Bec Mac

POPSART: Patricia Piccinini’s Curious Affection is a surprisingly emotional experience at GOMA

Recently I had the privilege of an intimate tour of Curious Affection, Patricia Piccinini’s new show that opened on Friday 23rd at GOMA, lead by the artist herself. It felt like our small group of rag-tag journalists and media types were transformed into pilgrims being lead by a Sage on a spiritual journey through which could only…

Read More

POPSART: Outer Space ARI regenerates middle Earth Brisbane

A city’s cultural ecology is a complex beast made up of layers of interwoven factors that influence and feed each other. These layers respond and support different phases of the most crucial factor in the creative ecology “the artist’s” life, work and career. Generally to start with, artists do a Degree and emerge from their…

Read More

POPSART: Fake art is an epidemic we must stop!

80% of Indigenous souvenirs sold in this country are fake! Adding insult to this injury, much of this product is being manufactured overseas as part of a very damaging unregulated industry going on in Australia around the Fake Art trade of Indigenous art. Through the hard work of advocates like Nancy Bamaga, managing director of…

Read More

POPSART: My two top picks at Brisbane Festival – Laser Beak Man and Orpheus

Brisbane, you are killing me this time of year! Last week I had BIGSOUND and interviews with artists, I moderated two panels for Brisbane Writers Festival, I launched Access Arts brilliant festival Undercover Artist Festival and then the  Brisbane Festival kicked off as well! My pick of the Brisbane festival so far is Laser Beak Man presented…

Read More

POPSART: Sunpac Theatre and OperaQ are taking it to the people!

I attended the opening night of OperaQ’s regional tour of Night with Opera Queensland from Sunpac Theatre Sunnybank on Friday night and was totally enthralled by the passion, talent, power and beauty of the work. Presenting Opera in this non-conventional form like a cabaret, a chocolate box of hits from Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto and Don…

Read More

POPSART: Danielle Cormack as Hedda and four world premieres as Queensland Theatre launches 2018 season

Start booking your tickets to Brisbane theatre folk, it’s going to be a stellar year for treading the boards in the Northern state! Launching the Queensland Theatre’s 2018 program earlier this week, Sam Strong presented an exciting, bright, fresh season that celebrates diversity and Australian stories. Contained in their programme for the new year are four world premieres,…

Read More

POPSART: Hanson in a Burqa? John Safran’s book Depends on What You Mean By Extremist is the conversation we need to have

As a well armed far-right movement in America raises its ugly head in Charlottesville, leaving one oppositional protester murdered, Pauline Hanson turns up to Parliament in a Burqa. As her terribly offensive action is passionately berated by George Brandis, of all people, fourteen people are murdered in Barcelona, mowed down by a car in one…

Read More

POPSART: Tex Perkins’ hilarious, raw, Rock n’ Roll memoir TEX

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a Q & A with Tex Perkins at the Byron Bay Writers Festival about his new book Tex. The famous line from the John Ford film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance “If you are going to print the facts about the man or print the fiction,…

Read More

POPSART: La Boite Theatre’s Blackrock, a brutal tale of sexual violence against women that is still relevant as ever.

The new production of Blackrock, a play written by Nick Enright some 20 years ago, opened at La Boite Theatre in Brisbane last night. Its opening coincided with the acquittal of four men found not guilty of the gang rape of a fifteen year old girl in the Blue Mountains; it’s clear this horrifying narrative is as…

Read More

POPSART: Queensland Theatre’s My Name is Jimi, preserving and expanding culture through story telling

If only all world rulers had the same approach to legacy building as the Chiefs from the Wadagadum tribe on Mabuiag Island, who in their role as leaders bring a different creative expansion to their culture through art and story telling. When Jimi Bani’s father Dimple was the chief of Wadagadum tribe he was a singer, dancer…

Read More

POPSART at the Brisbane Festival Launch: armour wearing acrobats, Italian horror and Diamonds are for Trevor

It’s worthwhile taking Brisbane Festival Artistic Director David Berthold’s advice on how to attack this year’s just announced stellar line up of art and entertainment, “It’s a feast not a snack, don’t just taste one little tit-bit dive in and sample the whole range, use both hands and take risks!” Brisbane Festival launched on Tuesday morning over coffees and pastries,…

Read More

POPSART: Metro Arts intimately takes over, with masturbation master classes, geo-politics and queer narratives.

The emergence of participatory art with a desire to move viewers out of the role of passive observers into the role of co-creators has been evolving for decades in contemporary art and theatre practice and theory. In the 70’s, artist and activist Joseph Beuys created the term “Social Sculpture” to illustrate his idea of art’s…

Read More