Artist and writer Stephanie Radok possesses a unique international perspective. For over twenty years she has written about and witnessed the emergence of contemporary Aboriginal art and the responses of Australian art to global diasporas.
In
An Opening: Twelve love stories about art, Stephanie Radok takes us on a walk with her dog and finds that it is possible to re-imagine the suburb as the site of epiphanies and attachments.
Praise for An Opening:
'Art wants to enter our lives, yet it is a rare art writer who lets it do that. Writing with full personal disclosure, Stephanie Radok lets us in on her secret. Art can inspire love, and a whole host of other unruly emotions.
An Opening is a confession, a provocation, a celebration - a highly original, much-needed book in a field that too often prefers to be offputting and hermetic. A revelation, a gem.' - Nicholas Jose
'In
An Opening Stephanie Radok engages sensuously and poetically with the art she has seen from her place in the suburbs of Adelaide and as a citizen of the world. Her contribution to Australian art is idiosyncratic and determinedly marginal. I once titled an essay on Australianness "The margins strike back". Australian art needs more margins.' - Daniel Thomas
'Peppered with lovely anecdotes and a gentle wisdom,
An Opening draws the reader into a wonderful discussion about art, culture, and identity. Radok’s style is so accessible that she makes thinking critically about art a less rarefied occupation it might otherwise seem.' – Lucy Clark,
Weekend Australian Review
'A meditative and enriching read.' – Sarah Braybrooke,
Artshub
'It has been a rare pleasure to review this book; the philosophy and spirituality Stephanie Radok expresses in relation to Aboriginal art are enlightening.' – Paul Newbury,
Bonzer
'Stephanie’s engagement with art is sentimental, poignant, deeply reflective and a revelation for the uninitiated! –
PS News
'These are love stories, passages about loved works and intersections with moments, places and people which are close to the author’s heart. This volume is an open heart turned to another – sufficient on any given day to remake the world.' – Jenny McFarlane,
Art Monthly Australia
'Radok shows how art reaches deeply into our lives in unexpected and ordinary ways: the tattered calendar cutting kept for decades and left behind in a photocopier, the postcard stuck to a laundry wall, or the persistent memory of something, seen perhaps only briefly, that alters one’s thinking utterly.' - Michele McCrea,
Transnational Literature
'
An Opening is persuasive, informative and entertaining, and above all, readable.' – Eileen Cooke,
M/C Reviews
'This book is like digging into your grandma's collection of old jewellery and coming up with fistfuls of sparkling beads, the odd random coin, and smooth feathers.' - Jessica White blog
