Image right: Tess and Tahney on Wadawurrung Land (near Ballarat). 

More international reciprocal collaboration, curiosity and exchange is needed.

– Tess Maunder

Sticky Teeth’s micro-interviews have less to chew off.

Ft. bite-size words from creative professionals at the intersection of the arts and writing. 

Take a digestive change from dense arts writing with Tess Maunder’s in-brief thoughts on paying art writers, taking naps to meet deadlines, and big love for Raqs Media Collective.

xx Tahney

Tess Maunder is a writer, curator and editor based in Naarm/Melbourne. 

She has over a decade of experience working in the cultural sector both in Australia and overseas with a focus on programming contemporary visual art practice of the Global South. She was one of four international curatorial collegiate for the 11th Shanghai Biennale, Why Not Ask Again, with Chief Curators Raqs Media Collective (2016 – 17). Tess has a prolific writing practice and contributes regularly for national and international publications, academic journals and catalogues.
Tahney: For you, what’s a big writing/language problem in the arts, and how can we work to overcome it?

Tess Maunder: Universal basic income would assist in allowing us all to dream, think, read, write and participate more. Art writers need to be paid more and on time. At a more micro-level, I would like to see art-world institutions more deeply value art writing, and not only reach out to writers when they want their exhibition reviewed. It should be reciprocal. We need to be asking how are art institutions investing in, and creating opportunities for art writers and discourse? I would like to see more platforms and airtime for experimental / interdisciplinary / collaborative forms of writing. I would also like to see all editors challenge themselves on working with writers outside of their peer-group, friend-group and city. More international reciprocal collaboration, curiosity and exchange are needed.

Language-adjacent arts practitioner/s that you love? 
I love McKenzie Wark, Raqs Media Collective, Patrick Flores. Wark for her making easy/accessible of dense contemporary Marxist readings. My favourite book by her is Capital is dead: is this something worse? (2019). Raqs Media for their commitment, generosity, integrity & subversion which cuts through art world BS. Their website is a goldmine of interdisciplinary ideas. 
 
Bell Hooks, obviously. Theorist Tirdad Zolghadr, Artist Lantian Xie, Jazz Money and D Harding, Australian writer Bri Lee. Patrick Flores for his work at the intersection of art history, curatorial practice and writing in the Asia-Pacific. When I was younger, I was influenced by Hito Steyerl, Maria Lind and Boris Groys. While they are all great practitioners, I try to take a more hyperlocal approach these days.
A fav quote from Raqs?
“What the first rain does to our senses, to our bodies, to our dry and waiting minds is the sly undertaking of just a quiet shift, a barely perceptible re-calibration of our appetite for life. The rain invokes something latent, something unformed, something hidden in us, and coaxes us to give those musty, locked-in aspects of ourselves an airing. It awakens sensations just under our skin, makes us remember snatches of forgotten songs and stories, and allows us to see things in the shapes made by clouds. We open windows, unlock doors and let the world in. Our dreams turn vivid. The best kind of art, like the rain, invokes a re-ordering of the cognitive and sensory fields. It asks of its actual and potential publics to open doors and windows and let other worlds in. This re-ordering — subtle, slight, sure, sharp or soft as the case may be, whether it is a desultory drizzle across a few frazzled or jaded synapses, or the neurological equivalent of an electrical thunderstorm and sudden downpour — is why we bother with art in the first place. When it rains art, we do not reach for umbrellas. It makes sense to let ourselves soak, as long as we can, like children dancing in the season’s first rain.” 
 
Raqs Media Collective ‘Wonderful Uncertainty’ (PG 76-82) First published for Curating and the Educational Turn in 2010.
Give yourself a shout-out! 
What’s been your most deeply satisfying project?

My mentorship with Raqs Media Collective in New Delhi was the most formative to my curatorial and art writing practice. They are the most brilliant of humans, intellectuals and artists. I worked with them as a curatorial associate for the 11th Shanghai Biennale. What that actually meant; lots of critical reading, fundraising, install workshops, viewing so much artwork, marketing, writing, copy-editing, event planning etc. What I found inspiring about Raqs is their commitment to their practice, and turning up for each other as a collective, and their interdisciplinary approach. Naps are okay, as long as deadlines are reached, and collective studio lunches are a must. Intellectualism is next level in India, and the West really has no idea. It was a privilege to attend art and academic events in New Delhi. 

& the most recent thing you’ve released? 

Review of Yona Lee at Gertrude Contemporary Naarm/Melbourne for Ocula Magazine. 

Hey! My name is Tahney. I design words that fill the space between you, your creative project, and your audience.

For more on arts writing:

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David Willis: “It is my personal mission as an art writer to strike a balance between critical rigour and concise readability.”

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Carmela Vienna talks about the overreliance on AI in arts marketing and social media, and the need for more inspired, well-edited content, as well as treating arts marketing more seriously within arts orgs in general.

May 28, 2024

Too, with the Venice Biennale as a whole, in this unearthliness, the curatorial was a blur of impact and thought. I wasn’t sure if it was possible to achieve anything cohesive. I’m still not sure if it’s possible to look at, en masse like this, the variety of mediums, ideas, and cultural contexts and get it and not just be overwhelmed, weary, and clueless.

April 25, 2024

Haneen Mahmood Martin talks about shared accountability and diverse perspectives in the arts industry, matching words with actions—i.e., more POC in leadership positions—and the use of clear, accessible, but impactful language.

March 18, 2024

Liv Collins has an infectious energy rare in an industry of pretension. I’m really excited to feature her in this sticky teeth micro-interview for her truths about writing education at art school and some hot insider arts reading suggestions.

February 20, 2024

Anna Kate Blair speaks on the intersection of art, writing, and time. She explains her major concerns for lack of enough resources for the writing process itself, and also touches on history, capitalism and imagining alternative futures for creativity.

January 22, 2024

Brussels-based journalist Sarah Schug discusses the challenges of language in the art world, the need for accessibility, the diminishing value of art writing and her proud accomplishment—a self-published book on Iceland’s contemporary art scene.

December 17, 2023

Writer and editor Erin McFayden reflects on framing artistic activities as labour and advocating exploring the good it creates rather than its economic value – as well as her reccs for some artistic endeavours.

November 14, 2023

Writer Yazmin Bradley touches on the pressure on authors under the commercialisation of Bookstagram – how can we reclaim the creative process from capitalism? She also explores working with her grandmother on her memoir and the possibilities of Substack for creativity.