Anthony Byrt on the Sydney Biennale in Artforum

Writer Anthony Byrt has contributed an interesting critical overview of the current Sydney Biennale to the Artforum website. Clearly a difficult exhibition to tackle in a short piece, particularly given the debates around its problematic financial support that created tensions in the lead-up (and aftermath) of the opening. As Byrt incisively notes:

"The letter and the boycott, heartfelt though they were, placed a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” cloud over everyone involved. Several artists who’d decided to stay in the show spoke off-the-record of the immense pressure they’d been placed under to withdraw. The standoff also inadvertently oversimplified a remarkably complex issue that all of us in the art world have to take a position on: not the detention centers, which are a horrific response to a humanitarian problem, but global art money’s relative cleanliness. Then there is the fact that a huge amount of arts funding in Australia, including for the biennial, comes from the Australia Council, which in turn is funded by the Australian government—the same one implementing the detention-center policy. The dispute may also have a nasty tail for the future of the biennial. In early March, one government minister, speaking on national radio, labeled the protest an act of “vicious ingratitude,” while the Federal Arts Minister called for a change in the Australia Council’s mandate, which would see recipients of funding penalized for turning down corporate sponsorship on “unreasonable” grounds."

My review of Cinema and Painting in this week's NZ Listener

My (mixed) review of the Adam Art Gallery's current exhibition Cinema and Painting appears in this week's NZ Listener. 

Simon Starling review in this week's New Zealand Listener

My review of Simon Starling's exhibition "In Speculum" at the Wellington City Gallery appears in this week's issue of the New Zealand Listener. Above is a picture of the Turner Prize-winning artist at the opening. Was able to meet him when he conducted some seminar-style discussions with Massey's incoming MFA cohort. Very charming and unflappable fellow given all the demands on his time during his visit to New Zealand. (Unfortunately full text of review not online unless you are a subscriber, but if you are based locally maybe check out dairies, supermarkets, newsstands, indian takeaways, doctor's offices, and other sorts of waiting rooms and peruse freely....) I will however be posting some selected examples of my Listener texts in the reviews section in the near future.

Dave Hickey Lecture: What in the hell is a famous art critic?

A very long time ago, when I was undertaking my MFA studies, a visiting critic wearing a Las Vegas-emblazoned silver satin jacket told me, when viewing my art on display for a critique—I was enamored at that time with using found objects and texts in an academicized postmodern manner—“These records [some 45s I’d altered slightly] would be worth more as records than as art.” This kind of irreverent witticism, which was Dave Hickey’s trademark, seemed a bit more charming if you weren’t the target of said remark. Of course he was right…I’ve grown to thoroughly enjoy Hickey’s writings, and I’ve learned a lot from them, particularly his luminous anthology entitled Air Guitar, although I virtually never agree with his views. He has delivered roughly the same lecture for about the last decade or so, however entertaining, most recently in support of his new volume called Pirates and Farmers, published late last year. Here is a talk given in Houston Texas in December. If you are unfamiliar with Hickey’s general spiel on the “state of the art,” it is a fairly representative one in terms of his railing against arts funding, political correctness, academic institutions, and his nostalgic love of the good old days when he was a bad young man.