People who say that there is no such thing as bad art are lying. LOOK takes an objective view of the subjective world and, with a free drink in our hand, guides you through Melbourne's best galleries and art exhibitions. From institutions to artist-run initiatives, installation to illustration, photography to painting, LOOK is an ongoing document of Melbourne's ever engaging and growing arts culture.
Ricky Swallow's sculptures address fundamental issues that lie at the core of who we are. Things have lives. We are our things. We are things. It is our things - our material possessions - that outlive us. Anyone who has lost a family member or close friend knows this: what we have once that person is gone are the possessions that formed a life, and memories.
I lost a rabbit recently. On Monday the 27th of July, Prince Michael III made a run for it when I had my back turned. It has been particularly heart-wrenching in that his haste for escape coincided with my break up and also finishing the Harry Potter series. But that's neither here nor there.
Interestingly, it was only three days previous to Prince Michael's decampment that Julia and I were joking about whether or not, upon Prince Michael's death, he should be taxidermied holding a fishing rod, a shot gun, or wearing lingerie.
When it comes to art, it's easy to feel isolated down under. Everything edgy and new in art/music etc seems to sharpen its edge elsewhere. Also it seems we're never really validated until we get some sort of overseas (usually American) endorsement. Not only that but theatre (outside of the broadway musical version) is often seen as the drier intellectual cousin of music, film, visual art and dance.
Sequels might have a bad reputation: sloppy seconds, double dipping, Teen Wolf Too. But The Drawing Machine II, jointly curated by Ghostpatrol and Miso, is hitting it again at Greenwood Gallery no matter what people say. The last show was amazing, but this one going to be a big step sideways and a massiver step up.
It's Remembrance Day - the day the world remembers the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. But the senseless deaths of millions of young people from 1914 to 1918 (and in subsequent wars) were not in vain. For now we, their privileged descendants, can enjoy videos of skilled cats, dancing kids, absurdly orgasmic guitar shredmeisters, the humiliation of the obese, and news broadcasts gone horribly wrong.
ThreeThousand's all time favourite artist of all time, Tony Garifalakis, is launching a new show at Uplands this Friday! It looks a bit different to his last one (Infinity Land at Hell Gallery, which had the Summer of Sam alsation wall frieze and the inverted tinsel crucifix and the Manson candles).
Super heroes are a dark, twisted lot. The blessing of their powers is also a curse, forever alienating them from the rest of Earth and opening up a world of moral ambiguity unknown to us mere mortals. I never would have thought as much when I was six, playing Superman for hours on end, lost in the dizzy fantasy of being able to fly, do whatever I want and return home to an ice palace.
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