Woroni | Arts

Silos, Silhouettes and Skylines
September 20, 2018 5:20 pm Comments Off on Silos, Silhouettes and Skylines
In Northam, the sunset matches the land. Layers of red, pink and brown like an endless gradient seep in to the scrubby horizon. Silhouetted against the darkening sky is the tiny town’s biggest art installation, its shades of green and blue almost garish in this brush-soft landscape. The site of this art? Not, as you might expect, another of Australia’s giant objects. Instead, the 6,500-person town 100km north-east of Perth hosted artists Phlegm and HENSE in 2015, who were tasked with painting its 36m tall silos. Three and a half years later, a unique collaboration has seen six different silo artworks take shape across Western Australia’s south, inspiring many more in other states.

Tower silos are tall cylindrical structures for storing bulk materials – in this case, grain. They are used by farmers or country towns to collect grain, enabling it to be stored and protected until it is transported for export or processing. Already significant landmarks in many small towns, the idea to use them as canvases for giant works of art which could be used to bring togetherness and tourism to small and struggling communities was inspired.

WA’s six installations form the Public Silo Trail, which began as a collaboration between a grain grower cooperative (CBH Group) and FORM, an independent cultural organisation. Six towns and eight artists were carefully selected for the project, which was seen as an opportunity to create an open-air cultural tourism opportunity in frequently overlooked regional areas. While both the surfaces being painted on (steel or concrete? porous or smooth?) and the pieces themselves were vastly different, FORM aimed for each one to act as a representation of the local community.

For many struggling rural towns, these silos are the promise of economic rejuvenation. Rochester, in Victoria’s north, pinned its hope on Jimmy DVate and the kingfisher he painted on a Grain Corp silo near the Northern Highway. Two weeks from completion, the mural – which depicts the bright blue and yellow bird on the banks of a river, feeding on a local fish – had already made the town “almost chaotic” with weekend traffic. It wasn’t only locals who stood at the foot of the silo to watch it take shape. Many tourists and residents of regional towns stopped by to have lunch and see the mural, bringing hope for local businesses.

The owner of Goorombat’s Railway Hotel says that the barking owl mural she can see from her window – also by Jimmy DVate – has brought life back to the pub. Formerly spare weekday lunches have seen as many as 30 meals served, and customers have had to be turned away on weekends. In Brim, where the first mural in regional Victoria took shape, tourists have continued to stop. As many as 20 vans are still seen overnight at the caravan park – with more during Christmas and Easter. Thousands more stopped in the small town of Coonalpyn, in South Australia’s south-east, to watch a mural of a local schoolgirl take form in 2017. The newly opened Coonalpyn Silo Café has benefited significantly from the business, and the District Authority has had to institute a traffic management plan to deal with the number of trucks pulling over.

Innovative solutions have been harnessed to help the towns maximise their profits, such as solar panels to illuminate the silos at night. DVate sees these collaborations as reflective of a greater aim to the murals. To him, they are more than a money-making opportunity, but a way to increase the wellbeing of towns and bring them together. With mental health issues a severe problem in rural Australia, and often stemming from the isolation felt by those in farm environments, community togetherness is an important aim. Guido Van Helsen, the artist of the Coonalpyn schoolgirl, is fondly considered a “local” and has been taken out for activities from drinking to sheep-shearing with the farming populations he has painted for.

The presence and importance of silo art is increasingly being recognised around Australia. Now, a new series of four Australia Post $1 stamps are set to display the murals at Brim in Victoria, Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, Fallon in Queensland and Weethalle in NSW. Australia Post’s philatelic manager Michael Zsolt sees silo art as a symbol of rural communities, and the environment, history and industries at their heart.

The Public Silo Trail officially launches this month, and FORM will be installing interpretive signage and starting a website with pictures and artist information. Hope for the rejuvenation of these rural communities is sorely needed, and silo art has plenty to give.

Tabitha Malet
Framing Trans Characters and Other Artistic Endeavours
5:13 pm Comments Off on Framing Trans Characters and Other Artistic Endeavours
My most memorable experience of realizing a character was transgender was in a webcomic. It wasn’t an especially grandiose moment, only a few panels of lines and colors and pixels. I remember exhaling – feeling like all the air had been pushed out of my lungs as the recognition hit me square in the chest. It was a transmasculine character casually taking off their shirt, revealing a binder underneath. No fuss, no fanfare, no surprise or discussion or “very special moment” acknowledging that they were trans.

You, my mind whispered. I recognize you. I know you better than the back of my hand.

Because really, who spends that much time looking at the back of their hands anyway? Not me, that’s for sure. But this? This nebulous feeling, the subtle wrongness of trying to fit into any definition of “woman”, the yearning of seeing T-shirts that lay flush against flat chests. Yes, I knew the feeling very well.

The name of the webcomic itself has long been lost to the haze of memory, but that particular moment felt like a revelation. Finally seeing someone like myself in a story – not only present, but tangible – was euphoric.

Of course, there are other systemic issues with the representation of trans people in our media. Firstly, there was an absolute dearth of trans representation in any sort of mainstream media until very recently, despite the fact that we have always existed – in every culture, across every time period. This non-representation is an even worse problem for trans and gender diverse people of color, who are basically non-existent in popular media. It took me a long time to realize that non-binary person of colour was even an identity that I could claim, a thing that I could be. A lot of that stemmed from not seeing anyone who looked like me or who felt the way I felt represented anywhere at all. Even now, the question of where exactly people like me belong remains. The shedding of identities that needs to take place just to fit into one place or another (cultural spaces, religious spaces, queer spaces) still gnaws at me regularly.

Then there is widespread practice of hiring cisgender actors, and those of the wrong gender especially, to play trans characters. This does tangible harm. Not only does it deprive trans actors of already scarce roles, it also solidifies the perception of trans people — trans women especially — as just cis people playing dress-up. Consciously or not, when people see cis actors such as Jeffrey Tambor or Jared Leto in their suits, receiving an award for playing trans characters, the image of trans women as just “men in a dress” gets another boost. These issues have been written about by trans people more eloquently than I ever could. I’m just touching on them briefly here to remind you that they exist, and they are important.

What I want to explore more deeply today is the framing of trans people in popular culture. I don’t know if coming across the same webcomic – the same colours, the same panels – would have the same effect on me today. I had only just come out to myself back then, and everything was feeling fresh and raw and new. But why I think it affected me so much was the context with which the character was presented. They were just living their life, and being trans was only a part of them being a whole self. Until very recently, I think that that might’ve been the best way I had ever seen a medium disclose that a character was trans. Until, that is, the queer visual novel game Dream Daddy, where a character only has an offhand line about wearing a binder to indicate that he is not only a trans man, but trans father to boot, and it is not even close to the most interesting thing about him. It is fabulous!

Of course, I’m not suggesting that throwaway casual lines are always the best way to achieve trans representation. After all, we don’t want the Dumbledore situation all over again, where creators can just retroactively point to a character and say “they’re queer now!”. But I think the best way forward for creators, especially cis creators who have no lived trans experience, is to let their trans characters exist in the way that feels true to their setting, without trying to shoehorn an explanation or calling excessive attention to their trans-ness.

Many of us are so desperate for any representation at all that we tend to overlook the implicit “othering” that happens to trans characters just by the virtue of the way they are framed. Every trans story is not a coming out story. Every trans person is not staring at a mirror putting on lipstick or binding their chest. A majority of the trans experience has to do with normal, mundane day-to-day living. Or hell, fantastic, high-flying superhero living! After all, we come in all shapes, shades and sizes. I think it’s about high time our media reflects the complex, diverse and colorful realities lived by trans people every day.

Al Azmi
Rap Devils
5:01 pm Comments Off on Rap Devils
We’re in the schoolyard, and a small crowd is gathering, chanting ‘fight’ over and over. A brawl is brewing before our very eyes. And it’s not going how we expected. It’s the bully against the bullied, and the bullied knows some moves you didn’t think he had in him. He’s hitting hard – and so far, the bully has yet to even throw something back. You’re almost starting to feel sorry for the bigger guy.
In this case, it’s Eminem (bully), versus Machine Gun Kelly, or MGK (bullied). Their latest exchange might seem extraordinary, but it stems from a feud going back to 2012, when MGK tweeted about Eminem’s daughter. The then-21-year-old rapper’s tweet described Hailie (who was 16 at the time) as “hot as f**k…. with all due respect.” In a late 2015 interview with Hot 97, MGK said he believed the tweet still affected his chances on radio stations with ties to Eminem. Though Eminem has previously referenced his beef with MGK, nowhere has it come as directly as in the song ‘Not Alike,’ on his recent surprise album ‘Kamikaze’. Of course, MGK is far from the only name dropped on the album, which came out just last week. Throughout the 45-minute record runtime, Eminem takes aim at Lil Pump, Vince Staples, and Tyler The Creator/Earl Sweatshirt, amongst plenty of other pop-culture based figures. But though some of these attacks present their own issues, none have been more enthralling than his ‘Not Alike’ diss. It isn’t even because it’s one of the best tracks on the project; rather, it’s due to MGK’s response, ‘Rap Devil’.
It’s been a long time since rap rivalry has mattered outside of the genre. It typically remains in the underground or within hip-hop circles, so watching it unravel in the mainstream is a treat for those on the sideline. Many have tried (and failed) to match Eminem with their own tracks, but nothing can touch the raw intensity of ‘Rap Devil,’ which MGK described in a tweet as a “battle between the past and the future.” Clocking in at just under five minutes, MGK spits some of the best bars of his career, taking aim at Eminem’s slump in quality for the last decade (“Still can’t cover up the fact/Your last four albums is as bad as your selfie”), his seemingly pre-determined success by working with legendary producer Dr. Dre (“Yeah there’s a difference between us/I got all my shit without Dre producin’ me”), and Eminem’s control over MGK’s stunted success (“I just wanna feed my daughter/You tryna stop the money to support her”).
Thus far, the Eminem camp has been relatively quiet, with only rumours circulating as to his apparent response being in the works. If the past is anything to go by, however, we’re in for a treat. Not so long ago Ja Rule, a hip-hop artist prominent during the early 2000s, found himself feuding with 50 Cent and, as a result, Eminem. In 2000, 50 Cent was stabbed and shot by people involved with Ja Rule’s company, Murder Inc, leading him to reference these events and attack Ja Rule in a number of his songs. 50 Cent then signed to Eminem’s record label, Shady Records, and Ja Rule was quick to threaten that if Eminem allowed him to be dissed through the record label, he would not hesitate to respond. This led to ‘Hail Mary’, a collaboration between 50 Cent and Eminem which essentially described Ja as a knockoff version of 2Pac. Ja Rule tried valiantly to get the one-up on Eminem by releasing the diss track ‘Loose Change’, wherein he attacked members of Eminem’s family, including his daughter, and insinuated that she would end up like her “crack head” grandmother or sexually promiscuous mother. Eminem employed his rap collective, D12, to respond with the track ‘Hailie’s Revenge’, all but ending the feud and, as time continued, Ja Rule’s career. Though this can be put to Ja Rule’s poor marketing decisions and constant in-fighting with his labelmates, ‘Hailie’s Revenge’ was the final blow.
Retrospectively, then, ‘Rap Devil’ is a brave move from an artist who is well aware of the potential consequences of challenging one of the greatest to ever make hip-hop. But it doesn’t make it any less entertaining. ‘Rap Devil’ is a fantastic track, filled to the brim with wit and one-liners that carry both substance and charm, but I’d advise MGK to start praying. Eminem always get the last laugh.

Sebastian Lawrence
No Coward Soul Is Mine
August 27, 2018 3:14 pm Comments Off on No Coward Soul Is Mine
On the 200th anniversary of Emily Brontë’s birth, a man plays a violin in a field of lavender. The stalks are high enough to brush his severely trimmed beard, and he tilts the instrument upwards to evade the sky-seeking flowers. His face, low beetling brows and prolific sideburns, stares directly at its neck. The body is sycamore, from an age-old tree felled close to the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth. He thinks it might even have been there during her lifetime. In an artistic sense, he says, the wood he spent three months labouring over has now come back to the moors.
While Steve Burnett has made violins for a number of historical figures, Brontë seems uniquely suited to this treatment. Burnett sees music as an extension of the literary world – and indeed, her literary world is almost all we know for sure of Emily Brontë. Independent and mysterious, our conception of her life has been shaped by the assertions and aspersions of biographers and laypeople alike and has given rise to a number of strongly-held beliefs which remain, despite little to no proof, foremost in many people’s minds.
If one thing about Emily Brontë is certain, it is that she never had it easy. Educated and impoverished, she was motherless and her parson father absent. Her dream, to start a school with her sister Charlotte, never eventuated. Brontë died of tuberculosis at 30, a year after her only book was published, on the same estate where she’d lived since the age of. As improbable as it seemed, that book would become one of the foremost in the English literary canon, and after Brönte’s death a million and one myths would spring up around her life. What better occasion than the 200th anniversary of her birth to re-examine them?
Brontë was a weird homebody and a loner
A recent book by academic Claire O’Callaghan argues that while it is clear that Brontë was shy and reserved, this doesn’t make her weird. Charlotte claimed in her preface that Emily rarely spoke to people in her village. However there is evidence that Emily was in fact quite well-known, and records remain of many people visiting her house. While Emily was boarding at Roe Head, Charlotte says she “felt in her heart that [Emily would] die if she did not go home,” but later historians suggest this was hypochondria brought on by the deaths of two members of the family from tuberculosis. And while Charlotte described the position Emily took at Law Hill as “slavery” in letters home, it is clear that Emily had no great love of teaching and this is just as likely to have been the cause of her resignation. Reports from her teachers at Heger’s School remember her as a “darling child” who was both intelligent and loved, and only left upon the death of her aunt. So while Charlotte might have constructed Emily as a weird homebody, this seems to be a way to excuse the unorthodox nature of her writing rather than the truth.
Her approach to writing was not intelligent or disciplined
In Charlotte’s preface to Wuthering Heights, she portrays it as “wrought with a rude chisel” and suggests that Emily was unable to control her artistic gift. In her biographical notice – a prelude to Wuthering Heights written after Emily’s death – she outright describes her sister as having “no worldly wisdom.” However these statements are widely seen as an attempt to protect Emily’s reputation, which was at risk due to her highly unconventional novel. Additionally, Charlotte regularly left Emily in charge of the whole family’s financial affairs, and her teachers remembered her as very learned, making it very unlikely that any of her sister’s statements were true.
She willed her own death
Charlotte’s biographical notice stated that her sister “did not linger” over her own death and grew mentally stronger even as her flesh perished. This hypothesis was supported by Charlotte’s declaration that the poem No Coward Soul Is Mine – a sort of elegy to one who may never be destroyed as they live on in God – was Emily’s last. However this poem was written much earlier on – before Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, in fact. Additionally, the tuberculosis which has been well-recorded to have claimed Brontë’s life had previously claimed those of several members of her family, and it was well-known that doctors were powerless to stop it. Perhaps Emily simply wished to live out her last few months in peace.
She had a secret lover
Several of Brontë’s biographers have been convinced that she couldn’t possibly have imagined Heathcliff and Catherine’s love story without having had one of her own. However, despite the sordid love stories of several of her siblings being immortalised in letters and lawsuits, none of Charlotte’s letters or the interviews conducted with Brontë’s acquaintances after her death have managed to turn up any evidence of a lover. The assumption that her poems show evidence of a lover are similarly flawed. Most of them have been well-established to relate to fictional characters, rather than Brontë herself. It has been noted that assuming Bronte couldn’t have written these stories without a lover is even somewhat belittling of her creative talent.
Emily Brontë’s life is immortalised in artefacts: a violin, gloves, letters, and perhaps most importantly the book she is most known for. While it is irresistible to delve into the personal life of our most celebrated authors as well as the literary, it is more than valuable to critically consider the myths that spring up. And while Brontë may be long dead, her courageous soul lives on.

Tabitha Malet
Comedic Critique or a Crass Comment?
3:05 pm Comments Off on Comedic Critique or a Crass Comment?
Comedy. As a form of art, it aims to critique society by pointing out the absurd and humorous aspects of a situation, social norm or societal standard. Yet at what point does making fun of something cross the line of comedy, and merely become unpleasant denigration and discrimination?
“Humorous” comments made by Trevor Noah in 2013 have recently resurfaced. Those offended by his derogatory remarks that Aboriginal women are not ‘yet’ beautiful are lobbying for a boycott of his August Australian tour. This has created another controversy, as Noah refuses to apologise for his comments. He defends them as being made with good intention – that is, comedic, not spiteful. I question whether making so-called jokes about the appearance of women, and then suggesting their absence of beauty is counteracted by their sexual performance, can ever be consider humorous, let alone art. These comments reinforce gender stereotypes; they emphasise that women are meant to be beautiful and, if not, suggest they must be, at least, sexually pleasing. Such comments further sexualise women, undermining their intrinsic value as human beings and playing into the power of the patriarchy. Given that comedy, and satire in particular, has a power to deconstruct social barriers and force listeners to reconsider the status quo, Noah’s comments reinforcing patriarchal standards are concerning. And even beyond strengthening social norms, such derogatory language is simply hurtful and not in the least witty.
Certainly, sensitive topics should not be completely avoided. Satire, as a form of comedy, can be an excellent means of deconstructing controversial issues. Aldous Huxley, for example, uses satire within Brave New World to question society’s obsession with fidelity and the ideal that women must be chaste. When such sensitive topics are touched on, it must be done with caution. If so done, it has the potential to effectively critique society in a manner political activists can only aspire too. This is because art possesses an emotional power that probes into the human condition, questioning the status quo and breaking down structural barriers. Art is thus inherently political, wielding a power that can explore contentious issues with more ease than politicians. But such power can be used to simply reinforce the status-quo – to fuel patriarchal, racist, homophobic and trans-phobic ideologies that divide our society. To ensure this does not happen, poking fun at sensitive issues is a delicate operation.
We must remember, however, that humans make mistakes; sometimes a joke will be made in the midst of a skit that on later reflection probably crossed a line. Such incidents occur, and to shun the comedian for the rest of their career for one mistake is probably overreacting. But, on the other hand, it must be acknowledged as unacceptable; acting defensively and claiming that comedy inevitably polarises individuals is not good enough when it was evident to the general public that a comment was discriminatory. Nor can I accept Noah’s claim that the joke was made in a different cultural context as justification that his conduct was comedic and therefore, justifiable. Jokes that base their punchline on reinforcing gendered stereotypes – in this instance, that women must be attractive, and if not, sexually precocious – without actually critiquing the stereotype are crass at best, and downright discriminatory at worst.
Kitty Flanagan, for instance, touches on sensitive gender issues but does so with tact. While some may not find her skits amusing, I highly doubt they could be considered derogatory or discriminatory. I attribute this to the style of Flanagan’s joke. Despite touching on issues of women and children, (specifically the assumption that it is out-of-the-ordinary for women not to desire children) these jokes are not told in a manner that reinforces the stereotype. On the contrary, Flanagan constructs her jokes to highlight the ridiculous expectation that all women want children and a partner. Yet again I am reminded of the distinguishing feature that identifies comedy touching on sensitive issues as either artistic or derogatory: whether such art breaks down the barriers surrounding the issue or simply supports the structure.
Comedy is a performance art, and how it is delivered will impact upon its reception. Delivery itself is an art, and extends beyond the tone of voice used. Body language and the context, including the gender, ethnicity and history of the person making the joke, influence how people react to the comments made. It is conceivable that if Flanagan were not a female, her jokes about being a middle-aged woman, single and childless may be considered mansplaining, or unacceptable. And this certainly isn’t the most contentious topic in the current comedy landscape.
Rape jokes, for instance, are incredibly contentious, and rightfully so. Whether sexual assault can ever be joked about is a debate within itself, but continuing my line of argument, comedy that skirts around or touches on this issue is far more likely to be received positively if the teller is female. This gendered reception of jokes is itself contentious. However, given the majority of sexual assault survivors are female, it is also logical – and even if a female comedian makes a rape joke, protest often ensues. Such an occurrence aptly illustrates that there are some topics that artists must approach with fine-tuned sensitivity. Jokes concerning sexual assault are perhaps best structured in the form of satire, where it is more evident that the artist is making an attempt to deconstruct the stigma around them and undermine the status quo.
Ultimately, while comedy can explore, deconstruct and satirize most topics within society, there are some that are incredibly difficult to joke about without appearing discriminatory. Even for less contentious topics, the comedian must always ask themselves whether they are simply reinforcing a social norm or standard, or questioning it.

Sarah Graham-Higgs
Too far for Barr?
July 26, 2018 1:42 pm Comments Off on Too far for Barr?
At 2.45am on the 29th May, Roseanne Barr tweeted “Muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The tweet was in reference to Valerie Jarrett, one of former President Obama’s closest advisers and a constant target of conspiracy theorists. Jarrett is African-American and was born in Iran to American parents. Barr’s tweet was a response to another stating that Jarrett “helped hide a lot,” referring to an unsubstantiated claim by Wikileaks that the CIA under Obama spied on French election candidates. While this tweet became the focal point for much of the media coverage surrounding the saga, it was certainly not the only controversial thing Barr tweeted that day. Another tweet, simply “Chelsea Soros Clinton” suggested that Chelsea Clinton was married to a nephew of George Soros, a billionaire Jewish philanthropist at the centre of many conspiracy theories. Barr has tweeted and supported claims that Soros was a member of the Nazi SS and the instigator of both the Black Lives Matter Movement and the Antifa.
After public outcry, including from some of her own cast, Barr deleted the Jarrett tweet and apologised. Later that day, ABC released a statement calling Roseanne’s twitter “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with [their] values” and cancelling her show.
The fallout on both sides was immediate. Multiple cast members came out in support of ABC’s decision. Emma Kenney (who plays Roseanne’s granddaughter) even said that she called her manager to quit the show and was pleasantly surprised when it had been cancelled. A rep for Soros shared his disgust with Barr’s comments; Barr’s ex-husband Tom Arnold agreed.
Perhaps it was an homage to the now-jobless crew that despite controversy, Roseanne received two Emmy nominations – for multi-camera editing and supporting actress Laurie Metcalf. While CNN claimed that Roseanne might get “the last laugh,” agreement seemed to be that these nominations reflected the talent of individuals and not the now-shunned Roseanne herself. As a society, however, we perhaps have not spent time on another question – has societal condemnation of Barr gone too far?
Opinion pieces proliferated after the show’s cancellation, building on the clickbait value of their message. People argued that despite America being under conservative leadership, it was no longer possible to be conservative on TV. But perhaps more significantly, it was said that conversations were being had on the show and around it that had value to society. These conversations couldn’t continue to occur if we simply shut the show down.
Part of the reason people have come out squarely against Barr is the almost unprecedented action by ABC. There’s an unspoken belief that, to prompt such a strong and swift response, she must have been really bad. But while we can laud ABC for being moral as much as we want, it’s likely that this wasn’t the only motivator behind the decision. Roseanne was set to bring in serious advertising revenue for the network, but the tweets and the subsequent #cancelroseanne campaign on twitter would likely have put the millions of dollars expected in product placement at risk. Media agencies had already expressed concern at their clients appearing alongside Roseanne, and not acting decisively would only have caused this to continue.
This was also not the first time Roseanne had tweeted inappropriately. Twitter user Mark M noted that this was a lesson to ABC to “believe someone the first 500 times” when they post something racist or discriminatory. And despite (or perhaps, partially, because of) these opinions, Roseanne had remained foremost in the 18-49 primetime slot since its revival. We can (and should) have conversations about how we moderate what society consumes, but if there is a market for 10 million people to watch what Roseanne is selling, it makes social and economic sense to keep it on air. So why did ABC choose the 30th May for decisive action? A combination of societal pressure and economic factors, rather than a moral stand, is the most likely explanation.
Thus while it might be convenient to see Barr as piece in the puzzle of societal change, celebrate ABC and ignore the 10 million people who watched her show before this last round of tweets, it is simply not accurate. No-one is contesting that what she said went too far. But to oversimplify and ignore the place of Roseanne in important societal conversations is equally, if not more, foolish.

Tabitha Malet
On Tasmania
1:33 pm Comments Off on On Tasmania
From 13th-24th June, Hobart’s waterfront was lit up, or for some, desecrated, by a number of large neon inverted crosses. The stunt was a part of Tasmania’s annual mid-winter Dark Mofo festival, which features headline musical acts and large art installations. Hosted by the privately funded Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) located in Hobart, the festival is centered on pagan and gothic influences and thrives on the weird and wonderful of the art world. It also thrives on controversy. This year, many argued, MONA owner David Walsh and Dark Mofo curator Leigh Carmichael took it one step further with their crosses. People were offended. Grandmothers were offended, Christian groups were offended, people wrote in swathes to The Mercury to express their anger. Even the Mayor of Hobart Ron Christie weighed in, questioning the continuation of City Council funding for Dark Mofo. A change.org petition calling on Christie to take down the crosses reached nearly 20,000 signatures.
This isn’t the first time Dark Mofo, or indeed MONA, have courted controversy. From its birth in 2011, the museum has run into criticism over everything from its The Great Wall of Vagina to the Cloaca Professional, which simulates the stages of digestion culminating in professionally made faeces (complete with realistic poo smell). Dark Mofo, which began in 2013, and started off as little more than a light display, has become one of Tassie’s enduring divisive issues. Last year, anger erupted over Hermann Nitsch’s 150.Action, a performance using the meat and entrails of a slaughtered bull. The annual nude solstice swim was nearly cancelled in its first year, but now sees record numbers of brave naked Tasmanians running into the freezing depths of the Derwent River.
The criticism thrown time and time again at MONA and Dark Mofo is that it’s offensive for the sake of it. That it isn’t really art. And the recent criticism in Tasmanian media suggest some think it has no value for the state.
In considering Dark Mofo’s place in Tasmania, one first needs to look back on the development of the state. Incest jokes and the infamous question ‘where’s your scar? (implying surgery to remove a second head) mask a very real lack of understanding of Tasmanian culture. The state was, until recently, a very conservative one. Until 1997, Tasmania had the harshest punishments for LGBT+ activity in Australia. It had limited diversity. It was set in its ways, and a small-town vibe dominated. When I moved to Tasmania from one of England’s most diverse cities in 2011, I found a state eager to throw off its stereotypes, desperate to confront head-on its often-hideous history. In Hobart, there was a city that had the potential to become one of Australia’s cultural hubs.
And it has certainly achieved this. The state’s calendar is peppered with cultural icons, including Agfest, Party in the Paddock, the Festival of Voices and Falls Festival (hosted in Marion Bay, which is often considered the most easy-going of the Festival’s four locations.) In Tasmania you can (don’t argue with me on this) sample Australia’s best avo toast, try the most inventive coffee, and stuff your face with gourmet cheese and meat. The state is exploding with tourism.
No one thing has changed Tasmania’s landscape as much as MONA and Dark Mofo, as well as the summer Mofo event. Controversy aside, MONA and its festivals have forced Tasmania on to the cultural scene. Mona has got mainland Australia talking and, crucially, is a hot-spot on any tourist’s itinerary. Dark Mofo persuades visitors to cross the Bass Strait not only for big names like St. Vincent, Zhu and Antony and the Johnsons, but for the whole package. Dark Mofo has a distinct feel, a flavour. Come dusk, Hobart is lit up in an eerie red. The city feels a little bit alive and a little bit dangerous. People descend on the waterfront to seek out the large light installations in unprepossessing warehouses, stand around open fires and splurge on Tassie’s home-grown food at the Winter Feast. Dark Mofo whips the state into a gothic frenzy.
On the issue of the inverted crosses, I am divided. On the one hand, the crosses were an easy statement to make to rile Christian groups. I doubt that Carmichael and Walsh could have got away with so flagrantly mocking other religions in that way. On the other hand, Dark Mofo thrives on being provocative, getting people talking. As Carmichael told the ABC, provocation is ‘part of MONA’s DNA’. Surely, the purpose of art is to get people to think, to question, to consider. Maybe even to make them angry. People viewed the crosses in a host of different ways. Whilst some were immediately offended, others noted they are reflected the correct way in the water. Hobart Pastor Kim Valentine told the ABC that, as St. Peter was crucified on an upside-down cross, maybe it was a sign of ‘humility’. Each person experiences Dark Mofo in a personal way, draws their own conclusion. And that’s what makes it so valuable to the Tasmanian cultural scene.

Miriam Sadler
The Aesthetic and the Political: Unearthing our Common Pulse
July 12, 2018 5:03 pm Comments Off on The Aesthetic and the Political: Unearthing our Common Pulse
Искусство. Letras. 艺术. L’art.アート. कला. Art.
Although different signifiers, with a slightly different etymology, these words are irrevocably united by what they signify: a human creation fundamentally concerned with humanity, reality and the state of our world.
This snapshot of languages displays the universality of art: the power it possesses to break down barriers that divide us by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion and class. Art, be it in any form, possesses an emotional power that probes into the human condition and questions the status quo. By deconstructing social barriers, and presenting all humans as innately equal, such probing strips back our so-called “reasoning” that often leads us down the rabbit-hole of rationalising inequality and injustice. It then crosses into the political sphere, primarily by way of social commentary and discussions on internalised power structures.
Art stems from the imagination and can therefore evoke empathy and force the audience to consider the lives of others. Indeed, Hannah Arendt recognises the power of the imagination in the political sphere, believing that it has the particular ability of distilling our idiosyncrasies and highlighting the common pulse that beats through all of us.
By engaging us on an emotional and intellectual level, art has the potential to entice us and draw us into a deeper discussion of social inequality. For some people, it merely reinforces what is already known, reminding of the need for continual action for change. For others, it can induce exposure to new worlds, forcing a consideration of the situation of others and expediating the process of empathy that facilitates change.
Studying Literature, I am continually reminded of the empowering intersection of the aesthetic and the political. Art is fundamentally concerned with aesthetic experimentation, which is a far greater task than just creating something aesthetically pleasing. The modernist movement, for example, sought to revive literature (particularly the poetic and novel form), to, as Era Pound famously declares, ‘make it new’. Virginia Woolf’s quintessentially modernist novel To the Lighthouse, for example, plays with free indirect discourse and ‘multipersonal representation of consciousness’, radically altering the novel structure. It also provides a social commentary that deftly deconstructs the gender expectations of the time, illustrating that even with a focus on reviving the beauty of art, political statements cannot be avoided.
No artist and artwork exists in a vacuum, even if the artist wishes to create their artwork for purely aesthetic reasons. Further, what is characterised as beautiful is not only context-dependent, but is itself a political statement. This is especially clear in our present-day, image-saturated and beauty-obsessed society. Context, whether explicit or implicit, is innately encapsulated in the creation. Even the artist’s wish to defy a political interpretation of their work is, in itself, a political statement.
Artworks immediately achieve what political groups and politicians labour to do: they speak to us first through our emotions, and then on an intellectual level. In so doing, art highlights the thread that weaves through all of us, the common pulse of our humanity. To steal Miranda’s words from The Tempest, artworks, particularly literature and film, can shine light on ‘How beauteous mankind is!’ and open our eyes to this ‘brave new world’.
Of course, this is not to suggest that art doesn’t explore the darker side of humanity. Great artworks discuss the flaws of humanity, expose them and play with possible solutions. Art can act as a caution; a foreshadowing of the depravity that threatens humanity. Literature, and particularly speculative fiction and science fiction, is notable for this – Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are just a few famous examples. By extrapolating real events in a creative manner, we become mere puppets in the hands of these authors. A twist in our favourite character’s fate tugs our heart strings, and makes us realise that what is happening within this text is not abstract from our world. The Handmaid’s Tale, made more famous by the TV adaptation, does just this. Drawing upon the Puritan movement within the United States, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Christianity as a whole, Atwood constructs a neatly crafted, albeit horrifying, situation. Although it initially appears so extreme that we place it in the abstract realm of fantasy, on further reading it becomes all too evident that such restrictions on women’s movement have happened in the past, and, more alarmingly, are continuing to happen today.
Yet it is not just the ability to discuss current affairs that gives art its unique powers. It is the potential to create a controlled scenario in which a certain element of the human condition can be explored. For example, within The Handmaid’s Tale, humanity’s hubris and our desire to ensure the continuation of the human species is played with, ultimately resulting in an analysis of power dynamics that run along gender and class lines. Especially within literature, relatable human characters evoke empathy, taking us on a journey into the human condition. This emotional engagement further reinforces our common pulse and can act as a galvanising force to initiate change. Beyond this political power that art, sometimes unconsciously, wields, art is intrinsic to our nature. As Doris Lessing suggests ‘the storyteller is deep inside every one of us’, natured by our imaginations that ‘shape us, keep us, create us’. Given that art is inherently human, it is a powerful tool for bridging the gap between abstract political statements that allude to the need for change and actual change. By engaging us on an emotional level and forcing as to realise the thread that binds all of us, art has a galvanising power that can prompt social change.
Art is the culmination of our attempts to speak of our times of trial; our attempts to connect with others in this world. I fundamentally believe that art, as the intersection of beauty and social commentary, has an immensely powerful role to play in deconstructing social divisions.

Sarah Graham-Higgs
In the Spotlight: ANU Flautist Serena Ford
June 28, 2018 9:19 am Comments Off on In the Spotlight: ANU Flautist Serena Ford
ANU student and 2018 winner of Canberra Youth Orchestra’s Concerto Competition Serena Ford will be a highlight performance at the upcoming CYO concert on 30 June. The CYO, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, performs four concerts a year at Llewellyn Hall and is the premier youth symphony orchestra in the ACT and wider region. I caught up with Serena before the big performance to ask about her musical journey:
‘I first started playing the flute in grade 5 with the Instrumental Music Program like many young Canberrans. I started because I really enjoyed, and still do, playing with other people. There’s a kind of ritual to playing music together and it doesn’t matter what music style you are exploring, it’s just such a communal, human experience, so that’s what first got me into music.’
‘I do feel this is a milestone for me. In the past I just played music because I enjoyed it, so I never did exams or any of the prestigious stuff to formally recognise the level I was at. This concert has become a symbol of all the work from my past years of practise, so that’s a really good feeling. The piece I’m playing is called Flute de Pan and it’s based off the Greek mythology creature, Pan, who I’m sure many of our classical studies students would be interested in. It’s a really interesting story since Pan is actually often credited as the inventor of the flute since he was chasing a nymph who transformed herself into reeds, which he then snapped and began to play as a flute.’
Alongside her musical achievements Serena is studying a Bachelor of Asia-Pacific studies here at ANU. I asked Serena how she manages to balance studying with being a committed flautist.
‘It has been quite a busy few years at university! I have to do a lot of intense planning at the start of semester to make sure I meet all my musical aims and academic aims in time and at a good level, and I practise every day. Although music is also an intellectual process in many ways, it helps me to practise a bit of flute in between massive study sessions so that I’m stimulating my brain with new tasks and keeping myself energised.’
Serena’s career at ANU started in year 12 at the Open School of Music, which she said exposed her to a new level of music learning. ‘In a more abstract way, I’ve found that through my other non-music specific studies at the ANU, the emphasis has always been on thinking about concepts in novel ways. Interestingly, this has really helped with the way I approach new pieces, since I realise there is a depth of thought and complex processes that go into writing a piece of music from the composers.’
Despite the concert’s prestige, Serena said she isn’t feeling too apprehensive about performing yet:
‘The funny thing is that it doesn’t really hit me that I’m going to be in-front of people performing until two seconds before I actually get on stage. So for the moment I feel pretty relaxed, but I know what’s coming! Sometimes I get so into the zone from performing that I don’t actually have solid memories of playing. I don’t remember any details between the moment of getting on stage and getting off. So I think I prefer to let the nerves come to me when they do and just focus on my technique and sound for the moment.’
I asked Serena about why students should get involved in Canberra’s orchestral scene and how other budding musicians can get motivated.
‘I think the main aversion most young Canberrans have toward the orchestral scene comes from the belief that it’s only traditional, classical music. We actually dabble in a whole bunch of different stuff, with the CYO playing alongside the jazz trumpeter, James Morrison last year, an a cappella group, The Idea of North, and plans to play a student study favourite later this year – film soundtrack music.’
‘Orchestral music can explore all sorts of human experiences and emotions. When you’re watching musicians onstage, they are engaging in a medium of human communication, since they are interpreting the collection of sounds and feelings and presenting it to the audience, who also have the chance to experience and interpret it in a different way again. It’s really magic and I highly recommend listening to as much live music as possible, since each new live performance is an expression of a mood and orchestral music covers the whole spectrum of emotion and styles.’
‘Following passions you have outside of study life really enriches your everyday life. When I’m stressed out about my studies, I practise my flute and that makes me feel better. When I’m stressed out about my flute, I study! The important thing is to pursue things that will give you satisfaction and which allow you space from only doing one task your whole day or week. It’s not about distraction or procrastinating, it’s just a really nice way to fulfil yourself and spend time cultivating the things that make you feel most content. I guess my last bit of advice is that getting into the zone and focusing deeply on whatever you’re doing, whether it’s practising the piano for fun, cooking in between study sessions or studying itself, feels dang good! And it’s good for you, too.’
Musical director of the CYO and ANU convener Leonard Weiss said that CYO is delighted to feature one of its own in the upcoming performance.
‘For me, it’s such a pleasure to conduct an orchestra that inherently brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to each rehearsal and especially the performance,’ Leonard told me. ‘For the most part, every musician is approaching this repertoire for the first time, so there is a genuine hunger for and appreciation of each new piece that we perform, which I think is evident to our audiences.’

Alisha Nagle
Listen to These Albums Instead of Studying
May 22, 2018 8:23 pm Comments Off on Listen to These Albums Instead of Studying
Exam season and hunting season. One is about stalking your prey, waiting for the opportune moment, and taking down your target in one swift blow… and the other is hunting season. What do these things have in common? They test your patience. But whereas hunting season is all about it, exam season is how willing you are to test yours. The patience you have for putting off that one assignment that isn’t due for maybe two weeks. Or maybe you’ve become the hunted deer due to your exam timetable. You think you hear something. It’s your friend telling you to get some study done. But you go back to eating grass, oblivious to the hunter (your exam) aiming down the sights, ready to take that perfect shot. If you’re like me, the deer in the scope, putting everything off until the shot is already on its way towards me, then why not live alongside some cool music? Here are my picks for the best albums to procrastinate to (or just whatever I’ve been listening to recently because I am wholeheartedly that deer).
Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog
I’ve been dying to talk about this album to anyone who is willing to listen to me. Hop Along have perfected their beautiful take on indie rock, mixing enticing guitars with a female vocalist whose voice contrasts melody with pain in a way that’s as endearing as it is plain fun. Full of danceable drum lines, sing-a-long choruses, and enough depth to rival the deep end of the pool you could never quite keep your head above water in, it begs your attention, and is perfect for those long nights of doing anything but studying.
Best track: How Simple – “Don’t worry, we will both find out/Just not together.”
Pianos Become the Teeth – Wait For Love
As well as having a really cool name, Pianos Become the Teeth have been putting out some of the most emotional and interesting music of the past few years. Wait For Love is the realisation of a sound the band has been pushing since their previous effort Keep You (also fantastic). The ebb and flow of the instrumentals contrast the haunting vocal lines, matching the engrossing tone of the lyrics. At times it almost feels triumphant; when everything comes together, it results in a satisfying crescendo, and deserves to be smiled at. And although it can leave you feeling down, it also beckons you to welcome the future, something that exams do the opposite of. Excellent.
Best track: Love on Repeat – “My prime was a still frame/In your movie days, so late.”
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
It’s three am It’s raining outside, and it’s icy. Snuggle up into your sheets, turn the lights off and take in an indie-folk classic. What hasn’t been said about this album? Confronting, emotional, uplifting, For Emma, Forever Ago is perfect for those quiet nights in, contemplating if that lecture tomorrow is really worth going to. Or maybe something bigger. I like to imagine Justin Vernon spent those cold nights in a cabin in the winter so that I could associate his magnum opus with the plight of students.
Best track: Lump Sum – “Balance we will not know/We will see when it gets warm.”
Open Mike Eagle – Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
Hip-hop is an incredibly diverse genre, and it makes for some of the most interesting music around. Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is no different. Written about the housing projects Open Mike Eagle grew up in, now demolished, it contains an incredible amount of wit and character, telling incredible stories without seeming over-the-top. His soothing, monotone delivery matches the pacing of the beats, never looking to overtake his songwriting prowess. It matches the want to procrastinate; wordy enough to draw your attention away but soothing enough to be played in the background.
Best track: (How Could Anybody) Feel At Home – “I write in all my fantasies and die in all my dreams.”
La Dispute – Wildlife
I couldn’t not mention this album that I hold so dearly in my heart. Wildlife is a rock/screamo/spoken word album that characterises that hopelessness one feels inside. The record drifts between deep, melodic storytelling (‘The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit’), dark, almost terrifying moments (‘King Park’), and questioning, upfront lyricism (‘All Our Bruised Bodies And The Whole Heart Shrinks’). It begs for your attention, before snatching it away and never relenting until the last track hits. It matches that hopelessness exams bring, almost begging you to give in, if just for a moment. It’s intense. Exams are intense.
Best track – All Our Bruised Bodies And The Whole Heart Shrinks – “Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking/One day there will be no heart at all?”
Nujabes – Modal Soul
I end my recommendations with a contradiction: something that I actually do listen to when studying. Or at least try to. I love this album too much at this point to focus enough on work. Nujabes was an incredibly underappreciated Japanese producer whose mark on instrumental hip-hop is still seen today. Though he is sadly no longer with us, he left behind two albums (Metaphorical Music being the other) that personify what music should be: environments that leave you breathless. His music makes me happy. Optimistic. Completely contrasting the feeling of exams. But who cares. I’m smiling right now.
Best track – Feather – “I’m keeping it vertical forever elevator/Riding the escalator to the something that is greater.”

Sebastian Lawrence