Documentaries have the power to tell the stories with the most impact. They describe the “real” world, present “real” problems. Despite this, it is drama and Hollywood film that reaches the masses. As…
A review of the National Gallery’s latest exhibition, Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice can be short. Why? There’s no umming and ahhing here, it simply must be seen. This is the first ever exhibition…
Earlier this week, a man who argued about the ending of 300: Rise of an Empire was killed by fellow film-goers in Texas. Though a tragic and solitary event, it puts the recent upsurge in ancient history…
Under cover of night a man carries what looks to be a dead body into the unknown, before a field is set alight. Later, a pair of mismatched detectives – Marty (Woody Harrelson), an apparently affable family…
The Italian actress Isabella Rossellini openly discussed her exploration of sex, violence and depravity in Adelaide this month. No, it wasn’t the launch of a tell-all Hollywood book – but the Australian…
John Zorn’s appearance at the Adelaide Festival last week spread across four evenings – totalling over 12 hours. The cost of bringing Zorn and more than 20 musicians from New York to play at the Adelaide…
In the new film Wolf Creek 2, the menacing outback serial killer Mick Taylor asks his unsuspecting tourist prey, “what the bloody hell are you buggers doing out here?” This phrase could equally be used…
At the heart of the Homer’s Coat production of An Iliad, currently playing at the Adelaide Festival, is that most of Homeric of things, a list. In a narrative compression as consummate as any in the epic…
Tonight ABC2 airs I am a Girl. Rebecca Barry’s documentary introduces us to six young women from around the world. They hail from Cambodia, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, the USA and Australia…
This is the exhibition we have been waiting for. This is contemporary art as it was meant to be – warning that we are experiencing the dark night of the national soul. The country that once thought of…
There are layers of mythology around what architects actually do in conceptualising and making architecture. These misconceptions are fed by popular architectural stereotypes of 20th-century culture, such…
The Heysen Sculpture Biennial, located on The Cedars, the Adelaide Hills property near Hahndorf on which German-born artist Sir Hans Heysen (1877-1968) lived and worked, was first held in 2000. On that…
According to the American actor Shia LaBeouf, instead of having an audition for Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, he was asked to email a photograph of his penis. While Labeouf supposedly leapt at the opportunity…
In his new book Anzac’s Long Shadow: The cost of our national obsession, James Brown argues that: a century after the war to end all wars, Anzac is being bottled, stamped and sold. The former soldier turned…
A number of my friends have a fervour for Bruce Springsteen I have never been able to understand. I have always thought of his work as prosaic and literal. His songs teeter on the edge of despair at the…
Say “Indonesia” today and what visual associations does the word prompt? For many Australians, an ambivalent mix of pleasant and troubled images, no doubt. But a new photography exhibition at the National…
In 1961, German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt was sent by The New Yorker to cover Adolf Eichmann’s trial, in Jerusalem, Israel, where he faced execution for crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes…
British playwright Mike Bartlett’s contemporary comedy of manners Cock opened on the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) main stage last week. Highly anticipated after winning an Olivier Award with its London…
When visitors walk into Sydney’s Artspace Gallery, they find themselves on what seems to be a live film set. A noir feature film called The Hop Head Hatchet Man is in production. It’s a studio operation…
Opening this week, Art Gallery NSW’s latest exhibition, Australian Vernacular Photography, explores the Australian photographic landscape of the late 20th century. Hal Missingham, photographer and director…
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne