editorial – rt104
Alakazam, 2010 (detail), Adam Adelpour included in HATCHED National Graduate Show 2011, PICA
courtesy of the artist
Alakazam, 2010 (detail), Adam Adelpour included in HATCHED National Graduate Show 2011, PICA
Will artists tread ever so softly and self-censor under the weight of a growing number of protocols, impending new classification legislation and, not least for the training and education of young artists, the nervous reactions of university ethics committees? This is the Burning Issue in RealTime 104, aptly illustrated on this page by Adam Adelpour’s Alakazam. Adelpour is a student from Sydney College of the Arts [SCA], University of Sydney, one of the young artists selected for this year’s Hatched National Graduate Show at PICA. What at first glance looks like a bomb-cradling terrorist rig turns out to be a bizarre 360-degree surveillance device which the artist boldly activated, ie flashed, in the security-sensitive Sydney Opera House precinct. You can read a detailed account of the device and the action on the artist’s blog: adamadelpour.wordpress.com. The other dimension of our annual arts education feature is a survey of Australian content in university curricula and syllabuses. It’s quite revealing, indicating a passionate desire to bring together students and local artists, to attempt to make national connections and to find Australia’s place in a global art context. The ideal consistently appears to be a desire to bring these three dimensions together, avoiding ghettoisation and imbuing students with a sense of history (not least of recent contemporary art practices) and the greater world to which they as artists will contribute.
RealTime issue #104 Aug-Sept 2011 pg. 2
