Archive | August, 2014

Nick Cave comes clean on creativity

At a February 2013 concert at the Sydney Opera House, I saw Nick Cave come out of his shell a little. As the applause died down after ‘Mermaids’, Cave hesitatingly addressed his audience. ‘See, it’s not really about mermaids. It’s about longing for women, about desiring them from a distance. It’s a metaphor …’ Then […]

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Building a better art prize

A ‘behind the scenes’ account of the planning of the $100,000 Basil Sellers art Prize. Building a better art prize Tonight (25 July 2014) the winner of the fourth A$100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize will be announced at the Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne, chosen from shortlist of 16 artists and decided by a panel of six […]

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Dale Hickey, ‘New Paintings’, 2005

This piece was written for the exhibition brochure. As always, Hickey’s work prompted me to reflect on how complicated supposedly simple paintings can be. When paintings have a singular target, the writer’s task seems straightforward enough. Because Dale Hickey’s new paintings circle around the motif of the artist’s studio, they teasingly invite the writer to […]

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