January 29, 2008
Last week I spent some time browsing through the new Dictionary of Australian Artists Online (DAAO). This contains almost 7,000 biographies of Australian artists. The foundation data is drawn from existing print sources but work is already under way to add new entries. Sixteen indigenous potters are represented, reflecting the research interests of the editor-in-chief, Vivien Johnson. Apart from these, Angela Valamanesh and Peter Travis are the only contemporary potters who yet have entries. Valamanesh is there mainly because of her installation work and Travis because of his work as a designer.
DAAO is still a very young service with a forward-thinking publication model. Anyone can register as a contributor and start creating entries or adding parallel entries to flesh out the historical record. I’ve been thinking about how the daunting task of building up a body of entries for Australian potters might be achieved. Unless this is done, their representation in a resource aiming to “reflect the entire landscape and history of artistic production in Australia” may lean towards potters who ‘cross over’ through sculptural or installation work or go on to work in other media.
January 30, 2008 at 4:28 pm
The ceramic artists of Australia are more than welcome to submit their biographies to the DAAO. Note there is nothing to stop an artist submitting their own biography - providing it meets the Contributors Guidelines.
The reason there are so many Indigenous contemporary potters on the DAAO is the fine work that Tess Allas, Research Officer of the Storylines project, has been doing to collect biographies of Indigenous artists from outside the Centre and Top End. Search for ‘Storylines’ in the ‘Source’ field of DAAO’s Advanced search to locate more of her work.