Cirrus@Austlit

'Photojournalist artists feature in the Destruction & Disruption 'artists protest issue' of Arts Features International published before the 2019 election in Australia, which documents that time of social activism by artists and local communities opposed to destruction of the natural and built environment and gentrification by acts of government and big business. And for increasing ways of community healing, engagement, and collaboration through art and generosity. Featured are pieces on local opposition to Destination NSW's approved Supercars motor race in Newcastle, by Dr Christine Everingham, Therese Doyle, and Newcastle East Residents Group. The Big Rev Up Benefit Auction of artworks for the Stop Adani coal mine Protest; Bob Brown's Stop Adani speech, and the residents' opposition to displacement and redevelopment of their homes in Sydney's inner-city Waterloo, Redfern and Alexandria, documented by Suellen Symons. The 'First Artists Announcement' of NIRIN the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, with a healing ceremony at Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School. The (successful) artists boycott of an earlier Sydney Biennale in protest at the contract award to the Board chairman's company (a Biennale sponsor) to profit from refugee detention camps. Exhibitions: Suellen Symons' Strange Paradise (Redfern Then and Now). Ella Dreyfus's Under Twenty-Seven and essay by Professor Catharine Lumby. Dr Deborah van Heekeren's Disruption. Works by Wang Zhiyuan. A review by Silvia Pease. Jeremy Gluck's manifesto and his collaborations with Don Tyler, and Rosemary Osbourne. Artworks by Natasha Williams, and Luciano Prisco. A play by Vee Malnar. Writings and photographs by Ruth Skilbeck.' (Publication summary)

'Extinction Rebellion protests and arrests, bushfires in Australia, Brexit art in the UK, Manus film, music news, and interviews with international artists feature in Arts Features International, October-December 2019, Firestorms & Protest.' (Publication summary)

'Will the future be utopian or dystopian or somewhere in between? It is up to us and what we do now. ‘Facing the Future’ addresses themes of climate change, global warming, and protest.' (Publication summary)

'Arts Features International: Under the Radar features new and historical literary, film and art works, film work in progress and women filmmakers we'd like to know more about. It includes several pieces inspired by Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s epic poem The Universe Looks Down, extracts from which are printed here, including a current exhibition of a new book and prints The Universe Looks Down by Kristin Headlam at the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, and a documentary film in-progress by Georgia Wallace-Crabbe and Gregory Miller; the issue includes more on their work; poems by Richard James Allen; a short story by Ruth Skilbeck, an extract “Ruby: Hong Kong Airport” from her novel, and her piece on Behrouz Boochani and Arash Kamali Sarvestani's film made from footage filmed on a mobile phone inside Manus Island detention centre Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time; historical artworks by Andrew Doyle (one of the earliest settler artists in Australia); artworks by Arthur Boyd; Newcastle waterways litter-collecting photojournalism by Michael Gormly; an essay and interview by Ruth Skilbeck on Karen Pearlman’s film trilogy-in-progress on the invisible women editors and filmmakers of Soviet montage films; a futuristic short play script by Vee Malnar; and more.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'“Know thyself” is a Greek proverb. But what does it mean? Mysterious London art gallerist Ruby is jailed in Australia for the traumatic murder she cannot remember. When is forgetting a healing salve and when is it denial? So you can forget, you first have to remember. The psychological mystery novel is interwoven with art and medical history extracts, as Ruby time travels and revisits the past hoping to find the truth. This novel is interwoven with a series of digital pixel concrete artworks by the author to which the photographic series in companion volume Sayonara Baby-Fragments of Memory Images responds.' (Synopsis)

'Featuring the works of thirty four authors, artists, arts and cultural historians, from around the world and across urban and regional Australia, the inaugural anthology issue of Arts Features International literary arts anthology journal, addresses themes of artistic, social, cultural and technological change, in a time of major historical evolutionary transition. From the displacement and shock of transitioning from the ‘private’ timeless zone of writing to the public zone of ‘virtual reality’ and publishing via computer, to social media and digital arts production arises the need to gather together to defend our humanity, and environment, and speak in a polyphony individually together.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Escape Artists Anthology comprises a literary interarts compilation of creative and critical works by authors and artists from around the world including essay, memoir, short story, poetry, song lyrics, art, and interview. The themes include: taste, longing and melancholy; speculative fiction; and fascinations with phenomena such as UFOs, "aliens", spacecraft, telepathy, and fugue in art and literature and what these signify as metaphors and/​or literally about: contemporary society, and the inner journeys of the self in relation to others and forms of social media community, in this time of disruptive global technological change.

'The anthology was conceived and created in Newcastle, Australia, in a 19th century post and telegraph office. Read the story of how it began in the anthology.'   (Publication summary)

'In 1980 Adelaide was in the grip of serial killers targeting young people in the counterculture. Roxanne arrived to study arts. She moved into an art student house by the beach where artists were pushing the limits of art, love and life. She met Raymond. Then mysteriously housemates started disappearing. A fictional memoir set against a backdrop of real events, unsolved disappearances and the "Family murders."'  (Publication summary)

'After four years of detention on Manus Island, the author writes a poet’s manifesto for the refugee resistance in which he has found himself to be a central figure. By Behrouz Boochani.'

'When Roxy moves to Adelaide to go to university in 1981 she becomes caught up in the intense performance art scene. Her relationships play out against a backdrop of contrasts: the brilliant light of the Bay, shadowed by menace stalking the streets, and lonely long distance roads.'

Source: Back-cover blurb.