One year on

By Kevin Jingga

Buxton Contemporary explores Australian history and identity through its current arts showcases.

Southbank presents the first anniversary of Buxton Contemporary, home to the remarkable Michael Buxton Collection with two new exhibitions: National Anthem and A New Order, starting on March 8 until July 7.

These free exhibitions invite us to scrutinise crucial moments in the recent history of Australian art and the ideas that continue to shape the nation.

National Anthem, curated by Dr Kate Just, shows the contemporary issue of Australian national identity. It exposes the exclusion of indigenous histories and denial of multicultural voices and experiences due to the desire of singular national identity.

Buxton Collection artists demonstrate their works, challenging the xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist and racist constructions of national identity, and also ask us to consider topics like Australian national symbols, colonial history, queerness challenges or our migrants and refugees approach that construct our national identity.

A New Order, curated by Linda Short, combines the work of 12 artists from three or more generations since the 1980s. Key features are Daniel Crook’s “time-slicing” video of Melbourne laneways and The Truth Effect, an animation to test the eye and the mind by Daniel von Stumer, alongside other featured artists.

“Patterns become structure that can be seen as something more than composition, as intrinsic to the content of a work or even as its central subject,” said curator Linda Short.

Ryan Johnston, director of Buxton Contemporary, said the response to the museum a year since its inception has been “overwhelming”.

“We look forward to welcoming even more visitors to our exciting program of exhibitions, performances and other events in 2019,” he said.

Dr Kate Just is a visual artist who works across sculpture, installation, textiles and photography. She is also a senior lecturer, graduate coursework co-ordinator at the University of Melbourne. Linda Short is currently an exhibitions curator at the State Library Victoria.

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