Its all in your head

I was going to sign and distribute a save ABC fuding petition today - but I'm a bit cheesed with Auntie.

Our wonderful smooth talking paneling, newcastle storying wonder boy Rohan - who just took over monday overdrive as a dedicated volunteer at 2SER - has been prevented by his boss at the ABC from continuing to self train and community volunteer on 2SER. (Becaus he also produced a show on ABC Radio) So, auntie, go fuck yourself! and stop the pratty pseudo corporate bully boy tactics. vapid single track yes men - don't make interesting or creative radio staff. People who are prepared do do volunteer work for a community station - are probably -passionate enough about radio to provide SUBSTANTIAL LONG TERM BENEFIT TO THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC. So stick that in your mission statement analysis!

ahem.

today Luazoid and I continued our segment and brielfy discussed the archiblad.

quick thinking and fleet footed Felipe (filling in for Roahn) went out and did some background research while Lucazoid played Gertude Steins soudnd portrait of Pablo Picasso.

ehre's the AGNES WALES sight for more details.

acutally I mainly went to check out the Wynne and Sulman, see the usual supects and have a few drinks at the opening. I stayed for WAITING FOR GUINESS.

I forgot to talk about the Wynne or the sulman because I'm a blond but my favourite sulman piece was Wang Xu's mock socialist realist painting of Ian Howard and Michale Esson riding a copuple of tnaks across the artworld. It was like Mao meets Juan Davila and a delightful change from his more well known dripy painting sof grafffittied sydney walls.


My favourite wynne? er...... I was glad to see that Aida tomsecu has used comething other than bloody pthlalo blue/green (O sh'es probalby using cobalt - but i was a bit over the glaucish monchromes) - and the Beard meritted the no. 1. There were some scary things that I don't want to talk about - like some werid stuck on pole things with bad acrlic 80's expressionsist spalhes onto a lansdcape - and I think it was meant to be the living emobidment of the 1980's Goanna song "Solid rock". I kept well away. Craig Waddy's piece - whatever it was, was ghastly - like one of those bad anecdotes about 1980's art students saying that Jackson Pollock dind't know how to draw and its not important - well its not -unless you like, err, wanna make pictures - like 2d hand eye things

Tom Carment in a badly framed and badly positioned little portrait - I thinkk had the nicest paiting in the heads prize - though Marcus deserved to win. Woww. birng back 16th Cc weird ecole du nord shit - craps all over Odd Nerdrum. (sorry for obscure reference - do a goodl search)

anyway - I also saw the paraylysis shoow at KUDOS but its over - and had a gereat time at Glenn Murray and Catherine Hearse 3D fest at Legge. Its on until this weekend. Highly recocomended - Murray's big basketty things ancutally need to be seen in situ and walked aournd - Bridget riley in 3D!

Lucas spoke breifly aobut some show that ruark Lewis is curating at Cross arts Project (33 Roslyn street kings Cross).. I'd like to get some writtne PR - before I chat more. cross arts is easy to get too and the opening is saturdya night.

Friday is all go - there are some of my paintings up again at Mori - cos there a big weld fundraiser on Friday night (31st March). and amanda Robins is hapving and openign at tin Sheds - on the same night.

I thingk i'll be in bathurst tho - cos the Warpstanza glalery is closing down.

Catch yas


mayhem

Good and Bad Political Art

today I tried to talk critically about political art - after seeing 3 shows:
the twenty bucks a pop fundriser for the anti detention camps flicks for freedom filmnight @ mori
the money makes the world go round anti VSU, lets save COFA Student Association show @ KUDOS
the tunnel vision: greed and stupidity, cartoonists and planners review concrete politics in sydney @ cross arts

All shows finished on the weekend.

I also announced that the archibald opens this week. Artlife jumped the gun and have alreayd reviews the ifnalists - but I thoguht I'd do a run around of the MCA portrait show, the AGNES Wales trad portraiture show and the Salon Des Refusees show up on Observatory Hill. Hopefully I can come up with some coherent survey critique of portraiture as a genre in 2006.

I dunno whether to crash the archi or not. The last time I attended unchaperoned, I ended up rolling on the floor at Ray Hughes's wrestling with Vivienne Littlejohn (RIP) over a bottle of - err Red? white? bubbly? (i think it was a glass bottle). this was after ranting incoheently at John Mcdonald (not a bad thing probably). the next day I woke up alone in bed, with a full condom beside me and a weird apologic note from my friend's flatmate. Hmm, well. Vivienne Littlejohn stopped drinking and did her masters in Egyptology and I became a Lesbian. But as of last week I'm single, sad and desperate enough not to let genitalia stand in the way of one those weird sobbing sodden scenarios .... err, hell after the average archies pissup - there ain't a lot of genital standing anyway - I've even had DILDOs go floppy.

Speaking of which, I missed the slit show. Oh well.

Apart from doing the circuit of heads and eyes - and if I'm depserately bored - chekcing aout that seminal classic on faciality by D&G (not dolce & gabbana) in a thousand plateaus and writing weird shit.........

......I might TRY REAL hard to get down to legge for the Catherine Hearse sculpture show. She's the queen of soft textiles shaped bits - so I'm a bit of a fan. I allso wanna pay off and pick up a piece by my friend Steve Kirby. Apprently its now an investment piece coz his value has ogne up by 30%. Great. I just want more pink blobs on my walls, coz its my birhtdya on sunday and I'm feeling desperately miserable. Maybe I'll make it down it the gunnery for a pie and some of the installations - by Ryan Moore, Izabella Pluta and Todd Robinson. then again maybe not.

Heres for the review:

I went down to the mori show to check out the insane graffitti thing. Its bloody amazing. I'm so daggy I only know graf artists by what their mother call them - so I can't quote what one of them said - well I can - "Hey we traashed the place" - I know him as a very talneted oil painter and classically trained drawer - so it was good to see this find its continuum in the old spray enamel and stencilling. and the gallery is completely dewhiteboxed, and looks amazing - especiallly the scarey cave bit.

The Refugee Action coalition managed to stick a screen over a tiny bit of some huge work - and project some films onto it - but the vibe was kinda weird - coz I felt trapped and immobilisied and lots of the films were video art and the rest film clips - whihc you are eant to breeze past wiht a drink or ten - so err... yeah. Near the drinks the walls and pinths were studdend wiht smalll stuff for sale. The graf show remenats on the floor were 50 times stronger than the salon style hanging of various a4 sied contributions. Sunzanne Norries bargain basement gozilla bieng an exception - plus anton pulverentis series of 5 cartoons on foamcore. I'm criticising myself in this too - coz the whole thing idn't work as well as the plaquard prject ( a simliar gathering of a3 sized pieces against the Gulf War/war on terror) did last year and I was curious why....... i guess it was a lot smalller - and there wasn't any strong formal element to bring eveyrhting together visually. The plaquard project was hung all toghether in a continuous line right roudnt he gallery - nicely borken up by Zanny beggs scultpures, whereas this was WAYYYYY hodge podge. Still $20 is pretty cheap, so I bought something.

On the wekeend I toddled down to KUDOS - to chec out the money goes round show. I LOVE KUDOS! its a great space - a single old church hall - that almost always makes whatever in it look good. It'snnot as big as NEWSPACE and so most artists manage to use it well. (I was astonished at the distance between my greg shaplpeys 3 screen installation and the cavernous empty rooms strethcing up to the great wood panelled bar - Newpsace needs group shows - or total overproductive maniacs)

ahem - back to KUDOS. This show was great. the curators got a mixture of Chinese Yuan notes , plus various amllagams of hell money - and gave em to whoever: students, staff alumni - whoever wanted to do something with em! and - really the whole show was a great snapshot of the cofa talent. Jewellers made money jewels, and scultpros made variosu paper money based constructions - wiht the a few insterting the nots into other witty objets - like slide projectors, toasters - ande on a kind of formbidden city style merry go round. the textiles mob did great textiles, and the drawers did great 'wrokd on paper money'. I bought 3 bits. Seriously for less than the price ofa good haircut. this explains my crap haircut whihc I did alone at home on wednesday while crying and wiping my computer of any trace of my recently exing life love. Art is great retail therapy. the only criticism I'd level a tthe COFa show - were that some of the colalges and 'painted collegas' were liek really bad Art Express. Note to public: Drawing is officially back, so unless you've been doing 3 horus a week of figure drawing for the past 3 years minimum - then DON't draw figures - unless you wanna look like somehting ghastly form the 1980's. If you wanna figure in your work - use the tracer funciton over a photo on photoshop or illlustrator and an effects distortion on the print out.Also wnat let some of these works down - was the emphasis on money as a semiotic element - so they looked like bad brett whitelys.
highlights of this show - were Michael Esson's kentridge style drawing/burning video and lamp's(?) stencil art images - and that great tie/collar thing, plus the sparkle piece (whihc I bought) and the ANON stone exquisite assemblage - whic I would have bought but I don't have that much horizontal space anywhere in my life..........
lowlights (but I enjoyed cringeing) were the photos of money and semen (eeeuw!) and the nangoldin girlwannabe photos - (self with cash). you gotta love undergraduate art.

so from here I wandered over to Cross Arts, taking note of the shitty traffic, weird arsed road bocks, impossible crossings and extreme angst of pedestrians, dogs and cars negotiating some ridiculous traffic islands with shops behind bars. this was suitable prep for the show - which was just a simple stroll down roslyn street. (I think its getting to william street that puts me off) I think the theme of the show is WHY? WHAT THE FUCK???? and full makrs go to michale gormleys obsessive colation of photos of traffic planning disatsters with ocmments. Jo holders docos worked best out of doors - so you can see the streetlife snarl to a halt in the background .

My favourite bits - were the Marious Jastokowiaks counter street signs. these were big bright things made for the ill fated wetern font show last year - but curiously enough ade perfect sense in trying to map the new paths through and around the hell hole horror.

Also Fiona Mcdonald - had some great paper bags - screen printed wiht images of parts of central sydney form 1943 and 2003 - and letters - PUB, PRIV - artily placed over them in a kind of russian new art touch...... and this type of tmeproal mapping reminded me of the squatspace map in dockerty about the time they were starting up the Redfern Waterlooo tour of Beauty........

most of the works - explored the surrounding road closures, the lack of democracy and the lack of accountability for basaiily using a goertnemtn funded but pricately run construction in order to block, break up and destroy a couple of suburbs....

someone needs to do a derive exploring the impassibility of the cross - or even the tunnel. Where's shane haseman?

Mad as a March Hare

Lots of stuff happening
the moralof the story - is to Go to Student Run Galleries while they still exist!

this Wednesday Greg Shapley has a show opening at the SCA based NEwpsace Gallery, 680 Darling street Rozelle (near corner of Victoria Road)

A THING OF BEAUTY: AN ACT OF TERROR Explores the infinite possibilities of the finite, planes, statues, and jaywalkers are propelled in this installation by 'transition through repetition'.

Using unique visual generative processes I have assembled a new work that questions perception and perspective. I have taken small visual snippets of everyday life, and treated them as if they were music themes in a minimalist work by Steve Reich or Phillip Glass.

Philosophically I am looking at how a minute fragment, can become a catalyst for hysteria – how we can be manipulated into seeing things that aren't really there.

Using minimalist techniques, the treatment of these visuals (and their accompanying soundtracks) becomes hypnotic and mesmerising. There is a guilty pleasure in watching the footage and hearing the sound play out. There is a certain voyeurism that by now we are all familiar with. September 11 and ensuing TV wars have made sure of this.

I'm notsure what it means either.

KUDOS has the first official Anti VSU Art exhibiton. MONEY MAKEs THE WROLD GO ROUND opened last week and runs till this saturday (yep you can go on Saturday)

In response to the Federal Government's VSU legislation that passed in
the 11th hour of Parliamentary sitting for 2005, the UNSW College of
Fine Arts Students' Association have invited all COFA students, staff
and Alumni to create a piece of work utilising Chinese bank notes in
reference to counterfeit money, for a giant fundraiser opening at Kudos
Gallery next week. All work will be sold under $50 with proceeds going
to Kudos Gallery through the Students' Association in an effort to
establish a fund to help support the future of this student service.

In 2006 Kudos Gallery celebrates it's eight year of thriving under
Universal Student Unionism in a twenty-one year history of student run
initiatives supported and subsidised by the COFA Students' Association.
Kudos Gallery is an autonomous, independent, and professional
exhibition space, run by students for students in St Sophia Hall, a few
minutes away from the College of Fine Arts campus in Paddington.
Established in late 1998 by COFA Students’ Association, Kudos aims to
provide COFA students with an accessible gallery space off campus to
develop an exhibition profile whilst still at University. Kudos plays
host to approximately thirty diverse exhibitions and up to 10,000
visitors to the gallery each year. COFA SA encouraging all students
from first year to PhD level to submit proposals for solo, group or
curated exhibitions.

The implementation of Voluntary Student Unionism in July this year will
not only force many changes to the accessibility of student services,
it will result in a catalogue of lost opportunities for the arts in
this country; lack of exhibition spaces for emerging artists,
publications for emerging writers and journalists, and venues for
emerging performing artists, actors, directors, producers, and
technical crew; extracurricular activity that, after all, defines the
quality of on-campus life. Kudos, like many student galleries, provides
a space for emerging artists, designers and curators to learn and
develop their work and experience in a competitive and expensive
industry.

Under VSU, many student organisations will no longer have the funds to
support these arts and cultural services, facilities, activities and
events. Most of these services, including Kudos Gallery, are not for
profit, and thus are unsustainable under this legislation. A user-pays
system would mean that for many students, access to galleries,
theatres, publications and radio stations will be near impossible for
both artists and their prospective audiences. The result of this
inaccessibility would of course be the demise of these services,
facilities, activities and events. The introduction of VSU is not a
political triumph, it is an artistic catastrophe.

A sales desk will be set up within the gallery during the opening and
throughout the two weeks of exhibition to take deposits and for works
and donations for the gallery. Please forward this invite to your
friends and family and help support Kudos Gallery by buying a piece of
work next week! thank you

ON things political - Cross Arts had a great show opening last week - well it sounds great - but I haven't checked it out yet.

TUNNEL VISION, GREED & STUPIDITY: REVIEWING CONCRETE POLITICS IN SYDNEY

Opens: Thursday 9 March, 6 to 8pm
Talks by: Paul Ashton, historian, University of Technology Sydney and Lee Rhiannon, Greens MLC, lobbyist for the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Cross City Tunnel
Where: The Cross Art Projects
33 Roslyn Street Kings Cross Sydney (opposite St Lukes Hospital gates)
Exhibition continues to: Saturday 25 March 2006
Cross Conversation: Sunday 12 March at 3pm
For more information call 9357 2058 or 0406 537933

Sign the End the Tunnel Funnel Petition: http://www.drag.org.au/

TUNNEL VISION is an exhibition documenting how politicians, businessmen and public servants secretly carved up the inner-city road network in a calculated bid to force drivers into a private toll tunnel. The exhibition is about the venality of selling off public roads, willfully restricting public transport, folly and lies, and the howls of anger from gridlocked traffic. Laugh at funny pictures of people negotiating concrete bollards, watch footage of citizens trying to re-open roads at a Parliamentary Inquiry.
Its a fast ride through public-private partnerships Sydney style.
Curator Jo Holder

ARTISTS
Warren Brown, Jeff Carter, Christopher Dean, Shaun Gladwell, Michael Gormly, Chris Henning, Marius Jastkowiak, Deborah Kelly,
Fiona MacDonald, Alan Moir, Jo Holder and Therese Sweeney, Anne Zahalka

CROSS CONVERSATION: IDEAS FOR A NEW CITY PLAN
Sunday 12 March at 3pm
Where: The Cross Art Projects

SPEAKERS:
Stacey Miers, social planner
Martin Butterworth, movement economy
Chris Stapelton, integrated transport

The shift to a user-pay private toll network has profoundly changed Sydney. It has led to a new focus on public interest and planning. Who is consulted? Who gets heard? Do we want elite enclaves or connected communities?

And Finally THIS THURSDAY Mori Gallery ahs a fundraiser: flicks for freedom - a fundraiser in support of the Villawood Detention Centre Easter COnvergence (Yep - this'll be bigger than the easter bunny).

Thurs 16 March 6.30pm.
Mori Gallery 168 Day St City (left off Bathurst St at
Darling Harbour)

Door: $8/5 for the convergence at Villawood detention
centre over the easter weekend (April 14-17). -

Free finger food, plus cheap beer and wine
Film clips include:
Baxter (Andorra)
Run (COG)
Detention protest footage:
Lombok towed back refugee footage
Baxter_05 doco by Anna Belhalfaoui
'No Lager' (compilation of European detention
protests).
Woomera_02 (SkaTV)
A couple of short films are also being chased up,
including a Tropfest entrant who made a film about
Cronulla.

Cheers

Mayhem

Back in black

ON the way to the studio today I found a large one-eyed smurf.
It was a nice comfort for my black skivvy deprivation syndrome.
Today was also the first day in 3 months where I haven't worn a black skivvy.

I wanted to write along bit about my eperiences at KIASMA and ARS06 in Helsinki. but my jetlag is starting to hit.

so I'll just stuick in 2 quick diary notes for this week - that we forgot to menin on the show.

TOMORROW NIGHT, TUESDAY 7TH MARCH
Is a show not to be missed at KUDOS - the COFa studnet glalery in Paddington.
(I wish I'd checked my email beore going on air - but there go, failed again)


In response to the Federal Government's VSU legislation that passed in
the 11th hour of Parliamentary sitting for 2005, the UNSW College of
Fine Arts Students' Association have invited all COFA students, staff
and Alumni to create a piece of work utilising Chinese bank notes in
reference to counterfeit money, for a giant fundraiser opening at Kudos
Gallery next week. All work will be sold under $50 with proceeds going
to Kudos Gallery through the Students' Association in an effort to
establish a fund to help support the future of this student service.

In 2006 Kudos Gallery celebrates it's eight year of thriving under
Universal Student Unionism in a twenty-one year history of student run
initiatives supported and subsidised by the COFA Students' Association.
Kudos Gallery is an autonomous, independent, and professional
exhibition space, run by students for students in St Sophia Hall, a few
minutes away from the College of Fine Arts campus in Paddington.
Established in late 1998 by COFA Students’ Association, Kudos aims to
provide COFA students with an accessible gallery space off campus to
develop an exhibition profile whilst still at University. Kudos plays
host to approximately thirty diverse exhibitions and up to 10,000
visitors to the gallery each year. COFA SA encouraging all students
from first year to PhD level to submit proposals for solo, group or
curated exhibitions.

The implementation of Voluntary Student Unionism in July this year will
not only force many changes to the accessibility of student services,
it will result in a catalogue of lost opportunities for the arts in
this country; lack of exhibition spaces for emerging artists,
publications for emerging writers and journalists, and venues for
emerging performing artists, actors, directors, producers, and
technical crew; extracurricular activity that, after all, defines the
quality of on-campus life. Kudos, like many student galleries, provides
a space for emerging artists, designers and curators to learn and
develop their work and experience in a competitive and expensive
industry.

Under VSU, many student organisations will no longer have the funds to
support these arts and cultural services, facilities, activities and
events. Most of these services, including Kudos Gallery, are not for
profit, and thus are unsustainable under this legislation. A user-pays
system would mean that for many students, access to galleries,
theatres, publications and radio stations will be near impossible for
both artists and their prospective audiences. The result of this
inaccessibility would of course be the demise of these services,
facilities, activities and events. The introduction of VSU is not a
political triumph, it is an artistic catastrophe.

A sales desk will be set up within the gallery during the opening and
throughout the two weeks of exhibition to take deposits and for works
and donations for the gallery. Please forward this invite to your
friends and family and help support Kudos Gallery by buying a piece of
work next week! thank you


MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND opens 6-8pm Tuesday 7 March
Kudos Gallery
6 Napier St. Paddington NSW 2021
exhibition continues to 18 March 2006
open Wednesday to Friday 11am - 6pm, Saturday 11am - 4pm

Kudos Gallery is a UNSW College of Fine Arts Students' Association
service threatened by the Fed. Govt.'s VSU legislation
http://www.cofasa.unsw.edu.au



since Student Run Initiatives are a rapidly dying species, I've made a new years resolution to review one Student Gallery show each week before the hammer comes down.


Here are a few more details for the Kylie Wilkinsons thing at Performance Space on Wednesday.

'Nationalism: What are you talking about?'  is the title of Wilkinson's work which she'll be discussing at the Performance Space opening of the Asia-Pacific Documentary Film Festival on Wednesday 8th March at 6pm.  

WHERE: 
Performance Space 199 Cleveland St, Redfern 2020 
Phone: 02 9699 1503 
WHEN: 6 p.m, Wednesday 8th March 

Drawn from an international survey of  video & film from the Asia-Pacific region by curator, Binghui Huangfu , five artists give insight into the specific context, politics and pleasures of their video vision. 
This collection taps into ancient places, for example Tiananmen Square and the old capital of Thailand, Chiang Mai as they surface in the modern world. These places are revealed as sites of incredible change as culture flows through them and the new  values of societies become apparent. 
From the human effects of mobile labour to global tourism, meditations on nationalism and the playful moral redress of corruption in big cities, each artist presents a highly individual response to the economic and  social changes taking place in our world.
This selection stands out for its acute energy and wide historical and cultural references and is presented in collaboration with Performance Space.

I hope to be at both of the above. Depending on body clock.

back next week

stay tuned for tales of finnish art and snow

2ser monday 6th march at 4.30

Stuff and Nonsense

Lucazoid seems to have gone on a blogoliday.... and hasn't posted stuff about the squatspace valentines day filmfest or that knot galleyr have found premises up the rad to battle on wiht frequency lab - or even that they got booted out of their crumbly old premises.......

So sorry forlack of local informative content. I reccomend that you read bilateral or the Art life. Whenever I'm homesick I read the latter and I cna pretend that SINNY isa friendly sydney of happy beer drinking culturla congosceti, not the sweaty, sticky mozzie ridden cockroach crawling hell hole it is,

Right now, I'm writing from London. ANd loving it. I can wear a black skivvy, and jeans and even a jacket outside. I can even wear a long blouse and a skirt with tights. I can stroll around for hours in the middle of the day. And I don't sweat, scratch, sneeze or burn. I love European weather. Nive cold crisp, weak sunlight or none at all.

Most people think I'm insane. But I hate melanoma, and kaftans don't ahve pockets, so 6 months of the year in sydney, I hide indoors to fearful of sartorial disasters.........

I've started on this track coz today I went out to the V&A in search of KULCHA. I've spent most of this week doing extreme sports cram in the British library, and my wrist is getting a bit tired . The old tate and NGA renderme fearful coz of tendency for compulsive skethcing of great paintings, which is bad for wrist. I'd actually intended to chekc out the New Tate. But the district line was pretty much shut down for the day so I gave it a miss and headed north.

I've always dreamed of seeing that great big persian carpet in the V&A........ an art school lecturer raved about it.... But the islamic art section is closed for renovations. So I had a good hour gawking at the indian section, and then wandered into the fashion show. Joy oh joy. Lots of corsets and stays and lace and ruffles, and suits, and evening gowns, and good english tweed. The standout was the popology show of Jena CLaude Castelbajac crazed concoctions. Think of Teddy bear jackets, and hightop tops and postcard parkas.....He's almost as good as Leigh Bowery!

These evening we headed off to the Barbican to see a bit of theatre. The barbican is one of those idealistic 70's 'lets bring cultulre to the workers' kind of projects - sprawling acroos a housing estate, a theatre, cinma, glaleyr, and a few freeways. Think lots of dark 70's brickwork and le corbusier style..... oh no..... no,not that bad, but its got a definite la defense type ambiance. You know the architecture that's meant to remind you that the idea is greater than the people? I felt very very small. The theatre was good tho.

Home again, to watvh DVD's of my latest obsession SHAMELESS.

Oh god this is reading like an average banal blog and I'm sorry. It's 1am and I've gotta get up in 7 hours to go back to the library.

I'm researching postwar art education, in the UK. It's a damn shame that the open source art school blog/project seems to have died, but, hell, I canbarely keep up wht the blogs I got, and maybe I should start getting closed source about my Intellecutal Proerty on art pedagogy since that's what I'm rapidly becoming an expert on.(just jokes)

The reaosn why I'm researching postwar art education in the UK, is that many art teachers in Sydney come from the UK, and were educatioed during or after the changes in the 60's and 70's. Trying to understand the changes in Australian art education in the 70's and 90's needs some more critical and comparative context than listening to gossip (mind you I do this pretty well, its called reflexive ehtnography) or reading sycophantic posturing catalogue essays. London, as the head of the commonwealth, has a mightly resource of archives from you know, Austrlia, New Zealand, Canada - as well as within the UK. I found a great book, that's kind of like THE TOME THAt WILL BE - only its all aobut NEw Zealand. Think I could find a copy in Austrlia? you gotta be kidding.

Libraries are such strange and randowmthings. I spend my last week in Paris doing pretty muchwhat I've been doing in London - chekcing out national library and that of some of the schools - just to see what had been writtineabout postwar art education. Just to get a comparison wiht the critical culture - of how things used ot be, and how they changed.

The advantages of Blighty and Frogville is that more research gets done and more researhc gets published. The biggerart schools have their OWN PUBLISHING HOUSES. Sociology of Art is a distinct discipline, as is cultural history. I found some GREAT flow chart exploring 2 differnet models of art schools - the offical transgressive art student model (yep, someone's described COFA) and the oficial therapeutic art school model (err meadowbank? east sydney in the good old days?, some hippie's fantasy?). However, with photocopying costing 20p per page (and no double paging allowed), and my wrist and 2B pencil (no pens allowed) both about to give way, and my photographic memory capacity having been flushed down the loos of the Sandringham while there was still a Berlin Wall, I'm not hopeful of retaining much. And there ain't that many government reports or conference papers on e-bay or amazon. bugger.

I'll sort it somehow.

btw THe triumph of Painting at the Saatchi kind of died in the arse. They were booted out of the building in october.... so no saatchi. Shit! is that some kind of karma?


(http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/fashion/castelbajac/index.html)

PLaying in the Palais

After whingeing about the snobby snooty necrophiliac
art crowds of the 16° district in Paris, I decided to
brave the west side again to check out the Palais De
Tokyo, which is smack in the rich American tourist zone.
Bordered by the Eiffel Tower, The Arch de Triumph; the
Louvre and St. Germain De Pres, and with streets all
named after US presidents, it's a scary place to be
wandering around with blond hair, a pink polar fleecy,
levi jeans and an anglophonic french. (kid you not;
its my new look).

the last time I ventured into the Musee de Art Moderne
De Ville De Paris was in 2000. I'd just returned from
the Biennale De Lyon. Called "Partage De Exotisisms"
it was concentrated in some massive hangar on the edge
of the city,where some friends of ours had seen
Aerosmith live. The Biennale was even more mind
blowing than Aerosmith live. The pigs being squashed
by steamrollers was pretty cool, as were the tattooed
human skins in perspex, and there was a great beaded
kitchen, and some birds in this amazing netted
enclosure; and some fantastic post colonial
primitivist consumer art sculptures, but my favoruite
was the insane table settings with curtains composed
of human hair arranged into scripts on sheets of
silocon. Stunning.

After this, the dodgy self indulgent, set of post
object art millenial angst at the Palais de TOkyo made
me extremely cross. It was like first draft on a
really bad day. No worse. Like Artspace on a really
Bad day. No. worse. It was big, it went on and on. It
was like Art express on a good Day. It convinced me
that contemporary French art was dead as a doornail.
OK That, and seeing way to much bad expressionism at
the electron libre squat. Either way, I stayed away.

Tthis year I was too stupid and jetagged to get myself
down to Lyon for the Biennale, so Imissed the tattoed pigs.
Still cursing myself, coz
of great Lyonnaise friends living in squats and 20
euro train tickets I could have bought too. Bugger.
However, at least I had less opportunities to be let
down by the Palais de Tokyo.

Not that I needed to, because, the french have
discovered cool britannia, and that contemporary art
is FUN, cool, and cutting edge. In 2002 Nicholas
Bourriand took over the palais de Tokyo which
was extremely maligned by more than me, and he did
manage to turn it around.

so now, its open from midday until midnight, 6 days a
week. Civilised! there's a bar downstairs and a
restaurant nearby. This is good, coz the nightlife on
the surrounding streets is comparable to Sydney. It's
like Chatswood! the bar was full of scary looking
ubercool people wearing coloured clothing. (this is
why i disguised myself in the pink blonde levis getup
- stops people noticing the armani glasses). entry is
Free for people on the dole, and artists and students
get in for ONE EURO.

The guy on the desk was one of those snooty french
types who insist that their appalling " iggsgyerse erm
meer bert oow der Iye kner yer er erteesd?" english is
better than my reasonable fluent french, so I told him
to do a google search.

Not to worry.

The current show is a "showcase" of 30 contemporary
artists residing in or originally from France. Called "OUr history, an emerging frenhc artistique scene" its a nice uppity sort of perspecta, with a refreshing minimum of bad expressionism and dodgy porn. Click
on the title above for an online showcase. the work
was punchy, bright, fun, aesthetically seductive and
MEANINGFUL. Lots of nice punchy politicla stuff about
the Sarkozy and the new right in France (Barthélémy Toguo) and the war
on terror. Lots of french joke about sausages. A big
corner devoted to that great guy who scams free stuff
everywhere. (http://www.laurett.net) A great installation about newspapers(wang du) and
some vapid Jim dine ripoffs. (mathieu mercier). Hell! the whole thing reminded me of the optimism in london gourmet food shops. "British Cuisine is not anoxymoron! look we got good food!" So there is good frenhc contemporary art, just like good english food. its just that on the whole art is still quite an elitist activity. Most of the french political activists I know NEVER go to art galleries, but they do go to music concerts and buy CD's. Event he great big art squat on Rue de rRivoli has been gunnerized> HJARD TO GET INTO, official studio space for recognized artists, but even 5 years ago when it was a squat, the only squatters I knew having shows in the free space were etrangers........ Art may be cool but its has yet to gain street cred.

I foudn out something disturbing about the French.
They don't teach art in highschools. so no wonder art is
such a strange elitist thing, and no wonder so much
contemporary art looked like bad art Express for so
long. I think the reason for the current rennaissance
is the influence of etrangers, immigrants, students,
travellers. viva Ryan Air!

ARTLOG or TRAVLELOG?

I've been housebound lately, trying to save money and not splurge on metro tickets out of the burbs and takeaway lunches in the centre of town. its also been so cold that outdoor life is reduced to a frantic scurry between cafes. I think my lips turned blue yesterday. Advantage is that I found a fucking amazing hot chocolate on the boulevarde St. Germain. BouleGerm is the home of scary fucking $10 coffees and loud american tourists tyring to be Simone De Beauvoir, but this place had this fucking amazing melted concotion that was like hot chocolate mousse. and it was only two euros.

Anyway we got a bit stir crazy yesterday so we grabbed the car and drove across the bois de Boulogne. It s big forest where prostitutes do tehir trade. Apparently brothels were made illegal here in the 1970's, and stuck between the bourgie banleiu of St. cloud and the extremeley bourgie 16th arrondissment, it sa great place for Brazilian trannies to score trade. the better sex workers have big trucks in winter parked on the kerb, but I still find it fucking odd.

OK, so we crossed the seine, crossed the forest and found ourselves in the 16th. Most of PAris is pretty much a social mixture, but the sprawling being marble facades of the 16th are a screaming exception. I'm not sure if there's anywhere in Australia that can compare with it, maybe Pymble and Prahan mixed together? All the buildings are the same 5 stoery high topped terraces, but many of them have gates aorund them. There are no sleazy corner shops, and no dodgy cafe/ tabacs. All retail is located on the Grand boulevards. I think everyone is meant to drive 5 minutes to get their brad, but the rest of PAris is made for 80 year old pedestrians who walk their dog and buy their bread each day. In the 16th, the only Africans are pushing prams, wiht white babies in them. I think the pram pushers have uniforms, but its hard to tell under their parkas.

We thought we'd go chekc out the musee marmottan, coz there's a clamilla claudle show and I wanted to see her drawings. Unfortunatley Clamille claudel was made famous from the plays and books produced by her right wing brother Paul. And that movie from the type. Outside the museum there was a gaggle of dead animals and helmet hairsprays. Fear. We pushed past the stench of purfume to the tickets, located near the freezing outdoors, and refusing concessions to students over 25, the une,mployed, the elderley, but allowing tteachers, curators and groups over 20 to get in for 4.5 Eruos. We paid more. Inside, more dead animals and helmets hairdos, and big jewelry and scary makeup. all touching and pushing and cackling absolute shite. Paris seemed so much more sophisticated when I didn't speak the language. Now I know that Spanish touists are just as fatuous as amriecan tourists and french art patrons are just as banal as Australians. frightening. And the scarey fur coat brigade also push up and rub agianst smelly prols like me. I thought I'd arm myself by not washing for a week and carrying some used tampons in my pockets, but helas! didn't work.

So after 2 hours of teeth clenching irritation I went downstairss to the non heated room with Monet's Giverney paitnings. There's one view of the Japanese bridge from 1918-1919 that I think is my favrouite painting in the entire world. Unlike Monet Slide test example No. 57, the colours are DARK, and the strokes aren't knitted together into the characteristic mesh that gives that impresisonist shimmer. The whole thing is covered in a series of abstract gestures, that look like Cy Twombly on a bad hair day,Its not jsut the colours, its not the contours, its not just the shapes. I think its the best example of what oil paint IS. Pure plastic light. but fuck oh fuck they resonate. And they shimmer on the borderline between abstraction and a landscape composition. Elizabeth cummings in Australia skates on the same turf, so does Aida tomescue ON a good day, and there are moments when Craig Waddell (check out his Wynn piece from 05) also hits the mark. Extreme sports paint. I'm haunted by the possibilities........ which is why I then spent 6 hours on a jigsaw puzzle.

art and mayhem, 23 jan 2006

This week on art and mayhem we had live in the studio, artist zanny begg, talking about her exhibition glass half full, currently on show at mori gallery. We shot the breeze about activism, ageing, art, politics and poetics.
Details of her exhibition:
Zanny Begg - Glass Half Full
Opens Wednesday 11 January 2006, 6-8pm
Exhibition: 11 January - 28 January @ Mori Gallery, 168 Day St, Sydney.
Gallery open 11am-6pm Wednesday to Saturday.
Telephone: 9283 290

*

we previewed the upcoming events as part of the gang festival (http://www.gangfestival.com):

24th Jan Tuesday · 8-11pm
THE ART OF NONGKRONG: ARTIST TALKS
LanFranchis
Lvl2, 144 Cleveland St, Chippendale

29th Jan Sunday · 12-9pm - KAMPUNG STREET FESTIVAL
PEACE PARK Myrtle St, Chippendale
The final combustion of all things Gang related in a street level festival and Art Market. Peace Park at the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre marks the central hub of activity on this day which draws people onto the surrounding streets in the name of Seni (ART).

*
and we recommended you get down to hoyts this wednesday night for video art and big cardboard tubs of popcorn:

Half Dozen presents…
THE LATE SESSIONS: video art at the movies
Opening night: Wednesday, 25 January, 2006; Screenings at 9pm and 10:30pm
Hoyts Cinemas, George St, Sydney http://www.halfdozen.org $5 tix pre-sold at 1/2doz openings

til next week...

2ser art and mayhem this week

today on the show
we talked about

stickybricks, the sydney festival event at the northcott housing estate in surry hills. see http://sydneyfestival.com.au/event.asp?e=21&v=33

the gang festival: the taring padi show at the pine st community centre:
http://gangfestival.com/opening.html

and the launch of the space 3 new book (launched at china heights gallery)
http://gangfestival.com/3book.html

and we played a few more ken nordine songs: "flesh" and "olive" as well as a track from rohan lee called "father god".

we miss you mayhem!!

cheers
lucazoid

and now, back to the north

I've just scoffed a microwaved plate of the national dish of France so with a full belly my brain is a bit fuzzy.

Generally its greeat to be in a place where the news broadcast has 10 minutes of news about the latest film releases and NONE on sport. I kid you not! and its a completely Nicole Kidman free zone.

Ahem. I'm meant to be writing about Art;

OK this week I ventured out of the burbs and caught the last day of the Dada show at the Pompidou centre. the queues were huge but it was open till 10pm so I thought I'd be able to take it in...... but o golly.......

I reckon now that every single avante garde moment in éàth C art had its origins in Dada. Funky zines, eveyrthing fluxus. poem trees, minimalism, qrtepovera and grungy clunky cobra. It was all there with every scrap of correspondence. postcards, coaster, serviettes. Mad poems like

A rose is born from shit and sunshine
I love roses

and somewhere in a manifesto.....

It is obscene that art should cost more than a saucison (dried french sausage)

Very glad I could read french for that one.

the only thing that oculd do justice to this was a 10kg, $300 book about Dada. but the show was biggger than ben hur and so mcuh more intense than the famous pissoir of R. Mutt..........

while in the mood for blockbusters, I decded to take a friend to the gRande Palais for the melancholie show. She saw the quee and collapsed and had to be taken to shopital in an ambulance. Lucky her travel insurance covered culturel shock.

2 days again, armed with thermal underwear and a thermois we managed to brave the cold. éhours in a queue at 4 degrees. Ya gotta love PAris. and more dead animals and helmet haired ladies than you could poke a stick at. Fortunatley none of them pushed in in front of us...... Scary old PArisian bourgeousie dames are pretty full on in the Chutzpah department.........

The melancholie show was pro,oted on TV (again on the news for 5 minutes!) in a really kitsch way - showing lots of cheesy old oil pâinitngs and then clothed models posing beside them in prett tragic versions of Rodins thinker. IN a black skivvy, wiht a commentary from a psychologist about the link betzeen genius and madness. This levle of cheese brought the punter sin by the hoards. unlike the Louvre, very few spoke ENglish either. Imagine a Eruopean gallery wiht no du,b americans but full of Dumb parisians. Again the curse of the furr lined bags. Pushing in front of people just to tlak on their phone really loudly. There are reasons why I only bathe once a week and live on a diet of cabbages when I'm here.

Anywy I was there for the Bosch. It showed a guy bending over with his head in a bag, with a funnell stuck up his arse and swallows flying out. Another guy hatching from an egg was taking aim with a bow and arrow!

Another highglight was the really cheesy jeff koons style enamelled ceramic cherub, reclining on a skull. It was called Jesus.

This was a prelude to the freaky arrangements of the skeletons of fotesus in really cheesy allagories of death. Imagine if the right to lifers got hold of this! really really weird shit. Definitely made the hypothermia experience worthwhile.

Art and Mayhem in HTML

Heyall!

Below is the unedited transcript of Lucasses summary of mondays show.

For more info on Ken Nordine check out:

http://www.pipeline.com/~dada3zen/COLORS.htm
interesting stuff...

"In the USA Ken Nordine has been a well known vioce on many radio broadcasts and commercials. His rich, deep tones are perfect radio fodder. On this album he combines what he discribes as 'word jazz' with an eclectic mixture of musical arrangements provided by Dick Cambell and a small group of musicians. Each track has the title of a different color ( colour ) and evokes that colors essence by clever use of rhyme, rhythm and tone."



12th Jan Thursday · 6-9pm - FESTIVAL OPENING gangfestival.com
Pine Street Creative Arts Centre
64 Pine St Chippendale
Sideslip from the mainstream into the premiere of Gang!
Our opening exhibition features Taring Padi ("teeth of the rice plant"), a progressive peoples' artistic collective from Yogyakarta, Central Java. From woodcuts to large scale mural installations, their work embraces community and arts in a variety of contexts. Bringing together for the first time in Sydney, Taring Padi's passionate collective imagery as well as many outstanding individual works.
and we did a little critique of tony oursler's blue invasion in hyde park as part of sydney festival.
details:

Blue invasion in hyde park
Hyde Park North
When January 7-24 after dark
see http://sydneyfestival.com.au/event.asp?e=8&v=38
see also www.tonyoursler.com
from the sydney festival press release:
something’s wrong. Something’s happening in the park. Some sort of disturbance; some sort of interference. Something or someone has landed - a visitor or visitors from another place.
Is this a connection or just interference? What are those people doing? Who are they? Are they with the Government or from the University? Light shifts among the trees and an urgent voice becomes ever more persistent. What is it trying to say?
Blue Invasion is a site-specific installation throughout Hyde Park North, created by renowned international artist Tony Oursler. Oursler conceived the work as a kind of ‘psycho-landscape’, delving into our fascination with, and fears of, life beyond the stars. The accompanying soundscape, reminiscent of an auditory hallucination, brings together Oursler’s long-time collaborators, noted US composer Tony Conrad and actor Constance DeJong.
Based in New York, Tony Oursler is one of the pioneers of new media art. Since the mid-1970s he has used video technology to simulate and expose the predicaments of contemporary consciousness - its emotions, desires and pathologies. His work has been shown at the world’s major festivals, biennales and museums, including the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Tony Oursler present[ed] an illustrated lecture exploring the influence of media on our perception and the desire to reimagine ourselves through technology at the Museum of Contemporary Art at January 8.
We played a few Tracks from the tony oursler cd, which is a soundtrack to his hyde park multimedia theatre piece "blue invasion":
Track 1 "red"
Track 7 "Black"
and in keeping with the theme of "colours" we played 2 tracks from

Ken nordine cd "colors" from 1966:
" Ecru" (like the colour of bandaids - see http://www.tx4.us/mr/mrce.htm and search within that page for the word "ecru" you will see what i am talking about)
and
"beige" "about as ordinary as you can get away with seeing is the grey way beige likes to have things being"

til next week!!
x lucazoid

Saving the Weld

Ever dreamt of seeing an art critic expose themeselves to the gut wrenching angst that is an exhibition?

Ever wanted to be able to say what you really thought of an art exhibition, but were afraid to in case the artist overheard?

Well! this wednesday 11th january YOU CAN indulge both fantasies at Mori Gallery, 168 Day Street Sydney.

A large extravaganza on art that can save the world opens from 6-8pm; All " rooms and the corridor will feature exhibitions from Adam Gzecky, Zanny Begg and Catherine rogers.

In the spirit of critical Dyslexia for which she is renowned, Margaret Mayhew from art and mayhem is participating in a show entitled "Saving the Weld".... hell it sounds the same doesn't it?

"Saving the Weld" is inspired by the The Weld Valley Preserve for World Heritage and features the Black Sassy Collective, plus ANNA BELHALFAOUI, HANNA HILDENBRAND and MARGARET MAYHEW.

All three artists went to Tasmania on a reconnaissance mission to hnt down the brave eco warriers who are usiuing a combination of art, science and ecotourism to halt the napalming of Tasmanias southern forests. Yep. Napalming. The forests are burnt off and leftover timber is harvested and pulped for $18 a tonne.Its not for profit, just sheer stupidity. the blockaders have been fined $25,000 each for trespassing, which is more money than forestry tasmania will get for pulping the lot....... weird huh?

anyway, since Anna and Margaret are jetsetters, they are in PAris and won't be around to witness the critical discern,ent of the sydney public. So come along, chekc out the work§ disparage our skills! disparage our intent! buy the work and BURN IT IN THE GALLERY!!!!! the money goes to a good cause and you can have a good release!

This wednesday!

cheers

Mayhem

January - Virtual News

Today's moral is that we are never where we think we are.

I'm typing this from an arab spaking internet cafe in the western suburbs of Paris but nonetheless feel capable of interforming people of the Sydney art scene.

Fristly: Lucazoid's radio summary

Today we had mickie quick in the studio to talk about his participation in the gang festival, a huge indonesian/australian exchange project taking place in chippendale during january. the dates are 12-29 of january, and all the details are at:
http://www.gangfestival.com

i also did a shout out for the upcoming theNownow festival of spontaneous music, which will this year feature a full programme of experimental films curated by joel stern from brisbane.
http://thenownow.net/festival/

finally, we plugged the first draft gallery's call out for artists in residence, and also their emerging curator programme. both these opportunities close 23 january, so get your proposal in quick! details are at:
http://www.firstdraftgallery.com/projects Deadline is January 23rd and vut and paste is below

Next week I'm doing a star act by being absent from my own show. anna and I have a duop thing with Hannah and some others at Mori Gallery. Its all in aid of saving the Weld valley forest in southern tasmania 6 whihc is being napalmed to malke way for 'renewable' pulp planations - we've got films comics, paintings & other stuff. Its part of a multi room politically aware extravaganza opening on Wed 11th January. The art stars include Adam Gzesky, Zanny Begg and Catherine Rogers.

There's also a cool show of pathwork secrets opening in Bathrust next friday. At the warpstanzA - home of the best coffee west of the blue mountains.

Emerging Curator Program



Emerging curators are invited to submit curatorial proposals for an exhibition at Firstdraft in 2006.



The Emerging Curator Program has been developed to provide much needed support for emerging and experimental curatorial practice in Australia, and to generate exhibitions that promote critical discussion and opportunity for emerging artists.



Firstdraft will provide the successful applicant with:

* a fully subsidised three-week exhibition in the whole gallery, including promotion and opening costs

* funds for an exhibition catalogue

* funds towards exhibition costs

* access to Firstdraft's equipment resources



This program is supported by the NSW Ministry for the Arts,



Applications due 6pm Monday January 23 2006



Emerging Artist Studio Program



Proposals are invited from emerging artists for the first round of the 2006 Studio Program.



The Studio Program facilitates the aesthetic and critical practice of emerging artists, and provides a studio and exhibition venue that is supportive, professional and dynamic. In 2006 the program will be expanded by the subdivision of the studio space, allowing two studio artists to use the space concurrently.



Firstdraft will provide the successful applicant with:

* a studio space on the ground floor of Firstdraft for eleven weeks

* a three-week exhibition at Firstdraft upon completion of the program

* documentation of their exhibition

* an artist’s fee for exhibiting



The Firstdraft Emerging Artist Studio Program is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.



Applications due 6pm Monday January 23 2006





For further information and application forms to http://www.firstdraftgallery.com/projects/or email mail@firstdraftgallery.com



_____________________________________________________________

For media enquiries contact Kathryn Gray mail@firstdraftgallery.com



Firstdraft

116-118 Chalmers St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

t: +61 (0)2 9698 36655 e: mail@firstdraftgallery.com

www.firstdraftgallery.com

Forget art 6 where's the cheese?

I've been making a point of avoiding all semblance of cutlure 'cept for the cheese - while on holidays in Paris

also managed to avoid sun as well.

got a link tho from ruark Lewis about the website for banalities

check it out: www.http://www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/articles/perfecthouse/


cheers

mayhem

Au Revoir, Salmiaki

Today was my last show for 3 months.
I'm heading off to the snowy banks of the Seine to work on my pristine pearl like complexion (at least the bits between the freckles).

Tim Hilton will be doing the show next week - followed by Lucas Ilheim until March - when Mayhem will return in the flesh.

while away - i'll keep updating this site from some internet cafe.

In Paris - I'm going to check out some grafitti art - which is saving the Ville lumiere from being a turgid 20th century hell hole (It's not great for modern art) - I guess all the great music must have finally sppread to people's eyeballs.

Afterwards - I'm heading to London for 10 days. I'll be YBAing out my eyeballs and can't wait for the TURNER! gosh!

then'm going to Finland for a fortnight - to hang out with some extremely cool installation & dollaborative video artists....I'm packing my parka and I can't wait!

OK for the record - I've decided to skip reviewing the art school shows. NAs had skateboards. Lots of people got drunk at all openings. Lots of art was seen. SOme of it is still up. SCA postgradute show is opening tuesday 6th December. some amazing COFA masters student has a show in KUDOS. It opens tomorow night.

on the show I discussed slowly and sensibly - (tried) the show by Fiona Hall and Fiona McDonald. titled "Strangely Famliar" its been on for all of november at the UTs gallery - level 4 of the design building in Harris street. In a word? GO. It closes this weekend. Its great.

Longer words? - ricky has done SOOOO amazingly well wiht the curation - because the works by boht artists acutally form a specific collaborative installation hich trasnforms the space. fiona Mcdonlands work is especiially goood - as an an art of immersion. Stepping inside her works - through the curtain on one side and flanked by the walls, chair, lamp on the other - her 'comfort and terror' juxtapositions were.... deeply affectively charged. - Prints of fighter planes arranged as snowfalkes across geographical topograhic maps - for me - worked far more strognly when the images themselves became bigger than a paper or art object - but architectural. and Fiona halls work is, just, incredible.

here's the blurb:

We comfort ourselves as best we can. We feather our nests and are kissed by consumption. We are flying toward something we do not know and yet someone, somewhere, always knows where we are.

The art of Fiona Hall and Fiona MacDonald will turn the gallery into an environment where we see the aftershadows of the collection and the complicated folds of capitalism. The setting is a haunted domesticity. The walls are draped and wallpapered, shopping bags frighten us and all our money seems able to blow away. But this is not a simple horror. We experience the paradoxical pleasures of seeing money made into an exquisite home and flows of consumption becoming a sail across the sea or a flight on a breeze. Curated by Ricky Subritzky.

Strangely Familiar: Fiona Hall and Fiona MacDonald runs to 2 December and is open Mon - Fri 12 - 6pm

UTS Gallery, Level 4 702 Harris St, Ultimo Sydney NSW 2007
T: 02 9514 1652
E: utsgallery@uts.edu.au


Opening this week is an entirely different collaboration - by community artists and activists: Deb Wall, Ali Golding and Vikki Golding. Ali Golding is well known as a local Elder and Reconciliation Leader, and Deb Wall received an OAM for her work in commnity development and multicutlurlalism.

The two have worked together in reconciliation and community development for over a decade, and both have campaigned for and mentored koori artists at the Redfern Community Centre. In this exhibition they are bringing together a variety of work that shows their activities, loves and passions and celebrates aspects of friendship and collaboration.

Called ‘In-dwelling’ to stress that artistic work basically comes from a spark within the self, the exhibition will include photographs, paintings and hand-made pottery. Deborah calls it ‘an evolving signature, a discovery, a search for deeper meaning’. Aunty Ali sees it as an expression of her culture and spirituality. For Victoria, it is like a ‘coming together’of raw ideas.

The exhibition opens this Thursday, 1st December, 7-9 pm, Alpha House Glint Gallery,
Level 1, 226 Union Street, ERSKINEVILLE (South Newtown) and runs until December 15th. the gallery will be open
11am-5pm wednesday to sunday - just for this show only.

Ciao.

DEGENERATE PUNKS PERFORM PUBLIC CLEANSING

It’s easy to hide behind the security of our televisions, observing the spectacle of conflict and war. How easy is it to hide from the eternal struggle within? George Tillianakis, Sari Kivinen and Naomi Oliver are Project Degenerate and are stepping outside a culture of fear and hiding, taking an inevitable step forward, towards a collaborative resolve to their inner conflicts. Project Degenerate: To be blacklisted is a four-act process of figurative cleansing, performed as an experimental hybrid of cabaret and performance art.

Since being awarded the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and University of Western Sydney Emerging Arts Scholarship in 2004, George Tillianakis has taken performance art onto a new platform, and with each new work breaks new ground by challenging himself and his audience. Now he is returning to Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre but this time Tillianakis is not alone, he will challenge the audience with his collective.

“The inner-war must be faced before ultimate implosion.” GEORGE TILLIANAKIS, 2005

Project Degenerate: To be blacklisted allows three degenerate punks to move forward and cleanse themselves of the overwhelming fears and anxieties commonly experienced by Western Sydney youth, faced by a world of drugs, crime, stereotypes and prejudice.

Project Degenerate will be performed at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre over four nights, commencing Wednesday 23 November, in a series of cabaret style performances that will rip apart our perceptions of alcoholism, war, television and casual sex.

Be prepared from Wednesday 23 to Saturday 26 November at 7pm, where the stage will transform as a metaphorical journal. The collective, Project Degenerate, will recite spoken word and music while the audience leers with naughty eyes at the forbidden scripture, waiting in suspense for the unexpected to happen.

The 100-minute performance has four acts and a 20-minute interval. The degenerate Westy punk revolution is here.

WHO: Adults 16+
WHERE: Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
WHEN: Wednesday 23 – Saturday 26 November
TIME: 7pm with a 20-minute interval
COST: $5
BOOKINGS: Call 02 9824 1121 or Email reception@casulapowerhouse.com

Sedition

Click on the title above
this kind of intimidatory shit is what terrorism really is

One of the tings I love about Australia is the furtjer you go from any where that could possibly serve as a terrorist target - the more obsessive and paranoid people are about it.

In the past month - I've overheard long anti terrorism conversations in Sandlfly, Huonville, Werris Creek and Glen Innes. Are these places even on Google Earth?

Up a Tree

Radio 2ser monday 14 nov 2005

if we coulda got thru to her, we woulda talked to
margaret who is up a tree in tassie. seemed she had no
reception tho.

instead, we talked about:

here at first draft
organised by terminus projects
Brian Fuata, Shane Haseman, Koji Ryui, Huseyin Sami
6-8pm ONLY , Wednesday the 2nd, 9th and 16th of
November.
Firstdraft Gallery
116 - 118 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills 2010

( i have written up a similar thing at my blog:
http://bilateral.blog-city.com/here_at_first_draft.htm
)

........

if i had time i would have raved about:
INTERESTING TIMES PERFORMANCE: Dissident Voices
Friday 11 November, 6.30 pm – 7.30 pm
Ania Walwicz, Amanda Stewart, Ruark Lewis and Rainer
Linz mark the historic events of ‘The Dismissal‘ 30
years ago, in an experimental sound-based performance.


which was bloody great!

............

and then we had a chat with tim hilton, from the wild
boys, who played his track "i hate you" and discussed
the wild boys "lives of the artists" launch this wed
night:
wild boys
wed 16th nov 6-9pm
newtown hotel
174 king st newtown
tim hilton / robert lake / richard gurney / trevor fry
/ guests inc shirley valentine / liam benson etc
http://www.livejournal.com/community/thewildboys/
launch – lives of the artists issue 10 (spring issue)
(usually edited by liz pulie )
dress code: dress up!
edited by wild boys
(previous shows at mememememe and phatspace)
music by Lakey and Mikofanclub djing and trashy music
special perforMANCE by cover star of the issue –
shirley valentine
hoola hoop performances,
cd launch “camp tracks” put together by robert lake
video work being screened, and tim hilton's
photographic work as featured on his flickr site.
Special pink cocktails: wild boys drink.

........

and we promo'd the upcoming show at the ACP:
Beyond Real Part 2: Making a Scene
Opening Thursday 17 November 2005 6.00-8.00pm
Exhibition runs: Friday 18 November - Saturday 24
December

Curated by Alasdair Foster
CALUM COLVIN, ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN, LES KRIMS,
ROSEMARY LAING, CLARENCE JOHN LAUGHLIN, BRENDAN LEE,
ANGUS MCBEAN, DUANE MICHALS, TRACEY MOFFATT, JULIE
RRAP, ARTHUR TRESS, JERRY UELSMANN, WILHELM VON
GLOEDEN

Visual Puzzles, Arcadian idylls, gothic nightmares,
dysfunctional families, wistful dreams. The artists in
the concluding part of Beyond Real create whole new
worlds - sometimes strangely familiar, and others
totally alien.
While some images are created through digital
manipulation or darkroom trickery, many involve the
creation of elaborate settings that are then
faithfully recorded on film. With the camera no
longer wedded
exclusively to notions of neutral documentation, the
exhibition explores photography's other romance with
worlds beyond the real.

FLOORTALK 1.00pm Saturday 8 October – FREE Breaking
free from notions of the truth of photography, the
artists in this, the concluding part of the Beyond
Real exhibition, create worlds of fantasy and
illusion. Discussing the joys and challenges of such
an approach will be some of the contemporary
Australian artists included in the exhibition.

.......................
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Next week - lucazoid and mayhem do a big chinwag about the state of the arse err arts

A (scatalogical) Valediction for an Alma Mater

Right now I should be writing up a nice paper on interdisciplinarity for some seminar I've got on tomorrow. Hell -tho! Procrastination is such a fuel for for blogging!
In the paper that will be I considered disucssion the french word for discipline which is fomration - much nicer, it sounds malleable and constructive whereas discipline sounds so repressed and well behaved.
this leads onto the segue of this blog posting whihc will have very little to do wiht the show on monday.
Lucas will be talking about art and I'll be up a tree in the tarquin in Tasmania. Stay tuned

Ahem.
digression

Next week, the silly season cranks up big time. Its a sweaty, smothering, plastic cup, chateau cardboard boozy midsummer night's slurrrrr.. Spring shows have flowered every where and the art schools are having their end of year pissups... err soirees, err,,,,, shows. its a sweaty sinky boozy time between Spring exhibitions and the Christmas season (read end of ratings periods). ahhh the christmas shows - when the artworld becomes like a bing crosby album, or a $2 shop. Two of my favourite things. Its a fine time.

I'm returning from Tassie expressly to head on out to the SCA show. It opens on Tuesday the 14th and I've got friends finishing masters and loyalty defeats the ignominy of paying $2.00 for splashes of seriously shite goon, served up wiht a sermonizing line " under VSU this service won't exist" (stop it - you're turning me liberal).

Next Thursday (24th) - there's the annual darlo double up of COFA and NAS - both swilling away their fine young things. NAS has better alcohol but much longer speeches. COFA has alcohol comparitive to Frank Watters, but much shorter peeches and an opening night ambiance compariable to wild warehouse parties back in olden days of surry. (god bless you, F-Block).

I should of course be reviewing the art. i'm not. Hell, who cares about the art? I always thought art school was about having a crazy time and getting trashed. Art is not brain surgery. If you spend 3 years making total garbage no one is going to die!

For me, art schools are interesting - not fomr the exceltional quality of theiry star graduands (fortunately the sheer nausea inducing quality of this phrase is enough to repress my pointed barbs) but from the amount of fun that people seem to be engaging in. If Georgio Morandi came out of an art school you'd be bloody worried. Misery and solitude was the crucible of his genius - thats not what you want at art school. Art school should (here I am sounding like an old bat and I'm not even 35) give people a reason to live, and a glimpse of the possibliity of living well. People learn how to make shit mean something when they're fucked up and alone in the real world.

Anway Formation. I'm an alumnus of National art school. I drank my way through in the late nineties just as it was becoming independent. I did a painting major and didn't do any paintings - just lots of manifestos, junk assemblages, performances, soft err sculptures, and other random stuff - and I could feel like a rebel. I also scored another degree with no additional Hecs debt. I also made an incredible bunch of really close friends who I still know to this day. the fun and the friendships is what sustained me afterwards, shit poor and shit bored and often quite depressed and deciding to learn how to paint. the type of professional formation I had - was -to stick to what i believe in.(even when i don't know what it is) Push the envelope. Don't take anyone's shit. OK take some poeples shit. this is all sounding banal - and i guess most of it gets covered in bohemia 101 - but I still reckon its got a place.

I know lots of people from my old art school - stretching back across decades. A long lineage of dodgy daubers and drunks, plus the odd success story, we see each other around and nod and patter - for me it was the informal networks of community that I really have benefitted from since leaving at art school. My closests friends were whingeing bitter cantankerous foot stomping yelling terminally late for class fuckups - we've kept in contact since and kept going since. Lots of the nice girls and nice boys haven't - coz chasing success can get boring in a milieu where the odds stacked against success are so high. Not as boring as the art . go down glenmore road and shudder. Or the gunnery on a bad night.

I don't think NAS is unique for creating a fun filled sanctuary for crazy boho types. theres some GREAT stuff happening at SCA at present - and COFA has supplied most of the BYT's of the artist run initiative, contemporary art, primavera circuit etc.. I had friends going through COFA at the same time as me at NAS and they had just as many crazy parties as we did.. I dunno if there was the same split between the official art school stars and the seriously silly bohos, but I'd be scared if there wasn't. If poeple's art school activities and trasngression is a nice seamless segue into official avant-gardism - thats quite frightening. As my friend Fabian From the Academy of Young Urban Fuck-ups said - fucked up people don't win prizes.

OK Here comes the seriously preachy bit. I believe that learing how to make art involves learning how to fail, again and again and again. Creativity is the right to create somehting new, unforseen, unexpected and incomprehensible. This involves risk, incomprehension and incompetence. Learning to live with failure and not as a single hamlet style damning moment - but as a regular state of stumlbing - make sthe pssibilities for living and risking life - a lot more interesting. Vale the ludic theory of human life. There's a bit more - I'm scared society is beccoming dictatorial and moncultural - where the space to be non productive, to do stuff because its pointless?

I like to see shit art. I like to see shit art in art schools. Lots of it. Art that is shit in ways I can't even imagine. 20 year olds and the state of the universe. Serously offensive bad porn 'that's like so ironic' and is like, so NOT. I LOVE Bad paintings. Especially if they refer to the deacde just past. we need more bad chunky primary coloured expressionism, espceialy next to the beige, and more malevich, with some textured glitter/klimt stuck in and more bad pop, and a bit of dodgy jungian shit just to help the goon come back up. Bad metal sculpture, and bad performance art. Lots of bad performance art, and lots of self obsessed 19 year old skinny art school girls stuck in the lacanian mirror phase but citing nan goldin. there are always rare special flowering wonders - but they deserve to be nurtured in a ruch hummus of strange crap.

Art schools are interesting if they can foster communities of people who are successful at not succeeeding - at living in an undisciplined, cantankerous fucked up barely functional way. I don't think there is any successful pedagogical model for doing this - and I think the less of a pedagogical model there is - the greatest change of success there is. I've inwardly shuddered at the moved towards streamlining and profesisnalism at my old stomping grounds, as I shudder at the increasing numbers of 4WD's parked outside and the freaky Bellevue blonde helmets among the students - and even though I'm doing doctoral research on art education - I really don't know what the fuck an Atelier model actually means - beyond fairly vapid francophonic citations that were bandied about the Slade in the late nineteenth century. (Trust me, I've got the references). In increasingly regulated, managerial performance outcome driven model of infomration economy management it'd be surprising if any art school can get away with much that hasn't been codfiied as a core learning requirement. But I reckon there is safety in numbers. The more art schools that can survive, defining themsleves against each other in bitchy, crazy little fights left over from the seventies (the painting vs new media bitchfights - ya gotta love that one) ,or even the fifties (welded steel vs everything else three dimensional) the more space there is for interesting and odd things to ferment. the scary sedition laws wil make it harder than before to create anything a bit ambiguous, suss or playful - we'll all either be forced into the serious subversive martyrdom camp or the sell-out successful non confrontational camp - and thats a great pity - art should confuse and mix shit up on many levels.

Anwyway - this is an extremely long winded way of getting to the point of this post - which is that rumour has it that the National Art School is going to be merged with the College of FIne arts - or 'aquired' by the latter. Its a bit of a shame - and not only because lots of the NAS staff have seen COFA as their Nemesis ever since the bad old days of the Mackie Merger that left the remnants of the old NAS stuck as a sculpture and design deparmtnet in TAFE. If it goes through the furr flying should be pretty intense - but probably not very pretty or productive for staff or students. COFA has done extremely well in surviving the yoke of UNSWinc. , they have a vibrant and diverse culture of research and practice across a numbe of fields - and I frankly wish I was going there now. But its not NAS, and it wouldn't be interested or able to kep NAS as a distinct school - and the site would too easily be subsumed into the profit imperatives of Kensington. So I'm a bit sad, a bit cross that Bob Carr has broke another election promise immediately apon retirement - (an independent art school? what?) and a bit scared about whatever else may come unstuck.........

Am I the only one who gives a sincere disinterested* shit?

* I'm not a paid employee of any art instututions in sydney at present - though I'm open to any offers