Contemporary Territory 2004
Contemporary Territory was created as a biennial exhibition in 1993 to showcase current contemporary art from the region. Now a triennial it remains the most prestigious survey exhibition of Northern Territory art that is not exclusively Indigenous. Sharing the program of the museum with the Natural History, Territory History, Indigenous and South East Asian departments and the annual National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, contemporary art is given very limited opportunities for exposure, hence the significance of this exhibition and excitement with which it is greeted here. This year's Contemporary Territory was elegant, accessible and was enthusiastically received. It showcased the works of internationally renowned artists, Judy Watson and Dadang Christanto, Pip McManus who has had numerous public art commissions in the Northern Territory, including the Cultural Centre at Uluru and the Darwin City Mall and the painter and printmaker Annie Franklin, who spent several years with Munupi Arts on Melville Island in the 1990s and continues to return to the Top End for inspiration for her work.
The directives placed upon the triennial are multiple: to give fair representation to well established Territory artists, contribute to the evolution of a distinct Territory culture and construct a meaningful and evolving curatorial direction. This is made more complex by the paradox that while the transient and culturally complex art world is required to define a Territorian identity for itself in order to be granted institutional support and make its presence felt from the margins, the reality is that a significant percentage of what is labelled Territory art is made by people who come from elsewhere and will leave. Only one ofthe four artists in Contemporary Territory 2004 still lives here... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline