clippings... · louise bourgeois: late works efs difficult to describe the sheer viscerality of the...

Heide Museum of Modern Art are showcasing

the brilliance of Louise Bourgeois. Running until

Monday March 11, 2013, and presented in the main

galleries – Heide III – Louise Bourgeois: Late Works

is the fi rst exhibition in Australia to survey the work

of this profoundly important artist since her death

in 2010. Focusing on the fi nal 15 years of Bourgeois’

career, the exhibition examines the use of fabric

in the artist’s works, and includes 18 sculptures,

two suites of fabric drawings, watercolours,

embroidered texts and lithographs never before

seen in Australia. Central to the exhibition is

Spider – one of the artist’s famous Cells sculptures

which is dominated, enclosed and protected by a

gargantuan spider – a recurring and powerful motif

in the artist’s work. Louise Bourgeois and Australian

Artists, running until Sunday April 14, is the second

exhibition presented in Heide II, and reveals the

enormous infl uence of Bourgeois locally. The

exhibition examines the works of artists who share

Bourgeois’ compelling combination of abstraction

and fi guration, her psycho-sexual themes and

surrealist sensibility. Del Kathryn Barton, Janet

Burchill, Kathy Temin, Pat Brassington, Brent

Harris, Carolyn Eskdale and Patricia Piccinini are

just some of the Australian artists represented. For

more information, check out heide.com.au

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

AT HEIDEHeide Museum of Modern Art are showcasing



























LOUISE BOURGEOIS

AT HEIDE




























LOUISE BOURGEOIS

AT HEIDE

Media Monitors Client ServiceCentre 1300 880 082

Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL)licensed copy

Beat Magazine (Melbourne), Melbourne26 Dec 2012

General News, page 28 - 470.40 cm²Magazines Lifestyle - circulation 30,706 (--W----)

ID 176362874 BRIEF HEIDE INDEX 1 PAGE 1 of 1

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: LATE WORKSEFS difficult to describe the sheerviscerality of the late Louise Bourgeois'santhropomorphic textile and steel sculptures(above). They are works that evoke andhaunt like few others. Late Works, a

collection of sculptures and drawingscreated in the final years of her long life,is one of the more powerful shows you'llsee. Much of this comes down to herworks collision of materials and forms. Herpartial, often severed bodies and heads areindelibly human in their prone, slung andhung gesture and form, and their renderingin textiles - perhaps the most domestic andnostalgic of materials - and quasi-industrialcontraptions and devices imbues thesehybrid forms with the most acute sense ofintimacy, rupture and pain.This is familiarity,tactility, sensuality and trauma in one.Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm,until March 11; Heide Museum ofModern Art, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen,$14, 9850 1500, heide.com.au

CANDICE BREITZ:THE CHARACTERDESPITE her work's often playful, oftenhumorous cadence, South African-born,Berlin-based video artist Candice Breitztackles some rather pointed themes in thisbrilliant survey show at ACMI (below). Breitz'schief interest is in identity, namely how weplay an active role in shaping and reshapingour own. She approaches the idea from anumber of vantages, one of which is stardomand the film industry. In Him (1978-2008)

1NITHEGIALLER1ES

and Her (1978-2008), Brietz reconstructsfragmentary footage of Jack Nicholson andMeryl Streep to create a hilarious montageof techniques, twitches and tropes. Herincredible Factum (2009) series, meanwhile,sees split-screen interviews with identicaltwins, each of whom stake a disparateclaim as to their identity, similarities anddifferences from one another. Her latestwork The Woods, gives a three-part insightinto the movie business, including a mass

audition for budding child actors. It is atelling, slightly disturbing, insight into identityas artifice.Daily 10am-6pm, until March 11;Australian Centre for the Moving Image,Federation Square, city, 8663 2200,acmi.net.au

GROUP SHOWIDEAS of transformation and mutationpermeate this group show of Helen GoryGalerie stable artists. Petrina Hicks' twophotographs recast a familiar, familialscenario - that of a young girl holding herpet cat - in a peculiar, almost alien light.All is normal enough, except the fact that thecat happens to be a pink, hairless sphynx.Jacky Stockdale's striking collages mergefragments of Frida Kahlo with the artist'sown image, where C.J.Taylor's photo worksrender the still life bizarre, meticulouslypiecing together vibrant Australian foliagewith fluorescent taxidermy blanks. Britt Salt'ssuite of three multilayered vinyl on clearacrylic works are a highlight. Marked withoblique clusters of geometric patterns, the

works' formal qualities alter and buckle withevery shift in vantage.Last day Saturday, 11am-5pm;Helen Gory Galerie, 25 St Edmonds Road,Prahran, 9525 2808, helengory.com

DESIRE LINESREFERRING to that of an improvised pathof travel,ACCk comprehensive summershow, Desire Lines, approaches its themeboth literally and laterally. Drawing on ahost of multi-generational internationaland local artists - Bruce Nauman, SamuelBeckett,Tacita Dean, Richard Long and thebrilliant Francis Alys included - it tracesboth the body and the mind's traversal ofspaces, cities, landscapes and conceptualframeworks.There are some fantasticexamples. Mel O'Callaghan's vastly scaledvideo work Endgame sees a slowly panningcamera track the cavities of an architecturalruin as a host of protagonists performritualistic actions in and around the space.Dutch artist Paulien Oltheten's video Walkon a line (2008) is a fascinating study ofsocial and spatial obedience in Japan, whilelocal artist Charlie Sofo's clutch of videosand objects sidles suburban sensor lights,neighbourhood cats and street detritus topoetic effect.Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm, Saturdayand Sunday 11am-6pm, until March 3;Australian Centre for Contemporary Art,111 Sturt Street, Southbank, 9697 9999,accaonline.org.au

DAN RULE



The Saturday Age, Melbourne21 Dec 2012

Life&Style, page 5 - 256.01 cm²Capital City Daily - circulation 241,029 (-----S-)





























LOUISE BOURGEOIS

AT HEIDEHeide Museum of Modern Art are showcasing



























LOUISE BOURGEOIS

AT HEIDE




























LOUISE BOURGEOIS

AT HEIDE



Beat Magazine (Melbourne), Melbourne28 Nov 2012

General News, page 32 - 222.84 cm²Magazines Lifestyle - circulation 30,706 (--W----)


Above---Paramodel, perrarnodeik: groffiti(installation view), 2010. RightMacieln Ocmpany,Spread 201009103 (installati. view), 2010

7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary ArtGallery of Modern Art and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane8 December 2012 - 14 April 2013

Seventy-seven artists and artist groups from 27 different countriesfeature in the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art(APT7), marking the 20th anniversary of the internationalexhibition. Showing works from internationally renowned artistsincluding Huang Yong Ping (China/France), Atul Dodya (India),Raqib Shaw (India/UK) and Fiona Tan (Indonesia/TheNetherlands), as well as young and emerging artists from the region,APT7 focuses largely on artists from West Asia. The event includes afree weekend opening program, performance events, GOMA talksand film programs.



inside, National01 Dec 2012

General News, page 20 - 1,052.09 cm²Magazines Lifestyle - circulation 12,950 (Bi monthly)


SexesPerformance Space, Carriageworks, SydneyUntil 8 December 2012carriageworks.con.no

The curatorial powerhouse of Bee Dean,Deborah Kelly and Jeff Khan hasprogrammed a season of visual andperforming arts that explores sexual andgendered identities in Australia. Consideringissues such as the expression of masculinityin the domestic sphere, Sexes is a dynamicprogram that is punctuated by talks,screenings and one-off events. Bothexhibiting and performing artists are amongsome of Australia's most well-respectedtoday and include Christian Thompson,The Kingpins and Philip Brophy.

Speak to Me:Experimenta 5th InternationalBiennial of Media ArtRMIT Gallery, MelbourneUntil 17 November 2012

The title of this year's Biennial is aninvitation to consider what it means - at thistime - to be together. Featuring five newlycommissioned artworks from Australianartists, including Katie Turnbull and WadeMarynowsky, the exhibition questions ournew relationships with the world, technologyand each other. The sixth commission is inpartnership with Federation Square and theprogram is also complemented by a range ofeducation and public programs. Speak to Mewill tour nationally from 2013.

Anish Kapoor20 December 2012 - 1 April 2013MCA, Sydneyrne,a.comau

This is the first major exhibition in Australiafor renowned Mumbai-born, London-basedartist Anish Kapoor. Comprising works fromboth the early stages of Kapoor's career topresent day, the exhibition explores theartist's continual experimentation acrossa variety of materials, resulting in worksof great visual power and emotional impact.Part of the Sydney International Art Series,the exhibition spans two floors of the gallery.

Louise Bourgeois: Late WorksHeide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne3 November 2012 - 10 March 2013

Following her death in 2010 and focusingon the last 15 years of her practice, thisexhibition explores Louise Bourgeois'use of fabric in her sculptures and drawings.It includes several of Bourgeois' iconicCells, one of which is dominated by anenormous spider - a motif for which sheis renowned. With the only other majorAustralian survey of Bourgeois' art heldat the National Gallery of Victoria and theMuseum of Contemporary Art in 1995 and1996, this exhibition reintroduces her worksto a new audience.

Pau I Cve ke-edgefor Swan:0,51(1,

Digital Crystal: Swarovski at theDesign MuseumDesign Museum, LondonUntil 13 January 2013designrnu5eurn..oro

London's Design Museum and Swarovskiare collaborating with a new generation ofdesigners, examining the future of memoryin the digital age. The exhibition showcasesnew commissions by respected internationaldesigners, including Ron Arad, Yves Behar,Paul Cocksedge, Troika and FredriksonStallard. The exhibitors explore ways inwhich we can recover the lost connectionwith things as we debate the changing natureof memory in the digital world.

fft



inside, National01 Dec 2012

General News, page 20 - 1,052.09 cm²Magazines Lifestyle - circulation 12,950 (Bi monthly)


Bourgeois - living for artMelbournenowhas a rare opportunity to

experience oneof the20th century’smost

engaging artists,writesANNAPRYTZ

HEIDE is set for a really

super summer.

The Bulleen museum of

modern art has secured 22

major works by French art-

ist Louise Bourgeois.

Late Works focuses on

projects completed in the fi-

nal 15 years of her career be-

fore her death, aged 98, in

2010. It features one of her

most famous and impressive

sculptures, Spider.

The scale of the project

was one of Heide’s biggest

challenges yet. Alone, the

2.7m spider looming over a

caged domestic scene arriv-

ing in eleven large crates.

Heide director and exhi-

bition curator Jason Smith

said the installation was a

coup for the museum.

‘‘It really is a blockbuster

Alongside the sculptures

were suites of fabric draw-

i n g s , w e a v i n g s a n d a n

installation of her clothes.

‘‘She was amazing, but she

was not a happy camper,’’

Smith said. ‘‘For her, art was

the guarantee of sanity and

she used it to deal with a lot of

her anxieties and issues.’’

The main exhibition is

complemented by a collection


show,’’ Smith said. ‘‘This is

the result of about three

years of talks with her studio

in New York, so it’s fantastic

to finally have it here.’’

Widely considered the

founder of ‘‘confessional

art ’ ’ , Bourgeois ’s awe-

inspiring work was heavy

with personal and deeply

emotional references.

Raised by a tyrannical

and philandering father

and her nanny, with whom

he was having an affair, her

f o r m a t i v e y e a r s w e r e

marked by family betrayal

and uncertainty.

However, images of home

and her family’s profession as

tapestry restorers were given

vital importance in the work.


in the Heide 2 gallery of con-

temporary works influenced

by Bourgeois.

‘‘It’s an amazing oppor-

tunity to show her work in

context with Australian art

because she had enormous

and far-reaching influence,’’

Smith said.

Late Works runs until

March 11.

Details: heide.com.au

March 11.


LOUISE BOURGEOIS

� She was born in Paris in1911.� She first studied math-ematics at the Sorbonne butswitched to arts when hermother died.� Her husband was famousa r t h i s t o r i an Robe r tGoldwater and they hadthree sons.� Her most famous work isa fifteen-foot steel spidercalled Maman.� She finished her finalpiece one week before shedied of heart failure in 2010.

Bourgeois - living for artMelbournenowhas a rare opportunity to

experience oneof the20th century’smost

engaging artists,writesANNAPRYTZHEIDE is set for a really

super summer.

The Bulleen museum of

modern art has secured 22

major works by French art-

ist Louise Bourgeois.

Late Works focuses on

projects completed in the fi-

nal 15 years of her career be-

fore her death, aged 98, in

2010. It features one of her

most famous and impressive

sculptures, Spider.

The scale of the project

was one of Heide’s biggest

challenges yet. Alone, the

2.7m spider looming over a

caged domestic scene arriv-

ing in eleven large crates.

Heide director and exhi-

bition curator Jason Smith

said the installation was a

coup for the museum.


show,’’ Smith said. ‘‘This is

the result of about three

years of talks with her studio

in New York, so it’s fantastic

to finally have it here.’’

Widely considered the

founder of ‘‘confessional

art ’ ’ , Bourgeois ’s awe-

inspiring work was heavy

with personal and deeply

emotional references.

Raised by a tyrannical

and philandering father

and her nanny, with whom

he was having an affair, her

f o r m a t i v e y e a r s w e r e

marked by family betrayal

and uncertainty.

However, images of home

and her family’s profession as

tapestry restorers were given

vital importance in the work.


were suites of fabric draw-

i n g s , w e a v i n g s a n d a n

installation of her clothes.

‘‘She was amazing, but she

was not a happy camper,’’

Smith said. ‘‘For her, art was

the guarantee of sanity and

she used it to deal with a lot of

her anxieties and issues.’’

The main exhibition is

complemented by a collection

in the Heide 2 gallery of con-

temporary works influenced

by Bourgeois.

‘‘It’s an amazing oppor-

tunity to show her work in

context with Australian art

because she had enormous

and far-reaching influence,’’

Smith said.

Late Works runs until

March 11.


LOUISE BOURGEOIS

� She was born in Paris in1911.� She first studied math-ematics at the Sorbonne butswitched to arts when hermother died.� Her husband was famousa r t h i s t o r i an Robe r tGoldwater and they hadthree sons.� Her most famous work isa fifteen-foot steel spidercalled Maman.� She finished her finalpiece one week before shedied of heart failure in 2010.



Manningham Leader, Melbourne05 Dec 2012, by Anna Prytz

General News, page 8 - 635.47 cm²Suburban - circulation 44,690 (--W----)


Heidedirector JasonSmithwith the recently-unveiledLouiseBourgeoisexhibitionand (below) someof the itemsonshow.

Heidedirector JasonSmithwith the recently-unveiledLouiseBourgeoisexhibitionand (below) someof the itemsonshow.



Manningham Leader, Melbourne05 Dec 2012, by Anna Prytz

General News, page 8 - 635.47 cm²Suburban - circulation 44,690 (--W----)


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Public Meeting – Melbourne

Victoria’s independent water regulator, the Essential Services Commission, has commenced a review of water prices proposed to apply across Victoria for a five-year period from 1 July 2013.

Three metropolitan water retailers – City West Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water – plus Melbourne Water have submitted their water plans for the 2013-18 period to the Commission.

As part of its public consultation, the Commission is seeking the views of water customers before it hands down a draft decision in March 2013.

It is holding a series of public meetings across Victoria in November and December, to outline its approach and seek public comment on the pricing proposals of the water businesses that supply urban water.

The Commission will hold a public meeting in Melbourne on Monday 3 December to discuss the water plans submitted by the three metropolitan water retailers and Melbourne Water.

The public meeting will be held at the Essential Services Commission, Auditorium, Level 2, 35 Spring Street, Melbourne at 12.30pm on Monday 3 December.

Copies of the water plans submitted by the three metropolitan water retailers and Melbourne Water can be downloaded from www.esc.vic.gov.au.

Interested people seeking to attend the public meeting should contact the Commission on 1300 664 969 or (03) 9651 0206, or at [email protected] by Thursday 29 November.

REVIEW OF VICTORIAN WATER PRICES 2013-18

ZO29

0357

Before changing

cars, Drivewww.drive.com.au

7THE AGETUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2012

NEWSTOUGH CHOICES: Nobel prize winner Peter Doherty says advances inbiomedicine are raising difficult questions about who benefits and who pays.DEB ANDERSON EDUCATION PAGE 11

Intrigue builds over AWUfiles for slush-fund caseBy MARK BAKER

Harry Nowicki

FEDERAL Court officials havefound several missing files atthe centre of the AustralianWorkers Union slush-fundscandal – but confirmed thatothers have disappeared.

Deputy Opposition LeaderJulie Bishop had urged policeintervention unless Queens-land court records relating to abid in the mid-1990s to recovermoney from the disgraced for-mer boyfriend of Prime Minis-ter Julia Gillard and hisassociates were quickly found.

A Federal Court spokesmansaid an exhaustive search haddiscovered the missingQueensland files in the court’sVictorian registry in Melbourneon Monday.

But he confirmed that a boxof records was still missingfrom the court’s NSW registry,including a crucial affidavit anddocuments assembled by AWUwhistleblower and now FairWork Australia commissionerIan Cambridge.

Formerindustriallawyer HarryNowicki saidthe NSWdocuments,which weremissingwhen he vis-ited Sydney in September, werebelieved to include the originalcopy of a Slater & Gordon con-veyancing file for the 1993 pur-chase of a Fitzroy unit withmore than $100,000 that wasstolen from the AWU Work-place Reform Association.

The property was purchasedby AWU official Bruce Wilson,Ms Gillard’s then boyfriend, inthe name of union crony RalphBlewitt, who had never seen theunit. Ms Gillard denies anywrongdoing.

Slater & Gordon confirmedlast month it could not locatean unofficial file prepared byMs Gillard when she was apartner at the firm in the early1990s and advised on the incor-poration of the Workplace

Reform Association. It was laterconfirmed that a file in theWest Australian state archivesrelating to the incorporationwas empty.

Ms Bishop said it ‘‘beggaredbelief’’ that documents held ingovernment and court archivescould disappear.

The Federal Court spokes-man said the recovered files –containing documents lodgedwith the Queensland IndustrialCourt registry in 1995 by formerAWU national president BillLudwig – went missing afterbeing sent to Melbourne andSydney earlier this year to makesearches by journalists and oth-ers easier.

‘‘The files were retained inMelbourne in anticipation offurther search requests butunfortunately their where-abouts was not entered ontothe system established to trackthem.’’

The spokesman confirmedthat the search for the missingNSW registry records was con-tinuing.

Federal discrimination laws pushedDISCRIMINATION on thegrounds of sexual orientationand gender identity would beoutlawed nationally under aproposed overhaul of federaldiscrimination laws to beunveiled on Tuesday.

Federal Attorney-GeneralNicola Roxon and FinanceMinister Penny Wong willrelease draft laws that consol-idate, harmonise and simplifythe five existing Common-wealth discrimination laws.Under the draft laws, discrim-ination on the grounds ofsexual orientation and gender

identity would be specificallybanned for the first time at thenational level, delivering on a2010 Labor election commit-ment. While state laws containprotections against discrimin-ation on the basis of sexuality,no such protections exist fed-erally.

An exemption that cur-rently allows faith-based aged-care providers to discriminateon the grounds of sexual ori-entation and gender identitywould be removed, but otherreligious exemptions wouldcontinue.

The draft laws contain asingle definition of discrimina-tion as ‘‘unfavourable treat-ment’’ and a simple defence of‘‘justification’’, meaning thatdiscrimination is lawful whenit is done for a legitimate aimand is proportionate to thataim.

Anyone discriminatedagainst on two grounds simul-taneously will need only makeone complaint.

Ms Roxon said there wouldbe no reduction in existingprotections.

DAN HARRISON

Retailersin push toslash payBy CLAY LUCASWORKPLACE EDITOR

RETAILERS will push for theirstaff’s hourly pay to be cut by asmuch as $8 an hour on Sundays.

Associations and organisa-tions representing most of thenation’s big and small retailerswill tell Fair Work Australia thatpenalty rates – extra money paidto workers usually in recogni-tion of the unsociable hoursthey work – should be reducedor cut altogether.

It follows unions last weekarguing pay rates and penaltiesmust be protected.

The National Retail Associ-ation, which is among theemployer groups to appear atFair Work Australia on Tuesdayand Wednesday, says the pen-alty rates shop workers get aremore suited to the Australia ofthe 1960s, when almost half thenation worked in productionindustries and few workedweekend shifts.

‘‘Typical manufacturingworking arrangements . . . gen-erally involved a Monday to Fri-day working week,’’ theassociation said in a submissionto Fair Work Australia.

Retail workers get paiddouble-time on Sundays, andthe association says this shouldbe cut to time-and-a-half.

The association says penaltyrates for those who work past6pm on weekdays should alsogo. Another body, the AustralianRetail Association, says thatextra pay on Saturdays shouldalso be abolished.

Bianca Seeto, deputy chiefexecutive of the National RetailAssociation, said there was also

a need for part-time provisionsunder the current laws to bechanged, because they ledmany employers to only hirecasual staff instead of perman-ent part-timers.

Joe de Bruyn, national sec-retary of the Shop Distributiveand Allied Employees Associ-ation (SDA), said there had been‘‘wave after wave’’ of employerstrying to erode conditions forretail workers. ‘‘Employers saythat people want to work even-ings and weekends. They saypeople would still work even-ings and weekends if the penal-ties were lower. But who havethey asked? Certainly not theiremployees,’’ he said.

Emma Amies, a 19-year-olddesign student who works week-ends at an independent super-market, said the extra pay shegot for working Saturday andSundays was reasonable com-pensation for her not being ableto go to events. ‘‘If those penal-ties didn’t exist, I would have toget a second job,’’ she said.

The SDA last week presentedevidence from Melbourne Uni-versity academic Dan Wood-man, who over seven years hastracked the lives of young Aus-tralians after they finish highschool. The union said hisresearch contradicted employ-ers’ claims that because someyoung people sought to work atweekends and nights there wasno justification for penalties.

Dr Woodman found thatyoung people who chose thosehours suffered because theirshifts regularly prevented themspending time with family andfriends, and taking part in com-munity and sporting interests.

Louise Bourgeois’ spidersculpture at the Heide

Museum of Modern Art.PICTURE: SEBASTIAN COSTANZO

The latest website – a two-tonne, eight-legged sculptureBy DEBBIE CUTHBERTSONARTS EDITOR

LOOKING like it crawled offthe set of a sci-fi movie andinto Heide Museum of ModernArt, the spider sculpture byLouise Bourgeois, one of themost influential artists of the20th century, dominates thegallery space.

The three-metre-high struc-ture trembles back and forth asa workman on a ladder

attaches the last of eight heavysteel legs. With a steel cagebelow it, the artwork weighsaround two tonnes.

It beggars belief that Bour-geois, who died in 2010 at theage of 98, managed to createthis sculpture with the aid ofonly a workman to weld it.What is more incredible is thatthis is a mere blip, a babyspider, compared to some ofher work – including a spectac-ular nine-metre-high arachnid,

Maman, 1999, created to fillthe mammoth turbine hall ofLondon’s Tate Modern.

What the sculpture repre-sents is not some horrifictrauma, but the loving and pro-tective qualities of Bourgeois’mother, who created tapestries,which the Paris-born artistcompared to that of a spiderweaving its web.

The Heide exhibition, fea-turing works from the last 15years of Bourgeois’ life, resulted

from a long-standing connec-tion between the artist andAustralia. It was through anAustralian – expatriate NewYork-based art dealer MaxHutchinson – that Bourgeoismet Jerry Gorovoy, who wenton to spend 30 years as herassistant and manager.

Gorovoy has travelled fromNew York to open the Heideshow and has worked closelywith the museum’s director,Jason Smith, to bring it here.

Many of Bourgeois’ otherpieces on display at Heide arein her signature, so-called‘‘confessional’’ style – a labelshe did not ascribe to her ownwork, instead seeing it as auto-biographical, according toGorovoy. ‘‘[But] she always saidthat she was a woman whonever had secrets,’’ he said.

Louise Bourgeois: Late Works is atHeide Museum of Modern Art fromNovember 24.

Call forfunds toreplenishnative fishBy TOM ARUP

A RARE coalition of conserva-tionists and fishermen isdemanding the federal govern-ment pay to restore native fishnumbers in the Murray-DarlingBasin after a 50-year joint planwith the states was axed.

The Australian ConservationFoundation and the Murray-Darling Basin Recreational Fish-ing Council will today condemnthe sudden culling of the NativeFish Strategy and call on Can-berra to fund a replacement.

The groups will say fish spe-cies native to the basin, such asthe iconic Murray Cod, havesuffered serious declines overthe last century while manyinvasive species have thrived.

‘‘Native fish populations areat roughly 10 per cent of pre-European settlement levels,’’they said in a statement.

The groups propose a newplan with two five-year stages torestore habitat, boost researchand continue community pro-grams. The first five years wouldcost $100 million.

The strategy included build-ing a series of fish laddersbetween the Murray mouth andLake Hume to provide fish withsafe passage through 2225 kilo-metres of river.

Another 3900 kilometres offish passage was planned overthe next 10 years. Goalsincluded stopping any newincursions of pest fish species.

The chair of the fishingcouncil, Christopher Collins,said the group was deeply con-cerned about the effect thestrategy’s cut would have onnative fish numbers.

The push comes as the fed-eral government enters the finalstages of negotiations with stategovernments over a long-awaited deal to return water tothe river’s environment.

Shaped by anunflinching gaze

ANDREWSTEPHENSSHE was a forthright woman,Louise Bourgeois, and at her Sun-day salons she invited artists,poets, curators and critics to herhome to display, perform or dis-cuss their work. It was the only dayof the week she wasn't making art.She spared no one, least of all her-self, with her commitment totruth-telling. If tears weren't shedopenly by visitors, perhaps theywere shed privately, and not neces-sarily with grief. The truth may bedifficult hut it can be liberating.

She died, this monumental artist,when she was 98, having arrived inthe world in Paris on ChristmasDay 1911. She set out to become amathematician but ended up oneof the US' most celebrated and idio-syncratic artists a woman whowas compelled, psychologically, tomake art. As her long-time friend-assistant-manager Jerry Gorovoysays, she was this "amazingcreature who could really home inon what was happening". This isperhaps why people say her art has

Louise Bourgeois in 2003.PICTURE NANDA LANFRANCO

universal appeal, touching deepemotions and the collective psyche.As one artist says, it was "inexplic-ably intimate".

During her last 20 years, up toher death in 2010, she turned newcorners, gathering like a bowerbirdthe possessions she had obsessivelystored in her home-cum-studio,and converting them into artworks

the sort of sculptures that botherpeople. "At a certain point in theearly 1990s she asked me to bringdown all of the clothes she hadupstairs in the house," Gorovoysays. "She hung them in her studio,raking them up into colours, bluesand blacks, and she started to usethem as a raw material."

Gorovoy says the clothes were aform of diary-keeping they all hadmemories attached. "Some hadbelonged to her mother, a fewthings from her husband," he says.

"I think she would hold on tothese clothes because she couldn'tthrow them out. I think she had thisidea that if she could incorporatethem into her sculpture they wouldsurvive long after her. She didn't likethe idea of someone coming alongand disposing of all these things shehad held on to, in certain cases for70 or 75 years."

Jason Smith, director of theHeide Museum of Modern Art, metBourgeois about the time sheembarked on this new part of herjourney. This was in the mid-1990s,when he was a young curator whohad been set the task of puttingtogether a Bourgeois retrospectivefor the National Gallery ofVictoria.


Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL)licenced copy

The Saturday Age, Melbourne17 Nov 2012, by Andrew Stephens

Life&Style, page 22 - 1,130.54 cm²Capital City Daily - circulation 241,029 (-----S-)


He visited her at her home-studio in Chelsea, Manhattan, in1995, and she cooked him lunch. "Iwished I hadn't been so young," hesays now. "She was very accommo-dating of this young, enthusiasticcurator. Probably lucky I didn't askthe sorts of probing questions Ithink I should have, because Imight have been shown the doorsooner than I was."

Gorovoy confirms Bourgeoiscould be abrasive and sharp, butshe was sensitive. "Louise usuallytold the truth," he says. "She wouldreally tell people what she wasthinking, what they were thinking,what they were doing."

Smith's involvement with Bour-geois entailed a strong professionalconnection with Gorovoy, whobegan to work with Bourgeois in the1980s, and out of all this was bornthe idea for two new shows at theHeide museum.

In the main show in Heide I,Smith focuses on Bourgeois' latework with fabric. In the second,in Heide II, he explores her relation-ship with local artists such as JoyHester, Del Kathryn Barton, PatriciaPiccinini, Pat Brassington and BrentHarris.

That has always been a focus forBourgeois, especially with her Sun-day salons: to encourage, provokeand perhaps to find safety andunderstanding among her own ilk."She loved being around youngerpeople," Gorovoy says. "She had afew people her own age in her lifebut she identified as a youngperson she was in her elementamong them."

For Smith, Bourgeois' work is"unsettling in very good ways" andwonderfully articulate abouteternal themes. She is frequently

quoted as having once said that ifartists weren't artists they would bemurderers, and she is well knownfor dealing with her own history,psyche and anxieties through herwork, using it as a form of therapy.

"Louise made a really importantpoint," Smith says, "that she felt atone with artists in a way she didn'twith other people. She understoodthem, they understood each otherthe internal mechanisms that can'tbe explained. In a life that was pre-occupied with the self, desires andregrets, artists provided an incred-ible solidarity for her. She wastough, but she was vulnerable; herraw honesty is something that canbe confronting about an encounterwith her work or her statements.Among artists she felt totally athome."

He says that in the work of otherartists shown in Heide II, Bourgeois'effect is sometimes evident in directhomage, at other times that influ-ence is filtered through the imagin-ation. "There is an appreciation bythese artists of what Louise gavethem in terms of asserting bio-graphy as an emotional sourcematerial for art."

Artist Del Kathryn Barton, win-ner of the 2008 Archibald Prize, firstencountered Bourgeois' work about15 years ago and it was, "withoutsounding corny, a life-changingmoment" that made her weak at theknees. It still resounds in her work,even though the two women's stylesare very different.

"Often it's hard to put into wordshow, when you see something likethis, you then feel it in some verydeep place," Barton says. "It was asense of awe and admiration. And itwas such a relief to see work likethat with the narrative pertaining to

the temale psyche and the uniquelanguage of the female body"

Because her first experience ofBourgeois' art was when Barton wasin her formative years as an artistpost-art school and "hacking awayin the studio" it felt extremely sig-nificant. "I was trying to under-stand, to bring into consciousness,what it is you potentially want tosay as an artist."

Barton describes Bourgeois' artas intimate yet universal. "Whenyou encounter great art, there's analchemy about it," she says. "Thedrawings are so utterly naive butagain, there is such a profundity.The vulnerability in the line, theintegrity of emotion that goes intomaking that line and hopefully itcommunicates the sincerity of thatmoment. I really feel that withLouise, especially with her works onpaper, which are so straight-up."

Barton describes her own workas more fantastical. "With Louise'swork there is a realism I aspire tobut I feel there is an authenticity tothat life experience the work shemade between 70 and 90. I'm notsure you can make that kind ofwork when you are half that age. Ihave such respect for her."

Louise Bourgeois: Late Works is at HeideMuseum of Modern Art from November 24-March 11. Del Kathryn Barton's Nightingaleand the Rose is at Heide until December 9.heide.com.au

"Her rawhonesty can beconfronting."






From main: Blue Days, 1996,cloth, steel and glass292.1x205.7x 241.3cm, photoby Christopher Burke; Couple IV,1997, fabric, leather, stainlesssteel and plastic50.8x165.1x77.5cm, photo byChristopher Burke; Spider,1997, steel, tapestry, wood,glass, fabric, rubber, silver, goldand bone 449.6x665.5x18.2cm,photo by Frederic Delpech. Allcourtesy Cheim & Read andHauser & Wirth, @ LouiseBourgeois Trust.






AustrAliA’s Monthly Briefing on art

noVeMBer 2012

$5.00

Alan JonesFrancis BaconKate Dorrough

Louise Bourgeois

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