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Blaze, a feature-length movie by Del Kathryn Barton
· By John Dunn
A courageous performance by Julia Savage in Del Kathryn Barton's 'Blaze'. 12-year-old Blaze witnesses a brutal sexual assault that leads to her own crisis framed by fear and powerlessness. Alone in her bedroom, Blaze is rescued by her own imagination, bringing to life an inner self, a fantastic dragon and an entire army to stand behind her. Puppetry and stop-motion animation combine with live action to take us into a world that is both Blaze's and Del's, fantasy and reality, and a celebration of the power of the imagination. Premiered at the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, Blaze is a major...
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Skywhale family and Know My Name exhibition at the National Gallery
· By John Dunn
Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhale family of hot-air balloons is about to launch during the National Gallery of Australia exhibition Know My Name. Patricia Piccinini captured international attention when she exhibited another family, her Young Family which caused a sensation at the Venice Biennale. Her entire body of work before Skywhale is presented in the only book available on her practice. Patricia Piccinini: Nearly Beloved provides an insightful and engaging journey through her major art series. Patricia Piccinini: Nearly Beloved is reduced to $49.95 to celebrate the launch of the Skywhale family and the Know My Name exhibition. Available for purchase: Patricia Piccinini: Nearly Beloved
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William Robinson exhibition opens
· By John Dunn
William Robinson is recognised as one of Australia’s most important contemporary landscape painters, celebrated in particular for his original and powerful approaches to depicting the Australian environment through a multi-dimensional viewpoint. William Robinson: Genesis explores the rich experimental spirit and mastery of Robinson’s works on paper to show that rather than being a minor interest, Robinson has produced hundreds of works in watercolour, graphite, gouache, and ink, as well as lithographs and etchings, created both as studies related to paintings and as independent works. The exhibition brings together a selection of works on paper alongside larger paintings, allowing the viewer...
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Bronwyn Oliver: On the outside looking in
· By John Dunn
By Kip Williams An edited transcript of a speech given by Kip Williams at the launch of Hannah Fink’s book Brownyn Oliver: Strange Things, published by Piper Press, at Carthona, the home of Roslyn and Tony Oxley, on 14 October 2017. .................................................................................... It is my pleasure to be here today to talk about Bronwyn’s incredible body of work and her remarkable life, a life that Hannah has captured so beautifully in this book. As Hannah conveys, it is hard to separate the life and work of Bronwyn from one another, so deeply interlinked they are. It is one of Bronwyn’s...
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Sirius launched by Clover Moore
· By John Dunn
Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, officially launched Sirius to a record crowd of supporters. The event was generously supported by Kinokuniya, with Managing Director Kawai-san welcoming guest to the store. Guest included: Jack & Judy Mundey, to whom the book is dedicated. Myra Demetriou, Sirius resident Tao Gofers, Architect of Sirius Alex Greenwich, Member for Sydney Penny Sharpe, Shadow Minister for Heritage Jess Scully, City of Sydney Councillor Phillip Thalis, Architect, City of Sydney Councillor Save Our Sirius members including chairperson Shaun Carter. See more photos of the launch here. Save Our Sirius would like to thank everyone who made the...
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Greg O’Brien on writing about art…
· By John Dunn
I wish I could say that my origins as a non-fiction writer lay in a childhood devoted to telling only the truth. However, my earlier self is remembered more for making things up, doodling, for an imaginative excess. I fell into non-fiction, headlong and unintentionally—and this, briefly, is how it happened. I began as a poet and book-illustrator. Among my first published illustrations, mid-1980s, was a suite of charcoal drawings to accompany an excerpt from a soon-to-published book called BEING PAKEHA, written by Michael King, with whom I discussed the assignment in the offices of New Outlook magazine, Auckland.