AustLit

'Photojournalist artists feature in the Destruction & Disruption 'artists protest issue' of Arts Features International published before the 2019 election in Australia, which documents that time of social activism by artists and local communities opposed to destruction of the natural and built environment and gentrification by acts of government and big business. And for increasing ways of community healing, engagement, and collaboration through art and generosity. Featured are pieces on local opposition to Destination NSW's approved Supercars motor race in Newcastle, by Dr Christine Everingham, Therese Doyle, and Newcastle East Residents Group. The Big Rev Up Benefit Auction of artworks for the Stop Adani coal mine Protest; Bob Brown's Stop Adani speech, and the residents' opposition to displacement and redevelopment of their homes in Sydney's inner-city Waterloo, Redfern and Alexandria, documented by Suellen Symons. The 'First Artists Announcement' of NIRIN the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, with a healing ceremony at Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School. The (successful) artists boycott of an earlier Sydney Biennale in protest at the contract award to the Board chairman's company (a Biennale sponsor) to profit from refugee detention camps. Exhibitions: Suellen Symons' Strange Paradise (Redfern Then and Now). Ella Dreyfus's Under Twenty-Seven and essay by Professor Catharine Lumby. Dr Deborah van Heekeren's Disruption. Works by Wang Zhiyuan. A review by Silvia Pease. Jeremy Gluck's manifesto and his collaborations with Don Tyler, and Rosemary Osbourne. Artworks by Natasha Williams, and Luciano Prisco. A play by Vee Malnar. Writings and photographs by Ruth Skilbeck.' (Publication summary)

'Extinction Rebellion protests and arrests, bushfires in Australia, Brexit art in the UK, Manus film, music news, and interviews with international artists feature in Arts Features International, October-December 2019, Firestorms & Protest.' (Publication summary)

'Will the future be utopian or dystopian or somewhere in between? It is up to us and what we do now. ‘Facing the Future’ addresses themes of climate change, global warming, and protest.' (Publication summary)

'Escape Artists Anthology comprises a literary interarts compilation of creative and critical works by authors and artists from around the world including essay, memoir, short story, poetry, song, soundtrack, art, and interview. The themes include: taste, longing and melancholy; speculative fiction; and fascinations with phenomena such as UFOs, "aliens", spacecraft, telepathy, and fugue in art and literature and what these signify as metaphors and/or literally about: contemporary society, and the inner journeys of the self in relation to others and forms of social media community, in this time of disruptive global technological change.' (Synopsis)