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y separately published work icon Smalltown single work   prose  
Note: Photography by Martin Mischkulnig, accompanying essay by Tim Winton.
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Smalltown
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Smalltown is a view of the Australia we politely ignore.

'In this rich and austere collaboration, photographer Marin Mischkulnig has joined writer Tim Winton to produce a meditation on the peculiar collision of beauty and ugliness that characterises our far-flung towns.

'Without pulling any punches, this is an affectionate, exasperated take on "fugliness and the smalltown shambolic" where both photographer and writer create a stark beauty, despite the sad conviction that 'there is nothing so bleak and forbidding in country Australia as the places humans have built there".

'By showing us the bizarre and funny and sometimes stubborn hope of people who live in desolate circumstances, they invite us to wonder about what we build and how it affects our communities. What does it say about us that we build places "just" to live or work in? Is beauty a luxury we don't believe we can afford? Is hardiness enough to sustain people, or does it finally limit the imagination?

'Smalltown is a beautiful book about ugliness. It might change the way you see Australia.' (From the publisher's website.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2009 .
      Extent: 158p.
      Description: chiefly col. illus.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 28 September 2009.
      ISBN: 9781926428123 (hbk.)
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Related Works

In Praise of Fugliness Tim Winton , Martin Mischkulnig , 2009 extract prose (Smalltown)
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 26-27 September 2009; (p. 22-27)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

Complicating Nation : Assemblage Theory, Heterogeneity and the Visions of Australia Program Clinton Johnston , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , November vol. 5 no. 2 2015; 'The Visions of Australia program, established in 1994, plays a significant role in the touring of exhibitions from, and to, regional and interstate locations across Australia. Through an examination of Round 32 of the Visions of Australia program this article explores the intersection of localities in the conception of a national culture. Focusing on the exhibitions MAYS, Australian Minescapes, Smalltown and Robert Dowling it illustrates that assemblage theory presents an alternative conception of national culture that focuses upon relationships and networks, as opposed to a traditional conception of a set society and culture. Within the framework of Latour’s ‘society of assemblages’ it concludes that these exhibitions operate within a heterogeneous national culture that is continually redefined and reoriented through a spectrum of external and internal relationships.' (Publication summary)
Outback Sojurn in Images and Words Arne Sjostedt , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 December 2011; (p. 22)
There's No Place Like Home Stephanie Bishop , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , March vol. 5 no. 2 2010; (p. 18-19)
— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose ; Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
Desolation as Made By Men and Women Christopher Allen , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 17 December 2009; (p. 17)
Meet the Fugly Australians Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 December 2009; (p. 33)
— Review of Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
Outback Myths Laid Bare Andrew Stephens , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 9 October 2009; (p. 16)
— Review of Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
Odd Towns Captured in a Blink Suzanna Clarke , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 10 -11 October 2009; (p. 2)
— Review of Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
Pictorial Dianne Dempsey , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 October 2009; (p. 25)
— Review of Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
Meet the Fugly Australians Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 December 2009; (p. 33)
— Review of Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
There's No Place Like Home Stephanie Bishop , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , March vol. 5 no. 2 2010; (p. 18-19)
— Review of The Blue Plateau : A Landscape Memoir Mark Tredinnick , 2009 single work prose ; Smalltown Tim Winton , 2009 single work prose
Desolation as Made By Men and Women Christopher Allen , 2009 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 17 December 2009; (p. 17)
Outback Sojurn in Images and Words Arne Sjostedt , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 December 2011; (p. 22)
Complicating Nation : Assemblage Theory, Heterogeneity and the Visions of Australia Program Clinton Johnston , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Axon : Creative Explorations , November vol. 5 no. 2 2015; 'The Visions of Australia program, established in 1994, plays a significant role in the touring of exhibitions from, and to, regional and interstate locations across Australia. Through an examination of Round 32 of the Visions of Australia program this article explores the intersection of localities in the conception of a national culture. Focusing on the exhibitions MAYS, Australian Minescapes, Smalltown and Robert Dowling it illustrates that assemblage theory presents an alternative conception of national culture that focuses upon relationships and networks, as opposed to a traditional conception of a set society and culture. Within the framework of Latour’s ‘society of assemblages’ it concludes that these exhibitions operate within a heterogeneous national culture that is continually redefined and reoriented through a spectrum of external and internal relationships.' (Publication summary)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (8)
Last amended 26 Oct 2009 13:00:21
Subjects:
  • Country towns,
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