Slim Barrie fans will want to make the pilgrimage to see a selection of his work in the context of other Australian and international outsider artists at Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context (previously at MUMA) which opens this Saturday at Campbelltown Arts Centre from 1.00 onwards. Hear Colin Rhodes, Peter Fay, Glenn Barkley and others discuss the work of the fifteen artists selected. Find details, links and bios – here’s some of Slim’s work, and you’ll see some pix of other artists who caught our eye over the next week…

It’s a must-see show, which complements the local and contemporary Australian artists with a great range of historical and international works, and which elevate and challenge the senses. “Without Borders” is a great title, but as you engage the works themselves you can’t help wondering where we place the boundaries around such art – in fact the viewer’s consciousness about how boundaries shift in the act of engagement is one of the factors which makes the experience so reflexive. Like two-way mirrors, looking at this art is an act of reflecting on oneself. Our side of the mirror is loaded with our sense of context, precedent, associations, and potential meanings. Their side cares little about such things, but speaks a language of mystery and wonder, and about using their art to put their world in its place.