london: wednesday.

the last couple of days have been like a dream come true, really: art, coffee, art, coffee. as a result, my reporting is a bit behind.

on wednesday, with my inimitable art-pal, john dodds, i took in the V&A, the saatchi gallery and a weird place called chelsea futurespace (which i'm not going to go into, but it was kinda weird and all display-home).

V&A: 1:1 architecture spaces.

this was the exhibition highlight of the day, really.

a series of 1:1 spaces designed/built by architects as investigations into small spaces. there were 2 in a designated area for the show, with the rest dotted around the collection, perfectly responding to the various galleries and sections*.

all of them were great - you can see them here:
and here

but there was one in particular that totally floated my boat people and i'm going to devote the rest of my laptop battery to it: the bookshelf space.




the space, called Ark, by Rintala Eggertsson Architects is kind of a well-made, solid, ikea open bookshelf x 4, facing in on itself. the 'walls' are enclosed using books, the ground floor opens into the bookshop, whilst the roof meets the floor of the library upstairs. in between is a spiralling space of booky goodness! oh my lordy i almost fainted with overwhelm of all the books. i find going into book shops and libraries hard enough - i often need a chaperone in readings.

of course, john and i took the opportunity to do a quick little intervention into the space, rearranging the books to make a whole shelf of the conqueror by jan kjæstad - a massive paperback with a distinctive cover.

i loved the obvious idea of a place of literature, where knowledge is the foundation of space (something that john latham would have gone a bit goo goo about).

i also loved also the idea that this situation - a site and non-site of shifting space as the same time. and that small spaces were being created and filled in by books. and that no book was more or less important than another.

the whole colour palette of the place also had me gabbling - the exterior, with the exposed pine beams and then the out-facing pages were all the same colour, because they were all the same 'stuff'. wood and paper together again.

and then on the inside, the colour explosion was so pleasing to the eye - in a way that something more contrived would just make me wanna vomit. part of me wanted to spend hours in there, organising all the spines by colour. but then the whole bottom floor would probably be orange :)



the smell of the place was so comforting and homely. it reminded me of all my favourite bookstores and the times i've spent with friends just wandering, head tilted, perusing.

if you're in to books, in even the slightest way, go see this space at the V&A.


saatchi gallery: newspeak.

newspace too - i didn't get a chance to pop in last time i was in the hood, so i'm grateful for the opportunity to do so. for the most part, the show was frightful. i haven't had such a violent opposition to works in a while - there was some real shite there. but, there was also some excellent work, and some obvious themes being investigated, which was intriguing and enlightening. even if i didn't like the particular works investigating those themes.

new british artists (still mostly painters, according to the saatchi kids - maybe because painting is still the prime-market) are mostly looking at human disfigurement and apparition.




not part of this show, i loved two works in the two large project galleries: richard wilson's 20:50 - a beautiful, reflective space made from the gallery filled with oil. the reflection was slightly disconcerting, the smell even more so. and as atmospheric and moody as the work was, i also ended up feeling angry that it somehow vindicates the disaster of oil-space c/- British Petroleum. I felt the need to make the work political by chucking a stack of animals in there to float and then see how beautiful it looked. not that it has anything to do with mr wilson's formal concerns, i guess.





the other beautiful work was john wynne's pianola composition for 300 speakers - a stack of various speaker boxes, mostly beautiful old ones, with a pneumatic automated playing system that cardiff-miller and meireles would have been proud of.

there were a few other good works, namely the pixel rug and guillotine by rupert norfolk and the boys in the corner by littlewhitehead.

it was great to see the gallery in the flesh - i hadn't ever seen it. i expect it will be a fairly regular visit for me when i'm in london town now.





*almost funny anecdote about the studio mumbai work: you have to remove your shoes for this exhibit, and while we were putting them back on, we were accosted approached by education staff from the gallery to survey our response to the show. she kinda messed with the wrong sinatra, 'cos when she asked about how i would describe the show to a friend, little did she know that my friends are all pretty well-versed in architecture/art vernacular and i started rattling on about interstitial spaces and textured experience. ha! what wanker i am.


ark images are from the V&A site and REA.

hot in the city

i'm sorry if you don't live in melbourne right now. there is SO much on for anyone who is mildly interested in anything other than the lost finale (which, for the record, i'm not).

firstly, the next wave festival is on and although the first week of stuff didn't really get my heart started*, there have been some excellent works on and this week i'm finally having that 'oh crap i need to see 5 things in the one night' moment. PLUS the emerging writers festival has started!

if you haven't been down to the meat market to see the structural integrity pavilions and scott mitchell's smoke machine, for god's sake brave the cold and do it. it will make it all worthwhile.




and if you're whinging about how out-of-the-way the meat market it is, i understand. really, i do. but it's worth it - just get off the 19 tram at queensberry st, it's pretty easy from there.


the other thing you need to do is come to west space and see the feminist project exhibition, the view from here. and you should buy/read the catalogue. it is the hopeful beginning of the next wave of feminist discourse (see what i did there?).




interestingly, the introduction to the female eunuch could easily be the introduction to this work, whereby we've sat on our laurels again got all caught up in raunch culture and fake tans/boob/lips, forgetting that we STILL need to loudly remind ourselves and everyone that exploitation of any kind based on gender (or race, sexual preference or creed for that matter) is not OK.


it's pretty shit, but i've already missed out on the parachutes for ladies' i thought a musical was being made and tape projects' 100 proofs the earth is not a globe. if you're going, i think i might hate you for a while. and if you're not - join the philistine fan club.

things i will not be missing out on:

great heights 2 at melbourne central tonight, featuring kay abude, sam george, michael georgetti, tegan lewis, andrew liversidge, amy + claire spiers and paul wotherspoon.




the infinity tube near the neck face piece off meyers place (now that it has finally arrived!)



and estelle tang's 15 minutes of fame book launch extravaganza, as part of the emerging writers' festival. estelle's blog 3000books is one of the best lit blogs going around, so you should read it and come to the events this week. super ace.


two other shows you should see:

glenn walls' show at john buckley, projects for total urbanism (pictured above). i think it's in the last couple of days, so you should run to richmond. (yes, lauren. ahem)

and owen leong's show, birthmark, at anna pappas. SUCH beautiful photographic works. but you know, i'm biased as he's a dear friend.



PLUS there are a few things i'll be missing out on because i'm giving a lecture at RMIT.

so, if you're not going to grace us with your presence, one of the things you should go and check out the soundkilda music vid competition on at the palace george in st.kilda - showing the hottest music vids on the big screen, which i'm totally into as an idea.

and...actually i can't remember the others - i live in a purely need-to-know timescale at the moment. ha!


if you're not in melbourne, i'm sure your week is great - you've either got waaay more interesting things to do, or you're watching re-runs of the lost finale. either way, i'm happy for you. really.



* except the taking it to the streets forum with lucas ihlein on sunday. i'll talk about that another post.

image credits:
estelle and her facebook page
next wave site
john buckley website
owen leong website
dell stewart and her flickr stream

shows, shows, shows!

after that burst of blog activity last week, i dropped off the posts for a bit because there were a stack of shows i had to squeeze in. i'm now working full-time to earn some cashola, so my free time has been streamlined. which of course = less blogging time.


"hooray!"


anyway, there are a stack of great shows on in melbourne at the moment, which you should all go and have a look at. and there are more this week too!


grant nimmo and julia robinson
anna pappas gallery



it's quite exciting to see some of the new kids on the block at anna pappas. grant nimmo's paintings from if you are a big tree, we are a small axe are part of a new crew of artists making work that collages chronic colour symbolism, landscape and portraiture tradition with ITC language. think delaunay, and yahoo groups.

some of the works in the show i fell in love with immediately. others are really not my taste. and maybe that's because i'm too closely attached to language and symbols from online communication to have detachment from it (and therefor be able to see the beauty/irony/message/meaning in it).

julia robinson makes sculptural work that stylises the animal form by creating it using textile techniques. although i appreciated the work, i couldn't help but think about the work of melbourne artist natalie ryan who is currently making very similar work, albeit with a style and material (that deep, lush flock/velvet) that i like more. i felt like i had done julia an injustice by that instinctive comparison, like instantly comparing muse to queen, so i left feeling une petite remorse.


izabela pluta
nellie castan gallery



in the back project space, iz has a selection of subtle, but carefully selected series of photo and print-based work that map out the litoral edge and the point at which the place meets the urban architectural experience. the three projects are so quiet and clear and graceful and yet manage to pick up on a really interesting reflection of line: the line of the rushing canal, the line of the almost-dormant creek and the line of hardened ice and/or snowfall.

i've not been to this gallery before, and it was well worth the cross over the river, that's for sure.

simone slee
sarah scout presents



simone slee's action works have a similar process to my own and an obvious relationship to the difference between architecture and art practice and critique. are you true to your materials? is a modernist question. and a painter/sculptor's question at that. it is the question which plagues generations of artists and a question that seems to be justification for critique (as opposed to 'are you actually saying something interesting?'). simone has placed this question in front of a series of modernist residential architecture sites, apparently asking the same question of Architecture and highlighting it as a question that is, in my opinion, completely irrelevant to art.

i love the idea of this process. i would love to see some images of the actual process of these works and i was excited to see the signs in the gallery space. as i mentioned on the night - how much fun would it be to hire the signs out for the night and encourage the audience to ask that same question of whatever aspect of public life they felt needed critiquing.



the nothing
west space



as a whole, this show is fantastic. curated by kelly fliedner, i was instantly impressed with the breadth and quality and stoush of this show - a real range of works by melbourne artists who are all doing some amazing things right now:

damiano bertoli, lou hubbard, sanne maestrom, deborah ostrow, daniel price, matthew shannon and jackson slattery (who i keep calling slattery, jackson - channeling the teacher from ferris bueller's day off)

ok, so the whole idea of having a bunch of artists that sews a theme together is nothing all that new, but i still thought it was reassuringly cohesive.

my favourite work in the show was, unsurprisingly, the damiano bertoli video work, continuous moment: andandand - a video montage of empty residential/architectural spaces. i'm pretty sure it's cut together from other film works (i reckon there's a slice from the german film 'die fettern jahren sind vorbei' in it and a piece from a chantal ackerman work. but i'm probably totally wrong). it creates an almost-narrative, full of suspense from all that possibility, all that just-before-the-action context and lead-in. and the use of colour field had me literally ooh-ing and aah-ing. i think i gave my fellow viewers the shits very quickly.

other works of note (for me) included:

deborah ostrow's photo/video portaits (pictured), which - aesthetically speaking - surprised me into loving them. in fact, they have a similarity with the grant nimmo works (you know, the ones at anna pappas) - with their dutch renaissance, colour symbolism, nu-tech language mash-up.

lou hubbard's ET. nothing mind-blowing, in terms of concept, but still fuckin' fun. bring back art with a bit of fun on top, i reckon. of course, it doesn't hurt that i am immature and have a deep love for sue webster/tim noble. my first thought was, i wonder whether she figured that out by accident - like maybe someone through something at something and it made a shape that eventually became ET.

and of course sanné mestrom's a door opened and almost closed again conceptual work in the doorway of the gallery. the whole imagination/action/text overlap floats my little boat.


territorial pissings
utopian slumps



this is the opening group show for utopian slumps in its new form, as a commercial gallery. including a load of well-known hip young thangs:
sean bailey, dan bell, nathan gray, michelle hanlin, matthew hopkins, rob mchaffie saskia leek, toby pola (pictured), tom polo, tim price, mark rodda, gemma smith, masato takasaka,jake walker and amber wallis.

there are a couple of good works in this show, but if i'm terribly honest, i wasn't really taken with many. nor was i really in love with the new space. i haven't given up hope, but it might take me a few returns before i can really get in the groove with the new space.

now, you must forgive my lack of names in this mini review - all the room lists had disappeared and i couldn't jot any of the names down. you'll just have to go and see the works and match them to the room sheet when you get there.

i loved the sculpture piece on the shelf as you first walk into the space - i was like a bower-bird. all taken with the bright sparkly objects and the colour co-ordination.

and i also really liked the pair of paintings on the wall opposite the entrance - muted palette utopian cityscapes. like egon schiele mixed with gemma smith and danila vassilieff. he also made the work that was on the laptop on the floor - an unexpected joy for me, with surprisingly great combination of image, depth of field and selection of materials.

in the hype of the evening i missed out on seeing rob mchaffie's drawings, but i just know they would have been stunning too.

all in all, the new commercial version of utopian slumps will be a fascinating trip and i wish all the peeps involved a stack of success.

*just for the record, territorial pissings - the song by nirvana - was the song that turned me onto the joys of punk music. you can take that how you wanna, but goddammit, it's still my one of my alltime favourite songs.


epilogue

I didn't see this show when it opened last week and finally got to see it yesterday. it is such a perfect match for the show at west space that, if you are interested in either show, you must go and see both. it's like they are an echo of each other. the nothing and the something, anything. it is the lack and the desperation. the emptiness and the need to fill it. it is the wax and the wane of art making, of thinking, of doing and of the driven.

a quarter turn on every screw
kings ARI



another exhibition, based on a theme, with a stack of excellent artists from melbourne and beyond. a few more interventions into space, a couple of works that made me laugh out loud for real and this show is easily of my highlights for the year so far. and the essay by curator kel glaister is fantastic. sorry, it's FANTASTIC!!

this show is about the reasons - the compulsions about making art, or making something. filling in the gaps, filling up spaces and how/why/when artists make art: brad haylock, anthony johnson, yvette king, sanné mestrom (again), sanja pahoki, kiron robinson, jackson slattery (slattery, jackson - remember?), nedko solakov and lee walton.

i laughed myself silly at sleep transcript by anthony johnson - a record of an artist asleep on a laptop, i was flooded with thoughts about the irreverence and potency of this absurdity: challenging the weight of critical theory in publication with the weight of an artist's slumber, i was reminded of the highly inspiring text my cat produces when she decideds to parade across my keyboard and also loved his reflection that, even asleep, artists make work.

patti smith said, when she was here a few years ago: "artists are always artists. i could be taking a crap and i'm still an artist!". i loved this quote and have it written in my diary as a constant reminder. the sleep transcript connects me back to this idea in a way that encourages us to have a sense of humour about the dumb shit we do under the guise of art too.

sanné's signage and text-based badges were a great touch and, i guess in counterpoint to the omnipotence of artists production, her idea of artists and art as pawns (as opposed to kings) was poignant. this cynicism keeps us honest, although i guess articles in the herald sun damning art as a waste of money do that too, right?).

and i also really liked the video works of both lee walton (pictured) and nedko solakov.

the former - minor adjustments and personal modifications to public space was stunning. my mother, whenever we go away, rearranges the furniture of the hotel if it doesn't feel right and this work was reminiscent of that. the artist adjusts and intervenes into the objects of public space if they don't feel right.

the latter - the violent and open and not-subtle-at-all modifications to objects in public space was thrilling and exciting in its brazen display. and, in my opinion, the aesthetics of public space need both methods to produce great works and pleasant spaces: bold gestures and attention to detail; swinging mallets and 10 cms to the left.


image credits: all images pinched from the respective websites, except the one of the balloons. i took that.

silent nights

more blatant self-promotion! shock!



light projects have launched their projection night-screen program, silent nights - a series of video works that reflect the medium and process of video/production and my work .... to get a bit of bloody peace... has been included.

it follows the process of a woman sealing a public stairwell in order to create a 'cone of silence' for some sonic solitude and acoustic privacy. those of you who saw my installation at first site will recognise the 'set'. and some of you may also recognise the title - pinched from the words of one miss penny modra, who wrote about Cone of Silence I in the press as "the crazy things we do to get a bit of bloody peace nowadays". she said it was ok. promise.

over the next 10 days, they're running a couple of video works that reflect a rotating theme. clare rae, kate woodcroft and I are part of the action theme. the next two themes are time and narrative, featuring plenty of ace artists.


it's all starting tomorrow night (april 3) and runs until april 12 at 176 high st, northcote. my work will run 3-5 april, so pop over and see it, if you're in town.

répondez et inserez

just to interrupt our flow of reviewing others' works. i have some works in a couple of group projects. both have produced beautiful posters, so i think i'll just save the words and post them instead [click to enlarge].

come and check 'em if you're in the hood.







UPDATE: here's the page from the ICH blog on my stuff: jack

OE

i just got back from a roaring trip to sydney and brisbane. sucking in as much art catch-up as i possibly could in two days for each city. easier said than done.

olafur eliasson at the MCA was a massive drawcard and, thanks to sydney's terrible public transport, and my awful time management skills in the face of such chaos, i didn't get to the gallery until friday morning.

funnily enough, it was exactly the kind of exhibition i expected it to be. usually i like surprises in my blockbusters, but there was something extraordinarily comforting about this sense of familiarity.




the mirrored window extension as you first walk in, with its tunnel of one thousand reflections, was perfect for the vista over circular quay and his spectral mirrored architectonic passageway into some of the main galleries was just beautiful. that colour reflective acrylic is an amazing material that seems to be made for OE and his light/colour spectrum schtick.

on either side of the entranceway were two moving light-based works, both reminiscent of film history (especially hitchcock) - one created spaces using the angles of 7 massive quartz light cans and the other used the combination of filter and refraction to create a revolving light/colour installation.

i have seen the lego room before, so didn't participate, but i wasn't surprised to see it filled with teenage boys, building their koolhaasian architectural monuments to the phallus. it was so cliche, that it took the glee out of it for me. although i was pleased to see the one asian boy building a great wall-esque extension - going for span rather than height. interesting ethnographic studies in that room abound!

bracketing the lego room were two spaces that investigated pure colour and light. the circular reflection cylinder was dreamy - on a slow time-loop which graded the colour from one end of the spectrum to the other, slowly moving through from violet to red and every shade in between. as i overheard, at no time, were you ever a witness to a single pure colour - always moving from one to the next.



the other colour-light room was all pure colour. yellow (which, strangely, is the single colour i have always associated with OE. probably because of his sun work, but maybe even before that..). whilst loads of visitors were all freaked out by the purple compensation sensation, i enjoyed the strangely flattened depth of field. it was beautiful to just watch the human form in an altered palette - all nostalgic and dreamlike. i could have actually stayed in that room for a really long time, but sadly i had time constraints.

tracking back through the gallery, past the entrance to the southern wing i flicked past the photos of geological colour samples. i kind of found it boring, although it certainly put his practice in to context. and i went straight into the model and print room, where i fell in love with his 3-part colour wheel/palette prints. they were embossed and layed over each other so that the colours were in a wheel, created by an overlapping triptych of prints - with a perfect triangle of space in the middle. oookkkaayyy, so it does sound pretty simple, but my colour/shape/math geek self went a little weak at the knees.

which was backed up by the part of the show that made me go quite silly with love. i call it the tessellation station.

the first room was lined with his moss wall. by this stage of the show, it was whitey-yellow, all the chlorophyl having been drained out of it. in fact, it reminded me of how the great barrier reef is going to look in the not-too-distant-future, will all the coral being bleached out of existence by the lack of ozone.




in that room was the coolest kaleidescope object - aluminium cones joined together to create a myriad of facets and reflections that produced such simple, but beautiful shapes of reflections. these were visible either through being inside the space and looking out through the cones, or from the outside, looking into the cones. even the structure itself, with its quasi-industrial connections and materials. and, at the same time, the whole thing reminded me of something out of Dragonball Z. or something like that.

the final space was the water-room, which was preceeded by an earthenware brick corridor, floor to ceiling, which modulated temperature, insulated the space and acoustically deadened it. although most treated it as an interstitial space, i loved that in and of itself.

so much so that i forgot to go back into the cloud room. d'oh! if you're going to the show in the next 4 weeks, don't do that. go all the way to the end and into the cloud room. especially if you don't have the chance to go back. like i don't. boo!

anyway, the OE show is fantastic. i was a little concerned that the show might end up being an extension of ego and i would end up hating mr eliasson, or at least feel slimey afterwards. not so - its timbre is so perfectly weighted that i could go back again and again and again.

bravo!


image credits: all pinched from the mca site.

art date!

owen and i have been going on a regular art date - taking advantage of our flexible hours and keeping up the enthusiasm for seeing shit. it has been che gorgeous to share spaces and artists with each other - to have some perfectly timed discussion about art, the universe and everything. and always starting with coffee at brother baba budan.

we've been making a point of going to galleries that either of us have never been to before and it has been a helluva lot of fun. oh, and we've seen some good works too.

i'm hoping to start posting about the stuff we see regularly (and put a halt to all that self-referential hoo-har from this year), but in the mean time, here's a quick 'digest' in 140 characters or less.

tolarno: patricia piccini
divine space. welcome return to her beautiful and grotesque visceral sculptures: cronenberg-esque. scored a fabulous free poster. huzzah!

murray white room: judith van heeren
dramatic space: echo chamber goodness. paintings were reminiscent of zavros, minus the majesty. sadley, they were completely lost in the space.

anna pappas: vipoo srivilasa
jury is still out on this one: old, bold works intrigued. this style: not so sure, but interested in learning.

C3: OMFUG group show
great to see the gallery really establishing a mark. missed the hit and miss performance, loved simon's sign and adam's hoax.

C3: nicky wynnychuk
nicky conceptual scultpures/installations are going to be amazing in a different setting, but here: dark, broody boy art. heart-broken.

kings ari: december shows: tai snaith, jade walsh and the video battle b/w insight, kings and first draft.
3 toptastic shows: love jade walsh! video battle: ace idea, lacked ace content (FD #1!). tai's work 'kawa-i ne-': some yay, some nae.


this week we had to postpone, but for our last date of the year, we're going to go and see jenny holzer at ACCA and probably hang out in the NGV International. I haven't seen the Bill Viola yet (shame!) and i think it's a great opportunity to lay about out underneath the leonard french stained-glass.

image credit: chris and sanne at the Beelden aan Zee Museum in NL. via jumping in art museums

a flurry of activity

even though the thesis was at the printers and most of the hard work was done, this weekend was unconveniently full of stuff to look at. in fact, i went to about 12 performances/exhibitions in 4 days - it was like i was travelling in europe again (except i also had to squeeze in a list of things to do).

here's a little about them all:

peter greenaway's the last supper



i went in on thursday afternoon, a little sceptical and expecting to not have to pay for the work. i grumbled a bit at the non-student prices, not to mention my initial comparison to the amazing bill viola works at venice biennale that i fell in love with. but as the light, video, painting work unfolded, i was captured. the way he manipulated that image and unlocked the narrative in the original painting was, actually, captivating. it was a subtle unfurling of rapture and i found myself thinking about it again and again - which is always a good sign for me. my criticisms are: that it needed to finish 2-3 minutes earlier than it did. that sounds like i'm being picky, but you start to anti-climax and that's not a good way to leave a theatre, or whatever; and lose the entry fee - bill viola at NGV is free and it's comparable to that. i know - i'm a bit all over the place with my sense of worth about things, but hey.


the french and free choice duo at craft vic:




nathan gray ended his excellent exhibition, attack decay sustain release with an evening of experimental music performance. it was a really exciting evening and lovely to see a whole bunch of peeps who had also been at electrofringe.

the french: nathan, julie burleigh and bianca hester, are an emerging collaboration that combine trad pop rhythms with electronic and other wacky sounds (air horn, anyone?). they really play on the mixture of rhythm and sound structure - which of course blissed me out to no end.
surprise of the night was the free choice duo: jarrod zlatic and jess mc elhinney, who do a great, hypnotic electronic 'fabric' of sound, with a performance style reminiscent of gilbert and george's living sculptures. i'm excited about seeing these guys again - they push the audience's sense of anticipation for all things traditionally musical: the pitch change, the bass drop, the rise and fall of the rhythm, whilst maintain this sense of utter control over the whole shebang. looking forward to seeing them again.


alex bennett at kings ARI:



brother of the fabulous suffragette city gal, victoria bennett, alex is investigating sound, performance, behaviour stuff that is complimentary to my stuff - except he's coming at it from a musician/electro production angle. his repeat performance, using his hand-made pneumatic instruments, stagpipes and wheezebox, was absolutely amazing and i'm glad i went (despite being delirious with tiredness).


the dwelling at ACCA



while there have been better group shows at ACCA, this is still a pretty rad themed exhibition. absolute highlight of the show is the work by janet cardiff and george beures miller. i first saw their work in the silenzio exhibition at the fondazione sandretto re rebaudengo, but seeing it again here was wonderful. and then their amazing opus: opera for a small room, is almost inexplicable. it was such an overwhelming joy for me to watch/listen to/experience that i think i don't have the words to be describe it. it's a narrative work, played out through the sound/light-based behaviours of a hermit-type. it's constructed through a series of animatronic responses, all enveloped in a surrounding soundtrack of opera, applause and a freight-train. it's just amazing - so perfectly executed. it made me want to work as their assistant.

it has similarities to work by the kienholzes and a bit like the not-quite-as-engaging mike nelson work in altermodern at the tate triennial ealier this year. But that comparison is only for the purpose of giving you an idea of its scale and scope, rather than as a derogatory way of undermining the work.

just go and see it.



dictionary of imaginary places at the meat market



i was originally intrigued by the source material: sound recordings of conversations on the train and have been keen to see more work at the meat market. thankfully i had no expectations of the work, because it quite a confronting performance - the performers seated and facing the audience in a row of tiered seating - and then acting out a stream-of-consciousness barrage of monologues collaged together. it was almost a dada performance, quite insane in some parts. and i loved it. i enjoyed seeing the bizarre costumes and the random acts of shoving shoes up leotards and copies of mx into bras. wacky. and utterly enjoyable. it gave me a new appreciation for the absurd - as an artform and a phenomenon that presents itself regularly on public transport.

my disco at the forum (becks' rumpus room)



after the drama of DIP, the ernest intensity of the first band, your animal, was way too much for me and i just had to sit up the back and chatter. it's far from my usual way of engaging with music, but i just couldn't take it in, and there's no real break-out area at the forum with a gig like this.

beaches are a band who do the wall of sound like it ain't no thing - a band of 5 gorgeous ladies, who bob mould would be prouda. but, like the vivian girls at TINA, my main criticism is that, it feels like they're riding on the 'novelty' value of that gender thing a little too much. their stage presence is pretty uncompelling and i would love to see the vocal element of their work either tightened or dropped altogether - it just undermined the amazing musicianship that the band has.

my disco, on the other hand, are just a 3 piece and take up the stage like they're movin' in. they were mesmerising in their perfomance and their sound is hypnotic. liam resembles ian curtis in the memetic intensity of his movements and between the 3 of them, their ability to turn trad instruments into pulsating electronic waves is amazing.


pornography - deutsches schauspielhaus von hamburg



i almost didn't buy a ticket to this 'cos i had pretty much spent my festival budget in the first day, but i'm so glad i took the risk. it was a fantastic production.
the sets were amazing - in that they were well-integrated into the dialogue and performance, they were changeable, yet consistent, meaningful as metaphor and abstract enough to be 'furniture'.
watching a play in german was great and i surprised myself with the level of understanding i had (i only partially referred to the surtitles for bits i didn't know) and it was quite amusing sometime seeing the different timings of audience reaction between those who understood german, and those who were reading the english translation. sometimes the actor wouldn't have finished the sentence and the audience were laughing and other times there was a quiet laughter - followed about a minute later by a louder response.
it was confronting, heartwarming, tragic, entertaining and enlightening all at once. and i didn't even get bored. the ensemble approach to the casting and 8 stories was ace and made for a tight production. definitely would go and see it again, given the chance.


phew! what a weekend, huh. satisfying, though. and i'm looking forward to seeing more stuff over the next few weeks.

image credits: all images from the melbourne international arts festival are from the festival website: http://melbournefestival.com.au.
alex bennett's images is from the kings ari site
the image of the free choice duo and nathan gray is from craft victoria's facebook page


update: the thesis is now in. w00t! i now only have to present my research next week and it's all done. huzzah!

quick! to the gallery!

holy happenings batman! in my masters-inspired self-absorption, i almost forgot to remind you about a fantastic show by an awesome australian artist, whose work has been more influential on my own than he probably realised.

lucas ihlein, lucazoid to some, has been exhibiting the 'sham piece at george paton gallery and it closes today! it's the work which resulted from his residency back in 2006, in which he didn't leave the boundaries of petersham, in sydney. the suburb in which i last lived in sydney.

anyways, lucas blogged the whole process of really inhabiting his local neighbourhood, highlighting the goings-on of this funny little suburb and focused on the process of action and occupation as an art practice. his blog became one of two that properly elevated blogging as an aspect of practice (that, and the art life back in the day) and he continues to use it as one of the tools for action/process/fluxus works.

today is the last day of his show, so you really should go to the gallery. end of story, really. check out the 'sham blog (in zine format, that you can make yourself) and his totally beautiful prints - done on the big fag press, you know - and feel good about the rest of the day, knowing that you can tell your grandkids that you saw lucas ihlein's the sham when it came to melbourne.

some cool stuff i've seen lately.

even though i've been trying to spend less time out, i've seen a stack of top shows lately - it seems to be that time of the year in melbourne - where the galleries of the city are heaving with cool stuff.

anna schwarz - marco fusinato


marco fusinato is one of my favourite artists - he wrangles research into sound and behaviour of sound like it ain't no thang. this work, double infinitives, is more about silence and resistance than any of his other works and while i was hoping for some dirty sound works, these paintings had such an amazing classical presence that i quickly forgot my initial disappointment.

images of rioters around the world - captured in stasis, without the din of civil disobedience as a soundtrack. perhaps it's my über trad art education pushing its way to the surface, but it seemed that the poses fusinato chose for the figures harked back to classical poses of greek and roman statues/paintings - the ultimate stance as a citizen of the politic. there is this amazing one from the athens riots, with a huge brute of a man, shirtless, his face covered in a cloth and his jeans so low that his pubic hair is showing. his shoulders back and legs positioned so that he replicates a centaur-like figure, with denim and jeans instead of trotters and hooves. it was quite an arresting image. so to speak.

mr tulk - pocket guide



part of State of Design, this little show in the cabinet at Mr Tulks is all about the lovely pocket. in all its forms. it's such a beautiful premise that I wish it was enlarged into a more accessible space, more conducive to object exhibition. curated by the marvelous miss muddle from milly sleeping, there were pockets and pouches of all sizes and a cute little add-on to all the other stuff that was going on at the time.



this is not a design market design market



in the new 'oh-my-god-it's-amazing' venue: the factory, in latrobe st, this market was a really great vibe. a good combination of grit and finesse - excellently crafted pieces, eloquent ideas, thoughtful solutions and the occasional random plastic water fountain. just to keep everyone on their toes. although still pretty hip, it didn't seem too full of the nouveau riche and there was still enough sense of wonderment and delight to keep this cynic feeling good about markets :)


sarah scout presents



as i've mentioned previously, i'm quite excited about the opening of this new gallery space in melbourne. it's focused largely on a commercial outlet for works of a primarily conceptual nature and has some great artists involved. it opened on the 20th of july and has work by kate daw featuring at the moment. i'm eagerly awaiting the next run of shows and will be supporting it as best i can. you should get down there and check it out. it's above von haus on crossley lane. opposite pellegrinis.


1000£ Bend - cloud 19



ooh - new space in town. i heard about this through the state of design murmurs that rumbled about in july and was dragged there by my friend linda. such a great space - every slacker's dream place; cafe with cheap simple food in the front (couches, music, blackboards, etc). gallery space from a converted auto workshop out the back. gold star. i especially liked the scandanavian wallpaper and some of the hanging works (name? ermmmm...). anyways, looking forward to seeing more interesting stuff happening there. seems like a great space to have 'happenings' or performances, or something.


counihan gallery - surveying the field.



this is a group show, featuring some awesome contemporary artists from the area. my favourite works are by sam jinks, sam leech and owen leong. ok, so owen is a friend, but his white noise and milk ring videos from 2007 are amazing. i saw them at mori the first time around and was completely taken by them. so sensual, haunting and those alien eyes. oh. lord. and the sound work that accompanies the performances is spot on. glitch technoscape which highlights the lush corporeal. nice.

on the go-slow

i know that it's my blog and i'll post when i want to, but i did just want to fess up to being slightly pre-occupied at the moment and having a little trouble with making time to blog.

between a tonne of new projects, new semester, a weird sleep-inducing-sickness-thing and a stack of interesting stuff in town, it's a long time between drinks.


in the mean time, here's a disco burger, courtesy of maurice golotta at don't come (a pretty rad gallery soon to disappear, sadly).

black wall, white text, feminist discourse.

I’ve been to see a few shows recently and have stumbled upon some recurring themes: white text on black wall; and feminism.

The white text on black wall is really just on the block of Gertrude street that contains Seventh Gallery and Gertrude St Contemporary Artspace.

There’s a series of shows at seventh at the moment that are fantastic and predominantly text based. The first thing you see when you walk into the space is an epic FAIL. As in, a huge F-A-I-L in white on a black wall. Awesome. And then in the back room, it’s spectacularly ordinary: white neon ‘ordinary’ in a black room, by Kristin McIver.



Between the wordplay is also a beautiful project piece that is playing with magnetic force and light, creating a trajectory between a magnet on a rotating motor/crank with LED – a picture of attraction and repulsion. It’s simple, delicate and beautiful.


Then, across the road, the front gallery at Gertrude is lit up and open to see at night (which I love!) work by Newell Harry ("The artist with the first name last and the last name first" - The Art Life), which, as well as an installation of bottles, clay pots and broken glass, is the neon sign reading THENATIVESARERESTLESS coupled with its own anagram in reflection. It’s such a striking diorama, especially in light of these other text pieces across the road.

I love that kind of synchronicity.

And to follow on from that, in the last 2 weeks, there have been 3 - count them – 3 shows about feminism in various galleries about town.



Instructional Guide to Femininity at Jenny Port Galleryis a work by my studio-mate Naomie Sunner and is a fabulous work which critiques fashion and media-based ideas of what it means to be ‘feminine’. Using costume, and more importantly, the idea of the pose, the is like a storyboard of the female gesture – rarely seen in reflected in mainstream images of ‘beautiful’ or ‘feminine’.

There was quite a bit of discussion about feminism and its ideals at the opening – a refreshing change from some of the banal conversation that can creep into such gatherings.

I got a lot out of the show - being a straight girl who very rarely subscribes to the traditional idea of ‘feminine’ and apparently challenges the idea of what it means to be straight, as a consequence. This work reminded me of a time (not all that long ago) when female fashion was all about rejecting a narrow-minded view of gender stereotypes and that blonde-long-hair-big-tits-short-skirts were a fashion faux-pas to be fucked with.




Over at Kings ARI is a great work –in the form of a publication – Accidental Feminists by Victoria Bennett. This work combines a series of documentary images of incidental or ambient feminist discourse –graffiti in womens’ toilets and various groups of women together – interspersed with 3 essays about feminism in a contemporary setting by Clare Rae, Nella Themelios and Anna Knight. It is almost a curated exhibition in print form and has the perfect balance of fun, intense critical dialectic and pride in feminism as a vital social mechanism.



At the opening, it was fantastic to see people sitting around, reading the publication, discussing feminism and the images/words surrounding it. I had a romantic and/or sentimental moment, imagining that this is what it means have been like in early 20th century paris, sitting around, drinking wine, discussing political theory and contributing to the shaping of society. And then the crowd got too much and I got too hungry, so had to leave. Real life, baby. Real life.
However, it’s great to see that feminism as an important topic of discussion continues to knock on the door in Melbourne.




And then...next week there’s a show at Shifted: Unfixing the Feminine with Meg Andrew, Justine Barlow, Kotoe Ishii & Jade Venus. I’m looking forward to seeing how that relates to these other two shows and to start to experience a city-wide focus on feminism. It’s great to see a resurgence of its presence in 'output' and I’m hoping it’s the beginning of a new round of regular discussion about the role of feminism in contemporary life.


image credits:
FAIL by Anthony Sawrey
Lifeless by Kristin McIver
Instructional Guide to Femininity by Naomie Sunner
Accidental Feminists by Victoria Bennett
Unfixing the Feminine from the shifted website

abracadaver: last days.

hey peeps,

just a quick reminder that abracadaver at bus gallery has its last day on friday. if you haven't had a chance to pop down and see it, now's your chance. gallery is open 12 - 6 both thursday and friday.


deets:

abracadaver: death and magic
putting the 'fun' back in 'funeral'.

Bus Gallery
Level 1, 117 Little Lonsdale St
Melbourne, 3000
Skinny Gallery

http://www.bus117.com

proxy required in vienna

[click to enlarge]

could someone in vienna please go to this at MAK for me? (marita and alex?)

or even better, could someone in vienna please ship me over so i can see the show? [and pop in and see marita and alex]