Curated by British born RMIT lecturer Jennifer Conroy Smith, Sensory Clay does not break boundaries as a group show, but does showcase promising artists from RMIT’s talent pool. On the whole, I found the show exciting. Ceramics is an under-represented field, but something I find is gaining more and more traction as emerging artists gain support. In particular, artists playing with form and blurring the barriers of materiality will be my enduring memory of this show.

In the nook of First Site is Xinshuo Zhuo’s Unnatured. Presented alongside three other exhibitions, Zhuo’s is the quietest. The works did not strike me at first sight, it was only in sitting with them- getting closer and truly taking my time that the detail and nuance struck me. Going back through them, finding the motifs (the butterflies, the obscured sun, the faceless woman, the hair) I wanted more. What Zhuo captures with analogue photography feels like nothing that could be imitated with modern means. There is a delicacy to the exhibition. 

The Affordable Art Fair is not what I want it to be or what the name suggests- it is no great equalizer, it is not art for the masses, and it most certainly is not affordable. For $47.23 to be able to attend the opening night on Thursday, or $29.63 for general admission ($26.53 for concessions), there’s something to be said for building a brand centred around affordability with such a high barrier for entry in the middle of a cost of living crisis. My second gripe with “affordable” is their version of it- under $10,000. Granted, a cursory look around places more canvases in the mid-thousands rather than the upper end, but it is still far more than most are able to part with on a stormy Friday afternoon.