5. Below: Ceremonial skirt cloth (detail), Pontianak, west Kalamintan, Indonesia, 19th century. Embroidery, appliqué, dip-dyeing on silk with sequins and gold thread, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

6. Right: Shoulder cloth, Lasem, Java, late 19th century. Batik with cotton, natural dyes, 0.98 x 2.96m (3'3" x 9'8"). National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

7. Far right: Malay Women Weaving, by Mungarrawuy Yunupingu (190579), northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, 1948. Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

the 17th century until the early 20th century. Sometimes these expeditions took aboriginal people back to Makassar to settle. A work by the artist Munggarrawuy Yunupingu, of Arnhem Land in northeast Australia, painted on card in 1948, depicts a late 19th century visit by the artist’s father to a Makassan village where he saw women making cloth on backstrap looms (7). A number of similar paintings were lent by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, part of whose own significant collection of Southeast Asian textiles is also touring state capitals and regional centres throughout Australia under the banner, ‘Speaking With

OUTLOOK

Cloth’. Coincidentally, the curator of ‘Crescent Moon’, James Bennett, was previously on the staff of the Northern Territory Gallery and is responsible for the thoughtful curatorial approach of both exhibitions. Soon after ‘Crescent Moon’ opened in Adelaide on 10 November 2005, the ever-energetic Bennett organised a well attended symposium during which a number of visiting and local scholars raised questions about the nature of the creation of what Western scholars call ‘art’, and what, if anything, makes art ‘Islamic’.

There were divergent opinions on this and other issues, but all the speakers concluded that the art objects made by the Islamic communities of Southeast Asia represent an active and everchanging cosmopolitan force, and not a mere passive acceptance of visual traditions from elsewhere. Those unable to travel to Adelaide, or to Canberra, where the exhibition will be from late February 2006, can seek out the substantial catalogue containing excellent colour illustrations of many of the woodcarvings, metalwork, carved stonework, textiles and manuscripts included in this ground-breaking exhibition. They are accompanied by an informative tri-lingual English/ Bahasa Indonesian/Malay text in which a number of scholars present different aspects of what Bennett described in his opening address as ‘the landscape’ of this complex and fascinating region’s art, a landscape that is home to a major part of the world’s Muslim population.

Morris and Co., Melbourne Museum, Victoria, 25 November 2005 – 12 February 2006; Crescent Moon: Islamic Art and Civilisation in South East Asia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, 10 November 2005 – 29 January 2006;National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, 24 February – 28 May 2006;Speaking With Cloth, La Trobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Victoria, 18 February – 2 April 2006.Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong, New South Wales, 6 May – 16 July 2006

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