Editorial

Welcome to the first issue of Memo magazine, seven years since we began publishing our weekly online art reviews. For all the obvious advantages of the virtual — its immediacy, its accessibility, its easy revision — there is something about the materiality of printed text that makes a particular claim on the reader’s attention.

Peripheral Visions opens this issue, with Audrey Schmidt unveiling a covetous history of tall-poppy takedowns in the Melbourne art world. Philip Brophy follows up, ripping into Hollywood’s shallow art-world playbook, while Cameron Hurst checks-in with the once-celebrated Spike magazine cultural critic, Dean Kissick, in his post-zenith era. The Manhattan Art Review’s Sean Tatol visits the Dutch artist group, KIRAC, reporting on their legal woes with French literature’s ageing enfant terrible, Michel Houellebecq. And Verónica Tello reflects on what’s next for Australia’s new-generation art historians in our uncertain, post-contemporary multipolar world.

Each edition of Memo will bring you an in-depth focus on an artist. We would like to thank Archie Moore, knee-deep preparing for the 2024 Venice Biennale, for his support and enthusiasm for our four writers — Rex Butler, Tara Heffernan, Tristen Harwood, and Hilary Thurlow — each of whom explores a specific facet of his practice.

We also have essays and reviews on art from all around Australia and the world. Amelia Winata turns up the heat on Melbourne’s public museums as Callum McGrath uncovers a typically Eurocentric failure at the heart of British art historian Claire Bishop’s recent Artforum essay on research-based art. Helen Hughes writes on Helen Johnson’s The Birth of an Institution (2022) and Chelsea Hopper and Shaune Lakin on Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993). Stars like Isa Genzken, Royal Academy graduates like Anna Higgins, cult-favourites like Jas H. Duke — Memo features all this and more.

A special thank-you goes to our dedicated writers, the backbone of Memo. Our publication is entirely volunteer-run, and this inaugural issue would not have been possible without the commitment and belief of our writers.

Finally, thank you to you, our readers and supporters, for staying with us for so many years now. Your ongoing interest and loyalty have given us the confidence to attempt this new version of ourselves — all in the comfort of a physical magazine that you can hold in your hands.

— Paris Lettau