On Second Thoughts
Making art vs making ends meet, especially during a cost of living crisis, means making tough decisions, Oslo Davis discovers.
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Making art vs making ends meet, especially during a cost of living crisis, means making tough decisions, Oslo Davis discovers.
What happens, asks artist Caitlin Shearer, when the starving artist trope becomes all too real, alienating artists from their practice, health and happiness?
Forget cultural nationalism, writes critic Lauren Carroll Harris, we fund art for a life of communal beauty and dignity.
The art world is an enterprise famously built on personal networks—but, as Sophia Cai writes, that doesn’t mean your best friends should also be your curators, collectors, profilers, show essayists, reviewers, installers and co-exhibiters.
Many artists have boycotted arts events and organisations over unethical funding and partnership concerns. But, asks Timmah Ball, should this burden always be placed on artists alone, particularly when the ability to boycott is its own privilege?
With current debates in the Australian media landscape on who should review a work of art, Sophia Cai questions the myth of critical neutrality.
The art world may be becoming a more diverse place, but are we really revolutionising who we consider ‘masters’?
Prizes are a chance to celebrate artists but the reasons why they choose to enter, and why prize organisers put up the cash, point towards growing cracks in the art world. Are we supporting a diverse range of artists, or are we gamifying the system?
Why aren’t more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in positions of power in the art world, and what needs to change? Wardandi (Nyoongar) Aboriginal woman and senior curator Clothilde Bullen explores these questions.
If life were a set of scales, what would the balance be for Australian female artists today? With over five decades of thinking, writing on, and curating exhibitions centring Australian women artists, Julie Ewington reflects on the position of female artists in Australia this International Women’s Day.
The arts industry is full of gatekeepers, but what happens when you become your own gatekeeper? Sophia Cai speaks with four artists who have stopped making work, or have slowed down in recent years, to ask whether they still consider themselves artists.
