What makes a feminist film? If you’re anything like me, this question is one that has plagued you for years. Strong female characters? Well, yeah, but what does that actually mean? Does it pass the Bechdel test? Yes, of course, but is that enough? Thankfully, I got the chance to talk to Karen Pickering, feminist…
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The culmination of Sophia Dacy-Cole’s residency at Friends of the Earth (FoE) first presented itself to me as its title, Irrational Emotions. The itchy two-word phrase struck me like a mosquito bite and my attempt to navigate a way around it only increased the need to scratch. Unless the title is tautological or false,…
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Have you ever been asked the question, if you could have a dinner party with any one person dead or alive, who would you invite? If you have, would you ever consider inviting 13 women who are known for their erotic presence throughout art, mythology, literature and religion? While Melbourne based performance school Bottoms…
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It has been two and a half years since tUnE-yArDs last came to Australia, and so much has changed for the band since then. They’ve grown both musically and in number with their latest album ‘Nikki-Nack’ and punters were buzzing around the packed-out venue in anticipation of what would come. One-man band Oliver Hugh Perry,…
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Artist (painter, illustrator and printmaker) Mimi Leung has a fascinating ability to make the grotesque adorable. Depending on whether the work is commissioned or Leung’s own, it exists somewhere on a spectrum of cartoony to psychedelic, but is always brightly coloured. When I attended the recent opening of her current “Australian Roadkill” show at Lamington…
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Are you aged between 12 and 25 and feeling creative? headspace Elsternwick is very pleased to announce its second art competition! Entry is free and open to all young Melbourne artists, with no requirement that they access headspace Elsternwick’s health services. Just about any type of artwork can be entered, including drawings, paintings, photography, and…
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Douglas Gordon’s first retrospective in Australia, showing at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, amplifies over twenty years of his work both physically and metaphorically. Most concretely, a collection of videos in Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now are shown on 101 televisions occupying ACCA’s…
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Showing at The Butterfly Club from 3-6 July, female barbershop quartet Bobby and The Pins are making their theatre debut with Glamping, an hour-long jaunt through the wilderness and a score of old-school barbershop favourites. There’s also plenty of dick jokes and the typical highs and lows that come when friends are pushed to the…
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The singing and dancing ladies of Bobby & The Pins have been thrust from their comfort zone into the bush, but they’re determined to keep camping classy. Melbourne;’s female cabaret quartet, Bobby & The Pins, are creatures of comfort who take inspiration from the 1950’s and the era’s stereotypical ‘lady of leisure’. Their forthcoming…
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1000 Pound Bend on Lonsdale Street in Melbourne’s CBD is packed when I arrive to chat to Fiona and Sharna of The Fabric Social, a startup born from the feminist peace movement that is currently doing the rounds on crowdfunding site, Pozible. In the backroom of the café, the opening night of the Emerging…
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From 11 June- 12 July this year, the Red Stitch Actors Theatre will present the Australian premiere of Grounded, an internationally acclaimed play written by George Brant and directed by Kirsten von Bibra. Grounded is a solo-drama that tells the story of an F16 fighter pilot, played by Kate Cole. A rock star of the…
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Showing from 27 May – 8 June at the Loft Theatre in Melbourne, Lulu McClatchy’s Supergirly: Return of the Pop Princess is a balance of crude potty mouth, raw Aussie humour and some pretty spot on observations about the popular music industry. Supergirly tells the tale of Lulu McClatchy’s alter ego, Supergirly; an…
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Just as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival departs, the cool change has come over and suddenly everything is looking a little greyer and a whole lot less funny. Luckily for me, I was able to assuage the post-MICF blues and catch the last performance of the MICF incarnation of That Sexy Show. Taking on…
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In town for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), UK comedian Shappi Khorsandi delighted her audience with funny, insightful and poignant tales derived from her own life experiences. Stepping into the curtained Mini Main Town Hall to see Khorsandi ply her trade initially felt intimidating, but after doing her own off-stage introduction and entering dressed in…
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