Visually, the work unfolds like a page from a storybook. Figures appear to stand together, perhaps even holding hands. Boe’s work references the proclamation boards issued by George Arthur, Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania, between 1824 and 1836. His Proclamation to the Aborigines, 1828–30, used pictograms to communicate the idea of equality […]<...

Genuine reflection, the quiet, unresolved, sometimes uncomfortable kind, feels increasingly rare. We are seldom invited to sit with what we do not yet understand. This is where art can still matter; not as decoration, not as therapy, and not as moral instruction; but as a rare site of inwardness. And yet, without inwardness, social / […]

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As the title Westwood | Kawakubo suggests, the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) latest fashion exhibition plays to the idea that these two titans of contemporary design need no qualification. Their names are synonymous with the redefining of fashion over the past fifty years. Born a year apart, Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022) and Rei Kawakubo’s (1942–) […]

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Operating within a commercial framework yet not representing artists, Project8 allows for a greater sense of curatorial freedom, privileging thematic and carefully considered exhibitions over fixed affiliation. The expansive gallery, connected to Art @ Collins and the University of Melbourne, is curated by Kim Donaldson with Jiayang Zhang. Carrying the same title as t...

Ron Mueck’s shockingly alive sculptures hit us at many points along the pathway from birth to death. But it’s more than just mortal decay that concerns him. Mueck is interested in our spiritual life, the spark inside that won’t say die. It’s this soulfulness that drives his work into a struggle zone to understand who and […]

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