Shock of the New
The Tennant Creek Brio transform mining maps, dead TVs, and frontier wreckage into new cultural claims—rejecting imposed “otherness” and forcing the settler gaze into confrontation. If their art is a shock, who’s really being unsettled?
“Hell is others.” It’s probably not the best way to introduce an artist collective founded on the idea that strength comes from working together, that the harmonious whole is greater than the individual parts. But “hell” and its various connotations does relate to the work of the Tennant Creek Brio and to the Italian word “brio” itself, which signifies “fire” as both a destructive and creative force. “Hell” might relate to contemporary life at Tennant Creek, or at least how it’s generally depicted in mainstream reports as a broken-down town best passed through on the way to and from Alice Springs or the so-called Devil’s Marbles nearby.
Related
KIRAC’s gonzo filmmaking shatters art world niceties, but their entanglement with Michel Houellebecq—novelist, provocateur, reluctant porn star—turns chaotic. As lawsuits fly and reputations fray, the real spectacle isn’t the film itself but the battle over who gets to tell the story.
Dean Kissick’s Downward Spiral chronicled the art world’s contradictions with the breathless urgency of an end-times prophet. Now, with the column closed and the critic in semi-exile, the question lingers: was he a voice of his generation, or just another scenester burning out on his own myth?
“There’s no path for the magazine to restore trust in its current ownership.” David Velasco and Kate Sutton reflect on the situation with Artforum and its Summer 2024 issue.
