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In A Koori Perspective blatant political slogans punctuated more subtle explorations of urban Aboriginal experience. Vastly different, it was pointed out by Sydney Morning Herald critic, Christopher Alien, from what he described (SMH, 2/6/89) as "the rarefied and specialised Perspecta culture" which predominated at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
This broad survey show of urban aboriginal art programmed to coincide with and thus be part of Perspecta '89, met with Alien's criticism for having an "alien" relationship to work housed in the central AGNSW location.
Mr Alien said that because Koori artists are not involved in "Perspecta culture" which he defines as the "intellectually top heavy, terminal introversion of late 20th century European culture", "nor (involved) in the corresponding spiral of innovation in the arts" that "their inclusion in the orbit of Perspecta, therefore, and particularly in the setting of Artspace, is inappropriate from their own point of view and their own interest."
Yet to exclude Koori work from holding even a marginal status in a show which purports to be a survey of contemporary Australian art (generally understood as its purpose until its curators reveal otherwise), I suggest is problematic. That is especially so if the rationale for exclusion is made on the basis that the work is not similar in concern to that produced by its white counterparts. Surely, this reeks of that chauvinistic beast, assimilationstyle thinking.
At any rate the Koori show was not stealing the limelight; it was, after all, held at Artspace, a venue with a vast distance in terms of both geography and institutional kudos from the AGNSW. Indeed, A Koori Perspective, by being held in this venue, was merely mirroring the