she sees red

drawing sale 09

2009-12-11T10:00:00.001+11:00

This year has been a very exciting, fullsome year with a lot of art projects done and countless hours of sleep lost.

It has now become a little tradition to have a sale of my drawings to give myself a chance at earning some money, and the people who have been instrumental in my art practice to own something of mine.

The series of works below are the indicatives, schematics and plans made in the process of a conceptual practice. And by buying one, you'll be supporting an experimental art practice, which means you'll get to keep reading this blog. :D. I think that's a win-win, don't you?

the deets
Most of the works are ink/gouache/pencil on watercolour paper (except the Marquettes - see below).
All prices are in pounds because, well, that's what i did last year and it's stuck.
All prices below are the unframed/framed prices and all include a small amount of postage - to cover my costs and nothing else. Framed works have a small mount with white frames.
If you have any requests or queries, of course you can email me: lauren at sheseesred dot com

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MEASURE OF THE PUBLIC SOUNDTRACK PROCESS MAP (SML)
SIZE: 25 x 15cm
AMOUNT: £40 / £130

MEASURE OF THE PUBLIC SOUNDTRACK PROCESS MAP (MED)
SIZE:43 x 30cm
AMOUNT: £100/ £220

LISTENING TO THE CITY: INDICATIVE (X-SML)
SIZE: 15 x 10cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

LISTENING TO THE CITY: INDICATIVE (SML)
SIZE: 30 x 30cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

DANCING TO THE CITY: INDICATIVE
SIZE: 30 x 30cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

EMERGENCY DANCE ZONE: INDICATIVE (DETAIL)
SIZE: 20 x 30cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

EMERGENCY DANCE ZONE: INDICATIVE
SIZE:30 x 30cm
AMOUNT:£40/£130

CONE OF SILENCE I: PLAN (SML)
SIZE:30 x 25cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

CONE OF SILENCE I: PLAN (LGE)
SIZE: 54 X 76cm
AMOUNT: £200/£380

CONE OF SILENCE I: SOUNDPROOFING SCHEMATIC (SMALL)
SIZE: 20 X 30cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

CONE OF SILENCE I: SOUNDPROOFING SCHEMATIC (LARGE)
SIZE:54 x 76cm
AMOUNT: £200/£380

CONE OF SILENCE II: PATTERN (MED)
SIZE: 37 x 47cm
AMOUNT: £100/£220

CONE OF SILENCE II: PERFORMANCE MAP (MED)
SIZE: 43 x 30cm
AMOUNT: £100/£220

CONE OF SILENCE II: MARQUETTE I (EDITION OF 3)
PHOTOPRINT ON WATERCOLOUR PAPER
SIZE: 30 x 15cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

CONE OF SILENCE II: MARQUETTE II (EDITION OF 3)
PHOTOPRINT ON WATERCOLOUR PAPER
SIZE: 30 x 15cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

CONE OF SILENCE II: INDICATIVE SKETCHES
SIZE: 30 x 20cm / 30 x 30cm
AMOUNT: £40/£130

plus..

CANDYSTRIPERS: MULTIPLE
SIZE: 54 X 76cm
AMOUNT: £140

buying time

2009-12-09T21:47:00.001+11:00

hey kids!

it's that time of the year where we all want to buy art!

yay!!

and i bet you wanna know where to go to do that right?

yeah!

OK, well, tomorrow night (thursday), i have some small works in the RMIT new collectables:

RMT new collectables auction
first site gallery
344 swanston st
melbourne
thursday 10th december, 6:30pm.
with store-room sales on friday 11th.

ooh..

then on monday, i'll have some more small works at the seventh gallery fundraiser:

seventh gallery sell-out sale!!!
gertrude st
fitzroy
monday 14th december
6pm
$40 gets you a red dot to put on any artwork you like.
first in, best bargains.

aah...

and remember last year's drawing sale on she sees red? well, i'm doing it again this year.

yay!

this year i have a range of small, medium and large works - to suit all kinds of tastes and budgets.
plus i've got us some good deals on framing - so if you're into framed works, there's a choice for that too.

it'll all be online here on friday (11th), so come back then.
please.

while my back was turned

2009-12-07T17:09:00.002+11:00

i go away for 2 weeks and the place is a bloody mess!

so it seems that tony abbott is the leader of the opposition now, with a spike in his ~~heart~~ popularity over the weekend. and what was an argument over the details of an ETS has become a gaping hole in our political landscape dug by a bunch of weak-willed fucktards. and now all i read in the papers and overhear in the post office queues are the opinions of the obnoxious, self-serving minions worried about their money again. oh lord.

i'm particularly racist at the moment - i have a deep loathing for australians right now. we've become a nation of selfish, corpulant, racist, spineless toads who have never needed conviction in our lives. for all our wanking on about mateship and integrity and 'calling a spade a spade', when it comes to the crunch we'd prefer to call it a shovel so long as it's cheaper and doesn't make us uncomfortable. even if someone is shoving it up our arses.

i have to say, it's been rather nice to leave the vitriol about politics behind over the last couple of years. sure, i've had cause to tut and express my displeasure, but whilst studying i haven't burst a blood vessel about the neo-cons and their ratsnest of a moral code. now, it seems that's not the case.

i'm scared we're about to slide back into the political, moral and environmental purgatory. perhaps it's where we belong.

in fact, new zealand and germany are looking at great places for me to live right now: they're seemingly open minded, their artists are fantastic, their music scenes are amazing, that have taste AND actual political systems (as opposed to a revolving door of same-old-same-old) - hell, even their right-wing violent extremists are looking more fascinating than the milksop conservatives we have here.

now, before i die of an aneurysm, let me look back at those pics from the holiday...

good times.

2009-11-30T20:36:00.002+11:00

i'll be back with real words soon - i just have a huge pile of applications and proposals to write up in the next 4 days.

noise-cancellation

2009-11-18T04:52:00.001+11:00

for those of you who were following my cone of silence antics, you might also wanna check out this show at conical which opens whilst i'm down the coast on friday (d'oh!)

i've pinched all of this from the conical site and i'm hoping to update with a link to Cara-Ann's own site shortly.

oh, and by the way, my thesis on sound in the public space (who could resist the invitation of those dainty headphones) is online. it's only 60MB so feel free to download it :)

‘The Act of Things That Aren’t There’

The work of Cara-Ann Simpson is about constructing environments where the ephemeral nature of experience is explored. This exploration forms a seminal material within the reading of the work ‘Noise Cancellation: disrupting audio perception’ as this installation questions the relationship between public and private space as an architectural metaphor for spatial collage. This is done by creating objects that have a physical and sonic construction.

The validity of Simpson’s work is to question its own existence within a site-specific context creating a composition that isn’t about sound as music but about sound as object. The work is suspended within a particular time and space where an interruption between various elements meets and overlaps, leading to a transformation of the object into an observational landscape. This landscape is constructed through the audio which creates a spatial collage that juxtaposes and knits together disparate aural elements from inaudible whispers, the clatter of the site and the viewer’s physical presence within the space. This form of sonic collage transforms the actual physical reality of the object sitting in the gallery space. The object now must be read as not only just a Post-minimalist form but also as an object transmitting a signal which creates an assemblage of readings and meanings within the installation. It is from this point that the work creates a stage that is set up to rebuild the understanding of the object from its concrete and aural realities.

What Simpson’s work achieves, is to shift the roles of interior and exterior space in relation to the viewer. In this context the anticipated boundaries between object, gallery and viewer are shifted within the exhibition space. Thus there is a fluctuation between concrete reality (that of the object as a Post-minimalist sculpture) and the audio (as an elevation of ordinary sound to form a mapping of experience). The work thus acts as a temporal vessel inhabiting the gallery space but also the physical space of the viewer as the work is to be experienced through a duality of reading. This duality is created through the viewing of the audio speaker both as an object and as audio sound that creates an ephemeral collage.

Simpson’s ‘Noise Cancellation: disrupting audio perception’ is an evolving installation that is constantly being repositioned within an immediacy of collaged space, where a highly structured object meets with the uncontrolled experience of the viewer. In this context the work can be seen as an ‘act’ carried out through the positioning of one object and its relationship to the abstract behaviour of the viewers’ patterns of movement and dialogue. This ‘act’ becomes an ongoing transient process of imbedding conceptual intention within the randomness of an individual’s viewing and listening experience. It is within this frame that the work acts to form indistinguishable ways of experiencing the duality between an object and its ephemeral construction of spatial dialectics.

Kyle Jenkins Toowoomba, 2009

When I first approached engineer, Eva Cheng, to help me with this project I wanted to investigate a field of emerging technology – almost as an analytical and creative experiment. While the technological outcomes are exciting, it seems that the most interesting outcome is more to do with perception of sound within society.

The question is not so much about how sound is produced within our society, but rather how we interpret sound and respond to it. For example, I am currently sitting at my computer with a blanket over my head and computer and with earmuffs for working with loud machines on. I am trying to isolate myself from the sound that exists in the same room – in this case my partner playing a great slow psychedelic Melbourne-based band loudly from his desk. My earmuffs are working to muffle the noise to a certain point – just enough for me to ignore the music and attempt concentration on another subject. I am unable to dislocate myself from the noise of my surroundings, which is perhaps why my practice investigates the very nature of sound and its cultural implications.

Noise Cancellation: disrupting audio perception explores sound as a form of creativity, a product of engineering and science, and as a cultural experiment. There has been much discussion on modes of listening within cultural theory and modern philosophy, but it has often been the case of separating listening from hearing. This installation questions the validity of separating listening and hearing, instead suggesting an equality that leads towards sameness. Roland Barthes proposed a formal separation of hearing and listening by separating the physiological from psychological. However, as portable music players become increasingly accessible and ‘essential’, theories on hearing and listening must change accordingly. Michael Bull describes the effects of the iPod as “the creation of a personalised soundworld” that “creates a form of accompanied solitude for its users in which they feel empowered, in control and self-sufficient”. Bull’s ideas imply that perhaps we can reach a state of listening where we are also hearing – accepting the additional environmental noises around us as part of our ‘soundtrack’. Perhaps it is possible for the ‘modern listener’ to merge Barthes’ notion of hearing as to do with the body in space and awareness of surroundings with his notion of listening as an act of concentration and decisiveness to analyse sounds. In many ways we are doing this already – accepting traffic noise on public transport while listening to music, or those few moments at the end of a song where nothing is playing but the environmental sounds allow that moment to merge with the next song – a constant fusion of sound and music through physiological and psychological listening/hearing. But my query lies more within the realm of removing music from this equation and asking the participant to give that same level of attention to the environmental sounds.

Noise Cancellation: disrupting audio perception forces audience participation by recording the sounds of any person entering the space – but it also asks for interaction by physiologically and psychologically hearing and listening. The installation spits out the sounds we make straight back at us, changing and altering signals – asking us to pay attention and find the difference. These alterations are disquieting – they are not loud and vicious, but blend back into the surroundings, subtly altering our cognition of the space both as a physical and psychological manifestation. Where Barthes suggests that listening is about psychologically deciding on what to ignore, this installation asks us to consider accepting all. To be as aware of the output from the speakers as of our own sounds, those sounds around us, and those sounds beyond the room.

B LaBelle, Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, New York, London, 2006.
M Bull, ‘No Dead Air! The iPod and the Culture of Mobile Listening’, from Leisure Studies, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2005, p. 353.

Cara Ann Simpson, 2009

Cara-Ann Simpson is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on the tension between visuality and aurality. In 2007, Simpson graduated from the University of Southern Queensland with a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Distinction, and in 2008, she completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts First Class Honours (USQ). Simpson was the recipient of the Hobday and Hingston Bursary from the Queensland Art Gallery in 2007, the Asia-Pacific Golden Key International Honours Society Visual & Performing Arts Sculpture Award (2008) and was awarded the University of Southern Queensland Faculty of Art – Visual Arts medal (2007). Simpson has recently been included in numerous emerging artist awards including the Wilson HTM National Art Prize 2009, Agendo 2009 and the Port Jackson Press Graduate Printmaking Award 2009.

Simpson has had a number of solo shows, sounds releases and been involved in numerous performances and group shows within Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. In 2008 she installed a work at the Australasian Computer Music Conference (sound:space), Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and curated and performed a sound art collaboration, Audio Aware, with Lawrence English (Brisbane) at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the University of Southern Queensland’s tradeshow. She moved to Melbourne in early 2009.

Noise Cancellation was sponsored by the Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant Scheme, supported through a donation by Mrs Janet Holmes à Court, financial assistance from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council and administered through NAVA, the National Association for the Visual Arts.

things i'm not going to do whilst i'm on holidays...

2009-11-15T12:31:00.004+11:00

some of these are by design. others are unfortunate circumstances. either way, i'm on holidays next week.

• any of the things i do for my day job

• use my laptop

• look in my diary

• go to these exhibition openings:

OMFG!
Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Helier's Street, Abbotsford
ADAM CRUICKSHANK, HIT & MISS, KOTOE ISHII, ROB MCLEISH, SIMON PERICICH, DELL STEWART, EMILE ZILE.

opening 25th november

boo! hiss!

Leading 100 Horses to Drink
Tai Snaith at Kings ARI on King St, Melbourne
opening 27th november

boo! hiss!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
The Commission Gallery, Upstairs 25 Bray St, Off Commercial Rd, Prahran

opening 27th november

boo! hiss!

• wake up at 6:30 (except maybe to get on a plane)

yay!

• miss my awesome friend jem's birthday

• catch a tram

• post a blog

• think about work - art-related or otherwise
yay!

• worry. i've got someone doing that for me already.

at our most public

2009-11-12T18:03:00.004+11:00

"Indeed, when we dress up, when we're on display and at our most public, these are the times when our costumes get the most pretendy - we get married dressed as princesses and officers - then go back to our everyday lives dressed as squaddies, rockstars or resting athletes."

a beautiful quote by russell davies in his fabulous post about pretend, costume, fashion and a whole range of ideas around playing roles.

i've been cycling around ideas of fashion, headphone culture and their roles in public, so this is perfectly timed, as usual

longevity and endurance

2009-11-11T21:10:00.002+11:00

This Saturday (14th November, 2009) i'm going to embark on my first endurance/durational art work. i'm a bit nervous and excited all at the same time. i'm nervous because i don't know a whole lot about this kind of performance work. i know a few key artists who do this kind of work - mostly from sydney**, really - but apart from that, i'm kind of flying blind. heading into this realm has evolved from prior conceptual works i've done about listening in the city and i thought it would be worthwhile to try it and see.

i'm also nervous because it's going to be 35ºC on Saturday and the Myer Christmas Parade will be marching straight past me. For those who aren't in Melbourne, the MCP is a huge commercial venture that takes up a ridiculous amount of time, energy, space and noise in the centre of town, heralding all things Myer. And Santa. And kids. It's prime fodder for The Small Paper and various limp broadcasters.

I'm nervous because, even on a regular day, i'm exhausted after attending to the sounds of the city by not drowning them out, or sublimating them. Add to that extra heat, time and sound and i'm expecting to be brain-dead by 9pm.

However, i'm excited because the outcome, for me, is still largely unknown. It's an area that i'm looking forward to venturing into and i'm looking forward to being part of the anode festival in the crazy way that I am. This work also provides some opportunities for me to discover ways to present conceptual and time-based work without video* and to continue investigating ways that i can convey what i'm interested in to others. It's the first work i'll have made post-post-grad, so the pressure to document the bejesus out of it has, thankfully, been reduced.

I'm also excited because it feels like the need for work that takes time, that isn't quite so 2.0, is returning and that process, as opposed to 'taddah!' outcome needs to be nutured again.

And perhaps there's also something personal about the relationship between pain and art, politics and suffering that is attractive or curious to me at the moment. It feels ernest (although i'll have that with a pinch of salt, please). Perhaps this is how marathon runners, or 24-hour cyclists feel before their race.

I wonder why we feel the need to do pursue these things in this way? What is the attraction of stamina when it comes to our pursuits? Is it a basic need to overcome? Or something more symptomatic than that?

Anyway, if you're around, i'll be on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Sts, Melbourne between 1pm and 9pm. Come and hang out with me. Listen with me if you want - i'll have a 'guest' notebook you can record into - and of course I'll be twittering, probably doing a blog on the day and uploading pics once an hour (on my toilet break). Stay tuned.

** Mike Parr, Todd McMillan, Marley Dawson and Kate Mitchell have all done endurance works that i really admire. And of course Marina Abramovic who is not from Sydney, but is a big influence.
*although i'm still umming and ah-ing about that.

Nick Waterlow RIP

2009-11-10T16:30:00.003+11:00

i just assume that people are going to die of old age. especially people i don't know personally, but who are in my peripheral vision. I'm always afraid that my close friends and family will die in horrific ways, but every one else i know - the guy who owns the video store, Karen who i buy my felt from and any director of every biennale - they all just die of old age.

i'm shocked and saddened - to use an overused expression - to hear about the murder of Nick Waterlow, Sydney-based curator and Director of Ivan Dougherty Gallery at COFA. I didn't know him personally, but a couple of his exhibitions and essays have stood out in my memory - especially his views on art practice as research. And he was a feature, a mark, of the australian art scene. A constant, of sorts.

My thoughts go to his family. So sad.

on purpose, act III

2009-11-06T18:07:00.002+11:00

i've been thinking about the relationship between purpose and beauty a lot lately. it seems i believe that the purpose of all good humans is to be beautiful and that if you're not, you're pointless.

yet, if you had've said that directly to me, i would have told you to get fucked.

i'm practicing the art of having purpose lately. not the kind of purpose that rationalises the bejesus out of everything, but the kind that counteracts the idea of beauty-as-value that rationalises the bejesus out of everything. and yes, i do see the irony of this situation, given that, as an artist, i'm supposed to be on beauty's side.

on purpose, act II

2009-11-04T20:59:00.002+11:00

i just finished my masters' degree and, as part of it, spent time reflecting on the 5 projects i did over the 8 weeks prior to handing in my thesis. one thing i didn't go into in that document, but something which was a vital aspect of doing a masters course was the level of professional development.

in australia, there are a variety of ways that artists can further their careers without sleeping with the men at the top.

big arts grants are just one of them. having not actually receive one (yet, ahem), i'm still riding on the ideal that they provide a financial (and maybe critical) base from which artists can create better works - ones that mr illogical from the mx might actually like, or even better, hate. i don't think australia is very good at handling its public arts money, in that it's still a bit of a gamble - on both sides of the fence.

in my limited experience, professional development is most beneficial when it is an inherent aspect of the projects and opportunities we're given.

one of the reasons i did my masters was to give myself the opprtunity to ~~burn out~~ really focus on my work for an extended period of time with access to technical know-how, resources, networks and critique. it wasn't perfect, but it was definitely a concentrated development on my professional practice and one that i could not have done on my own. public money (as well as a huge chunk of my own, thanks very much) well spent? i think so.

even better than doing my masters was the experience i had at electrofringe. they gold starred on a whole range of professional development areas (at least for me, personally) and i would encourage loads of government, cultural and funding groups/strategies to take a little from them.

gold star #1. selection process.
firstly, the process to be ~~validated~~ selected was simple - an application via email with an image or 2. none of this crazy '25 page thesis; 10 images - either still or video, but never both; calculated CV and proof that you're a sure-fire ROI'. phew!

gold star #2 accommodation.
then, once selected, i had my accommodation organised for me. not only did this save on stress and anxiety, but the importance of having a little base was taken into account - i had somewhere to sleep, eat, organise my shit (so to speak). it sounds basic, but having this level of support was vital to being able to focus on the work and not on stupid day-to-day garbage.

gold star #3 artist fee.
i was paid to be part of the festival. not a lot, but you know what - that's ok at the moment. the gesture is there and i'm sure artists with a lot more experience got paid a lot more, appropriately. the fact of the matter is that, as an artist, my presence was valued financially too and i wasn't just expected to do work for the old 'exposure/CV/fun of it' deal. ironically, this was one festival that i would have happily done that for, but don't tell them that. :D

gold star #4 programming
it was awesome - i had enough performances and/or time to get out of the work what i wanted/needed to, with enough time to see a few other works, make those connections and have some down time. they tried to make my trip to newcastle as worthwhile as possible, including giving a presentation.

gold star #5 networks (accommodation, part 2)
at every opportunity, daniel and somaya introduced us to other electrofringe artists. partly so they could rush off and do other things, but also because they knew that the level of conversation, chit chat, meetings and greetings that can be had - from a purely social to the quasi-american psycho styles - are incredibly valuable. to humans and to artists alike. heh.

plus, with the accommodation, they chucked a mixed bunch of artists all in the same apartment together and left us to our own devices. it could well have been a disaster in other apartments, but i had a lovely time in ours and learnt loads from talking to that bunch of strangers. it also gave us an instant audience. i made sure i went to the works of my room mates if i could and they regularly asked how the cone was going - chatting in the street when we passed.

and the best thing? it was all with the spirit of generosity, guidance, experience and flexibility. not box-ticking, or conservative risk management. because i felt supported and connected and valued, i was able to feel at ease about developing my work (which helps make better work). i could also reciprocate - help out where i could, chat to people and enjoy myself. nothing kills the buzz quicker than being overwrought.

and, dare i say it, i'm not really sure an arts grant could have quite given me that experience. i don't really want to give our illogical friend a reason to say 'i told you so' because i think that divesting funds to artists in helpful ways is fucking vital, but perhaps it's time to reassess the tradition of arts grant hoop-jumping and boring 'where's my money ralph?' economic rationalism that goes with it.

and, as i mentioned, this is just my perspective and i'm not expecting that others' experiences are the same. but then again, it's my blog, so you probably figured that bit out already.

UPDATE: marcus westbury has just written a valid and slightly depressing article on how the australia council (the federal arts funding body) are missing out on opportunities that they really could have pioneered. here's hoping that the ABC goes into arts funding soon, otherwise half of us will die starving or overseas.

on purpose, act I

2009-11-03T11:08:00.004+11:00

if i ever have to live in a world where the sole mark of value is purpose or utility, please kill me.

image via raph

imma let you finish, but..

2009-11-02T11:05:00.000+11:00

beyonce made the best music video OF ALL TIME!!

via stan

85 decibels, baby!

2009-11-01T21:40:00.005+11:00

the anode festival opened in melbourne on friday night and i remembered that i should really tell you all about a work i have in it.

it's the third in a series of city listening works and this one, 85 decibels, baby!, is a durational work - a long one. i'll be attending to the sounds of city - listening to as much of that cacophony as possible - for 8 hours straight.

8 hours. a traditional working timeframe and the one deemed 'safe' to listen to 85 decibels.
85 decibels is the apparent sound level of city traffic. from inside a car.
i'll be out in the open, with headphones on as that muffler.
i'll be subverting that desire to make the unwanted, the 'noise' subliminal.

the performance will be on saturday 14th november, 2009: 1- 9pm. on the corner of bourke and elizabeth sts in melbourne CBD. feel free to pop down and say hello.
listen with me if you want to.

i'm hoping to post an image each hour and, if we can find a way, hopefully webcasting it somehow. although that's still to be worked out exactly. i will, however, be making notes and images in a series of books and i'll post those images afterwards.

for more info about the rest of the program, check out the anode site.

my list of london things for simon

2009-10-29T22:38:00.001+11:00

my friend simon is going to london, and he asked me to make him a list of things to see while he's there (although i'm sure there'll be hardly any time to squeeze most of them in).

i thought i'd share it here, as i have other lists. and that way other friends in london can go check things out - or they can also recommend things to do whilst he's there :)

have a great time simon! i'll be re-living it vicariously through you, you know...

anish kapoor at the royal academy.

for the love of god, you should see this. it will be amazing. and while you're in the area, a bit of white cube mason's yard never hurt anyone. well, not much.

monmouth coffee.

as much as i love my crew at brother/seven seeds, sometimes i do miss my double espresso for £1 at monmouth. the one at borough is ok, but covent garden (on monmouth st) is best. the girls there are so friendly.
oh, and for decent food and a place to hang in central london after 7pm, princi on wardour was the new surprise last time. packed, all the time, but so fun. and open, you know, late.

michael jackson memorabilia at the O2 bubble.

This Is It is surprisingly amazing and although i still wouldn't consider myself a 'fan', i came away from the film with a sense of sadness and awe about a man with such talent and such trouble. simon, i don't even need to tell you why you need to go, do i?

calling out of context at the ICA.

i wish i was going, but i'm hoping that it's the first of many festivals, to which i can go. from the ica site:

Calling Out Of Context is a new festival of experimental music and sound. For nine days our main gallery becomes a performance space; the upper gallery a working recording studio; and the theatre hosts gigs, workshops and discussions. The festival features more than 40 performers and groups, revealing the vitality and relevance of the sonic avant-garde"

simon, this will be your penance for not going to electrofringe. ;)

you should meet my friend charlie gower. he's crazy into music. italo disco is his #1 penchant, but he has the most eclectic taste of anyone i know. he used to do mo' wax nights in shoreditch and you guys would totally have a rad time gettin' all music geeky on each other.

st andrews studios in hackney - especially transition gallery. cathy and alex at transition always put on great shows that you should check out.

chloe early at stolen space. her work is pretty spectacular. the gallery around the corner from the new rough trade in shoreditch/truman brewery. which is not as good as the old rough trade, but you'll have to go there. you know how it is.

oh, and the tate modern. of course.

gender-based human rights

2009-10-25T13:51:00.004+11:00

I've taken to reading The Economist a bit lately. I don't know exactly why. But i do get a fascinating picture of what's going on in the world that feels like it's largely unbiased, if not surprisingly humanitarian in its focus. Novel idea.

Anyway, there was a fascinating article in it about the definition of a gender. Prompted by the ghastly handling of the South African runner, Caster Semenya the article talks about the lack of definition of a gender in most countries documents of policy, and that the only country to mention it in any kind of report was Australia:

"A rare exception is in Australia, where a Human Rights Commission report in March 2009 recommended that adults should be abllowed to register their sex as "unspecified" on documents such as passports."

How's about that?! seems that Australian advisors and policy makers are up there with the Germans and Austrians (who have decreed that surgery is not a prerequist for sex-change). They have recognised that the diversity and openness of gender identification is to be preserved, that it is ultimately bound up in choice - orientation, perhaps - and not necessarily science.

It reminded me of Lesly Turnbull's Tomboys series (and the awful policy in Malaysia which outlaws tomboy behaviour) and i almost felt a little bit of pride for our struggling little society here - given our mucho conservativo history here.

Now, if we can just sort out the gender stereotypes that happen in the media here...sigh. Wouldn't that be nice.

a flurry of activity

2009-10-21T22:20:00.001+11:00

even though the thesis was at the printers and most of the hard work was done, this weekend was unconveniently full of stuff to look at. in fact, i went to about 12 performances/exhibitions in 4 days - it was like i was travelling in europe again (except i also had to squeeze in a list of things to do).

here's a little about them all:

peter greenaway's the last supper

i went in on thursday afternoon, a little sceptical and expecting to not have to pay for the work. i grumbled a bit at the non-student prices, not to mention my initial comparison to the amazing bill viola works at venice biennale that i fell in love with. but as the light, video, painting work unfolded, i was captured. the way he manipulated that image and unlocked the narrative in the original painting was, actually, captivating. it was a subtle unfurling of rapture and i found myself thinking about it again and again - which is always a good sign for me. my criticisms are: that it needed to finish 2-3 minutes earlier than it did. that sounds like i'm being picky, but you start to anti-climax and that's not a good way to leave a theatre, or whatever; and lose the entry fee - bill viola at NGV is free and it's comparable to that. i know - i'm a bit all over the place with my sense of worth about things, but hey.

the french and free choice duo at craft vic:

nathan gray ended his excellent exhibition, attack decay sustain release with an evening of experimental music performance. it was a really exciting evening and lovely to see a whole bunch of peeps who had also been at electrofringe.

the french: nathan, julie burleigh and bianca hester, are an emerging collaboration that combine trad pop rhythms with electronic and other wacky sounds (air horn, anyone?). they really play on the mixture of rhythm and sound structure - which of course blissed me out to no end.
surprise of the night was the free choice duo: jarrod zlatic and jess mc elhinney, who do a great, hypnotic electronic 'fabric' of sound, with a performance style reminiscent of gilbert and george's living sculptures. i'm excited about seeing these guys again - they push the audience's sense of anticipation for all things traditionally musical: the pitch change, the bass drop, the rise and fall of the rhythm, whilst maintain this sense of utter control over the whole shebang. looking forward to seeing them again.

alex bennett at kings ARI:

brother of the fabulous suffragette city gal, victoria bennett, alex is investigating sound, performance, behaviour stuff that is complimentary to my stuff - except he's coming at it from a musician/electro production angle. his repeat performance, using his hand-made pneumatic instruments, stagpipes and wheezebox, was absolutely amazing and i'm glad i went (despite being delirious with tiredness).

the dwelling at ACCA

while there have been better group shows at ACCA, this is still a pretty rad themed exhibition. absolute highlight of the show is the work by janet cardiff and george beures miller. i first saw their work in the silenzio exhibition at the fondazione sandretto re rebaudengo, but seeing it again here was wonderful. and then their amazing opus: opera for a small room, is almost inexplicable. it was such an overwhelming joy for me to watch/listen to/experience that i think i don't have the words to be describe it. it's a narrative work, played out through the sound/light-based behaviours of a hermit-type. it's constructed through a series of animatronic responses, all enveloped in a surrounding soundtrack of opera, applause and a freight-train. it's just amazing - so perfectly executed. it made me want to work as their assistant.

it has similarities to work by the kienholzes and a bit like the not-quite-as-engaging mike nelson work in altermodern at the tate triennial ealier this year. But that comparison is only for the purpose of giving you an idea of its scale and scope, rather than as a derogatory way of undermining the work.

just go and see it.

dictionary of imaginary places at the meat market

i was originally intrigued by the source material: sound recordings of conversations on the train and have been keen to see more work at the meat market. thankfully i had no expectations of the work, because it quite a confronting performance - the performers seated and facing the audience in a row of tiered seating - and then acting out a stream-of-consciousness barrage of monologues collaged together. it was almost a dada performance, quite insane in some parts. and i loved it. i enjoyed seeing the bizarre costumes and the random acts of shoving shoes up leotards and copies of mx into bras. wacky. and utterly enjoyable. it gave me a new appreciation for the absurd - as an artform and a phenomenon that presents itself regularly on public transport.

my disco at the forum (becks' rumpus room)

after the drama of DIP, the ernest intensity of the first band, your animal, was way too much for me and i just had to sit up the back and chatter. it's far from my usual way of engaging with music, but i just couldn't take it in, and there's no real break-out area at the forum with a gig like this.

beaches are a band who do the wall of sound like it ain't no thing - a band of 5 gorgeous ladies, who bob mould would be prouda. but, like the vivian girls at TINA, my main criticism is that, it feels like they're riding on the 'novelty' value of that gender thing a little too much. their stage presence is pretty uncompelling and i would love to see the vocal element of their work either tightened or dropped altogether - it just undermined the amazing musicianship that the band has.

my disco, on the other hand, are just a 3 piece and take up the stage like they're movin' in. they were mesmerising in their perfomance and their sound is hypnotic. liam resembles ian curtis in the memetic intensity of his movements and between the 3 of them, their ability to turn trad instruments into pulsating electronic waves is amazing.

pornography - deutsches schauspielhaus von hamburg

i almost didn't buy a ticket to this 'cos i had pretty much spent my festival budget in the first day, but i'm so glad i took the risk. it was a fantastic production.
the sets were amazing - in that they were well-integrated into the dialogue and performance, they were changeable, yet consistent, meaningful as metaphor and abstract enough to be 'furniture'.
watching a play in german was great and i surprised myself with the level of understanding i had (i only partially referred to the surtitles for bits i didn't know) and it was quite amusing sometime seeing the different timings of audience reaction between those who understood german, and those who were reading the english translation. sometimes the actor wouldn't have finished the sentence and the audience were laughing and other times there was a quiet laughter - followed about a minute later by a louder response.
it was confronting, heartwarming, tragic, entertaining and enlightening all at once. and i didn't even get bored. the ensemble approach to the casting and 8 stories was ace and made for a tight production. definitely would go and see it again, given the chance.

phew! what a weekend, huh. satisfying, though. and i'm looking forward to seeing more stuff over the next few weeks.

image credits: all images from the melbourne international arts festival are from the festival website: http://melbournefestival.com.au.
alex bennett's images is from the kings ari site
the image of the free choice duo and nathan gray is from craft victoria's facebook page

update: the thesis is now in. w00t! i now only have to present my research next week and it's all done. huzzah!

...like an enthusiastic porn star

2009-10-14T22:06:00.000+11:00

cursebird has been around a while, but i haven't had a go until now 'cos, well, i just haven't. it's an aggregate of all the swearing you do on your twitter feed.

i finally got around to having a peek at just how much i love swearing, especially after this post and that vid; and according to cursebird, i swear like an enthusiastic porn star.

an enthuiastic porn star?! i'm not exactly sure what that means, but i'm totally chuffed about it really.

reading my feed of sweary twitter is quite hilarious. kinda like the apple 'incredible, amazing awesome' clip. but more cockney than californian. and not as nicely designed.

anyways, enjoy.

http://cursebird.com/sheseesred

whiskey tango foxtrot?

2009-10-13T22:00:00.000+11:00

when things just work.

the cone of silence: electrofringe

2009-10-12T21:13:00.002+11:00

As you may have been aware, The Cone of Silence was invited to be part of the Electrofringe Festival the weekend before last in Newcastle, as a direct challenge to the extensive program of noise production and sound art. Somaya and Daniel - directors of the Festival were interested in the antithetical nature of this (non) sound piece as a vital aspect of any discourse about sound, art and public space. And from a sound-geek person's point of view, i was more than interested in attending :D

‘The Cone’ as it became affectionately known as, made regular appearances throughout the city of Newcastle, ‘soundproofing’ it, or at least bringing back some silence to parts of public life:

- Civic Park and the Fountain
- Newcastle Library
- Darby Street (the café/counterculture ‘precinct’ of Newcastle)
- Train between Civic Station and Newcastle Station
- The TINA ‘Zine Fair
- Regular trips down the main thoroughfare – King St, between the Festival club on the hill and Octopod, near Civic Park.

In the evenings, ‘The Cone’ rested at the Festival Club, allowing people to interact with it as a static object or climb in it during gigs. And maybe to give me a bit of a rest. It weighs 10kgs you know...

There was a range of interactions with the Cone of Silence as a feature of public life during the Festival:
- A lot of wry smiles of appreciation from passersby and ‘zine fair visitors
- Rapping on the outside from a group of drunk bogans on the Friday night and the obligatory intense questioning and quasi-harassment
- Intrigue from the Police (but ultimate nonchalance – due to the festival being on)
- No engagement whatsoever on the train (which was interesting in and of itself)
- Trying the piece on by a few brave peeps.
- Being asked if the piece was an ATM (based on a TV Commercial?)
- A loud and cheery “Hi Cone of Silence!!” yelled from a car on Darby St, by a local who had been given flyers two days previously. I was almost a local then.
- And inntense conversation about the codes of silence in Fijian spiritual practice with a woman who had just returned from a silent retreat there. She tried the piece on and wanted lots of photos.

and generally a good feeling about the work.

In terms of art in the public space, the level of interaction with art - certainly facilitated by the parameters of a well-know festival – were encouraging and enlightening.

Each of these reactions, whether it was to the object itself, to the nostalgic Get Smart reference, to the idea of having some ‘space’, or to the intrusion of mobile architecture certainly echoed the sentiments many have with the much-smaller and less-conspicuous versions of acoustic private space: headphones - which is what i was kinda hoping for.

There's more to say about my experience at Electrofringe, but this is just a little taste of the actual work.

Obvious big thanks goes to Somaya and Daniel for their awesome support, courage, organisation and openness as festival directors.

Extra big thanks to Max Milne and Victoria Bennett for their added awesome photo stylee skills.

Human Rights Act, 2009

2009-10-08T16:32:00.005+11:00

I've been wanting to post about this for a while, but have been a little, well, manic. Then I get an email about it and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to chat about it here.

Human Rights. And the fantastic book by Geoffrey Robertson - Statute of Liberty.

Don't groan - it's actually really interesting!

I've been reading the book over the last few weeks - as much as i can before i collapse into sleep - and it has been amazingly educational and still absorbing as a novel-of-sorts. I keep getting sucked into it, reading way past my bedtime.

The reason i first got the book was because i felt that, as a citizen in a democratic country, it was my responsibility to engage politically with what goes on here. It was only $20 at Readings, which impressed me no end - i think books about politics should all be super cheap, so that we can actually afford to read them and find out how it all works!

Anyways, when i finally got around to reading it, i was suprised how fluidly it was written - it's like i'm sitting on a couch in an easy lecture by Mr Robertson and he's just telling me, in pretty straight-up lingo, all about the history of human rights law, the history of parliamentary democracy in England (of which i had no idea), Australia's role in developing the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (an Australian lawyer was part of the leading committee in developing it and the main reason we didn't continue the momentum with implementing our own act was because we had everybody's favourite conservative PM in power - Mr Eyebrows the First, Robert Menzies).

The last part of the book (is this call for a spoiler alert? i don't think so) is the draft bill that Robertson has proposed that we enact. Geoffrey (as his wife Ms Lette probably calls him) is a renowned human rights lawyer and all-round good-guy. He is probably biased towards a statutory bill of rights because he's used them time and time and time again to defend a range of people whose rights are being transgressed. But in the book he also addresses the failings of various nations' bills and addresses the arguments from the main critics: the usual suspects - the church and the media. [ed. oh the irony!].

So, when i got the email from Get Up today about the campaign to enact Australia's Human Rights Act, it was bloody awesome to know a little bit more about it than before and to really feel quite confident in writing to my local MP, who just happens to be Essendon Football Club's #1 Ticket Holder: The Hon Lindsay Tanner, MP.

london proxy required: hussein chalayan sample sale

2009-10-07T19:24:00.004+11:00

it is one of my life's ambitions to own a piece by hussein chalayan.
i'm so not high-end sample size and nothing would probably suit me, but by god i would love to be here.

can somebody please go on my behalf please? ta.

Electrofringe/TINA : Day 3. Saturday

2009-10-03T21:41:00.007+10:00

Today was raining, which put a bit of a dampner on the festival, but I managed to see more stuff than previous days, despite an early performance and a presentation of my own.

Pics are to come, but I managed to catch a bit of a performance and Q&A with Rosy Parlane, a field recording artist from NZ; a snippet of a performance/workshop by Bum Creek – who were positively hilarious and who I’m going to make an effort to see tonight and definitely when I’m back in Melbourne.

I also caught up with the Suffragette City gals, a bit of John Kilduff and the Let’s Paint TV crew and saw some of a presentation and performance by Jim Cuomo, electronic jazz musician, computer games soundtrack developer, avant garde - who is sharing our apartment too.

As you can probably tell, a festival like this is all ‘part-of, in parts and just caught some’. Too much on, not enough time. But in a good way, y’hear? In fact, there were many correlations between my time here and that in Linz at ars electronica, which I think is pretty rad – given that I’m in a small town on the east coast of Australia.

There’s still a lot to process and I’ll write some more about my performances another day, as I will about the invaluable contribution that participating in the festival has made to my own artistic development.

Electrofringe/TINA : Day 2. Friday

2009-10-03T21:41:00.006+10:00

day 2 was the first 'real' day for me. from a performer/artist point of view. i got amongst it. but i still got to check out a few things happening at the festival.

I spent a large chunk of the day performing, or catching up on little tasks. I popped in to check out the China Club Arts Hub – a fluid series of spaces, with open, workshops areas, a great kitchen that serves crepes (including their specialty – the date crepe, with apple). I went to see Matt Rochford’s alarm clock extravaganza – a series of clock radio alarms, mostly set to the same time (give or take the random one or two), which were set to explode at midday on Saturday.

I did get to see an amazing performance – my personal highlight of the festival thus far: Ensemble Offspring, Pimmon and a performance of the Stockhausen piece: Kontakte. Pimmon is an electronic artist and academic who produced some beautiful soundscapes while offspring ensemble make improvised syncopated works. their collaboration was a perfect mixture between the two methods – a great reverb/electro distortion and collage.

The work of Karlheinz Stockhausen is a recent discovery for me, but what a discovery! And this performance was a combination of acoustic instruments, performed by Bernadette Balkus and Claire Edwardes and electronic parts by the fantastic sound engineer, Bob Scott.

As well as a great performance, the amazing aspect was the fact that the two principal performers on stage were both women. Stockhausen is the kinda guy that all the boys love and it’s not often that you see the ladies up there. Well, I was pretty excited anyway.

I did have plans to see Suzanne Grae and the Katies - great band from Melbourne that i keep on missing, but the line-up was mental and they finished before i could get there. sad face.

Electrofringe/TINA : Day 1. Thursday

2009-10-03T21:40:00.003+10:00

I arrived in newcastle at about 11am and had Mia, our friendly runner, pick me up from Newcastle station. It was pretty warm and I was carrying my luggage, equipment and an artwork. Hard work, so it was great to get a lift.
I went straight to the Octopod and worked on assembling the cone – did that for a few hours until I needed some food, then decided to actually see some stuff, rehydrate.

there's a lot of great stuff about - lots of street-based sticker stuff, random performances and a bemused kind of vibe.

I met Mika Meskanen - a Berlin-based Finnish artist, who has assembled a Temp Sauna: a temporary sauna (see what he did there) in Civic Park. – right in the centre of Newcastle. It’s fabulous – constructed from tent-structure, thermo wraps, a wood oven with granite stones.

Mason’s festival club launch was great fun – I just scooted around the outside, checkin’ stuff out. I saw Dan Mackinlay’s fantastic performance, chatted with some of the peeps, handed out flyers, etc.

Laughed at the Giraffe Carafe, by Belle Brooks: Typing ‘giraffe sex’ into google yields ungodly results - A pixelated sculpture of two giraffes fucking (see above). Ooh, naughty. Taboo aside, the work is also really well-presented – in a long, narrow room, with a locked, reinforced glass door and dramatic spot lighting. It screams ‘enclosure’.