My new website

I have a new domain name and a new Graph Paper Press blog www.torikabolatagici.com
Please update your links

Torika Bolatagici and the Big Picture by Maurice O'Riordan, Art Monthly Australia #232, August 2010

AMA Editor Maurice O’Riordan has written an informed and insightful essay about my work in the August issue of Art Monthly Australia – out now! This fabulous issue, which is dedicated to contemporary Pacific art and artists in Australia, also features profiles on Eric Bridgeman (his amazing work on the cover), Lisa Hilli (by me), Sam Tupou, Krishna Nahow-Ryall, Chantal Fraser and Maryann Talia Pau as well as informative essays by Timothy Morrell, Billy Lythberg, Simon Wright, Nicholas Thomas, Sophie McIntyre, Henri Gama, Jane Raffan, Prisca Chant, Kellie Uhr, Bala Starr, David Broker, Imelda Miller, Genevieve O’Callaghan, Susan Cochrane, Pam Zeplin and Jacqui Durrant. Don’t miss this historical issue! More info and subscriptions >>>

Eric Bridgeman Wilma Jr. (“Blacky”) from the series ‘The Sport and Fair Play of Aussie Rules’ 2009 inkjet print on paper 140 x 120 cm © Courtesy the artist

Congratulations to Brisbane-based artist Eric Bridgeman who has been named as a finalist in the prestigious Basil Sellers Art Prize for 2010!!! For the Basil Sellers Art Prize, Eric Bridgman has undertaken an ambitious departure from his video and photography practice. Bridgeman presents a life-size sculpture of one of the characters from his recent photographic portraits of fictional identities. The multi-component sculptural tableau continues Bridgeman’s interdisciplinary project commenced in 2008 titled The Sport and Fair Play of Aussie Rules, which combines references to tribal identities, hyper-masculinity, sexuality and sport using a carnivalesque aesthetic. Announcement of $100,000 prize winner:
5 August 2010. Exhibition runs from 6 August – 7 November 2010.

Blakbird (series) 2009 C-type digital print on pearl paper H 279 mm x W 356 mm © Krishna Nahow-Ryall

Congratulations to Brisbane-based artist Krishna Nahow-Ryall who has just been announced as a winner of the 2010 Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency. Nahow-Ryall, whose ancestors came from Vanuatu, works in a wide range of media including sculpture, installation, digital media and photography. She often creates site-specific works that fuse Pacific patterns with western motif. She will return to Vanuatu to connect with her heritage, engage with local artists and bring back elements of traditional cultures to pass on to younger Australian South Sea Islanders.

Chantal Fraser at Kings ARI until 31 July 2010

Chantal Fraser’s exciting new work “Annal Beads” is currently showing at Kings A.R.I in Melbourne:

“Conjoining the annals of travel and tourism, this series shapes the parochial views of the tourist as subject. A series of performative frames, presented as photographic stills, showcase a collection of neckpieces (Ula) from the artist’s Samoan family – gifts of significance, ceremony and value – alongside a collection of metallic beads thrown from the balconies of Bourbon St, New Orleans during Mardi Gras– an herogenous ritual that rewards the female tourist more beads on the exposing of breasts. The work explores the creation of cross-cutlural connotations and representations through silhouette and the embodiment of adornment, and more significantly cultural adornment. Reinterpreting the significance of adornment the work presents and plays with the disparate meanings of what it means to receive such objects from these heavily tourist promoted regions through flamboyancy, titillation and parody.” (read more…)

Level 1, 171 King Street
Melbourne
Until 31 July 2010

Still from "Return to Sender" (video projection) - Salote Tawale, 2010

Melbourne-based artist Salote Tawale’s new video work “Return to Sender” is currently showing at the Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote, Melbourne as a part of the Northern Exposure festival.

May/June 2010 iMode feature

The May/June edition of iMode Magazine contains a 6-page feature on my work. You can view for free online at: http://www.imodemagazine.com/

LOLOMA fridge - DIY words by Dulcie Stewart

Fijian-born (and now Australian-based) artist Dulcie Stewart has just launched this fabulous new blog “dedicated to contemporary art, fashion, home and product design in the Pacific.” I’m loving it!!! Check it out at: http://urbanviti.wordpress.com/

Steaming Ai gir at the Adeliade cooking demo. Photo: Lisa Hilli

Lisa Hilli’s exciting performance/installation work “Just Like Home” is still showing at the Nexus Gallery in Adelaide before heading to the Colac Performing Arts Centre 1-24 July 2010. See previous post….

Oceanic Transformations - Opens Thursday (Image: Withour Fear or Favor, 2009 - Torika Bolatagici)

Opening 12:00 pm, Thursday 8 April 2010
Curated by Loketi Niua Latu for the AAAPS conference.

Victoria University Foyer
300 Flinders Street
Melbourne

Featuring the work of Dr Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, Torika Bolatagici, Namila Benson, Emeretta Cross and Emily Mafile’o.