LESS TALK, MORE ART! METRO ARTS AND A GEOMETRY OF ECHOES
Over the last three weeks our creative team have interviewed 40 people who were either integral to the development of Metro Arts or in some way connected to its artistic output over the last 40 years. The idea is to use this content to create a 40-channel video...
read moreA SHIFT AT A BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGERE
I know what boys like I know what guys want I know what boys like I've got what boys like Suzon sang absent-mindedly to herself as she wiped the maybe clean probably dirty bar in front of her. Why the fuck are we selling oranges now? She thought, while plucking one...
read moreNORMAL. WHAT IS NORMAL?
Normal. What is normal? This is one of the questions we’ve been asking repeatedly during our creative development at Metro Arts. We’ve placed it under a microscope and held it in our bodies, we’ve all related to and not related to certain elements of this. Normal. Can...
read moreHOW WE LIVE HERE CAME TO BE
As General Manager of Hummingbird House, and a Director on the Board for Metro Arts, it is my privilege to talk about the relationship I have developed over the years with Metro Arts and Jo Thomas. Jo and I met through The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust – we are...
read moreHEY PARENTS AND LEADERS OUT THERE: THE PERSONAL AND RICOCHET EFFECT OF SUPPORTING EARLY STARTERS IN THE ARTS
I have been a corporate leader for several decades and am still a parent (no “have been” here!) of four children and one grandchild. I have been travelling with the arts all my adult life. I have been associated with Metro Arts for 30 years, where I have witnessed the...
read moreLOVE, INFORMATION AND LEAVING THE NEST
In a filmed interview, photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto gives some advice to the young: My advice is to look for some other jobs before trying to become an artist. At first, you should expose yourself to many experiences – because you must have a profound...
read morePersonal Artefacts of Pain and Power
I am drawn to items and articles that inform and that have directly affected my family and my trajectory that exists within the settler nation of ‘Australia’. This is evident in my previous artworks, and again in WE KOPPEL, WE DALA. Many of these items represent, for...
read morePoC Barometer (or this is what I really think about the conversation we had at the gallery opening)
We met at an opening last night; you were dressed in plain black (because you are so neutral and authoritative), and I was wearing a Thundercats shirt (admittedly a strange choice). Your blue eyes tended to look upwards—making me think you’re a dreamer—while your feet...
read moreDavid Finnigan shares his thoughts
I’m a playwright and theatre-maker who works with climate scientists. I do a lot of work around climate and systems science. I wrote a play called Kill Climate Deniers which is going on at Metro Arts in May 2019. Here are some things. The Wangan and Jagalingou...
read moreOn Skimming Stones: Memories of ‘Home’ and 25 Down
“The purpose of art…” Oh dear. I’ve started with that old chestnut. Please don’t click away! This won’t be a dry essay, I promise. One little quote, and we’re done. “The purpose of art,” Viktor Shklovsky wrote in 1917, “is to impart the sensation of things as they are...
read moreBRISBANE ON STAGE: Six Years Living With Reagan Kelly
“It’s sort of about the fragility of love” Stephen Sewell narrowed his gaze and flared his nostrils like a swine who had just caught the scent of buried truffles, “which is strange because you’re such a bastard”, which was of course followed by his distinctive...
read moreMETRO ON THE MOVE
The announcement last week of the news of Metro’s future felt monumental. To me. To the Metro Board and staff. And I suspect to many who heard or have since read the news. Change is challenging to say the least, but I know we can’t see what’s over the hill if we...
read moreCAN THEATRE MAKE YOU LIVE LONGER?
I have exhausted one third of my probable life expectancy. So says a website that offers death predictions based on health and demographic data. I found this estimate a couple of years ago and recorded milestones in my calendar so that I would know exactly how I was...
read moreOPEN LETTER TO EMERGING ARTISTS
When I read Aaron Dora’s blogpost (Art Speak #7) about pathways for emerging artists, I felt the urge to express my support for his positive approach. Jo Thomas suggested I might like to expand this into an open letter, so here I am! My original message:Hi Aaron, I...
read moreIN CONVERSATION (LIKE A CASUAL CHAT)
Mel: Oi, I’m sick of people thinking this show is just two obnoxious women being like “OOOOO REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE SLUTS, MEN ARE TRASH.”Lia: Anything but… (That’s what I say to my boyfriend, zing)Mel: Yeah, I always think about when our dear friend Aleea said to us,...
read moreTHE IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICAL PATHWAYS FOR EMERGING ARTISTS
So I’ve been asked to get up on my soap box and write a little spiel about pathways for emerging artists in Brisbane. How do you find your way into an industry that seems so hard to crack? As an emerging director and producer, I feel there doesn’t seem to be any clear...
read moreSISYPHUS COULD BE SMILING
Imagining Futurity in Aishla Manning’s Soft Blow 2018 The leaf blower, through its own efforts, only meets dull thuds. All it can do is blow, or not blow. Do, or not do. These are its only choices. When not blowing it dangles limply, in isolation, bungee cord and...
read moreI ONLY BECAME AN ARTIST SO THAT I WOULD BE CRITICISED
Attendance figures dictate our livelihood and means of production. We rely on the numbers gleaned from door counts, ticket sales and surveys and are held hostage by the ebb and flow of patrons through the thresholds of our galleries. Sadly, the echo chamber that...
read moreMANDY QUADRIO MOVES OUT OF THE GALLERY FOR MAIWAR FESTIVAL
Under an Indigenous curatorial premise of ‘interconnectedness’, my sculptural work Continuing Connections 2018, will feature as part of a collective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists invited to participate in the 2018 annual Brisbane festival of...
read moreMAKING LIVE ABSURDIST ART IN AN ABSURD CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL WORLD
Director Heidi Manché writes for Art Speak about making live absurdist art in an absurd contemporary digital world. Our communication in the digital age has indeed taken an absurd turn. We are inundated by hyper-sexualisation, curated images, the meme, the troll,...
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