Barnaby Smith

Barnaby Smith is a critic, poet and musician currently based in the Blue Mountains. His arts writing has been published by Australian Book Review, Art Guide Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, The Quietus, the ABC, The Lifted Brow and many others. His poetry has been widely published in Australia and overseas, and he recently released his first album of songs under the artist name Brigadoon: www.brigadoon.bandcamp.com.

Alexandra

Andrew Tuttle

By Barnaby Smith — 12 June, 2020

For some time now, the denigration and vilification of suburbia and suburban living has felt passé, not to mention elitist and pretentious. Famous artefacts of popular culture purporting to explore suburbia’s dark underbelly, or lampoon its shallowness—such as the film American Beauty (1999), the television drama Weeds (2005-2012), and even Kath & Kim (2002-2007)—seem dated,…

Rhythm of Protest

Lawrence English

By Barnaby Smith — 10 April, 2019

For Lawrence English, sound is seeing. Or to put it more accurately, his work is predicated on the belief that analysing, repurposing, and even distorting sound can reveal hidden or obscured patterns behind cultural phenomena. Sound is a tool for searching. This thinking has always informed his varied (and consistently collaborative) career as an avant-garde…