In the studio: Ex de Medici

The Proust Questionnaire

eX de Medici answers the same 35 questions Proust originally answered in 1890.

Portrait of artist eX de Medici, 2020. Photo: Gary Grealy

1. WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF PERFECT HAPPINESS? An atheist world.

2. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST FEAR? Insane heads of state and their MAGA-hat-wearing minions.

3. WHAT IS THE TRAIT YOU MOST DEPLORE IN YOURSELF? Over enthusiasm.

4. WHAT IS THE TRAIT YOU MOST DEPLORE IN OTHERS? Cruelty. Opportunism.

5. WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? My brother.

6. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE? Thought crime.

7. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT STATE OF MIND? Restless. Persistent.

8. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST OVERRATED VIRTUE? Inherent power.

9. ON WHAT OCCASION DO YOU LIE? When I say I love musicals and David Lynch.

10. WHAT DO YOU MOST DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR APPEARANCE? Not princessy enough.

11. WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST DESPISE? Rio Tinto. A corporation that has ‘international legal personhood’.

12. WHAT IS THE QUALITY YOU MOST LIKE IN A MAN? Repairing things.

13. WHAT IS THE QUALITY YOU MOST LIKE IN A WOMAN? Mindreading.

14. WHICH WORDS OR PHRASES DO YOU MOST OVERUSE? Fuckstik. Patach (Klingon: coward).

15. WHAT OR WHO IS THE GREATEST LOVE OF YOUR LIFE? Headdie, my deceased Staffordshire Terrier.

16. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU HAPPIEST? Always here, always now.

eX de Medici, 'Root and Branch' (detail), 2016 watercolour, gouache on paper 100 x 115 cm. Purchased with funds provided by Paul & Valeria Ainsworth Charitable Foundation, Kathleen Buchan and May Bequest Fund and the Australian Prints, Drawings and Watercolours Benefactors’ Fund 2017.

17. WHICH TALENT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE? Flying a jet.

18. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Be better at maths.

19. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT? Staying alive.

20. IF YOU WERE TO DIE AND COME BACK AS A PERSON OR A THING, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Robocop in the LNP cabinet room.

21. WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO LIVE? Iran.

22. WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION? Driver’s license and passport.

23. WHAT DO YOU REGARD AS THE LOWEST DEPTH OF MISERY? Animals at the hands of humans.

24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE OCCUPATION? Travelling, driving.

25. WHAT IS YOUR MOST MARKED CHARACTERISTIC? Enthusiasm.

26. WHAT DO YOU MOST VALUE IN YOUR FRIENDS? Their difference.

27. WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE WRITERS? Roberto Calasso, Ishmael Kadare.

28. WHO IS YOUR HERO OF FICTION? Spock and his sister Michael Burnham.

29. WHICH HISTORICAL FIGURE DO YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH? Burning witch sisters.

30. WHO ARE YOUR HEROES IN REAL LIFE? Greg Combet. Jacquie Katona.

31. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE NAMES? Star and Trek.

32. WHAT IS IT THAT YOU MOST DISLIKE? Indolence. Resentment.

33. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST REGRET? No regrets.

34. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE? Awake.

35. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Family motto: Here we are at the front of time, what is the best way forward?

Exhibition: eX de Medici, May 26 - June 11 2022