Working Together ( to the Tune Of ...)

The exhibition/ curatorial partnership between Jonathan Holmes and Paul Zika provides a working model for collaborative research and the integration of theory and studio practice. In the era of ERA, when it is even more critical to be strategic in research focus and in the evolution of staff cluster partnerships, here are some productive models producing measureable outcomes; importantly research which utilizes and celebrates complimentarity. This paper will specifically track two particular sequences and their multiple outcomes. The first explores issues of Landscape and Place (Landscape some interpretations of, 1981; Painting Tasmanian Landscape, 2000; Looking South, 2005; Senses of Place: Art in Tasmania, 1970-2005, 2006) segueing into a pending ARC Linkage application Like No Place On Earth: The Artistic Envisioning of Antarctica, 2009, with the involvement of Detached & AGNSW plus Malpas, Leane, Gibson, Clive and Bond. The second stream interrogates specific cultural and historical influences on an individual artist s practice (Zika s Italian Residency/Out of Italy/Rediscovery, 1989-92; A Life of Blank works by Imants Tillers, 1992; Holmes ARC funded research on the Australia Council International Studio Residency program, 1998 2000, (and subsequent quartet of Plimsoll exhibitions - Barcelona, Paris, London and Tokyo, 2003 - 7) segueing through to the major ARC Linkage grant between UTAS and TMAG, with its resultant four solo exhibitions (Binns, Hobba, Ferran and Hickey) plus four satellite Plimsoll group exhibitions) 2002-8.