Latest news with #Australian
The Age
an hour ago
- Sport
- The Age
Lees looks for Zaphod to hit back and lead another interstate double
Kris Lees expects to see the best of Zaphod at Randwick, after a forgive run, when the Newcastle trainer tries to score another Sydney-Queensland city double on Saturday. Lees, who has had a satellite stable on the Gold Coast since 2018, won his second Queensland Oaks in three years when You Wahng repeated the feat of 2023 winner Amokura on June 7. Loch Eagle also won at Randwick to cap a memorable day for the stable. 'It's been a great asset to the stable,' Lees said of the Gold Coast operation. 'Mandy Jupp does a wonderful job and it works very smoothly. She runs a very tight ship.' Lees has genuine metropolitan chances across the states again on Saturday. Lutetia ($14 Sportsbet) contests the TL Cooney Stakes and Bubba's Bay ($11) is in the listed Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich, while Bestower ($3.50) and Barazin ($11) are other runners on the program. 'Bubba's Bay, she was just taken on all the way last start [when sixth], but now third run in, she should run up to her best,' he said. 'I can see her really turning her form around. 'Bestower is a bit hard to catch but she could easily run well there, and Lutetia is racing consistently and she should run well.' Zaphod looks Lees' best chance across the meetings. The import, with three wins and three placings in nine Australian starts, was a $3.10 shot in the sixth, an 1800m benchmark 88 handicap.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
One of the most powerful artworks I've seen is on show in Tasmania
The exhibition takes its name from one of the installations, a new work made up of a series of five water wells sitting in pitch darkness behind a glass wall. Into these, molten steel drips at hypnotic intervals, generating sparks reminiscent of a working foundry, although these sparks are artfully curated. An earlier version debuted at the 2022 Venice Biennale, where Sassolino used fiery droplets of molten steel to evoke what he described as the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio's 17th-century paintings, specifically The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. In this version, the chiaroscuro is certainly dramatic. While it's difficult to imagine a saintly beheading amid the sparks, the eight-minute sequence, observed from pews placed for this purpose, is mesmerising, in the tradition of the transcendent religious artworks adorning Europe's great cathedrals. In the end, the beginning is a perfect addition to a gallery famed for its kinetic displays and its inherent subversion of the Catholic faith in which MONA founder David Walsh was raised. Sassolino's precision engineering is 21st century, but his choice of materials and fascination with old-fashioned masculine energy are furiously at odds with a planet economically realigning around the rare earth mineral economy as it gears up for the decarbonisation revolution. Elegant as it is, the exhibition feels like one last loving look over the shoulder as we move into a future where harnessing the energy of wind and sun assures the survival of the species. Being sensorially receptive is an essential state for visiting MONA, the privately owned art museum and collection of Tasmanian gambling millionaire Walsh. Since it opened in January 2011, it has been an undisputed curatorial game changer in the Australian art world. MONA's growing permanent collection and temporary displays owe more to the practices of contemporary biennales than art museums, yet its arrival freed up Australia's public galleries to be more experimental and playful. Before MONA, they tended to be wedded to chronological white-wall exhibitions, but this unashamedly gonzo new entrant was cashed up and unconstrained by curatorial committees, boards, public funding, or the need to observe rules or regulations. Walsh led from the front, encouraging his collaborators to move fast and break things. MONA is firmly part of the art establishment now, the sum of the considerable experience Walsh and his team have amassed, and of Australian galleries having relaxed. Coinciding with the exhibition's early June opening was Dark Mofo, David Walsh's festival encompassing live music, the sprawling Winter Feast food market, and various indoor and outdoor art activations throughout Hobart CBD. The festival made its return this year under new artistic director Chris Twite, following a hiatus in 2024. With its music, food, numerous bars, and warming fire pits for the bundled-up crowds, Dark Mofo evokes a blokey theme park. It carries the air of a last hurrah of the heterosexual white man. In the right-on landscape of Australian arts, there's something incredibly quaint about experiencing what feels like a Gen X fun park. Indeed, Dark Mofo offers a wondrously unique and intriguing experience, almost as if it's an arts festival from a world that froze in 1994, upon Kurt Cobain's death. Loading Unapologetically created in Walsh's image, music headliners ranged across punk, electronica and the 'extreme metal and absurdist mayhem' of US outfit Clown Core. Winter Feast is as visually arresting as its offerings are smokey and delicious, by no mistake. There is wild goat, wallaby and camel on the menu, their skeletons arranged above the grill long after the flesh has been stripped. A free public event during opening weekend's prime-time Saturday night was a theatrical car crash featuring two BMWs, complete with doughnuts, pungent rubber burnouts, and dazzling sound and lighting. Look out for the video. Crash Body, conceived by Brazilian artist Paula Garcia, drew thousands to the wet, windy Regatta Grounds overlooking the Derwent, framed by the Tasman Bridge. This site is also earmarked for the proposed AFL stadium, a controversial project that led to the state's premier being ousted the day before. Dark Mofo's free public art program is like a biennale in style, albeit on a walkable Hobart scale. Visually, the event is connected throughout Hobart by red lights and inverted crucifixes. These deliciously symbolise the humility of St Peter, who asked to be crucified upside down to put himself beneath Jesus Christ, but are alternatively symbolic of Satanism. Choose your own adventure. Loading Among the legacies of David Walsh's everyman approach to MONA is the enthusiasm with which audiences in Tasmania engage with the arts. Free events on the opening weekend were packed, many ticketed events sold out, and the general confidence of people interacting with artworks was impressive. Nicholas Galanin's Neon Anthem called on people to kneel on one knee and scream, a comment on the Black Lives Matter movement possibly lost in this execution, but in which nearly everyone who walked past nonetheless participated, generating waves of screams like you might hear near a roller coaster. Brigita Ozolins' beautiful exhibition on banned books, Revolution and Silence at the State Library and Archives of Tasmania, will remain open until October. It's a gentle meditation on social mores in stark contrast to Dark Mofo's in-your-face headliners. Dark Mofo's highly sought-after Night Mass events were, once again, sold out. Thousands of revellers explored the multi-stage, all-night jamboree of music, performance art, and installations that transformed a city block into something resembling a sticky-carpet nightclub adorned with share-house decor. I haven't even mentioned Simon Zoric's Coffin Rides (as it says on the tin) or the Sex + Death Day Spa installation at MONA, where a nana in a white towelling robe at the entry deadpanned options: 'Do you want anal bleaching or a Brazilian?' Did I mention the 90s?
The Age
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
One of the most powerful artworks I've seen is on show in Tasmania
The exhibition takes its name from one of the installations, a new work made up of a series of five water wells sitting in pitch darkness behind a glass wall. Into these, molten steel drips at hypnotic intervals, generating sparks reminiscent of a working foundry, although these sparks are artfully curated. An earlier version debuted at the 2022 Venice Biennale, where Sassolino used fiery droplets of molten steel to evoke what he described as the dramatic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio's 17th-century paintings, specifically The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. In this version, the chiaroscuro is certainly dramatic. While it's difficult to imagine a saintly beheading amid the sparks, the eight-minute sequence, observed from pews placed for this purpose, is mesmerising, in the tradition of the transcendent religious artworks adorning Europe's great cathedrals. In the end, the beginning is a perfect addition to a gallery famed for its kinetic displays and its inherent subversion of the Catholic faith in which MONA founder David Walsh was raised. Sassolino's precision engineering is 21st century, but his choice of materials and fascination with old-fashioned masculine energy are furiously at odds with a planet economically realigning around the rare earth mineral economy as it gears up for the decarbonisation revolution. Elegant as it is, the exhibition feels like one last loving look over the shoulder as we move into a future where harnessing the energy of wind and sun assures the survival of the species. Being sensorially receptive is an essential state for visiting MONA, the privately owned art museum and collection of Tasmanian gambling millionaire Walsh. Since it opened in January 2011, it has been an undisputed curatorial game changer in the Australian art world. MONA's growing permanent collection and temporary displays owe more to the practices of contemporary biennales than art museums, yet its arrival freed up Australia's public galleries to be more experimental and playful. Before MONA, they tended to be wedded to chronological white-wall exhibitions, but this unashamedly gonzo new entrant was cashed up and unconstrained by curatorial committees, boards, public funding, or the need to observe rules or regulations. Walsh led from the front, encouraging his collaborators to move fast and break things. MONA is firmly part of the art establishment now, the sum of the considerable experience Walsh and his team have amassed, and of Australian galleries having relaxed. Coinciding with the exhibition's early June opening was Dark Mofo, David Walsh's festival encompassing live music, the sprawling Winter Feast food market, and various indoor and outdoor art activations throughout Hobart CBD. The festival made its return this year under new artistic director Chris Twite, following a hiatus in 2024. With its music, food, numerous bars, and warming fire pits for the bundled-up crowds, Dark Mofo evokes a blokey theme park. It carries the air of a last hurrah of the heterosexual white man. In the right-on landscape of Australian arts, there's something incredibly quaint about experiencing what feels like a Gen X fun park. Indeed, Dark Mofo offers a wondrously unique and intriguing experience, almost as if it's an arts festival from a world that froze in 1994, upon Kurt Cobain's death. Loading Unapologetically created in Walsh's image, music headliners ranged across punk, electronica and the 'extreme metal and absurdist mayhem' of US outfit Clown Core. Winter Feast is as visually arresting as its offerings are smokey and delicious, by no mistake. There is wild goat, wallaby and camel on the menu, their skeletons arranged above the grill long after the flesh has been stripped. A free public event during opening weekend's prime-time Saturday night was a theatrical car crash featuring two BMWs, complete with doughnuts, pungent rubber burnouts, and dazzling sound and lighting. Look out for the video. Crash Body, conceived by Brazilian artist Paula Garcia, drew thousands to the wet, windy Regatta Grounds overlooking the Derwent, framed by the Tasman Bridge. This site is also earmarked for the proposed AFL stadium, a controversial project that led to the state's premier being ousted the day before. Dark Mofo's free public art program is like a biennale in style, albeit on a walkable Hobart scale. Visually, the event is connected throughout Hobart by red lights and inverted crucifixes. These deliciously symbolise the humility of St Peter, who asked to be crucified upside down to put himself beneath Jesus Christ, but are alternatively symbolic of Satanism. Choose your own adventure. Loading Among the legacies of David Walsh's everyman approach to MONA is the enthusiasm with which audiences in Tasmania engage with the arts. Free events on the opening weekend were packed, many ticketed events sold out, and the general confidence of people interacting with artworks was impressive. Nicholas Galanin's Neon Anthem called on people to kneel on one knee and scream, a comment on the Black Lives Matter movement possibly lost in this execution, but in which nearly everyone who walked past nonetheless participated, generating waves of screams like you might hear near a roller coaster. Brigita Ozolins' beautiful exhibition on banned books, Revolution and Silence at the State Library and Archives of Tasmania, will remain open until October. It's a gentle meditation on social mores in stark contrast to Dark Mofo's in-your-face headliners. Dark Mofo's highly sought-after Night Mass events were, once again, sold out. Thousands of revellers explored the multi-stage, all-night jamboree of music, performance art, and installations that transformed a city block into something resembling a sticky-carpet nightclub adorned with share-house decor. I haven't even mentioned Simon Zoric's Coffin Rides (as it says on the tin) or the Sex + Death Day Spa installation at MONA, where a nana in a white towelling robe at the entry deadpanned options: 'Do you want anal bleaching or a Brazilian?' Did I mention the 90s?
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Australia closes Tehran embassy
Australia has shut down its embassy in Tehran, citing a worsening security environment as Israeli strikes hit Iranian nuclear facilities for a second time. With the air conflict entering its second week and no sign of either side backing down, Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the decision on Friday. 'We have a very volatile security situation in Iran,' Wong told journalists during a press conference. She added that Australian defence forces and aircraft were being deployed to the Middle East to assist with the possible evacuation of citizens and diplomatic staff once airspace reopens. However, she stressed that the personnel would not be involved in any combat operations. 'We do not have to cast our minds back too far in history to understand the risk to foreign officials in Iran in times of unrest,' she said. The embassy closure underscores growing fears that the conflict between Iran and Israel may deepen, drawing in regional and global actors.
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Business
- Perth Now
Banks, miners drag ASX lower
Gains in the healthcare sector were offset by falls in the big four banks and major miners, with the local market falling for its fourth consecutive trading day on Friday. The ASX 200 dropped 18.20 points or 0.21 per cent to 8,505.50 on a quiet day of trading. The broader All Ordinaries slipped 17.90 points or 0.20 per cent to 8,723.50. Australia's dollar traded down against the US dollar and is now buying 64.83 US cents. Five of the 11 sectors rose but falls in banks and mining shares dragged the market lower. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia On a mixed day for investors, strong gains out of the utilities and healthcare sectors were offset by falls from the big banks and miners. CSL shares jumped 0.63 per cent to $240.21, Pro Medicus gained 1 per cent to $276.81 and ResMed added 1.40 per cent to $39.16 on a strong day for the healthcare sector. Commonwealth Bank fell from a record high close on Thursday, down 0.2 per cent to $182.53. National Australia Bank slipped 0.5 per cent to $38.91, while Westpac came off 1.1 per cent to $33.21 and ANZ dropped to 2.5 per cent to $28.39. It was a mixed day for the big miners, with BHP eking out a small gain up 0.22 per cent to $36.21, while Rio Tinto fell 1.33 per cent to $102.17 and Fortescue dropped 0.54 per cent to $14.69. Overall five of the 11 sectors closed higher despite the market falling. On a reversal of trade in recent days, the price of oil and gold fell after the White House said US President Donald Trump would decide on strikes on Iran 'within the next two weeks' alleviating fears of an immediate escalation in the Middle East crisis. The price of crude oil futures fell 2.9 per cent to $US76.50 a barrel on the news, while gold futures also dropped 1.4 per cent to $US3,362 an ounce. Healthcare shares are on the rise on an overall weak day of trading: NewsWire / Christian Gilles Credit: News Corp Australia AMP head of investment strategy and chief economist Shane Oliver said stocks remained at 'high risk' of a pullback as markets grappled with multiple economic concerns. 'Global and Australian shares have seen a strong rebound from their April lows – but they remain at high risk of a sharp near term pull back as the risk of an oil supply disruption flowing from the war with Iran is high and Trump's tariff threat is far from resolved,' he said. 'On the tariff front it is notable that the 9th July tariff deadline is rapidly approaching and no deals have been struck beyond that with the UK, with indications that some countries may end up with tariffs well above 10 per cent.' In company news, Pointsbet Holdings announced a temporary pause in trading. It comes as rival sports wagering company Betr announced a renewed takeover bid in what it is calling a superior proposal for Pointsbet compared to Japanese gaming giant Mixi. Web Travel shares are in the red down 0.44 per cent to $4.50 after announcing former Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah and JB Hi Fi director Melanie Wilson would be joining the board as independent non-executive directors.
