Surrealists at sea, fake food, and the Beijing Silvermine

FromThe Art Show

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Surrealists at sea, fake food, and the Beijing Silvermine

FromThe Art Show

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54 minutes

Released:

Jun 30, 2021

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Podcast episode

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Czech brothers Dušan and Voitre Marek escaped communist political repression for Australia, but their Surrealist art was met with incomprehension in 1950s Australia. Now decades of their vibrant artistic output is on show, raising the question -- why aren't they better known? Plus, sculpture meets imitation food and the found photos that document China's embrace of capitalism.

Released:

Jun 30, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Artists tell us how they create and why they do it. From artists’ studios, exhibitions, and live issues, we take art out of the white cube and into your ears.

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Creativity and the gig economy: Have you ever rented out a room in your house to a stranger? If you have, you've been part of the gig economy - that growing sector that promises ease and flexibility to consumers. But what are the costs of working this way? And what might artists learn from looking closely at the gig industry? by The Art Show
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Shaun Tan and the human animal connection: Author, illustrator and film-maker Shaun Tan explores our beautiful and complex relationship to animals. And we speak to the provocative Darwin-based artist Therese Ritchie, whose work confronts racism in the Top End. by The Art Show
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Olafur Eliasson's disappearing glaciers: Two decades ago, artist Olafur Eliasson hired a plane to fly across Iceland so he could document the epic glaciers of his homeland. When he returned years later, many of the glaciers were completely unrecognisable. Or had disappeared altogether. by The Art Show
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Art history greats reimagined on social media: From Kahlo to Klimt, Monet to Matisse... If famous artists from history were alive today, what would they post to their social media? by The Art Show
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Matisse and Picasso: rivals, friends, frenemies: Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are thought of separately as two of the 20th Century's greatest artists, but did you know they had an enduring friendship and rivalry? by The Art Show
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Critiquing the 'colonial propaganda' in our museums: When you go to a museum, do you ever wonder how the objects were acquired? Alice Procter is an Australian art historian who wants us to critique what she terms the 'colonial propaganda' within our museums. by The Art Show
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The tricks and turns of Marcel Duchamp: When Marcel Duchamp brought a bicycle wheel on a stool into the gallery, he turned ideas of sculpture and authorship on their head. We reflect on the legacy of this great 20th century figure and meet a couple of contemporary art innovators working today. by The Art Show
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Hisham Matar on art, grief and healing: In his latest book, A Month in Siena, Hisham Matar travels to Tuscany to look at the city's ancient paintings. In the process, he finds himself grieving for his father who disappeared 30 years prior. by The Art Show
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Olafur Eliasson's disappearing glaciers: Two decades ago, artist Olafur Eliasson hired a plane to fly across Iceland so he could document the epic glaciers of his homeland. When he returned years later, many of the glaciers were completely unrecognisable. Or had disappeared altogether. by The Art Show
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Collecting art on a budget: We speak to a couple of art experts who insist you don't need to be a big spender to get started collecting art, drop by the studio of Australian artist Patricia Piccinini, and hear about a very special piece of art that connects Melbourne man Guido Melo to Brazil. by The Art Show
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Kirsten Lyttle on connecting to culture through photography: Mixed media artist, Kirsten Lyttle, reflects on the ways her arts practice continues to bring her closer to cultural identity. We meet the Serpentine Galleries Curator of General Ecology, Lucia Pietroiusti, and hear about some treasured 'bounce back' Japanese dolls called okiagari-koboshi. by The Art Show
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Abdul-Rahman Abdullah on family, religion and animals: Artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah discusses family, winning the Australian Muslim Artists Art Prize and why his art features so many animals. by The Art Show
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Kay Rufai on creating change with black boy joy: Kay Rufai's Smile-ing Boys Project is a visual and audio project that flips negative stereotypes and perceptions associated with young black boys on their head to create healing and social change. by The Art Show
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Reflecting on touch in an era of isolation: Touch is a huge part of the way we experience the world, so how are our lives being reshaped in this era of physical distancing without touch? We explore these ideas with American photographer Robert Andy Coombs and Australian artist Michelle Vine. by The Art Show
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Sandra Hill on art and reconciliation: Sandra Hill was 6 years old when she was taken from her family in 1958. As part of the stolen generation, it wasn't until years later that Sandra found herself able to reconnect with her culture and community through art. by The Art Show
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Liz Ann Macgregor on running the most popular contemporary art museum in the world: We meet Liz Ann Macgregor, the museum director who began her career driving a truck around Scotland, and wound up running Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art - the most visited contemporary art museum in the world! by The Art Show
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Nicholas Mangan makes art from phosphate, coral and bitcoin: Nicholas Mangan is drawn to the stories behind some of our most contentious commodities: phosphate from Nauru, copper from Bougainville and cryptocurrency, which Nick compares to an ancient form of stone money from Yap, a Micronesian island. Nick takes the viewer into these histories through sculptural installations and intriguing films. His survey exhibition World Undone is now on at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. My Thing is… GPS Art. ABC science reporter Belinda Smith makes art on the run, creating increasingly detailed pictures of animals on GPS maps, that she then matches with perfect puns, via her Inst account @animalpunruns. First broadcast May 2023. A teapot made by the South Australian ceramic artist Bruce Nuske is a beautiful thing to behold: ornate, whimsical, exquisitely crafted – and importantly, it can also pour a hot cup of tea… if you’d dare put it to use! Bruce's teapots and vessels are also ste by The Art Show
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An outback monastery hides the biggest art heist you've never heard of: The town of New Norcia in WA is a monastery in the bush, home to a community of Benedictine monks and a treasure chest of 17th and 16th c. European religious art -- all of which was stolen in a brazen heist in 1986. It's an art crime that RN's Marc Fennell set out to unpack with art historian and fraud expert Dr Pamela James in a new SBS TV series. My Thing is… The Resilience Coat. Rowena and Angela Foong, from the label High Tea with Mrs Woo, have designed a coat for all bodies, all trends and all of life's upheavals, complete with an in-built repair kit. It's been shortlisted for a national craft award. The mining town of Broken Hill might still be best known for Pro Hart and his 'Brush men of the bush' but Barkindji artists David Doyle and Krystle Evans are part of a thriving contemporary art scene influenced by Barkindji stories and art practices. Producer Rosa Ellen visits their respective studios after the by The Art Show
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The artist who recreates 'petrichor' plus James Tylor and painting house flies: Catherine Sarah Young is an artist working with science to talk about the climate crisis. Most recently, she's making art about petrichor -- the smell of recent rain emanating from the earth, and what it might be like when fire and flood obliterate it... or what petrichor smells like on Mars! Catherine is the Art Show's ABC RN Top 5 resident. When James Tylor discovered the laborious but beautiful 19th C. photography method of daguerreotype, he found a medium that expressed the darkness of historical memory. Drawing on his Kaurna heritage, James explores the ravages of colonial intrusion on landscape and language, through beauty and craftmanship. Daniel meets the painter Nadine Christensen in her backyard studio and learns why the ordinary - from house flies to front gates, cranes, and acrylic paint -- are worthy of examination on canvas. by The Art Show
54 min listen
Lonnie Holley's creative universe plus Mary Beard on how the Caesars used Art to wield power: US artist Lonnie Holley is a prolific maker of things - whether it’s his assemblages of found objects or the fluid, jazz-style improvisations of his music. He’s one of those polymath creative spirits who don’t separate one artform from the other. But his life of improvisational creativity wasn’t a certainty for Lonnie, who was born 73 years ago in the Jim Crow era in a hotbed of racial politics in America’s Deep South. Classicist Mary Beard examines art inspired by the lives and excesses of the Caesars, who wielded power in cruel and immoral ways. They established a visual propaganda machine - minting themselves in coins, sculpture, paintings, mosaics, and even baked goods! Their art historical legacy is however contemporary and omnipresent. First broadcast November 2022. by The Art Show
54 min listen

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Surrealists at sea, fake food, and the Beijing Silvermine

Surrealists at sea, fake food, and the Beijing Silvermine

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