The Australian Embassy's new exhibit "Lie of the Land: New Australian Landscapes" presents 12 artists' interpretations of their country-continent's unique environment, filled with controversy as well as beauty.
More than 60 artworks explore Australian landscapes through the prisms of Indigenous identity, colonialism, climate change, deforestation, and bush stereotypes.
Most cleverly blend wry humor with fine art.
· Archie Moore’s "Batman/Robbin" is a play not only on the Dynamic Duo, but more importantly, on the infamous 1835 "Batman Treaty". John Batman traded blankets, scissors, tomahawks, and trinkets with Aboriginal chiefs to acquire almost 1,500 square miles of land, part of which became Melbourne. (Remind anyone of Peter Minuit's 1626 "purchase" of Manhattan in New Amsterdam.) Click here for the National Apology to Indigenous Australians fourth anniversary speech by Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd February 10 in Sydney.
· Sherry Paddon shaped 262 toy kangaroos, koalas, kookaburras, other indigenous animals, and one red heart saying "I (heart) you" into the form of Australia's landmass, or... "What is it?" one Australian diplomat asked at the opening reception. A woman responded, "I haven't any idea, but it's lovely, don't you think?"
· Megan Cope uses maps and titles to convey Australia's Indigenous history, as in "Dead Man's Gully" and "Hope Valley Mission -- Abandoned". Cope conveys colonialism through lush blues of rivers and ocean, and greens of eroding coastlines and ecosystems.
· In Dale Cox's "Logging truck"series, three little plastic big rigs haul loads of timber, which are actually painted landscapes of trees.
· In David Keeling's "Ghost Gum" series of painting and sculptures, painted cameos of bygone landscapes are attached to boughs of the cream-hued native Australian trees.
· Tom Alberts' "Study for Bedlands" features tourists snapping photos of a bedroom suite, complete with topiary lamps. In his "Study for Pad II", two kangaroos hop around a minimalist interior.
The free exhibit could be summed up something like this, from one of Michael Lindeman's works, which resemble classified ads.
"Isolation", with black type on an avocado-hued background, concludes, "...You may enjoy the thinking behind the work or just have fun and think it's quite random."
For more info: "Lie of the Land: New Australian Landscapes", through April 13, Embassy of Australia, www.usa.embassy.gov.au, 1601 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC, 202-797-3383, Cultural.RelationsUS@dfat.gov.au. The exhibition is curated by Brisbane- born art historian Alex J. Taylor, a research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, and a Ph.D candidate at Oxford University.
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