Immensely saddened that my friend, colleague and PhD student Stephen Hennessy left us on Friday after a sustained battle with cancer. His capacity to make work, to reflect on his practice through writing and to submit his doctorate the week before Christmas was beyond Herculean. A wonderfully dexterous artist and thinker and a raconteur of the highest order, it was one of the great pleasures of my academic life to work with him. Here he is with his supervisory team @seanloughrey2018 at the exhibition opening 6 weeks ago. A remarkable life lived to the full. Godspeed Steve! X
Just announced I am playing a solo gig in Tokyo on the 14th June @melodiatokro if you just happen to be in the neighborhood pop in for a Sapporo or two. It could be wild! #tokyoontour #biggishinjapan #melodiatokyo
Nothing quite like a scattered site exhibition in Singapore to sharpen the directional senses. @sgbiennale is a compelling and well curated show but you do feel like simply finding the work is a reward in itself. The bonus was getting to do some karaoke with @davidsequeirastudio and his partner Ben. Also great to see work from Aotearoa colleagues Kate Newby and Fiona Amundsen both pictured here. Fiona’s light box works of post-nuclear testing landscapes in Guam are disturbingly beautiful and Kate’s ceramic intervention on the old railway corridor speaks to the history of water management in a monsoonal city.
As we celebrate the milestone launch of Kait James’ legacy public artwork at Skeleton Creek, Truganina, we are also taking a moment to reflect on Public Art Commission’s less public-facing work. Offering more than just curatorial and production services, we are a policy development organisation that has helped shape the way public art is framed, commissioned, and realised across Melbourne and the regions. ‘Narrarrang Ngarri’ is a wonderful example of an outcome shaped by long-term collaboration with Wyndham City Council and Greening the Pipeline to develop policy that foregrounds the commissioning of contemporary, public art.
While developing major curatorial projects such as Treatment (2015, 2017, 2023) and Front Beach, Back Beach (2022), we have also researched, consulted on and authored numerous creative strategies for councils and major organisations, setting the foundations for meaningful and long-term cultural impact.
One such strategy was the foundational draft work we led for the Melbourne Metro Tunnel Creative Strategy in 2016–17. The extensive research, consultation, and drafting we undertook has since enabled hundreds of artists and curators—emerging and established, local and international—to create work in response to the curatorial rationale, founding principles, structure and language we provided. These temporary interventions have offset the effects of the Big Build, while the major legacy and line-wide artworks will shape Melbourne’s culture and senses of connection for generations to come.
It is gratifying to see this vision come to life, and we congratulate all those involved in bringing it to fruition.
#PublicArt #CreativeStrategy #MetroTunnelMelbourne
@metrotunnelart@metrotunnelvic@wyndham_city@laing.damien@artsandculturegeelong@publicartmelbourne@publicartmelb
After four years of twists and turns we are delighted that our (Public Art Commissions) first legacy commission by Kait James is launching on Saturday. Seen here in its final day of installation, Narrarang Ngarri is a beautifully considered and realised response to a site along the Federation trail next to the Skeleton Creek aquaduct in Truganina. Wadawurrung artist James has used the motif of what in settler parlance is the Sheoke to draw our attention to this beautiful indigenous tree that once forrested parts of the Western Plains of Naarm. The fronds of the trees in their thousands sang in the wind and James captures these vibrations so evocatively using steel pipes that rub against each other in the breeze. Huge props to Kait who has been monumental in shaping and realising this amazing work through all manner of challenges. Enormous thanks to co-curator Cameron Bishop, project manager Simon Reis, project mentee Rebecca Robinson, PAC media guru Rachel Morley, YI Li and the arts team at City of Wyndham and the amazing crew at Sculpture Co. Narrarang Ngarri launches this Saturday from 1pm at the Skeleton Creek aquaduct. All welcome. @public_art_commission@bishopreis@sculpture.company@kait_james@reisten1001
It’s hard to erase that formative musical decade when you first fell into music and I clearly have failed dismally in this new track. Still, pleased to broadcast that my new song Barest Bones with Mess Is Law has just dropped in advance of the launch this Thursday night at The Workers Club in Melbourne. A song about seizures of youth and finding ingenious ways for those just finding their way in the world not to not be ground down by assorted acts of political stupidity, the track can be heard on all streaming services as well as the Mess Is Law Bandcamp page. Spotify link can be found in my bio. The ghost of the 1980s analogue synth is alive and well here. Produced by Russell Scoones and shaped by Robin Murphy, Ryan James, Russell and yours truly,I would be very grateful for you to give it a spin and please let me know your thoughts. Much love DC @russellwscoones@ryanjames1221@robpmur57@ellie_b4@messislawband #barestbones
Edie and I giving it our all @meredithmusicfestival Maximum music for minimum@sleep but an awesome time had by all. Just plugging back into life support at home. So many great artists from Genesis Owusu to Fat White Family but special@props to Mannequin Pussy for knocking it out of the park.
