Australia is far from Europe - a country (continent) surrounded by water. As such. Terra Australia has historically been a place of profound mystery. The huge flat land, extensive seas, sunshine and distinctive animals and plants are characteristic and strange. People have always yearned for it - Australia has been a place of dreams. It is believed that the Chinese 'discovered' Australia first, than came the Dutch, French, Russians and finally the English, who colonized the continent at the end of the 18th. Century. The Commonwealth of Australia was federated in 1901. But what should be remembered is that this history of Australia, as a European dream, is nonetheless relatively recent - given that the Indigenous population has lived on the land for more than 60.000 years. The Commonwealth government (after 1901) attracted many European immigrants to Australia. Slowly Australia became an important destination for migrant populations from Europe. However, because of the existence of a 'white Australia policy', finally abandoned in 1970, it was made much harder for non whites, including Asians, to migrate here.
     After 1970, colored races, especially Asians, started to migrate to Australia. While welcomed by most over the past thirty or so years, migration and the consequent 'multi-culturalism' this engendered, has continued to cause some division in the community - exploited by (in particular) the current government, which began to cut the numbers of

immigrants, especially from Asia, several years ago. Also, there is now punitively tight security surrounding Australia, in order to deter refugees arriving by boat.' However, there are still large number of refugees coming to Australia. The leaky, dangerously overloaded boats still, despite the perils, bring hundreds of refugees from South East Asia - people who dream of participating in a life rich in possibility for themselves and their children. The work I will make has as its conceptual premise, the enormously important social and political issue of migration (so important that the last federal election was won on the strength of an orchestrated 'scare campaign' about the so called weakness of border controls). In Australia recently, the political climate in Australia has changed significantly and once more there is unease about migration and suspicion of 'outsiders'. Our multicultural leanings and history has been compromised. 


Room 1. A Passage to Australia

I will paint many boats on the wall - filled with naked human figures. They can be seen as either migrants or refugees. The boats become a flotilla sailing to the door where the Australian exhibition is on. Pink bodies, brown boats, the little lines surrounding the boats representing water. The figures on the left hand side will represent (with graceful bearing and