this is not art Batty Hurts

Last Week I Went to Bathurst for the supercheap 1000. I reckoned it would be a good way to avoid that youf avantgarde cutting edge culturefest - THIS is NOT art. with a name like that I feel compelled to go "OK, if you're not art then I'll ignore you" . the supercheap 1000 seemed right up my ally. We took the bog mobile for a lap round mount panorama and checked out all the dudes in dayglo setting stuff up. Banners, metal stands, portaloos, kangaroos.

Unfortunately I got my dates wrong coz the big race is next week. So I had to settle for the preview at the Warpstanza gallery cafe. FANGO was a play on "Fanging" a term apparently derived from the late great Fangio. Fango is a group show by local artists, Shane Summerton,Jock Alexander, Karen Golland, Adrian Symes, ChristianPrusiac, and some guy called Pete. Ity was light on, bright fluffy stuff. Photos and paintings of cars including the model I lost my virginity in, and some aesthetic chomro bits, plus some carwindow frames for some works on paper, which reminded me why the naughties have features 'the return to traditional skills'. Bad drawings get a bit tiresome at times. I liked Karens serious stripes and less serious cars attached wittily to the tops, sides and undersides of the racing boxes. SO much so, that I asked the dude from the local paper to snap me in front of them. My other big face was the video come installation. The video wasn't that great. (the curse of unedited rushes!), but I liked the installation of sculpted character cars and story boards with an etymology of "fang".

the whole opening thing made me wistful for days of sydney being more than a real estate speculative hole. the warpstanza remindes me of AD163 - the old gallery cafe in Glebe - with big couches and bad chai and lots of crannys with stuff - I used to hang there for hours and have done so at the warp as well. Warp is a bit of a cultural node. They have openings, concerts on sunday arvos and thier own TV station. the local media was there too. "Arts out west" - runs as a 15 minute segment on Prime TV (rural channel 7) which is about the same as I get on 2SER. In the bruhaha of the latest ABCTV arts non event - maybe we should just approach chennel 10 to do a segment on their news - surely we could find a buxom blond presenter - or dress up mike parr?

We went and checked out hill end and considered joining the exodus of artists out west - for about 5 minutes. I reckon I'd get sick of home renovations and 4WD trips to bunnings in abut 3 weeks. Also - I got kinda scared by the shows at Bathrust regional - of local interesting serious artists ......... whose work looked complacent and derivative. Oh hell is there that much difference from Sydney?

ON matters rocking - the fossil museum really made me happy - especially in the light of Jonathohn Vencores piece at 4A.

Right now its really hot, and too hot to type and even the artlife is on holiday this week. (I can't wait to head north for a european winter).

In the meantime - art galleries are air conditioned and mostly free. I'd recommend the following:

MCA - Primavera
Museum Station - Ricky Maynard /Deborah Kelly (ain't seen it yet)
St. James Station - Ricky Maynard /Deborah Kelly (ain't seen it yet)Artspace - try the dark cavern - or just sit and watch the utopia project. Looking at all those old victorian hippies in thick jumpers can be comforting.
AGNSW - MArgaret Preston and free films

wot else is on?

AT LAIRD MACKENNY'S opens 6-8pm Tuesday 4 OctoberKudos Gallery6 Napier St. Paddington. Three artists; Jacqueline Byrnes, Jacqui Drinkall and Sandra Scheffknecht transform the gallery into ‘Laird MacKenny’s den’ – an ‘ode’ to morbid beauty where the human face and figure is re-imagined through prostheses and mutation.

My eyeballs are frying
I'm going to stop