on venus, the winds blow harderthey strip every surface,  the air hostile // on venuswe are neighbours in nerves/ with chemical / with acid.[^1] In a moment defined by climate crisis and worsening inequalities under capitalism, the fantasy of utopia resembles nothing more than a nostalgic vision of the past. In this context, P. Staff’s exhibition On Venus (2019)presents […]

Teik-Kim Pok: I saw this one-liner on the internet — ‘My friend told me she wouldn’t eat beef tongue because it came from a cow’s mouth. So I gave her an egg.’ As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded it was hard to keep up with all the stories of food, both good and bad, that shaped […]

Atlantis Marine Park is an abandoned theme park and the centrepiece of the Yanchep Sun City development. It was built by notorious criminal entrepreneur Alan Bond in the small fishing community of Two Rocks in 1981, sixty-something kilometres north of Boorloo/Perth. Atlantis seems a curious name for a theme park in settler-colonial Australia — for […]

The Socialist Scholars Conference was a gathering of intellectuals, academics, community organisers, religious leaders and a who’s-who of grassroots and celebrity progressives. It happened to be taking place in New York and I was visiting nearby, so I was able to duck in to listen to a long weekend of speakers and panels. I made […]

The coalition emerges out of your recognition that it’s fucked up for you, in the same way that we’ve already recognised that it’s fucked up for us. —Fred Moten Under a Burning White Sky As my experience of social life has become less and less about seeking or gaining approval from outside forces, a burden […]

Micröbius Tract(ion) is designed to be folded into a möbius loop. Holding the print lengthwise, make a loop, then twist it once, so there is one continuous surface. Join the narrow edges together with tape, stickers, glue, clips or pins. This work is the second iteration of its kind produced for Micro-(bial) Tenancies, curated by […]

I remember showing someone my box of poems and they said don’t you have a copy. And I gleamed no. I liked the perversity of the original. I would never lose this. — Eileen Myles, For Now In reality, however, the poet has given concrete form to a very general psychological theme, namely, that there […]

The library and the department store: the house of knowledge and the house of consumption. Upon closer inspection, they are modern temples where the communal ritual of excess expenditure takes place. Such sites have existed, with many different faces and many different names, for as long as the sacred has been practised. In other words, […]

Kenzee Patterson is a settler-colonial descendant whose art practice combines material experimentation with historical research, autobiography and language, motivated by the imperative to confront the ecological and socio-cultural repercussions of resource extraction and material displacement.

Amy Jane Parker is an artist, artist facilitator and disability support worker based in Naarm/Melbourne.

Dear J, I’ve been meaning to follow up on my previous letter for a while now, thinking I knew what I wanted to write but also nervous about the inevitable failures of assigning words; of failing to articulate their incomparability.[^1] In this letter I’d like to think about clinker, a residual geology of metalworking, as […]

What do we do about the extractive industries and their persistent and pervasive presence within the arts industry as sponsors, facilitators and (un)welcome benefactors? There is no easy answer to this question — the arts seem to be reliant upon the financial support of extractive industries, either through direct corporate sponsorship or indirectly, via funds […]

Kenzee Patterson is a settler-colonial descendant whose art practice combines material experimentation with historical research, autobiography and language, motivated by the imperative to confront the ecological and socio-cultural repercussions of resource extraction and material displacement.

As the COVID-19 pandemic caused Australian theatres, music venues, galleries and museums to close, the Federal Government’s response to the ensuing crisis raised the question of whether they view the arts as surplus to the economy. Government stimulus for the sector, both meagre and delayed, is unlikely to hinder the ongoing destruction of careers, infrastructure […]

Talia Smith is an artist and curator from Aotearoa New Zealand and now based in Sydney. She is of Sāmoan, Cook Island and NZ European heritage. Both her visual arts and curatorial practices explores notions of time, memory and familial histories, with a focus on the centring of diverse voices within the wider canon of […]

it’s all a new mythology … for our time … some sort of heroic … and it has created new mythologies and you better take them seriously. Yes they are out there and don’t ignore them — Werner Herzog Disney’s Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian is a model twenty-first century enterprise—an elaborate extraction machine […]

Amy Jane Parker is an artist, artist facilitator and disability support worker based in Naarm/Melbourne.

༼ つ ✿◕‿◕✿༽つ (‿ˠ‿) the BWS is now a BWyaasssssS as in yass queen as in yasssss gay pride as in yass we co-opted this lingo from black queer communities on the other side of the world as in BeerWineSpirits is now a place to drink down some black queer liberation on land stolen that […]

Kenzee Patterson is a settler-colonial descendant whose art practice combines material experimentation with historical research, autobiography and language, motivated by the imperative to confront the ecological and socio-cultural repercussions of resource extraction and material displacement.

Contemporary art is kind of a pyramid scheme: the few artists who make a living making art in this speculative market obscure the vast majority who must do all kinds of other work to pay for food, rent and the art practice itself. I say this not to create an us-versus-them situation between more and […]

With the implementation of lockdowns and social distancing measures last year we witnessed an almost overnight closure of a large part of the Australian arts sector, prompting a widespread call for financial support. These calls for assistance often took a well-trodden road, emphasising the significant contribution that the sector makes to the national economy, as […]

Lucreccia Quintanilla is an artist, writer, DJ and researcher gratefully living and working on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. Her practice is both an individual and collaborative one which manifests into outcomes within galleries and also as events and performances outside of that context. Her […]

If attention was an experiment in living, rather than a deal or a calculation. —Adam Phillips I looked up from the breakfast table to the highest window in the apartment. There, silently, a plane made its way from the left jamb to the right and was gone. It was the first I’d seen flying in […]

Dear E, I read in an article that the letter ‘E’ is what you preferred to be known as towards the end of your life.[^1] I’m accepting this, as I cannot ask you or seek your consent. It’s 2020. I am writing about your famed decision to boycott women in 1971, and a selection of […]