On Saturday the 17th May 2025, a symposium was held to consider the work of recently deceased artist Dr Bernhard Sachs (1954-2022). The colloquium was originally proposed by Linden New Art Director Vince Alessi to accompany the exhibition Bernhard Sachs: After History, curated by Hamish Sawyer and held at Linden New Art Gallery.

It was a tremendous success on many levels—full crowd, engaging speakers, thoughtful audience. Even the weather darkened, scowling black and wet in a manner Bernhard would have found delightful. And the event itself was also delightful! Younger members of the audience marvelled, asking why don't such events don’t occur regularly? Older hands wondered—when was it exactly, that these things stopped being a regular accompaniment of exhibitions? As was demonstrated: a considered, stately examination of an artist’s work from a variety of viewpoints reveals much, about a great many things. It is also an invigorating reaffirmation of practice, reminding one why art can be so rich, while general culture regularly remains impoverished, often incapable of sustaining discussions beyond the level of simple promotion or moribund recognition. As this event so eloquently demonstrated, it could all be otherwise, and all quite simply.

The day was divided into three broad sections—'Material and Process', 'Philosophy and Theory' and finally, 'Legacy'—that encompassed the artist’s work, his role as educator, theorist and mentor. The speakers were variously artists, theorists, colleagues, historians, writers. Many were all-of-the-above. Some had previously written essays for the recently published monograph by Sontag Press, Bernhard Sachs: Codex (ed: Bridgit Moriarty and Alex Ward), which launched on the same day. For this event, however, the authors produced something alternative or supplemental. The accompanying papers here will speak for themselves, and don’t require explanation, but a list of participants might be useful as, due to the discursive nature of some of the presentations, many cannot simply be reproduced.

Materiality and Practice: included Godwin Bradbeer, Dr Sean Loughery, Professor Anne Marsh. Facilitated by Hamish Sawyer.
On Philosophy and Theory: Associate Professor Sean Lowry, Dr Edward Colless and Dr Stephen Haley. Facilitated by Dr Vince Alessi.
On Legacy: A panel discussion chaired by Dr Raafat Ishak and included Julie Davies, Associate Professor Nicholas Mangan and Dr Masato Takasaka.

There were also various contributions from the audience, sadly unrecorded. If you missed the event—a pity!—but the pale reflection that follows here still retains significant echoes and some of the warmth. Not all, not the same, but still worthwhile. What is missing, what cannot be recovered, is that which can only be experienced through direct experience. And that gulf between the direct and the highly mediated, is a compelling argument for more events like this to take place into the future. Although, preferably, sometime before the artist is dead.