A visual diary on my time in Greece in July this past summer. I’ve been so obsessed with revisiting memories through video lately, especially with this trip, which came at a hot-and-heavy time. I think about the contours between Greece’s history and now, friendship and self, summers and daily life.
In July 2022, I had a one-day Singapore layover en route between Melbourne, Australia and Athens, Greece (on my eventual way to Lille, France, where I will live for the next few years).
Set in the Victorian goldfields of the 1850s, New Gold Mountain breaks new ground in its dramatic rendition of the power dynamics, racism and violence of this time and place, as seen from the perspective of Chinese migrant miners. Considering the SBS series in the context of the western genre it seeks to emulate and the Australian history it attempts to do justice to, Tahney Fosdike finds the show more willing to confront some myths than others.
More tame than ground-breaking, New Australian Printmaking has a present – although introverted – mindset. Grand notions aside, it subtly composes an evergreen appreciation of an ancient medium – future-proofing printmaking through the process, collaboration, and experimentation of producing something new.
Holly Block’s ‘It’s Love’ (2021) pulls at perception. Its surreal composition with little aesthetic refinement carries charm and unease. The dolls never satisfy in their form, nor does the barred-back, worn setting echo the multiverse to which they belong than beckon the unrecognisable. Behind the dolls, a mirror with a vintage frame smeared with Vaseline obscures reflection. On inspection, the words ‘You are beautiful’ become apparent.
Groundwork exists with both humble and dynamic energy, a duality owing to Mark Galea’s spatial and colour awareness transfixing his work with a presence open to the viewer’s approach.