By Sarinah Masukor — 20 November, 2020
This is the fifth and final column in an ongoing fiction series about the creative process. You can read the fourth column, Hemlock Forest, here. After I turned off the bascule bridge, the road opened onto three straight lanes. The traffic thinned and I crept up through eighty, a hundred, moved into sixth and…
By Sarinah Masukor — 13 November, 2020
This is the fourth column in an ongoing fiction series about the creative process. You can read the third column, Banana Study, here. There’s something I haven’t told you. A woman in a dark red swimsuit lies face down beside a pool. She’s still, arms heavy, locked on the concrete. The air is hazy, windless….
By Olivia Bennett — 4 September, 2020
This is an audio piece written in response to Marija Stojnić’s Speak So I Can See You. Press play on each LISTEN track in sequence within the text to hear the audio components or read the written transcripts provided as notes. • • • Premiering in Australia at the 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival,…
By Sarinah Masukor — 13 August, 2020
This is the third column in an ongoing fiction series about the creative process. You can read the second column, Shooting Days, here. Hito Steyerl is wearing a hooded, puffy jacket and a pearl earring. The soft light fogs around her face. Behind her, blurred and muted through the lens, peak hour traffic. The jacket…
By Sarinah Masukor — 9 June, 2020
This is the second column in an ongoing fiction series about the creative process. You can read the first column, Deep Sleep, here. There’s something I haven’t told you. I dream. A lifted phrase: I don’t think you’d stay at something for 15 years when no one’s interested unless you have something—like ‘I’ll show…
By Sarinah Masukor — 24 April, 2020
In deep sleep, new memories sink in. A lifted phrase: The sleeping brain provides optimal conditions for consolidation processes that integrate newly encoded memory into a long-term store. Close your eyes softly and picture a blank white screen on the underside of your eyelids. The painting is small for a wave. Dimensions 46 x 55…
By Claire Cao & Michael Sun — 27 March, 2020
Mating (2019) is a documentary that screened as part of Hyperlinks Festival in February. The film, directed by Lina Maria Mannheimer, follows two millennials on their online dating (mis)adventures, and their relationship is laid bare. Delving into how identity is often constructed online—sometimes to an obsessive degree—Mating explores how technology and performativity influence conversations and…
By Michael Sun — 6 November, 2019
Watching Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018), I am reminded of another film: Vanilla Sky (2001). I have never seen it, but I have read the Wikipedia summary many times, often in periods of procrastination, or late at night, when the only thing that will quell my anxiety is the mental image of…