Everywhere but Here

I'm meant to be packing because I'm getting on a plane to finland tomorrow. Meahwnile I think I'm being a guest blogger on the artlife coz they're making TV.

so my artlife review is a kinda Robert Hughes act where I rave about New york Art wiht some pretense at authority - but actually by the time it gets posted I won't be anywhere near any big apples.

so in honour of geographic confusion im going to plug 3 shows opening simultaneously in 3 east coast cities of Australia. they are all of artists who I respect and like so the reasons are sheer bloody nepotism.

i got no shame

On 13th March (Tuesday?) I'll be so jetalgged so I don't really care

ARLENE TEXTAQUEEN has a show wiht her pen pal Olivia Edith
"I'm hunting and pecking: feed me your troubles"
Seventh Gallery
155 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy, Melbourne

“I’m hunting and pecking: feed me your troubles” presents their felt-tipped and brush stroked renditions of luscious ladies from Oz and the US of A including Michelle Tea and local lasses....

On WEDNESDAY: Paper Waltz
opens at DON'T LOOK Experimental New Media Gallery
419 New Canterbury Rd (Near Marrickville Rd), Dulwich Hill

WHO: Laura McLean and Andrew Newman

CONTACT: Greg Shapley - Ph: 0401 152 434
EMAIL: dontlookgallery@gmail.com
WEB: myspace.com/dontlookgallery

Paper Waltz
Laura McLean and Andrew Newman

If 'the first casualty of war is truth' then is it also the case that
this truth lies somewhere between the extremities; between right and
wrong, good and bad, between being 'with us' or 'against us'?

'Paper Waltz' explores the binaries that are foisted upon us in times
of conflict; how we are forced to make decisions 'one way or the
other'. The middle ground is gone, swept away in the polarisation of
fear and suspicion. The 'sensible option' becomes an uninhabitable 'no
man's land' and desperation seeps into all areas of life, including
personal relationships.

The young boyfriend-girlfriend inhabitants of pre-war playgrounds are
turned by the insecurity of the battlefield into husband-wife (the
stark noir-ness of WWII movies echo these rushed consummations). This
'war-time' is accelerated and exaggerated; it is, by its very nature,
sentimental. Reminiscences of these moments therefore become
hyper-sentimentalised.

McLean and Newman portray this hyper-sentimentality with a series of
black and white figures -- cutouts that dance like clockwork, on
clockwork. They move jerkily to the binary tick-tock of timepieces
that count down their impending separation. But this dance never ends,
because it never really began. It is a figment of our collective
imaginations that is invented in times of dire consequence to humanise
these experiences. These apparitions stick in our minds and in our
throats, marking the only bearable moments in otherwise inconceivable
circumstances.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT GREG SHAPLEY ON 0401 152 434 OR
EMAIL dontlookgallery@gmail.com
on St. Patricks day: friday 16th March - a date well honored by getting pissed in the name of culture.....

In brisbanal
Julie Fragar has a show called DADISLIKITOO opening at the college art galery of queensland college of art on griffith uni. aks a local where the hell it is, It's north of balmain. The show is going to works from her current doctoral project that 'll be the Martin kippneberger goes textured and textual that she does so well - taking intimiate little scenes and drawing out the weirdness.

In sydney, Gallery 4A has a show: called Identity thieves - also opening on Fridya night.

they sent me a gif file - which can't be cut and pasted and is reluctant to be uploaded as an image file and i'm too tired to retype all the names - so you'll have to assume it's good. i'm sure it will be. - even though their PR is blogger unfriendly.

4a is 187 Hay Street. show opens at 6pm, on 16th March