In the middle of a rarefied gallery or in a busy city square, a bronze statue of a woman looms in front of you. But this figure isn’t on a plinth or striking a heroic pose: she’s an ordinary modern woman, looking at her phone with a calm detachment.
It’s said the monument Reaching Out is only the third public statue in Britain of a Black woman. The artist behind it is Thomas J Price - one of the country’s leading contemporary artists, who takes on the problem of colonial monuments and representation in British museums and art galleries by creating contemporary icons of modern Britain. Two of his statues are at the National Gallery of Victoria's Triennial.
My Thing is... art as activism. It's looking to be the hottest year in human history. As world leaders negotiate a way forward at COP28, 18-year-old climate activist and artist Niranjana Ghosh has been thinking about the gendered impacts of the climate crisis. And how it's often girls in disaster-prone regions who miss out on school and opportunities, in order to help their families survive.
Daniel wanders through a dark and tangled wood at the Queensland Art Gallery (QAGOMA), to find out why Fairy Tales have been such an enduring theme for artists across the centuries. Curator Amanda Slack-Smith introduces him to some surprising artworks and theories. US artist and Wiccan, Trulee Hall, takes him into her Witch House installation, which is not for the faint hearted.