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Waiting for inspiration

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Waiting for inspiration The air in a waiting room carries a specific kind of weight, a density that seems to swallow sound. For centuries, artists have tried to capture this heavy, invisible presence. I think of Honoré Daumier , who portrayed the slumped, weary resignation of third-class travellers. He understood that waiting wasn't just sitting; it was an endurance sport. I see that same heavy air, but my era is electrified. The figure on the left isn't just sitting; they are anchored against a storm of data. Their head is buried in their hands, face half-hidden as if they're trying to crawl inside their own mind to escape the silence. The thick, aggressive slashes of orange and gold overhead resemble a visual scream, capturing that internal chaos where your thoughts race at a hundred miles an hour while your body is stuck in a plastic chair. The green glow on their skin adds a cold, modern tension, making the whole scene feel like a pulse vibrating beneath a still surface...

Anzac Day supports our continual efforts of invasion.

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--> ANZAC Day has ceased to be a day where we commit to 'never again'. Anzac Day has become a shallow glorification of Australia's capacity to make war. It is a celebration of Australia's capacity of invasion. In contemporary multicultural Australia Anzac Day is appearing as the last stand of our mono-cultural past. ANZAC Day should be a remembrance for the futility of war and to support efforts towards a pacifist Australia. It should not be employed by sporting leagues as a selling point to enable blockbusting displays of digger fortitude and bravery. Anzac Day is a celebration of protection, but what did the Anzacs protected us from? Who would have invaded Australia had Australia. What would have changed in Australia if we had not sent our military to Europe to be slaughtered. Why doesn't the bombing of Darwin gain more attention if Anzac Day is about the brave who stands by his mate? Anzac Day has moved from the regret of war to a he...

Bill Henson is Innocence

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Bill Henson is innocence I recently received an Art Monthly (Australia) April 2009 edition as a present. Whilst in the past I collected and read such publications avidly I now read them only by chance. Interestingly in the edition there is an article by Paul Rapoport on a book by David Marr about Bill Henson the photographer. Bill Henson has been a controversial artist not because of any overt behavior but because of his subjects and how he portrays his subjects. The subjects are pubescent boys and girls and their portrayal is both sensual and interpreted sexuality. Bill Henson's photographs are well supported by the 'cultured elite' and by state and federally funded galleries. The issues are; Henson does poach his subjects from primary schools for a photo shoot and the Prime Minister described one of his nude pubescent girls as 'absolutely revolting'. The article defends both issues. The primary school poaching was dismissed as a 'fear-mongering fabricati...