It seems as though we are all creative now. The University hosts an event after the Christchurch terror attacks. The speaker offers ‘creative solutions’ to violence. My mind swivels. What does that even mean? A wry smile from across the table: yarn bombing? Let’s give that one a miss, eh? This article is a bit […]

In the first of a two-part series, Sophie Rose chats with Utility, an ongoing collaboration between sound artists Austin Buckett and Thomas Smith. Describing the project as a shared fascination with the ‘existing constellation of fake and real sounds’, Smith and Buckett draw from the seemingly-infinite library of presets in electronic music production. Situated somewhere […]

APOCRYPHILIA was at The Northern Centre For Contemporary Art, Darwin, until 30 March 2019. This interview took place on Larrakia Country. We acknowledge the Larrakia People as the Traditional Owners of the Darwin region and pay our respects to Larrakia Elders past, present and becoming. Beth Caird: Could you tell me about your upbringing in […]

Choreographer: Atlanta Eke Performers: Atlanta Eke, Ivey Wawn, Annabelle Balharry, Ellen Davies Music: Daniel Jenatsch It’s 1789 and 577 deputies of The Third Estate arrive at Versailles to find that their access to the Menus Plaisirs hall has been suspended. Though standing as representatives of all French citizens not granted membership to the first two […]

The heavy smell of earth greets us as we enter Abbotsford Convent’s recently opened Magdalen Laundries for Jill Orr’s performance of Dark Night for Dance Massive 2019. Carrying a heavy history of their own — once used as an asylum to ‘rehabilitate’ young girls and women — the walls of the laundries are caked with […]

An orchid edges its leaves up through the layers of peat moss, bark, nutrient rich soil, to take its first breaths in the fragrant air of the farm. Or, an orchid raises its first leaves up through the display screen, pushing through streams of data into pungent technicolour downloads. At AIRspace Projects, an orchid breathes […]

Under the canopy of a suspended length of silk, blankets, pillows and bundles are laid out, ready to cushion bodies that might be in need of rest. Pieces of cloth dyed shades of brown, bronze and orange, are stitched, knotted and folded to become bedclothes and soft furnishings — some carry imprints of leaves from […]

Artists: Hans Baldung Grien, Monika Behrens and Rochelle Haley, Naomi Blacklock, Eric Bridgeman, Giovanni Bendetto Castiglione, Albrecht Dürer, Mikala Dwyer, Emily Hunt, Clare Milledge, Judith Wright Witchcraft is in. From Lorde to YouTube sage-burning tutorials, Wicca and ritual have found a new home in contemporary culture, especially within online communities. Five decades ago, second-wave feminist […]

Between Schadenfreude and Saudade On 29 September 2000, the late Aníbal López, also known by his Guatemalan ID number A-1 53167, undertook a ‘mugging action’ for which he robbed a person of middle-class appearance at gunpoint. He used the stolen 874.35 quetzales (equivalent at the time to US$115) to fund an exhibition at Contexto, a […]

This essay was written as part of a residency at Art Works’ Minor Works Building in Adelaide from April-August 2018. ART WORKS is an initiative delivered by Guildhouse in partnership with the City of Adelaide at the Minor Works Building. To participate in an understanding of collaboration that has appeared within this site, and of […]

Co-curated by Nancy Mauro-Flude & Tom Penney, VVitchVVavve was a Post-Digital Exhibition and Symposium hosted by RMIT University Digital Media at Siteworks, Brunswick, on 8 December 2018. Artists: Kate Geck, Patrick Hase, Mohamed Chamas, Kim D’Amazing, Tom Penney, J. Rosenbaum, Tim Dwyer, Ben Byrne and Denby Smith Guests: Theo Trian (LA), Florian Cramer (DE/NL), Angie […]

There was a moment in the rush of my job interview at Otago, where I looked down from the top floor of the Richardson building and texted my sister a photo: ‘it looks like toy town’. A careless observation from someone who thought they’d put away toys once they’d picked up something else (a job; […]

There’s a thing we, us humans, do. An authority we parade. An intricate and multi-layered authority that is assembled (just as a book may be compiled in a factory, or a village). The process is mostly unrecognisable but we really believe in it, take it as hadith. We mine history, nature, and space for knowledge. […]

Two poles protrude from the first-floor windows of Sarah Scout Presents. A long thin pennant flag hangs from each: HOUSE and WORK, their appliquéd letters read. The words are turned inwards to face each other like a double-page spread. Or two bodies in conversation. From outside these flags blend into the signage of Collins Street: […]

I heard a story on the radio the other day about a man who had had a medical device, a pump, implanted under his skin. After some time the pump broke and began beeping to indicate its malfunction. The device was not removed and the man lived with the beep beep beep for years. I […]

In a context of extreme political turns, climate catastrophe and renewed militouristic exploitation of lands and waters first known in kinship by First Nations across the Great Ocean, a number of works presented in the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9) at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) provide […]

Over the course of their art practices, Brent Harris and John Meade have each worked to develop an idiosyncratic visual language that resists the linguistic framing of much artistic practice. The artists’ work is not embedded in rote learnt cultural theory – rather, it speaks with a knowing, reflexive quality expressed through graphic forms, historical […]

Artists: John Akomfrah (Ghana/UK), Fernando Arias (Colombia), Regina José Galindo (Guatemala), Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola), Runo Lagomarsino (Sweden/Brazil), Sarah Munro (Aotearoa, NZ), Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria/Belgium), Siliga David Setoga (Aotearoa, NZ), Jasmine Togo-Brisby (Australia/Aotearoa, NZ), Jian Jun Xi (China) Curator: Gabriela Salgado Under what conditions does the Global South become relevant? Originally conceived to replace and […]

Homesickness, but there’s no home to go to. On this overcast Sunday evening I recall curator Jeff Khan’s phrase from an artist’s panel the previous day. His throwaway line lingers, as if he said it directly to me. Do I still have a home? If so, where is it? It’s the final night of Khan’s […]

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) is an annual exhibition held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) since 1984. Comprised of emerging and established artists, the exhibition is developed from an open call-out, this year selected by a panel of three curators: Clothilde Bullen, Hetti Perkins […]

Recently I went to see Carly Fischer’s I feel the earth move under my feet (2018) in the group show Groundwork at Maribyrnong’s Living Museum of the West Visitor Centre. The Museum of the West is a small social history museum, run by dedicated amateurs devoted to Maribyrnong’s past, first as a place where armaments […]

Curator Tirdad Zolghadr once remarked that if you are working class in the arts you feel inadequate, and if you are middle class you feel embarrassed.[^1] Provocateur that he is, Zolghadr’s passing comment hits a nerve. Why is class so hard to talk about? Why is it that with such a sophisticated vocabulary on racial […]

SORRY FOR BEING GRUMPY Standing alone in Te Puno O Waiwhetū (Christchurch Art Gallery), I snapped this detail from Marie Shannon’s work and sent it somebody (text accompaniment: ‘NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL: art’). It was meant to be a kind of witty apology – stealing someone else’s words to make light of the kind […]

Artists: Natalie Ball (Modoc, Klamath, Black), Hannah Brontë (Yaegel), Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv, Klahoose), Chantal Fraser (Sāmoa), Lisa Hilli (Gunantuna), Carol McGregor (Wathaurung, Scottish), Ahilapalapa Rands (Kanaka Maoli, iTaukei Viti, Pākehā), and T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss (Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh, Stó:lō, Irish, Métis, Kanaka Maoli, Swiss) Curators: Freja Carmichael (Quandamooka), Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern […]