Curators: George Petelin and Michael Milburn
Cockroaches and non-vermin alike had a most enjoyable evening at the opening of Nature and Technology. However, many questions came to mind, for example: How did the event come to be at Sanctuary Cove? Was it intended as a political, or marketing exercise for dealers and developers? And why had paintings been interspersed with video art? Were the videos there to provide the avant-garde touch?
The exhibition eventuated due to the invitation of Sanctuary Cove organisers, with galleries being invited to submit work as part of the opening celebrations. Nature and Technology was a curatorial experiment and was not originally intended as a marketing exercise for dealers, as not a price tag was in sight. One of the main concerns of George Petelin was to promote video art to a conservative segment of the public, who are unused to accepting technology as art. In order to achieve this he aimed to present traditional art (paintings) and technological art by setting up a polemic.
For this reason the two art forms did not sit easily together. George Petelin aimed to offer both forms of art without value judgments. He was also interested in breaking down the barriers between painting and technological art.
Interestingly, the technological art forms often reflected nature and life ("Randelli", Adam Wolter, Tim Gruchy and Virginia Barratt) while some paintings (Chris Hodges, Mandy Martin) reflected the impact of mass media and technology.
One must keep in mind that there are enormous difficulties in setting up technological art forms in a tent, as was the case here. There is also the problem of presenting video art to a previously unexposed audience where patience and time are required to absorb
Randelli, Fauna Fashion, 1987
