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The ‘Yolŋu surf rock’ of Yothu Yindi’s next generation
First published in Guardian Australia, October 2020
The music of Yothu Yindi, says King Stingray guitarist Roy Kellaway, is in his blood. He and the brand new band’s singer, Yirrnga Yunupiŋu, grew up together as wawas (brothers) in the north-east Arnhem Land town of Yirrkala, population circa 800, on Yothu Yindi’s homelands – Yolŋu country. Roy is the son of Yothu Yindi’s bass player, Stuart Kellaway, and Yirrnga is the nephew of its ...
A gentle hidden gem: a visitor’s guide to the NSW far south coast
First published in Guardian Australia, January 2022
About six hours drive from Sydney and seven from Melbourne, on Thaua Country in Yuin nation, are the small towns of Pambula and Merimbula. This is not your stereotypical Australian coast of bold, gold beaches and “aparthotels” with salt-smeared glass balconies. The far south coast of New South Wales has a gentle, hidden gem feel. Ringed by national parks and nature reserves, solitude is easy ...
‘An inscrutable and open-ended riddle’: the life and art of Jeffrey Smart
First published in Guardian Australia, December 2021
One reason Jeffrey Smart paintings have gone up in price is because that’s what happens when there’s a big show, such as the one at the National Gallery of Australia celebrating 100 years since the late artist’s birth. Another reason is love. Specifically, how the love for Smart’s paintings stays unrequited because it’s never wholly fulfilled. “I’ve really noticed with this show that private collectors hold on ...
From gentlemen’s club to bar run by ‘lady tycoons’: welcome to Sydney’s the Great Club
First published in Guardian Australia, February 2021
A cheer erupts at Sydney’s newest music venue, though there’s no band playing. It’s opening night at the Great Club in Marrickville, a bar and venue with a post-Covid capacity of 300, but management has decided to soft launch with a handpicked group of neighbours, local politicians and members of the Greek-Australian community. The people, that is, who it is wise to keep on-side if ...
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The artist who turns roadkill into fine art
First published in Australian Financial Review (Life & Leisure), December 2020
Wearing scuffed boots and leather motorcycle pants, poet and artist Judith Nangala Crispin is pointing to a print on a wall in her home. “It’s called Lily returns to Altair, the brightest of Aquila’s stars, wearing the body of a crow,” she says. The name alone is worthy of a moment’s silence. Crispin’s arthritic labrador wheezes, while outside chooks scratch the soil near a veggie patch. ...
‘Until recently, this work was in a shed’: NGA surveys 120 years of art in search of gender parity
First published in Guardian Australia, November 2020
Being asked to serve dinner. That’s a key memory for Adelaide artist Margaret Worth of a landmark 1968 exhibition of Australian abstract art, The Field, at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Worth was an artist of excellence herself, and married to Sydney Ball, whose work showed in The Field. The curators knew she was a painter when they visited the couple’s home but “just asked ...
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Tash Sultana: on solid ground
First published in NME, April 2020
When the video stream begins, the footage is sideways. Oh no. The camera is flipped the right way a moment later and prayer hands emoji to that! It means hundreds or, more likely, hundreds of thousands of people around the world can stop tilting their heads sideways to drink in the sight of Tash Sultana in a beanie, a baggy tee and jeans ripped at the ...
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Desert mob scenes
First published in Art Guide Australia, January 2020
First held in 1990 at Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, Desert Mob is the oldest of Australia’s thriving annual program of Aboriginal art fairs. With its 30th anniversary coming up in September 2020, Kate Hennessy looks back on Desert Mob 2019. The first thing to know about Desert Mob is that the artists wholly select the works exhibited. The second thing is those artists come from what Araluen curator ...
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Sampa the Great: ‘I went back to Zambia and people said, you’re different’
First published in The Guardian Australia, September 2019
Sampa the Great was terrified before she stepped on stage to play her first ever show in Africa earlier this year. The show was in the Zambian capital of Lusaka – and the artist, MC and poet’s cousins were in the front row. “I’m based in Australia and all the monumental moments in my career have happened there,” says Sampa (born Sampa Tembo). “But I’m from ...
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‘Just don’t stare’: a night of nudity and dancing at the gallery
First published in Guardian Australia, January 2017
“Here?” I ask. “We undress here?” The man beside me already has his pants off. His name is Matt and he got a head start while the Sydney Dance Company’s artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, gave a welcome speech at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. As Bonachela talked Matt had removed his sneakers and stuffed his peeled-off socks inside. About 150 of us begin ...