un Projects is based on the unceded sovereign land and waters of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation; we pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.
un Projects

Natasha Matila-Smith

The quiet need no defence

We were trying to blast this myth that the non-Western Other exists in a time and place that is completely untouched by Western civilization or that in order to be authentic one would have to be devoid of characteristics associated with the West. It’s reasonable to say that non-Western cultures have a better understanding of […]

Ainslee Meredith

Deposits

The archive is built to keep out water. The archive is built on the edge of the floodplain of the Moonee Ponds Creek on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Water is excluded from the archive because of the risks it poses to paper and other organic materials. Mould can germinate […]

Kenzee Patterson

Log somewhat overshadowed by utilitarian roof structure

Beginning in March 2016, I undertook a two-year period of practice-led research as part of a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) research degree at Sydney College of the Arts. The origin of the research project lay in a self-reflexive inquiry into my attraction to working with steel and other metals in my art practice. Through […]

Susie Anderson

beyond rewriting the story achieving Indigenous sovereignty through Virtual Reality

Our knowledge of land as its own technology is second to none. Two hundred and thirty years of adapting as necessary, often as lives depended on it, has seen us turn to other mediums. We used the tools that arrived on boats. Our storytellers use English in literature, cameras in photography, film and many other […]

Julie Gough

The Traveller

Lately I’ve started driving around Tasmania again, making another film. Since 2009 I’ve made twenty-four of them, I can’t stop. Short, long, some seem unwatchable, nevertheless they record and become a record, a counter to so much that seems missing. They are my memory work. Sometimes it is hard to start, to reverse out of […]

Archie Moore

Archie’s Puzzling Pages, 2017 digital images Courtesy the artist & The Commercial Gallery

Simon Zoric

Order Your Pair Of Secret Reveal Decoder Glasses To Discover The True Meaning Of Art Today!2017Courtesy the artist

Joel Stern

The joke that isn’t funny anymore

Experimental music desperately needs a turn to humour, satire, parody and, most of all, reflexivity, if it is to remain listenable. I can almost see this turn taking shape in the form of a long and unfolding joke. But, like any joke, the punchline can only work if you’re alive to the setup. I propose […]

Fresh and Fruity

Did you know that the world is ending?

i wish the earth would j swallow me. Keep on dancing till the world ends. Dreams of the volcanoes in Tāmaki Makaurau violently convulsing. Clasping hands together under the table. Our breath moving in sync. Stripping back the flesh to reveal the whiteness of our bones. Grinding bones into dust. Bone marrow and blood absorbed […]

Spencer Lai

on 2000 (clothing); untitled (Hana and looks), digital collage; untitled (professional poker players, mother of pearl violin brooch), digital collage; untitled (mother’s handmade hair clip, flowers, pink, green), digital photograph; untitled (mustard torture, magazine), synthetic felt and magazine pages; all 2017

Sean Rafferty

Five Queensland Fruit Cartons

Karrabing Film Collective

Growing up Karrabing: a conversation with Gavin Bianamu, Sheree Bianamu, Natasha Lewis Bigfoot, Ethan Jorrock and Elizabeth Povinelli

The Karrabing Film Collective (KAC) is a grassroots arts and film cooperative consisting of friends and family members whose lives interconnect along the coastal waters west of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. Begun in 2008 when members of the extended family found themselves homeless in the wake of deteriorating conditions on their natal […]

Tim Woodward

REPLETION; A SUM, 2017; LATE DINING, 2017

Daniel McKewen

Rise and Fall (I, II, III) 2017 Courtesy the artist & Milani Gallery

Giselle Stanborough and Athena X

RHOS

In the early years of the twenty-first century, a very clever executive producer at Bravo had the multimillion-dollar idea of pairing the character clichés of Desperate Housewives with the consumerist content of MTV Cribs. In 2006, The Real Housewives of Orange County was born. Ratings soared over the late 2000s as The Great Recession ravaged […]

Sarah Werkmeister

What is this? I don’t know: pushing rocks up hills

SW : Can you give us more of a moving description of the video work’s narrative? MC : One of the things to note is that there’s a lot of Nepali text in the film as it was intended to be a Nepali film. Yet there’s only one scene of dialogue; one robot says ‘What […]

Susan Te Kahurangi King

Kalinda Vary

Has anyone seen the Manic Mothers?

un Magazine got in touch with me to see if I’d write a piece on humour for this humorous issue. They asked me because I’m a woman, and I make performance-based work which always seems to have a humorous twist to it, somewhere. For instance, with my West Space show last year, I had people […]

Carrie Miller and Andrew Frost

Art Humour Dialogue

Andrew Frost : Is there ever a wrong time to laugh at an artist’s work? This is a question that has worried me. I suppose the answer is, when the humour isn’t intentional. But it’s a tricky business. I remember going to a few early shows by Guy Benfield and thinking the work was really […]

Kieren Seymour

Puffing Billy 2016; Hospitality 2017; Sale Chocolate 2017; Cat 2016; Iphone 7 ad 2017; Nail gun and Dad 2017; Lauren 2016; Volcano 2016; all digital images

Sarah Rodigari and Ella Sutherland

Actual Hell: Pedagogical Gags and Shaggy Dogs 2014–2017

Malcolm Whittaker, in collaboration with Lucy Parakhina

Dirty Pieces XXXX–YYYY

Aurora Scott

post

Sydney-based performance collective post is Zoë Coombs Marr, Mish Grigor and Natalie Rose. They have been making work together for over ten years. The word that is missing from this podcast — a word mentioned by all interviewees that never made it into the final cut — is ‘daggy’. Through sampling pieces from their archives […]

David Capra and Amelia Winata

Editorial: Laugh now, cry later

David Capra : Amelia, what do you find funny? Amelia Winata : I appreciate humour that reacts against the current politically correct climate we live in. I recently saw this old Asian woman in the spa of the council pool who was wearing yellow plastic glasses frames (no lenses) and a yellow vinyl golfing cap. […]

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