By Thomas Connelly
We went to the Long Gallery on a bleak
bleary rainy sort of Hobart day to see Made
in China, Australia. I took the entire family, as it is always helpful to
get the viewpoint of children who can see through the hype of art and bring all
the five dollar words back to the reality of mud and play with a response that
is based on love and play first and foremost.
Anthology is from a Greek word, which
literally means a flower gathering. This exhibition of sixteen artists is, in
the best sense of the word, a gathering of flowers. Like all such gatherings it
is a mixed collection of artists and artworks. Like any good gathering it lets
us compare and contrast between the different artists, the different ways of
seeing and the different ways of playing. China has existed for thousands of
years and is a country of more than a billion people. That brings a wide range
of attitudes, techniques and abilities and becomes an interesting vein of
artistic ore to mine. Some of the artists come from China; some are new
arrivals to Australia while others have been in Australia for generations.
