'But it's the non-essential items that make it worth living, and art might be the most non-essential of all: a perfectly useless thing that we nonetheless value unreasonably. At its best, art is the grace note, the song in the shit-storm, the good-looking weed pushing up through the cracks. In short, it's a sign of life: evidence that, despite the cordons and the rubble and the Portaloos, there are some humans at home who are determined to keep things interesting.'

From 'Loss Adjustment', a piece I've written about the state of art in Christchurch for the latest issue of Art and Australia.