Kaleidoscope’s 2022 Round Up: the art that changed the course of our year
We asked some of our writers to tell us about the pieces of art that changed the course of their year in 2022. We don’t believe in “best”, but we do believe in the power of well-made, exciting bits of creativity to make us feel things. Plus, it’s always nice to look back and see what other people have been doing.
If you’re reading this, thanks for supporting Kaleidoscope Arts Journal in 2022! We started in September as a bit of an experiment (with this review here), and we’ve now published 24 bits of theatre writing, 2 TV reviews, 2 book reviews, 2 film reviews, a music review, and even a visual arts review. We gave you 7 different listicles with recommendations for poetry, theatre, and comedy.
Our most popular piece was written by Maddy Jolly Fuentes, and talked about Aussie musical theatre’s racism problem through the lens of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
If you had a favourite KScope piece of writing in 2022, we’d love to hear about it! And if you like what we do, consider supporting us by shouting us a coffee here.
Read all about which pieces of art made Martha, Maddy, Ceridwen and Charlotte into more interesting people this past year below (click titles for links):
7am, Schwartz Media
Never have I felt so comfortable with my level of engagement in current events than I have this past year. In many ways, 2022 was my year of "checking out". I checked out of Instagram and my constant doom scrolling. I checked out of Spotify and its malignant approach to music. I checked out of my exploitative (if enjoyable) arts career. You'd think with all this checking out, I would find current events obscured; blurry objects in the periphery.
And yet, Ruby Jones and the 7am team consistently make daily news updates accessible, interesting and human-focused. The world of politics, economics and society has never been so snug in my small, but hardworking, brain. Skip The Daily Aus and their trite rewrites of whatever The Age is reporting. Add Ruby to your morning routine and check back into the world.
- Martha Latham
I’m Glad My Mom Died, written by Jennette McCurdy
I read this book in the last week of 2022 and it absolutely ROCKED me. Perhaps I’m biased having grown up with a similar (though incredibly less extreme) mother-daughter relationship. If you aren’t familiar with her, Jennette grew up as a child actor, most known for her role as Sam on Nickelodeon's iCarly. This autobiography focuses on her heavily enmeshed relationship with her mother and the trials and tribulations of being a child star. It has so many twists and turns that it honestly feels like a fiction novel, which makes it even more shocking to read. I love the way Jennette examines grief, addiction and motherhood in her journey to find her own identity.
- Maddy Jolly Fuentes
Everything Everywhere All At Once, written/directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
On April 30th I watched my second in-cinema movie of the year, Everything Everywhere All At Once. I hadn’t been reached by any media buzz then, and I didn’t even watch the trailer. The brief synopsis combined “aging Chinese immigrant” and “science fiction”, which was enough for me.
Centred on the complicated and painful reality of human relationships, Everything Everywhere All At Once is rightfully absurd. In an alternate universe, Evelyn Quan Wang has pushed her daughter Joy Wang to the limit, splintering her mind and driving her to complete existential destruction. The final hope for all existence lies in the reality where Evelyn runs a laundromat, and not the one where she is a kung-fu master or movie star.
This movie plunged into my heart with chubby hotdog fingers and stuck googly-eyes on all my hardened nihilistic bits. Afterwards, my boyfriend and I took turns tearfully reminding each other we were in love and how lucky that made us.
I went to the cinema ten more times in 2022. Yes, Everything Everywhere made me all gooey, but it also clanged a bell around my head until I remembered that I LOVE movies. Soon I’ll be a Platinum member of the Dendy cinema, and it all started with Everything Everywhere All At Once.
- Ceridwen Bush
UBU: A Cautionary Tale of Catastrophe, written/directed by Richard Hilliar, presented by Tooth and Sinew
Based on Alfred Jarry’s 1896 “inglorious slop pail” of a play Ubu Roi, this climate activist version boasts the brilliant combination of poo and fart jokes, puppets, insanely styled wigs, and character names like “Prime Minister Fuller Bjullschitt” and “King Dumbc’nt”.
I reviewed this production for Theatre Thoughts in May at Kings Cross Theatre and I’m still thinking about how fcucking excellent it was; a real testament to vulgarity and comedy’s ability to draw you in and make you question the line between absurdity and reality. It’s also just a whole lot of brightly coloured and chaotic fun, with fabulously grotesque performances from every member of the cast — everything you could want from a night at the theatre, and then some. It’s been a constant reference point for me since I saw it, sending me further down the absurdism/surrealism rabbit hole. And no, I’m not coming back anytime soon.
I can’t wait to see more puppets and chaos in Tooth and Sinew’s “spiritual sequel” to UBU this March: Apocka-wocka-lockalypse: Adventures in the Deadlands!
- Charlotte Smee
Thanks again for supporting us in 2022!
Collages by Ceridwen Bush
If you’d like to write for us in 2023, get in contact with our editor Charlotte by email or Instagram DM.
