Running Dog presents Survival of the Critic at Verge

8 February, 2019

Detail from Eadweard Muybridge, Animal Locomotion: an Electro-Photographic Investigation of Connective Phases of Animal Movements (1887) accessed via placesjournal.org

March 14
6 – 8 p.m.
Jane Foss Russell Plaza, 
(near Wentworth Building)
City Road, Darlington.
University of Sydney NSW 2006
Admission is free

As a young publication, Running Dog is often told that arts criticism is a dying form, and that its audience no longer exists. In launching the first event of a four-part series in partnership with Verge Gallery, we want to find out if this claim is true.

‘Survival of the Critic’ will bring together Lauren Carroll Harris and Neha Kale—two established writers and editors—to tackle the thorny issue of arts criticism in 2019.

Is independent and rigorous criticism economically feasible or sustainable, and do people actually want to read it?
Is there space for experimentation and playfulness in arts writing, and what is its value to the community at large?
What is the relationship between artists and curators and the writers reviewing their shows?
Can criticism work to create a particular ethics or politics of looking, and how do we decolonise the practice of gatekeeping while still encouraging critique?

In posing these questions, we want to investigate both the constraints and freedom of the online publishing space. We want to consider fragility as a productive force, which allows us to open up the conversation around what it means to write about contemporary art.

Lauren Carroll Harris publishes widely on cinema and contemporary art, working as the TV Critic for The Screen Show on Radio National. She writes a column for the Guardian Australia, is a contributing editor of Kill Your Darlings and has a doctorate in film from UNSW.

Neha Kale is a writer, journalist and cultural critic. She writes features, criticism and essays about art, culture, people and places and her work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Spectrum, The Saturday Paper, SBS Life, the Guardian, VICE, ABC, Broadsheet and many more. She is the former editor and editor-at-large of VAULT magazine.

Seating and Accessibility
Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. Entrance to Verge Gallery is via Jane Foss Russell Plaza. Lift access is available from both City Road and Maze Crescent onto the Plaza. If you have specific questions about access, please contact us prior to the event and we will make every effort to accommodate you.