music and sound and art and craft and technology and stuff and that.

On Friday night i went to the last performance/public program event for Viva La Craft - the Chicks on Speed extravaganza* at Craft Vic and had the best time. In fact, the whole exbhitition has been totally inspiring for me.

The Chicks are amazing artists who combine craft,fashion,art, technology, music, sound, performance in their multi-disciplinary practice. They just make stuff. They're incredibly intelligent, focussed, friendly, political, inclusive and innovative gals. Hella inspiring to just throw of the shackles of image-based insecurity and just get into it. Just make stuff.

On friday night, they collaborated with another inspiration local artist, Dylan Martorell, and made the most amazing combined soundscapes i've heard in ages. Dylan does a pretty hot job of sound/art production as it is - being a maker of musical instruments, technology whizz, creator of whacky plant-based scores and general rad dude - and his work is all about the growth of a space, whether that's through nutty potato forms, or a soundspace, his organic (for want of a much less overused term) process was spot on for this.



Add to that the stuff that the Chicks on Speed make: image and sound repetitions that create rhythm and melody: the images of painted fingernails slapping girls bums, fingernails scraping, stiletto heels scraping, a zip being done up in slow-motion and the occasional distorted scream. Plus they had their own instruments: sampler, these amplified headware contraptions that looked like felt french horns, plus the shoe guitar. All of it was an amazing cacophony of sound and sound-base art production, that was melded into a working rhythm between the 3 artists.

And the images/object surrounding the space were all so amazing - a complete mash-up and intervention into the gallery: Pipes from the ceiling, patchwork on the walls, string and fabric, and light projection and people everywhere. Good stuff.

The whole performance got me completely psyched, as did the exhibition and other performances. Lately i had been a little, well, consumed by my own self-consciousness. I had been retreating into myself a little and playing it a bit safe with my own personal aesthetics. Doing silly things like being concerned more with a flabby tummy than fucking with the stereotypes associated with fashion. Thankfully, i had a good kick-up the pants with this show and am releasing some of those dumb shackles and am inspired again to just 'fuck shit up'.

PS - If you haven't been to see the exhibition, go. For crying out loud, go. It's amazing. Unfortunately the artists left Oz yesterday, but the installation and tapestry theramin, the sewing table and clay lumps are still there. And if you don't check it out, may you be stuck in a rut forever.

*most excellent description lovingly borrowed from miss dell stewart.

image credits: Girl Monster applique wallpiece, Chicks on Speed
Melissa and Alex from Chicks on Speed, by Faythe Levine on flickr.