Cairns Indigenous Art Fair

Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal

24-27 July 2014

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The Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) is a cultural festival, a multifaceted celebration of dance, art, music and community. This year saw the fifth Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, after a one year break, a change in management structure and board, and with independence and a state of the art venue. The Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal generously accommodated the Fair in light and airy spaces—between the seaport on one side and the grassy garden area on the other. Dance, music and food filled the garden area over the three-day event, with fashion, a symposium, magazine stands, and a cafe in an adjacent building, and a beautifully rendered fabric display by Darnley Island’s Erub Arts situated like a contemplation zone between.

For Ali Copley, CIAF chief executive officer, the cultural profile of CIAF is unique. ‘It celebrates diversity… At the fair there is something for everyone… it showcases, in one space, emerging artists alongside very established artists.’

Since February 2014 CIAF, as a not-for-profit entity, has been independent of Arts Queensland (who conceived the event). It opened the national art fair circuit this year, followed by the Darwin Festival (7–24 August), the 31st Telstra NATSIA Awards (8 August), and the Melbourne Art Fair (13–17 August).

There were some three hundred artists from Queensland at CIAF, from Badu Island in the far north, to Stradbroke Island and the ProppaNow group from the south-east. Aurukun, Lockhart River and others were participants, alongside seven commercial galleries. The fair was a visual and economic mix—with the thirteen art centre displays crowded, raffish and densely hung, between the two contemporary galleries from Sydney. Martin Browne Contemporary, showing three major works from Mavis Ngallametta, and Michael Reid a

David Jones, Where's my wages?, 2013. Linoleum prints on 9 wooden scrubbing brushes, enamelled metal dish, dimensions variable. From SOLID! Cairns Regional Gallery. Courtesy the artist and Woollongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane.

SOLID! Installation view, Cairns Regional Gallery. Photograph Michael Marzik.