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Jane O'Sullivan

@sightlined.bsky.social
842 followers 595 following 1.8K posts

Writer / Art writing, cultural criticism & fiction in Art Guide, Vault, Apollo, Sydney Review of Books, Island, Adroit Journal, Flash Frog & Okay Donkey / Secret 🪡 habit janeosullivan.com.au

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Reposted by Jane O'Sullivan
Josh Manning @joshmanning.bsky.social · 23h
Here’s a gift link for this piece, which hits on so many themes I have been struggling with recently. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I’m Exhausted. You’re Demoralized. We Weren’t Built for a World Like This. (Gift Article)
A greatly underappreciated virtue of other presidents was that you could forget about them for weeks at a time.
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Today's fun fact: exit mould and laundry spray come in the exact same bottle
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"So who was in your group, were there any little kids?" "No, no echidna-gartners"
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Today's small good thing: blueberry countdown has started
Green blueberries on the bush
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The Cathy Wilcox @cathywilcox.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Why would you trust an industry founded on theft to self-regulate?
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Interesting background on the Arts Centre Melbourne strikes (and just how hard it is to actually strike)
artshub.com.au
ACM employees are striking for fair pay – but how, when and why can workers actually go on strike?
In Australia, there are many conditions that must be met before workers can take legally protected industrial action and go on strike.
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I'm getting super from a lit journal soon and I'm FLOORED No idea about this 20% who are apparently did get super, wonder where
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Jennifer Mills @jennifermills.net.au · 21/09/2026
“Something we have decided is that we’ll be paying writers MEAA rates. We’ll pay $1.12 a word. And we’ll pay ASA rates for the illustrations and graphic storytelling as well... We’d like to honour appropriate remuneration of creatives in Australia.” 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 @asauthors.bsky.social
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Harry Saddler @harrysaddler.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Took the day off work, saw an echidna. This is what capitalism is trying to keep from you
Am echidna with its head buried in the ground: a ball of yellow and brown spines about the size of a football, in the understorey of a grassy forest.
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
OH MY GOD I'M GETTING SUPER FOR A PIECE OF WRITING 🦄🍀😱
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
And the award for best media release in my inbox this morning goes to...
screenshot of a media release, with discussion topic bullet points including "could your house actually be haunted?"
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Sumitra Singam @pleomorphic2.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Another time round with this piece in @lostballoon.bsky.social - would love you to read it as I really loved writing it 🧡
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Sat down to watch the 2018 Westwood doco: "So anyway I don't know that I want to show any of this shit. And I don't know what the fuck this is." Glorious. Just glorious
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Today's small good thing: hearing my kid coming down the street from school (because his bestie always walks him home and those two don't stop talking)
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Macquarie Dictionary word of the day going niche
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Erin Vachon (they/them) 🍉 @erinvachon.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I’ve got a new flash in this month’s @pitheadchapel.bsky.social, a true story that reads stranger than fiction. Thanks a million to @kimmagowan.bsky.social for loving this, because I truly love Pithead Chapel. ✨🖤
pitheadchapel.com
And Treebeard Said, “I Must Do Something, I Suppose”
Erin Vachon I tell my friends it will get bad, then better. Soon. A timeline sketch. Summer, then. We will conquer. At protests, we flex such chants into religion. I. I. Believe. Believe. That We. …
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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Rough Draft vs Final Draft
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
did the American dialect quiz as an Australian and... I'm Miss Rhode Island mydialect.us/quiz-standar...
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Today's small good thing: the Sydney sea eagle cam www.youtube.com/live/nw4pdgy...
youtube.com
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
ASK ME HOW I KNOW
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Before I turn in a book review these days, I ask myself if I have sinned as others have sinned against me. To whit, willfully refused to read a section, awfully misquoted a passage or placed it out of context, hexed upon me unsubstantiated intent or influence, gotten the basics of the plot wrong,
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Today's small good thing: someone strung some swings up in the trees outside, and now the morning school rush is just the sound of kids and screams and laughter
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Currently working on my next art book review. Cannot tell you how deeply I love reading/thinking/writing these!
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I love it, the dress code for the media preview of QAGOMA's Jim Henson exhibition is "Bold, Bright and Fantastical"
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Sage Tyrtle 🇨🇦 @sagetyrtle.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I learned a new word, "retronym", I love this concept. We had cameras, then we had digital cameras, and the retronym is "film cameras", a distinction that didn't have to exist until digital cameras came along. (See also: watch --> wristwatch --> retronym: pocket watch.)
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Tommy Siegel @tommysiegel.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
the moment AI developed the TRUE artist mindset
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
🗣️ Acts of Creation: On art and motherhood by Hettie Judah (Thames & Hudson) #artbook #bookreviews #booksforartists
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Mel Campbell @incrediblemelk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The peregrine falcons are back for 2026 and they have three eggs!! Livestream started on Monday after the first egg was laid on Sunday
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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A literary award where the best books are announced not with titles or author names but with the books' cruelest 1-star reviews on Goodreads. To recognize yourself and claim the prize, you have to publicly admit that not only do you read your own Goodreads reviews, you've memorized the meanest ones.
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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I genuinely wonder how many Yayoi Kusama obituaries will mention this: www.artnews.com/art-news/new...
artnews.com
Yayoi Kusama Expresses “Deep Regret” For Anti-Black Statements Ahead of Exhibition at SFMOMA
The artist issued the remarks just before an exhibition on her work opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The 5 #Simpsons lines I utter most off the top of my head: 1. No, no, dig up stupid 2. Which was the fashion in the day 3. No, it's the children who are wrong 4. You don't win friends with salad 5. I see you've played knifey spoony before
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
When I die, I would also like something good to read in the afterlife
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
"Governments at all levels often assume arts funding is not electorally popular. But these figures prove arts and culture are central to the social foundations of Australian life."
theconversation.com
Nearly every Australian engages with arts and culture. Politicians should pay attention
Governments at all levels often assume arts funding is not electorally popular. New data shows they are wrong.
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
So many killers in this thread ❤️
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
John Balsessari, Goya series (1997) & Kevin Yaun, Outlet by Window (2026) Yaun's work currently on show at Megan Mulrooney Gallery, Los Angeles
Black and white photograph from John Baldessari's Goya series, showing a power outlet, unplugged cable and the text IT SERVES YOU RIGHTKevin Yaun's Outlet by Window is a small painted timber power outlet, sitting next to a regular power outlet
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I spent a long time convincing myself that it was a me/failure problem, but it turns out surviving solely as a freelance writer is just very, very hard
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New life goal: a study big enough for a horse
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MEAA @withmeaa.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Our recent survey of over 500 media workers showed that: -61% of freelance journalists we surveyed have over 20 years’ experience -41% have over 30 years’ experience Yet more than a third of respondents are now being paid below award minimum rates. Read the report: meaa.io/4x5Zd43
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
sound on for full metal racket
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
he's just so good add this one to your podcast queue and go for a nice long walk, it's joyously affirming podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
Screenshot of app playing Ocean Vuong on the How I Write podcast
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The Cathy Wilcox @cathywilcox.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Slop. My @smh @theage cartoon.
Single frame. Title - instruction: “[place cartoon here - ed]”. Appearance of yellow torn out lined note paper held in place by sticky tape. Text: “The Herald-Sun has this week published an AI cartoon, where previously they might have commissioned one of their (dwindling) stable of artists. And it makes sense. (Not the cartoon.) After all, what is a cartoon, but a picture with a caption and maybe some helpful labels to make a point? In this case, a point the editor who prompted it wanted to make.
I mean, how hard can cartooning be? We would all be doing them if it weren’t for our lack of drawing skill (and some cartoonists aren’t very skilled, let’s face it), and AI means nobody has to pay the outrageous fees that “artists” charge, while they can “borrow” their existing work to train AI. It’s literally a no-brainer!” (Small picture of a brain crossed out) “We can only hope they can keep up the quality, once the AI can only be trained using other AI cartoons.”
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
...as my kid would say, "my brain is not braining"
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
so I wandered into twitter to check something and it's 99% super moralistic, clickbaity, obviously made up anecdotes and revenge stories... what is this new pulp flash fiction? what on earth is going on??
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Well that's surprising news. Artist Atong Atem has joined Sullivan+Strumpf and is no longer listed as a represented artist on the MARS Gallery website More: www.sullivanstrumpf.com/artists/aton...
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
In today's edition of Small Good Things, it's nesting season and I keep hearing the butcherbirds outside. Fingers crossed for more baby birds!
Three fledgling butcherbirds in a tree, all eagerly watching their mum or dad... who is studiously ignoring the lot of them
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
〰️ new from me, reviewing three fascinating art books that had me thinking about family artguide.com.au/shelf-portra...
screenshot of the first paragraph of a book review: If you wanted to be cynical about it, you could trace the ways museums are responding to our complex world in two main politically ‘safe’ directions. One leans towards technology, with exhibitions that use AI or question the future. Another turns towards family questions...
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Quietly adding the time spent doing the census for everyone in my household to the 'unpaid housework' tally
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Jane O'Sullivan @sightlined.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
And now to unwind with a nice relaxing census
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