Everything Falls ApartPart I: Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck & Media Farzin, Jem Cohen, Phil Collins, Sarah Goffman, Sarah MorrisPart II: Vernon Ah Kee, Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler, Jem Cohen, Tony Garifalakis, Merata MitaCurated by Blair French and Mark FearyArtspace, SydneyPart I: 27 June – 5 August 2012Part II: 10 August – 16 September 2012 After […]

Uncommon RoomJessie Bullivant, Heidi Holmes, Isabelle Sully and Isadora VaughanCurated by Isabelle SullyRear View, Melbourne5–25 May 2012* These artists have made the job of a reviewer pretty easy. I can think of no better metaphor for their outsized ambitions and inflated egos than the two giant beach balls that dominate the front space at Rear […]

Tony Garifalakis and Tully MooreDenimismWest Space, Melbourne27 July – 18 August 2012 These days anyone can resist, but, in a world of global capital, it’s very difficult not to be unintentionally hypocritical: you sign a petition online, whilst buying shoes made by children in sweatshops, while Occupy protestors fight back against the one per cent […]

There’s materialism and there’s materialism. Some documents.[^1] It’s as though this writer is speaking to and on behalf of a public that thinks not-knowing about Adorno, St John of the Cross, Derrida or Lacan is a responsible ignorance. As though to know that double messages could displace and even replace an image or thing is […]

Pretty Air and Useful ThingsDan Bell, Sanné Mestrom, Alex VivianCurated by Rosemary FordeMonash University Museum of Art, Melbourne19 July – 22 September 2012 In the changing consideration of the artistic ‘object’ beyond it’s physicality alone, many artists and critics have sought to contemporise the practice of sculpture by emphasising its broader social context as being […]

Few artists are independent. Almost all rely on or seek support of some kind. There are, however, certain artists that require particular types of support. In 2010 I became involved in a project called the Supported Studios Network (SSN). The working group that maintains the project consists mostly of artists who work within visual arts […]

Hi Liang, Let’s make the most of this letter-as-trope-for-talking thing that we started. The irony of pitching an issue on work and unprofessionalism hasn’t been lost on us, especially considering that we ambitiously wanted more content, we wanted to know what others thought and if there was something actually to be said. This is why […]

Parallel Universes: 1970–1985 Mike Parr, Bruce Nauman, Keigo Yamamoto, Norio Imai, Joan Jonas, David Perry, Stephen Jones, Bush Video, Nam June Paik, Akira Kurosaki, Shinsuke Ina, Peter Kennedy, John Hughes, Gary Hill, Peter Callas, Bill Viola, Randelli Nobuhiro, Dara Birnbaum, Ko Nakajima Curated by Matthew Perkins, Dr Mark Pennings, Lubi Thomas and Rachael ParsonsThe Block, […]

Brad : So, Chris, let’s talk about anarchy. Or, more precisely: I was wondering if you could tell me about the ways in which anarchist or syndicalist principles inform your practice? Christopher : I’m not approaching it from a hard-line political position, but anarcho-syndicalism is definitely something I align my work with. I’m not a […]

What are these films, what outlandish name distinguishes them from the rest? Do they exist? I have no idea as yet, but I do know that there are certain very rare occasions when, without the aide of a single subtitle, the spectator suddenly understands an unknown tongue, takes part in strange ceremonies, wanders in towns […]

Jacob Ogden SmithHovea Pottery Ale: quite a few bottles, some large pots and a videoOK Gallery, Perth2 August – 2 September 2012 Jacob Ogden Smith’s brew is a fruity dark ale, robust but with a subtle complexity of flavour that reveals itself slowly over the course of sustained consumption. Its faint floral notes are underscored […]

1 It is in the social that painting finds criticality. Painting’s particular set of constraints, its two-dimensionality, its ‘faciality’, its frontal, pictorial flatness, do not detract from this function. Painting by its nature sits apart. In this way it is predisposed to make comment. At the recent Paul Taylor symposium,[^1] someone — I think it […]

Two years ago, the word ‘philanthropy’ would have meant very little to many artists, particularly to those with emergent or experimental practices, however the way that we now think and talk about philanthropy has shifted. A combination of the recent rise of online crowdfunding platforms, high-profile philanthropic donations to public art institutions, such as the […]

Louise MenziesLocal Edition 25.07.12Published by DDMMYY and The Physics Room, ChristchurchProduced and designed by Kelvin Soh with Sam Wieck For a long time, the newspaper has been an icon of mass culture, a patriotic symbol of the mighty modern world and what it is capable of achieving. Today, that is the job of the Internet. […]

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 […]