Did you have a Neopet? If you’ve only just remembered it now, it’s likely you haven’t fed it since 2005, and it may be too late to visit it. This week we are examining Bunny Rogers’ Techo Statue (2021), which pays homage to our cute, digital friends of the early 2000s. We discuss why this statue might be both nostalgia-inducing and creepy, we discuss basilisks, Tamagotchis and gothic sculpture. See images here!

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January 26 in Australia is Invasion Day – the date on which in 1788 the First Fleet landed. This date is officially ‘Australia Day’, but there is a growing campaign to change the date of Australia’s national day. This week, we are discussing Hey Bros by Ian Waldron, a work which engages directly with issues of Indigenous sovereignty, appropriation, and British colonialism. Exploring these issues, we discuss John Constable, Just Stop Oil, and how art can be used to add emotional impact to activism. See images here!

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Are you feeling sleepy? This week we're feeling dreamy as we delve into the pre-Raphaelites. This week's work is Hans Op de Beeck’s sculpture, My bed a raft, the room the sea, and then I laughed some gloom in me.  Evoking John Everett Millais’ Ophelia, this work is rich in art historical and literary symbolism. Of course, some of the references that Dad finds – to The Matrix and Elvis – may not have been intended…

See images here!

CW: Mentions of suicide.

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This week we exercise our gift of the gab as we discuss a spooky Irish egg, superstitions and the worst gift to buy a child. Our artwork this week is Seán Hannan’s LUCK (2022) – a cursed egg currently installed at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Tune in to find out if we can overcome Dad’s fears of contemporary art and curses in one fell swoop. See images here!

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This week, Dad is outraged that fog can be considered an artwork! We discuss “Foggy Wake in a Desert: An Ecosphere”, more commonly known as the Fog Sculpture, created by Fujiko Nakaya. We chat about unintentional art experiences, avoiding leopards at the Botanical Gardens, and misty metaphors in Apocalypse Now. See images here!

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Frothy pastels, lush grottos and decadent décor: that’s right, this week we are talking about the Rococo! Flora Yukhnovich’s ebullient works overflow with the spirit of the 18th century, bringing the visual language of the Rococo into the modern day. We discuss frolicking aristocrats, Mean Girls and millennial pink before Dad offers some suggestions about how to ring in the new year. See images here!

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The night of the Krampus is coming… in other words, Merry Christmas! This week Lizzie and Dr Harris celebrate Christmas and exchange artistic gifts! From Austria to Los Angeles, Slim Aarons to Charles Fréger, we get in the holiday spirit and ponder whether to call a Christmas truce. See images here!

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This week we look at a true artistic freak in the (Excel) sheets, Oleksiy Sai! Dad peers down from his ivory tower into the world of professional services as we discuss how the very worst part of the Microsoft Office suite can be used for something creative (other than creative accounting)! Alongside Sai's work, we discuss creepy vegetable face portraits from the Renaissance, and luminous stained glass windows. See images of the artworks here! 

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What do tennis whites have to do with Zimbabwean politics? Why is Dr Harris scared of sculptures? And what does he have in common with Leonardo di Caprio? This episode, hidden connections abound as we discuss Zimbabwean artist Tawanda Takura’s Hymn for the Unjust. See images of the work here!

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This episode we talk about getting drunk in Sicily, Shakespeare and fantastical lies, all in the pursuit of understanding Damien Hirst’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable. Dad reveals his past as a gentleman archaeologist as we examine the bizarre objects in Hirst’s 2017 exhibition, and consider whether Lizzie actually likes this particular work of contemporary art. See photos here!

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