Maybe it’s the time of year—bare black branches across purple evening skies, scenes that feel more gloaming than sunset—but I’ve been feeling a bit witchy lately. By witchy, I mean seeing the hazy edges of things. Sometimes, hazy edges are the uncomfortable parts of life that we prefer to avoid—living in absolutes can be the greatest luxury. Other times, hazy edges are the misty, weird, fun places that hold all the good stuff. And if you let yourself get into that place—like, really get in there and stay long enough for some Uber Eats delivery—magical things can happen. — Kelly Marages, Hudson NY, 6 February 2023, shirleybooks.substack.com No Easy Answers explores art as a way of thinking. Bringing together six artists from across Australia and the United States, it makes the case for art as a necessary strategy in confronting contemporary challenges that have no easy answers. Each artist challenges us to consider how we come to know the things we know. A number of works stretch traditional art mediums of sculpture, dance, and painting in new directions while others embrace newer techniques and technologies. Hands, bodies, paint, bronze, electronics, vaporisers and drones are used. The works take us through the real and the imagined – from the Blue Gum Forest to the insides of the internet – but each artwork calls for us to be present. Ideas considered are the networked condition of the post internet age; our capacity to act in the face of climate change and the excesses of capitalism; memorialisation of imperfect histories; permanency; the fragility of democracy; bodies; pleasure; and individual freedom in light of collective responsibility. No Easy Answers turns towards complexity, inviting us to find comfort in nuance and critique, and strengthen our collective imagination. It asks us to spend time in the place of hazy edges. Ella Barclay Dense Bodies and Unknown Systems (Detail), 2021 Installation view Image courtesy of the artist