Talking through your arts

Carriageworks is host to a major video installation, Thank You For Holding by award winning Sydney based artist, Tina Havelock, who provides insight. We turn the cards with Katy Plummer, who has been commissioned by the City of Sydney’s Cityfor the Art Laneways temporary public art program to create We Are All Astonishingly Wise. It’s an interactive fortune-telling video installation. It’s the 30th Anniversary year for Australia’s largest short-film Festival, Flickerfest and the Festival Director Bronwyn Kidd talks us through the program. We also find out about The Everyone Project, a significant new initiative to help the Australian screen industry companies and organisations track, boost and foster diversity in their screen productions.

The Torch program in Victoria provides art and cultural support to Indigenous offenders and ex-offenders in Victoria. Kent Morris is its founder, a Barkindji artist from NSW, living in Melbourne and one of the 67 finalists in this year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. He sheds light on his art and his work. We point you towards the 67th Sydney Film Festival and we hear on the outcomes of a recent online exhibition mounted in Sydney by Damien Minton.

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Kent Morris of the Torch Program
67 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have been selected to exhibit in this year’s National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. One of the finalists is Barkindji artist from NSW Kent Morris who lives in Melbourne. Morris is also the founder of the Torch Program which provides art, cultural and arts industry support to Indigenous offenders and ex-offenders in Victoria. The program aims to reduce the rate of reoffending by encouraging the exploration of identity and culture through art programs to define new pathways upon release. Kent talks us through, first about his art practice and then we hear about the Torch program and the annual exhibition Confined.

• Kent Morris official website
• Confined exhibition
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards and exhibition

The Covid Shutdown Series
A few weeks ago, arts reporter Chris Virtue spoke to gallery director Damian Minton about an online exhibition: The Covid Shutdown Series; a collection of digital works by four artists especially commissioned by Damian to reflect living in a time of a pandemic. He discusses the implications for the future of galleries.

The Covid Shutdown Series

Sydney Film Festival
For the first time, Sydney Film Festival attendees will be able to buy tickets from around Australia as it goes virtual and national since it began 67 years ago. We hear from Jennifer Neighbour, who has been part of the Festival for more than 30 years. She’s the Head of Programs and Documentary Programs.

Sydney Film Festival 2020

It’s reconciliation week and we walk along with artist and curator Djon Mundine OAM, to discover a little known artwork at the Armoured Casement in Mosman. Three senior Indigenous women artists from East Kimberely share their lifeworld in Connected to the Land, an immersive presentation of work at Cross Art Projects. How to navigate online art sales with Suzanne Derry, Senior Solicitor at Arts Law. See it now; From My Window is an online exhibition of new works by nine artists from NSW for AGNSW.

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Buying and selling art online
Senior Solicitor at Arts Law, Suzanne Derry talks us through some the issues arising from art being bought and sold online. In what we should be aware of and what to be weary of. For legal advice on art sales online contact Arts Law.

Their email address is Artslaw@artslaw.com.au
Web site

Connected to the Land
Connected to the Land comprises works by three senior Indigenous women artists and their younger colleague, artist and curator Angelina Karadada Boona. The exhibition honours the late Mrs. Taylor and Mary Punchi Clement and presents their immersive work with a distinctive armoury of brush marks in a rich, ochre palette. Jo Holder, Director of Cross Art Projects giving us a little insight. Curators: Angelina Karadada Boona in association with Kira Kiro Arts, Kalumburu and Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra. Connected to the Land exhibition is on until 4 July 2020

Connected to the Land: Cross Art Projects
Official website

The Armoured Casement in Mosman
We take a special walk through the Armoured Casement in Mosman, with artist and Curator Djon Mundine OAM, to experience a little known artwork Gabba Gabba. Three Views an exhibition at the Casement was curated by Djon as part of the Sydney Festival and presented by the Mosman Art Gallery at the beginning of the year at the Casement.

From My Window at AGNSW
The first series of new works has launched by AGNSW with the online exhibition From My Window. The exhibition features works on paper by nine artists from New South Wales including Mitch Cairns, Tom Carment, Emily Hunt, Jumaadi, Thea Perkins, Tom Polo, Jude Rae, Marikit Santiago, and Jelena Telecki. The series is part of the Gallery’s Together In Art online social project that aims to connect people through art. Assistant International at AGNSW curator Lisa Catt gives us a reflection.

From My Window: Together In Art AGNSW
AGNSW web site

What can you ‘do’ to participate in ‘it’? Kaldor launches Project 36. Participating Sydney based artist Brian Fuata talks us through his work. Jess Scully, Deputy Mayor of Sydney speaks on how cities can use their resources to support artists, culture and creativity through times of lockdown and recovery. In Caroline Zilinsky’s exhibition Titanic, there is a pervading sense of dark humour articulated.

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Kaldor Public Art Project 36: do it (Australia)
Kaldor Public Art Projects has launched Project 36: do it (Australia), which is a series of new commissions by 16 Australian creative practitioners across a range of disciplines. Initiated by Hans Ulrich Orbist in the early 90s, do it is considered the longest-running artist led project n the world. The project asks to create simple instructions that generate an artwork, whether an object, a performance, an intervention, or something else entirely. While we are in a global lockdown do it Australia invites audiences to follow an artist’s instructions, and enter their world and realise an artwork of their own.

Presented in partnership with Serpentine Galleries, London, Independent Curators International Google Arts & culture, Project 26, will see more than 50 new artworks commissioned and shared online globally. I spoke to John Kaldor about do it Australia, and bringing such a project about in times of a pandemic and Sydney based artist Brian Fuata, who is one of the participating artists. We apologise for the poor quality of John’s phone interview.

Excerpts of instructions are from Ian Milliss, Lauren Brincat and Rafael Bonachela.

Jess Scully, Deputy Mayor of Sydney
Jess Scully, Deputy Mayor of Sydney speaks on how cities can use their resources to support artists, culture and creativity through times of lockdown and recovery.

Caroline Zilinsky – Titanic
Ralph Hobbs, Director of Nanda Hobbs Gallery speaks to arts reporter Chris Virtue on Caroline Zilinsky’s exhibition, Titanic.

The ethics of the pandemic and the arts. ‘Not young or free’: an online exhibition inspired by the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing at the Boomalli Art Gallery. Wrap yourself around Clothes of Death by Polish photographer Anna Bedynnska. We pay tribute to environmental and social activist Jack Mundey.

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Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Dr Matt Beard, Ethics Centres Fellow was part of a panel discussion last weekend for FODI – the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. The talk was on the Ethics of the Pandemic, the day-to-day dilemmas and crucial lessons, and hidden costs of our choices. The two other panelists were Eleanor Gordon-Smith and Bryan Mukandi. He talks through his thoughts on the arts role in these extraordinary times.

Not young or free at Boomalli
‘Not young or free’ is an on-line exhibition with a theme inspired by the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing. The curator Kyra Kumsing walks us through the exhibition which is available on-line. Arts reporter Chris Virtue with this story.

Not young or free

Clothes of Death
In Poland, the tradition of preparing clothes for death is becoming less followed with most people choosing to continue the tradition are aged 70 and over. Polish photographer Anna Bedynnska has extensive experience as a press photographer documenting social projects. In her latest exhibition, Clothes of Death, she documents the Polish customs of death and burial. Story produced by arts reporter Bronwyn Rennex.

Anna Bedynnska: Clothes of Death

Jack Mundey
The environmental and social justice activist Jack Mundey died at the age of 90 in Sydney this week. Mundey has been widely celebrated for his internationally pioneering role in the green bans movement of the early 1970s. These green bans reflected Mundey’s visionary view that radical movements for social justice should encompass an ecological awareness.

Jo Holder worked with Jack on the Kerrawong project and the Green Bans Art Walk. Holder is the founder of the Cross Arts Projects, and is a well respected Sydney curator and writer working with contemporary artists, scholars and activists, she spoke with me to pay tribute to a great man who provided for many a lifeline to many of Sydney’s residents.

How two directors are navigating their festivals online: The Festival of Dangerous Ideas has launched a digital platform and the Head On Photo Festival a major arts festival in a metropolitan city to an online playing and educative digital field. We point you towards The Covid Shutdown Series – an online exhibition of digital artworks by four Sydney-based artists, the second is Chips Mackinolty’s provocative postage stamps of Captain Cook’s arrival.

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The Festival of Dangerous Ideas
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) is going to live stream their panel discussions. FODI will be presented as a series of conversations with expert speakers and commentators held over two days. Festival Director Danielle Harvey, talks about the transition.

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

The Head On Festival
The Head On Festival had this year’s official online launch last Friday night with the announcement of the winners along with the official opening address speeches. We’re now in day six of the Festival, Moshe Rozenveig the Festival Director talks us through its change of course to an online digital platform.

Head On Photo Festival

The Covid Shutdown Series
The Covid Shutdown Series is an online exhibition of digital artworks by four Sydney-based artists: Chips Mackinolty; Toby Zoates; Wendy Murray and Toni Warburton and is curated by gallerist Damian Minton with new artworks going online each week. The show is a transparent breakdown that reflects the cooperative nature and the trust now necessary for a post-covid visual arts industry with its circular energy, where artist, agent and the viewer meet and link arms for a common purpose.

The Covid Shudown Series

2020 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Award recipient Peter Boyle talks us through his recent body of work on ekphrastic poetry. In Your Hands, is a free digital collection of poems by poets who have been affected by the closure of live events. Find out about the story of Christian Lebanese man from Sydney’s western suburbs, Oh My God! Am I Alright? by Michael El Bacha which is being adapted to screen.

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In Your Hands
The Red Room Poetry company and Oranges & Sardines Foundation have collaborated to create a free digital collection featuring 80 poems by poets have been affected by the closure of live events. In Your Hands is the title of the collection and Tamryn Bennett, the Director of Red Room talks us through the initiative.

In Your Hands

Oh My God! Am I Alright?
“Oh My God! Am I Alright?”, is about a Christian Lebanese Australian man from Sydney’s western suburbs and his realisation that he is gay while in an arranged marriage. The author Michael El Bacha has teamed up with writer Sue Liolio to turn the book into a movie.

2020 Kenneth Slessor Prize winner Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle is a Sydney-based poet and translator of poetry. He is the author of eight books of poetry, Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness, is the most recent. He has been the recipient of many awards including the 2017 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Ghostspeaking.

He was announced the winner of this year’s NSW Premiers’s Literary Awards for poetry, The Kenneth Slessor Award. Last year Peter was commissioned to write a poem in response to a selected art work in the Australian Galleries, AGNSW collections for Look Magazine, AGNSW membership magazine and the poems he reads are from this latest body of work.

Peter Boyle: Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness

What you need to know about the Fake Art Harms campaign. Sri Lankan artist, Anoma Wijewardene’s oeuvre grapples crucial issues of our time in her exhibition Kintsugi II. The new Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre, Declan Greene announces a series of online performances and we hear an original interpretation of Shakespeare’s sonnets from the forthcoming book Sweet Forme by Gregory Betts.

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Fake Art Harms
The Arts Law Centre of Australia, the Indigenous Art Code and Copyright Agency, Viscopy launched the Fake Art Harms Culture campaign in 2016 to tackle the problem of fake ‘Indigenous’ arts and craft being sold in Australia, harming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and incomes. Four years on Suzanne Derry, Senior Solicitor at the Arts Law Centre talks us through the campaign.

Find out more here – Fake Art Harms Culture Campaign: inauthentic art inquiry/

Griffin Theatre
The new Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre, Declan Greene, is only four weeks into the position and is having a challenging start. In his recent newsletter he announced positive and imaginative progressions of how Griffin are managing to keep afloat.

Griffin Theatre

Anoma Wijewardene – Kintsugi II
Anoma Wijewardene’s art practice centres around themes of sustainability and inclusivity; with particular focus on the earth’s climate crisis, and ever-present issues of coexistence, diversity and unity. In her recent exhibition at the Stella Downer Gallery, Kintsugi II embody the artist’s passionate concern and provide a metaphorical response to these global, yet deeply personally felt issues.

Anoma Wijewardene

Sweet Forme
Sweet Forme presents seven lush visualizations of the sound-pattern, the hidden BardCode, of Shakespeare’s sonnets in a new full-colour, hardcover limited edition. Following the Bard’s own scheme, Sweet Forme reveals the complete rhymes for the very first time. Compiled and with an introduction by Gregory Betts. Gregory Betts is a poet, professor, editor, and musician.

Gregory Betts: Sweet Forme

Talking Through Your Arts is a 30 minute arts and culture magazine program broadcast on community radio Wednesdays, 5.30-6.00pm, on Eastside Radio, Sydney. 

Live streaming: https://eastsidefm.org/