The central journey in Blasted is not a tourist trip through extreme violence. It’s the emotional journey of a bully who learns to be grateful for small acts of kindness.
A pared-down, humorous and intimate monologue, this production explores the human dimension of a political movement. It is a challenge to tacit silence and collective amnesia in Australia also.
Plagued by production woes for 25 years, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote embraces the spirit of its 17th-century source material. But unlike de Cervantes, Gilliam uses the female characters as props for the hero’s story.
The 2018 Tarrawarra Biennial explores the act of creation itself, dissolving boundaries between mind/body, physical/spiritual, and form/content. But the experience in the gallery is sometimes something of an anti-climax.
In the Sydney Theatre Company’s premiere production, white guilt festers as part of the shame, the ongoing, percolating wound that is the plot-space of contemporary colonisation.
Dead Lucky tackles issues around worker exploitation, gambling, international students and domestic violence. But it is let down by underdeveloped characters.
The ABC’s reality TV show Everyone’s A Critic puts ‘everyday’ Australians in galleries. It is a compelling premise for an art show, but a tad disappointing.
Despite the beauty and novelty of the objects in the NMA’s new exhibition of Islamic art, the exhibition misses opportunities to make Islamic cultures comprehensible.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne