Cover image of the review
Installation view of Elizabeth Newman, Neon Parc, 2021. Photo: Madé Spencer-Castle.

Elizabeth Newman


11 Sep 2021
23 Jul - 28 Aug 2021

Tzzzzzz. Ooooooo. Pshhhh. That’s the sound of a cryogenic freezer opening for the first time in just under a decade. The year is 2001. The day is September 11. A rupture. The location: Fitzroy North. Elsewhere, deep within polite Brisbane society, the final curtain is called for a hiatus-confounding doppelganger who has masqueraded as the darling of Australian minimalism-constructionism-Imi Knoeblism-proto-Neon Parcism-frame-within-a-frameism, Elizabeth Newman. Far from the cosmopolitan Melbourne art historians, this imposter produced a series of art objects and events in Newman’s name during her well documented break from practice. Fzzzzzzz. The Real Elizabeth Newman re-enters the art world. Precisely twenty-years later, freshly deposited by the Freo Doctor, two wide-eyed art-adjacents sat down at their respective desks to discuss Newman’s new show at Neon Parc. Did Bush do Elizabeth Newman too?


05/09/21
Hey Cam,

As you know, I’m writing this review in the lead up to the Jewish New Year/Birthday of the World, Rosh Hashana. When we first felt the impulse to respond to Elizabeth Newman’s Neon Parc show a few weeks ago, I was pretty direct with you. Ellul, the month leading up to the Jewish High Holidays, is a period of intense ritual self-reflection, a time in which to be singularly kind, considered and godly. In this spirit of imitatio Dei along with our general shared interest in Newman’s oeuvre, I’d like to make this happen without unnecessarily upsetting anyone.

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