I’m a freelance arts journalist and critic. I write regularly for publications including The Age and The Guardian. I also do a lot of ghostwriting and copywriting.
The Post-Nostalgic World of Hyacinth Bucket // The Victorian Writer
On nostalgia, lost pasts, and Keeping Up Appearances, Originally published in The Victorian Writer, December 2023—February 2024
In defence of Step Brothers: the platonic ideal of Obama-era comedy // The Guardian
Watching Will Ferrell and John C Reilly as a pair of large adult sons feels like witnessing the dying embers of the gen X sensibility – before the world got cruel and idiots took over. The Guardian, 15 July 2025
These works by Sidney Nolan have never been displayed. Now they’re heading to Melbourne // The Age
In 1962, the artist visited Auschwitz. The paintings he created afterwards have been brought together in a new exhibition. The Age, April 29, 2025
This cult musician ‘disappeared’ for 15 years. Then the internet stepped in // The Age
After years of busking and then slipping into anonymity, The Space Lady is back – and she is heading to Australia. The Age, January 2, 2025
‘This is for all Australians’: Invaluable Aboriginal cultural collection reunited // The Age
At a time when petty theft and grave robbery were rife in anthropology, Donald Thomson was distinctly respectful. His UNESCO inscribed collection is the result. The Age, December 21, 2024
This surreal work asks: Can you become a French actor without speaking French? // The Age
“Language is unstable. It’s just a fiction.” In her new work, Apologia, writer and performer Nicola Gunn is taking on the barriers language puts between us. The Age, August 8, 2024
Everyone feared this festival would implode, but there’s Alice Cooper waving a boa constrictor on stage // The Age
Despite the rough lead-up and dropping half of its acts, Pandemonium music festival didn’t live up to its name – and was ultimately a pretty good time. The Age, April 21, 2024
The forgotten follow-up to Romper Stomper that is finally getting its moment in the sun // The Age
“We got the last use of old-time Melbourne.” Newly remastered, 1995’s Metal Skin offers up a wild story of drag racing, sex and satanism in the western suburbs. The Age, April 19, 2024
‘I think you need to see this’: Celebrities are not the only victims of deepfake porn // The Age
As AI technology improves and fact melts into fiction, this documentary looks at the very real issue of deepfake pornography – and how the law is not keeping up. The Age, February 29, 2024
Beyond the Wall: ‘The Zone of Interest’, Ambient Sound, and the Savagery of Politeness
On Johnnie Burn’s remarkable sound design for Jonathan Glazer’s film and the accrual of noise in the real world. Rough Cut, 10 April 2024.
Robots, memory and matter at the NGV
A preview of the NGV’s Triennial. The Age, 1 December 2023.
Photographer: Tim Carrafa.
“Boom, bass, shake-shakes the room”: Working with the Melbourne Town Hall organ
A feature for The Age on a dissonant, dense and sonically challenging album built from electronic sound, field recordings of construction sites … and the huge, gothic bellow of the Town Hall grand organ.
6 November 2023.
Photographer: Eddie Jim.
“Who likes to listen to the old shit?” Stadium rock reviews for The Age
A series of reviews of Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Smashing Pumpkins and others across 2023.
Photographer: Richard Clifford.
Broadsheet RISING Special Edition 2022
I wrote four pieces for Broadsheet’s RISING special. Available in cafes and bars across Melbourne.
Photographer: Jeremy Orr.
Studio Visit: Surrealism Meets Hyperrealism With Celebrated Artist Patricia Piccinini
Originally published in Broadsheet, 25 May 2021
Photographer: Charlie Hawks. See link for more details.
On Flow State: A sonic bathing experience at Melbourne’s Rising Festival
Originally published in Broadsheet, 23 April 2021
Photographer: Sam Bisso. See link for more details.
“Fear of the Stranger”: On the refresh of GK Saunders’ The Stranger, ABC iview
Originally published in Australian Screen Review, 13 Aug 2020
“People are so ready to be violent towards each other”: Jennifer Kent On Her Harrowing New Film The Nightingale
Originally published in Broadsheet, 9 September 2019
Burn down the Galleries: On César Aira’s On Contemporary Art
Originally published in The Lifted Brow, 22 March 2019
Watching the Clock: On Christian Marclay’s The Clock
Originally published in Broadsheet, 31 January 2019
The Dislocation of Now: On Ali Smith’s Spring
Originally published in The Lifted Brow, 31 May 2019
Seeing the Unseeable: On
fortyfivedownstairs’ All We Can’t See
Originally published in The Saturday Paper, 4 August 2018.
Two Photographers, Two Muses: On Polixeni Papapetrou and Petrina Hicks at the NGV
Originally published in Broadsheet, 2 October 2019