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Experimental to Experiential

Mildura Palimpsest Biennale #9

Estelle Barrett
Barbara Bolt
Gil Dwyer
Anne Marsh
Eyeline 81
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Palimpsest’ is a veritable tongue twister, but it translates to a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that it can be used again. The Mildura Palimpsest Biennale (1998-present) follows in the wake of the groundbreaking Mildura Sculpture Triennials curated by Tom McCullough (1970-78),1 a site specific cultural experiment that is said to have left an indelible mark on Australian art history.2 These earlier Triennials were true to their seventies context, a period of freedom, experimentation and diversity of style.3 Selected works expressed a range of approaches from intellectual formalism, to spontaneous assemblage, from the permanence of the object, to the ephemeral nature of a performance. The Triennials were widely viewed as an extraordinary experiment.4

Many years have elapsed since 1978 when the Mildura City Council declared the Mildura Sculpture Triennial catalogue to be in breach of its ban on ‘nudity, pornography, obscenity and blood-letting’ and burned all remaining copies. Among other things, the catalogue included illustrations of Nick Spill’s photograph Art in the Hands of Capitalism, which depicted the artist and his girlfriend simulating sex in a rather satirical way. Ironically it also included letters to the Council from artist Peter Tyndall questioning the Council’s right to ban artists from experimenting with boundaries. Facsimile copies were later sold at the Mildura Arts Centre.5

The current organisers view the Palimpsest exhibitions as taking up the thread of history from the earlier Triennials. According to the curator, Helen Vivian,

The now global Mildura Biennale offers artists and audiences an opportunity to explore new ground, unexamined territories of great cultural and national significance, (such as... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

David Burrows, Mirage Project [salt] iceberg view, 2011. Photograph courtesy the artist.

David Burrows, Mirage Project [salt] iceberg view, 2011. Photograph courtesy the artist.

Martin King, Searching for bird river, 2013. Etchings, hand drawn animation projection and a sculptural plinth made from books sealed in wax, dimensions variable. Photograph Kristian Häggblom.

Martin King, Searching for bird river, 2013. Etchings, hand drawn animation projection and a sculptural plinth made from books sealed in wax, dimensions variable. Photograph Kristian Häggblom.