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Tag: installation

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Anri Sala: The Last Resort

Friday, October 20th, 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Historians can never agree about the so-called “Age of Enlightenment”. The narrow definition has it beginning with the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and ending with the French Revolution in 1789. The long version begins somewhere in the late 1600s and fizzles out in 1815 with Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. As the dates are […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Jonathan Jones: Barrangal Dyara

Thursday, September 22nd, 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Jonathan Jones’s Barrangal Dyara (Skin and Bones) is one of the most ambitious art projects ever seen in this city, and one of the most ephemeral. It acts as a massive aide-memoire to public consciousness, reminding us of what has been buried and forgotten within little more than a century. Yet the physical form of […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Jompet Kuswidananto & Katthy Cavaliere

Thursday, August 25th, 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

“Within the crowd there is equality,” wrote Elias Canetti, in his compelling, eccentric book, Crowds and Power (1960). “All demands for justice and all theories of equality ultimately derive their energy from the actual experience of equality familiar to anyone who has been part of a crowd.” Yet within that feeling of equality generated by […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Telling Tales

Friday, July 1st, 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

At the 1986 Adelaide Festival I attended a couple of evenings with American actor, Spalding Gray, who sat on a bare stage and delivered monologues. It sounds like a recipe for boredom but Gray’s performances were spell-binding – a revelation as to the power of simple, unadulterated story-telling. In tribal cultures the role of story-telling […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

White Rabbit: Heavy Artillery & Cang Xin

Friday, May 20th, 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

There has never been a centralised, authoritarian form of government that encourages diversity. This is why alarm bells should start ringing when our own leaders want to keep centralising power – amalgamating local councils under the leadership of unelected administrators; putting a town’s art gallery, museum and theatre under the jurisdiction of a single “cultural […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Adelaide Biennial 2016

Thursday, March 10th, 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Adelaide has thrown down the gauntlet for this year’s Sydney Biennale with a show that sparkles like a revolving disco ball. I can’t recall an exhibition of contemporary Australian art which has opened with more positive energy than the 2016 Adelaide Biennial: Magic Object. It’s a tour-de-force for the undervalued Australian art scene, and a […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Matthys Gerber

Friday, October 16th, 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

One might imagine there is no need to explain why Matthys Gerber’s survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art is called Matthys Gerber, but curator Natasha Bullock tells us “it is in keeping with Gerber’s belief in the pre-eminence of the artist over art above all other considerations.” (Italics in the original) It’s not exactly […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Aleks Danko and Haines & Hinterding

Saturday, August 29th, 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

There are many exhibitions that must have been fun for the artist but leave viewers in a state of mild perplexity. The Museum of Contemporary Art has two such shows at the moment – shows that can be broadly appreciated, but not loved. Energies, the survey by David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, is almost over, […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Moscow Biennale 2013

Saturday, October 5th, 2013 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Moscow will never be a contender for the title of ‘World’s Most Liveable City’. It is a place where puny human beings are overshadowed by the architectural juggernauts of Church and State. Even the famous Metro – each station an aesthetic marvel – is so deeply embedded in the earth that every train trip feels […]

Sydney Morning Herald Column

Linde Ivimey

Saturday, February 16th, 2013 Sydney Morning Herald Column,

Linde Ivimey is the most conspicuous beneficiary of the Gothic turn that Australian contemporary art has taken over the past few years. A decade ago she was virtually unknown, making a living by sculpting cakes while pursuing sculpture in her spare time. Nowadays her pieces are eagerly sought after by private collectors and public galleries. […]