Guo Jian and Ah Xian
Aug 1st
An extraordinary thing happened at the Casula Powerhouse last Friday night. It was the opening night of the new Refugees exhibition, which includes the now Sydney-based Chinese artists Ah Xian and Guo Jian. Cast your mind back to 1989 and the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters by government armed forces. Ah Xian and Guo Jian were both ...
Mike Parr turns blowtorch on global warming
Jun 27th
Anyone at Sydney's Carriageworks at 6pm on Thursday March 17, 2016, would have witnessed an extraordinary event at the centre of which was the well-known experimental artist Mike Parr. In the performance, Parr and several assistants doused petrol on $500,000 worth of Parr's beautiful etchings. Parr, without flinching, then tossed a flame on to the etchings which were ...
Snow Monkey: a review of George Gittoes’ new film at its Sydney premiere
Nov 11th
I’ve just been getting to know some of the street kids in the roughest parts of Jalalabad. This is Afghanistan’s second largest city, and reportedly the most dangerous city on earth. I met wide-eyed, gorgeous little Gul Mina, aged about five, who collects discarded cans in hessian bags and sells them for a few rupees to ...
George Gittoes and the Sydney Peace Prize: an interview from Artwriter’s archives
Nov 8th
The Australian artist George Gittoes will receive the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize on Tuesday November 10, 2015. It's a high accolade that's been won by the likes of Desmond Tutu. Ahead of the Peace Prize ceremony at Sydney Town Hall that day, I wanted to devote a post to Gittoes and his extraordinary body of work. I ...
Yang Zhichao and the Chinese Bible: major new artwork for the Art Gallery of NSW
Jul 8th
Yang Zhichao's artwork, Chinese Bible, on view at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) in Sydney until August 1, 2015, is one of the most extraordinary works of contemporary art I have ever seen. Now it belongs to the Art Gallery of NSW, thanks to its recent gifting by the Sherman family. I saw Chinese Bible at SCAF and interviewed ...
