David Jolly, Sarah Minney, Lyndal Walker
It is perhaps fitting that First Press (Extra Virgin), a recent exhibition at the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia and one of the last under the directorship of the indomitable Bala Starr (who recently took up a position with the Melbourne International Biennal), united two concerns that have characterized her directorship: a commitment to emerging Adelaide artists, and the exposure of the South Australian artworld to some of the more interesting products of its interstate brethren. This was the third time Starr began the year's programme by exhibiting the work of a previously untried Adelaide artist alongside the work of two, more experienced, interstate artists. This year's rather precocious ''virgin" was Sarah Minney, who found herself in the rakish company of David Jolly and Lyndal Walker, both Melbourne-based artists.
David Jolly presented Phantasy I-VIII (1997-98), a series of small paintings on glass. In making these works, Jolly had culled images of the recent mission to Mars from the interne!. His resultant barren Mars-scapes were enlivened by a Dufyesque palette. Jolly painted the Martian surface a delicate yellow that ranged in hue from lemon though to scrambled egg. This vista was framed by the jaunty mechanical devices of the Sojourner probe, which obtruded in the foreground, and the lairish pink and green of the Martian skies. Jolly's sensuous hues, it transpired, were derived from the colours of anti-depressant packets: Prozac, Zoloft, and the like. It was ironic that his cheery palette originally advertised chemical bliss.
Jolly's paintings were accompanied by David Franzke's sound pieces. These were representations of a rather more familiar landscape: the parks and gardens around Melbourne. Franzke recorded and mixed the sounds of birdsong and other terrestrial