tanner and James Hullick’s use of music and mechanics’ by Anna Dunnill, 9 May 2018
‘Mathematical Expressionist is a survey of work by painter Edwin Tanner (1920-1980). Accompanying 60 works from Tanner’s 30-year oeuvre is The Arbour and the Orrery, by artist and composer James Hullick whose mechanised sound installations engage Tanner’s works in dialogue.’
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The Age, ‘Visionary artist who enraged public servants celebrated at Tarrawarra’ by Ray Edgar, 4 May 2018
‘An iconoclast and polymath, Tanner refused to be pigeonholed. Champion cyclist in his youth, a crack shot, pilot, engineer, poet, philosophy student and artist from the age of 30, Tanner’s art drew upon his biography.’
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Weekend Fin, ‘The subtle satire of engineer turned artist Edwin Tanner’ by Anthony Fitzpatrick, 27 April 2018
‘Edwin Tanner first took up painting at the age of 30 while working as engineer-in-charge for the Hydro-Electric Commission of Tasmania in the 1950s.’
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The Australian, ‘Rosemary Laing’s Buddens photographs force us to think’ by Judy Annear, 29 November 2017
‘In Laing’s photography, we can never pretend we are simply looking through a frame at a conventional landscape in panoramic view. It is crucial to understand that, as an audience, we are standing beside the artist in the making of these images and in our consideration of whose land we are standing on.’
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Art Daily, ‘TarraWarra Museum of Art opens exhibition of works by Rosemary Laing’, 8 November 2017
‘Focusing on the theme of land and landscape in Laing’s oeuvre, the Rosemary Laing exhibition includes 28 large scale works selected from 10 series over a thirty-year period.’
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Art Asia Pacific, ‘TarraWarra International: All that is solid…’ by Elosie Breskvar, 7 November 2017
‘The works in “All that is solid…” build upon an unsteady foundation of the historical. Together they reconfigure our understanding of the “global” through a process of renewal that aims to aesthetically mitigate between the past and present.’
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The Monthly, ‘The possibility of flux at the TarraWarra International’ by Quentin Sprague, 2 October 2017
‘Five Australian and international artists engage with history, impermanence and decay.’
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The Age, ‘TarraWarra International review: Journey into the wreckage of the future’ by Robert Nelson, 19 September 2017
‘The exhibition is not about embracing the future, but handling its inevitable wreckage.’
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Art Guide Australia, ‘Yalingwa: a new initiative for First Nations artists and curators’ by Sarah Werkmeister, 18 September 2017
‘TarraWarra Art Museum will be a prime site for the Yalingwa initiative as it takes the exhibition to the outer-metropolitan area of Melbourne.’
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ArtsHub, ‘Yalingwa is set to take Indigenous visual arts to a new level’, 12 September 2017
‘This new initiative will drive curatorial scholarship, artist commissions and exhibitions for Victoria’s First Nation artists.’
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Broadsheet Melbourne, ‘Discovering Dobell’ by Will Cox, 27 July 2017
‘His fans compared him to Rembrandt. His detractors took him to court for being too out there. TarraWarra’s new exhibition explores everything in between.’
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The Age, ‘Beyond the Archibald: How artist William Dobell bounced back from scandal’ by Kerrie O’Brien, 2 June 2017
‘Artist William Dobell is widely remembered for the furore caused by his work in the Archibald Prize.’
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Australian Financial Review, ‘William Dobell’s circle of artist mates about to shine at TarraWarra’ by Christopher Heathcote, 26 May 2017
‘…those forgotten glory days of King’s Cross bohemia when artists who are now legend were neighbours.’
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The Australian, ‘William Dobell: London inspired him as he sampled rich human subjects’ by Christopher Heathcote, 24 May 2017
”London made William Dobell into an artist.’
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Australian Arts Review, ‘Discovering Dobell’, 24 May 2017
‘Providing a fresh and original perspective on the work of one of Australia’s most important 20th century artists, William Dobell, TarraWarra Museum of Art presents Discovering Dobell from 27 May 2017.‘
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Memo Review, ‘Paints like a dream: Louise Hearman at TarraWarra’ by Rex Butler, 8 April 2017
‘Her work takes us out of ourselves rather than forcing us to be self-conscious. It is exactly the kind of experience we want from art: not someone showing us something, but someone allowing us to see for ourselves.’
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Australian Arts Review, ‘Louise Hearman’, 14 February 2017
‘On display from 18 February 2017 and featuring paintings and drawings from across 25-years of the artist’s practice, TarraWarra Museum of Art presents the first major museum survey of Australian Artist, Louise Hearman.’
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Memo Review, ‘The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver’ by Helen Hughes, 14 January 2017
‘The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver is the first major survey of the work of Australian artist Bronwyn Oliver (1959–2006). Though her career was cut short by her premature death at age forty-seven, the body of work presented within this exhibition has a pulse—writhing with movement and flickering with energy.’
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Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Her art may have contributed to her death but Bronwyn Oliver added a unique chapter to sculpture’ by John McDonald, 13 January 2017
‘All artists are ultimately judged not by their biographies and personalities, but by what they leave behind.’
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Blouin Artinfo, ‘Weekend Getaway: TarraWarra Museum of Art and Australia’s Beautiful Yarra Valley’ by Kriti Bajaj, 9 December 2016
‘About an hour-long drive from Melbourne, nestled in the lush Yarra Valley, lies the TarraWarra Museum of Art (TWMA). Inaugurated at this site in Victoria in 2003, and dedicated to showcasing Australian art from the mid-20th century to the present day, the museum enjoys a rating of 4.5 on TripAdvisor.’
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Art and Australia, ‘Cruisings of the recent TarraWarra Biennial’ by Abbra Kotlarczyk, 1 December 2016
‘Through a collaborative approach with the Melbourne based art journal Discipline, this years’ event presents itself in the broadest sense as a publication, defined in part by the construction of ‘a space of conversation which beckons a public into being’.’
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Art Almanac, ‘The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver’ by Chloe Mandryk, 29 November 2016
‘The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver at the TarraWarra Museum of Art is the first comprehensive survey of the accomplished and esteemed artist’s practice from the mid-1980s to her final solo show in 2006 and embraces early paper works, sculptures and maquettes.’
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Weekend Notes, ‘The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver’, 19 November 2016
‘Australia’s most influential female sculptor of this decade.’
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The Age, ‘Bronwyn Oliver exhibition explores the work of an unsung sculptor’ by Fiona Gruber, 18 November 2016
‘To stand in front of a sculpture by Bronwyn Oliver is to marvel at a series of binaries; strength and lightness, substance and shadow, deep time and the ephemeral.’
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Artlink, ‘Louise Hearman’ by Michael Desmond, 10 November 2016
‘Indeed, the singularity of Hearman’s work makes her difficult to classify: she comes across as eccentric and independent of any group or movement.’
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Art Kollectiv, ‘First Survey, The Sculpture of Bronwyn Oliver at TarraWarra Museum of Art’, 7 November 2016
‘TarraWarra Director, Victoria Lynn, described the exhibition as a testament to the short but poignant contribution made by Oliver to Australian sculpture.’
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Australian Financial Review, ‘TarraWarra honours Bronwyn Oliver, brilliant sculptor who died before her time’ by Janey Hawley, 4 November 2016
‘Bronwyn Oliver made hauntingly beautiful sculptures, coveted by major collectors and acclaimed by critics.’
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The Australian, News, feature by Emily Ritchie ‘Vincent Namatjira: past and future in one frame’
Young Aboriginal painter Vincent Namatjira, great-grandson of Albert Namatjira, has made seven works depicting the seven prime ministers who have held office during his lifetime (including Malcolm Turnbull, John Howard and Julia Gillard).
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The Age Spectrum, feature by Kylie Northover ‘TarraWarra Biennial pushes boundaries to present to a new audience’
‘With artworks in the bathroom, others hidden from public view, performance art and even an exhibition within the exhibition – that’s essentially an artwork – the 2016 TarraWarra Biennial promises an eclectic survey of contemporary Australian art.’
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Ocula, Conversation with Zara Sigglekow ‘A Conversation with Helen Hughes and Victoria Lynn’
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The Age, News by Kylie Northover, ‘Vincent Namatjira paints bold portraits of Australia’s seven most recent prime ministers’
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Art Guide, Preview by Sarah Werkmeister ‘Art and ideas in Endless Circulation: TarraWarra Biennial 2016’
‘Each art work is pertinent to rebuilding history and imagining new futures, a circulation that, perhaps, the curators want to see placed into discourse through exhibition and publication. It’s difficult to imagine the endpoint of the world’s endless circulations. But the success of the exhibition lies in the fact that it envisages a better circulation, one that makes a fairer world.’
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Art Radar, Review by Claire Wilson “Endless Circulation”: 5 highlights from the TarraWarra Biennial 2016
‘The Biennial’s 2016 theme “Endless Circulation” brings together works that investigate serial and cyclic rhythms that combine the past, present and future. A common theme in several of the works is an exploration of Australia’s colonial history and how it impacts the present. Other artists take social, economic or political perspectives, speculating on new contexts we may be faced with in the future.’
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Art Agenda, Review by Tessa Laird “Endless Circulation,” TarraWarra Biennial 2016
Contemporary biennials are never simply showcases for new work: they bear the weight of meta-commentary. As they struggle to articulate the conditions of their own production and reception, they become lightning rods for debates, not least those concerning art world complicity with, or resistance to, globalization.
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Freize magazine, Review by Sophie Knezic, 12 September 2016, ‘5th TarraWarra Biennial’
The 5th TarraWarra Biennial, ‘Endless Circulation’, co-curated by TarraWarra Museum Director, Victoria Lynn, and the co-founder of Discipline journal, Helen Hughes, stays close to its moniker. While a circle may imply repetition in perpetua it does not determine directionality. The exhibition plays on this flexibility by contrasting the circulatory patterns of mega-events such as biennials with journals and text-based publications. This model frames two sub-themes around which the 27 selected artists cluster, pertaining to the past (Australia’s colonial history and the memory-life of materials) and motion (artworks that circulate, either literally or metaphorically).
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The Weekend Australian Review, Modern-day Medicis: behind the private art museum boom, Sharon Verghis
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ABC774 Evenings, Lindy Burns interviews Judy Watson
The interview with Judy starts approximately 8.40 mins and finishes approximatley 24 mins.
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The Age Spectrum, Andrew Stephens, ’TarraWarra exhibition unearths Healesville’s hidden scars’
“Watson’s installation at TarraWarra is central to a much larger, two part exhibition called Panorama, which draws largely on the museum’s rich Besen collection. In curating the show, director Victoria Lynn and curator Anthony Fitzpatrick say that because the view out the north windows is such an important part of the museum experience, they decided to ask Watson to look beyond the view, to uncover the history that lies underneath, or through it.”
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ABC Radio National Books and Arts, Fiona Gruber interviews Victoria Lynn and Judy Watson, ‘Panorama and the scarifier’
Fiona Gruber asks, “Artists here, in landscape, are really trying to work out an Australian identity, a local identity. Landscape painting seems to be a very important form (in Australia), more important in contemporary art than in other parts of the world it seems.”
Victoria Lynn replies, “I agree with you, I think the interest in landscape painting has absolutely persisted in Australia as a genre, despite the fact that the majority of the population lives on the edges. But the spectre of the interior is very palpable in our lives, we are living on such a large land mass and perhaps it is that increase in access to Aboriginal stories and Indigenous histories that has meant that landscape painting has persisted.”
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ABC ARTS, Tim Stone interviews Victoria Lynn and Anthony Fitzpatrick
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The Australian, Bronwyn Watson, ‘Howard Arkley’s art immersed in the suburbs, on show at Healesville’
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The Age, Spectrum, Society, Ray Edgar, ‘Does the great Australian dream have life in it yet?’
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ABC TV ARTS, Tim Stone, ‘Howard Arkley’s lust for suburban life’
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ABC Radio National, Michael Cathcart interviews Victoria Lynn and Anthony Fitzpatrick on Howard Arkley.
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The Guardian, Culture section, Fiona Gruber, Howard Arkley, ‘The man who saw Australian suburbia in technicolour’
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Daily Review, Ray Gill, ‘Playlist: Howard Arkley (and friends)’
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The Australian, Dr Chris McAuliffe, ‘How punk rock added new colour to Howard Arkley’s art’
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AFR Weekend Fin, Ashley Crawford, ‘Howard Arkley at TarraWarra is a tribute to collaboration’
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The Sunday Age, Gabriella Coslovich, ‘Art of suburbia: Howard Arkley’s life and work highlighted in new exhibition’
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ABCRN The Music Show with Andrew Ford interviewing Dr Chris McAuliffe, ‘Howard Arkley’s music in art’
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Herald Sun, Michelle Pountney, ‘Suburbs come alive in country’
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The Age, Ants and spiders mingle with the art as Pierre Huyghe descends on TarraWarra, Andrew Stephens
Critics are unanimous in praising Huyghe, though some find elements of his work utterly baffling. As one reviewer wrote of the LA show last year, “it seduces, it beguiles, it obfuscates, it amazes … it challenges the most fundamental assumptions about what a museum show can be”.
His show is a coup for TarraWarra, whose director, Victoria Lynn, worked with curator Amelia Barikin to bring it here. Barikin has not only had a long fascination with Huyghe, writing her PhD on him, but she has spent many years working with him as research for a book.
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Broadsheet, The Art of Pierre Huyghe: It’s About Time, Will Cox
An hour’s drive from the city, just outside of Healesville, the TarraWarra Museum of Art is the perfect setting for the first Australian solo exhibition from French artist Pierre Huyghe. Explaining his work is tough. Using a combination of installation and video art, and featuring a 30-million-year-old bit of tree resin to the daily experience of a monkey trained as a waiter, Huyghe is interested in the leaking borders of time and nature.
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Three Thousand, LOOK: Final weeks of the Pierre Huyghe retrospective, Sam West
Then there’s smoke and light and castles and bees and a pink-footed dog and detritus and grand decay. Basically time is flattened then rolled up into an insect-riddled omelette your mind just keeps chewing on.
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ABC, The Mix
News story on Pierre Huyghe: TarraWarra International 2015 starts at 12.22 mins of the clip.
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SBS Radio, Interview with Victoria Lynn, Christophe Mallet
Victoria Lynn speaks (in English) with Christopher Mallet about Pierre Huyghe: TarraWarra International 2015.
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The Age, Exquisite technique trumps timely themes in Pierre Huyghe’s TarraWarra show, Robert Nelson
In a dark room at TarraWarra, you witness the beginnings of life. As if penetrating into the syrup of rock, the very axle grease of the earth’s rotation, the camera takes you on a tour of the innermost chambers of biological history, where crystals, slime, fibre and cells interact and insects breed.
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Art Guide Australia, Pierre Huyghe video
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ABC 774 Radio, Edmund Capon on The Conversation Hour, Jon Faine
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The Age, “Edmund Capon on his love affair with art, the Twomblys, and life after the gallery”, Lawrence Money
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The Australian, ‘John Olsen, Sydney Sun at the TarraWarra Museum of Art’, Bronwyn Watson
Olsen made numerous drawings in preparation for Sydney sun. One of them, a luscious work of watercolour, crayon and pastel from 1965, was bought by Marc and Eva Besen, who donated it to the TarraWarra Museum of Art collection.
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Australian Financial Review, Triumph of modern art is a tribute to the Besen collection, Shelley Gare
Capon refers to their collection of Australian art as comprehensive but still personal. “Not only are our leading artists represented with works of their finest achievements but the collection also holds those occasional unexpected moments.”
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The Age, ‘Never mind the gap: Edmund Capon on curating showcase of Australia’s modernist masters at TarraWarra Museum of Art’, Debbie Cuthbertson
The exhibition showcases 60 works by 26 Australian artists who helped forge a new cultural identity after World War II.
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Blouin Art Info, “TarraWarra to Present Major Pierre Huyghe Solo Exhibition”, Nicholas Forrest
Best known for his films, installations, and events that explore reality and fiction, probe memory and history, and blur the distinction between art and reality, Pierre Huyghe is one of the most celebrated artists of his generation.
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Ocula, A conversation with Victoria Lynn
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RAVEN, ‘Review: Unlikely resonances at TarraWarra Museum of Art’, Dan Rule
Both Kate Beynon’s An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale and Earth and Sky: John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu share connections to ancestral mythologies, histories and universal themes of the precariousness of life.
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A Magazine, ‘An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale’, Rachel Ang
She has a deft hand with her chosen media – manipulating watercolour to be delicate and haunting, animated videos to be manic and startling, and the bright acrylic paintings to pop and sing.
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The Age, Celestial answers the terrestrial in Hetti Perkins’ Earth and Sky exhibition at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Sonia Harford
Few are more identified with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art than Perkins. Fifty years after her father led the legendary Freedom Ride to challenge racism, she plays her own role; quietly, yet forcefully, advocating for the artist as activist, and as cultural ambassador.
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ABORIGINAL Art Directory, ‘Mawurndjul Refound’, Jeremy Eccles
John Mawurndjul has been a Kuninjku painting hero since his involvement in the famous French Magiciens de la Terre exhibition in Paris in 1989.
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Art Guide Australia, ‘Earth and Sky’, Henry Skerritt
Among their communities, John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu are viewed in the highest esteem – not simply as visionary artists, but as leaders, philosophers, healers and spiritual guides.
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ArtsHub, ‘Modernism revived: after the Anzacs’, Gina Fairley
Capon described The Triumph of Modernism as a rich and representative display of the story of modern Australia, with a particular and deliberate emphasis on Australian identity.
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ABC Radio National, Hetti Perkins interviewed by Michael Cathcart on Earth and Sky on Books and Arts
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RRR, Hetti Perkins interviewed by Richard Watts on Smart Arts
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Artshub, The royalty of bark painting come together in an exhibition that explores Earth and Sky at Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Gina Fairley
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The Australian, ‘Ian Fairweather’s Drunken Buddha project re-created a half-century on’, Nicolas Rothwell
In the years since his death in 1974 his reputation has only grown: he is the artist most often singled out for admiration by Australia’s leading men of letters…
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Art Guide, Preview – Ian Fairweather, Toby Fehily
For an exhibition Alderton is curating at the Tarrawarra Museum of art, visitors will be able to feel that heady period in Australian art once more, as well as travel even further back – and farther away – to 13th-century China.
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The Age, ‘Lines draw three different artists together for TarraWarra Museum show’, Andrew Stephens.
Tuckson, like Fairweather, remains an “artist’s artist” – the sort of painter whose life and work is an inspiration for others.
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ArtsHub, ‘Unveiled: Latest program announcements’
The works of John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu will feature in an exhibition curated by Hetti Perkins titled Earth and Sky. The title of the exhibition refers to the respective subjects of the two artists’ practice.
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Director Victoria Lynn interviewed on Radio National, presented by Melanie Tait
What’s the link between artists Ian Fairweather, Tony Tuckson and Gosia Wlodarczak?
TarraWarra Museum of Art is exploring an interesting lineage of drawing over the next few months, and we’re going to delve into the fascinating symmetry of these artists’ work.
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The Guardian Australia, “Ian Fairweather’s Drunken Buddha paintings reunited at Tarrawarra”, Fiona Gruber
Queensland artist survived prisoner of war camp, near drowning and arrest to become one of Australian art’s most influential figures
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Mountain Views Mail, “Time for some great art”, Jessie Graham
A new exhibition series has opened at TarraWarra Museum of Art (TWMA), featuring a rare collection of paintings hung for the public for the first time in almost 50 years.
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The Age, Review Ian Fairweather: The Drunken Buddha, Sasha Grishin
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The Art Life, “The Power Trip 2015: The 50 Most Powerful People in Australian Art”
Returning for its third year, The Power Trip lists the most powerful people in Australian art…
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The Art Life, Review Whisper in My Mask, Andrew Frost
Whisper in My Mask: TarraWarra Biennial 2014 – the fifth iteration of the TarraWarra museum’s flagship event this time around curated by Natalie King and Djon Mundine – is the sort of show that just makes sense.
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Ocula, Conversation with Natalie King and Djon Mundine, Anna Dickie
Anna Dickie spoke with King and Mundine about this year’s Biennial, the decision to co-curate, its themes, and specific artworks that draw out the ideas of ‘masking’ and ‘whispering’.
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The Sydney Morning Herald, “Natalie King, curator, talks about 1970s Melbourne, cafes and art”, Mary O’Brien
Natalie King grew up among shag pile rugs and Marimekko drapery in Balwyn. Her grandmother introduced her to the Forum Theatre, she’s filled with hope by a Richmond rainbow and she is always seeking out the indigenous history of the city.
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Four Thousand, ‘’Whisper In My Mask’ day event at TarraWarra Museum of Art’ Chodle Foster
“As part of Melbourne Festival, the TarraWarra Museum of Art are hosting a day event where Søren Dahlgaard will be performing with breadsticks and paint, the Telepathy Project will perform Singing Solaris to the Great Moorool, and the paid afternoon events will feature a quasi symposium with talks by curators Natalie King and Djon Mundine and some of the artists in the show. It’s a good reason to get outta town on a Sunday.”
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Daily Review, ‘Playlist: Josephine Ridge’, Josephine Ridge
“The performance by the ACO at Tarrawarra not only moved me and most of the audience to tears but also members of the orchestra while they were playing. It is simply breathtaking in its emotional impact…”
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The International New York Times, “ArtsBeat, International Art Events Happening in the Week Ahead” Christopher D. Shea
“Home-maker #7 — Cake Making” by the artist Sandra Hill. The work is on view at the TarraWarra Biennial, which is running through Nov. 16 in the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia..”
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No Brow, 4ZZZZ Brisbane, “Natalie King curator of Whisper in My Mask at the TarraWarra Biennial interview with Sarah Werkmeister”
“I am speaking to Natalie King, the curator of the 2014 TarraWarra Biennial….”
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Ocula, “Report: The poetic politics of Whisper in My Mask”, Zara Sigglehope
“Through a diverse range of medium, the biennial, now in its fourth iteration, includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous bound by the rich theme of ‘masking’. The strength of this exhibition lies in the careful balance that it strikes: works light in content and tone never trivialise the loaded political pieces. ..”
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Art Guide Australia, “TarraWarra Biennial 2014”, Dylan Rainforth
“Unsurprisingly, given the presence in Mundine of one of the nation’s notable Aboriginal curators, the biennial pays particular attention to Indigenous responses and cross-cultural conversations. A key project saw the two curators facilitate for Fiona Hall (who will represent Australia at Venice next year) to work alongside 12 women of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers collective in a material exchange structured around the idea of camouflage…”
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Qantas The Australian Way Magazine, “Diary, The best of what’s on in Australia, state by state”, David Levell
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The Biennial Foundation, “TarraWarra Biennial 2014: Whisper in My Mask”
“TarraWarra Museum of Art Director Victoria Lynn, says, “This year’s Biennial features both timely political gestures about the masking of history as well as a more mysterious interest in hidden personas, ghosts and telepathy. Featuring performances, talks and events, the exhibition also embraces a broad sense of community that encompasses not only the local Yarra Valley but also the significant Indigenous communities across Australia…”
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Art and Place /Finding The Right Words, “Review: The TarraWarra Biennial”, Denise Taylor
“‘Whisper in Your Mask’ is a collaborative curatorial effort between non-Indigenous curator Natalie King and acclaimed Aboriginal curator Djon Mundine, both of whom have enviable CVs and well qualified to ensure that this Biennial has snared cutting edge works by emerging and established Australian artists…”
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Culture 300.org, (Singapore) “TarraWarra Biennial, Australia”, Judith Staines
“Taking a line from the evocative song ‘Art Groupie’ (1981) by Grace Jones, the title of this year’s Biennial, Whisper in My Mask, signals an exploration of masking, secrets and hidden narratives as psychological states: Touch Me in a Picture, Wrap Me in a Cast, Kiss Me in a Sculpture, Whisper in My Mask…”
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Broadsheet, Cover image by TarraWarra Biennial artist Daniel Boyd; “Natalie King | Djon Mundine | Alan Cruickshank, Whisper in my Mask—an interview with the curators of The TarraWarra Biennial”
“We are less interested in Whisper in My Mask as a literal evocation. We want to make sure there are surprises and diversions in the Biennial…”
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The Sydney Morning Herald, “Artists tap into hidden histories”, Andrew Stephens
“Curators Mundine and King write in the catalogue that the idea of masks is used by the artists in the exhibition to explore the visible and the invisible, masked presences and memories. They write about how, in ancient Greek theatre, masks were used to allow the all-male performers to act both male and female roles as well as signal tragedy, comedy and satire. They say there are a myriad of masks and disguises that ‘‘sneak up on us, to whisper to us seductively’’….
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Artist Profile, “TarraWarra Biennial: Whisper in My Mask”, Owen Craven
“The curators have undertaken extensive research and fieldwork to cities and remote communities in order to select Aboriginal and non-indigenous artists working across diverse media…”
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The Age, Life&Style, Photo Gallery, “TarraWarra Biennial: Whisper in My Mask”
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ArtsHub, “From Grace Jones to TarraWarra”, Gina Fairley
“Curated collaboratively – and, significantly, for the first time by an Indigenous and non-Indigenous curator – Djon Mundine and Natalie King are setting benchmarks from the outset the 2014 TarraWarra Biennial..”
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Checks and Spots, “Road Tripping”
“Known for his intricate combinations of pastel, pencil, glitter, Swarovski crystal and watercolour on paper and sculptural installations that combine mosaic, taxidermy animals, gold leaf, neon and found objects, Mellor’s work left Fi and I in awe. The detail was extraordinary, the storytelling humbling and the experience was a true shift from our previous conceptions of Indigenous art…”
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The Age, Entertainment, “Patterns of colonial darkness in blue Willow”, Exhibition Review by Age arts critic Robert Nelson
“Occupying the enormous galleries of TarraWarra, Mellor’s show is subdued but humorous. The lights are low and the walls are dark. The bluish works are framed in elaborate gold, increasing their precious appearance, as if relics…”
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Art Radar, “Danie Mellor’s glittering interrogation of Australian history – in pictures”
“Mellor’s canvases are laced with glitter…Where there are animals, they are seldom threatening…inviting the viewer into the picture. This friendliness, combined with the exquisite beauty of surface material, seduces and disarms the viewer, and the darker themes – death, loss of culture, and the dislocation of natives from their native lands – quietly sink in without warning…”
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Postcards, Episode 19, “TarraWarra Museum of Art…, Brodie Harper
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Esther Anatolitis, “My response to Danie Mellor: Exotic Lies, Sacred Ties”
“As an Australian artist whose family reconnected with their Indigenous heritage later in life, it is Mellor’s own perspective as well as ours that he consciously problematises as deliberately European…At this pivotal time, this exhibition declares Danie Mellor one of Australia’s important artists…”
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Time Out Melbourne, “Whisper in my Mask:A Day in the Valley” staff writer
“There is a focus on how masks reflect the era we live in, reflecting everything from an adopted persona to cultural assertion. The exhibition will also include some unusual live performances, exciting events and other fun happenings for your artistic pleasure…”
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MancArt Blog, “Melbourne Festival returns to its roots: five homegrown acts to see” staff writer
“The artists investigate the idea of masking and the complex associations of masks as camouflage and disguise, culturally significant forms of dress and rituals, and their ability to both conceal and amplify personas…”
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The Age, “Melbourne Festival exhibition goes behind the Dreamtime tale mask in Tarrawarra Biennial” Dylan Rainforth
“On Sunday, October 19, The Telepathy Project (Veronica Kent and Sean Peoples) will perform their work Reading Solaris To the Great Moorool as part of a day of events, performances and talks “reactivating” the exhibition as part of the Melbourne Festival…”
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The Huffington Post Arts & Culture, Whisper in My Mask: the complexities of disguise” Priscilla Frank
“The urge to mask oneself is often a creative one. It could also serve to protect, hide, beautify, frighten or intensify. All of these reasons and more are at the core of the TarraWarra Biennial, taking place approximately an hour outside of Melbourne, Australia…”
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The Melbourne Art Network, TarraWarra Biennial 2014 | Whisper In My Mask, reviewed by Denise Taylor
“This gem of a museum is not only a shrine to modern and contemporary art made by Australians, but it is a shining beacon that beams out its strong spirit of collaboration with the local area and its people. In other words, it is a museum that sits comfortably within its environment, committed to presenting exhibitions and public programs with themes that challenge the public..”
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Art Radar (Hong Kong), “Whisper in My Mask: Natalie King on the TarraWarra Biennial 2014 in Australia – curator interview”
“The TarraWarra Biennial 2014 presents a powerful sensory exploration of masking, otherworldliness and hidden narratives in Australia and beyond. Art Radar talks to the Biennial’s guest co-curator Natalie King about ghosts, telepathy, the experimental curatorial platform and her future nocturnal liaisons…The TarraWarra Biennial is one of only two biennials in Australia dedicated solely to Australian contemporary art. Entitled “Whisper in My Mask“, the fascinating fourth iteration of this signature event is curated by guest curators Natalie King and Djon Mundine. ”
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RAVEN, ”TarraWarra Biennial 2014: Whisper in My Mask”, Rebecca Gallo
“Showcasing work by sixteen artists and artist groups, Whisper in My Mask is a powerful compilation that weaves a complex tale of identity, perception, concealment and discovery…Never mind what Grace Jones says, this show will have resonance for more than just the art groupies…”