It is often said that we live in an era of post-production, of just-in-time labour practices in which the raw materialism of an industrial era is superseded by the immaterial and affiliative labours of the entrepreneur and the consumer. We need only turn to the concurrent worlds of a multinational corporation’s sweatshops, like Apple’s subsidiary […]

In ‘The Artistic Mode of Revolution: From Gentrification to Occupation’, an article published in the March edition of e-flux journal about the relation between ‘creatives’ — artists, art writers, curators, artisanal brewers, bakers, and baristas (who have the social capital in Melbourne that philosophers have in France) — and the protests of the Occupy movement, […]

Crisis ComplexHeidi Axelsen & Hugo Moline, Ella Barclay, Carla Cescon, Edgar Cobián, Tony Garifalakis, Francesca Heinz, Lise Hovesen & Javier Rodriguez, Adam Norton, Joaquin Segura, Takayuki Yamamoto, theweathergroup_UCurated by Laura McLean & Sumugan SivanesanTin Sheds Gallery, The University of SydneySeptember 14 – October 13, 2012 Against a backdrop of economic downturn, political misfeasance, natural disaster, […]

Scanning the landscape of local contemporary art practices, the body in motion presents itself in a variety of different guises. As a doing-body that negotiates space in Bianca Hester’s constructed environments; a choreographed dancer’s body in Sriwhana Spong’s videos and collages; and a medium — literally, a communication vessel — in Adelle Mills’ short, edited […]

1 The cult of the dead was not alien to them, nor a certain respect for those who were absent. It seemed these people with their Slavic faces, fresh and cruel, slept in a photographer’s prayer-room.[^1] I’m where the light is black-orange. The city is known for its lack of Soviet infrastructure and staunch and […]

Atlanta EkeMonster BodyDancehouse as part of the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne21 May – 27 May 2012 Before entering the theatre at Dancehouse for Monster Body, the Next Wave audience is given a caution: this show contains nudity and is not suitable for people under eighteen years. Walking in, we are immediately confronted by choreographer and […]

‘There is no such thing as society’[^1] Margaret Thatcher As I begin ticking the boxes on the ‘fax transaction’ of Estonian-based entrepreneurial collective Visible Solutions, the deadpan sincerity of this Limited Liability Company’s contact form seems deliberately reminiscent of any stock-standard interaction with a capitalist liberal state authority. Such impersonal and dogmatic interactions were adopted […]

Michelle SakarisMonument to the 8-hour dayScreen Space, Melbourne26 July – 11 August 2012 In her latest video work, Monument to the 8-Hour Day 2012, Michelle Sakaris muses on the place of time in contemporary society. Her eponymous subject was the Eight Hour Movement Monument in Melbourne, which commemorates the introduction of the eight-hour working day. […]

On Saturday 4 June 2011, Sarah Rodigari departed Melbourne for Sydney on foot. Titled Strategies for Leaving and Returning Home 2011, the walk served multiple purposes: Rodigari relocating back to the city she had left ten years earlier; as relief from growing fatigue with the polemics of her own art practice (in other words, her […]

Social class (or simply ‘class’) is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centred on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories. — Jimmy Wales Just as I was considering it possible that the existence of the three-tiered class system I was […]

Michael StevensonNueva Matemática Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City26 August – 18 November 2012A Life of Crudity, Vulgarity, and BlindnessPortikus, Frankfurt am Main29 September – 2 December 2012 Flying into Mexico City’s Benito Juarez airport, the city is resplendent in its massive, sprawling entirety. It resembles nothing more than a tide, a swollen flood of […]

David M ThomasParty Disguised as Work or Work Disguised as a PartyBoxcopy, Brisbane7–28 July 2012 David M Thomas’ recent exhibition Party Disguised as Work or Work Disguised as a Party at Boxcopy in Brisbane presented an exhibition where art is neither all work nor all play. As an artist who works with a variety of […]

I came across Karmelo Bermejo’s work through an offhand photograph of a scuffed Nilfisk vacuum cleaner in an otherwise slick art magazine, captioned: Internal Component of the Vacuum Cleaner of an Art Centre Director Replaced by a Solid Gold Replica with the Funds of the Centre He Directs 2010. Intrigued, I sent Karmelo an email […]

Jake WalkerPaintings and ReliefStudio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne13 July – 18 August 2012Painting and ReliefUtopian Slumps, Melbourne18 July – 18 August 2012 The titles of Jake Walker’s two solo exhibitions in July this year were homonymic descriptions. Paintings and Relief at Utopian Slumps presented a suite of nine paintings and an assortment of ceramic pieces […]

Catherine or Kate is a double act comprising Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft. The duo define their artworks in terms of winning and losing, and play out the division of labour in an artistic practice that employs video, performance, photography and sculpture. Catherine or Kate utilise combative and comparative processes, which challenge notions of artistic […]

Steven RendallTelevision ProjectThe Substation, Newport26 July – 19 August 2012 An enormous painting of a retail television showroom formed the physical and conceptual centre of Television Project, Stephen Rendall’s recent exhibition at The Substation. The painting was initially sketched with blank white spaces on each of the represented television screens. An image of this partial […]

John NixonJohn Nixon: Paintings and Drawings 1979–1993KalimanRawlins7–28 July 2012 John Nixon: Paintings and Drawings 1979–1993, held in July at KalimanRawlins gallery in South Yarra, provided an important opportunity for many — especially the younger generation of artists, curators and critics for whom Nixon is something of a cult figure in the Melbourne scene — to […]

Max CreasyMaking MarksWest Space24 August – 15 September 2012 Looking at Max Creasy’s photographs at West Space, I am confused. The room sheet tells me that they are C-type photographs, but my eye suggests something else. The subjects of the images — highlighters, markers, pencils and pens — are depicted in a manner that is […]

Whilst taking part in an MFA seminar discussion regarding Jacques Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster and using it as a model to understand an audience’s reception and production of an art experience — my thoughts became very literal.[^1] Could I have admitted to my 2002 Year-Eight metalwork class that I lacked oxy-acetylene welding experience and that […]

Kosuke IkedaMelbourne Art-Power PlantRMIT Project Space20 July – 16 August 2012 Although at first glance Kosuke Ikeda’s Melbourne Art Power Plant may have looked like a room filled with boys’ toys, it was more like an alternate space for evoking a quiet revolution in the way we think about dirty energy. The exhibition was a […]

Vivienne BinnsVivienne Binns: Art and LifeCurated by Dr Penny PeckhamLatrobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne2 July – 24 August 2012 Some exhibitions allow you to realise that there are gaps in the discourse we conduct about contemporary art. In the introduction to the catalogue published to accompany the exhibition Vivienne Binns: Art & Life at […]

Katherine RileyPanpsychic Household SolutionsResidential locations throughout Melbourne Panpsychic Household Solutions is a project by Melbourne artist Katherine Riley, where her services as a ‘house cleaner’ are offered free of charge to willing participants. This offer, initially made in emails to friends, family and acquaintances and later publicised through social media and The Thousands, became so […]