The two shows at Curtin, 'Dis.location: discovery in the out of place' and 'Water Medicine' invite comparison in terms of the styles of curatorial practice which lie behind them.

The first, Dis.location, has been curated by Kate Hamersley from the Curtin University Art Collection. I have visited several shows there now featuring works drawn from this collection, and continue to be impressed by its scope and the vision which has informed the acquisitions made.  Clearly Kate, who is a Curatorial Assistant there, knows the collection intimately and has made her choices from amongst the prints and drawings with both a loving and informed eye.  It is also presented beautifully, so although the exhibition features many works placed close together, each piece is allowed to speak and the gallery is not crowded.

Mostly black and white, a close contemplation, visual and cerebral communication between artists and audience is invited. I want to return and pore over the works in this one. It is an exhibition quietly studded with gems and it works for me, a bit like a series of conversations set to restrained music.

"Water Medicine" has a very different feel.  It's a group show again but created by the curator's choice of invited artists, rather than a process of selection from existing discrete works. I couldn't see a creative rationale connecting either the artists chosen, or their work - yet I suspect of all people I am supposed to. I don't think the placement of objects, nor their distribution throughout the space of the two rooms allocated, works to create either conceptual or visual cohesion.

Individually there are some interesting objects, with multiple references and beautifully made - the black glass hot water bottles for example, and those brooding dark cloths, and some of the glass constructions - but many of the pieces are unresolved either conceptually or technically.  By the latter I do not mean they are not well made, just that the solutions chosen to present the concepts contained, fall short of the conceptual promise indicated. The tear collecting device is one clear example of this. And whilst I love Adrian Jones's huge, mad and roaring piece - what is it doing amidst the precious objects which surround it in the tiny room. Or was this discontinuity the curator's intent?

I understand that there is a geographic metaphor operating here and a developmental device - a bit like the Bush Telegraph, where each person in the chain embroiders a basic story transmitted orally - as background to the "Water Medicine" of the title, but the show does not work for me as a whole.  It remains an odd assortment of disparate 'crafted' objects, and I feel neither 'healed' nor particularly enlightened by this viewing experience (but then, I didn't read the catalogue).  I couldn't help thinking it is a series of ads or preview trailers before the main movie.  But if so, then where is the movie?

In the context of the Curtin Gallery, we have a choice of Australian history and politics (including War) to the left viz the permanent tribute to Prime Minister John Curtin or, on the right, the graphic arts of Drawing and Printmaking.  C'mon Curator Kevin Murray!  I don't feel that the rights of the artists, and certainly few of the works, are given much respect in "Water Medicine", even though the curatorial poetics are interesting.  Sorry folks!