Tony Albert is one of the most exciting visual artists of his generation. He takes the everyday items that represent the most confronting aspects of colonisation to create work that is both provocative and deeply moving.
In his airy studio in the rainforest out of Brisbane, Tony Albert is sorting through his vast Aboriginalia collections of what’s known as Aboriginalia: kitsch mid-century homewares featuring indigenous imagery.
At home, Tony reflects on his early years as an activist artist, and then the start of his 16-year project ‘Ash on Me’ incorporating Aboriginalia ash trays. His photography was collaborative, sharing credit and profit with kids from remote NT communities.
Richard Tognetti is the Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and one of the country’s finest musicians.
Richard has been leading the ACO since he was 24, and he has turned it into one of the most critically acclaimed ensembles in the world - some say the greatest.
He has had a violin in his hands since he was five: he remembers coming home from his very first lesson knowing this is what he wanted to do.
Richard’s artistic curiosity drives him to newer collaborations with many different artists, including Jimmy Barnes, and to homemade broadcasts during the lockdowns.
It must be. I watched the episode on iView. Although there is some serious subject matter covered, there’s nothing that would warrant an MA rating.
However, there are two artworks that contain strong coarse language which is probably why it has that rating. One features the offensive term “Black C***” and the other “Motherf***ers”.
The six-part ABC TV arts series Creative Types with Virginia Trioli is back for a third season, exploring the essence of imagination and creativity with some of Australia’s best creative minds
Jimmy Barnes jumps into the car with Virginia for a ride and a chat and to turn up the cassette player on the music that formed and informed him and that continues to drive him into a mature life of music making.
Through the painful and award-winning act of writing Jimmy has conquered his demons, managed an ADHD diagnosis and he shows us how the creative process of his book and music writing drives him on.
Hugo Weaving is anything but Hollywood. He doesn’t drive, he only recently got a computer, but he loves to walk, so he takes Virginia on a stroll through the Sydney gardens that sustain him and open his creative mind.
At his art-filled Sydney home we get an insight into his painstaking role preparation, in which he reads everything and immerses himself in the complex, sometimes terrible men, he plays finding humanity even in monsters.
As a doyen of the theatre, his stage work is his passion, which his longtime friend and fellow actor Richard Roxburgh deeply admires.
As a performance artist and TV star, celebrated classical pianist Andrea Lam, has less time than ever to practise, so “mental practice’ on her own at a favourite beach is a crucial place to reflect and recharge.
At the piano in the soaring Utzon Room of the opera house, she breaks down the physical and mental processes she goes through to play some of the most beloved but complex pieces from the classical cannon.
With her fierce academic mind, she finds great joy in teaching and mentoring the next generation, and inspiring amateur players in her hit TV series, The Piano.
Comedian Nazeen Hussain’s Muslim and Sri Lankan heritage is central to his comedy, so he invites Virginia to share a Sri Lankan curry and reveal how a life of being brown and different in Australia has defined his work.
Nazeem explains why he won’t shy away from making comedy about some of the toughest subjects and issues in the world right now, as long as it’s genuinely funny.
At a sell-out stand up performance in Brisbane he has the audience of all colours howling at jokes about difference and similarity that few other artists would dare approach.
Andy Griffiths has turned the hushed halls of the Victorian State Library into a rock concert, with hundreds of school kids screaming for a copy of his new illustrated book.
An anarchic writer who has always refused to follow the rules, he shows us into his all-important music room, and his zany ‘playroom’ filled with the books and toys that have fired his imagination since childhood.
Andy shares the wild creative process he has with his new illustrator Bill Hope, to unlock the stories and ideas that will get kids off their devices and into the wilds of their imagination.
At the height of his powers, the American ballet dancer David Hallberg was “a prince of the ballet” and when we meet him on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, his beloved Australian Ballet is about to perform the ballet he made his own for years – The Sleeping Beauty.
Now as artistic director, he shows how he has taken the company to a new level of power and style and shares the lessons he learned from a catastrophic foot injury that would end his career - but for the intervention of The Australian Ballet’s rehab team and a country he now calls his own.
