November 09

Penny Byrne

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The world’s political landscape right now is so munted that some artists are really getting angry and it’s coming out in their work. As Penny Byrne began addressing the audience that had gathered for the unveiling of her latest show Etonnez-moi at Fehily Contemporary, a Police siren sounded, as if on cue. It added a certain […]

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November 05

The Instrument Builders Project

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If the Arts were funded nearly as well as Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate, we wouldn’t be getting ourselves into Diplomatic shizzle like we did in 2013, when Edward Snowden leaked that Australia had been behaving very badly indeed. Sadly, Australia (not yours and mine, some other secret sneaky arsehole’s version) was spying on our  neighbour […]

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October 28

Nathaniel Mellors Speaks Good

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Artists talking about their works make me nervous. It’s mostly Bill Viola’s fault. Bill talked some years back at the RMIT and it was so dull, that some clown stood up and as he stormed toward the nearest exit, yelled exacerbatedly: “Where can I get my money back?!” (Bill’s talk cost money). It was the […]

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October 19

Opening Night: Jean Paul Gaultier

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Fashion is more popular than Art. When Alexander McQueen had a show at the Met a couple of years back, it ranked in the top five best attended shows there EVER. More than a million people viewed the spectacle. Art is very different to fashion. Though some artists become so fashionable that they go out […]

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October 18

Jean Paul Gaultier Media Call

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I had so much fun at the Jean Paul Gaultier Media Call on Thursday morning that I took 267 photos. The legend was there. Jean Paul Gaultier took to the stage, grabbing the microphone with a bubbling and effervescent charm and transfixing the worn and weary media contingent with his enthusiasm for a life of design. […]

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October 13

Framed Movements

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The Melbourne Festival Show at ACCA Framed Movements, curated by Hannah Matthews, opened on Thursday night. Lane Cormick presented a startling new work from the ‘Is it Art or is it Animal Cruelty’ genre, involving a live falcon, hood, perch, a circle of onlookers and witchypoo masking tape stuck to the ground. The crowd seemed […]

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October 09

Booby Trap: The Perils of Commemorative War Art

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I’ve been thinking a lot about war lately, because of the Australian government. Not only do they fund wars, they fund art about war too. They’ve set aside a wad of cash to commemorate 100 Years of Anzac spirit with the Anzac Centenary Arts and Culture Fund. I am concerned that well funded commemorative war […]

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September 13

Clickbait

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I love social photography. I really should wear my glasses when I do the social photography but I don’t, because I’m vain and they make me look old. I’m so long-sighted, I can’t even see the shot in the replay screen of my camera unless I hold my arm right the way out. So I […]

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September 05

CCP Annual Fundraiser

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Rupert Myer admitted that he’d been given a very specific brief for his welcoming address: whip the crowd into a philanthropic frenzy of mayhem art buying, creating a fever of constant cash register bleeping and Eftpos machine blooping, penetrating the chatter round the Calendar cheese table. There was barely a dollar of credit left on […]

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August 20

Spring 1883

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The last time I ended up in a hotel room with an art dealer, I came very close to being curated. It was touch and go…. A group of young renegade galleries has broken away from the Melbourne Art Fair, opting to host their own boutique art fair at nearby landmark, the Windsor Hotel. Spread […]

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