Culture

Kate Holden Director Imara Savage finds herself constantly drawn to the ‘body–earth’ artworks of Cuban–American artist Ana Mendieta.

Stephen A. Russell Diana Al-Hadid’s work – on show for NGV Triennial 2023 – layers history and memory in works of paradoxical delicacy.

Brandon Jack Pour the contents of any cleaning product down the sink and you’ll realise it’s all the same. Hardwood floor and surface cleaner. Streak-free glass and window wipe. Lemon-scented multipurpose spray. They’re all just clear liquid that a round table …

Luke Goodsell Avant-pop artist Caroline Polachek is bringing her myth-making performance of desire to Australia for the first time.

Chris Fleming A plush rabbit I got for the children moves by itself. I bought it for my eldest on his fourth birthday. It wasn’t his favourite toy but he didn’t hate it. He cuddled it for a few days and then it was put into a storage bucket under his bed. After …

Stephen Romei Who could be grateful for the bombing of Hiroshima at 8.15am on August 6, 1945: an unprecedented, world-changing act of warfare that saw, as Richard Flanagan puts it, “60,000 Japanese souls ascending to heaven”? Flanagan might be. Without the bomb, …

Kurt Johnson Cartoonists are the court jesters of the news section. While journalists are constrained by fact, cartoonists speak truth. Consider Glen Le Lievre’s frame of the ghosts of robo-debt at the foot of Scott Morrison’s bed, captioned with “I don’t …

Neha Kale Benjamin Northey – now celebrating two decades with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – says Richard Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra is an exemplar of musical storytelling.

Jane Howard Performa Biennial takes an open view of performance art, showcasing work that might as easily be dance or theatre for a visual art audience.

Jeff Sparrow In 1984, Geoffrey Edelsten opened his first “super clinic” in Western Sydney. The facility replaced the subdued atmosphere of the traditional doctor’s consulting room with unabashed tack: pink faux-mink couches, luridly dressed hostesses and a musician …

Peter Craven Adam Sisman’s 2015 work, John le Carré: The Biography, did a great job of narrating the writer’s life. The man who created Smiley and Leamas in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was born David Cornwell, the son of an astonishing …

Paulie Stewart While iconic Australian rock band Mental As Anything always presented as not taking themselves too seriously, the exact opposite can be said about their approach to music-making. As Stuart Lloyd chronicles in his engaging new book, Started Out Just …