FBi's Canvas

Are politicians saying one thing to you, and something totally different to someone else? Matthew Landauer and Henare Degan from the Open Australia Foundation, are working on making politics lot more transparent.

Sam James is a video artist who has been re-visiting his work from the past to discovery how they have evolved over time, re-informing his reality. He joined Nell Greco in the studio to discuss his works.

Liz Ann MacGregor has no doubt made many, many dreams come true in the art world. This week, however, it’s been her turn. You might have heard that work began on the $50 million expansion of the MCA this week and we were lucky enough to have the MCA’s director on the line to tell us why she and Sydney should be so thrilled.

David Caon is a leading industrial designer who’s put his talents to everything from BMX bike furniture, to chairs made of carpet, to a series of space-capsule-esque optical illusion vases called Mr Impossible and the swanky furnishings of a Qantas business lounge in Hong Kong. He’s currently showcasing with emerging designers but I think we could say that he’s fully emerged and walking very convincingly on design dry land.

For all the talk about new media and new technology changing the world, if you want to get people interested, you have to tell a good story. Lynette Wallworth uses a mix of video, short film, photography and sound - basically new media - to create wordless, but entirely seductive narratives. She’s been hailed as one of the few artists with the ability to effectively intertwine visual art and cinema.

Bikies, cock-rockers, malls and men’s clubs; Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance and Jackson Pollock’s fatal car crash; boy bands at Bondi; the undead; and even a public intervention on a Sydney Starbucks. My next guest has dominated Sydney art for a decade. Indisputably the kings of dress up and drag, the Kingpins have turned their attention to fashion. Matt Levinson spoke to a quarter of the group - a kingpin? Techa Noble.

Have you ever come across a work of art that's so technically

incredible you can't conceive how it was made, that blew your mind in

its execution, and yet you still walked away feeling hollow in some way - as if nothing had changed? It's kind of like meeting a very

attractive person who says all the right things and still manages to

say nothing - it's puzzling, because you WANT to like them so badly.

The Ordinary Collective joined Anna Burns to talk about their mission: avoiding

hollow beauty in pursuit of the beautiful ordinary.

At first glance, the childhood diorama and the medium of 16mm film may

seem worlds apart but to Greg Godhard, these fantastical mediums are an irresistible mix. Greg joined Anna Burns in the studio to discuss his latest work.

All of a sudden being Welsh is very much on the radar. A bloodless coup put Julia Gillard up as our first female Prime Minister. But closer to home, a small troupe of actors and theatre makers have reworked Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas's classic Under Milk Wood for a Sydney stage. Zoe Norton Lodge and Vanessa Hughes are part of Bambina Borracha, a Sydney University based theatre company.

Families are strange things. You can feel comfortable for ages, sure of where you stand, with your parents, your brothers or sisters, maybe even kids, and then something happens that just rocks everything. From the outside it might seem like nothing, but it's amazing how easy it is to shake those solid bonds to the core. Fiona McGregor explores one of those moments in her new book, Indelible Ink, and it's truly a Sydney story that's split between richly tended gardens in Sirius Cove on the lower north shore, and the warehouses and terraces of Kings Cross and Surry Hills.