“Taste is the enemy of art, A.R.T,” said Marcel Duchamp. As a revolutionary in the development of conceptual art, his idea was simple and highly prescriptive: reject work that is intended only to please the eye and use art to serve the mind. Aesthetics should never rule ideas.

As inspirational as this sounds, we have never truly been able to escape the taste debate.

Whether it is the kind that passes over the tongue or that of aesthetic value, it is so deeply personal that it remains unreconciled even within our being.

In contemplation, it is largely binary. Good taste is considered creativity’s greatest killer and yet so often, accepting the taste of our cultural milleu can come with great reward, admiration and gain. Poor taste, on the other hand, is synonymous with vulgarity and excess but once its origins are understood (its known as an overcompensation more than anything else) it can be loved, revered and have a true ability to transform.

Good or bad: taste is a filter to our humanness.

When it’s with us, we know it.

A feeling, a moment, a knowing…

This issue is dedicated to the RUSSH team that made it. As arbiters of taste – in all its forms – they have shared what’s inside them without reservation. From the very freshest and unseen Australian talent, treasured sonnets from the most far out vagabond poets to guarded family recipes, their stories are entirely their own. Personal, untethered and with a good dash of indifference.

It’s a dish.

May you enjoy it.

For more, get to know our cover star Hannah Wick through RUSSH's exclusive model profile feature. And to experience the Taste issue from beginning to end, the September issue of RUSSH will be available on newsstands from September 2 and through our shop now. Find a stockist near you.