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CAIRNS REGIONAL GALLERY
Opening exhibitions
Growth surges are not new in the north. Unusual, however, is the swell of cultural development apparently keeping pace with Cairns's building construction. The confident new emblem here is Cairns Regional Gallery and exuberant opening celebrations in mid-July demonstrated strong community underwriting of the gallery's smart new image. Ambitious in scope, ten separate exhibitions filled every recess of the stylishly restored former Magistrates Court. Mambo: Art Irritates Life (on loan from the Art Gallery and Museum of the Northern Territory) delivered an exploration of popular iconography aptly reinforcing youth culture in an anti -consumer/consumer holiday travel context . But of outstanding regional importance is the exhibition Made with Meaning: Crafts of Aboriginal Far North Queensland, the Yalga Binbi Collection. Several firsts apply to this, one of the two locally curated inaugural shows, not the least being the fact contemporary Aboriginal art and craft from the " rich but neglected" far north has until now never been surveyed by means of an extensive curatorial process. Jeanie Adams who undertook this task over two years collected firesticks, domestic items, ceremonial gear, sculptures, baskets, toys , canoes and other items-objects almost exclusively made in the past two years. Artists ' and community members' voices contributed to the inter pretation of objects from language and cultural groups including the Kokobena, Jirrbal, Yidinji, Djabugay and Kuku Yalanji, the Lardil, Wik and Wik-Way and others. Materiality is a unifying attribute of artwork and artefacts in this exhibition: so also is highly accomplished technique. Sometimes too, particularly in sculpture and Grace Ludwick. Feather flower arrangement in coconut vase. Yarrabah. Photo: David Campbell. Domestic items, strong statements of personal taste are made. Visions... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline