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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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. […]

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, […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]