From the ever-changing street art, world-class museums, artistic performances, iconic architectural edifices to formations created in nature or as told, the result of dreaming stories from an ancient culture, Australia is home to countless cultural treasures.
Australia boasts renowned museums and galleries, as well as amazing performance spaces, great places to start and continue your arts and culture experience. Wander down vibrantly-painted laneways and seek out hidden bars before attending epic festivals and embracing Australia’s quirky cultural attractions.
What is the definition of arts and culture?
Culture is a word to describe and encompasses elements that characterise a particular set of peoples’ way of life. The idea of culture is central to the study of geography, as well as the ideas, customs, beliefs and social behaviour of sections of the human race. With culture comes the arts, where the two overlap and intertwine.
‘Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.’
― Pablo Picasso.
When we talk about the arts, this vast subdivision of culture is composed of a myriad of creative subjects and disciplines. The arts encompasses a broad range of human creative endeavours from the visual arts, literary arts, and the performing arts. – each breaking down into individual components such as painting, sculpture, photography, poetry, architecture, graphic arts, industrial design, craft, music, opera, musicals, fashion, motion pictures and many more.
There are also the cross-over genres and the emergence of new styles of art. The intersection of science and microscopy into the depiction of the minutiae in the world of paintings.
Where culture and arts cross, such as in ceremonial objects that in turn can be viewed as artwork in their own right. Indeed the christmas trees can be considered ceremonial or cultural objects.
Looking back into history, the rock art can be considered artworks, depicting a culture of a specific time and place. A record of the presence of humans.
The word “culture” derives from a French term, which in turn derives from the Latin “colere,” which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture. “It shares its etymology with a number of other words related to actively fostering growth” .
Source: De Rossi, What Is Culture? By Kim Ann Zimmermann, July 13, 2017 www.livescience.com
So is ‘arts’ the repository of a society’s collective memory. As we view and experience art, it will elicit a response, either positive or negative, an indifferent response being the least desired outcome by the artist.
As we walk the streets and wider spaces, visit exhibitions and events, we will be sharing the experience here…
The work above at the 2018 Alice Art Awards exhibition in Alice Springs, titled Graveyards in between, 2017 by artist Robert Fielding. Born in 1969, Pitjantjatjara is Type C photograph on di bond and held in the Araluen Art Collection, Acquired from Desert Mob 2017.
The 77 kilometre road between my home in Mimili community and the neighbouring community of Indulkana is scattered with car wrecks (mutaka katalypa). I call them ‘graveyards in between’. Every car hold the stories of its owners and the passengers it once carried. Through the process of selecting certain cars, painting and illuminating them, I’m bringing back to life something long thought dead.
Graveyards in between, 2017 by artist Robert Fielding, Araluen Art Collection.
Check out the following (with more to come):
- Art & Culture
Art & CultureAboriginal Artists Artists Aboriginal Art & Culture Literary and Poets