Eating My Hat

I've spent the weekend chewing ponderously on my hat.
Luckily for me its made from icing sugar.

It started with my rant about Tim Gregory's Dirty Laundry show at Kudos. I didnt like the PR and compared it to the worst excesses of Sydney Poets inc.

The day after publishing my insult - Benito De Fonzo met my Mum. He's going out with a(nother) friend. I still reckon "syphilitic urethra" deserves a caning. But it proves this city is just tooooo small sometimes.

Then someone posted a comment on my blog - saying I'd acted too rashly in condemning the dirty laundry show - and it contained some exquisite objects. Maybe it was the artist? or his mum? dunno.

I was relieved to hear my rash opines contradicted - and decded it was a great excuse to avoid the Raper Street Precinct. sorry Tim. Love your work! Love you - but I reckon the only big fat scarey beasties I wanna come near should be immobilised and monochrome - and I'm scared of polychrome mobile monolithic men with ties that match their soul.

so I trudged up okker street. Saw some nice stuff in I.D's. Margo Lewers was Australia's Sonia Delauney - and I wondered about the city and the old passages and arcades.

Out the front of Kudos there was a young pale male artist - looking scarily angsty. I grunted and pushed past the partition with "Dirty Laundry" adhesive writing. Felt relieved to see four partitions pushed together to make another square donut. Inside a nice narrative of small objects.

The bonk map scribbled on a fridge magnet, smoothly cast icing sugar mini bedcars, bullets, a large tablet wiht a map of the world in tea. Nicely titled, nicely arranged little haunting moments of angst. A c-type of a REALLY UGLY bed. I thought of my own emotional disatsters and fessed up.

The artists said he was into playing with people's perceptions and text. I felt myself falling into a large Griselda Pollock shaped Trompe L'oiel.

but wait.
I still reckon there is a space to fess up to how we describe out work - without pranking it off. To own the possible mirecognition, misunderstandings that arise from personal work - just because people have different life experiences.

and I think scary sloppy PR needs to be named as such.

so I wandered down the hill. And thought about droping in to Cross arts - coz it's an interesting space -with nice shows and a great library.
but the blue water beckoned - so I headed for he point and donw the hill - to PIE LAND!!!

Ahhhh artspace. What could top Sastre?

Well nothing. And the collabroative residency work by 4 female chilean artists was many shades softer than Barney the dinosaur.
Ximena zomosa had some nice hair - on some rococo wallpaper, - which all lined a rearranged "dungeon room" (the one closest to the servo) . SHe had two enigmatic speakers saying some stuff in spanish and english - but my bilinguiality failed me and I forgot waht it was.

Monica bengoa had probably the highlight of the show - which was a sample case of exquisite tapestry and photographed images of fruit. At first I thoguht they were indigenous americas fruit. But then I saw cabbage. Not sure what that was about.

Claudia Missana had a video with text about bodies washing up on shore - interspersed with projections of waves on rocks - flashed over floruo tape drawing. the subject matter was moving - but I'm not sure how many epople would 'get' the mulptiple references in the piece to Chile's history (bodies at sea being those of torture vbvictims dumped in 1974) as well as Australia's shame - the TAMPA scandal 3 years ago. This has all been overridden by the Tsunami. Maybe I shouldn't be so cynical. I was moved.

Paz Carvajal - probably left me the coldest - with a bunch of jigsaws spelling out a text. one idea taken too far........

I also read the highlight of pratty writing for the week which was:

"these projects will be tensioned in a staging privileging the conceptual and technical grazes among the works and the specific nature of the Australian context."

all of the above is worse than 50 sublimes put together.

a close second in words I don't wanna read has become "hybridity".
My cynicism towards this was impelled by my having to teach it to art theory students. (It's artspeak for "mixture")
This is quite unfortunate.

A friend of mine has just put a new link on their website called "the Hybrid Project".
Its kind of apt. It is a hybrid project. He's collaborated on some sculptures with his partner. (Hybrid = mixing two things and getting something new).
the pieces are a painters panty wetting dream. big gloopy paint monsters. and other funny things. onyas. pity aobut the poor lighitng for the photos. (everything is a little hazy).
check it out: www.craigwaddell.com

This week - was the 2SER radiothon and all volunteers were strongly encouraged to come up with new ways to encourage people to sign up to the station. This is all much more pertinent than in the past - because the universities have now withdrawn their funding (2SER - was initially funded as a training project for communication students at UTs and maquarie). The good news - is that there are les work experience announcers on air (thinking of some of the people I know who've studied media - being on radio makes me shudder). the bad news is the station needs volunteer cash support. Even more so - as some of the indymusic money has been diverted to fbi.

OK so my idea was to offer free bananas to whoever subscribed during monday overdrive. We got 11 punters. then I said I'd chuck in a vulva. then the phones stopped dead. bugger!

Anyway - I will be wandering around at mori gallery on wednesday night with a bunch of bananas. If you subscribed to 2SER during monday overdrive - then come up and tell me your name - and I'll give you a banana!

first draft also has an opening on wednesday night - but I'll be at Mori - coz my friend is in the show.

tomorrow night - there's a show opening at the UTS gallery..........Its called Making Silence. the photo made me yawn - but it should be easier to get to than SCA - who has Yuko Mamada showing in a thing called "artificial NAture". I like the spaces there- just not the bus trips and long wander through the park in the dark. Great if you cycle tho.

Apart from that I think this weeks cultural challenge involves catching all the shows that opened last week: TRacey Moffatt, Tim Kyle & James Powditch, Simon & Kypros at MOP, oh GOD - and these really WEIRD really Creepy drawings at Mura Clay gallery. the show is called "Darwins Nightmare" and it does really earn the epithet "hybrid".