for surreal

Sep. 10, 2011 at 10:57pm with 1 note

excerpt: Wayne Macauley, Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe (Black Pepper Publishing: 2004)

Jun. 17, 2011 at 2:00pm with 8 notes

art australia on politics pollock things that have been said whitlam written bits

“

For those who hate both progressive art and progressive politics, the abstract and seemingly chaotic whorls and splatters of paint on Jackson Pollock’s canvas symbolise the Whitlam Government.

—

Senator the Hon John Faulkner, who has been totally hipster since before hipster was even a thing. I totally respect this dude for his look, and for some nice things he’s said about art.

[Jackson Pollock, Blue Poles: Number 11 (1952). Paint and Stuff on Canvas. National Gallery of Australia: Canberra.]

in 1973, National Gallery of Australia acquired Blue Poles for $1.3 million. their purchase was funded by the Labor government, under Gogh Whitlam, and was hugely controversial. today, the painting is valued—conservatively—at, like, $40 million, so everyone is pretty cool with it.

[quote: ‘From Blue Poles to Red Fans’, Whitlam Oration: 19 March 2004. on his site.]

Jun. 5, 2011 at 8:00pm with 28 notes

abbott politics australia canberiffic ugh other people zombie apocalypse

Curt Livingston, I eat souls [Tony Abbott] (2010).

tony abbott makes me feel a little ill

he looks like a shark. he says stupid things.

11:04am with 17 notes

abbott art art crush art smut australia being right end me lamenation politics ugh written bits

“

avant-garde crap

—

the man who is now leader of Australia’s opposition party (and currently preferred government), talking about contemporary art and being ~~an arrogant, out-of-touch, self-satisfied gimp~~ himself. (2003)

he has also done this and this and this and this.

read about the context here.

(Source: theage.com.au)

Dec. 7, 2010 at 3:58pm

in a library books old books things that scare me photography feeling sick australia

sick in my stomach. striking, but so shameless and exploitative. and condescending (but in the bad way). I hate this happening.

[Tom Petrie’s reminiscences of early Queensland (dating from 1837) / recorded by his daughter (Brisbane : Watson, Ferguson, 1904)]

Oct. 30, 2010 at 5:54pm

art criticism review action australia

“

the grotesque cultural nationalism of the blue-view pastoral painters between 1920 and 1940 becomes comprehensible when you note that it was part of a general insularity whose political symptom was the New Guard, and whose journalistic expression was the Bulletin’s slogan ‘Australia for the White Man and China for the Chows’

—

Robert Hughes, on Australia creating its own artistic Renaissance, in The Art of Australia (1970).

I alternate between imagining Hughes as brave enough to speak his mind, and as having an insatiable tendency towards provocation.

Sep. 15, 2010 at 7:25pm

art prints australia bea maddock

[Bea Maddock. Gauge (1976). photo-etching and aquatint. Melbourne: NGV.]

so maybe you know how much I like prints. I really, really like them. aquatint can be insane.

7:22pm with 5 notes

art art crush australia prints aniMAUL brett whiteley

[Brett Whiteley. giraffe (1965). screenprint. Canberra: NGA.]

so I seem to be totes into sixties cinema at the moment. this is also from the sixties. and crush.

Aug. 22, 2010 at 3:18pm

australia ausvotes gillard politics

Julia Gillard looking surprisingly good at this morning’s presser. of all her interesting hand gestures, this is my favourite. I do this sometimes when I’m dancing in the car.

2:24pm with 3 notes

animaction australia ausvotes on politics other people's stuff

loving this. particularly the bit where Abbott comes wading out of the ocean. smarmy git.

Feb. 9, 2010 at 10:15am

australia found street art CCAS

I love trains.

Feb. 1, 2010 at 12:54pm

rant problems that I can't seem to understand or solve australia

I should try and stop swearing when I get upset.

Australia has always had difficulty adapting to immigrants. an introduction of alien culture will naturally disturb the status quo. but why should this be considered a bad thing? Australian society has changed immensely over the last fifty-five years. Aboriginal people are considered the full citizens that they are. women are socially accepted in the workplace. gay people are on the verge of having marriage rights.

if reaching out to immigrants to try and make them feel more welcome marks a change in the behaviour of Australian society - whether by incorporating their food into school canteen menus, or translating the national anthem - I think that it is a wonderful change.

chain emailers? fuck. them. fucking haters.