Lotsa shit

thanks to Loose for the most tasteful image of the year - and one which had me gnashing my teeth at missing the closing finale of the THE SHIT SHOW

At around the same time - I was planning to be running around williamsburg chasing zombies - but was to knackered by the feminist future symposium to do much at all.

News of the week is that the National Art School will not be amalgamated with any Universities but that the NSW department of education and training are looking at 'other options to conserve the unique character of the site' or institution - or some other weirdarse bureauspeak. In the meantime, one bright spark has started up an official shit stirring blog - whingeing eloquently about shit going down at the old gaol.

despite the cumbersome title, it offers some punchy perspectives and a timely challenge to the reactionary jingoistic anti academic guff that got peddled in the local press last year.

i've decided that even long distance: Mayhem is sydney's answer to the williamsburg 'wagmag' a monthly leaflet and map that lists the freepiss/new art happenings every night in williamsburg, the 'hip' part of Brooklyn.

so here goes:

Meanwhile - back at the ranch, don't look have an opening this wednesday Jan 31st, called 'teen dream' by jaqueline dunbar. DON'T LOOK Gallery is at 419 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill, NSW, Australia (a block back from the corner of New Canterbury Rd and Marrickville Rd).

The rise of the middle classes, compulsory schooling and the outlawing of child labour all gave rise to the phenomenon of the 'teen'. This 'in-between' period has generated an industry that exists between childhood innocence and raunch culture – between teddy bears and girly mags.

Jack Dunbar has constructed a personal response to the social construction of the male teen using evocative imagery projected from lightboxes installed in the ceiling. Like oil and water these constellation-like projections contrast uneasily with our teen's bedroom below. There is something voyeuristic about this scene. We are viewing a boy's private world – one that is becoming a bit too comfortable and a little outgrown. At the same time we are privy to his media-constructed fantasia – the supposed ideal construction of beauty – of womanhood. This 'ideal world' however, is beyond his reach and quite terrifying to the adolescent.

Dunbar has created a rare opportunity to gaze into the hormonally-charged world of a teenage boy. Filled with memories, expectations and fears, we see beyond the usual PR opportunities for 'teen' marketers into a more nuanced topography.

On the same night - and a mere few stops on the 428 bus away Factory 49 Showroom has an opening at:
49 Shepherd St, Marrickville, Sydney. (Shepherd St runs off Addison Rd)

Show #14 - paintings by MATT ALLEN, opening 6 - 8pm, Wed 31 Jan until Sat 10 Feb and and Outside Wall Work painting by KATE MACKAY

The Showroom is open every Thurs - Sat, 1 - 6pm

on saturday

GroundFloor Gallery have a group show called 'teasers' opening this saturday afternoon (3rd February) from 3-5pm

at their new address at 39 Cameron Street Balmain, Sydney NSW Australia 2041

t: 02.9555.6102 f: 02.9555.6104

Tracy Clement is in it, and says its a 'teaser' fr her solo show in October so worth a look

If you can't be bothered getting over to Breezy Balmain on saturday arvo - then try Scheffer Gallery at 38 Lander Street, Darlington for

Brendan Smith <>
Opening Saturday 3rd February 5-7pm until 24th February
SHEFFER GALLERY
38 Lander Street Darlington 2008 Sydney
11-6pm wed-sat Ph 9310 5683

The following Tuesday February 6

there's a show called UNREAL-ESQUE, opening at GRANTPIRRIE, 86 George Street Redfern

the curator says  'It has eight really great artists in it: Sarah Parker, Marisa Purcell,
Sally Ross, Bethany J Fellows, Sharon Goodwin, Jaki Middleton, Therese Howard
and Caroline Rothwell.'

Meanwhile that cultural desert Newtown - is having a NEW CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE open - and it's looking for artists!

At The Vanishing Point – Contemporary Art is a new independent
contemporary art space that will showcase a challenging and dynamic program of art
exhibitions. The gallery will be opening in March 2007 on King Street
Newtown. We are calling for proposals from artists, curators and groups
to exhibit during our first two seasons (Autumn and Winter).

The gallery places high importance on contemporary art that encourages
or provides dialogue on contemporary issues whether that be of a personal,
social, ecological, political, cultural, spiritual, psychological or
environmental context.

Our Autumn program will feature exhibitions of two and three-week
durations. The Spring program will also include four-week exhibition options.

For more information and to receive an info pack about exhibition
options at the gallery email; atthevanishingpoint@hotmail.com

or call Brendan on 0430 083 364

You're Standing In IT

does anyone remember that great ABC comedy show from the 1980's? chunky custard etc.? I hope I'm not hip and happening that the readers of this blog are all under 25 or something....

anyway - thought the title: Australia, you're standing in it befits the theme of this weeks art listings - especially since I'm NOT!

Biennale Star Ruark Lewis has a blog about a show at Gymea (where?) called Our Lucky Country

Gymea is actually part of the shire - scene of surfie pogroms in 2005 - and now site of handwringing arty farty pinko ratbag angst from troublemakers such as Moi.

there'll be a pinko-nic in Cronulla this Australia Day (that's Friday 12-2pm) for artists and friends at the Gunnamatta Park at the northern end off Tonkin Street which is at the back of Cronulla Train Station.

It's meant for friends of the exhibiting artists in the show - but you could just turn up and name drop and be fine, I reckon.....


Ruark says "come to Cronulla and enjoy this beautiful parkland setting - there are bayside swimming baths, or the ferry ride to Bundeena after lunch, a walk, a snooze, just sit & read the paper or whatever - great raves and meet each other.
we'll be down there at the picnic tables - there are beautiful old shelter there
= or park on Nicholson Parade and bring the things you like to eat/drink"

It sounds a bit suss if noone's bringing any prhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifawns for the Barbie.....

Afterwards- you can cathc the train bakc into town for the mega opening of the mega month extravaganza If you See something Say Something

Friday January 26 - Opening: Gallery 4a, 6-8pm, Special guest performance.

Gallery 4A - is in Hay Street - across from Capitol Centre. Phone 9212 0380.

Gallery hours 11-6pm Tuesday to Saturday, exhibition runs until February 11.


It's curated by Carol De Souze and Zanny Begg - and is a relationally aesthetic international, multimedia anti-national extravaganza.....



Monday January 29 - Film screening Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini's 5

Factories–Worker Control in Venezuela . Mori Gallery, film 6pm, followed by

talk and question and answer session with Oliver Ressler 7.30pm. Sponsored

by the Bolivarian Circle , LASNET and the Australian Venezuela Solidarity

Network.



Monday February 5 - Opening: Chrissie Cotter Gallery: 6-8pm. Artists: Contra

Filé. Gallery hours 12-6pm Wednesday to Saturday, exhibition runs until

February 17. Phone 9335 2222.



Wednesday February 7 - Opening: Mori Gallery: 6-8 pm, Performance by Justice

Yeldham. Gallery hours 11-6pm Wednesday to Saturday, exhibition runs until

March 3. Phone 9283 2904.



Saturday February 3 - Workshop with Taring Padi (Indonesian with English

translation): 3pm, Gallery 4a.



Saturday February 10 - Workshop with Contra File (Portuguese with English

translation): Chrissie Cotter Gallery. 2-4pm.



Sunday February 11 - Workshop with Etcetera (Spanish with English

Translation): Mori Gallery 2-4pm.



Saturday February 10 - Closing party: The Chocolate Factory Basement 8pm,

Organised by Lauren Parker and Supported by Dual Plover.



Sunday February 18 - Squatfest: The Anti Tropfest Film Fest (text "squat" to

0428 477 128for venue details) www.squatfest.com.



Saturday 24 February - SquatSpace presents: Redfern-Waterloo Tour of Beauty;

meet at the top of Little Eveleigh St, Next to Redfern Train Station 2pm.

www.squatspace.com/redfern .



Wednesday February 28 - Feedback Session: Is it possible to bring political

art into the gallery? Thumbs up, thumbs down… a wrap up and debrief on If

You See Something Say Something, at Loose Projects 6pm, level 2, 168 Day St

Darling Harbour.

Art far Away

this is a cross posting of the latest blog entry on mayhem's adventures in the big apple. i've got a whole blog of yankeephilia But I thought i'd post this one up here - coz its about art - and I don't want people to think that this blog is fading away like scragg's fake tan.

I had teckie disasters so didn't post up all the openings happening this week - like at don't look and the NOW NOW Fest. It's on NOW. the shit show has a talkfest happening on monday at Loose. (Level 2, 168 day Street Sydney)

And now - back to New york, where it's 16 hours behind australia.... I broke my new years resolution and had two glasses of wine last night. Not entirely by consent.

I’d trekked over to Chelsea after doing a gallery stroll in Williamsburg. The local galleries actually produce a monthly map and listings of the openings each night – so arty punters in search of free piss and eyeball stimulation – or just warmth amidst the pretty cool young things - can guide themselves along the circuit.

I was actually very strong and resisted the free beer, and free pastis on offer. OK it didn’t take that much self control actually. And the art was pretty orright too.

First up was a ballpoint show at Cinders gallery. Biro drawings are tres cool part of the edgy ‘anal grunge’ aesthetic that characterizes modern ‘youf’ art. You know the thing? Everyday materials – as a generous nod tho the waste aesthetic post-arte-povera thing combined with exquisite attention to detail and that self conscious focus on pop-culture trivia, or just trivia, that denotes authentic late-industrial-consumer-society angst?

Cinder’s last show was a big printmakers combo – and the back room sells jewellery, objects, zines, t-shirts and VINYL – yeah – RECORDS – by local hipsters, all for nice present level prices. I’d bought a resin cast cumquat slice enamelled onto a ring for a friend – and the owner said they were planning a t-shirt show in Melbourne of screenprints on teatowels at the 3rd Drawer gallery.

Back to Friday – the gallery was packed. The walls were wallpapered with 3 or four deep A4 sheets of mostly bond paper – all covered with mainly blue biro drawings –though there was one corner of black biro drawings. Tiling is a great way to hang serial style shows – where there are lots of works that share a formal criteria – (like size, or support medium) and evokes the post-modern trash-ironic-aesthetic that seeks to rise above the preciousness of art as reified singular object of genius – and embrace seriality and repeatability as fun facts of life. Prices ranged from $2.95 to $1,000.00 which was cute too. Most were in the $50-$100 range. I grasped all of the above at the threshold of the gallery, by peeking above the heads of the throng which filled the centre of the room, while swiping a catalogue at the doorway.

The next bit was a bit harder – doing the New York sauna slow stripping shuffle. (actually I’m becoming quite adept at this) – which involves peeling off layers of clothing – allowing enough time for snowflakes to evaporate but not condense on spectacles as steam, while in a really crowded room /subway/queue of people doing the same thing. One of the things I really like about winter is the constant doona like gentle pressure between bodies. Danes have word ford it: “hooglie” – which reminds me of “huggily”. Peoples bodies are so wrapped up in winter woollies that we forget our boundaries – and huddle and press and gently and sway together, all without eye contact. It’s kind of intimate, and cute, and kind of weird at the same time. I guess guys must have a similar thing at beats. Anyway I was doing this in a room, edging along the walls, back to the centre, peering at biro drawings in a not quite steamy bespectacled kind of way, while ferreting around for a tissue to wipe my runny nose. Behind me I felt the padded pressings and shufflings of the black clad hipsters of Williamsburg and I felt like I’d walked into some cool pub on Brunswick Street. (or maybe surry hills in the 1990’s – Sydney is too sunny and plastic to really be ‘cool’). Almost everyone was 10 years younger than me, with bad skin and bad hair (mainly facial on the men), but a certain je ne sais quoi that made me feel self conscious. Oh, yeah, I know. They were wearing duffle coats, high tops, those trendy Tibetan/Inca style beanies and all had white skin, black hair and mostly black clothing. I also have white skin and mostly black hair but also had on a stripy beanie, flouro orange polar, blue jeans with an appliquéd flower on the sides, green/white sneakers, and I was lugging a big puffy full length parka. (one of the key markers of social capital in winter cites is the confidance to wander round looking half fed- and underdressed – overdressing tends to connote homelessness – and overeating denotes white trash poverty – coolness invokes a detachment from the senses – such as the fear of cold or hunger).

I really stuck out because, I wasn’t carrying a can of budweiser, and I was looking at the art. Which was kind of cool. There were some really amazing detailed drawings, some exquisite stencil style blade cut and biro drawings, and a lot of fairly banal illustration, some fairly bland adolescent ‘protest-angst’ art, (complete with bad poetry) and lots of mad magazine teenage boy cartoony art. Which ain’t my cup of expresso. I considered forking out $10 for a drawing of exqisitely rendered diarrhoea on a garbage can – but then couldn’t be bothered fighting my way back through the crowds to do the purchase. So I rugged up and braved the snowflakes once more.

I checked my map and scurried around the corner to a place called “front room” – in a warehouse behind big metal doors up some stairs. This was a big white box of delights – miniatures and reproductions and a more heterogeneous crowd – that looked – like the other crowd – the artists and their friends – but these artists seemed to have spent more time away from their teenage bedrooms. The place was so packed – that I was forced to negotiate the space warily – peering at video installations, into light boxes, onto shelves. There was some bronze pistachio nuts, FUCK snow globes and a book of beautiful superimposed photographs by Robert Flynt – that were creepy and beautiful and so I got one for my friend who collects found photographs and stitches them up into little sculptures. There were more PLM’s (people like me) at this space so I could have happily stayed but – my friend wanted to push on. So out we went…..

And trudged for 2 blocks up the same street to Parkers Box. This was redolent of the Good Hope Gallery on a good night with more ‘serious’ artists, and buyers (with decent winter coats). It was a very clean white cube, with clean white works, and clean white people. And blissfully free of the stench of Storrier. (you know, I can’t BELIEVE how Australia is sooo small that even potentially interesting galleries are forced to take moribund turkeys seriously because the art buyers are so few and far between and so turkeyfied themselves that the only way to keep a profit is to sell big buck turkey art –and showing anything interesting is regarded as an act of fucking charity).

I’ll stop whingeing now – because the group show, called ‘the troubled waters of permeability’ had some really lovely works to make me smile for quite a while – especially animated sculpture video stuff – as in electronically interfaced kinetic sculptures…. Eergh. In English this means that one bit had a rotating sphere of wires linked to a whole heap of little daisies on wires on the wall that scintillated and shimmered, with various nice alternances, and then there was a really intense forest video placed in this great moving assemblage of old printer bits. I’m not sure what it meant but it looked good (great art review eh?). There was an amazing big funnel object by Soyeon Cho, suspended from the ceiling, that had the lyrical grandeur of similar objects made by Petra Coyne. It was made from an plastic forks and other every day things – and had the witty transformation of the everyday into exquisite fanciful otherness that Koji Rui did in Primavera this year.

At the steel school of sculptural formalism where I did my training – they wer e pretty down on assemblage art – because (apparently) it never allowed the objects to transcend their object-ness and become ‘pure’ material that can then evoke ‘pure’ form – and those hokey rustic wood and metal things that you see in bad Sculpture shows certainly prove that point. But occasionally, the plastic soul of banal objects can take flight and become both object and form, and matter, and as our eyes and minds stumble between all three possibilities, nice things happen. The Mayhem Theory Of Aesthetics‰ holds fast to the power of interstices, of gaps and crevices, of incomplete junctures and wrinkled seams as the repositories of the great stuff in life (which reminds me; I’ve run out of dental floss).

So I was enamoured of Soyeon’s funnel – as a permeable shell of meanings and troubledness, and nice imaginative possibilities, even though dusting it would prove a total shit. One of the nicest things I saw though was a great digital/kinetic installation by a duo called “electric shadow”. The gallery curtained of a corner to create a nice little booth. A shallow rectangular pool of bubbling water was in the centre, on the floor, with some abstracted elegant blue-green lines projected over the rippling surface – which then reflected up onto the wall. There was an enticingly expanding, shrinking animated circle projection on a pad at one end of the pool – which was incredibly tempting – to stick a foot in, o on. Which after a few bevvy’s punters gingerly did. The projection was mounted on a pressure pad – and standing on it –set off another projection across the pool – a weird diaphanous smokey shadow form streaming across the rippling water – in a way reminiscent of viola’s ‘ascentions’ (which is perfectly housed at MOMA right now). Ghostly presence, rippling water, light, air, and fine fine algorithms. Digital art done well can evoke the stuff of the self so well – sense, experiment, fate, form. This was nice.

After this I had a slow trudge tot he subway and a long wait at 6th avenue for a train to the Chelsea Bar where my friend was playing. By the time I arrived, my face was almost too numb to form words. She said she’d put my name on the door, but negotiating my way through two floors of a pumping Chelsea Gay bar on a friday night was not easy. Not to mention dealing with the attitude of the staff manning the caberet theatre where she was playing. “Have you got a reservation?” “Yeah, I’m with the Bass Player”. “Well, there’s no seats left” “I can stand” “You can’t stand” “Oh” “Ok, I think there’s a seat here, at this table, (to the seated clients) can you make room for this lady?” “yeah sure” “Ok, you can sit here” “great thanks” “now, you must have a drink, what do you want?” “err.. have you got a drinks list?” “Ok, come in here (so I struggle into the bar area) this is our drinks list (shows me to a wall of vodka). “err… can I have a glass of wine, please?” so they brought me two glasses of wine. (What!) but I was in no mood to protest. I was at a table of really lovely Manhattan Queens being regaled by an incredible performer - who put the soul back into country and coaxed a double bass solo off a Tammy Wynette tune from my Jazz muso friend. What a genius! Strutting, talking, singing, sobbing to blues, country and Tango. I texted Kath Ellis and told her to get her arse over here. New York is the place where Carlos Gardel meets Hank Williams with just enough Streisand…. I thought about some great lecture on CAMP that I heard at an art-history conference last month and felt very glad to be alive. At the end of the night, I handed over my plastic, and me, my friend and her tree (pet name for double bass) squeezed past the disco beats and muscle marys in the other two rooms and headed back to Brooklyn.

Last night in bed I actually kept on my pyjamas and my doona – and could hear the central heating hissing –so I knew it must have been cold. This morning I groggily woke up to a world of whiteness outside –and watched it melt while eating my fruit porridge.

today I braved biting cold winds that stung my face to gingerly crunch up the road to Dr. sketchy's burlesque sketch club. I was fearful of facing a room full of scary frat boys with scary ‘arty’ attitude, (like my last foray into brooklyn burlesque) but fortunately this was nothing like that. The model was brilliant and looked like a leftover from Klub Kooky in the good old days (2006 even) - so I felt right at home, and the crowd - OK - white, middle class and young - well were white, middle class and young - but they were more arty than fratty, and the music was great. There was one offputting thing - whihc was some guy who looked just like the male models out of those Scary Sylvia Sleigh paintings from the '70's (if you don't know your feminist art history well shame on you!) came up to some girl sitting near my in the break and tried to chat her up. and he was sooo ostentatious about it - and I wondered if I was a totaly freak for thinking he was a total freak or if he was a total freak. I guess it was the altter because he didn't apear to be very suuccessful, but you can't ever tell in New york. Molly the organiser said there was already a Dr. Sketchy's offshoot in Melbourne. (bloody hell) but i reckon sinney could definitely do a similary thing - we got lotsa models that do whacky dressups and lotsa whacky dresser-uppers that could model..... I'm inspired.

Books & Squatting, & Shit

You are invited to a new exhibition...


WHAT: A Book for No Good Reason
(First exhibition of the year at Don't Look Gallery)

WHEN: Opening Wednesday January 17, 6pm
Thurs Jan 18 - Sat Jan 27 (Thur-Sat 11-5)

WHERE: DON'T LOOK Experimental New Media Gallery
419 New Canterbury Rd (Near Marrickville Rd), Dulwich Hill

WHO: Pickafight Books (a williams with special guests Jordan Woods and
Bernard)

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


To say that a williams makes books is like saying that an actor merely
reads lines. a williams is a maker of artist's books. He stiches and
binds, but he does much more than that. a williams 'performs' books -
the narrative, or content is focused around the performance of making
the book.

Thus his books are much more than just words on a page (in fact, they
aren't 'words on a page' at all), they are sculptural objects. For
instance, in his upcoming exhibition at Don't Look Gallery, we see a
video of the artist at work.

In creating 'IncendDIARY', a williams (and co-collaborator Jordan
Woods) fill the insides of books with sparklers, then blow the living
daylights out of them. This destructive, but spectacular, act evokes
the destruction of knowledge through the glorification of war, perhaps
illustrating the old adage that, 'the first casualty of war is truth'.
The charred remains of these books are exhibited like evidence at a
murder trial.

Most of his books don't meet such violent ends, however, but all of
them have 'lived' - they have all survived performance, and as a
result, can be read as texts (despite having no printed words).

The 'Information Bomb' is the result of a performance of a character.
This character believes that if he or she combines a book (a container
for information) with some ink (the revealer of information), an
aerial (the transmitter of information) and a switch (to make the
thing work), that they will be able to make a successful book -
perhaps a book that is more technologically advanced than others.

He describes this work as a 'prototype that never got through the
patent office, made by an inbred savant who grew up in a caravan park
on the Gold Coast' (a description that a williams thinks is a little
too close to his own for comfort).

Another work, entitled 'Preservation', is comprised of a book that has
been preserved in alcohol in the hope the book will 'last for future
generations' - yet ironically it has been ruined in the process. The
way it has been preserved denies access to that which it is trying to
preserve. The object itself has been confused with the knowledge it
contains and the book has been preserved at the cost of that which it
holds.

To a williams it is the lived experience of a book that matters. In
the words of the artist; "It's not what's in a book, who wrote it or
what it's about; but what you DO TO IT that really counts..."

a williams wishes to thank the Haswell and Macleay Museums at the
University of Sydney, Marrickville Council and Southern Cross
University for their assistance and support of this project.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT GREG SHAPLEY ON 0401 152 434 OR
EMAIL dontlookgallery@gmail.com

BANANAS!!!

this was the response of a New York Poet to the latest NYPD citizen terror campaign: If you See Something Say Something.

Meanwhile back in caca land local agitprop troopers Zanny Begg and Kegroll Desouza have launched an multimedia superlineup of globetrotting arty farty pinko troublemakers.

it's gonna crap all over the sydney festival of beige - Rock on!

Exhibition, workshop and newspaper project, January/February 2007

Over January/February an exhibition, discussion and newspaper project will be held in several venues in Sydney and Melbourne. Eight international and eight Australian artists will be contributing artworks, articles and ideas for If you see something, say something which will explore another side to the debate on “terrorism”. The contributions range from the very sad and serious to the more humorous or whimsical, as artists see and say something very different to the vision of the world promoted by the government. Rather than viewing those around us with fear and suspicion the artists invite the viewer to engage with the world around them and challenge their understanding of the causes of violence and war.

Al Fadhil (Iraqi artist living in Europe), in a collaborative work with his brother Ahmed, who was tragically killed by the invasion of Iraq, sends a letter home to his parents as they are uprooted and displaced by the war that is engulfing their homeland. The images of his families belongings, packed into boxes, are a reminder of how temporary and fragile life has become in a war zone.

Grupo Etcétera… (Argentina), and the spin off collective the Errorist International, exhibit a video of their “war on errorism” in a humours look at how the “war on terrorism” has impacted on freedom and civil liberties.

Hito Steyerl (Germany) explores the connections between the Kurdish liberation movement and Western governments in her film November. November is the period of retreat after the revolution of October, her film explores questions of social responsibility, agency and violence.

Contra Filé (Brazil) initiate a “Program for the Deturnstilisation of Life Itself.” The turnstile is a key symbol in Brazilian society regulating access to public transport, education and public buildings to those with the money to pay. Their artwork sparked protests which culminated in students tearing out and setting fire to turnstiles outside the university. The initial artwork and protests are documented through photographs and press clippings.

Oliver Ressler (Austria) and Dario Azzellini's (Italy) feature length documentary 5 Factories Workers Control in Venezuela explores the process of social change in Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela is providing an example of different model of development for the Latin American region and presents a challenge to US hegemony in their “backyard”.

With nuclear power being promoted as the “clean” alterative to fossil fuels Taring Padi (Indonesia) create an installation which explores the consequences of a nuclear accident on the populated and geologically unstable islands of Indonesia.

Closer to home Daniel Boyd turns his eyes towards the displacement of Aboriginal people and the acts of violence which have constituted the basis for the establishment of Australia through a series of oil paintings.

Squatspace take viewers on a tour of Redfern/Waterloo as they try and comprehend the changes planned for this important and contested inner city suburb of Sydney and continue their research of this issue through a social mapping project.

pvi collective take a satirical look at what it would be like if we actually tried to enforce all the laws surrounding public space through the loyal citizen's underground (l.c.u). The l.c.u has been out and about in Perth challenging people who jay-walk, swear or break any minor laws in public.

Astra Howard exhibits her walking story booth which encourages people to talk about their lives and overcome their fear of “strangers.”

The exhibition and newspaper will be launched January 26th at Gallery 4a. Etcétera, Contra Filé, Oliver Ressler and Taring Padi will be in Australia for the exhibition.

A program of events follows.

For more information or interviews with the artists contact Zanny Begg 0421 420 420 or Keg de Souza 0412 920 044.

If You See Something Say Something

Exhibition, workshops and newspaper project, January/February 2007

Project initiators: Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg

Participating artists:

Dmitry Vilenksy/Chto Delat? (Russia)

Contra Filé (Brazil)

Etcétera (Argentina)

Oliver Ressler (Austria) & Dario Azzellini (Italy)

Taring Padi (Indonesia)

Richard DeDomenici (UK)

Al Fadhil (Iraq)

Hito Steyerl (Germany)

Arlene TextaQueen (Australia)

David Griggs (Australia)

pvi collective (Australia)

SquatSpace (Australia)

Daniel Boyd (Australia)

Astra Howard (Australia)

Keg de Souza (Australia)

Zanny Begg (Australia)

“If you see something say something,” was pasted on bus shelters and train stations around the world in the wake of the 9/11 bombings asking us to view those around us with fear and suspicion. But do we see this government sponsored vision of the world or do these advertisements move us to say something very different? In the state of exception produced by the war on terror we are asked to accept a consensual vision of fear, war, scapegoating and state sponsored violence. Yet many are moved to dissent from this.

Dissensus can mean widespread disagreement, a failure to reach consensus or a consensus only among those who dissent. Jaques Ranciere uses the term to describe rare moments of genuine democracy whereby new social actors force themselves into the political landscape demanding that their voices, which hitherto have been silent, are finally heard. While what we consider politics is often a ritualised confrontation between opposing parties, armies, or forces, with a known set of protocols on how this resolution will play out, a moment of dissensus allows a reconfiguration of how we understand the notion of politics itself by opening up pre-existing assumptions of social agency.

If you see something, say something will be a discussion, exhibition and publishing project in Sydney in February 2007. Principally this will revolve around an exhibition that will involve a small number of international and Australian artists whose work has explored aspects of dissensus - by either questioning prevailing notions of consensus or by exploring new possibilities of social agency. Rather than being an exhibition of political art this exhibition will aim to question how we actually understand the connections between politics and aesthetics.

Venues:

Mori Gallery: 168 Day St Darling Harbour

Gallery 4a, The Asia-Australia Arts Centre: 181-187 Hay Street Sydney

Chrissie Cotter Gallery: Pidcock St Camperdown

Events/openings:

Melbourne:

Thursday January 25 - Film Screening Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini's 5 Factories-Worker Control in Venezuela:, 6pm, Trade's Hall, followed by question and answer session with Oliver Ressler. Sponsored by the Bolivarian Circle, LASNET and the Australian Venezuela Solidarity Network. Phone: 0431 720 787.

Sydney:

Friday January 26 - Opening: Gallery 4a, 6-8pm, Artists: Daniel Boyd, Hito Steyerl, Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini, Dmitry Vilensky, David Griggs, Taring Padi and Zanny Begg. Gallery hours 11-6pm Tuesday to Saturday, exhibition runs until February 11. Phone 9212 0380.

Monday January 29 - Film screening Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini's 5 Factories-Worker Control in Venezuela. Mori Gallery, film 6pm, followed by talk and question and answer session with Oliver Ressler 7.30pm. Sponsored by the Bolivarian Circle, LASNET and the Australian Venezuela Solidarity Committee.

Monday February 5 - Opening: Chrissie Cotter Gallery: 6-8pm. Artists: Contra Filé. Gallery hours 12-6pm Wednesday to Saturday, exhibition runs until February 17. Phone 9335 2222.

Wednesday February 7 - Opening: Mori Gallery: 6-8 pm,. Artists: Arlene TextaQueen, Al Fadhil, Etcétera, Contra Filé, SquatSpace, pvi collective, Astra Howard and Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg. Performance by Justice Yeldham. Gallery hours 11-6pm Wednesday to Saturday, exhibition runs until March 3. Phone 9283 2904.

Saturday February 3 - Workshop with Taring Padi (Indonesian with English translation): 3pm, Gallery 4a.

Saturday February 10 - Workshop with Contra File (Portuguese with English translation): Chrissie Cotter Gallery. 2-4pm.

Sunday February 11 - Workshop with Etcetera (Spanish with English Translation): Mori Gallery 2-4pm.

Saturday February 10 - Closing party: The Chocolate Factory Basement 8pm, Organised by Lauren Parker and Supported by Dual Plover.

Sunday February 18 - Squatfest: The Anti Tropfest Film Fest (text “squat” to 0428 477 128 for venue details) www.squatfest.com.

Saturday 24 February - SquatSpace presents: Redfern-Waterloo Tour of Beauty; meet at the top of Little Eveleigh St, Next to Redfern Train Station 2pm. www.squatspace.com/redfern.

Wednesday February 28 - Feedback Session: Is it possible to bring political art into the gallery? Thumbs up, thumbs down… a wrap up and debrief on If You See Something Say Something, at Loose Projects 6pm, level 2, 168 Day St Darling Harbour.

With thanks to our sponsors:

NAVA

Marrickville Council

Australia Council for the Arts

Breakdown Press

Bolivarian Circle

Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network

LASNET

For more information: www.ifyouseesomethingsaysomething.net

Happy new Year

Mayhem is in the big apple so sorry for lack of activity and local updates.

so far I've been on a routine tourist rampage but one of the highlights was checking out the painterliness of Marcel Duchamp at MOMA. I've chucked on a pic taken with my cell phone (argh - getting american already) - but GET THIS ONE UP YA DONALD KUSPIT!!!

Lucazoid's picks this week:



super8 screening at the chauvel cinema:
DLUX media arts screening of super8 shorts including original works by Rowan Woods, Nick Myers, Virginia Hilyard, Catherine Lowing

Chauvel Cinema, Tues 12 Dec, 7-9pm, Cnr Oxford st and Oatley Road Paddington

$12/$10

==

pet photo booth at the Australian Centre for photography:

http://www.acp.au.com/exhibitions/pet_booth.php

PIMP YOUR PET AT ACP!

Pet Photo Booth is a colourful travelling pop culture extravaganza by West Australian artists Justin Spiers and Yvonne Doherty.

Following a year spent capturing owners posing with their pets at animal competitions and Royal shows in WA, the artists are setting-up their backdrops, lights and cameras in ACP's new Gallery 3. Justin and Yvonne will be hosting the booth from Friday 8 to Saturday 23 December during Pet Project.

BOOTH OPERATING HOURS:
WEDNESDAY TO FRIDAY 12.00PM-7.00PM
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 11.00AM-6.00PM

To make your booking call 02 9332 1455 or complete the form below:

Take home a photo memento and become a part of this interactive exhibition!


==

don't look gallery has an exhibition all about text messaging.

At Don't Look Gallery we have an exciting month coming up! All

exhibitions and events are FREE and everyone is welcome.

This month we have:

1) Last exhibition of the year;

'tXt:> tranSmission' by Matt and Greer Rochford

Opening Thursday December 7, 6pm

(Please see below for more details)

2) Christmas Party:

Sunday December 17, 6pm

DJ, Drinks, all welcome!

3) The LOOK! Don't Look Short Film Festival.

Beginning Wednesday December 20.

SUBMISSIONS WANTED!

We'll be closed over Christmas on the inside, but very much open to

the outside world. Come December 20 our display window will become

home to our short film festival.

If you've got a video that's a bit experimental and under 10 mins,

please submit it and we may play it. Please drop submissions off to

419 New Canterbury Rd Dulwich Hill during opening hours.

tXt:> tranSmission

WHEN: Opening Thursday December 7, 6pm
Thurs Dec 7 - Sat Dec 16 (Thur-Sat 11-5)

WHERE: DON'T LOOK Experimental New Media Gallery
419 New Canterbury Rd (Near Marrickville Rd ), Dulwich Hill

WHO: Matthew Rochford and Greer Rochford
CONTACT: Greg Shapley - Ph: 0401 152 434, Email: dontlookgallery@gmail.com
WEB: http://myspace.com/dontlookgallery

tXt:> tranSmission

To what extent have technologies become part of us? Or, inversely, have we become part of our technologies? Where do we end and they

begin? How would most of us feel without the simple technology of clothing for instance -- exposed, cold, incomplete perhaps?

How many of us now feel exposed, cold and incomplete without more sophisticated technologies such as the internet and mobile phones?

Brother/sister team Matt and Greer Rochford are Cyborgs. Technology consumes their existence. It mediates and mitigates the flow of thought and feeling between them, and between them and the rest of the world. Theirs is a world of the cyber-polis.

For a year, separated by vast distances, their main communication was the prudent text message. Every truncated word has been logged, providing ample raw material for this exploration of long distance communication in the age of instant, electronic, satisfaction.

In the nineteenth century, time became measurable; in the twentieth, time became money. Now time is data -- gigahertz and bits-per-second. We measure the worth of technology by how fast it can transfer data around the world; by how precisely space is annihilated by time. It is this speed of digital communication that warps and recreates our perceptions of intimacy and immediacy.

Matt and Greer Rochford use a variety of media; photography, computer manipulated text, and transmission static and interference to convey this communication -- this bridging (or perhaps erasure) of distance.

In this exhibition they explore the volatility of communication and interpretation through the use of degraded signals, mixed messages, illusion and allusion.

Greer Rochford is a photographic artist who experiments with a variety of mediums, pushing the boundaries of traditional photography. She deals with ideas such as surveillance, technoscience and alienation.

Her kid brother, Matt, explodes myths and storms social barricades. He is continually searching for the point where he ends and the rest of the world begins.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT GREG SHAPLEY ON 0401 152 434 OR
EMAIL dontlookgallery@gmail.com

==

sliced brown bread dipped in mulligatawney

Lately I've been receiving art reviews by SMS! how cool is that?

The above was about the entries for the paddo art prize. the writer described the winner as "the same with a garnish of parsley"

I take this person's judgement to be FACT - so, err, yeah, there you have it folks.no need to bother making the trip, unless you're a big fan of mulligatawney.

Personally I cant wait to truck on over to Dulwich Hill for "It's Time for a Climate Change". they reckon you can "Come and get your Climate Change Christmas, birthday and wedding gifts, or, something special for that impending baby shower at DON'T LOOK GALLERY from 22 Nov - 3 Dec 2006.

Are you waiting in eager anticipation for climatic shifts ahead? Can't wait for that rising tide of apathy to wash us out to sea? Neither can Brendan Penzer.

Penzer, artist and social ecologist, has set-up shop in Don't Look Experimental New Media Gallery for a two-week clearance sale; mementos, knickknacks and a range of life's essential contemporary survival items - it's all got to go! Come and celebrate our present social, political and environmental climate by spending your swelling mortgage payments on things that 'really' matter.

Direct from Cronulla we have white picket fences that have been ripped from their moorings. These 'self-de-fence pickets' make great paddles for when tides start to rise, make bonza spades to dig holes in which to stick our heads, and (when all else fails) we can come out swinging against anyone who looks different or talks funny.

Also on sale, some lovely (soon to be) relics, including bottles of water from our once great flowing rivers and some rare clean air samples from last century (including an exquisite 1988 bi-centenary vintage). 'What an investment!' Don't wait to pay $$$ on ebay!

Still want more ...? You won't be disappointed with our great selection of fashion items. We have some very stylish red-neck rashies; guaranteed to ward off both skin cancer, and undesirables. Or there's the 'Bible Belt'. This most essential of items will offer the support you require (homosexuals, women, Muslims and green's voters excepted).

But that's not all! Everything comes with a free set of mis-steak knives! And how much would you expect to pay for all of this stupidity? Don't pay the earth... ...well, yes, actually, the earth will do very nicely...

So get on down to DON'T LOOK for the It's Time for a Climate Change sale."

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT GREG SHAPLEY ON 0401 152 434 OR EMAIL dontlookgallery@gmail.com

It's that funny time of year when Sydney gets completely frenzied - art school graduation shows coincide with the 'christmas' shows for most commercial galleries.these involve a mixed bag of works on paper or smaller works by their stables and hangers on - that are meant to be a sort of a 'stocking filler' for the art buying public. I guess it beats late night shopping.....

So early december is a big sweaty frenzy of hastily pulled together group shows - that are more about the show than the group - and lashings of free piss, and sweaty drunken crowds, with the odd canape.....

and then in a couple of weeks it all dies down. Art schools close for a few months (unless they're running cash generating summer courses) - and the commercial galleries all close for their xmas holidays - which can run from 4-10 weeks.

Late December and January are pretty mordant times for an art spectator, and pretty lean times for an art critic. DON'T LOOK Gallery are running stuff on December 20th and December 30th - but I haven't heard about anything forthcoming apart from that.

Even the Sydney festival limits the ART part of its ARTS content to plugging some show at the MCA. AGNES has good aircon and free films on wed arvo and night - so I reckon its the place to be.... and if gawking/gaggin at Monica Tichaheks scarey girlie gore shadowers gets too much you can always go and eyeball the preraphaelites and ellioth gruner in the old and empty section, and vow, never again to curse trendy postmodernists and their hold on cultural institutions. think of sydney in january. Lots of cricket and not much art. total total hell. this is why I'm pissing off overseas for the summer. I like to spend january in a black skivvy.

Before the gloom of an endless beige sets in - get out and enjoy the splashing stupidity of the artyparty frenzy!

Here's a choice selection of tidbits:

On Tuesday Legge has their xmas party opening. you can see a selection of their highlights that you may have missed - including JUMAADI, Alan Jones - and hopefully Catherine Hearse - and definitely My Mate Steve.
6-8pm tuesday 28th november at 183 Regent Street Redfern.
Show runs till 9the december, then gallery is closed till 5th feb.

On Wednesday COFA has its big fine arts graduation show. Traditionally it was held on the same night as the NAS graduation show and oxford street was awash with pissed art students and coteries staggering between the two - but they've separated the nights.

so - no excuses for not making both opening nights. (except cirrrhosis). this is the last chance probably to see the two distinct art schools and examine what the hell makes them so different - or similar. ahhh F-block!, F-block! thank you for the memories!

On Thursday NAS has the same thing. ahh! - goon!, sandstone! objets d'art and angsted students! will we ever see you again?

Friday - I forgot what's on.

Saturday - Sheffer Gallery has an opening called SWEET DECEMBER - which opens from 5-7pm and runs till December 23rd.(38 Lander Street Darlo)

Sheffer is a small, but extremely attractive gallery between abercrombie street, redfern and sydney Uni. they've had some really interesting shows by unsnathced up artists with amazing results - shannon Johnston's show being a case in point.
the new show has small paintings by Sandra Winkworth of funny looking BIRDS, plus some larger paintings by HIROMI OZAKI - that look more like linear draiwings of flowers and blossoms. Tres noice. i'm goin for the photos by PAOLA TALBERT, who (in between gigs as paparazzi for Schappylle Scragg) has been working on a series of DROWNING VIRGINS for the past 5 years. Her prints are large floaty sonnets of underwater light, flowing fabric and hair and soft dabbled limbs. right up mayhems alley.

On radio today - i'll gabble more about the stuff I saw last week - especially IT's A NEW DAY - but save the UWS review for my art schools lament next week.

Claire Conroy's Lightspeed

This week on Art and Mayhem, Lucazoid interviewed Claire Conroy, who has an exhibition of pinhole photographs taken inside the back of a truck as she journeyed from the eastern rim of the Sydney basin, all the way to the foot of the Blue Mountains. There's a small snippet at the end, of a sound work by Kelly Sturgess. Conroy invited several sound artists to make a sonic response to the photographs, working with field recordings taken during the exposure of the pinhole photo. You can listen to the interview here [9min 8mb mp3 file]. Claire's exhibition is on at Mori Gallery until December 2, 2006.

Daz also has a new segment on Monday Overdrive called "The Spider". This week she interviewed West Australian blogger Emma Lurie about her project "Adopt a Microbe". You can listen to that one (which includes some terrific dramatisations of talking microbes!!) here [6 min 6mb mp3 file]

This week, get along to see: (scroll down for more details on all of these, at Mayhem's posting "Pissy Season" below)...

- the Martin Sharp retrospective (including new works) at the Ivan Dougherty gallery (opening Tues 21st Nov) ...

-The UWS Nepean final graduation exhibition, opening on Friday night at Z building, UWS Penrith Campus (Kingswood).

-Artist-Curator speed dating. Sat night, 6pm, Artspace, Wooloomooloo.
Yes, that's right. Organised by Anne Kay and Josie Cavallaro. For all the details see the it's a new day blog.

-Engage art and Interactivity Conference at UTS. 26-28 November. For all the details see their site.

-another SquatSpace Redfern Waterloo Tour of Beauty, happening Sat 25 Nov, 2-6pm. For all the details see the SquatSpace website.

It's the pissy SEASON!

Get you're drinking boots on - coz it's time for art, goon and sweaty hangovers!

There's so much free piss - that I've confined plugs to QUALITY ART!

Tomorrow night a big Martin Sharpe retrospective opens at IVAN DOUGHERTY galery - next to COFA in Paddington.

Wedensdya everything opens but mayhem strongly recommends

BRENDAN PENZER 'It's Time For A Climate Change'
an un(site)ly specific installation at
Don't Look Experimental
New Media Gallery.
419 New Canterbury Rd
Dulwich Hill

THURSDAY

"It's a new Day" promises to revolutionise the exclusive KLUB KOOL atmosphere of most ARTSPACE RESIDENCY OPENINGS - with a completely insane wildboys cave party!
this will kick of a month of everything from speed dating to barn dances.

so giddown to Cowper Wharf Road woolloomoolloo and go into that big old building opposite the Pie Cart!

FRIDAY

the LAST EVER ART SHOW at UWS

Bloody crying shame and worth trucking on out to Penrith for.

The opening night will be on Friday the 24th November at the infamous Z building at Kingswood Campus to be officially opened by special guest Kon Gouriotis (Executive Director of Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre).
With only ten days to go this is your chance to support the next generation of Western Sydney artists, and an exciting opportunity to venture out West if this is not the norm for you.

For more information check out: http://www.cdm.uws.edu.au/arts/gradshow/

SATURDAY

Speed Dating at ARTSPACE!

SUNDAY
If you are sick of fun and frivolity and want a nice bums on seats ponderous chingwag - then DON't MISS THIS!

ENGAGE: Interaction, Art and Audience Experience
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
26-28 November 2006
www.creativityandcognition.com/engage06

FREE PUBLIC TALKS - Sunday 26 November 3-5pm
UTS Building 2 - Level 4 - Theatre 13 (map:
http://www.uts.edu.au/about/mapsdirections/bway.html)

Tim Boykett, Founding member of Time’s Up, Austria
Professor Ernest Edmonds, Director of Creativity and Cognition Studios,
Sydney
Professor Beryl Graham, Co-editor of CRUMB, resource for new media
curating, UK

The full symposium includes more than 30 presentations by leading
researchers in the field of interaction, art and audience experience,
plus
featured talks by:

Andrew Brown - Manager, Digital Media Program at ACID, Australia
Bill Gaver - Professor of Design, Goldsmiths College, University of
London, UK
Mike Stubbs - Head of Exhibitions at the Australian Cenre for the
Moving
Image, Australia

Provisional Programme online www.creativityandcognition.com/engage06

Sponsored by:
ACID, the Australasian CRC for interaction Design
http://www.interactiondesign.com.au/
ANAT, Australian Network for Art and Technology http://www.anat.org.au/

And, for your touring pleasure... Tour of Beauty:
In response to Engage and OzCHI conference at UTS, Sydney’s SquatSpace
will
be running another popular ‘Redfern Waterloo Tour of Beauty’, a bus and
bicycle tour of a number of Redfern-Waterloo’s housing, development and
historical hotspots. For further information, please go to:
http://www.squatspace.com/redfern/

For further information, please contact Deborah Turnbull on +61 2 9514
2384
or deboraht@it.uts.edu.au

CITYtalking - Astra Howard

This week on Art and Mayhem, Lucazoid spoke with Daz about CITYtalking, a project by Astra Howard in the laneways of Melbourne. Astra, in her mobile conversation booth, roamed the inner city streets and lanes. Conversations were transcribed and became scrolling LED messages on the outside surface of the booth. Lucazoid sat in the booth with Astra and asked her about the project.

Listen to the segment as it went to air on 2ser here. (8mb 9 min mp3)

or - Listen to a chunk of conversation between Lucazoid and Astra here. (2.5mb 5 min mp3)

(Note the sound quality is sometimes a little poor due to the fact that the recording was being made with a microphone shoved up against a little intercom speaker! But it certainly gives the atmosphere of the street!)

--

Also this week, we suggested you get along to Cross Art Projects for this:

The Cross Art Projects exhibition & talks invitation

CONVERSATION: THE WORKS OF POKLONG ANADING & THE CONTEMPORARY MANILA ART SCENE

You are invited to a conversation with artist Poklong Anading and Ramon E.S. Lerma, curator Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manila University.

When: Saturday 18 November, 4 to 6pm, with drinks after Exhibition on View: 10 to 19 November 2006
Where: The Cross Art Projects
33 Roslyn Street , Kings Cross, Sydney (opposite St
Lukes Hospital gates)
Information: Jo Holder 9357 2058 or 0406 537933

The Cross Art Projects
A space for independent art & curatorial studies
Director: Jo Holder
Wednesday to Saturday, 11 to 6
T: + 61 (02) 9357-2058
E: joholder@aic.net.au
W: www.crossart.com.au

---

and this (thanks to Mayhem for these paragraphs...)

The Performance Protest: called "Sleeping with The
Enemy" will be re-enacted THIS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 18th
from 6-8pm at "Glint Gallery", Level 1, 226 Union
Street South Newtown.

OVER THE SUMMER, SYDNEY WILL LOSE HALF OF ITS ART
SCHOOLS.

UWS visual arts and performance is being shut down,
and NAS and COFA are extremely likely to merge.

While the SMH and the Australian have had various
articles from NAS 'supporters' often dishing out anti
COFA vitriol about the great postmodern conspiracy -
this can hardly count as a credible defence of a
pluralist art education system.

In fact some nasty rumours say that under the merger
COFA will lose their fine arts departments becoming a
purely 'design' school. This would SUCK as much as
losing the NAS.

Fortunately, one woman and one gorrilla are
attempting to resist the closures/mergers/crap about
art schools in sydney.

The Performance Protest: called "Sleeping with The
Enemy" will be re-enacted THIS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 18th
from 6-8pm at "Glint Gallery", Level 1, 226 Union
Street South Newtown.

This is not just a chance to sip goon while gawking at
a whacky art student in a wedding veil pretending to
fuck a gorilla - but COULD actually be a good
opportunity for a discussion and exchange of ideas
about the current art school closures in sydney that
goes beyond the fatuous partisan name calling that has
been occuring in the press of late.

I've ranted elsewhere about why I believe in
preserving as many art shcools as possible - but I
also believe that given the politicla climate of
increasing censorship, that
PRESERVING HIGHER EDUCATION IS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE.
DEFENDING ART AND ART EDUCATION IS A CIVIL RIGHTS
ISSUE

art is often banal as hell - but we all know deep down
that it is also can be subversive, powerful and a
vital part of 'democracy'.

while there are still 4 TAFEs offering diploma or
certificate courses.... these are included under
'business, design and computing" and as NSW has a
state election next year - they are also a bit
precarious.

Does no one give a shit?

If you haven't signed the save UWS petition: go to
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/uws6Arts/

lets go down fighting!

NAS vs COFA part 5

Cruising the blogworld - I found this GREAT posting about one woman and one gorrillas attempt to end the closures/mergers/crap about art schools in sydney.

Nasty rumours say that under the merger COFA will lose their fine arts departments: painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics and move/merge the whole lot with NAS - meanwhile becoming a purely 'design' school.

Maybe this explains the relative lack of action by NAS students - and the firey support that COFA students gave to the gorilla girl....... anyway - decide fer yerselves.......

The Performance Protest: called "Sleeping with The Enemy" will be re-enacted THIS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 18th from 6-8pm at "Glint Gallery", Level 1, 226 Union street South Newtown.

this is not just a chance to sip goon while gawking at a whacky art student in a wedding veil pretending to fuck a gorilla - but COULD actually be a good opportunity for a discussion and exchange of ideas about the current art school closures in sydney that goes beyond the fatuous partisan name calling that has been occuring in the press of late.

OVER THE SUMMER, SYDNEY WILL LOSE HALF OF ITS DEGREE BASED ART SCHOOLS. (there are still 4 TAFEs offering diploma or certificate courses.... but for how long?)




"I turned up on the NAS campus with my bed, my mini-kilt and my fluffy white gorilla, Manilla, who's a vanilla dyke, and we started performing dutifully.

At that point, some members of the staff came to me with soft smiles and asked me if I was going to stay there long, that maybe I could move, hum, before the Honours Degree Show opens at 6pm? Please? And why not right now? No?

This is a rock, a peak, a peninsula! (to quote Cyrano de Bergerac) Un comble, puisqu'il faut parler frog! I tried to contact these people during a week for them to tell me what would bean appropriate time for my perf to take place, and no-one told me THAT? Ouh là là là là là là........

Never mind, ça ne fait rien. I went on and tried to engage with students and passers-by, to try and raise questions, statements of opinion, et coetera. I got a few amused encouragements, a lot of indifference, and giggles galore. No-one seemed to take the matter seriously. ARe we so used to the masks and screens that we ignore the faces and real world behind? Are NAS people so blasés about my humour?

You want my word? I think the whole Caca thing is way out of their cognitive field because they believe in good taste, les c...s.

So off I went, je suis allée me faire voir ailleurs, namely at COFA. Believe me, pushing a hospital bed on Oxford Street at peak hour is fun. Now I've got the six packs and each time I laugh, my abds hurt as hell! Thank you RTA for the bus lane. But not for the hole in the bitumen each five meters.

At COFA, which is to some NAS people what Saddam is to George, I had a better welcoming. Not only did the students there cheer me and engage seriously with me, but the head of the marketing department and the dean himself insisted on dialoging with me. I don't think they got the Caca humour either, but well, as Gertrude Stein said, "There is, was and always will be the official art, and the art." And heads usually are on the official art side. Nevertheless, the dean invited a few students and myself to have an impromptu conference in his office, during which he exposed his vision of the future if COFA takes over NAS.
As a matter of fact, he was speaking about it in the indicative future, giving us the impression the merging had already happened. Maybe it's just like the cross city tunnel, it HAS already happened but we don't know it yet, we'll wake up one morning and there'll be twins towers instead of the good old chapel. He looked really confident and radiated with good will.
But he was still heralding the disappearance of one more art school in Sydney and finding it would be a good thing, R.I.P. National Art School.

Manilla started sobbing and I got scared she'd get upset, so we shook hands and ended the dialog."

EVERYTHING OPENS ON WEDNESDAY 9TH NOVEMBER

Extending an invitation to see new work by Shane Forrest
“FLOAT”
opening Wednesday 8 November from 6pm
8-25 November
A-Space on Cleveland
420 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills 2010
9698 5156
10am – 5.30pm
Wednesday to Saturday



The title of this latest exhibition by Shane Forrest, FLOAT, is in part a reference to the erotic`floating world' of Japanese woodblock prints. Shane Forrest in his non-artist life teaches Japanese. In many of these dissected observations of very ordinary suburban houses, so typical of Forrest's home suburb of Leichhardt, floats a couple having sex amongst a kaleidoscope of interior wall papers, rugs, tiles, curtains and other patterned furnishings that is a reflection of the everyday banality of our lives.

Amusingly his titles allude to the advertising phrases and quips that real estate agents love to use to sell houses. For example `Cosy Cottage Feel' and `Delightful Brick Veneer'.

However in these collaged, painted and often three dimensional works, Forrest celebrates the individual and his `castle' despite or even because of its kitsch wonderfulness. Rooves bristle with equipment to trap floating transmissions, breezes and sunlight. The flayed interiors reveal dizzying patterned surfaces where couples play out their lives, seemingly unobserved, be it in the glare of a television set or in the jumble of their kitchen. In fractured, pop-up compostions Forrest gives a nod to Persian miniature painting with its vertical perspective and patterning.

This catalogue of suburban architecture with its erotic undertones is both highly amusing and an insightful observation into what makes Sydney more than the bland landscape that it sometimes seems.

Previous exhibitions at A - SPACE on Cleveland and in the Sydney Opera House foyer have been very popular and this collection of new works is sure to be just as rewarding.

The exhibition runs from Wed 8 to Sat 25 November 2006.

The opening of the exhibition will be on Wednesday 8 November from 6 to 8 pm

The gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday 10 am to 5.30 pm

Media Inquiries: Pam Blondel Telephone/Fax: 9698 5156 Mobile: 0418 239 244

Gallery Hours: 10am - 5.30 pm Wednesday to Saturday


Just*ice? Antarctica is melting
Paintings by Lisa Roberts

Opening night Wednesday 8th of October 6pm-8pm
show runs to - 3rd December, 2006

M.A.D (make a difference), Sustainable Art and Design Centre, 55 Enmore Rd, Newtown, 2042,
Ph:(02)95573411, Fax:(02)95573021, Email: pr@reversegarbage.org.au
www.maddesigns.org.au


Opening Hours- Tues: 11-5.30pm, Wed: 11-5.30pm, Thurs: 11-7pm, Fri: 11-5.30pm, Sat: 10-6pm, Sun: 11-4pm (or by appointment)

M.A.D is proudly a Reverse Garbage Project
Reverse Garbage Co-Op
8/142 Addison Rd, Marrickville, 2204, Ph:(02) 95693132, Fax: (02)95609765
www.reversegarbage.org.au




Lightspeed
An exhibition by

Claire Conroy

MORI GALLERY
168 DAY STREET SYDNEY
Opening Wednesday 8 November 2006 6-8pm
Exhibition 8 November – 2 December 2006
Wednesday – Saturday
11-6 or by appointment +612 92832903


‘Nepean River’ 3m x 1m pin-hole photograph by Claire Conroy

Lightspeed: a journey across Sydney in a pin-hole camera

“The biggest piece of domestic machinery, which is an extension of our homes and our own private space, is the motorcar. When people drive they have the possibility of death at their own fingertips. And then, people are aware of a whole range of emotions that can't express when they're in their office, dealing with other people, that they can express alone in a car. You can't swear at your secretary for making a spelling mistake but you can swear at another driver behind your windshield” JG Ballard.

Lightspeed: a journey across Sydney in a pin-hole camera is an ambitious solo exhibition by Claire Conroy which opens at Mori Gallery on November 8. Conroy has transformed a 2 tonne truck into a pin-hole camera and taken a road trip across Sydney from Berry Island reserve in Sydney Harbour west towards the Blue Mountains. With a small hole drilled in the side of the truck Conroy stopped at various points along the way using the power of natural sunlight to document her journey. The results are a virtuoso series of 3 meter photographic paper negative prints of the view from the road – toll gates, motorways, bridges, roads, car parks and roadside scenery.

While the truck-stop has been a recurring source of artistic inspiration, perhaps most memorably captured in Ed Ruscha's photographs of gas stations from California to Oklahoma, Conroy's use of the pin-hole camera allows the viewer to return to the roadside image in a startlingly new way. The long exposure times - Conroy spent hours holed up inside an often sweltering truck waiting for the image to expose – has the curious affect of capturing the solid infrastructure of the road whilst deleting the moving elements of the cars. This coupled with the negative quality of pinhole prints makes Conroy's images extremely dark, brooding and ominous. The black skies, ghostly white trees, and completely empty roads imbues Lightspeed with a post-apocalyptic feeling of life after the crash of civilisation.

Conroy explains that one of her inspirations for this work was David Cronenburg’s film adaptation of the 1973 novel by JG Ballard Crash. Ballard's controversial book uses the metaphor of the car crash to explore aspects of contemporary psychology. It tells the story, through the author's own voice, of a man who, after surviving a car crash, gets involved with a group of people sexually obsessed with celebrity, death and car crashes.

At a crucial moment in the film one of the characters tell the hero “that’s the future Ballard and your already part of it, there is a benevolent psycho-pathology that beckons towards us… the car crash [is a] fertilising rather than destructive event.” Conroy pursues this metaphor in her work by opening it up to a new layer of meaning. What if the crash were not the specific experience of tragedy on the motorway, fuelled by psycho-sexual addiction to cars, but the crash of motorway culture itself?

In each of Conroy’s prints she carefully counter poses organic and natural elements alongside the empty infrastructure of roads. These subtle and gentle juxtapositions remind the viewer of the environmental consequences of a society obsessed with cars. As Conroy explains “in using an old mode of photography such as pin hole photography I have attempted to in some way slow the world down.” Conroy’s work thus situates the viewer between the autopia and the autogeddon, a strange world where the structure of the landscape if dominated by the car and yet the car itself has all but vanished from the picture.

Of course this exit is not entirely complete. Central to Conroy’s work is the understanding that the images you are looking at were taken through the medium of a truck, which was driven west out of Sydney on the motorway. And attached to several images are a series of soundscapes composed by Kelly Sturgiss (Flat Products Division), Naomi Radom (Coda), Jarrah Kidd (BumbleBeez81), Kate Carr, Toni Buck (The Necks), David Haines and Joyce Hinterding (Sun Valley), Giovanna Picoi (The Lunettes) and Sam Johnson (Swinging and Tasty Bag). Each of these artists has worked with found sound at the sites of the photographic exposures, incorporating the hum of the road into a sound piece which matches the time Conroy took to expose each image. These traces of road culture allow Conroy to explore the themes of this exhibition from an ambiguous position situated somewhere between a sci fi vision of the future and the well worn path of a road trip.

Gabrielle Van De Laak and Reggy Gunn
New paintings by two celebrated Dutch artists who have been resident in Sydney for the past year.

opening Noon to 5pm Sunday 12 November
exhibition continues until 26 november 2006

special performance by Melbourne trio 'Vardos' recently back from touring Scotland, Switzerland, Hungary and New Calendonia will be playing their traditional gypsy music with verve, drama and panache from 2-4 pm.


Addison road Gallery
142 Addison road Marrickville NSW 2204 Australia
t: 61 2 9518 3709 f: 61 2 9569 1642 m: 0412 590 779
e: terrycutcliffe@aol.com
Gallery hours, 11 - 5 wednesday to sunday