Tristen Harwood is an Indigenous writer, cultural critic and researcher raised in Perth and based in Naarm and the Northern Territory. His writing appears in publications including The Monthly, ArtReview, Overland, Art Almanac, Metro and Art + Australia. Grace McQuilten is an art historian, curator and artist with expertise in contemporary art and design, public art, social practice, social enterprise and community development. Her research focuses on inclusive methods of curating and writing and challenging the division between margin and centre in contemporary art. Anthony White is an Associate Professor of Art History in the School of Culture and Communication at The University of Melbourne, and has published several books on the global history of modern and contemporary art.
Real art is nothing if not a passage of heartfelt messages across an immense ocean of difference, of separate individuals trying to connect, to find solace, to ask ‘do you feel what I feel?’ Variations reminds us of this deep need to express ourselves, despite all odds and obstacles, beyond all conventions, expectations and institutions – to find in that genuine diversity our common humanity, our truth. -- Shaun Tan