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# Chris McAuliffe

art | writing | music

## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [Melynda von Wayward, 'Punk: a photographic journey', 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/melynda-von-wayward-punk-a-photographic-journey-2014/) - A new book traces photographer Melynda von Wayward's photographic journey through the Melbourne punk scene.
- [Footloose Fillies and Pretentious Penguins: Albert Tucker's 'Victory Girls', 1943](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/footloose-fillies-and-pretentious-penguins-albert-tuckers-victory-girls-1943/) - Albert Tucker's painting 'Victory Girls' (1943) is said to depict teenage prostitutes in wartime Melbourne. There's no record of such girls, so what is the real source for the painting?
- [Outsider art and the desire of contemporary art, October 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/outsider-art-and-the-desire-of-contemporary-art-october-2014/) - Is outsider art the new 'in'? What does the inclusion of outsider art in major contemporary art shows say about the mainstream's perception of the outside?
- [Noel McKenna, 'The psychiatrist's dog', Darren Knight Gallery, 27 September–25 October 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/noel-mckenna-the-psychiatrists-dog-darren-knight-gallery-27-september-25-october-2014/) - Can a painting be an oxymoron? Noel McKenna paints a world that can be momentarily imagined before good sense tells you it can’t be so
- [Robert Rooney, ‘Portrait photographs 1978–1987’, Tolarno Galleries, 11 September–11 October 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/robert-rooney-portrait-photographs-1978-1987-tolarno-galleries-11-september-11-october-2014/) - Robert Rooney's 2014 exhibition documents the Melbourne art scene 1978-1987.
- [Lyndell Brown/Charles Green and Jon Cattapan, 'Spook country', Station and ARC One, 21st August–13th September 2014 ](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/lyndell-browncharles-green-and-jon-cattapan-spook-country-station-and-arc-one-21st-august-13th-september-2014/) - On a recent visit to the Australian War Memorial, I was surprised at the visual density of ‘classic’ war art. In the paintings of George Lambert (World War I) and Ivor Hele (World War II), the combat is hand-to-hand. The viewer is in the thick of it, given the now-familiar first-person shooter point of view.
- [Nick Cave comes clean on creativity](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/nick-cave-comes-clean-on-creativity/) - Collaborating with artist-filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard in 20,000 days on earth (2014), Cave revels in reflection on the creative process.
- [Building a better art prize](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/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
- [Dale Hickey, ‘New Paintings’, 2005](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/dale-hickey-new-paintings-2005/) - Dale Hickey’s new paintings circle around the motif of the artist’s studio.
- [Peter Fleming](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/peter-fleming/) - Yes, that Fleming; Ian was his brother. Far less of an armchair traveller than his bestselling sibling (who plotted many a Bond mission from the safety of his swank Jamaican digs), Fleming-the-lesser-known rambled through Asia and South America in the inter-war years. While I'm not usually a fan of travel writing—a very cosy genre in
- [Branden W Joseph, 'Art and dirt: Kim Gordon's aesthetics of impurity', 1 July 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/branden-w-joseph-art-and-dirt-kim-gordons-aesthetics-of-impurity-1-july-2014/) - It's hard to avoid surrendering to the economy of the 'take-away' when reflecting on a presentation. What's it all boil down to? Can you give it to me in a nutshell? So I want to begin with Branden Joseph's method, not the punchlines. Joseph approached Kim Gordon as he does most everything; as an archaeologist
- [Spiral Jetty site visit, 2006](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/spiral-jetty-site-visit-2006/) - Sorting through old files, I found my photographs of a site visit to Robert Smithson's 'Spiral jetty' (1970) at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake, Utah. This was my second visit; documentation of the first was on 35 mm slides which are as-yet unscanned. The date of the visit was Saturday 23 September 2006.
- [John Richardson, 'A life of Picasso: volume II', 1997](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/john-richardson-a-life-of-picasso-volume-ii-1997/) - John Richardson, A life of Picasso: volume II, 1907–1917, Jonathan Cape, London, 1996. Since the time of writing (1997), Richardson has reduced the number of projected volumes from five to four. And who can blame him? The third appeared in 2007 and the final volume will be published later this year. In the 1970s, one
- [The Basil Sellers Art Prize](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-basil-sellers-art-prize/) - In 2006 Basil Sellers AM, an art collector and sport lover, realised that his two passions weren't connecting. There were no art works in his collection featuring sport and he'd come across few such works in galleries and museums. Basil contacted me at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, which had just staged 'Game on!',
- [Sight/non-sight: Robert Smithson and photography, 1997](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/sightnon-sight-robert-smithson-and-photography-1997/) - By 1997, I was well-and-truly entrenched in the work of Robert Smithson. This process had begun with my dissertation research; hence the 'what did he know and when did he know it' tone below. And it extended into a 1997 road trip to numerous earthworks sites in the American Southwest. (The ‘Spiral Jetty’ was under water
- [Reinventing the wheel; the legacy of Duchamp's readymades, 2013](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/reinventing-the-wheel-the-legacy-of-duchamps-readymades-2013/) - A written (and therefore polished after the fact) version of a speech I made at the opening of ‘Reinventing the wheel’, an exhibition at the Monash University Museum of Art, exploring the legacy of Duchamp’s readymade. Reproduction, repetition, saying the already said … these are the hallmarks of contemporary experience. The capacity to tolerate this
- [Jenny Watson, 'A painted page' series (1978–79), 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/jenny-watson-a-painted-page-series1978-79/) - In 'Trying to live now: chronotopic figures in Jenny Watson’s 'A painted page' series', I bring together, for the first time, the six paintings in this important sequence from 1979–80. Combining gridded, painted reproductions of photographs, newspapers and department store catalogues with roughly painted fields of colour, the series combined a range of recent styles and
- [Disturbing the edges of what we call art: Tim Johnson and punk, 2009](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/disturbing-the-edges-of-what-we-call-art-tim-johnson-and-punk-2009/) - Tim Johnson’s interest in punk rock is manifested in prints, paintings, texts, photographs, super 8 films, musical performances, and collected recordings and ephemera. In a concentrated series of works made between 1979 and 1983, Johnson depicted Australian, English and American punk musicians and fans, using his own photographs or pictures from the music press. In
- [John Brack, 'The jockey and his wife' (1953), 2013](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/john-brack-the-jockey-and-his-wife-1953-2013/) - The jockey and his wife (1953) predates Brack’s sustained exploration of the comédie humain of the Australian racecourse in 1956. That series—encompassing watercolours, drawings and prints—studiously plotted the procedures of horse racing and the patterns of crowd behaviour. Each year, Melbourne’s famed Spring racing carnival brought a determined gaiety to the city: Brack responded with
- [John Brack, 'The new house' (1953), 2013](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/john-brack-the-new-house-1953-2013/) - This piece was written for an auction house catalogue for the sale of the Grundy collection of Australian art in 2013. It gave me an opportunity write at length on a painting I’d touched upon briefly elsewhere. It’s funny how the more iconic a painting becomes, the less detailed appraisals of it are. The painting was
- [Eyes on the ball: images of Australian Rules football, 1995](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/eyes-on-the-ball-images-of-australian-rules-football-1995/) - Having pursued the topic further since this article was first published in 1995, I’d modify some of my comments. The issue of what precisely was meant by ‘national’ in Arthur Streeton’s The national game is still to be resolved but there are strong leads. Contrary to what I state below, ‘national’ could mean ‘geographically expansive’;
- [Don't fence me in: artists and suburbia in the 1960s, 1994](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/dont-fence-me-in-artists-and-suburbia-in-the-1960s-1994/) - The idea of a book on Australian suburbia came from Chris Healy. Supported by a small grant, we plowed ahead. At some stage, the idea of contributions on art came up. I mused about some works by Dale Hickey and Ian Burn that I’d seen. Why don’t you write about them?, my colleagues asked. Which
- [The games people play, 2008](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-games-people-play-2008-2/) - There’s a marvellous photograph of a corner of Sidney Nolan’s studio taken in 1949. On a small work table are the usual trappings of the bohemian laboratory: tobacco tin, overflowing ashtray, dog-eared books, and candlesticks picturesquely caked in melted wax. The only unfamiliar element in this ad hoc still life is a photograph pinned to
- [AFL Grand Final 2010, take 1](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/afl-grand-final-2010-take-1/) - The 2010 AFL Grand Final, contested by Collingwood and St Kilda, ended with a draw and required a rematch the following weekend. ‘The Age’ had commissioned articles from both my wife and me; knowing that we barracked for Collingwood and St Kilda respectively, they were looking for a his and hers story. Among the most
- [AFL Grand Final 2010, take 2](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/afl-2010-grand-final-take-2/) - Something strange happened to football on the occasion of the replay of the 2010 AFL Grand Final. With all sponsors, corporate freeloaders and once-a-year ‘opera goers’ sated the previous week, the gates were flung open to the average punter. For the first time in years, a ticket to the Grand Final was within reach of
- [Football superstitions, 2008](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-games-people-play-2008/) - Ostensibly, this piece is a reflection on football fans. But really it’s about how I live my life. No Nick Hornby-style meditations; it’s just some stuff that happened. Forget the prognostications of pundits and statisticians, omens are the crux of any football prediction. With the Grand Final looming, they count for more than at any other
- [Stephen Bush; serial originality, 1994](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/stephen-bush-serial-originality-1994/) - This essay was written for the catalogue brochure of Stephen Bush’s 1994 exhibition ‘The lure of Paris’. The exhibition presented multiple versions of the same motif—three Babar elephants climbing a modest cliff by the sea. Bush’s plan was to paint of version of the work once a year, from memory, indefinitely. He's still at it;
- [Patti Smith as an artist, 1998](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/patti-smith-as-an-artist-1998/) - From memory, I wrote this in New York, perhaps around November 1997, for a special issue of 'World Art' devoted to art and rock'n'roll. I wanted Patti Smith to stand for the ecstatic wing of rock'n'roll art, in contrast to the more studied and conceptualised emerging then (and now dominant). Any oddities in spelling, punctuation
- [The artist as rock music fan, 1998](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-artist-as-rock-music-fan/) - This piece is an example of my habit of filing thoughts away until things start to click. I saw the ‘Fandom’ exhibition in New York in November 1997 and Mutlu Çerkez’s exhibition back in Melbourne. In mid-1998 I was back in New York, where I saw Elizabeth Peyton’s work at MoMA and Erik Hanson’s drawings
- [Peter Kennedy; 'And so ...', 2003](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/peter-kennedy-and-so-2003/) - In 2002, the Ian Potter Museum of Art staged a Peter Kennedy retrospective which included a reconstruction of one of his early neon sculptures. Kennedy’s involvement with neon went back to his youth when he had a job in a neon light workshop. Architect John Wardle, who has frequently collaborated with artists, visited the exhibition
- [Redecorating; Stieg Persson, 1993](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/redecorating-stieg-persson-1993/) - At the time I wrote this piece, I was teaching a course on art and mass culture while working on a PhD on the anti-formalist impulse in contemporary American art. So there was a lot to table about a pivotal term in modernism and its transformation in the postmodern. Which meant that, even though I
- [Heroes, 2010](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/heroes-2010/) - Each year, Paul Daffey and John Harms publish the best of the year’s contributions to their ‘Footy almanac’ website in a hefty paperback documenting the football season just passed. They invite an artist to produce an image of the season’s iconic player for the cover. In 2010, John Harms asked me to write on Geoff
- [Art and football, 2008](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/art-and-football-2008/) - The arts editor of The Age called me a few days before the 2008 Grand Final wondering if I could string together something about art and sport. Just happened to have something lying around! Earlier in the year I'd been working through André Gide's diaries; here was a chance to use his oddly gleeful discovery
- [Snuff art: Brett Whiteley's Christie series, 1999](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/snuff-art-brett-whiteleys-christie-series-1999/) - I wrote this piece as a first step towards mapping what I thought might be a distinctive characteristic of Australian art (and perhaps colonial art in general); a preoccupation, shared by artists and audience alike, with what kind of artist Australia needed. At the same time, I wanted to demonstrate that iconic art works weren’t
- [Dave Graney, Bridge Hotel Castlemaine, 12 June 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/dave-graney-bridge-hotel-castlemaine-12-june-2014/) - As a performer, Dave Graney has always made a rod for his own back. The wry lyrics, sharp threads and acerbic between-song patter make it too easy for his audience to see his performance as some kind of pastiche. Here he’s a posturing rock god, there a laid back hipster; one moment a falsetto-voiced crooner,
- [The decline of the movie poster](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-decline-of-the-movie-poster/) - I have a theory that Melbourne’s tram network has a significant impact on the city’s intellectual life. Tram travel is a time for reflection and gathering of thoughts. This article first took shape as I was standing on a tram stop thinking about the Gerard Herbst poster collection at the Ian Potter Museum of Art.
- [Richard Jefferies](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/richard-jefferies/) - I don’t recall precisely when or why I began reading Richard Jefferies’s essays. I do know that at the time I was in the habit of borrowing from the research collection of the University of Melbourne’s Baillieu library. That was where redundant, superseded and foreign language volumes were stacked. The shelves were lined with uniform
- [Jon Cattapan: possible histories, 2008](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/jon-cattapan-possible-histories-2008/) - This book traces the art of Jon Cattapan —from Dadaist grotesquerie and surrealist erotica of his student days to current explorations of global information flows and urbanism. Written in close collaboration with the artist, the book contains extensive artist interviews and statements drawn from the 1970s through to the present, as well as numerous illustrations
- [Linda Marrinon: let her try 2007](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/linda-marrinon-let-her-try-2007/) - In Linda Marrinon: let her try, Chris McAuliffe explores the motivations and development of one of Australia’s most innovative and idiosyncratic artists. Since she first exhibited in 1983 Linda Marrinon has defied both expectations and definitions. She was at first embraced by the art world elite; critics, curators and collectors flocked to her shows. But
- [Stephen Bush, 'Steenhuffel', Ian Potter Museum of Art, 26 March–6 July 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/stephen-bush-steenhuffel-ian-potter-museum-of-art-26-march-6-july-2014/) - In the evening, after I had last visited Stephen Bush’s exhibition ‘Steenhuffel’, I set about reading M P Shiel’s 1901 novel The purple cloud. I mean it to sound like a job of work; the book is the sustained ranting of the last man living, a descent into madness larded with arcane language and page-long
- [I've got some good nudes and some bad nudes: Norman Lindsay and Lucian Freud](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/ive-got-some-good-nudes-and-some-bad-nudes-norman-lindsay-and-lucian-freud/) - This previously unpublished text is a buffed-up version of a talk I gave over lunch at the Melbourne Club in 2002. These are the sorts of things you do to bring your museum to the attention of the ‘big end of town’. Given the context, I thought I’d approach it in the manner of a
- ['Rad scunge', curated by Dale Frank, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, 3–26 March 1993](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/rad-scunge-curated-by-dale-frank-karyn-lovegrove-gallery-3-26-march-1993/) - In the early 1990s, the first hints that movements (-isms) had been replaced by tendencies (things artists were ‘interested’ in) began to emerge. ‘Grunge’ and its cousin ‘abject art’ led the charge, to the immediate chagrin of virtually every artist involved. ‘Rad scunge’ featured works by artists associated with a Sydney grunge push (whether they
- [Fair game: art versus sport in “the lucky country”](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/fair-game-art-versus-sport-in-the-lucky-country-2010/) - My involvement with the Basil Sellers Art Prize—a biannual $100,000 award for contemporary art on the theme of sport—means that I'm often asked to comment on the supposed conflict between athletes and aesthetes. I usually begin by pointing out that this wasn't always so. In this article I tried to identify the historical moment at
- [Barry Pearce, 'Brett Whiteley: art & life', 1995](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/barry-pearce-brett-whiteley-art-life-1995/) - Reviewing Barry Pearce’s catalogue/biography for the 1995 Brett Whiteley retrospective alerted me to two themes that I’ve circled around on-and-off ever since. First, that a good deal was being missed in looking art Australian. Visiting the exhibition itself, I realized that many elements visible in the art works—texts, collage elements, marginal images—were being over-looked. And
- [Keep on rockin’ in the art world, 2001](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/keep-on-rockin-in-the-art-world-2001/) - Rock snobs! Vinyl junkies! Looking for some high-end trainspotting action? Put down that fanzine, log off eBay and get to an art gallery. Rare grooves, obscure pressings and pedantic top-ten lists are no longer the stuff of record fairs alone. Contemporary art is riddled with subtle nods to classic albums, nostalgic paeans to teen idols
- [A puff piece about Jon Campbell, 2000](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/a-puff-piece-about-jon-campbell-2000/) - Under circumstances I can’t recall, I was asked by the fashion/lifestyle magazine 'HQ' to write a short piece on Jon Campbell for their trend-spotting front section. Paul Taylor once ticked me off for being a snob about glossies—he’d offered to swing me something in 'Vogue' and I’d recoiled—so I thought I’d give it a shot.
- [The first time I heard ...](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-first-time-i-heard/) - The first time I heard ... The Ramones, 'Beat on the brat' (1976) was on a clock radio in a boarding school in Melbourne sometime early in 1977. The radio was tuned to what was then 3RMT FM, the educational-license FM station of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) ... precursor to 3RRR. Good
- [William Shakespeare vs Old Van Theatre Company, Nangiloc 2010](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/william-shakespeare-vs-old-van-theatre-company-nangiloc-2010/) - I spent April 2010 as a writer-in-residence at Art Vault, Mildura. I’m not a regular theatre-goer but a production of Shakespeare’s 'Taming of the Shrew' at a small football club in nearby Nangiloc was tempting. The production was directed by Fiona Blair for The Old Van & NCDCA. The performance was at the Nangiloc Football
- [Guerillas, poseurs and nomads: the politics of the avant-garde in art and music](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/guerillas-poseurs-and-nomads-the-politics-of-the-avant-garde-in-art-and-music/) - This research was originally delivered as a paper at the European Australian Studies Association annual conference, Toulouse 1999. Conference convenor Xavier Pons drew together speakers on Patrick White, Murray Bail, larrikin movies of the 1970s and a remarkable range of other topics from European scholars. I've taken the opportunity here to correct a few minor
- [Kim Salmon, Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, 4, 11, 18 & 25 May 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/kim-salmon-bridge-hotel-castlemaine-4-11-18-25-may-2014/) - At All Tomorrow’s Parties (26 October 2013, Palais Theatre, Melbourne), The Scientists took the stage immediately after Television had performed their Marquee moon album. A tough act to follow, so Kim Salmon adopted the only feasible tactic; a fast-paced, high-energy set that demanded the attention of an already-satiated audience in a cavernous theatre. Seven months later,
- [Doug Hall, 'Wreckage and reclamation: politics and art in Brisbane 1987-1997', 3 June 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/doug-hall-wreckage-and-reclamation-politics-and-art-in-brisbane-1987-1997-3-june-2014/) - After heading up the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) for twenty years, Doug Hall has more, and juicier, war stories than any other museum director in the country. Arriving in Brisbane in the twilight years of the Bjelke-Petersen National Party government, Hall described his political masters as pastoralists (read, 'rednecks') soon to take starring roles in a succession of
- [Sonic rain at Hagia Sophia](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/sonic-rain-at-hagia-sophia/) - A podcast of a remarkable presentation by Bissera Pentcheva, associate professor of art and art history, Stanford University, delivered at the 'Ways of seeing Byzantium' symposium (18 October 2013) is available from the National Gallery of Art (Washington DC). Pentcheva draws together theology, aesthetics, architecture and chanted psalms in a study of the combination of mirroring,
- [Hayley Arjona, 'Rock’n’roll redneck', CASPA, Castlemaine, 3–31 May 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/hayley-arjona-rocknroll-redneck-caspa-castlemaine-3-31-may-2014/) - Not long ago I found myself standing in a country pub staring at a print of that often-reproduced nineteenth-century engraving of three Australian farm hands carousing in a bar. Backs arched, arms flailing; they were the original wild colonial boys, out on a spree. Arjona’s rock’n’roll rednecks are their great-great-grandchildren, bingeing on Maccas and VB,
- [Mark Hilton, 'Knackers', RMIT Spare Room, 2005](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/mark-hilton-knackers-rmit-spare-room-2005/) - ‘Knackers’ is a backlit duratran, a twenty-first century evocation of a medieval stained-glass window. Hilton’s subject was a sex scandal involving the St Kilda Football club. Look for ‘Knackers’ and others of Hilton’s work at Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney. The television broadcast of an AFL football game begins with Mark Seymour and the Hunters and
- [America: painting a nation, Art Gallery of NSW, 8 Nov 2013–9 Feb 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/america-painting-a-nation-art-gallery-of-nsw-8-nov-2013-9-feb-2014/) - ‘America: painting a nation’ was presented by the Art Gallery of NSW (8 Nov 2013–9 Feb 2014) as part of its Sydney International Art series. It was the most expansive survey of American painting ever presented in Australia, featuring almost 90 works, ranging from 1750 to 1966. As curatorial consultant I worked with AGNSW staff
- [Kris Kristofferson, Palais Theatre, 8 April 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/kris-kristofferson-palais-theatre-8-april-2014/) - Age can weary them, but that’s not a bad thing. Kris Kristofferson’s April show at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre was a stripped back performance, delivered at a leisurely pace. The songs were performed almost as demos. When Daniel Lanois steers the old masters back to their roots, stripped back has an Old Testament feel to it,
- [The Shilo project, 2009–10](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-shilo-project-2009-10/) - 'The Shilo project' was an art exhibition born in an opportunity shop on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. There I found two copies of Neil Diamond's 1970 album Shilo. On one sleeve, the connect-the-dots portrait of Neil Diamond on the cover had been completed; the other was unblemished. Driving home, it occurred to me that it would
- [What price history? Abraham Zapruder’s home movie](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/what-price-history-abraham-zapruders-home-movie/) - Sometimes an article comes together quickly as ideas from unrelated reading connect. A news story on the sale of the Zapruder film to the US government reminded me of something J G Ballard had said earlier that year and the piece was done in a couple of hours. A morbid parlor game of the late-twentieth
- [What artists listen to in their studios](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/what-artists-listen-to-in-their-studios/) - This essay was written to accompany a suite of photographs of Jon Cattapan in his studio. At the time I was occasionally interviewing artists in their studios for the ABC TV program ‘Sunday arts’. So I had a bee in my bonnet about the impact of post-production effects (especially music) on the meaning of the
- [The game of nationhood: art, football and Australian federation](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/the-game-of-nationhood-art-football-and-australian-federation/) - Hiding in plain sight in Sydney’s Centennial Park, Tomaso Sani’s We won! (1893) is the first monumental sculpture of a footballer erected anywhere in the world. Commissioned by New South Wales premier Henry Parkes in 1891, it is often mistaken for an emblem of ‘muscular Christianity’. But Parkes’s commitment to public sculpture, his personal involvement
- [Why a record review in an art magazine?: Paul Taylor and new wave](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/why-a-record-review-in-an-art-magazine-paul-taylor-and-new-wave/) - For those who still believed in rock’s outsider mythology, ‘pose’ was a pejorative term. A rejection of the pose in favour of ‘honesty’ was a hallmark of New York’s New Wave underground. In Australia, RAM magazine championed what it called ‘street punk’; an ‘honest and relevant’ version of rock, unadulterated by corporate values. Melbourne’s New
- [Fringe to Famous](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/fringe-to-famous/) - 'Fringe to famous' is an ARC-funded research project examining the crossover between ‘alternative’ and ‘mainstream’ Australian cultural production since the 1980s. The principal research partners are: Tony Moore: Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, Australia Mark Gibson: Director of the Film, Media and Communications Program in the Monash Institute for
- [Tony Clark on the opportunity shop](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tony-clark-on-the-opportunity-shop/) - Tony Clark’s essay for Perimeter Editions’s slim volume on Polly Borland, You, is a fine example of a big statement in a small essay. ‘Any proper study’ of recent Australian art, he declares, ‘would have to examine, in detail, the role of the opportunity shop’. ‘Every significant Australian artist of the last half-century has been
- [Bram Stoker](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/bram-stoker/) - The vampire industry spawned by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) overshadowed his many other novels. Some of them are indifferent but here’s a wonderful line from his The mystery of the sea (1902); the American heroine’s reply to florid wooing by her British suitor—‘You talk like a small book with gilt edges’. Stoker’s theatrical background shows;
- [Melissa Reeves, 'Furious mattress'](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/melissa-reeves-furious-mattress/) - Melissa Reeves’s play 'Furious mattress' was staged at the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne in February 2010. It’s loosely based on the death of Joan Vollmer during an exorcism conducted by her husband in rural Victoria in 1993. I wrote this short piece for the theatre program accompanying the performances. The final line is spoken by one
- [Fernando A Flores, 'Death to the bullshit artists of South Texas, vol. 1'](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/fernando-a-flores-death-to-the-bullshit-artists-of-south-texas-vol-1/) - Sometime in the not-too-distant past the city of Donna, Texas spawned the unknown band ERIKKKLAPTON. They were a bunch of high school kids hammering out songs—‘Monkeyfuck evasions’, ‘Wonkaballs’ and ‘Oil mutant’—in a garage. Their chronicler, Fernando A Flores, tells us that ‘no songs were ever recorded nor did they ever gig—the only people who ever
- [Sasha Grishin, 'Australian art: a history'](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/sasha-grishin-australian-art-a-history/) - At 570 pages long and weighing in at 2.46 kilograms, Sasha Grishin's Australian art: a history is the latest contender for the heavyweight title long held by Bernard Smith's Australian painting. It's a door stopper all right, but will it be a barbecue stopper? (And is there a barbecue's worth of art historians among Australia's
- [Cars, artists and culture](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/cars-artists-and-culture/) - While the starting point for this piece was a news story on Citroen’s ‘Picasso’, its unfolding had to do with a sense of frustration at the simplistic ways in which capital letters and scare quotes were being applied to culture, Culture and ‘culture’. Earlier this year [2000], a minor media controversy erupted in France when
- [Rose Nolan, ‘With all one’s might and main’, Project Space, RMIT, 1996](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/rose-nolan-with-all-ones-might-and-main-project-space-rmit-1996/) - Project Space is a modestly-scaled, street-level gallery with a full-width shopfront window. Nolan’s juggling of ambitious and diminutive scale in her work turned my attention to Anna Chave’s trenchant critique of ego and gender in minimalism. (For readers not educated within the Victorian school system, ‘Clag’ is a non-toxic craft glue with a magnificently onomatopoeic
- [Editorial for 'Name' magazine,1998](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/editorial-for-name-magazine1998/) - In 1998, I was asked to write an editorial for the Melbourne design magazine Name; the issue theme was evolution. The multi-talented Andy Trevillian was behind the magazine, which was stuffed full of fold-outs, pockets, slots and loose-leaf inserts. The last time I saw a copy of Emigré was through glass, a digital image on
- [St Kilda Film festival, Opening night, 22 May 2014](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/st-kilda-film-festival-opening-night-22-may-2014/) - Opening night at the Palais theatre served up a tasting platter showcasing the house specialities of a short film festival. There was the fast-paced-short-with-a-punchline, shots cascading into each other like a row of falling dominoes (Chopper). The gleefully offensive animation with the redeeming ‘awwww’ ending (The video dating tape of Desmondo Ray, aged 33 &

## Pages

- [Home](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/) - Chris McAuliffe is an art historian, writer and curator based in Melbourne and Victoria’s central goldfields region. This site presents writing on art, books, music and visual culture, as well as news on current projects. Look for texts on art, visual culture, performance and the moving image under the heading, 'Looking'. Book reviews and
- [Art Criticism](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/looking/art-criticism/)
- [About](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/about/) - Chris McAuliffe is an art historian, writer and curator based in Melbourne and Victoria’s central goldfields region. Biography Education Dr Chris McAuliffe was educated at the University of Melbourne, where he took a BA Hons (1982) with a thesis on Australian film. He also completed an MA (1986) on Australian art criticism. He then took
- [Spectacle](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/looking/spectacle-5/)
- [Reading](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/reading/) - I’ve always meant to start a reading log but I’ve never gotten around to it. It’s hard to break the momentum of reading, the flow from one text to the next. And in any case, reading isn’t always systematic; a log isn’t likely to reveal any grand unified theory. All the more so when one’s
- [Projects](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/projects/) - As an independent scholar, curator and freelance writer, Chris McAuliffe is pursuing projects encompassing cultural policy, art history, local history and popular music. Like all research projects, some are undertaken with a defined goal in mind while others are simply driven by curiosity. Current projects include: 'Fringe to famous': examining the crossover between ‘alternative’ and ‘mainstream’ Australian
- [Listening](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/listening/) - If art is the headline act, live music and forums have always been the stalwart supporting bands. Outside of the traditional academic lecture, learning about art has meant listening in to numerous panels, symposia and floor talks. Alongside the attractive immediacy of oral culture were the performative elements; the subtle signalling of how talking about art and
- [Looking](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/looking/) - Reflecting on her career, Californian painter Helen Lundeberg remarked, ‘I’ve been looking all my life, it was one of my favorite occupations … And when I was a kid and we went for … Sunday afternoon drives … I was always in the back seat, looking at everything.’ I appreciate both her pleasure in looking
- [Contact](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/contact/)
- [Current](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/projects/current/)
- [Live Music](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/listening/live-music/)
- [Recorded Music](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/listening/recorded-music/)
- [Forums](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/listening/forums/)
- [Book Reviews](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/reading/book-reviews/)
- [Writers](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/reading/writers/)
- [Film & TV](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/looking/film-tv/)
- [Design](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/looking/design/)
- [Art History](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/looking/art-history/)

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/uncategorized/)
- [Past](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/past/)
- [Film & Television](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/film-television/)
- [Art Criticism](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/art-criticsim/)
- [Art History](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/art-history/)
- [Design](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/design/)
- [Writers](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/writers/)
- [Book Reviews](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/book-reviews/)
- [Recorded Music](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/recorded-music/)
- [Live Music](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/live-music/)
- [Forums](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/forums/)
- [Current](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/current/)
- [Spectacle](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/category/spectacle/)

## Tags

- [Palais Theatre](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/palais-theatre/)
- [Eleanor Wilson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/eleanor-wilson/)
- [Castlemaine](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/castlemaine/)
- [Kim Salmon](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/kim-salmon/)
- [Ian Potter Museum of Art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/ian-potter-museum-of-art/)
- [punk](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/punk/)
- [rock](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/rock/)
- [grunge](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/grunge/)
- [Kris Kristofferson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/kris-kristofferson/)
- [Monument](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/monument/)
- [Fred Foster](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/fred-foster/)
- [Johnny Cash](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/johnny-cash/)
- [Hayley Arjona](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/hayley-arjona/)
- [Paul Taylor](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/paul-taylor/)
- [new wave](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/new-wave/)
- [Art & Text](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/art-text/)
- [Tomaso Sani](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/tomaso-sani/)
- [Henry Parkes](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/henry-parkes/)
- [Centennial Park](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/centennial-park/)
- [rugby](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/rugby/)
- [Australian art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/australian-art/)
- [public sculpture](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/public-sculpture/)
- [Thomas Hughes](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/thomas-hughes/)
- [cultural economies](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/cultural-economies/)
- [fringe](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/fringe/)
- [mainstream](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/mainstream/)
- [popular music](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/popular-music/)
- [festivals](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/festivals/)
- [cultural policy](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/cultural-policy/)
- [Bram Stoker](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/bram-stoker/)
- [Terrence Malick](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/terrence-malick/)
- [Polly Borland](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/polly-borland/)
- [Tony Clark](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/tony-clark/)
- [Melissa Reeves](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/melissa-reeves/)
- [Malthouse Theatre](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/malthouse-theatre/)
- [Fernando A Flores](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/fernando-a-flores/)
- [Texas](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/texas/)
- [Patti Smith](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/patti-smith/)
- [Sahsa Grishin](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/sahsa-grishin/)
- [Margaret Preston](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/margaret-preston/)
- [Robert Menzies](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/robert-menzies/)
- [Conrad Martens](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/conrad-martens/)
- [Citroen](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/citroen/)
- [Roland Barthes](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/roland-barthes/)
- [Picasso](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/picasso/)
- [graphic design](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/graphic-design/)
- [evolution](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/evolution/)
- [Emigre](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/emigre/)
- [Neil Diamond](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/neil-diamond/)
- [Rose Nolan](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/rose-nolan/)
- [Anna Chave](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/anna-chave/)
- [Umberto Boccioni](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/umberto-boccioni/)
- [RMIT](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/rmit/)
- [Suprematism](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/suprematism/)
- [Jerzy Flisak](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/jerzy-flisak/)
- [Sonia Payes](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/sonia-payes/)
- [Jon Cattapan](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/jon-cattapan/)
- [Television](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/television/)
- [Captain Beefheart](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/captain-beefheart/)
- [Velvet Underground](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/velvet-underground/)
- [Abraham Zapruder](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/abraham-zapruder/)
- [John F Kennedy](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/john-f-kennedy/)
- [Vincent Van Gogh](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/vincent-van-gogh/)
- [Andy Warhol](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/andy-warhol/)
- [Mark Hilton](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/mark-hilton/)
- [football](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/football/)
- [St Kilda](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/st-kilda/)
- [Richard Jefferies](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/richard-jefferies/)
- [Art Gallery of NSW](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/art-gallery-of-nsw/)
- [American art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/american-art/)
- [fans](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/fans/)
- [Elizabeth Peyton](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/elizabeth-peyton/)
- [Kevin Kaempf](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/kevin-kaempf/)
- [Erik Hanson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/erik-hanson/)
- [Led Zeppelin](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/led-zeppelin/)
- [Mutlu Çerkez](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/mutlu-cerkez/)
- [Zygmunt Bauman](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/zygmunt-bauman/)
- [Linda Marrinon](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/linda-marrinon/)
- [Icons](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/icons/)
- [performance art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/performance-art/)
- [Hagia Sophia](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/hagia-sophia/)
- [Jenny Watson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/jenny-watson/)
- [Twiggy](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/twiggy/)
- [Richard Avedon](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/richard-avedon/)
- [pop art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/pop-art/)
- [Doug Hall](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/doug-hall/)
- [Stephen Bush](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/stephen-bush/)
- [Norman Lindsay](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/norman-lindsay/)
- [Lucian Freud](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/lucian-freud/)
- [Dale Frank](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/dale-frank/)
- [sport](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/sport/)
- [David Williamson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/david-williamson/)
- [Sidney Nolan](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/sidney-nolan/)
- [Boys Next Door](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/boys-next-door/)
- [Slugfuckers](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/slugfuckers/)
- [News](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/news/)
- [Brett Whiteley](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/brett-whiteley/)
- [Shakespeare](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/shakespeare/)
- [Nangiloc](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/nangiloc/)
- [art and sport](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/art-and-sport/)
- [Australian rules football](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/australian-rules-football/)
- [Andre Gide](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/andre-gide/)
- [Brendan Fevola](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/brendan-fevola/)
- [Stieg Persson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/stieg-persson/)
- [Kandinsky](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/kandinsky/)
- [Gleizes](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/gleizes/)
- [Peter Kenndey](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/peter-kenndey/)
- [neon](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/neon/)
- [John Wardle](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/john-wardle/)
- [Rimbaud](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/rimbaud/)
- [Marianne Moore](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/marianne-moore/)
- [Ian Burn](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/ian-burn/)
- [Robert Rooney](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/robert-rooney/)
- [Dale Hickey](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/dale-hickey/)
- [Arthur Streeton](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/arthur-streeton/)
- [John Brack](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/john-brack/)
- [Noel Counihan](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/noel-counihan/)
- [Fred Williams](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/fred-williams/)
- [Tim JOhnson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/tim-johnson/)
- [Radio Birdman](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/radio-birdman/)
- [readymade](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/readymade/)
- [Marcel Duchamp](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/marcel-duchamp/)
- [Robert Smithson](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/robert-smithson/)
- [photography](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/photography/)
- [postmodernism](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/postmodernism/)
- [Spiral Jetty](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/spiral-jetty/)
- [Branden W Joseph](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/branden-w-joseph/)
- [Kim Gordon](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/kim-gordon/)
- [Peter Fleming](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/peter-fleming/)
- [travel writing](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/travel-writing/)
- [Nick Cave](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/nick-cave/)
- [Forsyth and Pollard](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/forsyth-and-pollard/)
- [Lyndell Brown](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/lyndell-brown/)
- [Charles Green](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/charles-green/)
- [war artists](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/war-artists/)
- [Maria Kozic](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/maria-kozic/)
- [Phillip Brophy](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/phillip-brophy/)
- [Noel McKenna](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/noel-mckenna/)
- [outsider art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/outsider-art/)
- [Albert Tucker](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/albert-tucker/)
- [Victory Girls](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/victory-girls/)
- [Hebdige](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/hebdige/)
- [Melynda von Wayward](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/tag/melynda-von-wayward/)

## Slide Groups

- [art](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/slide-page/art/)
- [looking](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/slide-page/looking/)
- [reading](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/slide-page/reading/)
- [projects](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/slide-page/projects/)
- [listening](https://chrismcauliffe.com.au/slide-page/listening/)