The Sacred and the Scarred : My Luba Caryatid Stool
Artist Tanja Stark discovers a Luba Caryatid Stool amidst hard rubbish in Brisbane, reflecting on its cultural significance and connections to femininity, power, and artistry. The piece, bearing scars, evokes themes of transformation and rebirth, symbolising resilience and honour, suburban gothic and the sublime divine.
Keep reading
Corner Prophets
The poem “Corner Prophets” reflects the author’s journey of self-discovery while grappling with societal norms and personal truths. Written in Cairns 25 years ago, it captures a pivotal moment in the life of a young artist and new mother. Influenced by notable thinkers and cultural works, the poem conveys a sense of clarity found on the fringes of society. The author’s departure from job in the music industry for international aid highlights the allure of the unconventional, as they continue to explore themes of suburban gothic and sublime experiences.
Keep reading
Electric Blackout : a poem on grief and grace
The poem “Electric Blackout” by Tanja Stark explores themes of solitude, loss, and unexpected resilience during moments of darkness. As physical lights fade, the speaker reflects on memories and emotions while grappling with despair. Despite feeling powerless, they find solace in the mysterious presence of another, illuminating the experience of connection.
Keep reading![Projective Identification ( part two): a poem [a doctor meets an artist at a party]](https://i0.wp.com/tanjastark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/tanja-stark-fire-spiral-burn-2000-1-1.jpg?resize=800%2C800&ssl=1)
Projective Identification ( part two): a poem [a doctor meets an artist at a party]
A poem about a transformative friendship between an artist and a doctor, that began at a party explores the mesmerising, enchanting power of projection, and projective identification.
Keep reading
Projective Identification ( part one) : a poem about friendship between an artist and a doctor
Tanja Stark reflects on a friendship born at a party in Cairns, between a psychiatrist and an artist. The artist explore themes of projection and projective identification, suggesting that friendship shapes a shared mythos. The poem delves into the interplay of creativity and chaos, signaling deeper psychological insights to unfold in future writings.
Keep reading
The Breath of the Sea: A Poetic Journey of Rebirth
The poem by Tanja Stark explores themes of rebirth, nourishment, and introspection through the narrative of a mystical figure in a kitchen. It intertwines spiritual and psychological interpretations, suggesting a journey through sorrow and renewal. The imagery evokes connections among personal struggles, community support, and the complex dynamics of relationships.
Keep reading
Sanguino Ergo Sum
a poem about flesh and blood in the world of AI I bleed like a woman in childbirthI throb like a soldier’s pulsemy womb and His side penetratedby spirit or spearI pour forth.Embodied, I swim holy watersswirling with blood and winewhose currents short-circuit machine monstersand spiral eddies drown gnostic gods Behind a screen en-vatted minds that never thirstdream they float on by. They lie. Above I gaze where blood moons bleedlike sky stigmata in the hands of Godcasting celestial syzygies like cosmic eulogiesinside, my body swoons,her red tides dance in tune Sanguis Christi me compellit Bleeding, where once I reached…
Keep readingSanguino, Ergo Sum : Tanja Stark
Im working on an Easter Poem. I hope to finish it in the next few days. This is how it It begins : I bleed like a woman in childbirth I throb like a soldier’s pulseMy womb and His side, penetrated by spirit or spear I pour forthEmbodied, I swim holy waters swirling with blood and with wine whose currents short circuits of monsters and eddies drown gnostic gods
Keep reading
The Restless Souls are Least Equipped
In Stark’s poignant verse, passion’s destructive force is laid bare. The yearning for old comforts, the agonizing pursuit of lost loves, and the overwhelming grip of desire converge in a bittersweet reflection on the human heart’s tumultuous nature.
Keep reading
The First Supper : an advent poem
There was bread and there was wine, but there was no betrayal at the first supper.
The body that would be torn, pierced, blood and water gushing forth belonged to the mother before the son.
Keep reading
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 Archi 100: A Century of the The Archibald Prize currently touring Australia too. I saw it at Geelong Art Gallery in February (above) when I was dropping my daughter down to start Med School at Deakin Uni; it’s currently showing at Cairns Art Gallery. 2022 Archibald…
Keep reading
Artist Talk : Suburban Gothic and the Sublime Divine
ART EXHIBITION AND FLOOR TALK: Tanja Stark will present an exhibition and interactive conversation delving into the archetypal symbolism in her art practice, exploring the interplay between destructive and creative forces in the psyche.
Keep reading
Exhibition – 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, I will be showing a small collection of hand formed copper jewellery. You can Purchase some pieces online at Canasta Gallery. Water and Metal are elemental forms in Chinese Philosophy Wu Xing, and in their regenerative cycle Metal begets, or contains, Water, so I’m taking that…
Keep readingExhibitions : Artists : Galleries : Writers
An eclectic list of galleries, patrons and collaborators who I’ve exhibited with or have inspired me. John Carozza : Australian painterI want people to ask themselves, “what does it feel like?” rather than “what does it mean?”Cairns Regional Art GalleryThe Cairns Art Gallery shows art of national and international significance and enables cross cultural dialogues and the interpretation of the unique history and living cultures of Far North Queensland (FNQ), and our place in the world’s tropic zone. I worked here as an art tutor and interpretive guide here in my 20’s and met a range of wonderful people including Guru…
Keep reading
Academic Reviews
I have been teaching at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Czech Republic, (including the Faculty of Fine Art), for the past two decades. On discovering artist Tanja Stark’s work we subsequently included this as part of the recommended reading list for JAMU/Scenography students. Her work provides a fascinating and creative way for students to gain insight into the enduring relationship between ancient archetypal mythology (scenography, scenery, setting) and visionary art, modern pop iconography and new myths in the contemporary arts. Martin M. Mrskos Lecturer Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Czech Republic “Tanja Stark is an artist and…
Keep reading
Creativity and Catharsis: David Bowie & Carl Jung : The 2015 Melbourne Lectures
. In 2015, I was invited to give two keynote lectures in Melbourne on my ideas around on the creative synthesis between the work of David Bowie and the ideas of Carl Jung. I had published three book chapters that year with Routledge Press, Bloomsbury Press and the Melbourne Jung Society, drawing from ideas I first presented in 2012 as Artist in Residence, (thanks to a grant from Arts Queensland) at the University of Limerick’s Strange Fascination Symposium on David Bowie as a creative figure in contemporary culture. The first lecture was to the Melbourne Jung Society on the…
Keep reading
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’ve never spoken about this before but I was born epileptic. I used to have seizures when I was young. My mother and father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it but they did the best they could with what little they had…My…
Keep reading
“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.
Keep reading
The Wireless Set : An old Scottish Hymn & the Antennae Theory of Consciousness
In 1928, James McCorkindale composed the hymn ‘The Wireless Set’, likening spiritual connection to a radio’s antenna. The hymn suggests that prayer serves as a divine wireless set, enabling communication with higher realms. It explores consciousness, creative sensitivity, and the idea that we tune into different spiritual frequencies.
Keep reading
Curious Synchronicity. Lightning Strikes the Vatican and Mecca.
In my art, I work a lot with ideas around copper and electricity, current, spirituality and seizures, fire and charge. I always found this curious timing.
Keep reading
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.
Keep reading
“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.
Keep reading
Seizures and Solar Flares
I’ve never quite figured out, Enneagram-atically speaking, If i’m a Type 5w4 or 4w5. Either way, I’m in some quirky place along the spectrum of the conceptual, the creative and the concrete. And amongst my eclectic splatter of curiousities, i’ve got a bit of a brain thing going on. Specifically, a bio-neuro-psycho-social research fascination. I’ve long theorised that societies primal obsession with zombies stems, not only from purgatorial undead mythologies, but from stories that evolved from the witnessing of complex partial epileptic seizures and their often weird and scary automatisms. And I saw more than a few of these growing up with…
Keep reading
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 lap while he made a Latin Benediction gesture with the ink stained fingers of his left hand [i]. A decade later, Bowie’s 2013 album The Next Day contained more than just one cadaver; indeed the album dripped death like a bleeding beehive of blood, a honeycombed-catacomb of…
Keep reading
Artist in Residence & Curator Tanja Stark : Because You’re Young: The Pop Ephemera of a Teenage Bowie Fan – the Abrahamson collection
Artist in Residence Tanja Stark curates an exhibition of pop culture ephemera at a Irish Symposium from Emily Abrahamson collection, reflecting the young Irish Bowie fan’s journey. It showcases Bowie’s impact on youth culture in the 70s, through vivid critiques of concerts and personal anecdotes, illustrating how his music shaped identities and creative expression across generations.
Keep reading
Created for the Sublime
Desmond Tutu reminds us that humans are meant for the transcendent and beautiful things. During an event in Brisbane, Tutu diffused a cultural confrontation, delivered an inspiring message, and later invited an aggrieved elder to perform his sacred dance, transforming anger into grace.
Keep reading
Bowie gets his Geek On
The world’s first academic symposium on David Bowie as pop cultural phenomenon rocked into Ireland last month with international professors, artists and PhDs galore deconstructing Bowie’s prolific influence across music, fashion and the arts with just the perfect mix of sincerity and glam. Hosted by Doctors Devereux, Dillane and Power of University of Limerick’s Sociology Department, with participants such as Kathryn Johnson, co curator of the V&A Museum’s much anticipated ” “Bowie Is…” retrospective, Undertones Paul McCloone and Bowie’s former RCA publicist Chris Charlesworth, the conference was never going to be your typical scholars meet. The papers…
Keep reading
Isabelle’s Picnic : 1940’s Post War Brisbane
The content describes a beautifully arranged yet spontaneous photo taken in the 1940s in Brisbane, depicting the author’s grandparents, Isabelle and John, along with their friends enjoying a picnic. The image captures a moment of camaraderie and nostalgia from that era.
Keep reading
Reg Mombassa Pop : Art : Rock Mannequin
Pop Art meets Pop Psychology. Living Australian treasure Chris O’Doherty aka Reg Mombassa, Australian art and music icon, known for his creative work as a musician in Mental as Anything and Dog Trumpet, and his creative association with iconic creative collective, Mambo Art and Design. Reg Mombassa Pop Art Rock Mannequin Acrylic on timber artist mannequin Limited edition portrait by Tanja Stark 2011 AU $1250
Keep reading
