NGV International / "Bearing witness: Contemporary Asian art from the NGV Collection"

Some new acquisitions in the permanent collection that struck a chord:

Kay Sage - Other answers, 1945. The eye is drawn to the flapping sheet and the mood as a whole is dream-like, oddly posed against the geometry of structures and shadows. Shades of Tanguy, Dali, de Chirico.

Two Rineke Dijkstra pieces of teenagers on beaches - Castricum aan Zee, the Netherlands, May 28, 1992 and Kolobrzeg, Poland, July 27, 1992. She's a remarkable photographer.

Richard Estes - Ticket window, 1969. The first time I've come across Estes I'm pretty sure, and the gleaming, shadowy realism of this one's a stunner. While I'm making comparisons - Edward Hopper anyone?

Bearing witness: Contemporary Asian art from the NGV Collection

A small show and a neat one. Prilla Tania's Hello and goodbye (2007) was my favourite - six photographs in series, two rows of three with horizons aligned; all but one (I think) with the artist herself along with a mat, a side table, a cup, an Indonesian artist in dialogue with a distinctively Australian landscape. Also good: Yee I-Lann's Anak Negeri (2007), exploring the displacement of Indigenous Malaysians in a staged photo that reveals more oddities the closer one looks, and evades any simple mood or emotional texture.

"Poetry goes no further than language: A historical moment of art becoming art again" (Buxton Contemporary)

Spotlighting the work of a small collective of Chinese artists in the 1980s-90s who called themselves 'New Measurement Group' and aspired to create art that eliminated 'anti-rationalist' elements - spiritual, directly emotional and in any sense subjective - this exhibition reminded me how deep it's possible to go with art, philosophy and the intersection of the two; the work itself didn't move me at all, and probably neither was it meant to. Interspersed were the relative sweetness of Darcey Bella Arnold's responses, including her orange peels, and finally "A Pipe is not a Poem" - which resonated interestingly with several of the individual artists' works (when not working as part of the collective) holding strong surrealist elements.

"Are you lonely tonight? I'm so lonesome I could cry." (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art)

Or, in the words of the Akan (West African - Ghanaian) saying, 'to human is difficult'. Loneliness is a rich topic and the artists come at it from a range of perspectives - most of which felt unsurprising if I'm honest, though I enjoyed many of the pieces. Top of the pops was Kayla Mattes' "Lonely Planet" (2025-2027), a 7-metre tapestry layering the history and present day of the personal-consumer digital world. Also, the two-channel video - "Beyond the Shadows: Gideon Appah Poetic Vision" (Gideon Appah, 2025) - that cites that saying, along with much other philosophy, as human figures - stand on the beach and surf.

Helen Oyeyemi - What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

When I read - and enjoyed - Parasol Against the Axe, the word that most came to mind was 'puzzling' and that's again true of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, a collection of stories linked by themes and motifs (keys recur) and, for reasons that aren't clear, characters ... although those glimpsed recurrences of characters, seen from different perspectives and at different points in their lives across different stories, add to the sense that the whole is something that has at least an orientation towards meaning. 

I had to take my time with these stories; mostly, I didn't feel they gave up their meanings easily or (in the case of the one about puppets, "Is Your Blood As Red As This?"), at all. Still, they're compelling. "Presence" stands out; strangely, for a story about two psychologists who come across a method of encountering their hypothetical, unborn child through a series of ghostly visitations, it feels the most naturalistic of the lot. So does " 'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea". 

Curious, but not for curiosity's sake; crisp writing, a slantwise view on the world. A lot to like, though I'm not sure I'll return to these in the way that I have done to, say, Kelly Link (with whom she's definitely in the same ballpark, vibes-wise).

"Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir" (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney)

This was an impressive and engaging exhibition - political through and through, expressed in lots of ways, through the reclamation and reuse of 'Aboriginalia' and otherwise. I was drawn to the 'Blak Velvet' pieces and the stunning large-format riffs on Margaret Preston - both immediately impactful while also multi-layered and nuanced.

House of the Dragon season 3

For me it's only been in this third season that House of the Dragon has properly begun to catch my imagination - the stakes now well-enough established and the characters well-enough defined and with enough depth behind them that I feel some proper investment, especially those who've been there from the start. It helps that the war proper between the Blacks and the Greens has arrived too; Ormund is a great antagonist and Gwayne turns out to be one of the few straightforwardly likeable characters. Matt Smith continues to be excellent as Daemon - eminently 'believable' as a fantasy character - and it works that we continue to see a lot of the events effectively from Rhaenyra's perspective (even when she's not present, and even as her trajectory darkens).

(seasons 1 & 2)

Death on the Nile

The Kenneth Branagh one. Much like my recollection of Murder on the Orient Express - which doesn't seem to have made it on to extemporanea, perhaps I only watched part of it - it is full of stars, glossily shot but too artificial-looking, and somehow not as fun as it seems it should be. 

The Odyssey

Of course it's an Event - Christopher Nolan does the Odyssey. And as far as monumentality goes, it delivers. There's a density to it, bathed in shadowy blues and greys, with a thudding soundscape throughout; also I'm not sure of this but for a film that's so epic, I suspect it spends a lot of its time in moderate close-up and middle-range rather than sweeping views from a distance. 

As spectacle, The Odyssey works - it's immaculately put together. I suspect it's lacking in truly indelible images - at least none that are with me right now, a day on - but several scenes have a charge to them that I think will linger, the visit to Hades foremost among them, and in a different way the repeated blocking in dining hall. And while the voyage itself is maybe a touch too episodic-feeling - despite the dipping through different timeframes and the framing device of Odysseus gradually recalling his own story on Calypso's island - each of the crew's encounters is exciting in its own right. 

It takes the overt narrative theme of homecoming and links it to the breaching of Troy's home through the trick (the horse) that Odysseus reveals late, in what lands as an unlocking revelation, he fears undermined caused a rupture in the order of things (turning them into the feared 'people from the sea'), and the suggestion that the length of time it takes him to return home might reflect his own guilt about this, while also implicitly drawing attention - and they're filmed to suggest this reading too - to the way that the crew's successive landings are themselves invasions of others' homes. Ultimately its anchor is more psychological than thematic or mythic - for better or for worse.

The casting's good (as expected with Nolan directing) and performances range from good to good-enough - Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson in the first category, Matt Damon and Tom Holland in the second. There's a fair bit of charisma among the rest of the cast and the smaller players all make an impression (Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, Elliot Page as Sinon, Samantha Morton as Circe, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Zendaya as Athena), though some don't have that much material to work with. 

All up, this Odyssey is very good even if lacking in the thrill of genuine greatness. And I wonder if it will grow with time.

Margo Price - Days of Unrest

"Can't Stand Still" is the stand out amongst these protest-themed songs but not by a big margin - Days of Unrest is an even, accomplished record, nothing extraordinary but unfussy and good.

Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles

Some stories are so familiar and so woven into the other stories we know and tell that it's basically impossible to encounter them afresh or in a truly new light. Achilles and Patroclus as lovers isn't new, much less the Trojan War and its backdrop and principals, and telling it from Patroclus's perspective feels of a piece rather than genuinely illuminating - reading The Song of Achilles, I didn't feel the spark of anything piercing or unexpected. But it's graceful, well-crafted, clear - the characters, actions and choices feel real, the events and world in which they take place are persuasive and don't feel anachronistic. And so by bringing these so-familiar stories to life, again - that's worthwhile.

Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

Another high quality rush from Rodrigo, who seems to be right in tune with the mainstream zeitgeist. Lots of influences, lots of individual vibe and convincingly authentic personality.

My highlights are some of the peppiest: "drop dead" with its delightful refrain kick-off "one night I was bored in bed and stalked you on the internet", "stupid song" (an irresistible build up-er), "maggots for brains" (I'm not especially a fan of the poppier side of new wave but in Rodrigo's hands it bursts). "u + me = <3" (just a good time, and what a chorus) ... all four are stand outs by any measure. And after hearing the Cure vibes on last album Guts, it's fun that this one features not only a song called "the cure", and a lyrical reference to "Just Like Heaven", but also an actual duet with Robert Smith.

Civil War

Civil War's got a bracing toughness, and for me strikes the right balance between a clear message about the dangers of right wing politics and polarisation and a nuanced depiction (more of a sketch) of the social context that could enable disaster to follow. The choice to centre journalists covering the war is canny and opens up space I haven't seen explored before - thematically, and action-wise. Kirsten Dunst is great - an actor who I feel I've grown up with, and this role gives her plenty to sink her teeth into.

Sinners

Confident, muscular movie-making from the get-go - larger than life in all the right ways, and deft in how it combines its different elements. 

Honey Don't!

As enjoyable as it was to watch 90 minutes of Margaret Qualley striding around Bakersfield (aka a certain vein of Americana central) in detective mode, there isn't really a point or substance to Honey Don't - not even in the intersection of Coen-ish style and tone.

Laura Stevenson - Late Great

Turns out she's still going, and still good in many of the same ways as 10+ years ago with that one-two of Wheel and Cocksure. Tunes, feelings, electric guitar anthems.

R F Kuang - The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic & The Burning God

As epic fantasy trilogies go, the historically inspired Chinese setting is something a bit different. I enjoyed the series, but found it a bit too on the surface (putting aside how young Kuang was when writing them, which is exceedingly impressive).

Steven Erikson - No Life Forsaken

The shadow of the original books couldn't be larger, but as a more modest instalment this isn't bad. Follow-up to The God Is Not Willing.

Game Night

Yes, fun, also basically forgettable. (last time)

The Gentlemen

All the swagger doesn't do it for me but I can't deny there's something a bit fun - if base - about this and its absurdity. Especially Colin Farrell. I've skipped most Guy Ritchie films and this hasn't made me rethink.

Courtney Barnett - Creature of Habit

There's a brighter sound to some of these songs, and some of those brighter sounding ones are some of my favourites - like "Mantis", "Sugar Plum" and "Same". All round as likeable as usual for Courtney Barnett.