Elizabeth Willis Elizabeth Willis i(A66349 works by)
Gender: Female
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1 y separately published work icon Seize the Day : Exhibitions, Australia and the World Kate Darian-Smith (editor), Richard Gillespie (editor), Caroline Jordan (editor), Elizabeth Willis (editor), Clayton : Monash University Press , 2008 24390649 2008 anthology criticism

'Australians have always loved a good show, as this new collection of essays demonstrates. The significance of exhibitions goes beyond mere entertainment. From the 1850s to the present, exhibitions have been a marketing tool for Australia’s advancements in global trade, migration and tourism. They have also been powerful vehicles for conspicuous consumption, civic progress, social status, and identity – be it local, national or international.

'This multi-disciplinary collection presents new research on a fascinating variety of exhibitions from nineteenth-century World Fairs to late twentieth-century Expos. Contributors are leading museum professionals and academics from a range of disciplines including art history, the history of design, literary studies, indigenous history, cultural and social history and the history of science.

'Seize the Day examines the complex role of exhibitions within Australia’s cultural, commercial and artistic histories. Exhibitions are dynamic sites for the construction of national identities and international collaborations, the showcasing of collecting and exhibiting practices, and the expression and contestation of race and gender. Detailed case studies explore the many facets of exhibitions – from ethnographic display to artistic competition to intercolonial rivalry – to reveal their politics, personalities and astonishingly rich material culture.

'As the first book to address the exhibition movement in Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Seize the Day will become the standard collection on this topic for years to come.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Drawing the New Nation Elizabeth Willis , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: National Library of Australia News , February vol. 12 no. 5 2002; (p. 3-6)
Reviews the preparations in Melbourne for the 9 May 1901 opening of the first Australian Federal Parliament. Examines a range of the graphic designs submitted by artists for use on official invitations and, in particular, discusses the controversy surrounding the design by Tom Carrington which was inspired by Kipling's poem The Young Queen.
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