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Primavera 2008, Museum of Contemporary Art, 21 September 2008.


Primavera is one of those exhibitions I look forward to every year. It's a showcase of art by some of this country's best artists under 35 years of age.

This is Marcus Canning's work. It was a giant Disney type castle but exploded the same day the stock market crashed. Accidents can be wonderful.

Danielle Freakley, aka The Quote Generator. A performance artist who is spending three years speaking only in quotes taken from pop culture references. Every line from her talk was a quote from some pop culture source. After every sentence she would tell you the source of the sentence and the date.

Gemma Smith.

The Soda Jerk girls. I first met them at an anti-war rally a few years ago. Since then I have seen them leaving their Blockbuster video store with bags full of videos. If you know their work you will understand why.

Curator Hannah Mathews and Mark Hilton. His work is intricate and amazing. Look him up.

Ms & Mr. One of my favourite.

Tarryn Gill & Pilar Mata Dupont.

Moya McKenna.

I spoke to Ms & Mr. about the Primavera selection process the next day, thinking there would be a lot of politics and favoritism amongst gallery owners trying to get their artists represented in the show. They told me everything was decided by an independent curator and there weren't any campaigning involved, believe it or not. After hearing nine artists' talks in one afternoon, I left with a headache. Fair dinkum.
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