None of Us Are Free / When One of Us Is Chained
In a recent media release from the office of the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke (2024) referred to a government arts initiative as an “opportunity to highlight exceptional but lesser-known works within the National Collection and share them with communities for whom they hold special significance.” Imagine: $11.8 million over four years spent on transferring and safeguarding old paintings like The Countrywoman (1946) by Russell Drysdale and The Anteroom (1963) by Charles Blackman. The two old ghosts from the graveyard return to the gentlemen’s estate at Retford Park for the bourgeoisie of Bowral. Are you bored yet? You bloody well should be.
Exclusive to the Magazine
None of Us Are Free / When One of Us Is Chained by Daisy is featured in full in Issue 3 of Memo magazine.
Get your hands on the print edition through our online shop or save up to 20% and get free domestic shipping with a subscription.
Related
“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.
A prolific hyperproduction and sense of take-over lifted the Brio’s head out of the fray.
Helen Johnson’s The Birth of an Institution (2022) is a visceral vision of colonial power—an exposed white woman gives birth, not to a child but to the dome of the State Library of Victoria. Encircled by cold-eyed onlookers, she embodies both subjugation and complicity, raising urgent questions about the institutions we inherit.