Spence Messih

Spence Messih is an artist and writer living on unceded Gadigal land. His practice speaks to sites of pressure, power structures, materiality and language. Spence has recently shown at Auto Italia, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. They are a current PhD candidate at the University of NSW Art & Design.

All essays by Spence Messih

Review: Spence MessihVincent Silkon Lou Sullivan

We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan by Lou Sullivan, edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma Nightboat Books
440pp
Published September, 2019
ISBN 9781643620176

Our Father, Who Art In Heaven

Lou never got to help physically rebuild his personal world after the peak of the AIDS crisis in the US, but in many ways he helped to rebuild the worlds of countless people who came after him. Early on in his diaries, Lou says, ‘My problem is that I can’t accept life for what it is…like it is presented to me. I feel there is something deep and wonderful underneath it that no one has found.’ I wonder what messages the dead have for us now.