Alex Burchmore

@alexburchmore

Senior 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

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Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· 28d

I first encountered "The Couple" back in November 2014, tucked away in a corner of Xiaoxian's brother Ah Xian's Beijing studio and immediately found myself captivated Really pleased to finally have this opportunity to think more deeply about the work, and to share it with a broader audience!

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· 28d

Delighted to add this handsome volume to my shelves, out now with @manchesterup.bsky.social! 📚 Absolutely thrilled, too, to see Liu Xiaoxian's incredible "The Couple" (2004) featured on the cover - you can read more about this work in my chapter 😁 #ArtSky 🖼🎨 #BookSky #AcademicSky

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jun 15

Huge thanks to @luiseguest.bsky.social for this thoughtful review of my book New Export China: Translations Across Time and Place in Contemporary Chinese Porcelain Art (@ucpress.bsky.social, 2023) in the current TAASA Review, the journal of The Asian Arts Society of Australia! #BookSky 📚 #ArtSky 🖼️

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· May 6

Really pleased to share this review for Third Text of two books by two brilliant colleagues - Laura Vermeeren's "Ink Studies" (@nuspress.bsky.social, 2025) and @luiseguest.bsky.social's "Invisible Ink" (@bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social, 2026) 👇🏽 www.thirdtext.org/burchmore-fr... #BookSky 📚 #ArtSky 🖼️

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Apr 25

My review of "The Hooligans" (open until 17 May) at White Rabbit Gallery in today's @sydmorningherald.bsky.social 👇🏼 "The hooligan, in the end, is a convenient fiction, a paper tiger, a marketable persona, yet also a force for positive change, a voice for the voiceless" #Art 🎨 #ArtSky 🖼️

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Mar 10

My review of Alison Carroll's latest with @routledgebooks.bsky.social, "Soviet Socialist Realism and Art in the Asia-Pacific" 👇🏽 "As the fault lines of the Cold War reopen, this is a welcome call for recognition of regional connections, overlapping histories, and shared ideals" #ArtSky 🎨 #BookSky 📚

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Feb 18

"Each new generation accepts a progressively more degraded night sky ... For the first time in human history, kids today won’t grow up with the same night sky as every previous generation" Fascinating (if unsettling) reading by Gregory Radisic and @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy 👇🏽

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 12

Definitely! Another recent happy find:

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 11

Pretty chuffed with these additions to the personal library 📚 All second-hand and not overly pricey, but perfect condition and definitely worth it! Happy to scan chapters for fellow scholars who can't access any other way 😁 #BookSky #AcademicSky

All three volumes of the anthology "Fragments for a History of the Human Body"

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Dec 26

My "After the Rain" review (link below to the online version) in today's print edition of the @sydmorningherald.bsky.social - hopefully readable, with a bit of zooming and squinting 😁 #Art #AustralianArt #Canberra

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Dec 26

Decided to spend this #Twixmas learning about my roots! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

A hardback copy of the book "A History of Wales" by John Davies, on a couch cushion with a cup of coffee and a bookmark

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Nov 27

Gotta do what the man says... 😅 I've got two art history books to sell you: NEW EXPORT CHINA (@ucpress.bsky.social, 2023) - www.ucpress.edu/books/new-ex... MATERIAL SELVES (@bloomsburyacad.bsky.social, 2024) - www.bloomsbury.com/au/material-... Perfect gifts for the art lovers in your life! 🎅🏼

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Nov 26

Two brilliant new books from @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social by two brilliant colleagues! 🎉 @drrwel.bsky.social's Versailles Mirrored: The Power of Luxury, Louis XIV to Donald Trump @luiseguest.bsky.social's Invisible Ink: Feminism and Identity in Contemporary Chinese Art links below with more info 👇🏼

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Oct 31

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 👀

An exhibition review in the Sydney Morning Herald

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jul 20

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

Me circa 1994-95, wearing a nsvy turtlenedk and holding a Siamese cat

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jun 28

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-...

A review of the exhibition "Tender Comrade" at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, in the Sydney Morning Herald, with a copy of the exhibition booklet

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jun 5

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

A copy of the June 2025 issue of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Review, showing the front cover image of Wang Guangyi's painting "Great Criticism - Art and Politics" (2006)

The first page of an article titled "Paper Ambassadors: Chinese Political Posters in Australian Collections", showing the text

The second and third pages of an article titled "Paper Ambassadors: Chinese Political Posters in Australian Collections", showing the text

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Apr 15

I see your cheese hot cross buns and raise you... 👇🏽 😅

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Apr 7

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

A scanned page from the Australian Women's Weekly, with text and photos of Chinese theatrical performances

A scanned page from the Australian Women's Weekly, with photos of Chinese theatrical performances

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Apr 7

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 📚

Two books on a desk - a copy of Jack Chen's "The Chinese Theatre" and Peter Townsend's "The Classical Theatre of the People's Republic of China"

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Mar 17

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

The three volumes of Fernand Braudel's "Civilization & Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century", with the covers of the first and second volumes overlaid with red and green transparencies, respectively

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Feb 26

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

A hardback copy of Books 33-35 of Pliny's Natural History from the Loeb Classical Library

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Feb 4

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? 😆

A second-hand copy of John McPhee's "Annals of the Former World", with an old boarding pass from 1987 used by Gunnar Larson

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 17

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!

A stack of four second-hand books - Roger Fry's "Vision and Design", R.G. Collingwood's "The Principles of Art", Anthony D. Smith's "Nationalism in the Twentieth Century", and Margaret Medley's "Yuan Porcelain and Stoneware"

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 17

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"... 👇🏽

Susan Collis (b.1956), You Again, 2011, Left to right: Sonokeling, mother of pearl, silver; Pau Amarello, teak veneer, mother of pearl, turquoise; aluminium, platinum leaf; Japanese maple beech, white holly veneers, ground malachite pigment; Sonokeling, white holly veneer, ebony veneer, mother of pearl; aluminium, 24-carat gold leaf; English oak, walnut veneer, Sonokeling veneer, ebony veneer, bog oak veneer, silver

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 11

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

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 7

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 🎭

Masami Teraoka, AIDS Series/Makiki Heights Disaster, 1988 - a series of watercolours on paper attached to a folding screen, dramatising the dangers of AIDS and promoting condom use in an ukiyo-e style

A detail of the previous image, showing three figures battling to contain a gigantic snake that has broken through a protective condom

Shochiku Costume Company, Kabuki costume for Benkei in the play "Kanjinchō", c.2000, silk and gold thread brocade, plaited cord, twill-woven plaid, embroidery

Inshō, The History of Kabuki, c.1890, ink and colour on a paper folding screen - a series of cartoon-like vignettes summarising the history of Kabuki theatre

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Jan 7

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!

Ethel Carrick, Laveuses algériennes [Algerian women washing clothes in a stream], c.1911 - a detail of a painting in oils on canvas

Ethel Carrick, A Street in St Paul, c.1933 - a lithograph showing a view between buildings down an empty street, on paper printed in black ink

Anne Dangar, Lidded Jar with Gargoyle Design, 1934, wheel-thrown glazed earthenware with slip decoration

Anne Dangar, Jug with Celtic Serpent Design, c.1933-50, wheel-thrown glazed earthenware with slip decoration

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Dec 11

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-...

Alex Burchmore@alexburchmore· Dec 8

If you see this, post a vampire and pass it on!