Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre in association with The Art Gallery of South Australia
Reviewed Friday 14th September 2012
As a special event for the OzAsia Festival this year, the Art Gallery of SA opened its doors after hours for an evening of Asian art, culture, food, and entertainment. The doors opened, tickets were collected and wrists stamped, we were each given a voucher for a complimentary drink, and patrons entered the venue to the sounds of Gamelan Sekar Laras, a group formed nearly thirty years ago. An audience quickly built up around them and they were surrounded by an ever changing group of fascinated onlookers for the whole evening.
Balinese traditional dancer, Putu Suta, also drew large crowds for his two performances, which were filled with grace and executed with great precision. The biggest crowd of the evening, though, was for the shadow puppetry of Joko Susilo. Accompanied by the Gamelan orchestra he told a tradition story, adding vocals to his puppetry, intriguing a large group of people of all ages, particularly enthralling the children who attended.
With a 6pm start many had not found time for a meal before arriving, but that was foreseen and a wide selection of Indonesian food was on offer, adding to the whole cultural immersion aspect of the evening, and the bar remained open all night, too, with a good selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages available to accompany the meals.
All of this, however, was only a part of the event, as the Asian Art exhibitions were open for viewing at the same time, and it was here that there was a constant stream of people taking advantage of the opportunity to look at the remarkable work on display, covering many centuries of Asian culture. There was so much to see, spread over several rooms, from small pieces, such as a pair of sake warmers and a beautifully decorated sake cup, to very large pieces, such as a pair of temple guardians and a magnificently carved dragon cabinet.
Calligraphy was included, and there was a particularly fine copy of the Qu’ran on display. Not surprisingly, a lot of the art works related to the various religions of Asia, but there are also political works such as those from the Chinese cultural revolution of Mao Zedung, situated not far from works from the Tang Dynasty. There are plenty of works from India, this year’s featured OzAsia country, as well as Burma, Viet Nam and many other countries. This is a diverse and captivating group of exhibits that is ideally linked to the OzAsia Festival. Allow plenty of time when you visit, as there is much to see.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
Venue: Art Gallery of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Season: One night only, but the Asian Art exhibitions continue for some time.
Duration: 3hrs 30mins
More News
