EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 1 2 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

EXTRA!EXTRA! is published on the Lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We the editors and contributors to this artwork acknowledge the Traditional WONDERING WHERE Owners of this Country, and we acknowledge that sovereignty to this Land was never ceded. TO DRAW THE LINE EXTRA!EXTRA! CONTRIBUTORS

EDITORIAL TEAM While chatting with another member of inward look at itself, such as in Edition 2, where The idea of the archive and how to use it is Lucas Ihlein & Ian Milliss the press at the media preview of Making Art Bacon and Nash describe the shortcomings a central question across the issues. Where Public, artist and exhibition curator Michael of journalistic practice in covering the climate Kaldor’s exhibition perhaps falls short (as JOURNALISTS Landy approached us to point out a wall of catastrophe. In turn, Milliss reflects that one of discussed in Curham’s critique in Edition 2) is Chris Nash, Wendy Bacon, Jenna Price, Lorrie Graham, vinyl decals. The text is a selection of pun- EXTRA!EXTRA!’s own shortcomings is its rel- where EXTRA!EXTRA! succeeds – not just John Kavanagh, Caren Florance, Boni Cairncross, laden newspaper headlines from stories about atively limited direct coverage of climate change, presenting key elements from those 50 years’ Louise Curham, Shags, Sarah Rodigari, Amber Jones, Kaldor Public Art Projects over the years, noting that the issue had been addressed more worth of material but examining the broader Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Lorrie Graham, Ward O’Neill, from“Package deal to put beach under wraps” obliquely via the way the publication has chosen context of those 50 years. Bourke Public School, Wilcannia Central School, to “They call it puppy love”. “Wondering where to place Aboriginal approaches to Acknowledg- A common response among the partic- Mickie Quick & Malcolm Whittaker to draw the line” is another. This collection of ing Country upfront. ipants has been the sense that this is only the DESIGN DIRECTOR headlines gives a sense of a particular way in This openness and transparency has beginning. The cocoon EXTRA!EXTRA! is Ian Shoobridge which each Project had entered the popular partly been facilitated by the fact that nestled within, comprising the institutions of consciousness of its time – through newspaper EXTRA!EXTRA! is overseen at the KPAP and the AGNSW, provided the impetus NEWSPAPER PRODUCTION reporting. But devoid of the actual content of AGNSW by Education and Outreach rather for its methodological approach at the nexus of Alisa Croft & Ian Shoobridge each article, there is no real sense of the public than a Curatorial jurisdiction. Ihlein com- art and journalism, however this cocoon now RIZZERIA TEAM discourse generated around each work. pares this to his and fellow editor Milliss’s can potentially be shed, revealing a creature that Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge, Bettina Kaiser, Enter EXTRA!EXTRA! … Set adjacent to experience half a decade ago when present- can live successfully outside of this original con- Kitty Cardwell, Estee Sarsfield, Micke Lindebergh, the exhibition and originally conceived by Edi- ing an exhibition at the AGNSW on the text (albeit, from Ihlein’s perspective, with more Sunny Lei, Emily Nunell, Anna Ke, Shanni Sun, tor-in-Chief Lucas Ihlein as a showcase of the work of PA Yeomans. Where every element support to cross-check the legal implications of Stephanie Phillips, Isabella Brown, Rizzeria Printing Press’ uses and potential as a of that show required approval months content – perhaps there is such a thing as too Halla Hannesdottir & Tina Matthews means of production, the project has quickly in advance, EXTRA!EXTRA! is afforded much freedom?). The publication has show- evolved to uncover and fill perceived gaps in significant autonomy which has enabled a cased many different types of journalism and COVER IMAGE Making Art Public. In Telling the Wrapped Coast timely responsiveness that reflects that of a writing more broadly, setting the template to Ward O’Neill story (Edition 3), Wendy Bacon discusses the “real” newspaper. take this pilot to its next stage. “It throws up the WEBSITE reports that Landy has featured in headline This sense of a typical newspaper is only grandeur of the challenge,” muses Nash. “If you Amber Jones only. Bacon’s career as a journalist extends one aspect of the project’s identity. By being can go down this path, what can you achieve?” across the same five decades as the exhibition, produced as a limited edition, published “No ordinary person would ever read and she has been motivated by the way the pro- online, and now printed as a large-edition most art magazines, because they’re in a com- From 9 November to 15 December, Lucas Ihlein and the ject creates a connection between journalism, “omnibus”, EXTRA!EXTRA! will therefore pletely secret language. But the ones that are Rizzeria Collective took over the Kaldor Studio at the Art history and art. “I’m much more interested exist in three modes: an economic scarcity in an ordinary language, and there are some, Gallery of NSW with EXTRA!EXTRA! – a weekly newspaper now in the boundaries of journalism, where it version for the art market; a version for don’t have anything to say,” art critic Matthew which responded critically and playfully to the exhibition could be more open-ended, bridge different social media; and a version reflecting tra- Collings has argued. “That’s the mystery, the Making Art Public: 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects. audiences,” she says. “I’m really interested in ditional journalism; placing it squarely (or way art criticism now can only be real if it’s that line where conceptual art…is overlapping triangularly?) within the nexus of all these secret, even though it’s nothing like the other Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein and special with journalism.” cultural concerns. secret worlds, science or psychology or phi- correspondent Ian Milliss were joined by special guest writers In the 1980s, EXTRA!EXTRA! co-ed- In Edition 1, Milliss and Ihlein discuss how losophy, say” (Matthew Collings, Blimey, and artists, who worked with the Rizzeria team to print the itor Ian Milliss was “an artist trying to work the conditions of the two professions, artist and Pub. 21 Publishing, London,1999, pp.182-3). newspaper in situ in a limited edition of only 50 copies. out some way of operating completely out- journalist, are changing to reflect each other. In EXTRA!EXTRA! has begun to address this underlying issue of inaccessibility in art criti- Visitors to the Kaldor Studio were invited to write letters to side the normal art scene.” When considering bringing journalists onto what had been con- Australia’s great cultural forms, “the three ceived as an art project, Ihlein reflects that “their cism through its hybridised approach – a mul- the editor – and a selection of letters were featured in each things that were the most striking were trade involvement created a feedback loop where I tiplicity of voices and (eventual) audiences. week’s edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! unionism, the media in general, and religion.” realised we’re making an actual newspaper with But it also argues against Collings’s stance on Throughout the run of EXTRA!EXTRA! in the Kaldor Studio, Jettisoning the latter, Milliss began producing actual journalism in it, not just an artwork that’s the art world being “different” to these other visitors also participated in a range of fun risograph printing newspapers for the trade union movement – play-acting at being a newspaper.” Designer Ian realms, showing how these worlds overlap workshops co-ordinated by the Rizzeria collective. publishing roots he has returned to for this Shoobridge has “seen it as…my role to make and, in the case of Nash on Haacke, arguing project. “I was thinking about the connec- sure the design of the paper sits comfortably that in fact “art is material…it’s something that This Omnibus Edition is self-funded and independently tions between art and politics and journal- between those two [elements]” of art and jour- is out there just like a scientific experiment or published by the artists to commemorate the conclusion ism and media in general, thinking you didn’t nalism. “I think the most successful pages from a observation is out there in the world and in of the project. need to use normal art media to be an artist.” design point of view are the ones that aren’t just fact is supposed to be replicable.” The Omnibus brings together the 5 weekly editions of This approach is of course the M.O. of Hans strictly text articles. We’ve had some really nice This replicability harks back to the EXTRA!EXTRA!, with a special bonus article by Chloe Haacke, whose controversial approach is the spreads with beautiful images.” avant-garde notion of the “score”, the set of Wolifson which reflects on the overall project. We also have subject of Chris Nash’s serial across each The combination of people with differing instructions for the realisation of an artwork. a late-breaking article by Chris Nash on the inside back cover issue of the newspaper. For Nash, Haacke’s experiences in different areas has allowed for One of the secrets to EXTRA!EXTRA!’s suc- which investigates the corporate newspaper industry’s ties importance lies in his approach to art as mate- EXTRA!EXTRA! to inhabit this in-between cess and potential has been the score which with the real estate market. rial rather than symbolic, and the significance space successfully. Participants have been Ihlein originally laid out: a group of artists, of its social context within the institution. enthusiastic to take part because it contained journalists and other participants respond- The Omnibus is printed on a commercial offset press The German-American artist can be seen as the possibilities of something different or new ing to Making Art Public, generating an eight- rather than the Rizzeria, which means a large run of 2000 a mascot for EXTRA!EXTRA! outside of their wheelhouse, and a common page newspaper every week in the AGNSW. is possible so that everyone can take home a copy of the This project has brought not only the thread among participants is the potential Despite commencing with no material, “each newspaper. If you can’t find it in your local newsagency, go means of production but also the means of for the paper to be a pilot for more ambi- week a new iteration of that process happens, to www.extra-extra.press where you can read it all online or criticism inside the institution. Where most tious versions of itself in the future. “In my where the form starts to emerge and become request a hard copy version. texts originating from arts institutions take the mind it’s not just the result[ing] newspaper, evident as a response to the context we’re in forms of didactic panels, catalogues or press but the process of bringing…people together and the instructional setup.” releases, the project has allowed for critical from different backgrounds and different dis- As Strang-Yettica notes, EXTRA!EX- CONTENT DISCLAIMER responses: from those working on the project, ciplines has been, for me, everything I could TRA! is creating “an accessible avenue for The views expressed in the pages of EXTRA!EXTRA! are but also from the audience via letters to the have ever hoped for,” Strang-Yettica said. people to begin to understand how Indige- those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the editor, and via interactive methodologies such “That idea that we can…find enough common nous and non-Indigenous society can come opinions or official policies of the editors, Kaldor Public Art as Juundaal Strang-Yettica’s friendly vox-pops, ground to launch enquiry or evaluation of the together with all our knowledges, to hope- Projects or the Art Gallery of New South Wales. and Louise Curham and Boni Cairncross’s things we do in the art world.” fully reduce the length and severity of the We welcome responses to our articles, which can be experiential wandering. Malcolm Whittaker Making Art Public was the jumping-off Anthropocene. That’s a matter of lifting submitted by writing posting a physical Letter to the Editor and Sarah Rodigari’s reflections on the value of point for the project, but the context of the each other up simultaneously.” in the gallery space, or online at artistic labour is another notable example. The half-century that surrounded these KPAP extra-extra.press paper has also facilitated journalism to take an projects is emerging as more pertinent. Chloe Wolifson EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 3

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A NOTE FROM NEWSPAPERS, FREE NOTHING IF NOT JOURNALISM LUCAS, THE SPEECH AND ACTIVISM WARM & INTO ART “EDITOR IN CHIEF” IN SYDNEY SINCE 1969 WELCOMING Chris Nash Lucas Ihlein Wendy Bacon Mickie Quick P.3 P.2 P.4 P.6

1 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 4 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

12 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 1/5

EXTRA!EXTRA! is published at the Art Gallery of NSW, which stands on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We the editors and contributors to this artwork A NOTE FROM acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this country, and we acknowledge that sovereignty to this land was never ceded. LUCAS, THE

EXTRA!EXTRA! CONTRIBUTORS “EDITOR IN CHIEF” EDITORIAL TEAM Lucas Ihlein & Ian Milliss 25 years ago when I was a student at a very principles of immediacy and versatility still apply. widely. Every so often, though, they overlap. small art school I became obsessed with screen- The artists and designers of the Rizzeria make Artists sometimes “play-act” at what it’s like JOURNALISTS printing. I loved its bright colours, and its imme- zines, posters, postcards, and they run workshops to do other jobs, and that’s what our collabora- Chris Nash, Wendy Bacon, Jenna Price, diacy and versatility. You could produce dozens of to allow others in the wider community to access tive group is doing here – play-acting at making a Lorrie Graham, John Kavanagh, copies of an artwork, paste them up on bus shel- the means of production. newspaper as an artwork. I’m play-acting at being Melissa Sweet, Jack Rozycki, ters around the neighbourhood, print them on So when the opportunity came up to do a the very grand-sounding “Editor-in-Chief” (I Caren Florance, Boni Cairncross, t-shirts, hand them out at gigs, cover a whole wall project associated with the Making Art Pub- don’t even really know what the job description with multiples of them. Screenprinting offered a lic exhibition, it made sense to me to collab- entails). But at the same time, EXTRA!EXTRA! Louise Curham, Shags, mashup between artmaking, publicity, and infor- orate with The Rizzeria. The idea is this: the is a real newspaper, with real articles and real con- Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Amber Jones, mation design. The paper was cheap, the inks printing press as a functional technology is tent produced in real-time, with real letters to the Mickie Quick & Malcolm Whittaker were cheap, the equipment was cheap, the prints the centerpiece of our installation. A roster of editor, and so on. Over the coming weeks we’ll weren’t precious. Rizzeria team members are present in the gal- explore what this hybrid form makes possible. NEWSPAPER DESIGN & But our art school had no screenprinting facili- lery throughout the week to show visitors how PRODUCTIONTEAM ties. So my classmates and I had to cobble together risographic printing works. In the meantime, a Lucas Ihlein Ian Shoobridge, Alisa Croft & Sunny Lei a half-arsed set of equipment ourselves. Some- group of artists and journalists respond play- times when we were in a rush we used a thing at fully and critically to Making Art Public, gener- RIZZERIA TEAM the local art supplies store called a “riso machine”. ating an eight page newspaper each week. It’s It looked like a laminator. You took a black and printed in-situ, every Tuesday. Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge, white photocopy and ran it through a roller, which I’ve never been the editor of a newspaper Bettina Kaiser, Kitty Cardwell, burned a plastic layer away from a layer of mesh, before, so I’m learning on the job and muddling Estee Sarsfield, Micke Lindebergh, producing a “photographic” screenprinting sten- Sunny Lei, Emily Nunell, Anna Ke, cil in a couple of minutes. You could mount this Stephanie Phillips, Isabella Brown, plastic mesh on a cardboard frame and push ink EXTRA!EXTRA! is a real through it with a piece of stiff card or plastic. The Halla Hannesdottir, Shanni Sun, newspaper, with real articles images were pixilated and prone to warping, but it Tina Matthews did the job. and real content produced The risographic press which we’re using to in real-time WEBSITE print this newspaper uses the same basic screen- Amber Jones printing technology, except that now it’s housed Lucas Ihlein is an artist in a fancy electronic box that looks like a photo- through. But many of our journalists have worked and member of Big copier. Riso printing as it’s practiced these days by in various capacities in the news industry for dec- Fag Press and Kandos From 9 November to 15 December, Lucas collectives like The Rizzeria is more sophisticated ades, and as you can read from the articles in this School of Cultural Ihlein and the Rizzeria Collective take than my ham-fisted early attempts, but the same edition, the norms of journalism and art differ Adaptation. over the Kaldor Studio at the Art Gallery of NSW with EXTRA!EXTRA! – a weekly newspaper which responds critically and playfully to Making Art Public.

Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein and special correspondent Ian Milliss will be joined by special guest writers and artists, who will work with the Rizzeria team to print the newspaper in situ. Visitors to the Kaldor Studio are invited ON LAND ART & to write letters to the editor – and a selection of letters will be featured in each week’s edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! ACKNOWLEDGING Throughout the run of EXTRA!EXTRA! in the Kaldor Studio, you can also participate in a range of fun workshops and have a go at making a risographic COUNTRY print yourself! As is Custom and before anything, I want to ent Indigenous artists, living or working in the city Acknowledge this Land we meet upon, the Eora and its significance within culture to them. CONTENT DISCLAIMER Nation and the Gadigal people. I also give my Along our walk, we’ll dive into what we think The views expressed in the pages of respect to my Ancestors, to my Elders, past, pres- land art is and how it fits within society. We’ll look EXTRA!EXTRA! are those of the ent and emerging. My love and respect also goes to at some examples from within the Making Art my Family, Mentors and Friends. Public exhibition here at the gallery and see where authors, and do not necessarily reflect It’s lovely to meet you! My name is Juundaal it takes us! the opinions or official policies of the and I am a Bundjalung-Kanakan woman who lives So let’s get going and ask the questions… editors, Kaldor Public Art Projects or the on the Land of the Wodi Wodi people, part of the What does land-art mean to you? Do you think it’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Dharawal people and the Yuin Nation, known as important for society? We welcome responses to our articles, Wollongong. I’m a mature-aged, creative arts stu- I look forward to walking through this little dent who hopes we, yes, you & I…will go on a walk journey with all of you! which can be submitted by posting Juundaal Strang Yettica: together, of conversation and ideas about art made “I don’t know much a physical Letter to the Editor in the on the land… Juundaal Strang-Yettica about much but the gallery space, or online at In upcoming issues of EXTRA!EXTRA!, we’ll learning keeps me extra-extra.press explore what land-art means to you and to differ- alive!” 2 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 5

EDITION 1/5 12 NOVEMBER 2019 JOURNALISM ART INTO INTO ART JOURNALISM

In 1970 Hans Haacke was invited by the to reality? Fry’s claim that Haacke’s work tran- In 2018 the architect collective Forensic a watershed, arguably the beginning of what Guggenheim Museum in New York to stage a scended the representation debates in art signals a Architecture was nominated for the prestigious was known as institutional critique, art that one-person show. Shortly before the exhibi- comparable opportunity for journalism. Turner Prize. Although they didn’t win the jury analysed the social and power relationships in tion was due to open in April 1971, the Museum With few exceptions since 1971, Haacke’s praised them for their “highly innovative meth- judgements of cultural significance. The osten- Director, Thomas Messer, cancelled it on the supporters among scholars, critics, and fellow ods for sourcing and visualising evidence relat- sible reason, that it was journalism not art, was grounds that three of the works produced for artists and curators have not responded to the ing to human rights abuses around the world, more a cover-up. Like all cover ups (as Christo the exhibition were not art but journalism. journalism side of the challenge. They have used in courts of law as well as exhibitions of art and Jeanne Claude demonstrated with Wrapped The rejected works were Shapolsky et al. explored, analysed, and praised the implications and architecture”. Coast) it drew attention to what was being cov- Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social of his work for art, while his detractors have Forensic Architecture has been described ered up - in this case, the alliance of the wealthy System, as of May 1, 1971 and Sol Goldman and Alex damned it for the same, but for both, journalism as an “architectural detective agency” which and powerful that dominated the boards of diLorenzo Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real- has been a known object from which art can and has used sophisticated spatial analysis to inves- major cultural institutions and the way those Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971, plus a pro- should be distinguished. In this view, art is open, tigate a range of human rights abuses and hate institutions served to protect wealth. posed anonymous survey for exhibition visitors. dynamic, fractious, and intellectually contesta- crimes. The group represents a trend that has Some of the political radicalism of the time The two real estate works comprised a ble, whereas journalism might as well be a urinal been slowly developing in contemporary art continued in activist artist groups around par- series of black and white frontal photographs of or paint rag as far as its intrinsic interest is con- during the fifty year history of Kaldor Public ticular issues, most conspicuously feminist slum tenement buildings in a flat un-interpre- cerned. But for those who take journalism seri- Art Projects, a new type of realism that pre- issues in the 1970s and AIDS awareness in the tive style, supplemented with publicly available ously, Haacke’s work provides a provocation and sents research in traditional art venues, often 1980s. Institutional critique was slowly tamed information from the New York City County an opportunity for a breakthrough in how we accompanied by activist interventions away and absorbed by the institutions, often reduced Clerk’s Office detailing lot number, address, might think about journalism, both as art and as from those venues. It is also an example of the to little more than artists being allowed to play basic building description, ownership and most a rigorous, reflexive truth-seeking practice. dissolving boundaries of previously compart- curator, selecting shows of more eccentric recent transfer, assessed land value and mort- On the art side of the equation, as Fry mentalised occupations, like architect, artist, works from museum collections. gage status. There was also a street map iden- observed, by 1971 Haacke’s work had been journalist. The institutional definition of art, But a strong thread of artists working out- tifying the location of the properties and charts raising fundamental questions about the rela- that anything is art if the art world community side the conventional framework persisted, detailing the various companies and individuals tionship of art to reality for some time, and the accept it as art, can now allow other professions often around environmental issues and an that owned the properties and the interconnec- rejected works were just an extension of this to be absorbed as long as part of their produc- emphasis on demonstrating factual informa- tions between them and the sources of mort- challenge into the social realm. tion can be exhibited and thereby satisfy the tion. For instance, Mierle Laderman Ukeles gage funding. None of Shapolsky, Goldman or As young Roy Lichtenstein put the insatiable demand for content that drives large became the New York City Department of San- DiLorenzo had any association with the Gug- case in a famous interview, the problem art institutions. itation’s unpaid artist-in-residence in the late genheim Museum. for a hopeful scene-making artist in the Duchamp’s readymades in the early twenti- 1970s where her actions, like shaking the hand The curator of the exhibition, Edward F. early sixties was how best to be disagreea- eth century ended the idea that visual arts must and thanking every one of the department’s Fry, was a well-published authority on cubism ble. What he needed was to find a body of necessarily be painting or sculpture. Although workers, a project that took five years, served and contemporary art. He wrote: “In his works subject matter sufficiently odious to offend it took the art world a long time to digest this, to focus on the almost unseen social structures Haacke has succeeded in changing the relation- even lovers of art. And as everyone knows, by the early 1970s a number of tendencies were that maintain civil society. At the same time The ship between art and reality, and consequently Lichtenstein opted for the vulgarity of coming together. Artists were moving in stages Harrison Studio began its long series of major he has also changed our view of the evolution of comic book images. Here’s what he said to from formalist abstraction, with its purist focus ecology projects, based on extensive social and modern art.” Fry defended Haacke’s work and Gene Svenson in November 1963: on painting as an end in itself, into a renewed scientific research. These projects assumed that was in turn sacked by Messer, never again to be It was hard to get a painting that was engagement with the world. The critic Rosalind the entire earth and its systems could be treated employed by a US museum despite his pre-em- despicable enough so that no one would hang Krauss in her influential 1979 essay “Sculpture as a sculpture that humans were responsible for inent international reputation, although he did it – everybody was hanging everything. It was in the Expanded Field” described 1968-1970 as maintaining and developing. go on to have a successful academic career in almost acceptable to hang a dripping paint rag, the critical years when artists began to see artis- In Australia, Ian Milliss’s 1975 AGNSW the US. Quite clearly, the scale and scope of this everyone was accustomed to this. The thing tic agency as extending beyond the art gallery. exhibition about the work of innovative agricul- confrontation indicated that much more was at everyone hated was commercial art; apparently This process was undoubtedly driven turalist PA Yeomans was, like Haacke’s exhibi- stake than a mere difference of opinion over the they didn’t hate that enough either. by the political upheavals of the time such as tion, cancelled at the last moment by the Board merit of some individual artworks. ….[J]ust eight years later, success came the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, of Trustees on the grounds that it was not art. Shapolsky was exhibited in a group show to Hans Haacke, who, upon invitation, pro- anti-colonial wars around the globe, and the That show eventually happened 38 years later the following year at the University of Roches- duced three unacceptable pieces, which the Paris uprising of 1968. Artists were faced with in 2013 as a collaboration with Lucas Ihlein, by ter and at the 1978 Venice Biennale; it and Sol Guggenheim Museum refused to install. the problem of creating an art that reflected which time it had apparently become art. We Goldman were subsequently purchased by the What was it about a meticulously these concerns, that engaged with this world, have since collaborated with over a dozen other Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Gallery researched, neutrally presented set of publicly but did not lose the aesthetic potential of for- artists in setting up the Kandos School of Cul- in London respectively. Haacke had a solo show available information about two large land- malism. Initial responses were minimalism and tural Adaptation (KSCA), one of the collabo- at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in lords’ real estate holdings that could not be conceptualism, both seen in Sol Lewitt’s reduc- rators in Asad Raza’s Absorption project. KSCA New York in 1986, but until 2008 not in a solo hung on the walls of the Guggenheim? More tion of painting to sets of instructions, algo- produces projects around land use, science and exhibition at a leading US public institution. broadly, if anything from Duchamp’s urinal rithms that generated paintings without the agriculture. Shapolsky was co-purchased with the Museu to Lichtenstein’s paint rag could be art, why artist’s aesthetic control. Meanwhile the use of All of these and many other projects inter- d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) in couldn’t journalism? Is journalism ‘sufficiently new technologies like photocopying and video nationally have one thing in common, they are 2007 by the Whitney Museum of American Art, odious’ not to be art? generated forms that could not quite so readily a new form of artistic realism based on investi- where it was included in a group show of recent be accommodated by the art market of the time. gation, in researching and presenting informa- purchases the following year. Chris Nash Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped tion, and that could equally be a definition of In the meantime Haacke had been enor- Coast was one of the most prominent examples investigative journalism. So are we now jour- mously productive and exhibited in leading ven- This is an extract from the Introduction to What is Journal- of the time, demonstrating not just that uncon- nalists as much as artists? As other professions ues internationally, including multiple invited ism? The Art and Politics of a Rupture by Chris Nash, published ventional materials, including the landscape like the architects of Forensic Architecture are appearances at Documenta and the Venice by Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. For further information contact itself, could be part of the art work, but also absorbed into mainstream art, can we also see Biennale. The jury of his peers, major galleries, [email protected] that intangible processes like organisation were previously distinct professions like artist or leading scholars and critics internationally, con- viable art materials. Wrapped Coast was not just journalist blending together? Is the only differ- tra Thomas Messer, has judged that Haacke’s Hans Haacke is a German-American artist, born in 1936 in Köln, Ger- a physical presence, it an event about the idea ence the means of distributing information, or work is certainly art, and indeed, that he is one many, and since 1965 living in New York. His practice is related to of organising a large workforce in an aesthetic the degree of speculation and experiment that of the major artists of the last half-century. conceptual art, with a long list of works, exhibitions, commissions, project. This approach was echoed in Santiago can be accommodated? But we have to ask – is it also journalism? international honours and publications to his credit. Sierra’s more sinister Kaldor project in 2010, in And if so, what is journalism? The short answer which a team of 28 low paid workers held up Ian Milliss to the first is yes, to that extent agreeing with seven long box-like forms. This was a work with Messer, but that opens up the much more inter- disturbing undertones of exploitation, bullshit esting questions of what sort of art is journal- jobs, and the things people will do to avoid liv- ism, and inversely what sort of journalism is art, ing “underneath the arches” (the homeless sub- and what do the two have to offer each other. ject of Gilbert and George’s song). The conflict over Shapolsky and Goldman In New York the artist Hans Haacke, reflected a major rupture in the way that art was to already well known for his work with natural Chris Nash is a former be conceived and practiced, a rupture that precip- journalist and academic processes, began looking at human systems itated a new way of thinking about art in relation and author of What is such as the real estate market, and the way it Ian Milliss is an to reality. If the art is also journalism, then similar Journalism? The Art and was manipulated by landlords. The cancellation artist who worked on issues arise: what is the relationship of journalism Politics of a Rupture. of his Guggenheim Museum exhibition was Wrapped Coast. 3 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 6 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

12 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 1/5 NEWSPAPERS, FREE SPEECH AND ACTIVISM IN SYDNEY SINCE 1969

In October 1969, while Christo, Jeanne- Martin Sharp, Richard Neville and others includ- Claude and others were wrapping Little Bay, a ing the artist Johnny Allen, who also helped with small group of University of New South Wales our first publications. Looking back I don’t think students, academics and anti-censorship cam- we expected much from the mainstream media. paigners produced two ad hoc newspapers. I was When they expressed outrage at our “filth”, we part of that group. laughed and created a montage of the headlines. Thorout, as it was called, followed a vote Our initial internal focus on university politics to abolish the UNSW Students Union Council soon gave way to a much broader agenda. These because of its quietism and servile relationship productions were part of the alternative, student to the university administration. When the and small magazine press that flourished around motion passed, the Council’s supporters argued Australia in that period, constantly challenging the that despite its lack of activism, the Council did at limits of censorship and reporting on issues and least produce the Tharunka student newspaper. voices that were absent in the mainstream media. We replied that anyone could produce a newspa- Civil disobedience was everywhere in those per. We were aware that with the advent of small days. There was a constant stream of sit-ins, offset printing, it was much easier and cheaper to marches and arrests. Hundreds signed statements produce a newspaper. Back in the not-long-past of defiance against conscription. A few draft days of hot metal type, producing newspapers resisters were jailed, which led to more protests. was a more exclusive activity. Having argued that In April 1969, university students had organ- it was possible, we thought the least we should do ised an anti-conscription march that featured a was produce a newspaper. So we did. giant petition. 500 police gathered in the city. The I remember that the thought of producing force of their intimidating presence was a surprise our own newspaper was exhilarating, much like because police had approved the route. Protesters blogging seemed in the early days of the web, were crushed against the Wentworth Hotel wall thirty years later. Up until then, we had only pro- and some were trampled underfoot. More than a duced pamphlets on a Gestetner machine. Now hundred protesters were arrested, many violently. we used an electric typewriter, Letraset for head- NSW unionists supported the students by publish- lines, pen and ink drawings and montage. Typos ing 50,000 copies of a four-page supplement. The had to be laboriously corrected by cutting out front page was a single photo of an arrest, head- tiny letters and glueing them carefully on top of lined, “Do you approve of this? This happened in laid out sheets that were later photographed to Sydney only a few days ago.” make plates for the presses. We paid cash to a Thorout, which appeared a few months later, small offset printery. stood out from others in that we saw publishing We were a small but varied group that itself as a form of direct action against censor- included Sydney Libertarians who supported ship and self-censorship. More than 100 books permanent protest, anarchists and anti-author- were still banned in Australia. In 1969, anti-cen- itarian Marxists including radical Labor Club sorship campaigners were picketing censored members. As far as I can remember, no one movies that could be seen freely elsewhere. We attempted to resolve the inconsistencies. To published and held festivals of banned words and conservatives we were a “riff-raff” and “lunatic works that were self-censored by the timid Aus- fringe”. tralian publishing industry. The sexually explicit As far as I know, none of our small group was materials we published ranged from fictional actively involved in Wrapped Coast but we enjoyed works whose authors could not find publishers the fact that, initially at least, it “got up the nose” to descriptions of early sexual experiences and of the staid Sydney establishment. The Wrapping contraception manuals. provoked debate about the nature of art and that While the mainstream newspapers includ- resonated with young people who felt little con- ing The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and Daily nection with mainstream institutional life, includ- Telegraph did report some allegations of police ing the media and cultural institutions. violence, we observed for ourselves how it was Our first two newspapers led to a three-year downplayed. But mainstream journalism was anti-censorship campaign that included the pub- silent around everyday violence towards work- lication of Thorout, the 1970 edition of the UNSW ing-class people and blatant racism towards student paper Tharunka, underground newspa- Aboriginal people. Once people realised that pers Thorunka and Thor and a free newspaper the Tharunka crew were interested in breaking version of The Little Red School Book. There were through silences, we received a flow of informa- arrests, trials and brief periods of imprisonment. tion and ideas. We published prisoners’ signed We were part of a tradition that had already been statements about organised mass violent assaults. established earlier in the 1960s at UNSW by The SMH had rebuffed the requests of civil lib- 4 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 7

EDITION 1/5 12 NOVEMBER 2019

erties’ lawyers that they be published. A fellow integrated into everyday life. Later, Debord Residents action groups were mushrooming. the past. Those who are threatened by repression student and Aboriginal activist Paul Coe and argued that art must be dissolved into revolu- Unions were vilified in the media for their fairly and vilification respond with frightening force author Frank Hardy assisted us in a publishing a tionary praxis. We found his critique of modern frequent strikes, including for the 35-hour week. and promise more repression. Censorship and four-page supplement in support of the Gurindji capitalism compelling. My memory is that we The construction workers’ Green Bans that saved self-censorship still exist while the spectacles of Land Rights struggle. This advocated a boycott only read translations of parts of the Situationist parts of Sydney were not imagined until 1971. freedom and democracy surround us. We know of Imperial Foods, which was owned by Vesteys, works, extracting quotes and extracts for publi- Those involved in each of these movements that being treated as customers and clients is not the UK company that owned the cattle stations cation. developed a voice through their own art and jour- the same as being a citizen and that consultation where Aboriginal stockmen were on strike. The idea of the Spectacle made sense to us nalism. Coverage of the issues raised were also that is not intended to be meaningful cannot The strongest intellectual influence on our at two levels. The commodification of daily life pushed from the shadows into more mainstream stand in for participation. first publications were the Situationists, and was everywhere around us in the endless ads for art and journalism. This project will always have especially Guy Debord who wrote The Society appliances, fashion, apartments and holidays. unfinished business. Silences continued, espe- Wendy Bacon of the Spectacle. The roots of Situationism could Sydney’s first major mall Roselands was pro- cially around the issues faced by those on the be traced back to Dadaism and Surrealism. By moted as a fairyland where customers, 70% of margins. It is worth exploring for example why, the time the Situationists reached the height of whom were women, could organise exciting day even though we campaigned to stop the cruelty their influence in the massive French uprising long excursions. But we also saw the spectacle in in the juvenile justice system, child abuse was of students and workers in 1968, they could be notions of democracy and politics that encour- never mentioned. described as anti-state Marxists. aged passivity and acceptance of authority. Our revolutionary optimism was unfounded. The Situationists encouraged breaking out In 1969, as Jeanne-Claude and Christo were A decade later, we reflected on whether our con- of everyday routines and roles. They were inter- wrapping the coast, we were still on the cusp fidence in the “revolutionary moment” was itself ested in urban planning and architecture. Earlier in Australia of a major uprising of movements an illusion, just another part of the spectacle. To Wendy Bacon has been in the sixties, they went on “wanderings” through around Aboriginal Land rights, black rights, use another Situationist term, what were the an urban activist and the city. They recorded their findings which they women’s liberation, gay rights, prisoners’ rights, processes by which capitalism “recuperated” and journalist since 1969. kids’ rights and environmental activism. A major became even more extreme adding to inequali- used to explore the link between environment She is a non practising and influence on the behaviour and emotions of property boom meant that lower-income resi- ties and climate change that now threatens mil- lawyer & was previously individuals. This they called, “psychogeography.” dents in the Inner City were being forced out of lions of people and species? the Professor of Jour- The Situationists argued that rather than old working-class neighbourhoods. Developers While each period is different, those of us nalism at the University being seen as a separate sphere, art should be had their eyes on remnants of urban bushland. who remember 1969 feel the reverberations of of Technology Sydney. 5 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 8 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

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Artwork by Sarah Goffman Artwork by Deborah Kelly NOTHING IF NOT WARM & WELCOMING

The artist Deborah Kelly was recently kicked because of my friendship with (curator) Bec of murderous rapists, or the victims of terrorist process of selecting works, and I detailed the out of an exhibition called How The City Cares at Dean, I complied. THEN they said I had to shooting attacks at mosques. Just as the poster meddling and puppeteering they had been doing, Customs House gallery because the City of Syd- remove the smoke! I said no.” The puppeteering in the NGA collection is filed under ‘Subject: to which they had nothing really to say, except ney, who produced the show as part of the Big was likely to have kept on going. Deborah added, Community Issues’, the City of Sydney should “there’s two sides to the story”. I urged them to Anxiety Festival, claimed that her work My Syd- “They also didn’t want the zombies, but by then I not be interfering in and censoring this con- make this elusive ‘other side of the story’ public ney Summer was “not suitable to be viewed by had refused further alteration”. It was this refusal temporary expression of community issues. so that it can be scrutinised and held to account. children”. The work, devised as a four metre wide that led to the work being kicked out of the exhi- To date we are still in the dark on the exact reason print, depicts young people protesting against bition by the City staff. IS IT THE ANTI-SCOMO T-SHIRT WORN why Kelly’s work was censored. inaction on climate change. It’s outrageous that the City has meddled in BY ONE OF THE PROTESTORS? ...bloody As I walked around the exhibition I discov- Your intrepid EXTRA!EXTRA! reporter is a Kelly’s work to this degree. In the weeks leading hell, it’s not the City of Sydney annual report ered that the City had also censored parts of Sarah participating artist in the exhibition as part of the up to Halloween they were quibbling over images being designed here! Goffman’s work, Occupy Sydney. Her large pho- artist-activist group SquatSpace. How The City of teenagers dressed up as zombies. Those kids tographs document hundreds of the phrases seen Cares considers life in Sydney through artist-led are participating creatively in protests about our IS IT THE PARTIALLY OBSCURED IMAGE on the protest placards of the Occupy movement projects that care about its people and places. Our likely extinction. Extinction = the death of human OF DANNY LIM? Just like the magistrate who during its occupation of Martin Place from 2011 to contribution to the show is an historical overview existence = zombies... get it?? decided that Danny’s ‘CVN’T’ sandwich-board 2014, only a few blocks from Customs House. of the Redfern-Waterloo Tour Of Beauty, a bunch In trying to understand the motivations of was ‘cheeky but not offensive’, his words about Expletives on the placards have been heav- of bus and bicycle tours that we used to run from the City, Kelly says, “I feel that it’s the celebra- the reaction of the police also apply to the City ily pixelated. As always with censorship by pix- 2005–2016. The Tour took people to meet locals tion of protest per se that they did not like. AND of Sydney’s reaction to Deborah Kelly’s work: elation, this has the counter-productive effect in Redfern and Waterloo, to hear their perspec- maybe, that they censored my work in advance ‘unnecessary and very heavy-handed’. of making the viewer more curious about what tives on the rapid changes affecting the area. of the ‘Religious Freedom’ laws, which everyone is being concealed. Somehow holding a phone We too were required to submit all images fears”. Perhaps it’s easier for an institution to I handed out the flyers at the opening with camera up close to the pixelated words reveals and video to the City of Sydney for vetting, even pre-emptively censor on the side of caution. my seven-year-old kid. He was also outraged that the word a little more clearly. One censored word though the curator Bec Dean already knew our In the face of this injustice to artistic free- an image of kids protesting climate action was was ‘ASSHOLES’! work very well. I was half-expecting the City to dom, your intrepid reporter had to take action. censored. His school principal has been amazing Sarah said of the censorship process, “I was come back with objections to something edgy in I quickly created an A5 flyer to hand out at the about the school climate strikes, finding ways bemused by it frankly, and a bit disgusted by their our work. Perhaps the video interview with Abo- opening of the exhibition on the evening of Tues- to step gingerly around the NSW Department meddling (now that I see the work). The notion riginal activist Jenny Munro might be cutting too day November 5. The flyer had a reproduction of Education’s ban on staff supporting or even of the city caring, the appearance and reality of close to the bone in her descriptions of the geno- of the banned artwork with the text, “here it is discussing the strikes. She addresses the school the City of Sydney as a body corporate censoring cide of her people, or perhaps the varied criticisms snuck into the exhibition opening night, albeit a about the importance of organising collectively and decisively marketing themselves...argh!” of the NSW state government’s terrible handling lot smaller, on this A5 flyer!” for positive change that will benefit us all. That The City would be more transparent in its of the area’s development would prove to be trou- is leadership. processes if they had blacked out the offensive blesome. But alas we sailed through the vetting The back of the flyer asked the following questions: Perhaps the City of Sydney frets that some- words with solid black blocks, and added text process without ruffling anyone’s feathers. one like Alan Jones will make a big hoo-ha out over the black that says ‘CENSORED’, since this It wasn’t until the day before the exhibition WHAT IS THE CITY WORRIED ABOUT? of the work in their exhibition. Upon reflection, is what has happened. opening that I heard about Deborah Kelly’s very ...Kids seeing other kids participating in the I don’t think my flyer landed the point strongly I write this on the day that catastrophic fire different interaction with the City. She posted global protest movement against climate inaction enough that other major state institutions are danger is forecast for large parts of the country. about it on social media, adding that “I also want in the face of an extinction crisis? Really? simultaneously displaying controversial material This predicament is not ‘warm and welcoming’, the artists, with whom I was so looking forward (a poster with a church on fire with the directive it’s hot-as-hell and hostile-as-fuck. We need to to showing, to know I was excluded”. IS IT THE “NEEDLESS ANXIETY” FESTI- of its title, Keep Warm This Winter) without cen- support our young people in their protests about The road to Kelly’s exclusion from the exhi- VAL NOW? soring the artist. the climate inaction that might decimate their bition was a highly unusual one for any artist. It I had handed out about 50 flyers at the future. Our institutions need to support the cul- was not a straightforward ban on that particu- IS IT THE BURNING CHURCH? ...an opening when I was approached by the head of tural expressions of this state of affairs. For the lar finished work. She was asked by the City to intentional reference to the 1978 artwork programs at the City of Sydney, I didn’t catch City of Sydney to hinder this important work remove particular elements in the image. Perhaps Keep Warm This Winter by Marie McMahon, her name. She asked me to stop distributing the makes them the ASSHOLES! the downside to digitally created art is that it cre- a poster from the Tin Sheds Art Workshop, flyers “out of respect for the other artists”. The ates the perception that it can be “edited”. It is which is in the collection of The National Gal - speeches were about to begin. “Let me talk to you Mickie Quick highly unlikely that a painter would be instructed lery of Australia, and also currently on display about respect”, I nearly replied, but she said we to go back into their canvas with their brush: such at the State Library of NSW. Other posters could discuss the problem after the speeches. I a request would quite rightly be seen as puppet- from the Tin Sheds Poster Collection are in was happy with that and complied. eering the hand of an artist. But digital art some- this exhibition at Customs House. The church After the speeches we had a chat, also with how enters that grey area where it can be treated in Deborah’s artwork is the old church of con - another City of Sydney bureaucrat. I went like graphic design, with the “client” submitting victed paedophile George Pell. The anger is through the points on the flyer with them. It Mickie Quick has dec- deserved, but actually the ‘mob’ outside this all boiled down, they said, to their policy that “requests for changes”. This is not the way that ades of tactical media artists should be treated. church is in fact just a candlelight vigil, which content on display at Customs House had to be activism under his belt. Kelly’s situation involved heavy handed communities are conducting for an increasing “warm and welcoming”. They said they had the In his day job, he is puppeteering by the City. She says, “They asked range of concerns, whether it’s for the victims right to choose appropriate works to fit that crite- To see the original image Publications Manager at for the burning church to be removed and only of Australian immigration policy, or the victims ria. I pointed out that it wasn’t a straightforward scan this code Honi Soit newspaper. 6 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 9

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Deborah Kelly and colaborators “horn-in” protest, 2012 “Society has changed” – Gender representation and Kaldor Public Art Projects

In October 2019, the latest Countess Report was released. Created and curator Julie Ewington, whose work extends Chun Yin Rainbow Chan and Megan Alice Clune). time: Alicia Frankovich, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Ian by Australian artist Elvis Richardson, the Report has published data over four decades. Ewington was part of the cura- Equality of gender representation soared Milliss and Imants Tillers. Associated with the on gender representation in Australian contemporary visual arts torium for Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art during 2013’s 13 Rooms, which was a critical and Milliss work is the publication of Extra!Extra! in since 2008. The 2019 Report indicates an increased interest from and feminism, at ACCA in late 2017. popular success with queues going out the door. which this article appears. major institutions in dealing with issues of gender inequity in Ewington is convinced the Kaldor Public It signalled a shift by Kaldor curators with just And Agatha Gothe-Snape is optimistic about the Australian arts sector. In this article, inspired by the Countess Art Projects will change – not because of quotas over 30 per cent of the rooms occupied by either the future. She has embedded herself with KPAP Report, Jenna Price explores the historical inclusion of women in or protocols – but because society has changed. a solo woman, or the Australian performance for 18 months with the projects. She says that Kaldor Public Art Projects. She believes John Kaldor, now 83, whose energy artists Clark Beaumont, both women. Again both curatorial and management are very aware and philanthropy leads the projects, is a man of Jennifer Allora worked with Guillermo Calza- of the bias. She has spoken to Kaldor himself a his generation. dilla in a room where both artists had equal number of times about the problem of gender Women artists might be making great strides “He responds to artists who engage him and billing. 13 Rooms was also Marina Abramovic’s inequality among the projects. towards equality in all of our major contempo- as it happens, they have been predominantly first outing with KPAP, a forerunner to her solo “I am happy to be a woman working at this rary art institutions but that’s not yet reflected men. He follows his desires and wishes and that’s project in 2015. fold in KPAP and believing the future will be dif- in the Kaldor Public Art Projects. Looks like they the way it pans out. One might say that John’s 13 Rooms was one of the stronger exhibitions ferent,” says Gothe-Snape. are trying to fix it right now. Fingers crossed. being drawn to male artists is a function of his for Kaldor Public Art Projects, recalls University She says it was also a concern for her as the Since 1969 and across 35 projects, only two generation and his preconceptions.” of Sydney academic Catriona Moore, and she time to make a decision about the commission women have been accorded the status of solo “Do I wish that he had taken more interest says public scrutiny of such work will increase as approached. shows: Marina Abramovic and Vanessa Beecroft. in leading women artists in the past? Indeed I do. private patronage plays an increasingly important “It was very much that if I didn’t do it, it And on only four occasions have women been Do I hope that he will pick up work by more won- part in the arts. would be one less woman. I’m so proud to be in named with equal billing to men – Charlotte derful women? Yes please.” “There has been a historical problem with this work that spreads some of John’s resources Moorman with Nam Jun Paik in 1976; Jeanne- An analysis of the projects over 50 years is a gender balance and more recently there has been to women and non-binary people who have been Claude with Christo, in the foundation project in sharp reminder of gender inequality in these par- an attempt to rectify that, partly through the arts employed as leaders, and to give as many people 1969 and again in 1990; and more recently, Allora ticular arts. community with protests such as Deborah Kel- as possible a chance to benefit from these acts of and Calzadilla in 2012. Of 35 projects, 25 were solo male shows – ly’s,” she says. philanthropy.” It’s what prompted Australian artist Deborah over 71 per cent, compared to just under six per Jo Holder, co-convenor of research centre Kelly to organise a “horn-in” at the Art Gallery of cent of solo women; and 11 per cent in shows with Contemporary Art and Feminism, and director Jenna Price and John Kavanagh NSW in 2012. Kelly and others adorned them- equal billing for men and women. of The Cross Art Projects, is unconvinced that selves with horns and lay dead on the floor – a The remaining four projects have more than there is real structural change at KPAP. nod to the kind of anatomy that might get an art- two artists. They include An Australian Accent in “Every time a woman appears, she’s got no ist a gig at a Kaldor Public Art Project. 1984, again showing only men: Mike Parr, Imants clothes on and she’s down on her hands and Kelly, now in London, recalls that she and Tillers and Ken Unsworth. knees,” says Holder, referring to the work of her colleagues were protesting at the preponder- More recently, the 2019 Asad Raza show, Vanessa Beecroft. She believes that these kinds of ance of men exhibited in the new Kaldor Galler- Absorbtion, where Raza had top billing, had three works repress the presence of the outside world. ies at AGNSW. Of the 32 artists exhibiting, Kelly named collaborators, Daniel Boyd (already a suc- But this year’s project, the 35th, goes beyond Jenna Price and John Kavanagh have been going to recalls, only one was a woman. cessful solo artist with a string of commercial and the promise of 13 Rooms. The four new commis- Kaldor Art Projects together since 1984. They’ve been But the future will be different, says writer critical successes to his name, and two women, sions in Making Art Public are 50/50 for the first journalists for longer than that. 7 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 10 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

12 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 1/5 PLAYING WITH THE FACTS

In a recent interview the American feminist On the one hand, from the late 1960s, when tural activity like art? If so, how can we play with prototype, a sketch for a range of similar pro- theorist Donna Haraway commented on the Kaldor Public Art Projects began, art began to this? What if we bring them together in an art con- jects, as has occurred with our earlier agricul- necessity for play in the way we approach devel- unhitch itself from specific media or activities, text with art freedoms and restraints and see what tural projects. oping solutions to the world’s imminent environ- and what was called the “institutional definition comes out of it? How will the results compare to • Although the potential themes are more mental disaster. “Play captures a lot of what goes of art” took hold. In other words anything could the traditional production of both activities? than we can realistically cover we will tend on in the world,” she said. “We need to develop be art as long as a consensus of art world insti- The newspaper we imagined is not quite a towards several major areas: the growing practices for thinking about those forms of activ- tutions accepted it as art. At the same time what normal newspaper: understanding of public art’s relationship ity that are not caught by functionality, those was called “institutional critique” also developed • It will initially be almost handmade rather than to land reflected in the contrast between which propose the possible-but-not-yet, or that as artists began to make art which looked criti- mass-produced, an exclusive product with a Wrapped Coast in 1969 and Jonathan Jones’ which is not-yet but still open.” cally at those institutions and how they worked, limited print run of only fifty copies. There will barrangal dyarac (skin and bones) project in Similar thought lay behind the development leading eventually to current contemporary art be only five editions of eight pages, although the Royal Botanic Gardens in 2016; the chang- of this short term newspaper. When initially com- which investigates all manner of social and cul- we hope to then compile it into a single forty ing nature of journalism; the recognition of missioned to run a Kaldor Studio project Lucas tural activities and presents them back to the page mass-produced version with a print run women and gender-diverse artists; and the Ihlein proposed a series of printing workshops public in a wide range of media. of several thousand, to be given out free during transformation of culture as labour, as seen with Rizzeria, an organisation he had helped found On the other hand investigative journalism, the remainder of this exhibition. through live art, media, and its institutions in the dim distant past of 2008. He proposed pro- which had always existed to a degree, became a • The audience will be the limited audience of and histories. ducing a weekly newspaper demonstrating the major form of newspaper journalism. The 1970s the art world rather than the general public • Above all we want to have some fun, with his- possibilities of riso print technology usually asso- to the 1990s can almost be seen as the pinnacle audience sought by most newspapers. tories and with ideas. ciated with zine culture. The newspaper would of print journalism, ringed around by the “rivers • It will be produced under the economic limi- In her interview, Donna Haraway empha- play off various Kaldor projects, giving them more of gold” delivered by classified advertising. The tations of art production. Contributors will be sised a hope that we could develop playful ways context but also a contemporary response. development of the internet and its accessibility paid a minimal set fee, many will be volunteers. to bring about a better future: But it was soon obvious that the task was as an almost free platform for distributing infor- • Contributors will have the freedom to choose It seems to me that our politics these days require enormous. There was such a wide range of pos- mation brought that to an end. There was no their own subject but, as always with “artis- us to give each other the heart to do just that. To figure sible responses to the Kaldor projects, and the reason to buy a newspaper for its journalism if tic freedom”, their work will be curated out how, with each other, we can open up possibilities fifty years over which they occurred are arguably you could get the same information free online. into certain general thematic areas. In other for what can still be. And we can’t do that in a negative the most important in human history, marked Newspaper circulations dropped, advertising words, opinions will be theirs, not necessar- mood. We can’t do that if we do nothing but critique. by enormous social, cultural and technological revenues plummeted and the quality of journal- ily endorsed by the editors, Kaldor Public Art We need critique; we absolutely need it. But it’s not change, as well as the realisation of the almost ism declined as its financial base disappeared. Projects or the Art Gallery of NSW. going to open up the sense of what might yet be. It’s certain destruction of that same society within It was often commented over the last ten • It will connect to Kaldor Public Art Projects by not going to open up the sense of that which is not yet the next century. years, as journalists suffered massive redundan- providing a wider context to the fifty years of possible but profoundly needed. Producing even a small weekly newspaper is cies, that journalists now face the same plight as projects, linking the projects to other social and That is exactly what we also hope EXTRA! no easy task, requiring many different specialised artists in the form of precarious or non-existent cultural change during that period, and teasing EXTRA! can be part of in its own modest way. skills. So Lucas called in artist Ian Milliss, a collabo- employment at low wages. Many journalists have out barely visible aspects of some of the projects. rator who had professional newspaper publishing become freelancers competing to develop their • It will be more an artwork than a newspaper, experience, and they set about quickly recruiting a own brand in the form of specialty areas and so it will tend to cultural interpretation rather Ian Milliss and Lucas Ihlein team of journalists and artists to work with. crowd-sourced patrons while subsidising their than the political or economic and we hope It became clear in our discussions that this journalism with other activities. the limitations in some areas will be balanced “A Giant Bumptious Litter: Donna Haraway on Truth, Technol- project stood at the nexus of two critical areas of Has art now become like investigative journal- by imaginative flights and some futurology ogy, and Resisting Extinction”, Logic Magazine, Issue 9 Nature, cultural change. ism? And has journalism become a free-range cul- in others. Our wildest hope is that it will be a November 2019. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM THE EXTRA! EXTRA! LETTER BOX 11/11/19

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU If you have an opinion about Kaldor Public Art Projects or have a topic you would like us to investigate in a future publication of EXTRA!EXTRA! write a letter to the editor and post it in our postbox.

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EDITION 2/5 19 NOVEMBER 2019

Hilton Kramer, New York Times, 1970

THE ART WORLD’S FILTERING TREES IN COFFINS EXTRA VISUAL COVER-UPS DISINFORMATION Louise Curham & Juundaal Strang-Yettica Boni Cairncross Chris Nash Wendy Bacon & Chris Nash P.3 P.4–5 P.6 P.7

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EXTRA!EXTRA! is published at the Art Gallery of NSW, which stands on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We the editors ARCHIVAL PROVOCATIONS and contributors to this artwork acknowledge the Traditional Owners This week the EXTRA!EXTRA! team was responsibility to remind visitors to the pleasantly ing country, Juundaal Strang-Yettica reflects on of this Country, and we acknowledge joined by Boni Cairncross and Louise Curham, air-conditioned Art Gallery of NSW that we are her emotional response to Christo and Jeanne- that sovereignty to this Land was who completed a “one-day-residency” in the gal- all connected to the climate crisis, the dominant Claude’s Two wrapped trees (1969) - box number lery. Artists who engage with the problematics of narrative of our times, and this is tackled by 9 in the exhibition. Juundaal, a Bundjalung-Kana- never ceded. live art, Boni and Louise were tasked with com- Wendy Bacon in her enquiry into the ethics of kan woman living in Wollongong, provocatively ing up with a rapid response to Making Art Public. reportage on global warming. and poetically proposes the repatriation to EXTRA!EXTRA! What happens after an ephemeral, site-specific What subject matter is considered “rel- Country of Two wrapped trees. What processes of work is finished? How can we experience it after evant” or “proper” for an artwork? This is an respectful consultation with Traditional Owners, CONTRIBUTORS the fact? What works and what doesn’t? And how ongoing question for Chris Nash in his series of and what administrative processes of de-acces- can we activate the archives so that the public can articles which investigate the turbulent events sion would be required for the AGNSW to carry EDITORIAL TEAM “feel” what the original experience might have surrounding prominent German-American artist out such a repatriation? Lucas Ihlein & Ian Milliss been like? In an exhibition like Making Art Public Hans Haacke, one of the early adopters of insti- which consists of a range of diverse “leftovers”, tutional critique - a mode of artmaking which JOURNALISTS these are pressing questions for audiences and draws attention to the political machinations of Chris Nash, Wendy Bacon, Jenna Price, art historians alike. the artworld itself. Haacke’s battles with muse- Lorrie Graham, John Kavanagh, Here at EXTRA!EXTRA! we’re exploring ums, fought using the weapon of fact-based art Melissa Sweet, Jack Rozycki, the links between art and journalism, between reportage, were instrumental in paving the way Caren Florance, Boni Cairncross, the conventions of aesthetics and the rules of for more transparent institutional structures - the world beyond the art world. Artworks do and these developments were all happening at Louise Curham, Shags, Sarah Rodigari, Lucas Ihlein is an artist not appear miraculously in a vacuum, isolated the same time that Kaldor Public Art Projects Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Amber Jones, and member of Big from the social, political, and environmental was just starting out in Australia. Fag Press and Kandos Mickie Quick & Malcolm Whittaker goings-on of this planet - but sometimes we act Finally, as part of her series exploring the School of Cultural as if they do. EXTRA!EXTRA! takes seriously its relationship between land art and acknowledg- Adaptation. NEWSPAPER DESIGN & PRODUCTIONTEAM Ian Shoobridge, Alisa Croft & Sunny Lei

ILLUSTRATION Micke Lindebergh

RIZZERIA TEAM Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge, ABOUT Bettina Kaiser, Kitty Cardwell, Estee Sarsfield, Micke Lindebergh, Sunny Lei, Emily Nunell, Anna Ke, [GRAPH] Stephanie Phillips, Isabella Brown, RISO Halla Hannesdottir, Shanni Sun, Tina Matthews

WEBSITE Amber Jones PRINTING This newspaper is printed using a risographic The first riso digital publication machines silica dust, and other air pollutants. Riso printers From 9 November to 15 December, Lucas printing press. Our risograph is like an automated were released by the Japanese company Riso Kag- do not emit any greenhouse gases and use 95 per- silk screen machine that produces stencils that aku Corporation in 1986. The risograph bridges cent energy less than toner based photocopiers. Ihlein and the Rizzeria Collective take are wrapped around a rotating cylinder. Similar the gap between a standard photocopier and over the Kaldor Studio at the Art Gallery to a wet-ink silk screen process, the artwork is commercial lithographic presses. The risograph Alisa Croft of NSW with EXTRA!EXTRA! – a weekly impressed through a fine mesh screen and onto is primarily used to produce things like small newspaper which responds critically and the paper. press books, zines, art prints, posters, postcards, playfully to Making Art Public. The technology is similar to Mimeograph invitations and business cards. Its main appeal for Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein machines from the 1960s. The original image artists and graphic designers is its accessibility. At and special correspondent Ian Milliss file is sent from a computer or scanned by the The Rizzeria, the community we work with are machine itself and is burnt onto a “master”, which involved in the set-up and printing process from will be joined by special guest writers is then wrapped a print drum. The drum rotates beginning to end. and artists, who will work with the at high speed, pushing the ink through the screen Risograph machines are extremely energy Rizzeria team to print the newspaper and onto the paper as it is sent through. The riso- efficient and generate minimal amounts of waste. Alisa Croft is a print- in situ. graph uses real soy-ink rather than toner, allow- Unlike toner-based printers, Riso printers are free maker and volunteer at Visitors to the Kaldor Studio are invited ing each image to have a hand-made quality. from ozone emissions, toner particle emissions, the Rizzeria. to write letters to the editor – and a selection of letters will be featured in each week’s edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! Coming up in Throughout the run of EXTRA!EXTRA! EXTRA!EXTRA!: in the Kaldor Studio, you can also participate in a range of fun workshops We recently hosted students from Wilcannia and Bourke in Western NSW ERRATA: and have a go at making a risographic who produced some beautiful layered print yourself! risograph prints in the Kaldor Studio, and in Edition 3 we will include a bonus There were two errors in the article Cheng, Daniel Jenatsch, Julie Lee, Eugene “‘Society has changed’ - Gender representa- Choi and Taree Sansbury. CONTENT DISCLAIMER liftout poster from these artworks. We’ll also have an article by Jenna Price look- tion and Kaldor Public Art Projects” in Edi- The article quoted Jo Holder saying that The views expressed in the pages of ing at the geographic origins of artists tion 1 of EXTRA! EXTRA!. the only time women appear was when they EXTRA!EXTRA! are those of the who have been involved with Kaldor There was a production error in our were naked on their knees. Holder remem- authors, and do not necessarily reflect Public Art Projects since 1969. listing of Asad Raza. While Mr Raza is the bered this as a reference to Vanessa Beecroft’s the opinions or official policies of the In future issues we’ll focus on the named artist, the project involved the follow- project, but in fact it was Xavier Le Roy’s editors, Kaldor Public Art Projects or the labour relations surrounding live art. ing collaborators, including four male and Temporary Title, 2015, presented at Carriage- Art Gallery of New South Wales. Our guest correspondents include five female artists: Daniel Boyd, Chun Yin works in Sydney. Some of the women in the Sarah Rodigari and Malcolm Whit- Rainbow Chan, Megan Alice Clune, Dean Beecroft work wore tights, although not all. We welcome responses to our articles, taker, both Sydney artists who have Cross, Brian Fuata, Agatha Gothe-Snape, which can be submitted by posting worked as performers, interpreters or Jana Hawkins-Andersen, Khaled Sabsabi and a physical Letter to the Editor in the enactors of live art works for Kaldor Ivey Wawn. In addition, Wawn presented gallery space, or online at Public Art Projects. a choreographic collaboration with Ivan extra-extra.press 2 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 13

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Christo Two wrapped trees 1969 (detail), two Eucalyptus trees, polyethylene, tarpaulin, rope, Gift of the John Kaldor Family Collection 2011. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, © Christo Hello! hello! It’s good to be with you again! wondering about this feeling. Was this the art- Shall we pick up where we left off? Last week, ists’ intention? I want to know, were these trees the questions before us were: What is Land Art? alive when they were wrapped and bound, top And is it important to society? and bottom? Were they pulled out of the earth Here’s some of what I’ve come up with. The by their roots for wrapping and binding? Did definition of Land Art according to the Tate Gal- this artistic wrapping and binding suffocate and lery in the United Kingdom is art made directly kill them? in or on the landscape, manipulating the land Now, I do not have traditional Indigenous or making structures on the land with natural knowledge but I do care about the environment. materials, twigs or rocks. Land Art is sometimes I grew up in Glebe and am always within arm’s referred to as Earth Art and artists are known reach of a cafe latte, but these trees, I can’t let go. for bringing the outside into the gallery, creating When it comes to anything to do with the land, it Land Art installations. It seems to me this is an has always and will always be part of Indigenous TREES IN important role for art practice, especially now People’s care and concern. For me, this includes given climate change and the pressure our envi- art made on the land. ronment is under. Where better to advocate for In the first edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! We nature than from within it? And that would be offered our respect to the Gadigal people and eco-art, yes? Eora Nation and to the Land. Doesn’t that Land So, I thought I’d ask some of the exhibition include trees? The questions I ask may not have visitors and casually feel out the general con- any bearing on artistic intention or creative sensus. Most of those I chatted with agreed that celebrity but I want to know. COFFINS Land Art is important to society - it brings art out Where did the trees come from? of the gallery and as a consequence, art becomes Whose land, whose Nation do they belong to? visible to more people. Some of these conversa- Were they given or taken? tions took a turn toward the philosophical - art Can’t we give them back, bring them Home? teaches us things, not just about the world we live Have they really been wrapped and bound like “ in but also about ourselves. that, laid in a long white box, like a coffin without Have they really been Come with me, let’s see what we can learn… a lid, for fifty years? the first work that calls my attention is Two I don’t know much about much folks but, wrapped and bound like Wrapped Trees (1969) by Christo and Jeanne- when I look at these trees, I feel grief. Claude. Amid the chatter and giggling of school that, laid in a long white children, a long white box has been laid on the Juundaal Strang-Yettica floor. To me it looks like a coffin without alid. box, like a coffin without a Inside the coffin-box, silent and still, are two trees, roots and branches wrapped and bound lid, for fifty years? tight. This is Land Art. According to what we’ve learned so far, the Land has been brought from outside, wrapped and bound and brought inside. I’m sure there’s a back story and a framework through which we are meant to view these trees. But I’m sorry folks, I’m not feeling it. Juundaal Strang Yettica: ” I am however, feeling very, very uncom- “I don’t know much fortable about these trees, wrapped and bound, about much but the brought from outside to inside, laid down in a learning keeps me long white box, like a coffin without a lid. I’m alive!” 3 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 14 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

19 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 2/5 EXTRA VISUAL – INSTRUCTIONS FOR A SENSE-FOCUSED EXPERIENCE OF MAKING ART PUBLIC

The exhibition Making Art Public has been created from archives, could be restaged at some point in the future. The remakes and documentation of past Kaldor Public Art Projects boxes could be in the same configuration, the way and is itself Project Number 35: Michael Landy. Unlike most we walk around them might be not so different, exhibitions, in this show the residue of earlier temporary public what’s in them would be similar. But what about art is used to create a new kind of artwork, one that describes the our embodied experience of the elements that original work but is not itself that original work (even though it make up the exhibition?. In other words, even if may contain fragments). In this article, Boni Cairncross and Louise your common sense perception is that you’re the Curham reflect on their experience of the exhibition, and their same person, and the things you’re looking at are attempt to create an archive of intangible experiences in the form the same, in reality we’re never the same again. All of instructions that allow momentary experiences to be recreated the time. With this in mind we decided to focus and shared. on our experience of viewing Making Art Public, right now, today, on Tuesday November 12, 2019.. To make an archive, you need to do some- We (Boni and Louise) decided to make an thing. As a rule of thumb, archivists hold that “experimental archive” of Making Art Public in about 5% of the residue of an event or experi- order to respond to their questions about archives, ence is worth keeping - and would meet the cri- evidence, sets of criteria and reimaginings of archi- teria of “significance”. That evidence gets drawn val material. Making Art Public is both a major sur- together to form the archives. The evidence from vey exhibition of the 34 projects staged by Kaldor the walk that Boni and Louise went on include Public Arts to date, and the 35th project in which two audio recordings, a handful of photographs artist Michael Landy worked with the archival and our notes. We were “engineering” an archive material to present this overview. and we had our selection criteria. Many art expe- We discussed ways to make a “mini-ar- riences use your eyes a lot but ask less of your visual material that Michael drew together. By guide you through a sense of our experience of chives”that was the opposite to what people usu- ears, touch or taste. So our selection criteria for “extra to the visual”, we mean what we heard, Making Art Public. ally think of as archives. For us the commonsense our archives is based on the moments in the exhi- touched and imagined. We were looking at the We invite you to access our “archives” and meaning of archives is a set of evidence linked bition where our attention was called by sensing exhibition, but also at how the public were inter- share our experience by following these instruc- to events from the past. The archive is a trace of organs other than our eyes, where our ears and acting with the projects and with each other. tions, which are printed here alongside a handy things that have been done. We soon decided to our sense of touch were able to do some work. Our “archives” don’t actually exist at this lift-out map of the exhibition drawn by Micke replace the word experimental with “experien- We were thinking about things that tend to get stage. We’ve got the audio recordings, the notes Lindebergh. tial”. We agreed we wanted to keep working with left out or overlooked in records of art experience and the photographs, but we haven’t physically At the end of our efforts to record the extra- evidence, but we wanted to look for evidence that - the “extra visual”. winnowed them down to the 5% we think consti- visual experiences of Making Art Public (Kaldor wasn’t so obvious. What did we actually do? We walked around tute the significant evidence that should make it Public Art Project 35: Michael Landy), we ran Like many of the projects represented in the Making Art Public (Kaldor Public Art Project 35: into the archive. Instead we have made a “finding into John Kaldor himself. He kindly had a short boxes, this exhibition is temporary. Technically it Michael Landy), alert to what was extra to the aid” about that 5%, in the form of instructions that chat with us. We commented that it must be like

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meeting a handful of old friends, seeing this exhi- ingly significant. It is the trace, the things that bition, and we wondered if there was a project remain behind. What we have attempted to do is that speaks particularly loudly to him - to which think about the archive both practically and met- he replied that they are all so different. We were aphorically. How an archive is both the 5% record curious if he keeps in contact with the artists. of things that have been done, and a space for John explained that it varies but he noted that he imagination, reinterpretation and play. In think- does regularly catch up with some, Richard Long ing metaphorically about the archive, we won- and Gilbert & George, for example. dered about the gaps that inevitably exist. For Our conversation moved to the impact these now, we experimented with ways to capture the projects have had on Australian artists and audi- “extra visual” stuff and a sense of an experience ences. It seemed to us that the early Kaldor Public of Making Art Public. Yet this list can continue to Art Projects, such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s evolve. On this note, we ask that you please con- Wrapped coast – one million square feet, Little Bay, tribute some of your own evidence by recording Sydney, Australia (1969), was a significant experi- your discoveries of “extra visual” stuff in a letter ence for Sydney artists. John said that it was not to the Extra!Extra! editor. for him to comment on the impact, and he spoke enthusiastically about The Living Archives. He emphasised that this was particularly important as the projects were all temporary exhibitions. (Editor’s note: The Living Archives project involves Scan this code to read the Louise Curham is an Boni Cairncross is an collecting stories from people who experienced specific web-extra report by Amber artist, archivist and film- artist interested in tem- projects over the last 50 years - you can find them on Jones, who followed Boni maker, and a researcher porality and archives. the Kaldor Public Art Projects website) and Louise through the at University of Canber- With Kaldor’s focus on temporary projects gallery observing their ra’s Centre for Creative in public spaces, the archive becomes increas- exploratory research and Cultural Research.

THAT’S NOT AN ARCHIVE, THIS IS AN ARCHIVE!

Australians are terrible at criticism. John a) Not enough archives. remove them from their companions in the box), To return to the rules of giving and receiving Gillies made this point to me when I began post- When I was exploring the exhibition with they can do it! feedback. The action I’d like to see is the cour- graduate study with him in the year 2000. The Boni, I saw very few actual records. (Note: Trying to make sense of that archival encoun- age to exhibit archives as archives. In my experi- arts community in Australia is relatively small, “records” are the items that live within an ter would have been a behemoth task, but fasci- ence, curators understand or are interested to people don’t like to say anything nasty about each archive). The most prominent administrative nating. It would have given us a bit more of a learn about the joys and difficulties of exhibiting other, and if something nasty is said, we don’t records included some letter exchanges with sense of the courage of some of this art and we records. We don’t need to shy away from them. know how to talk about it. The massive down Christo and Richard Long. I wanted more, much may have learnt more about ourselves as audi- The public (us) has a role, which is to ask for side to this is a) we have to read between the lines much more! Why? Because records let me draw ences. So here’s hoping, John, you decide to do all archives - to demand direct access to them! The to gauge how our work really goes down; b) we some of my own conclusions. I can learn in this again, and next time let’s engage with all the National Librarian at a recent talk wondered why all lose the skill of criticism which turns us into unexpected ways, for example, through seeing materiality of the archival “stuff” you’ve lovingly people don’t quiz our institutions more about quiet australians. Richard Long’s beautiful, patient hand writing cared for since 1969. (Editor’s note: this month, what’s missing. So write your letter to the editor There is a training in the public service called for myself. Archival records also let me form my Kaldor Public Art Projects will launch an open access and request the relevant records! ‘giving and receiving feedback’ to upskill people own conclusions about the “truth”. For example digital archives for the public to access - check their at this process. It’s a hospitable approach, and I was interested to see Christo describe in his website for a link). Louise Curham that’s always the rub: if someone invites me to own words that he didn’t want to give a lecture b) The choices of archival records on show respond, I always feel I must be a good guest. in English. The stories records tell can be unruly. are disappointing. Postscript from Louise: further examples of archival material I However, I think we must evolve our idea of I’m sure there must exist a fascinating letter chain I have appreciated for some time the way that noticed in the exhibition were newspaper clippings of the Mur- a good guest from a quiet guest to one who is summoning all those hardworking volunteers Jonathan Jones assiduously credits everyone who doch party for An Australian Accent; diagrams were exhibited in defiant in good heart. to Little Bay. They can give us an insight into brings his work into existence. Jones acknowl- Box 5 (Charlotte Moorman and Paik); photographs were used for Here’s the public service approach: choose an the administrative processes behind a project, edges there’s so much more to the work than his quite a few boxes (Miralda’s Coloured feast springs to mind); appropriate time and place. Don’t store it up. Give and they can give us insight into the structuring solo-authorship. Archives share that property. By television coverage also featured heavily - Gilbert & George is a feedback as soon as possible and practical. Allow structures. For me, that’s part of what’s intrigu- definition, they never stand alone - the one record good one there, and of course Christo; and then there were the enough time so that you are not rushed. Sleep on ing about John Kaldor’s work, his collaboration we see on the wall is a companion to a whole lot objects like Sol Le Witt’s exuberant drawing/plans. These whet it if you are angry, upset or stressed because feed- around the logistics. Unfortunately, the oppor- more in the file, in the box, the box within the the appetite, and made this archivist-artist crave more! back given at the wrong time often does more tunity to explore all this, by showing us some of repository (the same applies in digital archives). harm than good. And the advice on receiving the meta-story of how all this art came to be in So in Christo’s box, I wanted to know the admin- (The Art of Feedback: Giving, Seeking and Receiving Feedback, feedback is that there are 3 stages: react, reflect the world is largely missing from Michael Landy’s istrative lineage to the correspondence between ACT Public Service n.d.) and respond. Have a think before responding, and curatorial efforts (I have however acknowledged Christo and John. Did John keep a filing cabinet “take responsibility for the feedback”. his efforts in the adjacent article co-authored of his letters or did he and his staff all add to files Louise Curham is an invited speaker at the Archives in the digital The Making Art Public exhibition, curated with Boni Cairncross). organised by project? Was there a moment where age symposium, Celebrating the Kaldor Public Art Projects Digital by Michael Landy, works with the metaphor of I know I am not alone amongst archivists in he split out the projects from his textiles business? Archive, on Wednesday 20th November, 1-4pm, at AGNSW. “archive boxes”. So, here comes my feedback, subscribing to the view that the slow absorption That would tell us he felt the art projects had really from an archives perspective. of archives is rewarding. In my opinion, it has the taken on a life of their own. I wanted a label that (Incidentally, why should you listen to me? potential to reward every viewer and it’s a shame kept the language John used at the time for the Like you, I’ve been a visitor to the exhibition, we don’t get more of the opportunity in Making folder he kept the letters in, that would start to twice in fact. Secondly, the EXTRA!EXTRA! Art Public. It does take time, lots of it, to absorb give me a sense of how this all really worked within editorial team has asked me to contribute because oneself in this strangely material and conceptual John’s business and in the scene in Sydney at the I’ve been working with archives for a long time - environment that is an archive. Perhaps Michael time. In other words, the archives start to come to since the early 2000s). could have re-enacted an aspect of his curatorial life if we can see how they connect to one another. From my point of view, where does the exhi- research, and called on the artist volunteers of And as they start to come to life, they start to con- bition fall short? Sydney to rummage through the boxes in public. nect to us, the audience. Louise Curham is an So I wanted a label for each record with a) Not enough archives. That kind of chaotic interactivity does seem quite artist, archivist and film- b) The choices of archival records on show terrifying to an archivist, but it’s my experience provenance info. I also wanted to be told that the maker, and a researcher are disappointing. that when people understand how they have replica records were just that, replicas. They were at University of Canber- I’ll go into more details now about each of to care for archives (don’t mix ‘em up, take care strangely pretending to be original, with holes For more info on the sympo- ra’s Centre for Creative these points. with their order, that it’s like heart surgery, never punched in the copies! sium, scan this code: and Cultural Research. 5 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 16 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

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The radical upheavals of the late 1960s generated by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement soon created a searching critique of the entire social framework, and all social institutions found themselves under scrutiny. Art institutions were no JOURNALISM INTO ART (PART 2): exception, with radical formal innovation such as land art (like Wrapped Coast), video art (like the work of Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman) and performance art (like Gilbert and George) implicitly undermining art museums’ exhibition models. THE ART WORLD’S COVER-UPS Sometimes the museums were also under explicit political attack for their connections to conservative politicians, and it all came to a head when they moved to protect rich and powerful trustees from which Hightower declined to do. After twelve ing and openly mocking in several reviews of sion. Would you care to join me for lunch some day next criticism. In part 2 of his series on Hans Haacke and the convergence weeks on exhibition the result was 25,566 (68.7%) the July 1970 Information exhibition. One article week? I would be glad if you would. – Thomas M. Messer of art and journalism, Chris Nash describes the build-up to Haacke’s yes and 11,563 (31.3%) no. In his memoirs published commenced with a description of Haacke’s Rock- It was while Messer and the Guggenheim infamous 1971 Guggenheim Museum exhibition. This is the story of three decades later, MoMA Chairman David Rock- efeller poll exhibit and included the jibe “here all were under attack for the International Exhibition a period of particularly fertile transformation in the New York art efeller (brother of Governor Nelson Rockefeller) the detritus of modern printing and electronic that Messer was negotiating with Haacke over his world which became a precursor to the institutional critique of still expressed outrage at this specific artwork by communications media has been transformed by upcoming show that was to follow immediately much contemporary art, including the EXTRA!EXTRA! newspaper Haacke. an intellectual gaggle of demi-intellectuals into a after the International. Haacke and the curator that you’re reading right now. The collection and exhibition policies of low grade form of show business.” Ten days later Edward Fry had met with Messer on 19 January, MoMA were naturally a vital concern for con- Kramer returned to the fray with a further review where Messer for the first time expressed - res temporary artists, at the same time that they that ended with “What unmitigated nonsense ervations about the two real estate pieces that Hans Haacke produced and exhibited a wide were challenging the very definitions of art, this exhibition is! What tripe we are offered here! Haacke had been researching and preparing for range of natural systems artworks up until the artists and museums. As a result of a confronta- What an intellectual scandal!” It was about this about six months since receiving the museum’s late 1960s. The best known to later audiences tion with MoMA in early 1969, some prominent time in mid-1970 that Haacke received a pres- invitation. The works were Shapolsky et al. Manhat- are the various versions of the Condensation Cube artists had formed the Art Workers’ Coalition tigious commission for a one-person show the tan Real Estate Holdings, a real time social system as (sometimes called a Weather Cube), comprising a (AWC), in which Haacke took a prominent role. following May from the Solomon R. Guggenheim of 1 May 1971 and Sol Goldman and Alex diLorenzo sealed plexiglass cube into which a small amount The AWC was not the Museum, two miles Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a real time social of water had been inserted. Because of the dif- only politically radical “here all the detritus of up Fifth Avenue from system as of 1 May 1971. There was no connection ferential temperature inside the cube caused by organisation formed modern printing and electronic MoMA and close to the between Shapolsky, Goldman or diLorenzo with light energy from the surrounding environment, by New York artists in Metropolitan Museum the Guggenheim Museum, and none was asserted the water vaporises then condenses on the inside the 1960s, and around communications media has on Central Park. in the artworks. Various law enforcement agen- walls of the cube, forming rivulets as it runs down it blossomed a range been transformed by an The contem- cies including the New York Police Department to collect and vaporise again in an endless cycle of groups of varying intellectual gaggle of demi- porary art scene in (NYPD) had been scrutinising Shapolsky, Gold- whose visual patterns never repeat themselves. size, membership and New York was in sus- man and diLorenzo in the preceding decade, Haacke’s project is not to produce an art- concerns. The AWC intellectuals into a low grade tained uproar, with and Shapolsky had been indicted for bribery and work that exhibits the artist’s sensibility and had its own agenda, in form of show business.” consequences for all convicted of rent gouging. The activities of all creativity, but to explore the relationship of art particular to develop concerned – elite insti- three had been reported in the New York media to reality, and the activity of the artist in distilling policies for artists’ working conditions and tutions, their managers and staff, artists and their over a period of years. (Editor’s note: see edition 1 of and mediating that relationship. As Fry put it: contractual rights, but also was something of publics. The confrontations continued into 1971 EXTRA! EXTRA! for more on this work.) The weather boxes, as Haacke so aptly called an unorganised umbrella group that mounted and at MoMA eventually led to the sacking of the Messer said the museum didn’t have the them, thus extend the Duchampian concept of the actions and protests around these industrial Museum Director. John Hightower, appointed to resources to check the accuracy of the information ready-made to include, at least potentially, any real issues and in support of other workers’ strikes, in the role amid the turmoil in 1970, went some dis- in the artworks. There was a period of negotiation phenomenon in the world: anything as a result of opposition to the war, and on issues around gen- tance to accommodate the AWC activists in both that involved advice from lawyers to both Haacke which the artist might choose to “articulate some- der, class, race and ethnicity. their artistic and political/industrial demands. In and the Guggenheim as to whether the artworks thing natural”. The difference between Haacke’s MoMA occupied a special place in these con- doing this he angered the MoMA Board of Trus- might be libellous and defamatory, and an offer appropriation of phenomena and the ready-mades flicts. Apart from its significance as the self-pro- tees and its Chair David Rockefeller: by Haacke to disguise slightly the principals’ iden- of Duchamp lies in the fact that Haacke’s phenom- claimed ‘citadel’ for modern art in the United States, John was entitled to voice his opinions, but he tities, but that was unacceptable to Messer. On ena retain a double identity: once isolated and MoMA was a particular focus for the anti-war had no right to turn the museum into a forum for March 19, in the days following his lunch with “signed” by the artist, they nevertheless continue actions because of its close association with the antiwar activism and sexual liberation. …. When Kramer, Messer wrote to Haacke describing the in their original functions, whereas Duchamp’s Rockefeller family. Nelson Rockefeller, brother of MoMA’s professional and curatorial staff went on works as “a muckraking venture” that as an “active objects lose their original function after having David, was Governor of New York (1959-1973) and strike in 1971, John immediately yielded to their engagement towards social and political ends” been placed into an aesthetic context …. Haacke’s subsequently US Vice-President (1974-1977) in the demands to form a union. With the staff in dis- were excluded under the Guggenheim’s Charter systems, in fact, only enter into the realm of art Republican administration of Gerald Ford. He had array, contributions drying up, and the trustees to pursue “esthetic and educational objectives that because they operate as representations of aspects been President of MoMA from 1939 to 1941 and in open revolt, Bill Paley [MoMA President and are self-sufficient and without ulterior motive.” of the world – being those aspects themselves again 1946-1953, and was a trustee of the Museum founding CEO of the CBS television network], On April 1 Messer cancelled the exhibition, and – and because Haacke chooses to present them from 1939 to 1978, which period included the late with my full support, fired Hightower in early 1972. when the curator Edward Fry publicly supported within an artistic context.” 1960s unrest. Although on the more liberal end of Meanwhile over at the Guggenheim, there Haacke, Messer dismissed him. Over one hundred In the late 1960s Haacke extended his focus the Republican Party, he supported President Nix- was a showdown among the artists scheduled artists signed a statement “refusing to allow [their] to social systems, and immediately addressed the on’s prosecution of the Vietnam War. A confron- to exhibit at the Sixth (and as it turned out, last) works to be exhibited in the Guggenheim until political dimension. The broader US social con- tation with MoMA over funding for the anti-war Guggenheim International in February-April, the policy of art censorship and its advocates are text of the late 1960s included large angry street poster And babies? (from the 1968 My Lai massa- 1971. A minority of five artists objected to the changed” and there were rowdy demonstrations protests, race riots in multiple cities since the sum- cre) led to an AWC demonstration on 2 May, 1970 alleged impact on their own art of work by Daniel by placard-holding artists inside and outside the mer of 1965, rampant police violence at the 1968 in front of Guernica and an unsuccessful request to Buren that included a large striped canvas hang- Guggenheim building. The controversy received Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, the Picasso to withdraw the work from the museum. ing down into the central void of the ascending extensive coverage in the New York Times and worst labour unrest since the 1930s, revelations Prominent artists began withdrawing their work broad spiral of galleries. other news media as well as the arts press, includ- in November 1969 of the 1968 My Lai massacre in from exhibitions and collections as part of an art Buren made unequivocal the critique devel- ing publication of the relevant letters and personal Vietnam, the killing of students by National Guard strike, and three weeks later the New York Art Strike oped by his installation by providing a political explanations by the protagonists. The NYPD after and police on Kent State University and Jackson against Racism, War and Repression was staged on language outside his work. Speaking to New York reading the news invited Haacke to visit them and State College campuses in May 1970, and news of the steps of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Times reporter Grace Glueck, who had come to share his research about Goldman and diLorenzo the secret US bombing of Cambodia. The AWC campaigns were reported in depth preview the International, Buren insisted that because they suspected a money-laundering oper- In a series of four exhibitions across 1969-1970 in the New York Times (NYT) and other media, he not be referred to as an artist and proclaimed ation for organised crime interests. in German and US cities, a teletype machine printed and prompted heated exchanges among crit- that “both artists and museums in the traditional real-time continuous transmissions from selected ics, museum staff and artists. For example, the sense are obsolete”. Chris Nash international newsagencies, the content of which Art Mailbag section of the NYT on 8 February, The majority of the exhibiting artists sup- included reports from the war in Vietnam. This was 1970 included a long letter from the AWC ‘Why ported Buren, who refused a compromise offer of This is an edited extract from What is Journalism? The Art and Haacke’s first explicit engagement with journalism MoMA is Their Target’, with Hans Haacke as one a subsequent solo show and withdrew his work Politics of a Rupture published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. For in his art. He also initiated audience participation of three signatories; a letter ‘Hard to Forget’ from when the curator refused to hang the controver- further information contact [email protected] in survey polls, soliciting information from exhi- artist Alex Gross roundly attacking MoMA for sial canvas. There were artists’ demonstrations at bition visitors such as place of birth and residence, “30 uniformed policemen [who had been] smug- the Guggenheim during opening hours. demographic characteristics, and political views on gled into the basement” before the large artists’ Separate to this conflict, when he reviewed a range of contemporary issues. At the Information demonstration in the Guernica gallery the previ- the Guggenheim International for the NYT, exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) ous year; and a letter ‘Erroneous’ from a MoMA Hilton Kramer mocked the “inane rubbish that in July 1970, museum visitors were asked to place a staff member attacking on behalf of a “silent the so-called “artists” have been invited to fill the ballot in one of two transparent boxes labelled ‘Yes’ majority” the report by NYT journalist Grace museum with” and directly attacked the Direc- and ‘No’ in response to the question ‘Would the Glueck on the controversy over the And babies tor Thomas Messer for accommodating “a trend fact that Governor Rockefeller has not denounced poster, accompanied by a response from Glueck. toward dismantling the artistic enterprise and Chris Nash is a former President Nixon’s Indochina policy be a reason for As well as the politics and policies, some of casting contempt on the integrity of the museum”. journalist and academic you not to vote for him in November?’ Nelson Rock- the exhibitions themselves at MoMA were deeply The following day Messer wrote to Kramer: and author of What is efeller contacted MoMA Director John Hightower controversial. Hilton Kramer, the neo-conserva- Dear Hilton, Your Guggenheim International Journalism? The Art and asking him to “kill that element of the exhibition” tive art critic for the New York Times, was scath- review and the points you make in it invite some discus- Politics of a Rupture. 6 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 17

EDITION 2/5 19 NOVEMBER 2019 FILTERING DISINFORMATION: CLIMATE CHANGE JOURNALISM SINCE THE LATE 1960S

Over the fifty years that Kaldor Public Art Projects has been You can get no more credible sources in a media in the world with News Corp owning the NSW South Coast, he wrote: “The Greens are running a lot has happened in the background. Events, issues, bushfire emergency than heroes and victims of only mainstream media print outlets in Hobart, vultures. They flap in to feed off every natural artists that at the beginning seemed insignificant slowly emerged fires. “Bushfires and climate change” is finally “a Brisbane and Adelaide, and what were to become disaster, screeching: “Global warming!” They’ve as the most important. But there is no greater issue than climate big story”. But the question is: why did it take so the two biggest newspapers in Australia, the done it again with the fires in NSW and Victoria change, and nothing more urgent than dealing with bushfires. long and even now, is the media fulfilling the goal Herald-Sun (Melbourne) and the Daily Telegraph and the cyclone that hit Darwin.” Looking back it turns out that rising carbon dioxide levels were it claims to embrace of making sure all Australi- (Sydney). As the fires burned last week, I checked already being noted in the 1960s and the CSIRO was warning about ans have a right to know? The answer lies in another characteristic of Andrew Bolt’s blog. He’s still at it, warning read- increased bushfire danger in 1987. Wendy Bacon and Chris Nash In trawling through back copies of anti-cen- journalism. As journalists we exercise power. We ers of the “apparent (false) assumption that the reflect on the biggest story ever and the biggest cover up ever. sorship UNSW student paper Tharunka in can play a role in stigmatising and marginalising fires were caused or made worse by global warm- preparation for reporting for EXTRA!EXTRA!, voices. We select evidence and sources to build ing.” Andrew Bolt is just an individual and only we discovered some old reports. In the late 1960s narratives. The production of silences is at least one of several sceptic Newscorp and Sky News It’s Sunday night in mid-November 2019 the “great pollution problem” was newsworthy. A as much an exercise of power as the production of columnists. He publishes because editors want and there are 142 fires burning across NSW and then-young radical sociologist and designer Rick stories. The media proprietors’ power to publish his content. In 2013, the Australian Centre for Queensland. Mohr put together a package of stories including (or not) is not the same thing as the public’s right Independent Journalism investigated Australian Australia is in the midst of an unprecedented a reprint of a story by US-based scientist Gordan to know. Unless held accountable to standards of media coverage of climate change. We compared bushfire catastrophe, on top of devastating J.F. McDonald, who asked whether the activities evidence and accuracy, journalism can become a three months of coverage in 2011 and 2012. 32% or drought and water shortages throughout large of man could be impacting on climate in signifi- propaganda weapon and that is what happened nearly one-third of 602 articles that covered cli- swathes of NSW. cant ways. “Increasing the carbon dioxide con- with the reporting of climate change in Australia. mate science either rejected or suggested doubt But should we be surprised? tent of the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels” Levels of media coverage of climate change about the consensus position. Almost all Fair- It’s more than half a century since scientists was on top of a list of activities. did not rise until 2004, but by then there had fax (now Nine) coverage accepted the climate first warned that human beings might be contrib- There were many unknowns, confusions and been nearly 15 years of organised, well-funded consensus position. The highest proportion of uting to global warming by burning fossil fuels. uncertainties in early reports about human-in- activity designed to contest the climate science climate scepticism was in the Daily Telegraph in In the late 1980s, Australian climate scientists duced climate change. But over the next two consensus. which 62% of stories were coded as either reject- reported that global warming would bring more decades, the climate science field developed and In May 1992, 143 nations attended an Earth ing or suggesting doubt about the consensus severe bushfires. In 2014, the Climate Council’s resolved many of them. By 1988 the evidence Summit in Rio de Janeiro to draft a treaty to position. Professor Lesley Hughes published a summary was so strong that the United Nations set up the limit greenhouse gases. A week later, the Aus- As evidence of the terrible impacts of cli- report warning that climate change was contrib- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tralian Coal Association held a conference on mate change from around the globe mounts, it’s uting to “Earlier, More Frequent, More Danger- (IPCC). In 1990, it predicted that global warming the Gold Coast. The following day’s SMH story easy to assume that everyone else is in your own ous Bushfires in New South Wales”. The window from greenhouse gases would produce changes was headlined, “Scientist Pours Cold Water On media bubble. But audiences are packaged as well for hazard reduction was shrinking. unlike what humans had ever experienced. Global Warming”. It led with the words: “There as the news. A review of recent coverage of cli- Journalism can do a fine job of reporting the In 2004, science historian Naomi Oreskes was no evidence to suggest that increased levels mate change in the Townsville Bulletin shows that here and now. In recent weeks, the mainstream published research that showed that from at least of greenhouse gases were warming the globe, a a reader who relied on this outlet for information media have dispatched scores of reporters into as early as 1993, almost all peer-reviewed climate leading American climatologist said yesterday.” could justifiably believe that there is no scientific the field. Hundreds of stories of devastating loss science reports accepted the position that by Professor Richard Lindzen had told the confer- consensus about the role of humans in climate and threat have been told that enable us to iden- burning fossil fuels, human beings have contrib- ence that most climate experts did not believe any change and that “progressives” and the “left-wing tify with those on the frontline of fire. Firefight- uted to global warming. global warming was caused by human factors. He ABC” are broadcasting false reports about the ers risking their lives against a backdrop of flames Australian scientists were leaders in bushfire accused “vested interest groups” in the environ- link between bushfires and climate change. and black smoke. Survivor koalas getting their research. In early 1987, a research paper attracted mental movement of hijacking the debate. This year The Conversation announced that it paws tended after hundreds of others are incin- the attention of Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) Professor Lindzen remained active in the would not publish views that it judged to be mis- erated. Traumatised residents standing beside science journalist Bob Beale. The report was by world of climate scepticism for the next 25 years, information about climate change. In response homes and cars turned to ash. the CSIRO’s National Bushfire Unit’s Dr Tom compiling lists of opponents of climate change to to questions, editor Misha Ketchell replied: “It’s Social media amplifies these media reports. Beer and two others. Their calculations were challenge the IPCC. He left the respected Massa- part of the role of a journalist to filter disinforma- “Evan” who describes himself as an “animist, based on projected higher temperatures and chusetts Institute of Technology and joined the tion and curate a positive public discussion that botanist and misanthrope”, tweeted a video to stronger winds by the middle of the 21st century. right wing free enterprise Cato Institute. In 2017, is evidence-based and doesn’t distort the range his followers last Friday of his dogs bounding Last week Dr Tom Beer wrote a letter to the DesMos, a blog devoted to tracking and debunk- of views …”, he said. The Australian accused The through his mid North coast property before it The Age: “The current controversy over bush- ing climate scepticism, reported that Lindzen had Conversation of stifling free speech. But in the face was burnt to the ground. “This is my farm before fires and climate change led to my hunting out sent a letter signed by 300 climate sceptics and of the danger that fires already pose to millions of the fires. Now there is nothing left of the house. a reprint of the scientific paper.” He reminded denialists including Australia’s One Nation Sena- Australians and the threat to future generations, Not. One. Thing. Imagine the lost of wildlife.” the public that he and his colleagues in scien- tor Malcolm Roberts urging President Trump to shouldn’t free speech include the public’s right to 15 years ago, he built his off-the-grid concrete tific examination of Australian bushfire danger, pull the United States entirely from the United know as well as the power to publish? and steel house and planted more than 10,000 predicted that under climate change, the mean Nations Framework Convention on Climate trees on what had been a weed infested block. By annual fire danger – in other words, the fire dan- Change (UNFCCC). By Wendy Bacon and Chris Nash Sunday, the video had been viewed 71,000 times. ger every year on average – would be larger than A large amount of research has already inves- Many of the 500 people who responded offering the fire danger during the year in which Ash tigated the way journalists cover climate change, support mentioned climate change. Wednesday occurred. It appears to have been a particularly how journalistic notions of “balance” Endless stories are waiting to be told. Report- perceptive comment. are used to suggest scientific debate where none age is important but it’s not enough. Journalism So if there were warnings 30 years ago, why exists. Australian media has been described as the is rooted in the present but to understand the have we not been preparing for thirty years, or most climate change sceptical in the world. present, we need to understand the past. When it better still acting to avert disaster? We used the Dow Jones Factiva news database comes to explaining the “how and why” of events, Interviewed by The Guardian Australia this to get an up-to-date snapshot. Scan this code to read the journalism struggles. week, Dr Beer and his CSIRO boss in the 1980s, The first thing you notice is that Andrew full article In this case, the “how and why” involves Dr Graeme Pearman, asked whether they could Bolt has written more stories discussing climate talking about the links between bushfires and have done more to persuade policy makers to pay change than any other journalist. Since 2009, climate change. This is just what the Prime Min- attention to the science. Pearman partly blames he has published in The Herald-Sun, The Daily ister Scott Morrison and the leader of the Labor the lobbying efforts of the fossil fuel industry for Telegraph, The Advertiser (Adelaide), The Couri- opposition Anthony Albanese wanted us to the lack of action. er-Mail (Brisbane), The Northern Territory News, postpone last week. Fortunately, some reporters But if scientists have questions to answer, so Townsville Bulletin, Cairns Post and the Gold Coast ignored their advice and continued to ask ques- do journalists. These questions are pertinent as Bulletin. He also broadcasts on Sky News. tions about the link between the fire emergency we campaign for press freedom under the banner In 2010, he wrote, “The great global warming and climate change. NSW Mayors, including of “Right to Know”. Have journalists and editors scare is dying not with a bang, or even a whim- Glen Innes Mayor Claire Sparks who had lost obscured the truth? per. Try a great horse laugh”, as he mocked the her home, and ex-NSW Rural Fire Service Com- At this point, it’s worth remembering that 20,000 politicians and so-called “carpetbaggers” missioner Greg Mullins urged the government something else happened in 1987. The Labor Fed- meeting in the Mexican resort city of Cancun. In to take action to address climate change and eral government allowed News Corp to take over May 2011, “hot air was leaking from the alarmists Wendy Bacon and Chris Nash are both former stop Australia’s rising emissions. “It’s not politi- a Melbourne newspaper called Herald and Weekly balloon”. In 2018 when the Greens were warning directors of the Australian Centre for Independent cal, it’s fact,’’ said Mullins. Times. Soon Australia had the most concentrated about climate change as Tathra burned on the Journalism. 7 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 18 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

19 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 2/5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM THE EXTRA! EXTRA! LETTER BOX 18/11/19

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU If you have an opinion about Kaldor Public Art Projects or have a topic you would like us to investigate in a future publication of EXTRA!EXTRA! write a letter to the editor and post it in our postbox.

8 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 19

EDITION 3/5 26 NOVEMBER 2019

TELLING THE VISITORS FROM ALL IS CREATED LIVE ART & THE WRAPPED COAST THE WEST ON COUNTRY GIG ECONOMY STORY Amber Jones Juundaal Strang Yettica Malcolm Whittaker Wendy Bacon P.2 P.3 P.4–5 P.7

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EXTRA!EXTRA! is published at the Art Gallery of NSW, which stands on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We the editors EXTRA CONTEXTUAL and contributors to this artwork acknowledge the Traditional Owners One of our principal objectives in produc- then became increasingly respectful. However, world. Regular employment is increasingly for ing this newspaper has been to present context, the only mentions of the traditional owners in the few, while the rest make do as best they can. of this Country, and we acknowledge hence the name EXTRA!EXTRA!. the nearby area of La Perouse were racist and Malcolm reflects on the shared problems of that sovereignty to this Land was But there are many different types of context. without any consideration that they might have different art ventures, from the Cementa festival never ceded. In this issue Juundaal Strang Yettica continues a legitimate interest in the area. in Kandos, to this newspaper, to the AGNSW. her reflections on how projects can be read from These two KPAP projects show that there We thank KPAP for agreeing to the publication an indigenous viewpoint. She sees Jonathan Jones’ has been progress in public attitudes even if there of various details about the administration of EXTRA!EXTRA! Project 32 barrangal dyara (skin and bones) (2016) is still a long way to go. The fact that barrangal the Tino Sehgal piece that would normally be CONTRIBUTORS as a major turning point in Kaldor Public Art Pro- dyara (skin and bones) was the first Kaldor Public regarded as confidential. We feel that this trans- jects. The ethical processes underpinning Jones’ Art Projects commission by an Australian artist parency should be shown by all organisations EDITORIAL TEAM work should lead to an acceptance that all Austral- is a tribute to the way that the organisation, like operating in the artworld. Lucas Ihlein & Ian Milliss ian cultural activity happens on Aboriginal Land. all good art, has continued to learn from evolving Strang Yettica hopes this will grow respect for ethical relations in contemporary society. Ian Milliss JOURNALISTS Country and traditional protocols, and guidelines Malcolm Whittaker’s article on the precari- about how artists, especially land artists, should ous nature of being an artist labouring in the art Chris Nash, Wendy Bacon, Jenna Price, behave in relation to the Land. So do we. world’s gig economy also captures the spirit of Lorrie Graham, John Kavanagh, In a wide-ranging survey of contemporary our times. A continuing position of this newspa- Melissa Sweet, Jack Rozycki, media coverage of Wrapped Coast (1969) Wendy per has been that the collapse of the advertising Caren Florance, Boni Cairncross, Bacon uncovers the sad reality of the media’s base in mainstream journalism has pushed jour- Louise Curham, Shags, Sarah Rodigari, treatment of Aboriginal interests at the time. nalists into a freelance gig economy. This new Ian Milliss is an Some art critics welcomed Wrapped Coast even economy resembles the precarious employment artist who worked on Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Amber Jones, though the media at first treated it like a joke, structures that have always existed in the art Wrapped Coast. Mickie Quick & Malcolm Whittaker

NEWSPAPER DESIGN & PRODUCTION TEAM Ian Shoobridge & Alisa Croft VISITORS FROM THE WEST RIZZERIA TEAM Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge, Last Tuesday students from Bourke Public Bettina Kaiser, Kitty Cardwell, School and Wilcannia Central School travelled Estee Sarsfield, Micke Lindebergh, eleven hours from inland western NSW to join Sunny Lei, Emily Nunell, Anna Ke, us at the Kaldor Studio. Bourke and Wilcannia Stephanie Phillips, Isabella Brown, are both engaged in Your Public Art Project - an Halla Hannesdottir, Shanni Sun, upcoming intitiative by Kaldor Public Art Pro- jects. Connecting with primary and secondary Tina Matthews schools across NSW, the program has extended its engagement with students from Dubbo, WEBSITE Parkes, Western Sydney, and Sydney’s inner west. Amber Jones The Kaldor Public Art Projects’ physical archive serves as an introductory tool for the pro- gram, enabling students to understand diverse From 9 November to 15 December, Lucas approaches to public art-making. The gallery Ihlein and the Rizzeria Collective take recently held a major program launch and stu- over the Kaldor Studio at the Art Gallery dent showcase event, inviting student represent- of NSW with EXTRA!EXTRA! – a weekly atives and teachers from participating schools to discuss their own art project. newspaper which responds critically and Wilcannia Central School students recently playfully to Making Art Public. worked on a temporary mural on the main street Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein of their town. Their mural explores their cultural out their individual pieces to be placed, scanned and the town itself represents the edge of the set- and special correspondent Ian Milliss connection to the Baarka (Darling River), and and ultimately printed for themselves to take tled agricultural districts and the gateway to the will be joined by special guest writers embodies their concerns about sustainable water back home. Surrounded by a rich Australian outback that lies north and west of Bourke. management. landscape, emus, eagles, yabbies, lizards and fish After our riso press printed 30 copies per and artists, who will work with the Lleah Smith is the assistant manager in swarm across the pages creating a vibrant com- school group, we rolled their individual prints up Rizzeria team to print the newspaper education with Kaldor Public Art Projects, and position expressing their Aboriginality. Selecting and invited them to take them away to share with in situ. throughout the program she was responsible for their colours, they opted for red, green and yel- their friends and family. They were then whisked Visitors to the Kaldor Studio are invited facilitating learning resources and conducting low resembling deep earthy tones symbolic of the away for a tour of the Yiribana Gallery supported workshops with school students and staff mem- landscapes they call home. by Indigenous educators from the AGNSW. to write letters to the editor – and a bers. She describes this project as being one of Wilcannia Central School is located in iso- Your Public Art Project is still progressing, and selection of letters will be featured in the highlights of her career. lation, in the Broken Hill district, with 90 per is a continual process of questioning and reflecting. each week’s edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! “What you see in Wilcannia and Bourke’s cent Aboriginal enrolment. The school itself “Each school responds to key concerns of Throughout the run of EXTRA!EXTRA! responses have a real connection to land. And the is committed to closing the achievement gap their students and their community and are able in the Kaldor Studio, you can also landscape was a strong theme in their work because for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stu- to tailor their responses to Your Public Art Pro- they’re experiencing the severity of the drought. dents. Wilcannia is home for many Indigenous jects, to be most meaningful for their students and participate in a range of fun workshops “When I was talking to some of the students residents, mostly from the Barkindji nation. their wider community which is really special,” and have a go at making a risographic in regional towns, they were saying that they According to the 2016 census, Wilcannia had a Smith says. print yourself! wanted to be a part of these kind of student pro- population of 549. The environment is border- Your Public Art Projects is taking place in test marches, but they don’t have that same sort line semi-arid to desert, consisting of landscapes 2020, and the Kaldor Public Art Projects team are of space to be able to be as politically active,” adapted to flooding. currently developing relationships with schools CONTENT DISCLAIMER Smith says. Located 800km north-west of Sydney, who want to get involved. The views expressed in the pages of At the EXTRA!EXTRA! headquarters, Bourke is the traditional country of the Ngemba EXTRA!EXTRA! are those of the Alisa Croft from the Rizzeria invited pupils to people. Bourke Public School aims to provide Amber Jones sit at our workshop table, providing them with its students with knowledge and skills to help authors, and do not necessarily reflect a sheet of black card- children operate effec- the opinions or official policies of the stock and a single lead “What you see in Wilcannia tively as members of editors, Kaldor Public Art Projects or the pencil. Students drew and Bourke’s responses have society now and in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. totems or symbols that future. Bourke also has a real connection to land. And We welcome responses to our articles, could be found in their a hot semi-arid climate, mural, also reflective the landscape was a strong with a minimal amount which can be submitted by posting of Indigenous identity of rainfall throughout Amber is an interdis- a physical Letter to the Editor in the theme in their work because and culture. Drawing the year. As of 2016 ciplinary performance gallery space, or online at various native animals, they’re experiencing the Bourke had a popula- Scan here to find out more artist, theatre-maker, extra-extra.press pupils started cutting severity of the drought” tion of 1,824 people, about the program. and journalist 2 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 21

EDITION 3/5 26 NOVEMBER 2019

ALL IS CREATED ON COUNTRY Hello, how are you? I’ve been waiting for our contemporary social processes, inviting us tary and prediction, simultaneously. It sits proud speaking respect for a long, long time. Answers to you…Come with me… all to meet. on the ground with me beside it, inter-weaving today’s questions are within reach, in front of you Let’s step away from the hype of the boxed To my ways of seeing, barrangal dyara (skin the ancient and contemporary, speaking to me and right beside you. The opinion I sit with today land-art archives for a moment. Come with me… and bones) reads like an invitation to engage with about Indigenous dual consciousness, fatigued is that respect and accountability for where we are Let’s sit awhile with Jonathan Jones’ barrangal and be immersed within our own social archaeol- but resilient, both fragile and powerful. and the integrity of artistic engagement starts with dyara (skin and bones) (2016). Here, borrow my ogy, whether you’re Indigenous or not. The work Now let’s step back into the room of archived self-responsibility, the artist, gallery, the agency glasses, maybe you can glimpse this moment says, sit with it all - the ancient and the sacred of boxes of land-art and consider them within the and the art community. Responsibility is not for through my eyes… this land and its custodians - as much as sit with context of barrangal dyara (skin and bones). I see me to spoon-feed. Responsibility for learning sits I deliberately have not spoon-fed a description all the truth of colonisation here, because there is Jones’ work as an invitation, maybe even a bench- with art-goers and land-artists alike, to be simulta- of the extensive foundational processes behind no place left to hide colonialist denial or amnesia. mark that challenges land-art makers to absorb neously humble and brave. Look, listen, investigate Jonathan Jones’ artwork here because I think When I am with this work, I see thousands and accept that, no matter where they create, and ask the questions cross-culturally, across disci- that is for you to investigate and learn. I think the of years of spiritual and cognitive social cohesion they always create on Country. plines and generations. To my way of thinking, this integrity of your engagement with his work, in this wrapped within environmental custodianship. To my way of thinking, what is required has would be a starting point for respectful artistic and place, upon this land, today, sits with you. Interrupted by invasion, not forgotten but endur- always been required and cannot be avoided. socio-ecological engagement with our collabora- When I sit with this work, the archive is ing and resilient in this modern world. In Jonathan These are demonstrations of artistic accounta- tive and joint responsibilities. memory. Barrangal dyara (skin and bones) is a Jones’ work I see remembering. I see remember- bility and respect for the land and its traditional Until next time, I will leave these ideas gathering of ancient custodianship, knowledge ing Culture and its revitalisation here and now, as custodians. Without these demonstrations and with you… and traceable intersecting histories. The work much for the future as the past. Right now, we are markers of respect, artistic and aesthetic integrity is woven within our social order, a non-linear sitting at another marker where the past, present are weakened. Juundaal Strang Yettica place where the past, present and future meet, and future are interwoven and intersecting. So here in the big city, how can land and re-meet and will always meet. It resonates with Barrangal dyara (skin and bones) sits with me, eco-artists acknowledge and demonstrate respect me as a most personal and yet very public inter- most beautiful and confronting, magnificent and for Country? What protocols exist that they can action with our ancestors, memory, history and mournful… ancestral memory, history, documen- follow? Who and what guidance or permissions could be sought to raise the integrity of artistic So here in the big city, how can land and eco-artists acknowledge practice here? I realise these are not small ques- tions but demonstrating respect for Country is no and demonstrate respect for Country? What protocols exist that small thing. With these big questions in mind, I did IMAGES: Kaldor Public Art Project they can follow? Who and what guidance or permissions could some research, some reading and asked the guid- 32: Jonathan Jones, barrangal dyara Juundaal Strang Yettica: be sought to raise the integrity of artistic practice here? I realise ance of mentors and what I have come up with is (skin and bones), Royal Botanic “I don’t know much a circle. Garden Sydney, 17 September – 3 about much but the these are not small questions but demonstrating respect for That circle reflects the circle of our walk October 2016, © Jonathan Jones, learning keeps me Country is no small thing. together this week. Indigenous people have been Photo: Pedro Greig alive!” 3 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 22 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

26 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 3/5

LIVE ART & THE GIG ECONOMY

“Oh, this is so contemporary” I am being paid thirty dollars an hour to sing and dance whilst dressed as a gallery officer from Monday to Saturday for the Making Art Public exhibition.

“Oh, this is so contemporary” I am being paid forty dollars an hour to sing and dance on Sundays.

“Oh, this is so contemporary” I am being paid two hundred and fifty dollars to write here and now for Extra!Extra!

“Oh, this is so contemporary” I probably shouldn’t be writing at all.

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EDITION 3/5 26 NOVEMBER 2019

“Oh, this is so contemporary”, do that?”, gallery goers often ask in between our the “interpersonal encounter” proposed, and agency to produce any work I liked for the festival, I am being paid thirty dollars an hour to sing endless routines during gallery open hours, and opt instead to video these singing and dancing in response to a weeklong residency in Kandos. and dance whilst dressed as a gallery officer from then offer a sympathetic look when I answer. “officers” when they begin the act of the work in Such agency is incredibly rare. What helped Monday to Saturday for the Making Art Public Whether or not our salary is commensu- the gallery. Ironically, this perhaps makes them me refine my approach to such an open brief was exhibition. rate is possibly contingent on how much Sehgal even more active as viewers than their mere trig- to consider what would be commensurate with “Oh, this is so contemporary”, himself was paid for the work. Given the lack of gering of this singing and dancing. the artist fee of one thousand dollars offered by I am being paid forty dollars an hour to sing documentation on the work, it is rather difficult What is equally contemporary as the inces- the festival for the gig. Festival co-director Alex and dance on Sundays. to find an answer to this question. About fifty sant documentation of life to be lived out later Wisser was incredibly understanding of such “Oh, this is so contemporary”, thousand dollars is the median guess from the is the ever-increasing casualisation of the work- a position. Most of this fee consequently went I am being paid two hundred and fifty dollars other interpreters when I quiz them on what they force for a gig economy, which results in a need back into the regional town over the course of to write here and now for Extra!Extra! reckon. Sehgal cleverly creates such speculation to work multiple jobs at once. I am writing this the festival as my everyday spending. I was happy “Oh, this is so contemporary”, around his work through his anti-documentation article in the town of Kandos (mid-west NSW), for this to be the case, in part because it felt like I I probably shouldn’t be writing at all. anti-material stance. On one level, this stance where I am skiving off being so contemporary for was working for myself. It felt like my labour was does indeed privilege a live encounter with the a couple of days to work as a participating artist producing surplus value for myself and the festi- Doing this singing and dancing is supposed ephemeral work as paramount, and there is of the Cementa festival. And I am also, right at this val in relatively equal measure. I am also happy to remain a completely ephemeral experience for nuance to the pronoun this being “so contempo- minute, moonlighting from my Cementa duties to to accept that this cannot always be the case, and gallery goers. It is supposed to leave no trace. It is rary”. This refers to the immediate moment of generate this content for EXTRA!EXTRA! for this reason I agree to be paid thirty dollars an the 2005 work of artist Tino Sehgal, who sold the encountering the work, in the upmost contempo- My practice as an artist is typically predi- hour to interpret for Sehgal. Or am I interpreting score to John Kaldor in 2014 for Public Art Pro- rary present, although a parody of contemporary cated on providing context rather than content, for John Kaldor, or the Art Gallery of NSW? This ject #29. Kaldor then gifted the score to the Art art is probably the first and foremost reading for through a process of appropriating and repur- confusion is a bit of a problem. Gallery of NSW, where I sing and dance the work most viewers. posing social forms for the public. Examples of What would make me happier is greater once more. Or that is my understanding at least. On another level, the stance perpetuates a my works include support groups for ignorance transparency regarding all the labour relations I am but an “interpreter” of Sehgal’s “constructed self-mythologising for Sehgal and a sense of com- and dog walks for deceased and departed canine we engage in as artists. What would make me situation”, which seeks to imbue interpersonal modity fetishism for his ephemeral constructed friends. As per a motto I have come to adopt, happier still is to move from what is (or was) so relations into the visual art world. situations, disconnected from their actual use “these works aren’t about something but rather contemporary, and towards what could or should However, given Sehgal’s successful selling value. What in reality is a relationship between are something”, and the aboutness takes shape in be so contemporary. Let’s reimagine (or re-in- of the work within a visual art market, I wonder people becomes a relationship between the sit- the way the interpersonal relations play out in the terpret) ways of being together, as I believe art whether the mode of production of this con- uation as a “thing”, not so different from any context created. should. In so doing, let’s strive to quantify the structed situation, as with the outsourcing of other physical artwork in the context of com- The social form I have appropriated for the value of artists labour, especially those who pro- labour within the delegated performances of many modity fetishism that produces surplus capital Cementa festival is that of the handshake. For the duce intangible ephemeral experiences, whether of the Kaldor Public Art Projects (including this for the higher ups. Sehgal’s achievement of this commission to make a work in Kandos, I am look- they be singing and dancing or shaking hands or here newspaper), is organised to produce a prob- is both significant and impressive, as is the stag- ing at what might constitute meaningful commu- whatever else. We might not be able to obtain and lematic sense of surplus value. It is problematic ing of the work by Kaldor, but the achievement nity engagement by endeavoring to shake hands articulate such a value, but we should strive to do because the surplus value never belongs to us as has also become a sort of kool-aid to be sipped with every resident of the regional town. There so, and work out why and for whom we are labor- the largely unacknowledged workers of the work, in awe of the artist. Could it be that in actual are echoes in the work of both Mierle Laderman ing in the process. In the meantime, I need to get or who are the work, and always belongs to the fact, Sehgal’s desire for zero documentation of Ukeles shaking hands with the New York City back to splitting my attention between the five capitalists higher up the food chain, whether that his work is strategic, because its documentation sanitation department, and with Making Art Pub- other jobs I am working right now. be John Kaldor, or artists such as Tino Sehgal, would expose a slightness to his situations - a lic artist David Capra’s work for the first Cementa Marina Abramovic (Public Art Projects #27 and similarity to a bit of a silly flash mob in this case, festival in 2013. Ukeles’ handshaking took place Malcolm Whittaker #30, for which I also “performed”), Santiago Sierra and possibly impact upon their fiscal value in over an extended period of time (and was metic- (Public Art Projects #22 and #27), or even our the process? In any case, this mystery is harder ulously documented). Capra’s handshaking was EXTRA!EXTRA! editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein. and harder to maintain. in part faciliated by a highly visible costume. It is often espoused that these sorts of dele- What is truly contemporary now is inces- My handshaking has taken place in the every- gated performance works offer critiques of cap- sant documentation. In this reprise of This is so day flow of life in the town over the course of the italism and the labour relations therein. In the contemporary for Making Art Public, it has become festival, barely registering as art. I have self-con- case of Sierra, the exploitation of the labour force nearly impossible to police gawking patrons from sciously used the ordinary handshake as a live art activity in an attempt to open up sincere interper- is a deliberate strategy to create unsettling social recording the work on their smartphones, tech- Malcolm Whittaker sculptures that make these problems palpable. nology that was not so readily available when the sonal relations around the act. I would have pre- keeps up with the turn In the case of my labour for Sehgal, I am but a work was first presented at the Venice Biennale ferred not have documented my undertaking of of the Earth by working singing and dancing shift-worker, both enacting in 2005, and this behavior has rapidly increased the act at all, but do not have the clout of Sehgal to as an artist, writer, the work and acting as the work. “That looks since the presentation of the work at Art Gal- stave off pressure from the likes of festival media researcher, teacher and like a fun job. How much are you getting paid to lery NSW in 2014. Viewers now regularly shun or this here newspaper. Cementa did give me the performer. 5 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 24 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

26 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 3/5 JOURNALISM INTO ART (PART 3): ALIEN SUBSTANCES

acts not only as a severe critique of previous Buren and Haacke by the Guggenheim marked a modern art, but also serves to eliminate arbi- victory for the forces of reaction in North Amer- trary boundaries within our culture between ican art institutions and the onset of “the new art, science and society. Haacke’s way of repre- cultural conservatism”. But for other parts of senting the world offers an alternative to subjec- the art world, including private galleries in New tive limits as well, for he has consistently moved York and major international and European toward the elimination of ego as a guide to the institutions, that was not the case, and Haacke apprehension of reality.” continued to receive prestigious invitations and The elimination of “arbitrary boundaries to mount challenging exhibitions. Shapolsky was within our culture between art, science and exhibited in Milan the following January, and society” occurs through the shift of the art/real- then in Rochester in upstate New York and a ity relationship away from symbolic representa- number of other galleries before inclusion in the tion to direct alignment. This was the rupture Venice Biennale of 1978. Goldman trod a similar through which Haacke brought artistic practice exhibition path. For Haacke, the actions by the into alignment with truth-seeking disciplines in Guggenheim and other institutions gave these the humanities and sciences (both physical and social artworks a continuing life and systemic social) and with journalism. Empirical evidence status comparable to the ongoing physical sys- or acts that are reported and incorporated into tems of the wind and water works. It was a major scientific research and into journalists’ reports beachhead to secure in the exploration of art’s remain facts in the world, even when they might relationship to social reality. The link between have been produced as a result of the science or art and journalism reveals how we understand Hans Haacke, News (exhibition version), 1969/2008 journalism itself, for example a laboratory exper- journalism in relation to social reality, and as a iment or an answer to a journalist’s question, a knowledge-producing practice. photo opportunity or a press release. In his third article on the convergence of art and journalism, Chris For his part, Haacke’s response to Messer’s “As an artist, he is perhaps even more subver- Chris Nash Nash examines the debate that followed the censorship of Haacke’s action and arguments was plain and simple: the sive than Duchamp, for Haacke so treats his own real estate works. This debate, about the nature of what activities cancellation constituted an unacceptable act of ready-mades that they remain systems represent- can legitimately be regarded as art and the relationship of art censorship of an artist’s work. The subsequent ing themselves and therefore cannot be assimi- This is an edited extract from What is Journalism? The Art and institutions to those activities, is now even more loaded than it development of his thinking and art made clear, lated to art. Thus he violates the mythic function, Politics of a Rupture published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. For was fifty years ago, as artists increasingly work in social and media however, that he well understood the profound to which art has long been assigned, of acting as further information contact [email protected] spaces rather than physical institutional spaces. insight that Messer had gifted to him – the a buffer between man (sic) and the nature of real- response to a work of art can become an intrin- ity. His work instead presents a direct challenge, sic part of the work’s meaning, and therefore not only to the fatal but convenient bourgeois Guggenheim Director Thomas Messer set artwork that addresses social systems might con- separation of art from life, but also to the related out in detail his concerns with Haacke’s work in sider what future responses might be and how view that art functions as a symbolic transforma- a guest editorial for Arts Magazine in 1971, and they might be anticipated, incorporated and con- tion and interpretation of experience. Haacke’s made the link with journalism: tribute to the meaning of the work. The interplay world is rigorously materialist, not symbolic, but Where do we draw the line? With the between the present and the past and future is a his materialist view is of such large dimensions revealed identities of private individuals and the constant factor in journalism, and after the Gug- and possesses a logic and truthfulness of such clear intention to call their actions into question, genheim experience Haacke frequently incorpo- clarity that it reaches the level of an almost tran- Chris Nash was and by a concomitant reduction of the work of rated it into his art. scendental moral force: rather than setting limits Professor of Journalism art from its potential metaphoric level to a form At the time it was the sacked curator to consciousness, he offers a new freedom. at Monash University, of photo journalism concerned with topical Edward Fry who most cogently articulated the The complete and fundamental incompat- and previously Director statements rather than with symbolic expression. significance of Haacke’s work. He set out his ibility between Messer’s and Fry’s views of art of the Australian …. To the degree to which an artist deliberately analysis in the essay he had written for the can- is stark. In 1997, art historian Alexander Alber- Centre for Independent pursues aims that lie beyond art, his very concen- celled exhibition catalogue, which was subse- ro’s observed that the consecutive censorship of Journalism at UTS. tration upon ulterior ends stands in conflict with quently published in Germany in 1972 and forty the intrinsic nature of the work as an end in itself. years later in the US in 2011. He was in no doubt about the significance of Haacke’s practice: “As the response to a work of art a consequence of his efforts he, like every sig- nificant artist, has extended the limits of art and can become an intrinsic part of has forced the re-examination of both previous the work’s meaning art and art theory.” In a perception that relates strongly not only to the fact/news value nexus …. The tendency within this contradiction in the in journalism, but also all attempts at empirical work itself transferred itself from it onto the investigation in the natural sciences, Fry argued museum environment and beyond it into society that the key to Haacke’s approach lay in his at large. Eventually the choice was between the attempt to reveal through empirical evidence acceptance of or rejection of an alien substance the invisible relations of force that produce the that had entered the art museum organisation. …. material and social world: The incident at the Guggenheim Museum is, per- “In his search for the means to demonstrate haps, the most dramatic among similar conflicts the invisible but fundamental relations which but by no means an isolated one. Parallel devel- underlie the nature of the world Haacke appears opments have occurred in other museums and as far more a representational artist than many more of the same may be predicted unless there painters who, returning to traditional craft tech- is a change of attitude among artists as well as niques and academic motifs, merely repeat old among museums. retinal habits of external representation.” Messer presented himself as drawing a set Haacke shared with fellow artists in the Art of defensive lines against “an alien substance” Workers Coalition (AWC) the radical critique of on behalf of the museum community and “soci- the role of art, artists and art institutions in mod- ety at large”, and for that reason alone, if not ern societies: Haacke’s prominence in the wider artistic strug- “Coming at the end of a modern tradition gles of the time, the significance of the artworks in which art was relegated to a privileged but has to be considered in the broadest socio-po- specialized and often highly esoteric social func- litical context. tion, the approach to reality offered by Haacke Hans Haacke, MoMA Poll, 1970 6 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! 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EDITION 3/5 26 NOVEMBER 2019 TELLING THE WRAPPED COAST STORY

A massive groundbreaking work that probably means his accounts should be treated But of all the critics, it was the SMH critic Don- was well known that she organised the sales and engaged huge audiences both in Sydney and with some caution. ald Brook who embraced the concept of the work. financial aspects of the projects but he explained internationally. An art process that took effect Together his stories provided an account of He began: “A tempting way of taking Christo’s that her creative role in developing their con- not in a studio or gallery but outside on the land, the obstacles and risks faced by Christo and his work is to think of it not as an object but as the inci- cepts, which could take decades to realise, had and then disappeared. Decades later, this is how hundreds of paid and unpaid helpers, as well as dental product of action; to think of it as a gigantic not been recognised. art historians and critics have described Christo the mounting excitement at the site. One volun- ephemeral happening, with public participation on Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009 was well and Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped Coast. teer fell down a rock face. Christo dislocated his a scale that outstrips even the theatrical.” Brook, covered by the international press. Obituaries Rebecca Coates, Director of the Sheppar- shoulder. A “southerly buster” blew the fabric off who died last year at age 91, was an educator, critic, are a form of journalism that can bring the ben- ton Art Museum, argues in The rise of the private the cliff leaving the fate of the project briefly in philosopher and sculptor who saw it as his duty efit of hindsight to narratives. It was only when art foundation: John Kaldor Art Projects 1969-2012 doubt. Slivers of rock flew off the rock face while to reform “contemporary attitudes and practices reading the Wall Street Journal while researching that Wrapped Coast was a key cultural moment. the fabric was being hammered on. One is left in the visual arts that seemed abominable.” He this story that I learned that in 1968, the year The significance of the awe-inspiring work that wondering whether the whole project could even wanted to break the “nexus between [market] before they came to Sydney, Jeanne Claude was briefly covered the Little Bay coastline lies partly have happened in today’s much more safety con- value and practice”. He despised the idea that the wrapping a fountain and a mediaeval town in in its relationship to the public. In this sense, the scious society. history of painting was the only intellectual disci- Italy at the same time Christo was wrapping an realisation and aftermath of the project can be There is one story that reveals Dunn’s more pline suitable for artists. However, his approach to art museum in Switzerland. There was no men- seen as part of the work itself. arrogant side. Not long after Christo and Jeanne art criticism put some establishment noses out of tion of this in the SMH of 1969. But you can see The journalism around Wrapped Coast is evi- Claude arrived, he visited their apartment. joint and in 1972, he was sacked by the SMH. Post- glimpses of recognition of her important role in dence of some of the public response to the work. Describing Jeanne-Claude as a “pretty wife” and ers appeared calling for his reinstatement. their mutual creative vision in the 1969 record, It’s also a glimpse into the specific time and place Christo as having a body “built like a fence rail” Journalists look for angles and points of despite her positioning as a “pretty wife”. George in which it was produced. and hair like a “mop in the throes of electrocu- conflict. During the 1960s, support for nature Gurney, the Smithsonian’s deputy chief curator As John Kaldor himself recalled in the Sydney tion”, Dunn peppered them with questions about conservation was growing rapidly in Sydney as was quoted as saying, “She couldn’t draw, but she Morning Herald (SMH) in 1990, it took months the purpose of their art. In response, Christo remnants of bush were threatened by roads and collaborated aesthetically on every other deci- to secure the site, after the Liberal government is “inarticulate, gazing into the distance” and housing estates. Some conservationists were sion. It was always a joint endeavor.” refused access to government land. Prince Henry “shrugging an eloquently uninformative shrug”. worried that the massive fabric cover could dam- All of which goes to illustrate yet again that hospital agreed to provide access to several kilo- Displaying breathtaking insensitivity, Dunn is age plant and animal life, particularly fairy pen- journalism’s “first draft of history” only tells a metres of coastline. frustrated by Bulgarian born Christo’s “embar- guins. Eventually several “experts” examined the bit of the story which may be distorted or mis- Kaldor issued a press statement in June 1969. rassingly mangled words,” communication site and said they were satisfied that no wildlife leading. No journalists seems to have thought In a letter to Christo, Kaldor explained that a lot “made more difficult because he held his hand would be damaged. I was therefore surprised to to ask the Aboriginal community at La Perouse of the early coverage had ridiculed the project. over his mouth.” He dismisses Christo’s expla- read in an article written by John Kaldor for the what they thought about the covering of their It’s a “wonderful opportunity for stupid unin- nations as “intellectually barren bones” and sug- SMH in 1990 about “fairy penguins who stole bits land. Like history and art, journalism needs to formed columnists and commentators to make gests that he is making “handsome” money out of the fabric to line their nest. Instead of being be read in the context of its time. A future work stupid comments” but the serious critics “have of the project, which appears on the evidence to endangered, as the environmentalists had feared, of journalism can provide a more accurate and been very strongly in your favour,” he wrote. have been unfair. they were seen to thrive in their new, more com- fuller record of events, which in turn leads to new After Christo and Jeanne-Claude arrived in Showing more insight, Dunn ends by con- fortably sheltered surroundings.” understandings and stories. Sydney, there was almost daily media coverage. The ceding that “wrapping attracts interest in what is As an older female journalist viewing the Like art and history, the field of journalism is Australian Women’s Weekly did a double-page spread concealed” and that the energy scoffers and scep- coverage of Wrapped Coast from the present, the diverse and constantly contested and changing. and even Life magazine sent an international critic tics expend “betrays their preoccupation with representation of women and their absence from In researching this story, I’ve only touched the to cover the project. There were also cartoons. their target”. This he sees as an “invisible arrow” the art scene strikes me in a way it may not have surface of the available record, let alone inter- The sexist and conservative journalist Ron in Christo’s quiver and accepts that Christo done at the time. The feminist art movement viewed those who were present. John Kaldor’s Saw, who wrote a regular column in Murdoch’s believes that what he does is just as validly art as was a strong part of Sydney’s second wave of plan to bring two extraordinary outsiders into Daily Mirror, admitted knowing “absolutely painting. In another story, he went up in a heli- feminism, and was only stirring in 1969. It would Sydney was successful in attracting huge media nothing about art”. He not only ridiculed the copter to capture the enormity of the wrapped blossom in the next few years and was part of and public attention. The record shows that project but also the Little Bay community which coast with tiny figures scurrying across the mas- the experience of a whole generation of radical Kaldor, Christo, Jean-Claude and hundreds of he suggested “could do with a bit of packaging”. sive billowing fabric, headlining it, “The Alps on a women. There had always been women artists helpers put huge effort in accomplishing their “Stray fisherman, lazing nurses and an occasional surf-washed Australian Pacific Shore”. but they struggled to get exhibition space and vision. But the project also needs to be seen in a sad leper - wrap them all in string”. This is highly The ABC’s Brian Adams made a video which were mostly ignored by art historians. In the case broader international and local context in which offensive to the whole community, including the is available for watching in the Kaldor exhibition. of Wrapped Coast, the artist, the collector, the artists, students and educators were actively Aboriginal community who have occupied the This visual record conveys more information project manager, the critics, the filmmakers, the striving to reshape an arts scene that was con- area for many thousands of years. (There was a about what it was like at the time than 50 year old voice overs and most of the reporters were men. trolled by an establishment comfortable consid- “male lazaret” at Little Bay that is now regarded print records can ever do. The gendered nature of the media representation ering art as objects in galleries with a potential as a significant site of oppression of the Aborig- Back then even the tabloid press treated art and its project was typical of media at that time. market value. inal community.) criticism more seriously. The critics also wrote but an awareness was growing. At the beginning The Reverend Roger Bush railed against the for art magazines and were often art practition- of the project, Christo helper artist and co-editor Wendy Bacon project on radio and is reported to have sug- ers or curators themselves. of Exta!Extra! Ian Milliss remembers student gested those sponsoring Wrapped Coast should Art curator, historian and Sunday Telegraph critic volunteers - described by The Australian as “long be boycotted. Reflecting deeper social rifts, these Daniel Thomas was very supportive of Wrapped hairs and hippies”- being divided into two groups. hostile attitudes probably helped make the pro- Coast. The Melbourne Herald sent its art critic Alan Women were given giant needles and the men ject even more exciting to young people. McCulloch to Sydney. McCulloch reported that ramjet guns to put the massive, specially manu- The Sydney Morning Herald took the pro- “every taxi-driver knows the way to Little Bay and the factured pieces of fibre together and attach them ject most seriously by assigning reporter J.A.C. roads from the city are packed with tourists”. 250,000 to the rocks. But after looking at the video and Wendy Bacon has been Dunn to produce “Christo’s Chronicle.” Dunn people visited Wrapped Coast. photos today, I think the gender roles may have an urban activist and was not an art reporter, and although initially However, not everyone in the art world broken down during the process. journalist since 1969. sceptical was eventually captivated by the sheer embraced the project. McCulloch also later Sexist is the only word to describe the cov- She is a non practising physical scale, the level of cooperation from reported in Art International that painter Albert erage of Jeanne-Claude. She was described as lawyer & was previously hundreds of students and workers. He was later Tucker “accepted the role as defender of the “cute and charming”. Her role was defined as the Professor of Jour- described by an American colleague as never national innocence from attacks by ‘the paranoiac supporting her husband. Later, in 1994, Christo Scan here to read the full nalism at the University taking notes and having perfect recall, which out-riders of the extremist international fashions’”. recognised Jeanne-Claude as an equal author; it article. of Technology Sydney. 7 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 26 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

26 NOVEMBER 2019 EDITION 3/5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM THE EXTRA! EXTRA! LETTER BOX 25/11/19

CLIMATE CHANGE ART Hi there I flicked through your issues in the Art Gallery of NSW, and I was very impressed by what you were doing, especially in regards to land art [“Trees in Coffins”, 19 Nov 2019]. I’d love to see an article on the impending Climate Change Crisis and how it affects the art of this society. I think it’d be a very interesting read. Thanks, Vi.

Thanks for your letter, Vi. Have a look at the article “Filtering Disinformation” by Wendy Bacon and Chris Nash in Edition 2 of EXTRA!EXTRA! - that piece discusses the ethical role of journalism in reporting on climate change over recent decades. In my own experience as an artist and a university teacher, artists are increasingly engaged with the problem of the climate crisis. The big ques- tion is how to respond in a meaningful way to an issue of such an enormous scale. My own personal favourite artists in this field are the Harrison Studio in California - look them up! Lucas

THE VALUE OF CREATIVITY Dear Editor Please investigate why creativity isn’t as valued as much as how much money you earn, and its impact on childrens’ mentality and social habits. Thank You Anonymous

I agree that this is a big issue. Our society does indeed seem to place a disproportionately small value on human labour which involves creativity. The income that artists receive is one part of this. In “Live Art and the Gig Economy” published in Edition 3 of EXTRA!EXTRA! Malcolm Whittaker reflects on this problem. Lucas

BECOMING AN ARTIST Dearest Editor How does one chase the role of an artist when there are limited positions? Yours truly A small scared Highschooler, Zara Mambralu

Dearest Zara Great question. By “chase the role” I presume you are asking: how does one become an artist? Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that there are _unlimited_ positions for the role of artist in society! As long as you decide to be an artist, you can be one. You don’t need to go for a job interview or anything like that. The bad news is that the gigs available to be an “Artist” (with a capital A) in Proper Art Galleries are indeed limited. To get those, you generally need to belong to a fairly select social club called “The Art WE WANT TO HEAR World”. These days, the best way to get club membership is to go to university and study art, and then hang around in the FROM YOU foyer of The Art World until someone sneaks you in. A route We welcome responses to the that is less tedious is to gather together a gang of cronies and articles in our newspaper. form your own DIY artist run initiative - that way you can have fun right now and you don’t have to kow-tow to the Post a letter in our letterbox at the powerbrokers and gatekeepers. But hey, look, your letter is in Art Gallery of NSW, or online at EXTRA!EXTRA!, so you’re already an exhibiting artist in the www.extra-extra.press/ Art Gallery of NSW! Mum will be proud. Lucas 8 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 27

EDITION 4/5 03 DECEMBER 2019

WHAT’S YOUR TINA CIGARS, MUCKRAKING & FOOTPRINT GOING WORK AS ART TENNIS OR GOLF MORAL OUTRAGE TO LOOK LIKE? Sarah Rodigari & Ian Milliss Chris Nash Juundaal Strang-Yettica Malcolm Whittaker P.6 P.7 P.3 P.4–5

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03 DECEMBER 2019 EDITION 4/5

EXTRA!EXTRA! is published at the Art Gallery of NSW, which stands on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We the editors EDITORIAL and contributors to this artwork acknowledge the Traditional Owners The decline of newspapers has seen the dec- EXTRA!EXTRA! editor Ian Milliss provides of this Country, and we acknowledge imation of entire areas of traditional journalism. further commentary on art and labour, arguing that sovereignty to this Land was Among the first to go as a cost cutting measure that the organisational logistics of collectives never ceded. were the specialist press photographers. In our (like a union, like a group of rock climbers, like a final edition ofEXTRA!EXTRA! next week we’ll fabric company) can prompt significant cultural EXTRA!EXTRA! feature an interview with one of the greatest, Lor- adaptation, and thus be framed as “art”. CONTRIBUTORS rie Graham. And speaking of fabric as art, in her article After press photographers, next in line to Jenna Price recalls attending an early Kaldor EDITORIAL TEAM be axed were illustrators and cartoonists, who Public Art Project with her mum, in the rag trade Lucas Ihlein & Ian Milliss are now reduced to a very small number. We district of Sydney. Jenna’s discussion about diver- are pleased to feature on the front cover of this sity in the arts is also a reminder that Surry Hills, JOURNALISTS issue “CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE where John Kaldor Fabricmaker traded, was in its Chris Nash, Wendy Bacon, Jenna Price, WERE HERE!” - a portrait of John Kaldor by heyday a thriving centre of cultural diversity. Lorrie Graham, John Kavanagh, Ward O’Neill. He has received three Walkley Melissa Sweet, Jack Rozycki, Awards and last year won the Prix Interna- Lucas Ihlein Caren Florance, Boni Cairncross, tional at the St Just cartoonists Salon in France. Louise Curham, Shags, Sarah Rodigari, O’Neill has worked for The Australian, The Sydney Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Amber Jones, Morning Herald, The National Times, The Bulle- Mickie Quick & Malcolm Whittaker tin, the Australian Financial Review, and now for EXTRA!EXTRA!. DESIGN DIRECTOR Our exploration of the labour relations sur- Ian Shoobridge rounding live art continues this week. The cen- NEWSPAPER PRODUCTION tre spread hosts a playful dialogue “in three acts” Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge & between local artists Sarah Rodigari and Mal- Lucas Ihlein is an artist colm Whittaker, who have each at various times Micke Lindebergh and member of Big been employed by Kaldor to enact or inhabit the Fag Press and Kandos RIZZERIA TEAM spaces created by international stars like Marina School of Cultural Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge, Abramović and Tino Seghal. Adaptation. John Kaldor Fabricmaker Pty Ltd, Fabric sample 1981 Bettina Kaiser, Kitty Cardwell, Estee Sarsfield, Micke Lindebergh, Sunny Lei, Emily Nunell, Anna Ke, Stephanie Phillips, Isabella Brown, Halla Hannesdottir, Shanni Sun, Tina Matthews WEBSITE many of the others who could only commit for a Amber Jones few days. Hugh was there full-time as he was oth- erwise unemployed. While working on Wrapped COVER ILLUSTRATION Coast, Hugh sprained his neck when an anchor Ward O’Neill has worked for the Sydney gave way and had to wear a neck brace for a cou- Morning Herald, the Financial Review, ple of months, after which he was fully recovered. the Bulletin and many other publications His wife Maureen was also a member of SRC but as an illustrator and cartoonist. He has didn’t work at Wrapped Coast as she had a full- received three Walkley Awards and last time job and was too honest to take sickies. year won the Prix International at the St Ed: At the pub after our reunion abseil at Just cartoonists Salon in France. Little Bay, Ed told us that he was the only person to be fired from Wrapped Coast. One day he was slacking off, sitting on the edge of the cliff smok- From 9 November to 15 December, Lucas ing a cigarette and idly firing Ramset nails into Ihlein and the Rizzeria Collective take the ocean. Christo came over and said “You’re over the Kaldor Studio at the Art Gallery finished”. Ed told Hugh Ward who then went to of NSW with EXTRA!EXTRA! – a weekly Photo by Michael Waite Christo and said “One out, all out!”. So Christo newspaper which responds critically and allowed Ed to stay on. playfully to Making Art Public. Lee Smith: Lee can’t recall how many Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein days he worked on Wrapped Coast, but not many. and special correspondent Ian Milliss will ABSEILERS REUNITED In 1969 he was a graduate surveyor, had studied be joined by special guest writers and at UNSW, was working for the Commonwealth Government, going through his Licensing Board artists, who will work with the Rizzeria exams and working in an office in the Sydney team to print the newspaper in situ. AT LITTLE BAY CBD. He would take sickies from his day job to Visitors to the Kaldor Studio are invited work on Wrapped Coast. Lee says, “At one stage to write letters to the editor – and a On Saturday, November 30, approximately 20 of the Wrapped Coast doing it for. It was a very new-age thing to have I was abseiling down the cliff and I looked across selection of letters will be featured in rock climbers gathered at Little Bay for a reunion. Michael Waite, somebody come out and do something so stupen- the headland and there was the local news camera each week’s edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! Research Assistant at Kaldor Public Art Projects was there to listen dous as wrap up part of the coast, but it was really zooming in on me. I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, my boss to some stories from the climbers, 50 years on. Here we reproduce because I was with friends. We were a close-knit is going to be seeing me on the news tonight!’ … Throughout the run of EXTRA!EXTRA! a few of their tales. group of people, and doing what I loved, it was But they never found me out”. in the Kaldor Studio, you can also outdoors. It was exciting and it was physically participate in a range of fun workshops demanding, and I’m very proud to say I was the and have a go at making a risographic Megs: Megs was, and still is a member of first woman in NSW to get a Ramset licence.” She print yourself! the Sydney Rockclimbing Club (SRC). The club says that it was probably a twenty minute lesson, was approached to supply people to abseil at Lit- since there wasn’t much in the way of occupational CONTENT DISCLAIMER tle Bay to help Christo and Jeanne-Claude create health and safety training in those days. The views expressed in the pages of Wrapped Coast. Hearing that it was paid work The abseiling was difficult because the cliff EXTRA!EXTRA! are those of the “was like music to our ears”, said Megs. was undercut, and you couldn’t see what the ter- authors, and do not necessarily reflect She was on a Commonwealth scholarship, rain was like beneath the material, billowing in the opinions or official policies of the in the second year of her Social Work degree at the wind. It was hard to find your footing, and the editors, Kaldor Public Art Projects or the UNSW. The most she had been paid up to then material was slippery. The climbers were safety was $20 per week and that had to cover rent of conscious, always checking their gear. After Art Gallery of New South Wales. $17 per week in one of the residential colleges, Wrapped Coast Megs went on a climbing trip to Michael Waite is a We welcome responses to our articles, “So to get $20 a day was phenomenal!” she said. NZ with Warwick Williams, and her earnings Research Assistant which can be submitted by posting Her regular work was part time waitressing at went towards the fare. Megs appears in both of at Kaldor Public Art a physical Letter to the Editor in the University events, plus some babysitting. the Wrapped Coast documentaries. To read more stories from Projects and also a tutor gallery space, or online at Megs worked most days for two weeks on Hugh Ward: Hugh was one of the main Wrapped Coast reunion, at the Australian Centre extra-extra.press Wrapped Coast. “It wasn’t just the money we were abseilers and was responsible for organising scan this code. for Photography 2 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 29

EDITION 4/5 03 DECEMBER 2019 What’s Your Footprint Going To Look Like?

Hello! It’s good to have you with me again tunity to form diverse trans-cultural coalitions and I must thank you for your Letters to the with Indigenous communities for cultural revi- Editor! Your responses and questions are so wel- talisation. We can be eco-diplomats to address come! So, shall we go in? the environmental crises that the whole world is After our conversations about respect for confronted with. Country and our Traditional Custodians, last The healing and respect for this Land we all week, through Jonathan Jones’ barrangal dyara live upon requires that diversity and respectful (skin and bones), 2016, we touched upon self-ac- collaboration become the new norm. Further- countability in land-art… let’s walk that path? more, culture and nature cannot be separated. This week I hope to bring you closer to a sense Diversity and culture are inextricably inter- that ethical land-art practice is not only an Indig- connected and entwined with biodiversity and enous thing but that it is accessible and achiev- require all of us to respond. In these most serious able for artists from any cultural background. of environmental times, I think artists can under- What I hope to leave you with is this: it’s not a take a serious role, not only as warning messen- paint-by-numbers system of protocols, but a set gers but as translators and problem solvers in the of principles that might help guide culturally eth- new socio-ecology. ical land-art practice. Now, wow! That feels like a huge amount for It seems to me that as more and more peo- you to digest during our short amount of time ple come to embrace the holistic, environmental together! So, the take-away I’d like to give you knowledges of Indigenous cultures, and what it is this: in these times of environmental crises, means to be entwined within socio-ecology, we collectively and respectfully, we have the ability might begin to absorb the idea of shared respon- to heal our relationships with the planet if we sibility. The need to engage with Indigenous undertake to simultaneously heal our relation- people, sciences and environmental knowledges ships with each other. is compounded by the urgent needs of the envi- Before I say goodbye for this week, here are ronment. Climate change and environmental cri- a couple of readings on some of the things we’ve ses exist for all things of nature, from the bacteria been yarning about: and microbes, through all plants, all soils, oceans, rivers, to the smallest and largest animals. The The Indigenous Roadmap Project (2018), produced by Terry environment requires our social cohesion. Janke and Company, available here: http://www.terrijanke.com. If we of the art community can harness our au/roadmap-report concerns for the environment through eco-aes- thetics with meaningful demonstrations of Protocols for Working with Indigenous Artists (2007), produced respect for Country and its Indigenous people, by the Australia Council for the Arts, available here: perhaps our efforts would go some way to reori- entating Australia’s cultural changes over time. https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/about/protocols-for-work- Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Fairy Meadow Beach, digital photograph, 2019 So how can land-artists align and demon- ing-with-indigenous-artists/ strate respect for Country and Indigenous peo- ple in their practice? Well, I’ve done some looking “Art Ecology & Institutions” (2013) by Lam, Ngcobo, Perskian, and what I’ve found is that there’s not one blanket Thompson, Witze & Liberate Tate, in Third Text Vol 27, No. 1. set of protocols for the state or the nation. Now, this is understandable and a good thing! What it “Not just a pretty picture: art as ecological communication” means is that art agreements, protocols and col- (2007), by Catriona Moore, in Gavin Birch (ed), Water, wind, art “ laborations are local to the Indigenous people and debate: How environmental concerns impact on disciplinary Ethical artistic engagement and places where they’re undertaken. research, Sydney University Press. But some common themes emerge. And with Indigenous people is folks, the more I looked the more I found! Eth- ical artistic engagement with Indigenous people Juundaal Strang-Yettica brought together through these is brought together through these principles: respect, reciprocity, reflexivity, relationships and principles: respect, reciprocity, partnerships, representation and meaningful reflection. It’s apparent that so very much work reflexivity, relationships and has been done, it cannot be avoided. In your art practice, look to your galleries, partnerships, representation and museums and universities and their policies and practices. Be humble and brave at the same time meaningful reflection. and seek out ethical, collaborative relationships with your Indigenous community. Indigenous Juundaal Strang-Yettica: agencies to connect with might include the local “I don’t know much Aboriginal Land Council, art gallery or Indige- about much but the nous centre on a university campus. In effect we learning keeps me alive!” ” in the art community have before us the oppor- 3 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 30 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

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TINA CIGARS, TENNIS OR GOLF

cial sense, versus, I don’t know, an aesthetic sense or CAST something like this? Is that what you reckon? SARAH RODIGARI SARAH: Uh, I’m not sure. How do artists work and how do we value MALCOLM WHITTAKER what they produce, not just financially, but also socially and culturally - which is of course linked to economic value. There’s a lot of discussion around fair pay for ACT ONE artists, so that’s great, but how might we value the work that artists do differently so that artists can recognise Level 2, Art Gallery NSW the labour that they’re doing and see merit in it. Is that Two characters convene. They each have a background in theatre, ren- even possible? dered daggy and repudiated by the contemporary art world they now MALCOLM: What is a process by which we might be able to work to work within, which has included much enacting of live art works for achieve and articulate that? Within the practices of Tino Kaldor Public Art Projects over the years. They walk and talk. They Sehgal’s work, and maybe yours and mine, the labour is record the conversation that unfolds. The conversation will be pub- achieving an intangible performative experience. Is there lished in the newspaper EXTRA! EXTRA! Does this make them journal- an assessable efficacy as the outcome of what you do? ists? Maybe of Nietzschean type, in that they offer “no facts, only SARAH: I think there’s also some idea of sustainability. To be interpretations”. The same could be said of much of what passes as invited to do This is so Contemporary again raises ques- journalism in the post-truth world they live in. tions for me. Why do I want to do that? What do I get out Critic Michael Fried suggested that art depreciates when it reaches of it? Is it just a financial exchange? the point of theatre. But maybe he didn’t go far enough. Maybe it is MALCOLM: Performing artists seem much more accustomed to getting life that depreciates when it reaches the point of art? paid and asking to be paid than visual artists. I’ve done SARAH: So, you’ve already written about This is So Contemporary? a couple of the Australia Council peer review panels, and MALCOLM: Well, yeah. They needed some content last week. So, I wrote visual artists actually are so ill-accustomed to being a reflection on labouring and interpreting for the Tino Seh- paid that they don’t even ask for fees. Whereas people with gal work This is So Contemporary that we both did in 2014, more of a performative background or practice value their and I am doing again now. labour and ask for a fee for what they’re doing. SARAH: I haven’t read your article. Should I read your article? SARAH: This becomes complicated because in visual art, the labour MALCOLM: Maybe? It’s coming hot off the press this afternoon. of the artist isn’t necessarily valued, but the artwork is, SARAH: How shall we think about this piece then? Lucas has so you get paid for the object. Perhaps the object will sell approached us to write something about art and labour. What and if it sells, you recuperate the labour costs in its sale? did you want to say about art and labour that you haven’t MALCOLM: But that’s taking a risk, right? In the performing arts, said in your article? for example, in a professional context, I think you get MALCOLM: Well, maybe it would be good to expand on it. What you paid for the labour and the value of your labour is your mentioned earlier sounded interesting. The article that ability, your skill as a performer. It doesn’t necessarily you found and then couldn’t find again, about the focus on have to be contingent on say ticket sales. You’re paid a valuing artist’s labour beyond a fiscal sense? Is that what wage, regardless of ticket sales. You’re not risking any- the article was about? thing in the way visual artists would at the potential of SARAH: Last week, you talked about labour, what you’re doing, how selling their work. much you’re getting paid, who’s getting valued. You were SARAH: You have to get paid for performance because you have to in This is so Contemporary in 2014 and now it’s 2019 and be in the rehearsal space. The visual artist foregoes an you’re in it again. Are you getting paid the same? artist fee in order to pay somebody to fabricate the art- MALCOLM: I think it is a little bit more this time around. work, which then potentially sells. That’s rare for a lot SARAH: That’s something we might want to fact check. of people. Visual artists need to be paid proper artist MALCOLM: What I think we need to fact check is what an award wage fees regardless of the artwork. is for a performer. A slippery ground is created because MALCOLM: Of course! we’re not deemed performers, but rather “Interpreters”. SARAH: To come back to this Tino Sehgal thing, did the interpret- Officially speaking, contractually, you’re an interpreter, ers get paid the same as a visitor services officer? not a performer. MALCOLM: I think we were actually paid a little bit more. When we did SARAH: Are you entitled to an MEAA rate for a performer or a NAVA it in 2014, I remember standing next to a real gallery officer rate as an artist? and having a little chat in between routines. You know, I’m MALCOLM: Strictly speaking, within the “score” of the work, you there in my officer’s costume, standing next to an actual gal- are not an artist or a performer, but rather an “Inter- lery officer. I asked him and he told me his hourly rate and preter”. The other problem is that you’re labouring to it was a bit less than the $27-odd dollars an hour we were produce capital for someone else. This is what I wrote getting last time. And this time round, in 2019, we’re actu- about last week. Whether it’s a commensurate wage or fee ally on $30 an hour Monday to Saturday and $40 on Sundays. that you’re paid to interpret in a Sehgal work, or in SARAH: I wanted to bring up the idea of being called an “Inter- any of these delegated performance works, seems to me to preter” but not an artist. Isn’t an artist an interpreter depend on how much the artist with their name on the work of some sort? There seems to be a fine line between not is getting paid and what you are paid comparatively to being recognised as an artist or as a performer. Everything execute the work. I don’t know how much Tino Sehgal was seems a little false. Like these flowers in the Jeff Koons paid. To me, the idea of whether our wage is a ”good one” puppy work we now find ourselves standing in front of. or an “award one” or an “appropriate one” seems to be that MALCOLM gestures to fondle a flower in the Jeff Koons Puppy installa- it should have some interplay with that greater context. tion. SARAH slaps his hand away. A gallery officer gives them a dis- But because there’s a lack of transparency around that, approving look but says nothing. it does feel like you’re not acknowledged because you’re MALCOLM: Well. I suppose that all art involves representation and an “Interpreter”. And your name isn’t mentioned. What are all representation involves a process of interpretation, you really labouring for? and in so doing becomes removed from the truth. Didn’t SARAH: Okay, so what are we going to talk about this week, given that Plato make that observation a few thousand years ago? But that you’ve already written an article on art and labour? Sehgal has leveraged this position for himself where the MALCOLM: Well, I wasn’t really sure what we were doing this week. work is not considered theatre, even though it runs for We scrawled some notes and then we were just going to wing a season, even though we have learnt lines and attended it with a conversation. rehearsals and wear a costume. I feel like I read once SARAH: Let the improvisation begin. that he doesn’t like the word performance because there’s MALCOLM: Maybe, like you said, the point is to shift the conversa- a quantifying side to the word, like “key performance tion from being one of valuing artists’ labour in a finan- indicators” or “high-performance”. There’s a certain effi-

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cacy to what performance achieves that he wasn’t into, so rary might be aiming for something of an institutional instead he calls them “constructed situations”, using the critique, but for many patrons it probably falls into the language of the Situationist International. But why shy realm of parody, which incidentally is a place I have mis- away from the idea of achieving something, and what is takenly fallen in my own work plenty of times. theatre but a constructed situation in the first place? SARAH: What have you learnt about yourself from working on the SARAH: Doesn’t Sehgal value the performance as an object? He sells Tino Sehgal piece? Did you get fit? it like an object. He separates himself from the gallery MALCOLM: Oh, yes. Definitely. That’s an added bonus, for sure. That’s or the institution that goes on to present the work. He’s value adding! Adding further fitness value was cycling into not building a relationship with the interpreters. They’re the gallery each day, as Tino has requested we do. Oh, just outsourced labourers making the work happen. everyone also refers to him as “Tino”, as if he is our MALCOLM: But each time I’ve been an interpreter for This is so Contem- mate, and I find that funny. I’ve never heard an artist that porary, there’s also always someone there to give the tick of you’ve never met referred to by a first name so much. approval of how “Tino would like it to be”. We have worked SARAH: Is it important for you to value or respect artists that you’re with Xavier Le Roy, Becky Hilton, Asad Raza and Ivey Wawn, working with? Or do you just take this job for the money. as “directors” (whether they like that term or not). You’re MALCOLM: Not necessarily, but don’t get me wrong. I do respect interpreting, but within that there is someone there to over- Tino Sehgal, but respect doesn’t place something above see on Tino’s behalf, to keep the score, to be a delegate critique. This is also a chance to work and be paid as a somewhere in between us as interpreters and him as the artist. practicing artist, which is rather rare. It’s also nice Pause. to hang out with the other interpreters. It’s convivial MALCOLM: All this wondering that we do is because of what Sehgal has in that sense. We’re a sort of temporary micro-community. orchestrated through his anti-documentation, anti-material I like doing the performance too. It has moments of great stance, which elicits our speculation. Everything is hear- joy, when you do one of these routines and you get a sense say, everything trickles through the grapevine, nothing is of satisfaction when you do the job well, when you all come written down. together in unison to reach a successful iteration of the SARAH: Have you done any research on this? performance. It is satisfying as an artist, aesthetically, MALCOLM: (Shrugs) . I have read a couple of articles. He sells the in terms of what you have achieved with your comrades, in work. There’s a verbal contract that says “this is what you your three-person ensemble. have to do, this is the amount of people, this is the score, SARAH: This is a good point because Kaldor Public Art Projects this is the amount of time they need to rehearse and train, employ a lot of local artists to work on their interna- this is how much they should be paid, which is equivalent tional projects, and these do form supportive local con- to this rate”. Something like that. But apparently there’s versations and art communities. not even any written contractual paperwork anywhere. MALCOLM: Definitely. SARAH: So that’s what creates all this mythology and narratives around human labour, because it’s so elusive? ACT TWO MALCOLM: To write it down would be documentation and therefore cre- Same time. Same place. Walking through the Sehgal exhibition. ate a material trace of the work - which Tino forbids. INTERPRETERS: (Singing and dancing.) Oh, this is so contemporary, con- SARAH: I have also heard that if you buy the work, somebody deliv- temporary, contemporary… ers the contract to you verbally. Perhaps Kaldor could MALCOLM: Oh, great. clarify this? SARAH: Did you ever feel like you’re busking when you’re doing it? MALCOLM: Maybe you could ask him? MALCOLM: Yeah. SARAH: Maybe. SARAH: Have you ever thought of busking? Pause. They walk. MALCOLM: No. SARAH: We’re walking from one end of this Kaldor exhibition to the SARAH: Do you know how much buskers get paid? An hour? other. What’s it called again? MALCOLM: No. MALCOLM: Making Art Public. SARAH: That’s something to look into. SARAH: We started at one end of the exhibition, skirting This is MALCOLM: Maybe. So Contemporary, and now at the other end there is Lion’s Pause. They walk towards the escalator. Honey, a performance by Agatha Goth-Snape. Both consist of other people working in public on behalf of the artist to ACT THREE make the art happen. We had an awkward conversation before Same time. Same place. They stand on the escalator, looking down on about whether or not people talk about money and artist the INTERPRETERS as they head up to Level 1. fees and how it always feels impolite to talk about money. MALCOLM: On the record, what were you saying the other day about In this instance, how do we talk about Making Art Public feeling a little bit humiliated when you did it last time? without talking about labour, and how do we talk about SARAH: I did it with you in 2014? labour without talking about money? MALCOLM: Yeah. MALCOLM: Well, Agatha’s work seems like a joyous gift for the dele- SARAH: Did we ever do it together? gates she is working with, especially when we can see them MALCOLM: I don’t think you ever had the pleasure. from our position interpreting for Sehgal. Their labour is SARAH: I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing you do for their own enrichment, being provided the time and space it. I wouldn’t mind seeing that on video. to simply read in the gallery. MALCOLM: That’s one of the liberating joys of the work. There’s SARAH: I’ve said yes to doing Kaldor projects in the past because no incriminating footage of me. (Pause). Although, maybe I saw them as an opportunity to work with international there is? Who knows? artists and develop my skills and understanding of art SARAH: Hypothetically, it does look less humiliating this time practice. [Editor’s note: in 2015 Sarah Rodigari was a round. Because this time around, you’re within the context selected artist for Kaldor Public Art Projects’ Australian of an exhibition space with other contemporary artworks, Artists Residency Program for Marina Abramovic: In Resi- as opposed to being in the entrance of the gallery. dence. Sarah reflects on this experience in her PhD thesis.] MALCOLM: There have been a few significant improvements in how the MALCOLM: Sure, me as well, and critical reflections have then been work has been staged this time around. Placing the work generated and fed back into my own practice through my in a gallery means that it resonates with the other parts participation, which has been incredibly valuable. of the space, rather than the work accosting people like SARAH: But with the international artists, there is seldom an a sort of flash mob in the entrance hall. Also, a wonder- interpersonal relationship. In this case, you don’t get to ful degree of care has been shown to us as performers. For work with the artist, even though you’re in their work. example, every hour we take a little break to have some MALCOLM: But with Agatha you do. water, have a snack, have a sit down. With this sort of SARAH: Yes, and you are not constrained by a “conceit” in Agatha’s care factor in mind, and the repositioning in the gallery work, to use one of your words. You are just reading. space, we’re producing much better work. MALCOLM: Yes. Richard Schechner has this idea of “dark play”, where SARAH: Shall we get a coffee? some of the participants don’t know they’re part of the MALCOLM: I don’t have my wallet. Your shout? play. The frame has been concealed. The conceit is still SARAH: Sure. there. I think that’s definitely what’s going on in Seh- Audio recording fails. gal’s work. Even though you remove the didactics and all the usual technologies of framing an artwork, that doesn’t mean that we’re not still at play and experiencing an art FIN. project and a performance. I think This is so Contempo-

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Forty years after Wrapped Coast the world was At the heart of this is the rise of social prac- a very different place. The rise of neoliberalism tice, the offshoot of conceptualism beginning had featured global arbitrage of labour, by con- in the mid 1970s that resulted in many artists stantly shifting production from one country (including me) distancing themselves from the to another in search of the lowest conceivable official art world to work instead embedded in labour costs and conditions. Sierra’s work sym- communities, using their artistic skills in social bolised this process, a titillating spectacle of and political activism. The institutions, over abjection where unemployed workers carry out ensuing decades, made repeated attempts to WORK meaningless tasks at the lowest wage. In this case incorporate and monetise this tendency. The they held up a series of beams against a wall, a sad work of Vanessa Beecroft (Project 12, 1999) parody of the caryatids of classical sculpture as promoted by the curator Nicholas Bourriaud as precarious workers but also a forerunner of the “relational aesthetics”, was typical of an earlier age of so-called “bullshit jobs”. While essentially attempt to institutionalise the idea of community pointless and unproductive, low paid bullshit jobs collaboration by mimicking it while compromis- served to maintain a psychology of managerial ing it, thus robbing it of political power. Sehgal is control over workers. Sierra’s work portrays this a later attempt that promotes but also parodies AS ART toxic cultural change. attempts at social engagement, turning it into a In 2013 the anthropologist David Graeber form of abuse and harassment. John Kaldor, as this exhibition demonstrates, peared, at least in the sense that it is no longer the published an essay entitled “On the Phenomenon Sehgal’s temporary popularity probably has a well-earned reputation as a great patron. In production of a high status consumer item but of Bullshit Jobs”. Graeber argued that the value of reflects the way institutions had begun to feel my understanding of art as the process of cultural has become a general category of human activity increased productivity was divided unequally, their own significance slipping away. Their adaptation, Kaldor’s history makes him a consid- rather like work. Any activity can be art, just as almost all going to management and shareholders power had waned as the more marketable forms erable artist in his own right, using other more any activity can be work (or not work) depend- and little to workers. Bullshit jobs were used to of art had become less meaningful, hollowed conventionally recognisable artists as his mate- ing on its context. Initially this was described keep workers divided by constantly monitoring out by vacuous biennales, art as tourism and rial to change Australian culture. as the “institutional definition of art”, that any each other. Meanwhile the Puritan-capitalist work money laundering, the art world version of the Like most Australian artists, John Kaldor object or activity could be regarded as art if it was ethic turned having a job, any job, into a religious same processes of global neoliberalism that supported his art with a day job, as a manufac- endorsed by an institutional consensus. But this duty that stigmatised those who were not in paid had slowly made the Kaldor fabric business turer of widely admired high quality textiles for definition has broken down in the 21st century as jobs, disregarding the work they often did as carers less profitable and also less fulfilling. In art as in both clothing and interior decoration. As a manu- the institutional gatekeeper’s role has collapsed etc. Wikipedia summarises Graeber’s argument: fashion originality is “really not that important facturer he commissioned original designs, many in the face of new technology enabling wider par- … [people] believe that work determines any more” and the market only wants the quick, of which are now in the collection of the National ticipation and distribution. There are no longer their self-worth, even as they find that work cheap and familiar delivered fast. It is ironic that Gallery of Australia. But by 2004 when the Aus- effective gates for the gatekeepers to keep, and pointless. Graeber describes this cycle as “pro- within the Kaldor projects there is such an expo- tralian branch of Kaldor’s company closed, his indeed the institutions are increasingly scram- found psychological violence”, “a scar across our sition of that process. daughter Bettina, who had been managing direc- bling for relevance. As a result institutional recog- collective soul”. In turn, rather than correcting tor of the company’s UK division, identified that nition is insufficient - what matters in the future this system, Graeber writes, individuals attack Ian Milliss the economics of the fabric market had signifi- is whether an activity generates cultural change. those whose jobs are innately fulfilling. cantly changed: Three Kaldor Projects illustrate this. The The third is Project 29 in 2014, Tino Sehgal’s “For textile wholesaling, the better years first is Wrapped Coast in 1969. For me as a young This Is So Contemporary. Sehgal’s work involves were behind us,” Bettina Kaldor said. “There’s artist who worked on Wrapped Coast, the most creating a parody of service industry bullshit jobs. probably lots of reasons for that, but the market impressive aspect was the artwork as work, as It is hard to see his work as anything but an attack - and I don’t just think it’s an Australian market - an organisational and financial project involving on “those whose jobs are innately fulfilling”, and IMAGES: Kaldor Public Art tends to want to do prints that have already been hundreds of people being managed to an end that this may well explain his reluctance to have the Project 22: Santiago Sierra. 7 done overseas. most people considered absurd and yet became work documented in any way. Seghal’s resistance forms measuring 600 x 60 x “Therefore if you are copying or creating the increasingly fascinated by. Thinking about this in to documentation can perhaps be understood as 60cm constructed to be held design, it’s not the design (the customers want), following years led me to understand organisa- a residual shame, a desire to leave no evidence. horizontal to a wall, Gallery it’s whether you (the supplier) can do it quickest tional structures as cultural artefacts, potentially Sehgal’s work allows institutions to misrepresent of Modern Art, Brisbane, and cheapest. as works of art, and also to an understanding socially engaged art as little more than annoying 20 – 28 November 2010. © Ian Milliss is an that an organisation or a group of workers could harassment interrupting their preferred business Santiago Sierra.Photo: Nata- artist who worked on be regarded as an artist. This is how I came to model of art as exhibitions. sha Harth Wrapped Coast. understand the NSW Builders Labourers Feder- ation (BLF) and other trade unions like the Fed- erated Engine Drivers and Fireman’s Association (FEDFA) as artists in the sense that as collabora- tive groups they used their one tool, their ability to withhold their labour, to generate cultural change. In fact their influence was so great, start- ing with their first Green Ban at Kelly’s Bush in Sydney’s Hunters Hill in 1971, that they inspired the development of the German Green Party, leading to worldwide parliamentary Green Par- ties, one of the most important elements of the battle against climate change. This was cultural change on a grand scale. The second is Project 22 in 2010, titled 7 forms measuring 600 x 60 x 60 cm constructed to be held horizontal to a wall, by Santiago Sierra.

“The whole business in that sense has really changed; it’s not colour and design that’s impor- tant, it’s logistics. It’s about getting a product as quickly as possible (to market), so I guess over time we did lose our unique angle. “The biggest thing is (that) the originality of fashion is really not that important any more.” The fact that Kaldor’s fame rests so much on his activities as an artworld patron raises interest- ing questions about what we recognise and value as significant cultural activity, how we under- stand labour in society, and how we value it. It is a thread that appears several times in the Kaldor projects, often in challenging ways. If we start at the end and look back we can see that, in the fifty years Kaldor Public Art Pro- jects has been running, art has effectively disap- 6 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 33

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tions for whom it did matter – the Wallraf-Rich- and can bring journalism into focus with contem- JOURNALISM INTO ART (PART 4): artz-Museum in Kassel with Manet PROJEKT ’74 porary art practice and theory. in 1974 and Köln’s Westkunst exhibition with Der Haacke proposed a relational approach to Pralinenmeister (The Chocolate Master) in 1981, not the issue of what is art, asserting the inherent to mention the institutions that discreetly avoided social and political nature of the question: commissioning work from Haacke – the problem- Products that are considered “works of art” MUCKRAKING & atic issue was the same one: his claims to verifiable have been singled out as culturally significant truth about the sensitive activities of people or objects by those who, at any given time and social organisations involved with the museum. stratum, wield the power to confer the predicate The very scale and intensity of the conflict at “work of art” onto them; they cannot elevate MORAL OUTRAGE the Guggenheim in 1971 suggests that there was themselves from the host of man-made objects something deep and serious at stake in the jour- simply on the basis of some inherent qualities. When Guggenheim Director Thomas Glueck’s view is that because of the high cal- nalism-art connection. The conflict was reported Today museums and comparable art institutions Messer cancelled Hans Haacke’s commissioned ibre of his research and his concern with issues in detail in the New York Times, and their art critic … belong to that group of agents in a society who exhibition in May 1971 because it was “not art involving public morality, Haacke’s art substan- Hilton Kramer was an assertive combatant in the have a sizable, though not an exclusive share in this but journalism”, the supporters of Haacke and tively is journalism – with the converse implica- struggle. Curator Edward Fry, an internationally cultural power on the level of so-called “high art”. sacked curator Edward Fry bypassed the jour- tion that as journalism it is also art. respected expert on modern art, was dismissed Irrespective of the “avant-garde” or “conservative”, nalism question to support the artistic merit of This was precisely Messer’s problem with the for supporting Haacke and never worked again “rightist” or “leftist” stance a museum might take, the works. Messer’s description of the work as work. He specified the verifiability and meaning in a US art institution [see EXTRA!EXTRA! it is among other things a carrier of socio-political “muckraking” invokes the North American term of the facts being reported by Haacke as a basis for edition 3 for more on this story]. It took almost connotations. By the very structure of its existence, for investigative journalism linked with moral rejecting the works. If Haacke had been merely four decades before Haacke’s work would be pur- it is a political institution. This is as true for muse- outrage going back to the nineteenth century. appropriating some unusual object, medium or chased by a major US institution: Shapolsky by the ums in Moscow or Peking as it is for a museum in Subsequently Grace Glueck, the New York Times process to make a symbolic statement, much as Whitney Museum of American Art in 2007, in a Cologne or the Guggenheim Museum.* (NYT) arts reporter who covered the Haacke Duchamp did with his urinal, wine rack and snow half-share with the Museum of Contemporary From Haacke’s definition, an artist cannot controversy for her paper, recalled how she had shovel, then there would have been no problem, Art in Barcelona. In the meantime Haacke’s star but be involved in the politics of art, even if only marvelled at his diligence and skill as an inves- but because Haacke’s art was making statements had risen high in the international art firmament passively as the beneficiary and bearer of a con- tigative reporter. Had Haacke not devoted himself about facts open to verification in the material and, as Buchloh observed in a detailed analysis ventional wisdom about the nature of art. Simi- to art, he might have become an exemplary jour- and social worlds, it was unacceptable to Messer. in 1988, his continuing marginalisation by elite larly, a journalist cannot but be involved in the nalist, not only because of his bulldog talent for Haacke himself has never rejected the US and German public institutions was mean- politics of knowledge, even if only passively as the research, but also because of his total indifference art-journalism linkage, although he has never ingful in itself and required analysis. A reunified beneficiary and bearer of a conventional wisdom to the power wielded by important people who identified himself as anything other than an artist. Germany acted with the 1991 Venice Biennale about the nature of news. are anxious to keep publicly questionable activi- He had quickly realised the significance of Mess- invitation for GERMANIA and the contested ties private. His work is all the more convincing er’s hostility on the verifiability issue for what it Bundestag invitation of 1999. In US art circles, Chris Nash because, while it comes out of a deep passion for revealed about the importance of methodology the situation was undoubtedly an embarrass- justice, its presentation is studiedly dispassionate. in the politics of art and knowledge. Thereafter ment when the Whitney finally acted in 2007 to Glueck also attributed to Haacke the “fourth he used the research methodologies of journal- purchase Shapolsky as one of the major works of * Excerpt from “All the art that’s fit to show”, in Hans Haacke: For estate” ethical commitment of journalism to the ism as a staple of his practice. 1970s American art. Nonetheless, four decades of real: Works 1959–2006, eds. Matthias Flügge and Robert Fleck, public interest, and linked it to the calibre of his Apart from Glueck at the NYT, other jour- prolonged absence demands an explanation. Richter Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2006. research, which included both documentary and nalists over the years who reported and analysed In passing, the ignorance about this conflict This is an edited extract from What is Journalism? The Art and human sources of journalists. the controversies generated by Haacke’s artworks among scholars of journalism is also important Politics of a Rupture published by Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. For Haacke’s success as a watchdog of public also recognised both the reliability of his factual and needs to be rectified. In parallel to the art further information contact [email protected] morality is due in no small measure to his prodi- evidence and his journalistic sensitivity for the world, that ignorance is indicative of, in Buchloh’s gious research efforts. While many artists need go “productive provocations” that would provide terms, a failure to recognise “a turning point – one no further than their own studio for their material, access into institutional politics – his news sense. of those historical moments in which a set of tra- Chris Nash is a former he travels far and wide, visiting libraries, checking For most of the other institutions that exhibited ditional assumptions about the structures and journalist and academic archives, reading obscure publications, examining these and similar artworks by Haacke, the works functions of art are being challenged.” Haacke’s and author of What is court documents, talking with “sources”. And he maybe were or were not journalism, but either work, precisely because it brings journalism and Journalism? The Art and keeps extensive files on his targets. way it didn’t seem to matter. For those institu- art together as methodology, highlights the issue Politics of a Rupture.

are nearly exclusively white (some artists explicitly mention heritage which is non-European) and either European or from the United States? DIVERSIFYING I asked Ghassan Hage, Future Generation Professor of Anthropology at the University of Melbourne, about whether this really mattered. Hage, it could be argued, is Australia’s leading THE SOCIAL FABRIC scholar on race. Should Kaldor Public Art Projects be more diverse? My parents were in the rag trade. That was from the 1960s through to the 1980s, took notes: where three Australians, Mike Parr, Ken Unsworth, Hage: “Why should it be representative of pretty standard for Holocaust survivors who “The mayonnaise was purple, the sausages and Imants Tillers were shown in 1984 (that group anything, why does it have to be non-white or came to Australia. It worked this way at least in blue. The cauliflowers were red or pink or green. exhibition travelled extensively and gave an inter- non-European? Is it really a national thing and my family - Mum did piecework when she got off The jellies were psychedelic. The pâté was tur- national platform to these artists). I also leave out therefore there has to be [or is] some tension or the boat. Dad worked at Port Kembla. They saved quoise, the corn on the cob sky blue. Was it the 13 Rooms and Making Art Public. Of the 35 projects, some need to represent, something like a variety enough to start a small business and then built it first work of art ever eaten in Australia?” I count 32. It gives a clearer historical picture of the of people to reflect the variety of artists around into something bigger. In an interview with Valerie Carr about the story so far. Of those 32 projects, one is Jonathan Australia? Or is it his own thing and that’s his John Kaldor was a big deal to my parents. He forthcoming Coloured Feast in the Australian Women’s Jones, of the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi nations of taste? Then he is free to choose and people who was younger than they were, had arrived a couple Weekly, then a publication where you could expect south-east Australia; 15 projects have either one don’t like this, don’t have to go and watch.” of years before they did; and he fitted in to Aus- real news about contemporary art, Kaldor said he or two artists who can be predictably classified as As Hage points out, there are historical rea- tralia in a way they never could. His English was didn’t really want to startle people with the food. European by residence at least before Brexit or at sons why certain things are more white than oth- perfect, theirs less so. But they worked within a “Our feast won’t be too psychedelic,” he told least before they died. Some divide their time in that ers. A contemporary view would say that it is not few hundred yards of each other in Surry Hills. Carr in September 1973, yet its memory is still group: Miralda, for example, spends time in the US. acceptable now for something to be so white. And it wasn’t long after Kaldor began his business intense in my mind. A further 15 shows are of artists who live in “And that is not said in a spirit of hatred but that he brought contemporary art to the schmattes This wasn’t “art” in my father’s mind. While the US or its territories (or did before they died) in a spirit of diversification, with the expectation district in a way which transfixed my mother. She Miralda was Spanish, he wasn’t El Greco. That was according to their biographies. Of those, Char- that there will be a gradual transformation.” received an invitation to Coloured Feast (1973) to about as modern as Dad got. He wasn’t even sure lotte Moorman (d. 1991), Sol Lewitt (d.2007), Jeff There is no point in taking a tokenistic celebrate the opening of the new Kaldor show- Australians could be artists. And if you take an over- Koons, Barry McGee, Stephen Vitiello, Bill Viola, approach: “You can’t expect something [to go] rooms. I had already decided to study art for my view of the Kaldor Public Art Projects, it looks like Jennifer Allora and Asad Raza were all born there. from all white to a radical cultural diversity, but higher school certificate and knew about Christo Kaldor and Dad were pretty much on the same page Others such as Vanessa Beecroft, Urs Fischer, the critique has to begin somewhere.” (we didn’t hear much about Jeanne-Claude back at least when it comes to state of origin. Dad died Marina Abramovic and Ugo Rondinone moved Hage says there are two stages of transforma- in the day) and Gilbert and George. Mum was in 1976 and would have been shocked by Jonathan to the US. Jeanne-Claude is the only artist born in tion – the first and most obvious is for galleries keen to go. My memories are vivid of the night. Jones’s expansive work in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Africa; Nam Jun Paik the only artist born in Korea; and museums to exhibit non-white art, but the Mum made me a dress from bold Kaldor fabric. which marked a clear shift in the Kaldor projects. Guillermo Calzadilla was born in Cuba but, along second and perhaps even more crucial is for the We walked up the hill to the showrooms together. I looked at all the artists who are named as with Allora, now lives in Puerto Rico, a US terri- organisations themselves to be changed (as Rich- Dad decided work was more important. But Les- exhibitors in the Kaldor Projects since 1969, either tory. Tatzu Nishi, the only Japanese artist, now ard Bell points out in his essay, Bell’s Theorem*). lie Walford, famed interior decorator, and even solo or duo. Since I’m only looking at solo or duo divides his time between Japan and Germany. more famed social writer in Sydney’s Sun-Herald projects, I chose to leave out An Australian Accent, Does it matter if the Kaldor Public Art Projects CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 7 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 34 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

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“It is a reasonable thing to demand some “John Kaldor started with a European – an importance of discussions on race, class, sexual- Kaldor project, and maybe I could even have per- gradual move towards inclusion and diversi- outsider – sensibility, animating both local and ity and gender.” suaded Dad to walk up the hill with me. fication of both what is being presented and public spaces. He didn’t just ask Christo [to Aus- “Art wouldn’t be able to happen without the mode in which it is being presented. Any tralia] to impose something the artist did else- philanthropists – they are hugely important and Jenna Price step towards diversification is good [unless] where, he invited Christo to wrap the cliffs. hugely generous. Of course there are challenges,” the step becomes perceived as an answer or “It was, ‘how might this art adapt or be inter- says Higgie. * Richard Bell, Bell’s Theorem, 2002, is available at http://www. a structure. esting to local people?’” For Kaldor Public Art Projects, some of kooriweb.org/foley/great/art/bell.html “There is a continuous need for critique, an Higgie is back in Australia to finish writing the critiques and challenges are about making ongoing process.” her book The Mirror and the Palette, an investiga- changes in its own organisational practices. More Jenna Price is an aca- Jennifer Higgie, editor-at-large of interna- tion of historic self-portraits by women artists. recent group exhibitions address questions of demic at the University tional contemporary art magazine Frieze, says She says she’s noticed a shift in how art situates balance and origin. Clearly there’s more to do, but of Technology Sydney that it’s important to recognise that from the itself in this country. in contemporary art, change is inevitable, even if and a regular columnist beginning the Kaldor Public Art Projects were “More vital and more representative – an slow. I can see change is coming. If Mum were for The Sydney Morn- also forward-thinking. awareness by Australian institutions of the still alive, I know she’d be coming to see the latest ing Herald. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM THE EXTRA! EXTRA! LETTER BOX 02/12/19

Re: Nothing if Not Warm and Welcoming (Mickie Quick, Edition 1) Great piece of writing Mickie Quick. This reflects badly on City of Sydney. Greta Thunberg talked about ‘Cathedral Thinking’ in a recent speech - a reference to both the Notre Dame fire & the immediate global action to fund its restoration, as well as the potent symbolism of medieval guilds & the legacy of those builders in light of the kind of commitment we need to address the climate emergency collectively now. It’s such a great visual reference, along with all of the other supposedly controversial imagery in the work. It’s a strong piece in a long tradition of art as social action. I’m so glad Deborah Kelly spoke up & I really appreciate the clarity you’ve given this in your writing here, particularly the point about doctoring digital work - this should not happen. As you say, a painter would never be asked to touch-up a work to appease a patron. Thanks, Tania Leimbach

As someone who has been censored, banned and excluded from exhibit options I would urge other artists and the curator to withdraw their work in solidarity… otherwise we will see more and more of this. Tim Burns

Re: Filtering disinformation: climate change journalism since the late 1960s (Wendy Bacon and Chris Nash, Edition 2) Thank you, Wendy and Chris, for a meticulously researched and presented article. I hope it’s amplified in large-circulation publications, but evidence of continued muffling of climate change stories is pretty clear, so I’m not hopeful. Social media will hopefully spread it nonetheless. Thanks! Peter Barnes I agree Peter. Every bit does spread the word. Fairfax stopped printing sceptic columns about 8 years ago and the ABC likewise. I feel that one really big danger is that the threat of the impacts of climate change – for example – the bushfires gets normalised and becomes non-newsworthy. This needs more thought I know. As someone who has worked in the WE WANT TO HEAR mainstream, I know the pressures and try to be fair. But when we heard story after story yesterday morning about Clive FROM YOU James as a public intellectual, the dire warnings [about the We welcome responses to the climate crisis] from the UN on the same day were pushed articles in our newspaper. into the background. The SMH did cover it but only used the Post a letter in our letterbox at the AAP wire story – and the ABC station that I was listening to it Art Gallery of NSW, or online at mentioned it as a footnote at best. www.extra-extra.press/ Wendy Bacon 8 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 35

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WHO WILL CHOOSING HOW ANZAC AND PRESERVE OUR STAND WITH TESS TO FEEL THE OTHER DIGITAL ARCHIVES? Wendy Bacon Shags & Caren Florance Judith Pugh Amber Jones P.4 LIFTOUT P.7 P.2

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EXTRA!EXTRA! is published at the We’ve loved working on EXTRA!EXTRA! Art Gallery of NSW, which stands and now that our tenure in the Kaldor Studio is on the lands of the Gadigal people coming to a close, we’d like to thank Kaldor Pub- of the Eora Nation. We the editors EDITORIAL lic Art Projects and the Art Gallery of NSW for and contributors to this artwork accommodating our rambunctious and energetic team of artists, designers and journalists. As I acknowledge the Traditional Owners It’s now been five weeks since EXTRA!EX- In Edition 5 we continue our investigation TRA! was born. Throughout the entire lifespan of the relationship between art and journalism mentioned in my Editorial in week 1, none of us of this Country, and we acknowledge of the newspaper, Sydney has been enveloped in a with a story on award-winning photojournalist have ever done anything quite like this before. that sovereignty to this Land was pall of bushfire smoke, the intensity of which has Lorrie Graham, whose work is featured on the Now that we’re at the end of the process, having never ceded. never been seen before in this city. The location cover of the paper. Lorrie’s moving photos of accomplished our goal of creating a weekly news- of our pressroom within the bowels of the Art the community’s battle to block the West-Con- paper as a work of live art, we can see enormous EXTRA!EXTRA! Gallery of NSW in the heart of Sydney means nex roadway in Sydney will be shown in our potential for this model. Long-live journalism as our focus has spiraled out from the Making Art pressroom until the end of our residency at the an ever-evolving, context-specific artform! CONTRIBUTORS Public exhibition to encompass pressing issues in AGNSW. Her documentation of the activists’ EDITORIAL TEAM the wider world, including climate change, land wrapping of condemned trees is eerily remi- Lucas Ihlein & Ian Milliss rights and social justice. This week in the paper, niscent of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Two Wendy Bacon covers the important and prob- Wrapped Trees from 1969. JOURNALISTS lematic dismissal of Aboriginal academic Tess Finally, this week we were joined in the Chris Nash, Wendy Bacon, Jenna Price, Allas from University of NSW Art and Design. EXTRA!EXTRA! newsroom by visiting Can- As Bacon demonstrates, as well as being an berra artists Caren Florence and Shags. Both Lorrie Graham, John Kavanagh, accomplished curator, Allas has made a crucial are accomplished printmakers, and relished the Melissa Sweet, Jack Rozycki, Lucas Ihlein is an artist contribution to the pastoral care and education opportunity to be artists-in-residence within the and member of Big Caren Florance, Boni Cairncross, of Indigenous and minority students over many Making Art Public exhibition. Their graphic pieces Fag Press and Kandos Louise Curham, Shags, Sarah Rodigari, years, and serious questions are raised about the created in response to the exhibition are offered School of Cultural Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Amber Jones, process of this dismissal. as a bonus liftout in this edition of the paper. Adaptation. Mickie Quick & Malcolm Whittaker

DESIGN DIRECTOR Ian Shoobridge

NEWSPAPER PRODUCTION Alisa Croft & Ian Shoobridge WHO WILL RIZZERIA TEAM Alisa Croft, Ian Shoobridge, PRESERVE Bettina Kaiser, Kitty Cardwell, Estee Sarsfield, Micke Lindebergh, Sunny Lei, Emily Nunell, Anna Ke, OUR DIGITAL Stephanie Phillips, Isabella Brown, Halla Hannesdottir, Shanni Sun, ARCHIVES? Tina Matthews

COVER IMAGE Lorrie Graham is a photojournalist. And a institutions? Photojournalists play a fundamental a certain age for what they are. And also, being Lorrie Graham bloody talented one at that. I had the pleasure of role in contributing to media coverage, they drive recognised for what they’ve done”. sitting down with her to discuss her work, why visual storytelling. So why aren’t their images She has also been using her photography in WEBSITE photojournalism isn’t recognised within major arts deemed art worthy? local activism. She says on the WestConnex Action Amber Jones institutions, and why without institutional support It seems that purely “aesthetic” modes of Group blog, “I’ve been documenting the Stop we are in danger of losing our digital archives. photography are valued more than utilitarian WestCONnex campaign since early 2015, when I From 9 November to 15 December, Lucas Lorrie Graham broke the glass ceiling in the approaches to imagery. Perhaps an image is first became aware of the devastating impact this Ihlein and the Rizzeria Collective take 1970s when appointed to a photographic cadet- deemed art worthy from an institutional stand- tollway would have on our communities. Later ship at The Sydney Morning Herald. Dozens of point only when it shows signs of interpretation that year, my husband Greg and I started a group over the Kaldor Studio at the Art Gallery women followed her in years to come. Lorrie’s by an “artistic” sensibility? But this is a false dis- called Save Newtown from WestCONnex.” of NSW with – a weekly EXTRA!EXTRA! work has appeared in most of the greatest inter- tinction which does not acknowledge the creativ- The group even used wrapping as an activist newspaper which responds critically and national newspapers and magazines, and features ity and social engagement involved in producing tool to draw attention to trees in Sydney Park playfully to Making Art Public. across all Fairfax titles in Australia. “factual” photographs. that WestConnex was about to destroy. “So we Having combatted an alarming amount of Lorrie added that it might also stem from the found some recycled material in the same colour Each week, editor-in-chief Lucas Ihlein sexism and hostility, Lorrie went on to work for idea that photojournalism is a form of employ- as the WestCONnex branding and began to wrap and special correspondent Ian Milliss will The Observer in London, Rolling Stone magazine, ment outside the art world so art institutions may the condemned trees in and around Sydney Park. be joined by special guest writers and and The National Times. not attempt to see beyond its commercial use. We let people know that if you see a blue ribbon, artists, who will work with the Rizzeria Over the last 40 years she has photographed “They don’t see the worth in it because it’s that tree is dead, gone, destroyed unless we take team to print the newspaper in situ. former Australian Prime Ministers Bob Hawke, Paul in their face and they can’t separate it out. And action to stop WestCONnex.” Keating, and John Howard, and collaborated with there’s no curiosity about it. I don’t think there’s a In our conversation, one of the concerns that Visitors to the Kaldor Studio are invited creatives such as Andy Warhol, Barry Humphries, great deal of exploring of photojournalism by the Lorrie also stressed was the problems inherent in to write letters to the editor – and a Cate Blanchett and an overwhelming number of art world” Lorrie says. preserving digital imagery. Lorrie predicts that selection of letters will be featured in other notable figures. But Lorrie is a significant player But when I reflect on some of the images that we won’t be left with an archive of imagery. each week’s edition of EXTRA!EXTRA! in her own right through photojournalism that fea- have resonated with me in the past, they are all “So where is the archive of the future?” tures a strong social conscience, an eye for detail, and the work of talented photojournalists. Lorrie says. Throughout the run of EXTRA!EXTRA! masterfully constructed visual storytelling. “Photojournalism embodies all those elements The past is being neglected and now it’s slowly in the Kaldor Studio, you can also But why isn’t the work of photojournalists rec- that are really important in people’s placement of disappearing. Institutions need to ensure that our participate in a range of fun workshops ognised within major arts institutions? She invited memory, placement of time, placement of huge history is being preserved, which means allowing and have a go at making a risographic me into her home to reflect on these concerns. events that have happened in the world,” Lorrie says. for storage capacity of RAW files and funding to print yourself! Lorrie’s work has actually been collected by She also notes that frequent photographic support the care of our digital archival material. the National Gallery of Australia, the National competitions might perpetuate a belief that there Hopefully this might lead to the recognition photo- Portrait Gallery, the National Library, the are plenty of opportunities for photographers journalists deserve for their contribution to media CONTENT DISCLAIMER Museum of Sydney and the State Library of NSW. to establish their reputations and gain exposure. coverage, and their capacity to produce and com- The views expressed in the pages of She makes it clear that her intention isn’t to bitch Social media platforms such as Instagram are also pose artful interpretations of the world we live in. EXTRA!EXTRA! are those of the about not being collected, and admits she’s been useful, opening opportunities for collaboration authors, and do not necessarily reflect one of the lucky few in that sense. and community engagement. Amber Jones “Photojournalism is such a specific and “I think there is a huge plus in social media the opinions or official policies of the incredibly important area that I don’t think has now. And you can almost circumvent the big editors, Kaldor Public Art Projects or the been recognised by institutions to the degree that institutions”, Lorrie says. Art Gallery of New South Wales. it needs to be”, Lorrie says. These social media platforms allow emerg- IMAGE: Tree wrapping cam- We welcome responses to our articles, Lorrie’s concern stems from the fact that ing artists, creatives, and photojournalists alike a paign run by Save Newtown international photojournalists are recognised means of connectivity that was not present when from WestCONnex to try which can be submitted by posting while the abundance of talent to be found in our Lorrie had began her own career. Lorrie has her and save trees targeted for Amber is an interdis- a physical Letter to the Editor in the own backyard is ignored. own blog where she regularly posts, focusing on destruction to be replaced ciplinary performance gallery space, or online at Why aren’t more Australian photojournal- women over 50. “The reason I do that is because by a Tollway. Credit and cop- artist, theatre-maker, extra-extra.press ists represented within our major galleries and I’m passionate about women not being seen after yright Lorrie Graham and journalist 2 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 37

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Ensure the“ benefits of an art project aren’t just for the artist. Art and cultural practices need to lift everyone and not just benefit one or two. By pooling our knowledges we can create benefits for the entire community and grow together. ”

Kaldor Public Art Project 32: Jonathan Jones. Kangaroo grassland, barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, 17 September – 3 October 2016. © Jonathan Jones GRANDMOTHER LESSONS

Hello! There you are! I’ve been waiting for respect is woven through all his words, no matter Hmmm… so folks, where to from here? I’ve standings of time, the world before me, around you! Come in, come with me… what the topic. Respect seems to be at the core hardly begun to share with you, before I am drawn me and within me, in the here and now? By no means am I any kind of expert about of everything. It’s apparent in the way he speaks to stop…you decide from here because I don’t I leave you with this question: regardless of anything and sometimes I’m not even sure yet about his relationships with Country, Elders, and know if I’m explaining myself properly, but I do what century we tell ourselves we are in and all what there is in front of me to learn but I go in Community. From collaborators to local people, hope two things. Firstly, that I have been respect- the things we’ve met about today… is Indigenous anyway, with or without a map…and most times traditional Owners, their stories, memories and ful and grateful for what was shared with me and art a form of philosophy, or an expression of it? I end up at a completely different place than I histories and how to best represent them. I could what I have learned. Secondly, that you might take It seems, I am the one who has been given thought I was headed! Please let me try to explain hear respect, for his use of materials, making your responsibility in hand and listen carefully to something… this better… When we first met, yes, you and I, processes and the responsibility of his role as an the layers and the layers of meaning inside Jona- I had hoped to give you something. I hoped to artist. All of this is the foundation of his practice. than’s words. The invitation is there for everyone Juundaal Strang-Yettica leave you with something, an idea, a new ques- Now, hearing his words arrange themselves and I kind of believe that, if I can hear my Mother tion to ask, a memory or a seed planted. I have into beliefs and principles, to my way of hearing in them, then most certainly I am listening to my Some of the readings that have been helpful in my thinking: since come to understand that I don’t have to be things folks, this is no ordinary explanation of Grandmother, perhaps as she listened to hers... an expert. People are willing and wanting to share what it is respectful art practice because…echoing and this then is, the deepest collaboration I could Shawn Wilson, Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Meth- their knowledge and experience so we can all around me, I remember my Mother teaching sim- ever hope for but never imagined. ods, Fernwood Publishing, 2008. learn and for this I am grateful. So, shall we go in? ilar things to me. Respect your Elders, listen to Let me step a little outside myself for a Have you ever sat with an artwork and your Elders and look after them. She’d say things moment and attempt to unfurl what I think I Zoe Todd, “Indigenizing the Anthropocene”, in Art in the Anthro- thought, I get some of it… but I know there’s like, be grateful for what you have and if you have understand. barrangal dyara (skin and bones) the pocene: Encounters Among Aesthetics, Politics, Environment and more? You say to yourself; it’s trying to tell me something, share it, don’t let others go without. artwork is a conduit for local Indigenous voices, Epistemology, edited by Heather Davis and Etienne Turpin, Open more… there are more layers and deeper levels In the recording Jonathan says he deliberately histories, knowledges and Custodianship. In part Humanities Press, 2015. here… Have you ever wished you could ask an wants to “ensure the benefits of an art project it is a signpost of Indigenous cultural resilience artist those questions that keep running through aren’t just for the artist. Art and cultural practices and revitalisation of Indigenous philosophies I want to give my gratitude and respect to Jodi Edwards, Nathan your mind? Well folks, this week I have had the need to lift everyone and not just benefit one and knowledges. By undertaking and following Sentance, Jonathan Jones, Antonia Fredman, Wendy Bacon and privilege of such an opportunity, and I’d like to or two. By pooling our knowledges we can cre- traditional pathways and learning practices in the Kat-in-the-Hat, for their guidance and support for this little share it with you… Come with me, let’s go sit with ate benefits for the entire community and grow producing the work, in effect all those involved project. I also want to thank all of you before we say goodbye, Jonathan Jones’ barrangal dyara (skin and bones) together.” These ideas resonate strongly within have created it. I wish you well and I wish you many more questions to come. (2016) again. barrangal dyara (skin and bones) me personally. Here’s how I understand it. Jonathan Jones’ hasn’t left my thoughts all week. It has raised for The further into Jonathan Jones’ recording and those with whom he collaborates undertake me more questions about the layers - and those I went and the longer I sat with barrangal dyara these traditional pathways and practices such as layers don’t seem to want to let me go. (skin and bones), I felt the immaturity of my ques- listening and learning from Elders about Coun- So, through my involvement with tions being unknotted and given back to me in a try, local people, their histories, memories, repa- EXTRA!EXTRA! I took the opportunity to weaving, that I experienced more as feelings and triations and sharing knowledge. In doing so they email Jonathan Jones some questions about his memories. It seems to me that Jonathan Jones’ in are simultaneously revitalising and activating work, and his thoughts on some of the topics his art practice walks ancient connected paths, Indigenous culture and philosophies in the 21st we’ve been talking about: respect for Country deeply trodden, reclaimed and brought back to Century. Now folks, bear with me while I think An edited version of the audio and traditional Custodians, artistic accountabili- our modern world for healing the future before this through further… if I can hear my Grand- conversation between Jon- Juundaal Strang-Yettica: ties and collaborating. I thought of it as an elec- it’s measured on a calendar. That’s when it finally mother, through my Mother, my memory and athan Jones and Juundaal “I don’t know much tronic cup of tea… a cup I’d like to share with you. dawned on me - he isn’t using new words, new Jonathan’s creative processes and the work, then Strang-Yettica will be uploaded about much but the As I listened, re-listened and traced through ideas, new principles or even new philosophies, is what I am feeling, thinking and doing, my Indig- to the EXTRA!EXTRA! website - learning keeps me the recording Jonathan made, I noticed that deep but old ones. Very, very old ones… enous ontological and epistemological under- scan this abovencode to find it. alive!” 3 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 38 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

10 DECEMBER 2019 EDITION 5/5

faculty staffing decisions are made at the faculty as a mentor, the grace and precision of his wise level with the final endorsement of the Univer- counsel is incalculable and is not restricted to our sity. UNSW understands the concerns and inter- Indigenous cohort,” said the Head of Printmak- est in how it supports Indigenous students and ing Michael Kempson. Last November, UNSW staff. UNSW has a long and proud history in the Chancellor David Gonski conferred an Honor- education of Indigenous people. The University ary Fellowship on Chapman who has also been is committed to providing learning opportunities awarded an Order of Australia for services to the that embrace Indigenous knowledge, culture and Indigenous community, tertiary education and histories. The University achieves this through the visual arts. In November this year, Chapman interactions with passionate Indigenous staff, wrote to Gonski, the Vice Chancellor and other access to world-class teaching and research activ- senior staff expressing his deep “disappointment ities, and connections to a robust community. in your institution, arguing that the decision (to STAND We continue to be a leader in educating the next terminate Allas) “will in no way benefit the cur- generation of Indigenous students while inspir- rent crop of Indigenous Art & Design students ing Indigenous researchers and practitioners to and will only serve to decrease any future intake achieve their educational needs and aspirations.” of Indigenous students in this faculty.” So far, he UNSW is confident that by continuing its has received only an acknowledgement and no Indigenous Strategy in 2020, it will “create an meeting has been organised with him. improved structure for the ground-breaking This week Chapman told EXTRA!EXTRA!, WITH work UNSW already does. The university has “Tess is well known locally, nationally and inter- offered to meet with the Design and Art students nationally in the art world, with international in the New Year. curatorial awards, etc. Her strong support of The National Tertiary Education Union students and staff in the workplace – Indigenous (NTEU) will be unimpressed with UNSW’s and non-Indigenous – surrounding her dismissal response to the #StandwithTess campaign. speaks volumes for her concern for them, her NTEU organiser Sarah Gregson told the #Stand- commitment and capability as a teacher.” TESS withTess rally on November 5 that previous com- Chapman believes that the UNSW galleries mittments to increase First Nations employment will be poorer as a result of the boycott by Indig- at the University had been undermined when enous artists. If Allas is not at the university next the contract renewals of staff without secure year, he will also relinquish his role as Elder in appointments came up. “What do they do? They Residence. Chapman rejects UNSW’s assurance Thirty artists and academics, including several cellor Ian Jacobs and the Dean Ross Harley and rely on weasel words and empty strategy docu- that its Indigenous Strategy is not damaged by significant Indigenous artists, have vowed to - boy has posted a video in support of Allas on Ins- ments and show that they really have no inten- the decision to terminate Allas and says, “I have cott University of New South Wales galleries unless tagram. Stimson says that he is “baffled by the tion of properly meeting those commitments.” spent most of my almost 88 years working in the they reappoint long-term Indigenous staff member decision” because Allas is the “most wonderful The Faculty Student Council President Jack field of education. In the Teacher’s Handbook and Director of Indigenous Programs Tess Allas, professional director of indigenous program- Poppert and #StandwithTess campaigners deliv- which governed the conduct of schools I worked whose contract was terminated in October. ming that UNSW could ever have.” He says that ered several demands to UNSW management in, there was a regulation which stated that a per- Tess Allas, who has worked at UNSW Art the failure to respond to his concerns shows last week. They are concerned that far from son of Indigenous descent could be barred from and Design for more than 13 years, was told by the a lack of “professionalism, accountability and arrangements being in place for 2020, students the Public School system on the protest of one Dean of Art and Design Professor Ross Harley in transparency.” The #StandwithTess instagram are enrolled in Allas’ regular and advertised non-Indigenous member of the school commu- October that her contract would not be renewed. account also features artist Vernon Ah Kee wear- Aboriginal Art Now course without a lecturer nity. It remained in the Handbook until 1972 and Allas has been responsible for teaching courses ing a #StandwithTess t-shirt when he addressed appointed to teach it. They argue that the issue acted upon until the late 1960’s. I wonder if what about Aboriginal art and supporting Aboriginal the Australian Association for Research in Edu- is now a very public one, and criticise the Faculty is happening to Tess is an echo of those times.” and Torres Strait Islander and other students. cation conference last week. for failing in “their responsibility to everyone She is a practising artist with a Masters in Cura- Several senior academics have also sup- affected by this decision.” Their demands include Wendy Bacon torial Studies. ported the boycott, including art historian and a meeting with senior management before the It is not unusual for contract staff members feminist art practitioner Latrobe University end of 2019 and an apology for the hurt done to *(Tess Allas declined to be interviewed for this story.) to be terminated in universities. What is extraor- Professor Jacqueline Millner, Head of School at Allas, UNSW Elder in Residence Vic Chapman dinary about this situation is a public campaign Macquarie University Professor Joseph Pugliese and Indigenous students. calling for a reversal of the decision and an out- and UNSW Associate Professor Joanna Mendels- While the university claims to be holding Wendy Bacon has been pouring of support for Tess Allas from the Indig- sohn. A blunt blog post by Mendelssohn on The to its strategy, Elder In Residence 87-year old an urban activist and enous and the academic art communities. Art Life website was headlined ‘Asset-stripping’, a Yuwaalaraay man Vic Chapman rejects this journalist since 1969. notion. Chapman is highly regarded by UNSW. A student led campaign #StandwithTess reference to what she said was a “loss of someone She is a non practising launched an online petition which has more than so crucial to the well-being of students and staff.” Only a year ago, UNSW newsroom issued a lawyer & was previously 1600 signatories, and scores of letters of support Mendelssohn attributes the success to-date of release documenting his contribution to UNSW the Professor of Jour- have been sent to Professor Harley from people UNSW Art and Design as a “quiet leader in the Art and Design, through his mentorship role nalism at the University familiar with Allas’ work as an artist, educator achievements of both its Aboriginal students and in the Printmaking Studio. “Vic Chapman acts of Technology Sydney. and academic. those from minority backgrounds” not to major At a #StandwithTess rally on November funding but to the “efforts of one staff member, Image from @standwithtess1 instagram account 5, artist Tony Albert called for the boycott of Tess Allas.” UNSW galleries. Albert is a well known Indige- Allas began working as a researcher on Vivien nous artist who has exhibited in the Art Gallery Johnson’s Storylines, for which she wrote hun- of NSW and many other high profile museums. dreds of biographies of Aboriginal artists. From His work critiques institutional racism. At the there she began to teach courses on Aboriginal rally, Albert acknowledged Allas as a “proud Abo- art which Mendelssohn argues “transformed the riginal woman and a teacher beyond compar- lives of many students and changed career paths.” ison. Tess Allas is the kind of leading figure any Mendelssohn regards Allas’ work as “crucial to university would and should hold up as a valued the well-being of students and staff alike.” member of staff. Tess is not an academic whose For some years, Allas has held contracts as concludence comes from reading and research, both a lecturer and a professional support staff while she is incredibly versed in both. Her voice is member. Allas has curated and co-curated sig- one of lived experience, someone on the ground, nificant exhibitions including the award-winning someone present. I’m appalled at the way the With Secrecy and Despatch, which was commis- university is treating Tess Allas”. Albert described sioned by the Campbelltown Arts Centre in part- the decision to terminate Allas as one of institu- nership with UNSW Art and Design in 2016. tional racism and asked, “Where is the recogni- The #StandwithTess campaign has damp- tion for the oldest, living, surviving culture in the ened the UNSW Art and Design end of year world?” Albert is currently working with leading alumni and graduate events, with security staff contemporary artists Richard Bell and Daniel keeping activists away and moving some of the Boyd. “We are calling for all Indigenous artists events inside. There has been an ongoing guerilla and their allies to boycott UNSW Galleries. We campaign to repost posters and stickers removed will never exhibit in the confines of this univer- from walls. sity again” unless Allas is re-employed. EXTRA!EXTRA!’s reporter attempted to Signatories to the boycott call also include interview and then sent questions to Professor Joan Ross, Dale Harding, Reko Rennie, Julie Harley, who forwarded them to UNSW commu- Gough, and New Zealand-born artists Hayden nications. UNSW responded with a statement: Fowler and Angela Tiatia. First Nations Canadian “UNSW Sydney is unable to comment on indi- artist Adrian Stimson of the Siksika Nation in vidual staffing matters because of confidentiality Southern Alberta has sent letters to Vice-Chan- considerations. In line with University policy, all 4 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 39

EDITION 5/5 10 DECEMBER 2019 JOURNALISM INTO ART (PART 5): THE QUESTION.

Hans Haacke, Der Bevölkerung, 2000. Photo by Richard Alois.

In his final article for EXTRA!EXTRA! on the work of Hans own integrity and can be reproduced or observed What makes for good debates about changing the definition of German Haacke, Chris Nash delves deeper into the art/journalism divide. and verified by other scientists independently. journalism is a good set of citizenship away from the 1938 racial basis, the Intriguingly, Nash argues that Haacke’s art work is “replicable” in It is also the same as journalistic research, decision went to the full parliament and the Bun- the sense that scientific research or journalistic investigations are where the essence of the truth being asserted questions: what’s the story? destag spent more time discussing the proposed replicable, because the artist asks very explicit questions which is that the object/event, even if it was produced Who are the players? What is artwork than it did the deployment of German shape each of his projects. It is in the playing out of these questions through a photo opportunity or an interview ques- at stake? troops to the Balkan War (the first extra-ter- in specific circumstances that the work’s impact is made. As Nash tion with the goal of being reported, continues ritorial deployment of German armed forces points out, “meaning resides in the social reaction to an artwork, in the real world as a verifiable event/object. It is since World War II). The debate was frontpage whatever its form and substance, and is not intrinsic to the work thoroughly founded in a rigorous empirical mate- What unites Haacke’s conception of art with news in the German media. The commission was itself” - and this is also something that is clearly evident in the most rialism, with no required interpretive or symbolic science and society is the fundamental focus on finally approved by a majority of 360 to 358 votes, significant of the works in the Making Art Public exhibition. transformation through an artistic representation what scholars call methodology – what is the with 32 abstentions – no doubt a highly curated or symbolic interpretation. Of course, original question that you are wanting to ask? Why is that result. Collectively, those facts are essential to empirical evidence can be transformed into myth a good question? How, where and when are you the meaning of DER BEVÖLKERUNG. In his catalogue essay for Hans Haacke’s or symbolism, or ornamented with aesthetic flour- going to pose it in order to achieve an answer? Clearly Haacke also has what journalists would cancelled Guggenheim exhibition in 1971, cura- ishes, but the point is that that requires an active Journalists, like artists, are generally terri- call a ‘news sense’, or what scientists might call an tor Edward Fry made the following points about process of production and interpretation, and is ble at discussing methodology – when pushed, intuition, for the social context and meaning of an Haacke’s practice as an artist: not intrinsic to the evidence itself. journalists tend to fall back on ethical justifica- issue. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, with whom “Haacke so treats his own ready-mades that Like any scientific experiment or observa- tions, and artists on ‘creativity’ or ‘imagination’. Haacke collaborated on a book Free Exchange they remain systems representing themselves tion, Haacke’s art is replicable by other artists in But ethics, creativity and imagination apply to (1995), would suggest his concepts of habitus and and therefore cannot be assimilated to art. Thus the same way that scientific research has to be research in the social and physical sciences just cultural capital are highly relevant. The fundamen- he violates the mythic function, to which art has replicable and verified to be validated. The same as much as to art and journalism. And journalists tal consideration for art, journalism and science is long been assigned, of acting as a buffer between validation requirement applies to journalism, are very good at identifying questions, and the that meaning is a social construct, it can be highly man (sic) and the nature of reality. His work which is why Haacke could use journalistic meth- methods they might use to achieve answers; sim- political if it challenges social and political elites, instead presents a direct challenge, not only to ods in his research, and also why highly regarded ilarly, artists can discuss methods in great detail. and that meaning resides in the social reaction to the fatal but convenient bourgeois separation of social scientists like Pierre Bourdieu attributed a The ‘how, when, where and why’ of asking an artwork, whatever its form and substance, and art from life, but also to the related view that art scholarly research status to his work alongside its questions is at the very centre of Haacke’s con- is not intrinsic to the work itself. functions as a symbolic transformation and inter- artistic merit. tribution to art and to journalism. Information Haacke’s work is enormously liberating to pretation of experience.” So Fry is correct, and Haacke’s work “serves about the real estate moguls in the cancelled Gug- artists, journalists and scientists of all disciplines “The approach to reality offered by Haacke to eliminate arbitrary boundaries within our cul- genheim exhibition of 1971 could have been pub- in opening up the range of ways that questions acts not only as a severe critique of previous ture between art, science and society”. As a direct lished in newspapers, leaflets, radio programs (all about the real world can be posed with great modern art, but also serves to eliminate arbitrary consequence of this approach (or methodology), of which it was), but the Guggenheim’s issue was forensic power. It exposes institutional silences, boundaries within our culture between art, sci- Haacke is blowing up the notion of the artist as a the content in relation to the art gallery location and sheets home accountabilities, usually by way ence and society.” creative, highly individualised sole operator whose for exhibition. What Messer’s response in can- of self-identification in the public debates that “Haacke’s world is rigorously materialist, not authentic work is necessarily singular and can be celling the exhibition demonstrated was that it is ensue. Very exciting! symbolic, but his materialist view is of such large copied but never truly replicated. He is destroy- absolutely not acceptable to question how New dimensions and possesses a logic and truthful- ing the notion that the artwork must be an object Yorkers make money from real estate in the elite Chris Nash ness of such clarity that it reaches the level of an that can be decontextualized and commodified – art galleries that depend on wealthy patrons for almost transcendental moral force.” abstracted and hung on a wall or put on a pedestal. their income and public status. And it is especially To rephrase and elaborate on Fry’s obser- True, intellectual property laws can be applied to not acceptable to pose that question in the form of vations, we can say that Haacke is establishing a artistic processes as much as to scientific ones, but an artwork. That is the meaning of Shapolsky et al. direct verifiable relationship between the content such laws are an external social imposition on the Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social of his art and some selected instance of the real work in question, and by no means immanent to System, as of May 1, 1971 and Sol Goldman and Alex material world, such that the selected instance the processes and works themselves. diLorenzo Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real- is both the art work, and also continues in the So if the authenticity of Haacke’s art does Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971. world with its own existential integrity regardless not reside in the uniqueness of its material con- Similarly Haacke’s large garden box of of its status as art. tent, where does it reside? As with science and untended weeds that constitutes the controver- Chris Nash is a former This art/reality relationship is the same as journalism, it resides in the questions that the sial DER BEVÖLKERUNG (“To the Population”) journalist and academic a science/reality relationship, where a scientific artwork poses. What makes for good scientific artwork in the north courtyard of the refurbished and author of What is observation or experiment lifts the empirical research is a good research question, as any scien- Reichstag building in Berlin would be uncontro- Journalism? The Art and object/process under observation into the realm tist will tell you. What makes for good journalism versial on a vacant block anywhere outside that Politics of a Rupture. of scientific research, but at the same time that is a good set of questions: what’s the story? Who are building. But when it was proposed in 1998, in event/process continues in the world with its the players? What is at stake? the temporal context of public and parliamentary 5 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 40 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

10 DECEMBER 2019 EDITION 5/5 SELECTIVE MEMORIES

Until Kaldor Public Art Projects came along earnestness of the bronze horses has always felt most of the public art in Australia took the form wrong for their location, and the uncomfortable of memorials of one sort or another designed to militarism of The Offerings of War became farcical preserve the memory of a person or event. It was when trapped in a domestic bedroom. The Offer- a starkly instrumental view of art that valued it ings of Peace on the other hand seemed puzzled by mostly as a reference to something else rather the mundane bourgeois soft furnishings of a mod- than something to be admired in its own right. ernist living room. Both were proof that the bom- Even a sculpture as hypnotic as the Archibald bast of memorials can be easily punctured. Fountain (in Sydney’s Hyde Park) was actually A very different type of memorialisation, via intended as a war memorial commemorating the re-enactment, can be seen in the refugee cages of relationship between Australia and France in the Project 16, Gregor Schneider’s 21 Beach Cells on First World War. Bondi Beach in 2007. The 4 x 4 metre cells con- Memorials can have complex meanings that tained amenities for visitors – an air mattress, beach Kaldor Public Art Project 16: Gregor Schneider. 21 beach cells, Bondi Beach, Sydney, 28 September – 21 October 2007. © Gregor Schneider. Photo: Gregor Schneider change over time. What exactly should we remem- umbrella and black plastic garbage bag – and were ber? Memorials exclude as much as they include, soon inhabited by beachgoers looking for a site It could be argued that an exhibition such as history of the area. This way of marking history and who decides who is included? As Judith Pugh to rest and find shelter from the sun. But the cells Making Art Public, made from archival material is clearly inadequate, since the battle for Kellys notes in her essay, often the historical events that were reminiscent of Australia’s Manus Regional relating to a series of events, is a form of memo- Bush was arguably the small spark that triggered are memorialised are less important than the social Processing Centre, a concentration camp for refu- rial, a memory of events rather than the events a worldwide movement. The tourist Petra Kelly power displayed by creating the memorials, disguis- gees opened in 2001, giving the whole work a sinis- themselves. But the final memorial is a memo- learned of the Green Bans while visiting Australia ing meanings that are not immediately apparent. ter edge as beach goers using the cages unwittingly rial of the exhibition itself. I’m thinking of Alicia in the early 1970s and was inspired to form the While the Kaldor Projects seemed to be simply acted out the racist claims that the camps were trop- Frankovich’s performance The Work (2019) in first Green Party on her return to Germany. That staging radical art of a sort rarely seen previously ical Edens, a virtual holiday resort. which original workers on Kaldor projects over party began the green parliamentary movement in Australia, they also implicitly represented the War memorials are the most common the last half-century revisited fragments of their around the world. How could we better memo- influence of post Second World War immigration memorials in Australia yet the most important own activities in a complex and playful choreo- rialise the small suburban inspiration of such an and the rise of multiculturalism. The radicalism of war is never mentioned. The European invasion graphed re-enactment. enormously influential movement? the projects reflected John Kaldor’s grounding in and the genocidal war on Australia’s Indigenous This all raises the question of how we memo- full blooded European modernism, at a time when owners is at the heart of Project 32, Jonathan rialise important events in contemporary soci- Ian Milliss most Australian art still reflected the more insipid Jones barrangal dyara (skin and bones). If the ety. Kellys Bush is a public reserve close to John and timid British version of modernism. memorial halls that Judith Pugh discusses can Kaldor’s home. As the first Green Ban, Kellys Ian Milliss is an Nonetheless, several of the projects deal be seen as assertions of the invaders’ control of Bush represents a cultural moment as significant artist who worked on directly with memorialisation. The most obvious Country, Jonathan Jones brings that hidden his- in its way as Wrapped Coast, and one with even Wrapped Coast. is Project 19, Tatzu Nishi’s War and peace and in tory back into view. Part of this remembering greater worldwide consequences, yet this sig- between (2009) where the heroic equestrian sculp- happens through remaking, in the form of 15,000 nificance is barely recognised at the site. Wendy tures at the front of the Art Gallery of NSW were shields that represent the destroyed artifacts that Bacon’s archival investigation notes that there captured within suburban rooms. The overscaled had been stored in the Garden Palace building. are only two small pieces of signage about the

SUBURBAN BATTLERS WHO CHANGED THE WORLD

If you catch a ferry from Circular Quay in Wallumettagal clan of the Eora nation, the Indig- all seemed lost. Then the Battlers took a brave Kellys Bush and the local Hunters Hill museum, Sydney to Woolwich Pier on the Hunters Hill pen- enous people of this part of the Sydney basin. For and imaginative step. Bridging class and political and spoke to people who remember the battle. insula and take a short walk, you will find a small thousands of years, they took care of the bush. divides, they sought the help of militant commu- In the archives, the Battlers for Kellys Bush nature reserve on the coast called Kellys Bush. After they were killed by smallpox or driven off nist-led construction unions. With the broader are variously described as a group of “middle-class At a lookout, you will find a plaque commem- their land, the bush became a buffer between a union movement behind them, the BLF and the housewives”, “just a pack of bloody housewives”, orating the handing over of the reserve to Hunt- smelter works and the Hunters Hill village that is FEDFA imposed what became known as a “green the “blue rinse set”, and “prim and proper ladies” ers Hill Council in 1993 by NSW National Party today one of Sydney’s best known heritage sub- ban”. No unionist would work on the site. Jen- who “fluttered” around Jack Mundey. Minister Robert Webster and then local Liberal urbs. For seventy years, locals used Kellys Bush nings’ plan came to an unexpected halt. The Battlers were indeed middle-class and MP Kerry Chikarovski. It notes that a local group for walking and fishing. Although it was privately Kellys Bush was the launching pad for a nearly all were involved in full-time work in the called the “Battlers for Kellys Bush” fought to save owned, some farsighted mid-20th century plan- unique movement called the Green Bans, a form of home. But according to their own accounts, once the land; it was the site of the first Green Ban; and ners could see Sydney’s coast was disappearing strike or boycott that saved parkland and the phys- the campaign took off, they threw aside routines the land was purchased by the NSW government fast and zoned the bush “open space”. ical fabric of The Rocks, Victoria Street, Woollo- and devoted themselves to saving the land with in 1983. If you venture into the bush, you will see While Christo and Jeanne-Claude were omooloo, Centennial Park and scores of heritage what one described as “evangelical zeal”. another small faded metal photo of some of the doing their temporary “wrap” of Little Bay in buildings in Sydney. The Green Bans were based Well-known Sydney landscape architect 13 “local housewives”: the Battlers who saved the 1969, decisions were being made that could have on the principle that people should be involved in Michael Lehany is the son of the late Battlers’ bush along with Jack Mundey, the leader of one of permanently obliterated Kellys Bush. Sydney was the planning of their communities, and each Ban secretary Kath Lehany. He remembers that his the unions who imposed the Green Ban in 1971. in the middle of a property boom and developers was imposed in partnership with strong commu- mother, an amateur actor and environmentalist, Beyond these plaques, there is little to help were eyeing off every piece of available land. nity action groups.The Green Bans gave residents relished the campaign. She hated housework visitors understand a struggle of worldwide sig- When the smelter works moved, the local breathing space to work on solutions. In the case because her own mother had been a stickler for nificance that saved this seven hectares of bush Mayor and NSW government decided to seek a of Kellys Bush, it took 13 years of campaigning it, endlessly scrubbing wooden floors. for public use. There is no mention of the Wran buyer for Kellys Bush. One of Australia’s biggest before the Labor government, led by Neville Wran, Dr Joan Croll is the only surviving battler and Labor government that bought the land for public housing developers AV Jennings snapped up an bought the land. also a lifelong environmentalist. She was recog- use in 1983 or the NSW Builders Labourers Fed- option and later bought the land. They planned This much of the story has often been told. nised with an Order of Australia for her pioneer- eration (BLF) or crane drivers’ union (FEDFA), to build high rise apartments, although they later But I wanted to know more about these local ing work in breast cancer and mammography. the key unions that imposed the ban. Like many downscaled their plans to 25 homes. women. What aspects of the struggle had been Despite these other achievements, she describes memorials, the choice of words in these plaques In September 1970 a group of 13 local women downplayed, disappeared or merely forgotten? In her involvement in saving Kellys Bush as the was political and controversial. met in a parish hall and formed the Battlers for the spirit of investigating major cultural changes “the most important thing I ever did.” Coming There is also nothing to inform you that this Kellys Bush. When the NSW government con- that had their birth at the same time as Kaldor from a conservative background, she initially land at the meeting of the Parramatta and Lane veniently changed the zoning from “open space” Public Art Projects, I explored three boxes of Bat- “had a fit” when she thought she was meeting a Cove rivers is part of the ancestral lands of the to “residential” with the flick of a Minister’s pen, tlers’ archives in the State Library of NSW, visited “true red person”. She decided to withdraw until 6 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 41

EDITION 5/5 10 DECEMBER 2019 Anzac And The Other

I’ve always avoided Anzac and Remembrance At the fall of Singapore, Uncle John and his Later, sent to Japan with the occupying force, he and Local Government. It’s about memory, but Day Ceremonies. The men in my family avoided men became prisoners of war of the Japanese. heard about and saw the effects of the Hiroshima the memory is not of battles or comrades dying them: they did their duty, then they turned their Uncle John’s stories of the various camps and the bomb. First the blinding flash of light - and the vic- in an Asian jungle. It’s about living in this district, thoughts from war. They didn’t march, they events therein were sophisticated, often amusing, tim, if facing the explosion, was immediately disa- belonging to this district, coming from this dis- didn’t identify as ex-military, and the further in always reminding us that the Japanese soldiers bled. Then the intense wave of heat, blistering the trict. Only those connected to this place, the set- the past their service the less comfortable they were in a rigid authoritarian system and behaved skin wherever it was exposed, scorching clothes, tler occupation of this place, are here enshrined. were with Anzac Day. according to their cultural understandings and then the shock wave ripping open blisters and That’s the reason John Howard, Tony Abbott, In a storm during a battle, escorting an Arctic material circumstances. Yes, he and his men burning cloth. The radioactivity killed all bacteria, and the bunch of non-combatants who, pumping convoy, one of my maternal uncles saw an over- were starving, but that meant that the Allies had and he saw the dreadful irony: those who arrived money into the extravagant ridiculous reconstruc- heating shell stuck in a gun barrel which had con- breached their supply lines; and the Japanese too to help brought infection with them. He walked tion of the Australian War Memorial, starving tracted because of the intense cold. Vaulting over were short of food and medical supplies. He dis- among men and women who had lived through other galleries and museums, have commercialised a rail on a violently rolling deck, he grabbed the cussed systems established to assist everyone to the trauma, lying in silk hammocks, burned, suppu- Anzac Day and Remembrance Day. It’s a blind. It’s shell and threw it overboard. My grandmother survive, he described certain incidents in quite a rating, waiting to die. He considered what he had a brilliant blind. Anzac celebrations announce that told me this in the context of his athleticism. He lot of distressing detail. These stories were always done and seen, and became an anti-war activist. He unless you’re a local, with some connection to a never mentioned the incident. told to instruct me: principle is more important than did not celebrate on Anzac Day. serviceman, you’re not one of us. Rupert Murdoch has so vulgarised the media advancement; lead from the middle; never ask anyone Uncle John lived with us after the War as his It’s a way of othering all the European refu- that one forgets his father Keith Murdoch’s Mel- to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself; people should life returned to its planned trajectory; and spent gees, the migrants, holocaust victims, the people bourne Herald had been reporting on the behav- be understood from their own point of view. hours with me, a small child. I don’t need Anzac who left chaos in Asia, South America, for the iour of the fascists, even in the arts pages, long When relatively young, Uncle John had a Day to remember him. So when I moved to a stability and opportunities Australia offers. This before war was declared in 1939. Melburnians disabling stroke, and my father assisted him to small rural village where the annual Anzac cere- perverse annual public celebration of belonging like my family had been reading about the treat- apply for a pension. The Department of Veter- mony occupies the minds of locals, I was not keen subverts the multicultural narrative, it encour- ment of European Jews and of dissenters; my ans Affairs refused the application, on the basis to attend. But after a couple of years it seemed ages the vanilla settler image of nation, it is an uncles and my father joined up because they had that stress was not a factor in the condition. Dad impolite, and this year I watched as a photograph annual way of asking for a public commitment to thought about what these incidents meant for the wrote to the POW newsletter asking if anyone of a local who served in the Australian Imperial that image. To honour the men in my family who democracy they valued. recalled him sustaining any head injuries. Yes. An Force was presented to hang in the supper room went to war, I won’t be there next year. My protestant uncles were very conventional, officer’s duty is to protect his subordinates, so beside those of other locals who’d been service- my Catholic father and his brother more progres- when a Japanese soldier was beating one of his men. The family summed up that contented and Judith Pugh sive. Dad had been at a ski lodge when war was men, he stepped between them, or if they’d been unremarkable post-war life, and I found myself declared in 1939, and told me that when other knocked down, Uncle John lay on top of them wishing that Uncle John might be so remem- people began to celebrate, he went outside alone, and took the blows of the rifle butts on his head. bered. For a moment, I imagined memorialising With occasional wondering why anyone would be pleased to have My first husband enthusiastically joined the him, his service, his sacrifice. diversions into political to go to war. He was scathing of the RSL’s lobbying army, was sent to New Guinea and the Celebes, And then I realised: this ceremony, these pho- activism and other more power; of an Anzac Day that became an excuse for cheerfully killed the enemy in hand-to-hand com- tographs, don’t refer to sacrifice, or character, or mundane activities, Judith drunkenness, a celebration of militarism itself. His bat, and then with his mates killed a group of Jap- even the war. These perfectly pleasant people are Pugh has spent her life in contempt towards the notion of “heroes” derived anese soldiers who had surrendered to them, and having an annual get together, with encourage- the arts; she now writes in from his brother’s experience in the War. with whom they had camped for several days. ment and funding from the Federal Government Regional NSW.

she discussed it with her husband who changed managed to meet with Askin but he refused to other resident activists, the Battlers felt shocked of the speculation. Defamation laws made it hard her mind. In time, Dr Croll, who has previously intervene. James later wrote that she declared “the and fearful when she disappeared. Some of them to talk about these matters publicly until Labor described herself as a “bossy lady,” came to regard Battlers will stand in front of the bulldozers”. Mon- had also received threatening phone calls. MP George Petersen made a single statement the Green Ban concept as a “brilliant idea” and ica Sheehan said she was terrified and wondered Nielsen described the women as being “13 under parliamentary privilege. He accused the regards Jack Mundey as a “wonderful and very who might be driving the bulldozers. local ladies ranging in outlook and tempera- Minister of increasing the value of the land by clever man”. When her children were young So it was that the Battlers got in touch with ment from very conservative to ever so slightly rezoning it. Rather than buying it more cheaply Croll was not in the paid workforce, but by the the unions including the FEDFA Secretary Jack militant.” She observed their determination and for the public, he had made “a gift of more than later stages of the campaign she was working as Cambourn, who said his union would support a “endless trust” in the BLF. $400,000 to one of the government’s friends”. a doctor. When asked what she felt at the time ban on the use of heavy equipment on the site. Michael Lehany recalls that his parents could The Battlers were not just interested in their about the Battlers being described as “a bunch of The BLF were contacted, and after investigat- have been called “Fabian Socialists” and had own small world of Hunter’s Hill. They were middle class housewives”, she said she thought it ing they agreed to impose a ban. To understand attended meetings against Australia’s involve- part of the Coalition of Resident Action Groups was “very funny.” what this meant in Hunters Hill, you need to ment in the Vietnam War. (CRAG) who defended the Green Bans, after the Michael Lehany’s view is that the Battlers know that the mainstream media had frequently However, some Battlers were forced to stand militant NSW BLF leadership was deposed by used the image of conservative housewives to condemned the militant BLF, whose members up to conservative husbands who drank in their building industry bosses and the Federal branch their own advantage. It helped them to get access marched to court to support arrested organisers local pub when they got off the ferry from work of their own union. Juanita Nielsen reported on to politicians and to capture media attention. and had even thrown an inadequate workshed in the city. There were violent arguments at some a meeting where they publicly offered to be there Their first act was to get a letter explaining their into an excavation site during a safety campaign. local events. One woman noted that her embar- with other groups to confront the bulldozers. case presented as a frontpage news story in the But they had also recently passed a motion to rassed husband turned down invitations that he The thirteen Kellys Bush Battlers were nearly local paper. Assistant Secretary Monica Sheehan support environmental action. Far from being thought would involve arguments. Some experi- all “middle class housewives” but they were far later recalled that they had no trouble getting passive, the Battlers insisted that they would do enced being treated with derision by old friends, more than that. Like others who were involved publicity due to their “evocative name” and the their own picketing. At one stage, AV Jennings and false allegations were made about them. in the Greens bans, their lives were transformed “novelty in that era of citizens daring to protest threatened to use non-union labor but the BLF Monica Sheehan later compared the situation to through action. against the action of their masters.” announced that work would immediately stop “Northern Ireland”. But support for the Battlers When I walked through Kellys Bush this Liberal Premier Bob Askin initially seemed to on an office block in North Sydney, leaving it as only grew. Local Labor party activists like Rod week, I heard birds and the water gently lapping be on side. There was an election in February 1971 a monument to Kellys Bush. From then on, AV Cavalier, who went on to become a Minister in a on rocks. In the distance was the roar of planes. which Labor was expected to win. Two days before Jennings respected the ban. NSW Labor government, was very involved. It’s a work in progress to preserve the physical the election, the Battlers received a telegram from The Battlers were called “communists” and In June 1971, 200 children from primary and heritage of Kellys Bush as part of the commons. Askin stating that he was “very hopeful of a helpful “ratbags” and Prince Edward Square where some secondary schools in Hunters Hill and Chatwood But the social relations that fought for and saved decision on your problem and will advise within 24 of them lived was called “Red Square”. marched to Kellys Bush, led by the school band. it are obscured. 50 years on, there’s a strong case hours.” The telegram is in the archives. One journalist saw the Battlers as deter- They bore banners, “We don’t want a jungle of for commissioning a major public art project to The conservative government just scraped mined “ladies” rather than a “group of house- concrete” and “Save Kellys Bush” and booed memorialise this significant site of post-invasion home. Despite Askin’s telegram, everything went wives”. This was local Kings Cross journalist the Local Liberal MP Peter Coleman. Lehany land conservation. silent. In June 1971, Askin rang the Battlers Presi- Juanita Nielsen who formed a bond with the remembers that this was very controversial but dent Betty James to tell her that the Minister for Battlers in April 1975. She visited the site and the Battlers were unfazed. Wendy Bacon Local Government and Roads Pat Morton, who described a rock pool with Aboriginal markings Over time, the Battlers came to understand Wendy Bacon has been for many years was a part-time businessman as and a “metre of furry caterpillars head to tail that there had been a “shitty deal” behind the an urban activist and well as a politician, was about to rezone the land marching through the bush”. A copy of her NOW scenes to sell the land. In this sense, the threat journalist since 1969. to Kellys Bush involved a classic Sydney prop- as residential. newspaper which devoted pages to Kellys Bush She is a non practising After putting on their “high heels and smart is in the Battlers’ archive. Three months later, erty deal. When the Battlers discovered that the lawyer & was previously clothes” and armed with a letter from Opposition Nielsen was murdered as a result of her opposi- NSW government and local Council had actively the Professor of Jour- Leader Pat Hills promising to save the land if Labor tion to the development of Victoria Street, Kings sought a buyer for Kellys Bush, Monica Sheehan nalism at the University came to power, Betty James and Monica Sheehan Cross and support for the Green Bans. Like many wrote that Jennings should not make a profit out of Technology Sydney. 7 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS 42 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

10 DECEMBER 2019 EDITION 5/5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FROM THE EXTRA! EXTRA! LETTER BOX 09/12/19

THANK YOU Thanks to everyone who posted Letters to the Editor - we’ve loved rummaging through our letterbox each week. And a big shout-out to artist and journalist Mickie Quick who (assisted by The Editor Himself) built the custom EXTRA!EXTRA! plywood postbox that received all your mail.

8 WWW.EXTRA-EXTRA.PRESS EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 43 REAL ESTATE REPORTING – THE DOMAIN OF ENDLESS JOY

Over the five weeks of EXTRA!EXTRA! Chris Nash has My parents married, bought a double block ship between property type and suburb/street Professor Bill Randolph, Director of the City published a developing analysis of Hans Haacke’s art as a form of of land in Merrylands in the late 1940s with a War name is random). Domain reported only five prop- Futures Research Centre at UNSW, expressed investigative journalism. Nash’s final article ended with a discussion Service Loan, and started a family. Merrylands erties where historical losses have been indicated. surprise at this reported situation because it of “replicability”. He writes: was then on the western fringe of Sydney sub- Two of them were adjoining lots on a busy road in would be “a bad business move” risking discov- “Like any scientific experiment or observation, Haacke’s art is urbia, these days it’s near the geographic centre. Bankstown that a quick succession of owners seem ery and brand damage. However, he said that the replicable by other artists in the same way that scientific research There was an old weatherboard house on one to have tried to assemble for joint sale to an apart- “buying and selling of real estate is much more has to be replicable and verified to be validated. The same validation block where we lived until the late 1950s while ment block developer. (Realestate.com.au also failed managed than most people realise, and is highly requirement applies to journalism, which is why Haacke could use they built a new fibro house on the vacant block to report a loss on one of those two properties, but nuanced with different sectors playing support journalistic methods in his research”. and sold the old place. They owned and lived in not the other.) The other three properties were all roles for the main game of generating sales. Press In this bonus “stop the press!” article, published that house till they sold it to move into a retire- in Bexley, and subject to rapid-fire turnover by spec- coverage of the real estate market is very much a simultaneously in EXTRA!EXTRA! and The Saturday Paper, Nash ment village in December 2003, getting the excel- ulators. All of the other 55 properties in the Domain good news story.” puts this principle into practice. In the spirit of Hans Haacke, this lent price of $596,000 at the very tail end of the random sample, drawn from across greater Sydney The general pattern of optimistic reporting dual publication means the article can be categorised as art here 1996-2003 property boom. and including both houses and apartments, show on the real estate market is far from unique to and journalism there. Either way it replicates Haacke’s approach The house was bought by a bloke who said he nominal profits only on any sale. Domain. For my own PhD research I did a detailed to investigating the mechanics of the real estate market. wanted to use it as a childcare centre, but that was However, in four of the sample properties analysis of journalism about the Sydney residen- Real estate manipulation was at the centre of the controversy never going to happen because of asbestos in the Domain omits a loss-making sale that realestate. tial real estate market in the 1996-2003 housing that blew up around Haacke in the early 1970s, and what is more fibro cladding, and it was rented out. He sold it com.au reports. An apartment in Arncliffe was boom. Real estate advertising historically has representative of Sydney’s actual living culture than its obsession three years later in December 2006 for $420,000. sold for $365,000 in 2013 at a loss from the 2008 been one of the three main sources of the ‘rivers with real estate prices? Journalism in Australia has been propped up That price delivered a nominal loss of 30%, but if purchase price of $385,000, and an apartment in of gold’ that funded the newspaper industry, and by this obsession. Real estate was a major part of the old classified you factor in the interest payments on the mort- Balmain East went for $420,000 in 2007 at a loss Domain is still fundamental to the economic for- advertising phenomenon, the fabled “rivers of gold” that funded gage offset by the rent received, transaction costs from the purchase four years earlier for $447,500, tunes of Nine media. Australian newspaper journalism until the internet era. Of course, on the sales, inflation, and forgone interest if he’d but those sales are not reported in Domain. Nor The housing boom beginning in 1996 saw the online real estate advertising still generates vast amounts of cash for had his money on term deposit for three years, the was a loss of 47% on a Belfield property between take-off of a massive increase in household debt the mainstream media but very little of this revenue flows towards loss in real terms was probably well above 40%. 1998 and 1999 (from $245,000 down to $130,000), to over 150% of household disposable income, and investigative journalists. Domain.com.au offers what it calls a “full prop- or a quick loss of $5,000 (1.6% of the price back in a catastrophic doubling from 6 to 12% of interest But the media also functions ideologically, to actively erty history” facility on its website, which provides the day) over two months on a Baulkham Hills payments as a proportion of household dispos- promote markets and to ensure the profitable real estate obsession information about previous sales for properties house in 1993. able income. Meanwhile, household savings went continues. In this article Chris Nash takes his research on Haacke “provided under licence from the Department of Of nine properties sold on 30 November 2019 negative and outstanding balances on credit cards one step further, and like Haacke, he investigates some seriously Finance and Services, Land and Property Infor- where there were current or historic losses, Domain tripled to 7% of household disposable income. By questionable media practices in real estate advertising. mation”. The information is compiled and pro- reported losses in only five, and they were for spec- the end of the boom in 2003, mortgage debt had vided by Australian Property Monitors (APM), ulators making fast turnovers. For the other four surpassed both business and personal debt as a part of the Domain Group established by Fairfax properties the loss-making sales were omitted. proportion of GDP, while government debt was Media and now 60% owned by Nine. There are some absences in the realestate.com.au negligible. Over the same period, Sydney house The history provided for my parents’ home histories of the total sample of properties, but only prices doubled. includes the following three sales over the period one historical loss omitted, as part of the Banks- But after the end of the boom, house prices in 2000 –2010: town speculation: all other losses are included. western and south-western Sydney dropped more 2000 ($300,000); This improbable pattern in the Domain sam- quickly than in the rest of the country. Hence the 2006 ($420,000); ple spans the bursting of the 1996-2003 boom, 30% drop in my parents’ home over 2003-2006. and 2010 ($425,000). the following stagnation till well after the Global With the GFC in 2008, the falls spread to the The sale price history for the same property Financial Crisis, and the sharp deterioration since inner-city, eastern and northern suburbs, and on realestate.com.au is different: 2003 ($596,000); the most recent peak in late 2017. The clear impli- didn’t recover for years. 2006 ($420,000); cation is that individual buyers of real estate very But to read the real estate journalism at the 2007 ($452,000); rarely lose money on their purchase, whatever and time (in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily and 2010 ($425,000). wherever they buy, even though the general real Telegraph in my study), it was always a good time Realestate.com.au includes four sales over the estate market might decline. to enter the market, as either a seller or buyer, period – two of them apparently loss-making – How could that be? It is true that property no matter what stage the cycle was at. Hous- while Domain has only three sales and omits the owners try to avoid selling into a falling market, ing affordability, household debt and increasing loss-makers. but in a downturn or prolonged stagnation some homelessness were side issues dealt with else- There was no sale in 2000. My parents owned sellers don’t have much choice. No doubt the where in the news, and largely a welfare issue. the home till 2003 and used the money from the ‘price withheld’ tag on some reported sales could They had little to do with the market. The over- sale to buy into the retirement home. I have the be a fig leaf for an embarrassing loss. But following arching imperative for real estate reporting is to sale documents. The 2000 sale in the Domain his- the falls from the 2003 and 2017 peaks, how come keep the market optimistic and buoyant, regard- tory is a fabrication. What’s more, the omission only ‘speculators’ delight’ properties lost value in less of the economic and social costs beyond. of the 2003 sale for $596,000 hides the fact that a random representative sample, and everybody The long and the short of it is that very little the property lost 30% of its nominal value over the else is supposed to have made a nominal profit of what journalists say about real estate should following three years. Taken with the false sales despite two housing price busts and ensuing stag- be taken at face value. Their very jobs depend report it implies a profit of 40% – $120,000 on nations? And how could the loss-making sales on keeping the market busy and expansive. Mis- $300,000 over six years – instead of a loss of 30% – on five properties out of 60 (8.3% of the total) be leading sales histories are just a straw in the wind $175,000 on $595,000 over three years. omitted by accident, and one false report of a prof- blowing through the domain of endless joy. Buyer, The Domain history omits another sale (in it-producing sale be fabricated? and seller, beware. 2007) which incurred a second apparent loss (of A spokesperson for Domain said “Domain $27,500) when it was sold in 2010, although by Group Policy is not to alter or remove past sales Chris Nash that time the large quarter-acre block had been data supplied by the state and territory govern- subdivided, with a second house to be built sub- ments. The data is automatically sent to Domain sequently on the separated back of the original (via APM) and updated regularly by the state property. Taken together, Domain’s omission of government department. If we have a report that two apparently loss-making sales, and the fabrica- there is a major problem with the sales data, then tion of another sale, implies that no loss was ever our internal support team have an option to hide Chris Nash was Professor made on any sale of that property. It is deceptive. the entire history for the property. They have no of Journalism at Monash Domain.com.au reported 586 auction results capability to pick and choose which transactions University 2008-17, and a for the weekend of 30 November, 2019. A 10% rep- to hide, all or nothing.” Walkley Award-winning resentative selection was made by taking the first Domain made no response to specific questions journalist at the ABC. sixty properties (with specified sale price) listed about the discrepancies evidenced above and the alphabetically by suburb and street (the relation- apparent divergence from their stated policy. [email protected] 44 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

On the following pages we reproduce the “Free Bonus Page 44: Page 45-46: Liftouts” that were included in various Rizzeria-printed Shags and Caren Florance, “Instructions for Empathy” (included Artworks by visiting students from Bourke Public School and Wil- of Making Art Public” (included with Edition 2); editions of EXTRA!EXTRA! with Edition 5). cannia Central School (included as a liftout in Edition 3); Caren Florance and Ian Milliss, “ART DOESN’T MATTER ANYMORE…” Boni Cairncross and Louise Curham with map by Micke Linde- (included with Edition 4). bergh, “Extra Visual – instructions for a sense-focused experience Shags & Caren Florance making, about saving, about each other. The arts are precarious, never more so than now. All we can do is suggest instructions for a way forward, through egos and attitudes. Everything about that day with easier seems hindsight. that told us what to do, even though to the moment do it had passed. We asked ourselves: if we had a room, what would we do with we it? Then realised that we did have a room: we had a double spread of a room. We wanted to help people feel things about art, notes to self and to breaking others up into shards of words through the insect-like clusters. walls The other we were attracted to held hand-drawn lines of plans and ideas sharp areas of bright colour. Sometimes we were transfixed by sound and music. We liked lists room held traces of trying to reach people, but meant to. We worked our way, scribbling, through the unboxed/reboxed archive, mostly sticking together after Caren wandered panic fromattack childhood-memoried off and had a small once losing parents temporarily in a strange overseas Each art museum. walled choosing how to feel

An invitation to respond us up and we opens only have a few hours. We came in cold, wanting no expectations to pre-wrap our curiosity, and found ourselves staring at shrouded trees, wondering if they represented more than they were which mutual love people? Our of text, and an awareness of the historical ‘look of information’ in contemporary art kept us coming back to the chaotic warmth and continual growth of Landy’s Post-it notes: democratic EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 45

This set of instructions was created by artists Boni Cairncross and Louise Curham to encourage visitors to experience some of EXTRA VISUAL – the incidental, accidental, or “extra-visual” phenomena within the exhibition. The map INSTRUCTIONS was drawn by Micke Lindebergh. FOR A SENSE- 1. As you walk through the exhibition, pay attention to the roughened surface of the stickers on the floor compared with the smooth stone or wood underneath them. FOCUSED 2. Box 24 (Michael Landy): See if you can find any unkind notes on the wall. (Boni imagines you scrunching them tightly in your hand). EXPERIENCE OF 3. Box 23 (John Baldessari): Imagine running a clean finger along the wall feeling for the join in the vinyl… feeling for the bump… using your finger to trace family groups within the names. MAKING ART Spend a few moments considering the difference between a name in lights for 15 seconds and a name in printed text for the duration of an exhibition. PUBLIC 4. Box 29 (Tino Sehgal): Try respecting the outlines of the room. For us this deepened the experience. (Remember: sometimes this is an absent box, and sometimes it’s activated by performative interpreters). 5. Stand between Box 32 (Jonathan Jones) and Box 33 (Anri Sala). Listen. We found the fluctuations in the audio filled each other in ways that made us think about the issues in both works. 6. Box 30 (Marina Abramovic): Sit on one of the chairs and stare at the coloured paper for as long as possible. 7. Box 13 (Ugo Rondinone): Lay down on the floor near the sculpture (you are asked not to touch it). 8. In the stairwell behind the miniature Box 20 (Stephen Vitiello), you will find Ian Milliss’ Natural Parallels 2 (2019). Imagine holding the ropes in your hands and leaning your head into the space to look up. Dream about how the ropes would move along their whole length. 9. Box 6 (Sol LeWitt) and 11 (Sol LeWitt): Stand between boxes 6 and 11 with your back against the outside wall. Notice the narrow alley these boxes make. Louise saw some people having fun taking photos of each other lying on the floor beneath the picture of the three men on each other’s shoulders. 10. Box 10 (Jeff Koons): Squat on the floor, or get as low as you can, and imagine running your hands across the top of the flowers. Notice how some are plastic and some are dried– imagine the difference in textures. 11. Box 4 (Miralda): Stand in the centre of this box and squint your eyes so they are only just open. Notice how the colours and patterns blur. 12. Box 34 (Asad Raza): Have fun finding the door by doing three laps around the outside of the box before entering the space. 13. Box 20 (Stephen Vitiello): Find the wall behind box 20. Walk between the box and the wall. Look just above eye height for the trace. Add your own – it doesn’t have to be visible. 14. Box 19 (Tatzu Nishi): When you leave the gallery later on, cross the pedestrian crossing and look back at the horse sculptures so you get a better idea of what Tatzu Nishi did with them.

arT doesn’T maTTer anymore 46 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION

This set of instructions was created by artists Boni Cairncross and Louise Curham to encourage visitors to experience some of EXTRA VISUAL – the incidental, accidental, or “extra-visual” phenomena within the exhibition. The map INSTRUCTIONS was drawn by Micke Lindebergh. FOR A SENSE- 1. As you walk through the exhibition, pay attention to the roughened surface of the stickers on the floor compared with the smooth stone or wood underneath them. FOCUSED 2. Box 24 (Michael Landy): See if you can find any unkind notes on the wall. (Boni imagines you scrunching them tightly in your hand). EXPERIENCE OF 3. Box 23 (John Baldessari): Imagine running a clean finger along the wall feeling for the join in the vinyl… feeling for the bump… using your finger to trace family groups within the names. MAKING ART Spend a few moments considering the difference between a name in lights for 15 seconds and a name in printed text for the duration of an exhibition. PUBLIC 4. Box 29 (Tino Sehgal): Try respecting the outlines of the room. For us this deepened the experience. (Remember: sometimes this is an absent box, and sometimes it’s activated by performative interpreters). 5. Stand between Box 32 (Jonathan Jones) and Box 33 (Anri Sala). Listen. We found the fluctuations in the audio filled each other in ways that made us think about the issues in both works. 6. Box 30 (Marina Abramovic): Sit on one of the chairs and stare at the coloured paper for as long as possible. 7. Box 13 (Ugo Rondinone): Lay down on the floor near the sculpture (you are asked not to touch it). 8. In the stairwell behind the miniature Box 20 (Stephen Vitiello), you will find Ian Milliss’ Natural Parallels 2 (2019). Imagine holding the ropes in your hands and leaning your head into the space to look up. Dream about how the ropes would move along their whole length. 9. Box 6 (Sol LeWitt) and 11 (Sol LeWitt): Stand between boxes 6 and 11 with your back against the outside wall. Notice the narrow alley these boxes make. Louise saw some people having fun taking photos of each other lying on the floor beneath the picture of the three men on each other’s shoulders. 10. Box 10 (Jeff Koons): Squat on the floor, or get as low as you can, and imagine running your hands across the top of the flowers. Notice how some are plastic and some are dried– imagine the difference in textures. 11. Box 4 (Miralda): Stand in the centre of this box and squint your eyes so they are only just open. Notice how the colours and patterns blur. 12. Box 34 (Asad Raza): Have fun finding the door by doing three laps around the outside of the box before entering the space. 13. Box 20 (Stephen Vitiello): Find the wall behind box 20. Walk between the box and the wall. Look just above eye height for the trace. Add your own – it doesn’t have to be visible. 14. Box 19 (Tatzu Nishi): When you leave the gallery later on, cross the pedestrian crossing and look back at the horse sculptures so you get a better idea of what Tatzu Nishi did with them.

only Cultural adaptation maTTers EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION 15 DECEMBER 2019 | 47 48 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 EXTRA!EXTRA! OMNIBUS EDITION