The Dreaming (arguably better known as 'The Dreamtime') is more than just the story of how the world was created as told by Aboriginal Australians. It is also the basis for their way of life and death, their source of power in life and it tells of the life and influence of their ancestors on their culture. It was so important to Aboriginal Australians in the time before the white invasion of Australia that it was the one commonly held belief amongst a culture that consisted of over 500 different tribes (discussion of Dreamtime beliefs here). Thought to be the oldest continuously maintained cultural history on Earth, it is often presented as a series of inter-related stories explaining Aboriginal Australian origins and culture, such as how the Australian landscape was created or how the Mimi spirits taught them how to paint these stories on the walls of caves more than 40,000 years ago.

And what better way to learn of several of the many different Dreamtime stories than to listen and watch them being told by Aboriginal Australians elders themselves? And if that isn't enough Dreamtime mythology for you, here's some links to various sites which allow you to view Aboriginal rock art to see how these stories were translated into a form of artistic expression which is now five times older than the Egyptian Pyramids themselves.
posted on Dec 23, 2006 - View this thread

A Dramatic New Portrait of Leo Sayer "Leo Sayer is ebullient, passionate, and immensely talented. He is the ultimate people person, enthusiastically embracing life. A neighbour of his who is familiar with both my work and Leo's told me that Leo would be the perfect subject for a portrait. So I wrote and asked, it was as simple as that." Sadly, Tony Johansen's portrait of Leo Sayer didn't win this year's Archibald Prize. Then again, neither did this.
posted on Apr 15, 2006 - View this thread

PictureAustralia lets you search across the image collections of a bunch of (mostly Australian, but a few international) cultural agencies. It's been running in various forms since 1998 and has just started accepting contributions through the Flickr groups PictureAustralia: Australia Day and PictureAustralia: People, Places and Events. [via Stuff v.3]
posted on Jan 6, 2006 - View this thread

The Art of the First Fleet : On 13 May 1787, eleven ships, now commonly referred to as The First Fleet, set sail from Portsmouth to establish a colony in New South Wales, Australia. One of the unplanned but long-lasting outcomes of this event was the large number of outstanding drawings of aboriginal people, the environment and wildlife found on arrival as well as of the early foundation of the colony.
posted on Sep 1, 2005 - View this thread

The Aboriginal Peoples of Australia make pictures on bark, on rock, in the sand, on canvas, on their bodies. Some of them make videos, and some of them write poetry. They're pretty much like everyone.
posted on May 1, 2005 - View this thread

Melbourne artist Polixeni Papapetrou takes photographs of her daughter that are inspired by Lewis Carroll. For the same reasons. [Links SFW but be careful clicking around]
posted on Feb 10, 2005 - View this thread

Neurocam. A billboard appears near a Melbourne freeway entrance inviting people to "Get out of their mind". "Those who follow the instructions on the neurocam website are assigned missions, with the threat of grave consequences should these tasks not be carried out. Individuals prove their mettle by completing progressively more complex, riskier assignments - possibly of questionable legality." from the Age article linked below. Is it an art project, a cult, a marketing ploy, a game or a psychological experiment? Neurocam says none of these. Melbourne's Age newspaper investigates (free reg sometimes req'd). You can also read some blogs from participants here and here. Plus it seems to have something to do with this place dealing in Human Possibility(TM), which makes as little sense as the rest of it. I'm such a cynic, I still think it is marketing something, but it is fairly extreme.
posted on Dec 18, 2004 - View this thread

Outdoor Sculptures from Australia. This is a great collection of evocative outdoor sculptures from Australia. The setting is not bad, too. Outdoor art is very well supported in my city (sorry- no images). Is it a big deal where you live?
posted on Nov 21, 2002 - View this thread

A purely Australian art form.
posted on Oct 7, 2000 - View this thread