Category Archive: AUSTRALIANIA
Butterfly on a Pin by Alannah Hill
It is wrong to judge an autobiography on the character of its subject. It’s apparent from Australian fashion designer Alannah Hill’s memoir, Butterfly on a Pin, that she is melodramatic, rude, narcissistic, deliberately ignorant and Difficult to Get On With. Hill says that she was molested no fewer than 4 times her in her youth. She does not mention eating anything other than junk food and lollies. In her younger days she lied, forged and stole (“the next day I shoplifted a hammer”). She is obsessed with her son* and her dead mother (whom she spends much of her book demeaning). She had an undoubtedly rotten childhood, has pulled-herself-up by her pretty bootstraps…
Continue Reading →All That Glisters is Not Gold
Archibald Prize, 2018 The Varnished Culture has already dripped its contempt over the Nobel Prize for literature. Now we can pronounce last rites for the Archibald, which this year is ‘won’ by Yvette Coppersmith, for her self-portrait (after George Lambert). But George W (1873-1930), whose portrait of a lady is the main image to this note (see above), knew how to paint. This latest prize-winner (see below) is a real shocker, not worthy of an art student, a vacuous, slapdash, iridescent cartoon… The pallbearers for the Archibald call themselves the “Art Gallery of NSW Board of Trustees”. They comprise: Mr…
Continue Reading →Happy Tigers Bite Back
Friday Night, May 4, 2018 at Richmond Oval: Glenelg Tigers v West Adelaide Bloods, Wolves, whatever… It shaped like an early battle for the wooden spoon and if this was to be the case, The Varnished Culture would rather not be there. (Anyway, there was champagne and Impressionists on offer at the Art Gallery.) Consistent with the bad luck charm that we are, and with the Milera Boys flying, our absence ensured that the lads lost the battle (for the Spoon – or at least it’s deferred for now) by winning the game. We’ll let Senior Coach Mark Stone report,…
Continue Reading →Time to Terminate the Sydney Biennale
Inspired
45 years, 70 artists, 35 countries, 7 locations…and virtually Nothing worth having Fido cock his leg on. At the risk of being “cute,” we’ll quote ourselves: Modern Art is, in the main, pure fraud. It operates on ruthless market principles, clothed in doubletalk and gobbledegook. It has abandoned aesthetics and no longer seeks, were it even able, to be evocative. We call it the *Post-Eternal Phase, because its representative works leave the mind as soon as the audience turns away and its work is complete as soon as the cheque is cashed. It is perfectly credible for Banksy to state that Art…
Continue Reading →Snooze and Lose
When we were Kings
April 28, 2018 at the Bay – Glenelg Tigers vs Central Districts Bulldogs With all teams’ form decidedly patchy early in the season, but the Bays being patchier than most, we were filled with dread (as well as a splendid lunch at the Holdfast Hotel) ahead of this Round 5 clash at home. April 28 was the day of the massacre by the lunatic Bryant – we feared another. We learned that the Milera boys were ‘outs’ due to ‘personal reasons’ – no offence lads but really, does a death in the family have to interfere with the football? After…
Continue Reading →