Category Archives: Suburban Gothic

Our Earliest Imaginings

Our formative years soak into our bones; and we carry narratives about our past that help us make meaning in the present. The stories we tell ourselves are, by nature, subjective and powerful. What are your earliest memories of the arts? Did you grow up actively immersed in arts, or did they seep in organically?Continue reading “Our Earliest Imaginings”

The Archibald Prize Finalists 2022

The 52 finalists of Australia’s almost always controversial annual Archibald Prize for portraiture have been announced. I’ve posted a few that intrigue me below – you can see who else made the cut on the Gallery of New South Wales website HERE. If you get the chance, you should most definitely check out the ArchiContinue reading “The Archibald Prize Finalists 2022”

Event : Suburban Gothic and the Sublime Divine

ART EXHIBITION AND FLOOR TALK A presentation by Tanja Stark for the Queensland Jung Society Thursday, December 2, 2021 7.30pm – 9.30pmVenue: St Mary’s Anglican Church Hall455 Main St. Kangaroo Point, QLD 4169“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”   — C. G. Jung https://jungqld.com/events/dec-2021/tanja-stark/suburban-gothic-and-the-sublime-divine/ Artist Tanja Stark will hostContinue reading “Event : Suburban Gothic and the Sublime Divine”

Exhibition 27 March 2021 – Artisan Jewellery

Once again I’m excited to be joining John Carozza’s Exhibition ‘Deepstaria’ as a guest artist at Gallery 61, Musk Avenue Kelvin Grove in 2021. John’s evocative paintings conjure the mysterious ocean depths that contain the breathtakingly magical Deepstaria jellyfish, from where the title of his exhibition is drawn. This year in a departure from sculpture, IContinue reading “Exhibition 27 March 2021 – Artisan Jewellery”

Exhibitions : Artists : Galleries : Writers

An eclectic list of galleries, patrons and collaborators who I’ve exhibited with or have inspired me. John Carozza : Australian painter I  want  people to ask themselves, “what does it feel like?” rather than “what does it  mean?” Cairns Regional Art Gallery The Cairns Art Gallery shows art of national and international significance and enables crossContinue reading “Exhibitions : Artists : Galleries : Writers”

Judging a book by its cover.

Routledge’s new paperback edition of David Bowie : Critical Perspectives, (with my chapter on Jung) with a brand new cover of my Bowie Russian Nesting Dolls.

Sweet.

Dostoyevsky and the Epileptic Prince

Prince, the artist and musician had the Sacred Disease as a child.  So too did Dostoyevsky and his character the Prince in his classic novel The Idiot. When the young (purple) Prince was Seven he told his mother that he had been visited by an Angel and he had been cured of his seizures. “I’veContinue reading “Dostoyevsky and the Epileptic Prince”

“Eagles in my Daydreams, Diamonds in my Eyes”: Bowie, Blackstar & the Bataclan

At the time of the Bataclan slaying the Blackstar symbol, seen on Bowie’s ‘holy’ book was everywhere. Most curiously, it showed up on the hand of the Josh Homme, playing drums years earlier in the film clip for Speaking in Tongues. That song came to lead singer Jessie Hughes in a dream, he claimed. Fully formed. Blackstar was yet to be released. The Blind Seer wanted Eagles in his Daydreams, Diamonds in his eyes. He got his wish.

Heavens, Heathens and the Blind Seers

Perhaps somewhere in the liminal spaces between Word on a Wing, Loving the Alien, Bowie’s Lets Dance film clip shot in Aboriginal Australia and Heathen lies Gurrumul, the Blind Seer.

“Crashing Out with Sylvian : David Bowie, Carl Jung and the Unconscious” by Tanja Stark

Artist Tanja Stark explores the Jungian concepts woven throughout Bowie’s tableau of creativity and his synthesis of mythopoeic themes with the zeitgeist of pop culture. Together with a palpable struggle for meaning, catharsis and knowledge, Stark suggests Bowie is a poignant representation of Jung’s ‘visionary artist’, potentially illuminating his deep resonance in popular cultural consciousness.

Confronting Bowie’s Mysterious Corpses

“Confront a corpse at least once” Bowie implored, “…the absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have” (Esquire 2004). His words accompanied a haunting photographic recreation by Steven Klein of Michelangelo’s Pieta in a prison cell, a strange androgynous figure draped like the lifeless body of Christ across Bowie’s lapContinue reading “Confronting Bowie’s Mysterious Corpses”

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