Non-fiction

A page of recent reviews, travel and other non-fiction.

	Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial until 10 September 2017 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. This major exhibition surveys the contemporary practice of 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, responding to the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum.
Archibald and serendipity Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize, 2017 Art Gallery of NSW – $18 adult, $16 concession, $14 members 29 Jul – 22 Oct 2017 and then to regional centres. Now in its 96th year, the $100,000 Archibald Prize for the ‘best’ portrait painting has been settled.
Review – Hotel Coolgardie Fresh off the plane and in need of money, two Finnish backpackers – Steph and Lina – find themselves the latest batch of “fresh meat” sent to work as barmaids at a pub in a remote Australian mining town.
Protection is the new film from the team at Beyond Empathy who brought you the award-winning Rites of Passage. It’s a four-year collaboration with a new generation of children and their families many of whom live in public housing in the Illawarra in NSW.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 is an annual competition to promote the ‘very best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers.’

Viewing mind-altering art (Guernica, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain) Alain de Botton in The Art of Travel (Penguin, 2003) has a chapter on mind-altering art. He uses the example of Vincent van Gogh’s time in Provence to show how great art can help us come to see things differently.
Exotica (2) Maison de la Photographie, Marrakesh This three-storey white riad exhibits a rotating exhibition of black and white prints drawn from the owner’s collection of over 10,000 photos and other materials taken from 1870 through to the 1960s.
Exotica (1): Jardin Majorelle and Berber Museum, Marrakesh . Step from the intensity of Marrakesh street life with construction and commerce and shouted conversations and scooters everywhere – into bamboo quietness and birdsong.
The Hammam, Essaouira Morocco. A thin Muslim man, grey hair under a white skull cap, blue jacket and a pair of leather sandals.
The Mezquita Mosque Cathedral, Córdoba, Spain. What’s in a name? This building has been variously called mosque, cathedral, the great mosque of Córdoba, and the Catholic Cathedral of our Lady of the Assumption.