Alex Burchmore
@alexburchmore.bsky.social
Lecturer in Art History and Curatorial Studies, Australian National University; author of New Export China (University of California Press, 2023) and Material Selves (Bloomsbury, 2024); scholar of things and people in motion
And in print, for those who can't access the online version! Happy to send a digital copy on request as well, if the text is too small in this photo 👀
October 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
And in print, for those who can't access the online version! Happy to send a digital copy on request as well, if the text is too small in this photo 👀
Should I recreate this for the next author photo? 😆
Circa 1994-95 with my mum's beloved Siamese cat Baron, who was not a fan
Circa 1994-95 with my mum's beloved Siamese cat Baron, who was not a fan
July 20, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Should I recreate this for the next author photo? 😆
Circa 1994-95 with my mum's beloved Siamese cat Baron, who was not a fan
Circa 1994-95 with my mum's beloved Siamese cat Baron, who was not a fan
My review of the exhibition "Tender Comrade" at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, in today's @sydmorningherald.bsky.social! 👇🏽🏳️🌈
#art #lgbtq #lgbtqia #china #review
Link to the online version (paywalled): www.smh.com.au/culture/art-...
#art #lgbtq #lgbtqia #china #review
Link to the online version (paywalled): www.smh.com.au/culture/art-...
June 28, 2025 at 12:05 AM
My review of the exhibition "Tender Comrade" at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, in today's @sydmorningherald.bsky.social! 👇🏽🏳️🌈
#art #lgbtq #lgbtqia #china #review
Link to the online version (paywalled): www.smh.com.au/culture/art-...
#art #lgbtq #lgbtqia #china #review
Link to the online version (paywalled): www.smh.com.au/culture/art-...
Hot off the press! A short piece by yours truly in The Asian Arts Society of Australia (TAASA) Review, on the fascinating provenance of several collections of Chinese political posters in Australian public institutions 👇🏽
Hope it's as much fun to read as it was to write!
#art #poster #collection
Hope it's as much fun to read as it was to write!
#art #poster #collection
June 5, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Hot off the press! A short piece by yours truly in The Asian Arts Society of Australia (TAASA) Review, on the fascinating provenance of several collections of Chinese political posters in Australian public institutions 👇🏽
Hope it's as much fun to read as it was to write!
#art #poster #collection
Hope it's as much fun to read as it was to write!
#art #poster #collection
I see your cheese hot cross buns and raise you... 👇🏽
😅
😅
April 15, 2025 at 8:57 AM
I see your cheese hot cross buns and raise you... 👇🏽
😅
😅
Before his career as editor of Studio International, Art Monthly & Art Monthly Australasia, Townsend (1919-2006) played a large role in spreading Chinese arts abroad - including this theatrical tour to Australia and the UK featured here in the Australian Women's Weekly (thanks #Trove!)
#ozhist
#ozhist
April 7, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Latest second-hand finds!
A copy of "The Classical Theatre of the People's Republic of China" (1956), with essays by the one and only Peter Townsend, and the equally singular Jack Chen's "The Chinese Theatre" (1949) 🎭
Keep reading for some more on the history of these books...
#booksky #books 📚
A copy of "The Classical Theatre of the People's Republic of China" (1956), with essays by the one and only Peter Townsend, and the equally singular Jack Chen's "The Chinese Theatre" (1949) 🎭
Keep reading for some more on the history of these books...
#booksky #books 📚
April 7, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Second volume finished this morning!
Braudel shifts here from "material civilisation" to the market economy, meaning the world of everyday industry and transactions
Much more focus on Europe, but still a wide-ranging read with some fascinating insights and arguments
#BookSky 📚 #HistorySky
Braudel shifts here from "material civilisation" to the market economy, meaning the world of everyday industry and transactions
Much more focus on Europe, but still a wide-ranging read with some fascinating insights and arguments
#BookSky 📚 #HistorySky
March 17, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Second volume finished this morning!
Braudel shifts here from "material civilisation" to the market economy, meaning the world of everyday industry and transactions
Much more focus on Europe, but still a wide-ranging read with some fascinating insights and arguments
#BookSky 📚 #HistorySky
Braudel shifts here from "material civilisation" to the market economy, meaning the world of everyday industry and transactions
Much more focus on Europe, but still a wide-ranging read with some fascinating insights and arguments
#BookSky 📚 #HistorySky
My very first Loeb! 📚🏛🏺
Found myself referring to Pliny so much last semester when teaching the history of artists' materials and techniques that I thought I may as well invest in a copy of my own 🤓
#booksky #AncientBlueSky #ClassicalStudies
Found myself referring to Pliny so much last semester when teaching the history of artists' materials and techniques that I thought I may as well invest in a copy of my own 🤓
#booksky #AncientBlueSky #ClassicalStudies
February 26, 2025 at 10:40 PM
My very first Loeb! 📚🏛🏺
Found myself referring to Pliny so much last semester when teaching the history of artists' materials and techniques that I thought I may as well invest in a copy of my own 🤓
#booksky #AncientBlueSky #ClassicalStudies
Found myself referring to Pliny so much last semester when teaching the history of artists' materials and techniques that I thought I may as well invest in a copy of my own 🤓
#booksky #AncientBlueSky #ClassicalStudies
Picked up a second-hand copy of McPhee's Annals of the Former World for a lecture on deep time and contemporary art, with an unexpected bonus - a 1987 boarding pass used by one Gunnar Larson! ✈️
Should I include this in the lecture as an example of things collapsing time? 😆
Should I include this in the lecture as an example of things collapsing time? 😆
February 4, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Picked up a second-hand copy of McPhee's Annals of the Former World for a lecture on deep time and contemporary art, with an unexpected bonus - a 1987 boarding pass used by one Gunnar Larson! ✈️
Should I include this in the lecture as an example of things collapsing time? 😆
Should I include this in the lecture as an example of things collapsing time? 😆
Enjoying some quality time this morning with these gems found yesterday afternoon at our local second-hand bookshop (Book Lore in Lyneham) 📚
Especially pleased to nab Medley's "Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware" for $5!
Especially pleased to nab Medley's "Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware" for $5!
January 17, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Enjoying some quality time this morning with these gems found yesterday afternoon at our local second-hand bookshop (Book Lore in Lyneham) 📚
Especially pleased to nab Medley's "Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware" for $5!
Especially pleased to nab Medley's "Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware" for $5!
Preparations are well under way for my postgrad research seminar this semester on materials in contemporary art and theories for understanding their use! 😎
Leading with this deceptive yet captivating work by Susan Collis as a case-study for Gell's and Bennett's concepts of "enchantment"... 👇🏽
Leading with this deceptive yet captivating work by Susan Collis as a case-study for Gell's and Bennett's concepts of "enchantment"... 👇🏽
January 17, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Preparations are well under way for my postgrad research seminar this semester on materials in contemporary art and theories for understanding their use! 😎
Leading with this deceptive yet captivating work by Susan Collis as a case-study for Gell's and Bennett's concepts of "enchantment"... 👇🏽
Leading with this deceptive yet captivating work by Susan Collis as a case-study for Gell's and Bennett's concepts of "enchantment"... 👇🏽
One volume of Braudel down! 📖🎉
Pleasantly surprised to see such an extensive focus on China (albeit relying on 17th- and 18th-century European sources, and with no citation of Needham?!)
A little dated but the ideas of "material civilisation" and the longue durée remain so enduringly resonant
Pleasantly surprised to see such an extensive focus on China (albeit relying on 17th- and 18th-century European sources, and with no citation of Needham?!)
A little dated but the ideas of "material civilisation" and the longue durée remain so enduringly resonant
January 11, 2025 at 2:06 AM
One volume of Braudel down! 📖🎉
Pleasantly surprised to see such an extensive focus on China (albeit relying on 17th- and 18th-century European sources, and with no citation of Needham?!)
A little dated but the ideas of "material civilisation" and the longue durée remain so enduringly resonant
Pleasantly surprised to see such an extensive focus on China (albeit relying on 17th- and 18th-century European sources, and with no citation of Needham?!)
A little dated but the ideas of "material civilisation" and the longue durée remain so enduringly resonant
Also loved the pairing elsewhere in the gallery of Masami Teraoka's iconic prints of the late '80s, and these incredible folding screens, with a generous selection of ukiyo-e kabuki, bijinga, and shunga woodcuts 🎭
January 7, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Also loved the pairing elsewhere in the gallery of Masami Teraoka's iconic prints of the late '80s, and these incredible folding screens, with a generous selection of ukiyo-e kabuki, bijinga, and shunga woodcuts 🎭
Brightening up a grey day in Canberra with the brilliant "Ethel Carrick | Anne Dangar" at the National Gallery of Australia 🎨🏺
Great to see these two under-appreciated modernist pioneers get the blockbuster treatment!
Great to see these two under-appreciated modernist pioneers get the blockbuster treatment!
![Ethel Carrick, Laveuses algériennes [Algerian women washing clothes in a stream], c.1911 - a detail of a painting in oils on canvas](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2yegghm4kmd4tsxtwxmbcabr/bafkreieqnyn4efck7n5ps3rrfzcl6qvatparhf44d3g4gxuy7i2ibng6tm@jpeg)
January 7, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Brightening up a grey day in Canberra with the brilliant "Ethel Carrick | Anne Dangar" at the National Gallery of Australia 🎨🏺
Great to see these two under-appreciated modernist pioneers get the blockbuster treatment!
Great to see these two under-appreciated modernist pioneers get the blockbuster treatment!
Searching for just the right Christmas gift for the bookworm in your life? I hear these make good stocking-fillers... 😅
New Export China (for the ceramist or Sinophile): www.ucpress.edu/books/new-ex...
Material Selves (for anyone who loves a good object story): www.bloomsbury.com/au/material-...
New Export China (for the ceramist or Sinophile): www.ucpress.edu/books/new-ex...
Material Selves (for anyone who loves a good object story): www.bloomsbury.com/au/material-...
December 11, 2024 at 12:54 AM
Searching for just the right Christmas gift for the bookworm in your life? I hear these make good stocking-fillers... 😅
New Export China (for the ceramist or Sinophile): www.ucpress.edu/books/new-ex...
Material Selves (for anyone who loves a good object story): www.bloomsbury.com/au/material-...
New Export China (for the ceramist or Sinophile): www.ucpress.edu/books/new-ex...
Material Selves (for anyone who loves a good object story): www.bloomsbury.com/au/material-...
If you see this, post a vampire and pass it on!
December 8, 2024 at 7:44 AM
If you see this, post a vampire and pass it on!
And last but not least: in the tenth chapter, Jessie Hohmann and Daniel Joyce connect material and metaphorical furnishings of legal identity through their reflection on a table and chair at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
And last but not least: in the tenth chapter, Jessie Hohmann and Daniel Joyce connect material and metaphorical furnishings of legal identity through their reflection on a table and chair at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law
In the ninth chapter, I argue that the mounting of Chinese porcelain and its installation in "porcelain rooms" during the 17th and 18th centuries should be understood as parallel curatorial strategies for framing the foreign and familiar, self and other, and people and things
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the ninth chapter, I argue that the mounting of Chinese porcelain and its installation in "porcelain rooms" during the 17th and 18th centuries should be understood as parallel curatorial strategies for framing the foreign and familiar, self and other, and people and things
In the eighth chapter, @luiseguest.bsky.social reflects on gendered experiences of sexuality, motherhood, and daughterhood in the work of contemporary Chinese artists Tao Aimin, Cao Yu, and Liu Xi
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the eighth chapter, @luiseguest.bsky.social reflects on gendered experiences of sexuality, motherhood, and daughterhood in the work of contemporary Chinese artists Tao Aimin, Cao Yu, and Liu Xi
In the seventh chapter, Emily Williams considers collectors of objects related to the Mao-era model soldier Lei Feng in contemporary China, arguing that this has become a mechanism to reclaim a form of socialist moral identity lost in China's reform era
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the seventh chapter, Emily Williams considers collectors of objects related to the Mao-era model soldier Lei Feng in contemporary China, arguing that this has become a mechanism to reclaim a form of socialist moral identity lost in China's reform era
In the sixth chapter, Jessica Priebe explores artistic reuses of "chaney", fragments of colonial-era porcelain that continue to wash ashore in abundant supply on St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the sixth chapter, Jessica Priebe explores artistic reuses of "chaney", fragments of colonial-era porcelain that continue to wash ashore in abundant supply on St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands
In the fifth chapter, Cheryl Roberts considers the global impact of London's 1930s fashion fur industry on living environments to unravel how these garments reflect Empire, ethics, class, race, fashion literacy, and material knowledge and possibility
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the fifth chapter, Cheryl Roberts considers the global impact of London's 1930s fashion fur industry on living environments to unravel how these garments reflect Empire, ethics, class, race, fashion literacy, and material knowledge and possibility
In the fourth chapter, Robert Wellington investigates the material nature of the portrait miniatures of Louis XIV worn by Charles Le Brun and their role in artistic self-fashioning
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the fourth chapter, Robert Wellington investigates the material nature of the portrait miniatures of Louis XIV worn by Charles Le Brun and their role in artistic self-fashioning
In the third chapter, Samantha Happe argues that the Safavid Persian khila' or robe of honour adopted a fluid status as it moved between shifting cultural frameworks
December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
In the third chapter, Samantha Happe argues that the Safavid Persian khila' or robe of honour adopted a fluid status as it moved between shifting cultural frameworks