38 episodes

Delving into specific themes derived from the Contemporary Art Tasmania program, as well as current events and ideas, the podcast provides a exploration of contemporary art. From exhibitions to abstract concepts, each episode offers a thoughtful examination of artistic expression.

Produced by Pip Stafford for Contemporary Art Tasmania.

What are you looking at‪?‬ A podcast by Contemporary Art Tasmania

    • Arts

Delving into specific themes derived from the Contemporary Art Tasmania program, as well as current events and ideas, the podcast provides a exploration of contemporary art. From exhibitions to abstract concepts, each episode offers a thoughtful examination of artistic expression.

Produced by Pip Stafford for Contemporary Art Tasmania.

    Episode #35 What can art do?

    Episode #35 What can art do?

    For her final episode of What are you looking at? podcast Pip Stafford talks to Nadia Rafaei, Alex Kelly, and Amy Spiers, asking them: What *can* art do?

    This episode explores how art can contribute to social change in the world. Nadia talks about the importance of exploring political identity through her work, Alex discusses how artists can collaborate with or contribute to social movements, while Amy shares how her work aims to highlight some of Australia's history of colonial violence. They emphasise that art can help unravel complex topics, tell stories, imagine futures, inspire conversations and act as a resistance tool, challenging ingrained structures and systems of thought.

    This episode was produced, edited and hosted by Pip Stafford for Contemporary Art Tasmania. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.

    Alex Kelly: https://echotango.org/ | https://unquiet.com.au
    Nadia Refaei: https://www.nadiarefaei.com | https://www.instagram.com/tpanlutruwita/
    Amy Spiers: https://amyspiers.com.au/

    Zoe Samudzi: https://www.zoesamudzi.com/

    • 52 min
    Episode #34: Our Side of Things with Feras Shaheen and Jay Hennicke

    Episode #34: Our Side of Things with Feras Shaheen and Jay Hennicke

    This episode discusses Feras Shaheen and Jay Hennicke's exhibition at Contemporary Art Tasmania, Our Side of Things. The installation and associated programs were a vivid representation of freestyle football battles, workshops, and a celebration of the culture, incorporating dance, design, and sports. In this interview Feras recounts his experience combining his interest in dance and football, while Jay talks about his journey as a freestyle footballer that started at 14. The episode records their insights into this unique culture and its representation within the gallery. They share the inspiration behind aesthetics of the installation, freestyle football competition experiences, and their influences from other cultures and communities.

    Episode produced by Pip Stafford for Contemporary Art Tasmania
    Additional live audio courtesy of Feras Shaheen and Jay Hennicke from Our Side of Things main event, 26 August 2023

    https://contemporaryarttasmania.org/programs/our-side-of-things/

    • 16 min
    Episode #33: The artist, the archivist, a manila folder, and a server farm

    Episode #33: The artist, the archivist, a manila folder, and a server farm

    Artists are well-known pack rats. If you conjure up the stereotypical artist's studio in your mind, it might well be a sort of wunderkammer of materials of creation, inspiration and detritus. Artists also use collections, archives and the more orderly functions of taxonomy as material and conceptual underpinning. What do artists and archivists have in common? What are you looking at? host Pip Stafford explores the tensions between the past, the now, the subjective and the relational as it rubs up against the real, human lives and inspirations of artists. Featuring artist Ashe, artist and archivist Samara McIlroy and Gabbee Stolp talking about grief, online scams, the unruliness of digital memory, and the Sydney Olympics.

    **Editor's apology: this episode states that in Ashe's exhibition This Too Shall Pass, the performer was replaced with an image of the artist. This is incorrect - the photograph is not of the artist.**

    To read more about Ashe's Contemporary Art Tasmania exhibition, This Too Shall Pass and read Sebastian Henry-Jones' B-Theory: https://contemporaryarttasmania.org/programs/this-too-shall-pass/

    To read Gabbee Stolp's Inventory: https://contemporaryarttasmania.org/journal/

    The texts mentioned or quoted in this episode are (in alphabetical order of author name):
    Sara Ahmed, Happy Objects, The Affect Theory Reader (Melissa Gregg and Gregory J Seigworth, Duke University Press, 2010), p 29 - 51
    Kathy Carbone, Archival Art: Memory Practices, Interventions, and Productions, Curator The Museum Journal 53(2), 2020, p 257 - 263
    Elisabeth Kaplan, We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Identity, The American Archivist 53(1), 2000, p 126 - 151

    Music for this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions

    What are you looking at? is produced for Contemporary Art Tasmania by Pip Stafford

    • 37 min
    Episode #32: Tisna Sanjaya talks to Lisa Campbell-Smith

    Episode #32: Tisna Sanjaya talks to Lisa Campbell-Smith

    Greed/Rakus/Geirig curator Lisa Campbell-Smith talks to lead artist Tisna Sanjaya. Interview translation by Daffa Sanjaya.

    The Jeprut artist community was founded in the 1980s in Bandung, West Java. Indonesian artist, Tisna Sanjaya is a leading figure in this community movement, and has gone on to produce many collaborative performance based art actions within this unique movement. Jeprut is a Sundanese term for a regenerative force. The performances held as part of Dark Mofo in partnership with Contemporary Art Tasmania and Project Eleven were a rare blend of contemporary, ephemeral, immersive spaces for shared experience steeped in traditional Sundanese spiritual practice understood through the global scope of art as activism.

    This project was presented by Contemporary Art Tasmania and Project Eleven in partnership with Dark Mofo

    This episode features a track by Jeprut Artist Collective called Sinyur
    Artists: Bi Raspi, Yoyon Darson, Ayi Ruhat, Yaya Suryadi

    This recording was engineered by Chris Townend, recorded at Frying Pan Studios at MONA. It is the first ever professional recording made by the musicians collectively.

    For more information about Greed/Rakus/Geirig click here: https://contemporaryarttasmania.org/programs/greed-rakus-geirig/

    • 23 min
    Episode #31: The C Word

    Episode #31: The C Word

    The C word is “class”. In this episode Pip Stafford and guest host, Andrew Harper, talk about the friction between class and art, featuring interviews with Mish Grigor and Miriam McGarry.

    Miriam McGarry’s Hidden Cities podcast: https://hiddencitiespodcast.net/
    Mish Grigor’s Class Act: https://aphids.net/projects/class-act/

    Music by Blue Dot Sessions
    Episode produced, edited and hosted by Pip Stafford.

    • 47 min
    Episode #30: Grace Gamage: Art, Boxing and the History of Spinach

    Episode #30: Grace Gamage: Art, Boxing and the History of Spinach

    What are you looking at? producer Pip Stafford and CAT Communications Co-ordinator Nadia Refaei took a visit to Broom and Brine farm in winter 2022. This episode is an interview with Broom and Brine's co-founder, artist, boxer and gardener, Grace Gamage. Listen now to hear more about her practice, and the history of plants.

    Grace's work featured in BIOGYM at CAT earlier in 2022: https://contemporaryarttasmania.org/programs/biogym/

    To read more about Broom and Brine: https://www.broomandbrine.com/

    This episode was produced by Pip Stafford
    Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

    • 29 min