ARTS ZINE NOVEMBER 2020

s t u d i o arts zine

L A P R I M I T I V E

issue 39 november 2020

G E O

R G E G I T T O E

S

WHITE LIGHT www.whitelight.film Left: Guns Kill - Father Pfleger George Gittoes © 2018.

RANDY FOCAZIO https://www.instagram.com/rfocazio/?hl=en https://www.flickr.com/photos/13213364@N06/

Untitled, oil, Randy Focazio

NEIL HOWE

https://neilbs.wixsite.com/neil-howe

Red Sock in the Wash, 2019, Giclee.

MATTHEW COUPER https://www.mattcouper.com/

Planar Landfall, 2020, Oil on canvas, 1550 x 990mm. Matthew Couper.

Private collection, New Zealand, courtesy of PAULNACHE

EDWARD MILAN www.art-systems-wickham.com/

Grappling with Tomorrow, mixed medium, 45 x 45 cm.

Edward Milan 2020.

RACHEL MILNE

https://www.rachelmilneartist.com/

Nest, oil on canvas, H160 x W120c m. Rachel Milne 2020.

EDMOND THOMMEN www.thommenart.com.au

DEBRA LIEL-BROWN

Chilled Milk, Acrylics on paper, H75 x W105 cm. Debra Liel-Brown

www.debraliel-brown-artist.com/

www.artstudiosuppliesonline.com

slp studio la primitive CONTRIBUTORS

Untitled, pen and ink on paper, Randy Focazio 2020.

William Yang

Brad Evans

Rachel Milne

Eric Werkhoven

Neil Howe

Robyn Werkhoven

Edward Milan

Art Systems Wickham

Randy Focazia

Debra Liel-Brown

Anka What

Helene Leane

Gaia Maria Walicka

Barbara Nanshe

Lorraine Fildes

Art Quill Studio

Edmond Thommen

Timelesstextiles

Maggie Hall

Newcastle Studio Potters

INDEX Editorial …………

Robyn Werkhoven

12

Studio La Primitive ……

E & R Werkhoven

13

Feature Artist ………..

William Yang

14 - 33

Poetry …………………

Eric Werkhoven

34 - 35

Feature Artist …………

Rachel Milne

36 - 51

Poetry ………………….

Brad Evans

52 - 53

Feature Artist ………...

Neil Howe

54 - 79

Poetry ………………….

Brad Evans

80 - 81

Featured Artist ………..

Edward Milan

82 - 93

Poetry ……………….

Maggie Hall

94 - 97

Feature Artist ……………

Randy Focazio

Poetry ……………………

Maggie Hall

120 - 125

Featured Artist …………

Gaia Maria Walicka

126 - 147

Featured Artist ………….

Anka What

148 - 169

Featured Artist ……….

Edmond Thommen

170 - 175

Sydney New & Old ……... Lorraine Fildes

176 - 205

Featured Artist ………….

206 - 213

SEIGAR

ART NEWS……………….

FRONT COVER: New School, Giclee, Neil Howe 2020.

Patrick White, photograph by William Yang 1980.

98 - 119

214 - 243

EDITORIAL

From Melbourne Gaia Maria Walicka

Greetings to our ARTS ZINE readers and best wishes for the festive season

video and performance.

and a brighter New Year 2021. It has been a difficult year for humanity.

International photographer SEIGAR returns to the Zine with a

is an interdisciplinary

artist, practicing primarily in jewellery as well as media including

We wish to stress the importance of the Visual Arts , Music and Literature, in such demanding and challenging times, to keep creative and stay positive.

This is the last issue for 2020, but we will return in March 2021.

The November Arts Zine includes an eclectic and exciting

new series of work Fusion.

Lorraine Fildes, our resident travel photographer and writer, presents Sydney Old and New. Featuring

iconic scenes and

buildings in early paintings beside photographs of the locations group of

contemporary artists, photographers and writers.

This month we present internationally renown and award winning photographer William Yang, who writes about his life and documentary and portrait

photography.

today.

Digital artist Edmond Thommen tells us about his forthcoming exhibition in Sydney.

Don’t miss out reading new works by resident poets Maggie Hall, Brad Evans and Eric Werkhoven.

ART NEWS and information on forthcoming art exhibitions.

Neil Howe - a digital postmodern political artist, who explores the ‘dark underbelly of humanity.’

The ARTS ZINE features articles and interviews with national and

From the Hunter NSW - artist Rachel Milne, who specialises in figurative and

international visual artists, poets and

writers, exploring their

world of art and creative processes.

observational oil painting. Edward Milan invites us into his world of sculpture

Submissions welcomed, we would love to have your words

and 3D assemblage work that revolves around themes of joy and the ocean.

and art works in future editions in 2021.

The vibrant painter Anka What

writes about her art and the time spent in

Deadline for articles 15th February for March issue 40, 2021.

Email: werkhovenr@bigpond.com

Japan.

Our international guest artist from USA is Randy Focazio, known for his

Regards - your editor Robyn Werkhoven

surrealist, dark and cerebral art works.

The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. Copyright © 2019 Studio La Primitive.

All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced , in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Issue 39 - November 2020

12

S

T

www.studiolaprimitive.net

L A P R I M I T I V E

U D I

O Interior with Nude, acrylic on canvas, H40 x W30 cm. Robyn Werkhoven 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

13

WILLIAM YANG

Issue 39 - November 2020

14

WILLIAM YANG Queensland-born, Sydney-based photographer William Yang’s significant contribution to Australian photography spans five decades.

Known for documentary and portrait photography, his reflective and joyous depictions of Australia’s LGBTQI scene in the late 70s and 80s through to the present. Yang’s photography is informed by the cultural and political pressures of growing up as a gay man from a Chinese immigrant family in north Queensland.

In 1993 William Yang won the Higashikawa-cho International Photographic Festival award of International Photographer of the Year. In 1997 his exhibition “Friends of Dorothy” won the Outstanding Visual Arts Event award at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

In 1998 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Queensland University for his services to photography. In 2007 he was awarded the H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship at the Australian National University.

Yang has produced books including Patrick White: The late years (1995), Sadness (1996) and Friends of Dorothy (1997). His works are held in major state galleries, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery.

Page 14: Self Portrait #5. 2008 Right: William in Scholars Costume. 1984:2009.

Issue 39 - November 2020

15

WILLIAM YANG You might say I had a culturally deprived upbringing, growing up in North Queensland on a tobacco farm.

Still I had parents who loved me and were keen for me to get an education, and to do well in the world.

Growing up in the country was of great benefit although I did not realize it at the time. The harsh, dry landscape of Dimbulah seeped into me, and it became a spiritual comfort for me many years later, when I came to identify this landscape as my idea of home.

One day, when I was about six years old, one of the kids at school called me ‘Ching Chong Chinaman, Born in jar, Christened in a teapot, Ha ha ha.’ I had no idea what he meant although I knew from his expression that he was being horrible to me.

I went home to my mother and I said, “Mum, I’m not Chinese, am I?” And my mother looked at me very sternly and she said, “Yes, you are.”

Her tone was hard and I knew in that moment that being Chinese was some terrible curse and I could not rely on my mother for help.

Or my brother, who was four years older than me, very much more experienced in the world and he said, “And you’d better get used to it.”

This was a big trauma of my childhood, to realize I was Chinese, other, not white but yellow, not like other Australians, with whom I identified. It was a source of shame. It was something I didn’t grow out of, I just

suppressed it.

Issue 39 - November 2020

16

The country around Dimbulah #6, H60 x W70 cm. William Yang 1990.

Issue 39 - November 2020

17

I got a camera from my cousin Les Fang Yuen when I was about 14. It was an instamatic, it used film and it had a fixed lens. The first photos I took were of turtles in Lake Eacham. I imagined the images in close up when I took them, but when I got the photos back, the turtles were just small specks in the frame, not what I expected and very disappointing. I gave up using that camera. Later when I was a student of architecture at Queensland University, I went on a trip to Japan and bought a Pentax camera with a variety of lenses. One of them was a telephoto lens and I began to take photos that I liked.

It was at Queensland University where I discovered my love of theatre. I directed the Architect Reviews

and I wrote several plays. I joined the Brisbane Arts Society. I liked art but never thought I could make a career of it. I knew that I was gay, but remained in the closet.

Left: Self Portrait #2, 1947. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

18

Flamingo Follies 1975. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

19

It wasn’t until I came to Sydney in 1969 that I found myself. Nobody knew my past case history so I was able to reinvent myself. Up until this point I had been closeted, but in the heady days of Gay Liberation I was swept out by events at the time.

I worked with the experimental theatre group, Performance Syndicate, writing a few plays, but I couldn’t make a living from playwriting so I became a freelance photographer. Since I moved in theatrical circles I started off doing actor’s portfolios, and I was able to pay the rent. Then I would do any job that people would pay me money for. I tried my hand at fashion but I was terrible at it. For fashion you need a concept of female beauty, I had none. For fashion you need to be able cover up the flaws, my natural tendency was to

expose them. I found my metier photographing parties and social events. I guess I liked people, I learnt to understand their vanities, and their foibles, (I was more mischievous in those early days). At the first social event I photographed, the premiere of an underground film, On the Ball, (by Peter Kingston and Gavin Wilson), my style emerged and it hasn’t changed since. It’s formal, the people face and regard the camera.

It’s not so much about observing people and catching them unawares, which is difficult, it’s more about

letting the people announce themselves to the world – I am here. I had a good technique for taking the photos, I was fast. Most amateur photographers are slow, they are uncertain, and process becomes laborious. I was able to flit around the room and photograph everyone. I did photographs for the social pages of magazines.

Page 21: Linda Jackson, Peter Tully and Jenny Kee. Opening National Gallery Australia. Canberra.1982. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

20

Issue 39 - November 2020

21

I was part of a social movement called the Counterculture, a term coined by Richard Neville in his book Play Power. It included people such as Brett Whiteley and Martin Sharp who had started an artist’s cooperative called The Yellow House in Potts

Point. I was attracted to fashion duo Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson who had a label Flamingo Park, and who put on fantastic, glamorous fashion parades.

They were not part of the mainstream, and yet they were very successful. They were “doing their own thing”, and they liked my photos. My best friends Peter Tully and David McDiarmid were also connected with Flamingo Park. Peter did the funky, plastic necklaces and accessories for the parades and David would hand paint some of Linda’s Fabric.

David was a hard core gay artist in that his work was mostly gay themed. He articulated gay culture, Brett Whiteley and Martin Sharp. Wirian. 1982. William Yang.

and he didn’t shy away from sex. I began to develop a queer eye, so David was a big influence on my

work.

Issue 39 - November 2020

22

David Mcdiarmid, 1993. H27 x W40 cm. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

23

My first solo exhibition Sydneyphiles at the Australian Centre for Photography in 1977 caused a sensation, partly because of the gay content, and partly from its frank documentation of an alternative social scene. It was the first time an institution had shown Australian gay content. Later I had an exhibition and book Sydney Diary 1984 which covered similar ground. It was also successful and I established myself as a Sydney social photographer.

Darrin and Linden. Part3.1991.

Page 25: Synthetics. Paddington Town Hall.1977. H29 x W40cm. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

24

Issue 39 - November 2020

25

Twelve years after I came out as a gay man I came out as a Chinese. The Chinese side of me had always been denied and unacknowledged, but when I became Taoist, I embraced my Chinese heritage. I changed my name from Willy Young to William Yang. Changing your name is really a big deal, it means you saying I am not that old person you knew, but this new person I want you to acknowledge, and you have to keep reminding people and insisting that you are this new person. During this time I researched my family and the broader subject of the Chinese in Australia. It also meant I moved away from celebrities which had been my fodder for many years and I began to focus more on marginalised groups, like the Chinese in Australia and the gay community.

In the eighties I began using slide projection. I did audio visuals, (projection and music). When I projected the images as in a slide show I found there was a natural tendency to talk about the slides, and I began to talk on stage. I was quite nervous about this at first, as it represented me coming out from behind the camera into the spotlight; and it was hard, but eventually I got used to it and now I enjoy being a performer.

Page 27: About My Mother, 1992. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

26

Issue 39 - November 2020

27

Sadness in 1992 was my third performance piece. It was about the AIDS pandemic sweeping Sydney, and a journey I undertook to north Queensland and the past to investigate the murder of my uncle, William Fang Yuen, who was shot by a White Russian, a manager on one of Fang Yuen’s cane farms at

Mourilyan. The show was a huge success and it toured Australia and the world. It set up a touring festival circuit for me and most of my subsequent eight performance pieces have toured internationally. Performances have be-

come the main vehicle of my new work. Sadness was made into a film by Tony Ayres in 1999.

Allan from Sadness, 1990. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

28

Sadness Poster, 1993. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

29

I continue to do performances, my latest was PARTY (verb), in 2018, which was commissioned by Performance Space. I was a founding member of Theatre 4A, which became Performance 4A and now is CAAP, Contemporary Asian Australian Performance. With Annette Shun Wah I did story telling workshops and productions with Performance 4A/CAAP, and helped to establish story telling as a staple of the organisation’s productions. I felt I was teaching others my method of storytelling with images.

When I started doing my monologues I realised that many images have a story, so when I used these images in a gallery situation I began to write the story, however short, directly onto the print. My hand writing became a signature and it made my prints more recognisable. I also realised that when I did my

monologues, no matter how rambling the story became, it somehow held together because of my presence on the stage. I was the glue that held it together. I became more confident in my persona, even though it was manufactured, and since the late nineties I have been doing photographic self portraits.

I made films of three of my performance pieces on an Australia Council fellowship grant, at the University of NSW, where I was a visiting fellow. It took five years to do. They are not filmed performances, but performances specially done to the camera. The three pieces were My Generation, about the artistic community in Sydney in the 70s and 80s, Friends of Dorothy, about the gay community in Sydney, and Blood Links, about my Chinese Australian family. They cover the main themes of my work and all have been

shown on ABC TV. But their main importance for me is they are an archive of my collection.

Issue 39 - November 2020

30

Self Portrait #6. Kissing Eric, 2010.

Magda Szubanski and Gay Men. 2012.

Stories East & West, 2011.

Polixeni Papapetrou and Olympia Nelson. Melbourne. 2009.

Issue 39 - November 2020

31

Angels in Hyde Park. SGLMG. 2019. William Yang.

Issue 39 - November 2020

32

I don’t take as many photos now as I used to, but I always jump at an opportunity to put the images I already have out there. That’s why I’m

thrilled to be having a retrospective exhibition Seeing and Being Seen at QAGOMA, Brisbane, in March 2021. They call it a major survey as technically I think you have to be dead to have a retrospective. Still it represents my life in photography, and some sort of recognition.

I couldn’t be happier.

- William Yang 2020.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs William Yang © 2020.

William in Chinese Mirror, 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

33

E

A QUESTION MARK

R I

Up to the task, that we set ourselves.

C

In the act of doing we become more complete.

Residing longer in these plays, as if lost in thought.

W E R K H

O V E

The mechanised world, pushes us along, and we are powerless to stop this so called heart of progress.

Taking on a different guise for a while, Feeling in a genuinely agreeable mood.

Transference of some of the multi-facetted ideas, daily functioning gestures, and finding out what suits us even after years, in a time honoured sequence.

N Issue 39 - November 2020

34

And there you have a perfectly broken body, strangely coherent to say exactly the opposite.

And based on the findings more relevant, more widely appreciative of all the world has to offer.

Nature in its antithesis of transformation.

To able to continue to consummate our daily life.

The hand that drew these beautiful grotesque creations.

Embroiled somewhere in the centre of this frenzy, thus our beliefs continue to weather the years.

The area of the mind that moves to the incompleteness, heralds the birth of god knows what?

- Eric Werkhoven Š 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

35

RACHEL MILNE

Issue 39 - November 2020

36

RACHEL MILNE Rachel Milne is a professional fine art painter based in Newcastle, NSW. Rachel specialises in figurative and observational oil painting, in the style of the impressionists, mainly focusing on the genre Intimism. Originally from the UK, Rachel exhibited regularly with the Royal West of England Academy and is now represented by the King Street Gallery on William, Sydney.

“I paint with a focus on light and seeing the beauty in the everyday.”

Currently working towards a solo exhibition at Newcastle Regional Art Gallery in 2021. The show will run from 8th May – 25th July, 2021.

Page 36: Construction, Oil, H80 x W100 cm. Rachel Milne 2020.

Right: Evening Chair, Oil on canvas, H28 x W23 cm.

Haefligers Cottage, Hillend Artist Residency, Rachel Milne 2017.

Issue 39 - November 2020

37

Speers Point Behind Fence, Oil on canvas, H30 x W35 cm. Rachel Milne 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

38

RACHEL MILNE - INTERVIEW I always wanted to be an artist, a painter specifically. To me it’s a powerful form of communication in the same way as music or film. At school I loved the art room but I didn’t have a clue of the way the Art World was changing in the early 90’s, the era of Damien Hurst and the New British Artists, the dawn of Conceptual Art. I was a pretty naive student, I wanted to learn traditional methods of painting and drawing and this was just no longer available. After being rejected from a good few Art Schools I eventually got wedged into Cardiff Institute of Art and Design by my tutor. As I found out pretty quickly, figurative painting was considered at best unfashionable and at worst irrelevant and I left thinking that clearly the art world was not for me.

So, I moved to Bristol and stumbled into a two year stint working Uk wide for a company called the Undetectables disguising mobile phone antenna with fake fibreglass chimney pots – using rope access we’d hang off tall buildings and paint them like the original chimney to completely blend in using two part tank paint. The onsite crew was mainly made up of frustrated artists who would turn up on site wearing outlandish coats and Russian fur hats which confused the hell out of the telecoms executives we were working for. It taught me a lot about the practicalities of working outside from life in all conditions, colour matching using just the primaries, working quickly under pressure and doing just enough to get the job done.

Issue 39 - November 2020

39

After this I went into TV and Film, painting backdrops and sets for Aardmans and the BBC including Wallace and Gromit’s Curse of the Were Rabbit. 2004 my job and relationship came to an end and my father died. I think it was a number of points in my life where I have had to make a choice with my painting. I had still been painting during this time but I decided that regardless of fashions or where my place in the Artworld was or wasn’t I needed to paint. So I got a job in a bottle shop and a studio and got on with it. The bottle shop was fabulous, full of similar artists and writers, all on zero hours contracts bored in the shop. They gave us a generous discount on wine and we took full advantage. I loved it, we genuinely had a love of the wine and even if we were rarely sober in the shop, we were always enthusiastic. These glory days lasted until my manager got fired for being caught on CCTV cracking the vodka at 11am and playing football in the shop. At that point I had a mortgage on a little property in Bristol and thought I’d better get a proper job. I ended up as a receptionist on a Lifestyle magazine in Bath, a city crammed full of history and galleries. I’d started writing the odd article for them and they’d sent me off to review the cities art galleries. I walked into the last gallery on my list and was blown away by the work on the walls. They were figurative paintings of mundane objects painted with more care and intelligence than I had ever seen before in a contemporary gallery. They were beautiful and powerful.

I emailed the gallery and sent some images of my work. They kindly refused me but mentioned that the artist, Saied Dai, did a life drawing class on a Tuesday.

I trotted off to the office and asked if I could have Tuesdays off but apparently they needed a receptionist for the whole week so I quit my job.

Issue 39 - November 2020

40

Diving Board Oil on canvas H60 x W50 cm.

Rachel Milne 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

41

I rang Saied, he asked about my art college experience and said he could try to put it right. This was all the encouragement I needed and I went to his

classes for two years, working as a

decorator to pay the bills. tutored life

It was just a basic

drawing class but the principles of

which I have used as the backbone of my practice ever since. Saied was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters who had taught at the Royal Academy, he was harsh and exacting but that was exactly what I wanted. None of this wishy washy shit! To him it was life and death. He taught me to take my practice seriously – as

seriously

as if it was any other subject. And through him I developed the cornerstones of my practice – structure, tone and colour.

Director, H35 x W30 cm. Oil on canvas, Finalist Portia Geach 2019 Rachel Milne.

Issue 39 - November 2020

42

Evening Walk Oil on canvas H45 x W40 cm.

Rachel Milne 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

43

Birthday Cake, Oil on canvas, H30 x W35 cm. Haefligers Cottage, Hill End Artist Residency, Rachel Milne 2017.

Issue 39 - November 2020

44

Chariot, Oil on canvas, H35 x W30 cm. Rachel Milne 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

45

I married in 2012 and moved to Newcastle, Australia in 2013. I started off selling wine over the phone but rejection from your new country on a daily basis wasn’t working for me or my employers so I sacked myself and again decided to paint. I got a studio at Newcastle Art Space and in 2014 was taken on by the King Street Gallery on William in central Sydney and had my first commercial solo show. This was a massive leap for me, to be taken on by King Street, and when I began to establish myself as a professional artist. Since that point I think my greatest achievement has been being accepted as a Finalist in the Wynne Prize twice, and the Salon Des Refuse twice for the Wynne and Archibald.

My work is figurative and from life, I work in oils.

I leap all over the place with my subject matter, painting still lives, landscape, interiors and the occasional portrait.

My landscapes and interiors are often chaotic and never contain figures. I am drawn towards people’s home environments especially chaos of the hidden personal space like studios and sheds. I love to paint comfort food and my landscapes have recently become more about the suburban environment, houses and public swimming pools. I have a studio in the back garden, a beautiful beast that we built last year but I am rarely there as I am always painting on site. It is fantastic to have a space to store and assess my work though, to see which pieces are working which are not and to check I am heading in the right direction.

Issue 39 - November 2020

46

Laundry Oil on canvas.

H35 x W30 cm.

Rachel Milne 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

47

When choosing a subject matter, things seem to percolate in my brain, chatting away at the back before becoming more insistent and shouty. I often quietly hate myself for finding the best composition to paint a beautiful indoor skate park is perched on a ledge above the massive skate bowl or finding myself frying in the sun painting swimming pools. But if the painting comes off it’s worth it.

For me working from photographs is something I try to avoid as much as possible. There is so much alchemy between the subject matter and the artist which for me a photograph cannot replicate. My philosophy is about being a slave to structure, tone and colour. There then comes a natural point where you find yourself looking more at the painting than the subject- the painting does take on a life of its own. Painting to me is not relaxing or really enjoyable – I suppose the best I can say is that it is satisfying.

It is a compulsion for me to paint. And for me it is a long series of problems to solve one after another and you never feel like you fully solve them! As soon as a piece is finished I am thinking about the next. I try to keep my practice as simple as possible – working from life, thinking purely about structure, tone and colour as well as the intangible feeling which makes you choose a particular subject or composition. My pallet is always the same-a full pallet of warm and cool red, yellows and blues plus black, white, burnt sienna and raw umber. I think of it like playing a familiar musical instrument, it has been the same for so long you instinctively know where the colours are. I use the same brand and type of brushes, long handled size twos in filbert and round.

Issue 39 - November 2020

48

Morning Walk Government Road Oil on canvas H35 x W30 cm.

Rachel Milne 2017.

Issue 39 - November 2020

49

My only intention, with my practice, is to try to become a better painter. I see myself as a Newcastle painter but also as wedged in the whole history of painting, with all the dead painters looking over my shoulder as I try and take tiny step after tiny step forward with my work. This makes me feel small which in turn keeps me pushing, I never feel good enough, there is always room to improve.

Each painting holds a story for me and I usually work in series, a number of paintings covering whatever is occupying my thoughts at the time. During the early weeks of Covid 19 in the most intense period of lockdown I was looking after the children during the day so when my husband came home from work I’d run to the studio and paint as fast as I could until the light went. The paintings came easily because it felt like there was so much to say. This series as well as the swimming pool series and many more will be show at a solo show ‘Nest’ at Newcastle Regional Art Gallery in May 2021. I’m currently painting on a much larger scale that I have before, finding new beautiful places to record in paint and I feel so inspired to have a show in my home city, especially as each and every one will have been painted in Newcastle or Lake Macquarie.

- Rachel Milne © 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

50

Next Door, Oil on canvas, H30 x W35 cm. Rachel Milne 2018.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Rachel Milne Š 2020.

https://www.rachelmilneartist.com/ Issue 39 - November 2020

51

B R A D

Did I ever tell you a story about my Aunt Ignis?

While pretending to browse, she’ll distance herself from her companion, make her way quickly

to the store manager My Aunt Ignis

& in a serious voice

has lots of friends,

inform the manager

she's very sociable.

that there’s “this woman” in the store

E V A N S

She has so many friends

who is a known shoplifter.

that sometimes she’ll test them out;

Having managerial

one way of doing this

experience herself,

is when she takes them shopping.

she can put the whole thing across

She’ll choose a shop

in a very sincere way -

& wander in,

enough to compel the manager

with her friend close behind.

on duty to phone the police.

Issue 39 - November 2020

52

And then Aunt Ignis

Sometimes the friend

would simply go back to her

would be understanding

browsing .

and see humour in the prank, at other times - they would not.

When the police arrived she would quietly give a statement

And whichever way ‘the friend’ took it,

and then watch calmly

didn’t seem to matter

as the police took her away.

to my Aunt Ignis.

Later,

There were

she would ring up her

other friends,

friend & ask her what happened.

In tears, the friend would

there would always be

tell her

other friends.

about the experience and then Aunt Ignis

- Brad Evans © 2020.

would burst out laughing.

Issue 39 - November 2020

53

N E I L H O W E Issue 39 - November 2020

54

NEIL HOWE Northern Rivers NSW based artist Neil Howe.

“A digital postmodern political artist my job is to observe people and society, and generate some artistic response to the situations presented to my eye.”

Neil Howe was born in 1951 in Melbourne, Australia. He first studied Biology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and was awarded a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in 1973 with a triple major in Biochemistry, Zoology and Botany.

In 1977 Neil Howe left the world of science to study visual art and entered Prahran College of Advanced Education (now Victorian College of the Arts) Howe is also a self taught musician and owning several electronic music synthesizers was invited to join an avant garde music group called The Composers Collective.

From 1978 to 1981 The Collective were very actively producing and presenting new music and performance art events at many academic institutions and art galleries around Victoria.

Since 2000 Howe has regularly exhibited digital prints and video art in art galleries, museums and film festivals around the world. He is represented by several art galleries and has work in public collections in Australia, UK , India, Spain, Bavaria and Turkey. His recent work “When I Grow Up” 2010 has won a Metropolis Award at the Madrid Festival of Contemporary Audio-visual Art (MADATAC) in Spain, and multiple awards at the Blue Banana Video Festival in Landau, Bavaria. The more recent “Conspiracy” 2012 was the only international video artwork selected for inclusion in NordArt 2013, the largest exhibition of contemporary art in Europe that runs for 3 months during the summer period. Neil Howe is the author of the book Parallel Realities: The Development of Performance Art in Australia published in 2017 by Thames & Hudson, Australia and in 2018 he had two artworks selected for inclusion in the Biennale of Australian Art in the city of Ballarat.

Page 54: Homeland Security, 2002, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Germination of an Idea, 2002, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

56

BODYSCAPES -

NEIL HOWE

I describe my work as post-object or if you prefer, post modern. It is eclectic, it borrows and repurposes

digital images, either my own or images found within the digital domain of electronic social media. Initially I repurposed my own photographs to create Bodyscapes, that is, landscapes of the human body and the human condition. These evolve from my original studies in sculpture at Prahran CAE in 1978 where I worked in stone and wood, and with performance art. During these years my exposure to many artists, but particularly Man Ray and Bill Brandt’s enigmatic nudes in the landscape, developed my interest in form, light and texture to create surreal digital light paintings that exist as transient excitations of the phosphors of my computer screen. The pixelisations in the source images become the seeds for the image processing which creates myriads of interwoven light tubules that form at the end of the process into a semblance of the original collaged image. The elements of chance play heavily in this image seeding process so one cannot entirely predict what will be the eventual outcome.

Page 56: Waiting For Nesara, 2002, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

57

My first solo exhibition of Giclee prints at the Photographers Gallery in Melbourne was sponsored by Epson in 2000 during the lead up to the Iraq War. The prints lacked the luminosity of the screen images but I was able to resolve this later on by creating animated video artworks that I could now add an audio narrative to the sequences of images. Having worked as an editor for a national current affairs TV program through the Gulf War, I was able to create a new visual and audio narrative in my work. Fully aware of the propaganda tools used by the mass media, my work makes comment of the jingoism and bias being broadcast nightly

into our homes. Images titled Homeland Security, Coalition of the Willing and Collateral Damage (found on my websites) play heavily with subliminal messaging and semiotics. They are surreal images that are often perceived differently by each member of an audience. In one work titled Waiting for Nesara, one woman saw death and decay but another saw life and imminent birth. From my original studies as a biologist and later as an educator, I have always maintained an interest in psychology, perception and the natural world.

Page 59: Glare, 2000, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

58

Issue 39 - November 2020

59

It was not until the development of affordable digital cameras and Adobe image editing software more than two decades ago, that I was able to have the Germination of an Idea to transition my conventional photography, which had followed after my studies with Athol Shmith, John Cato and Paul Cox at Prahran,

The Ball, 1991, silver gelatine print.

into the Bodyscape format that I use today.

Balance is a photo taken during a sculpture camp with John Davis, The Ball was captured a decade later in Holland. Some of the early Bodyscapes that evolved from conventional nudes include Pillar of Salt, Glare and Pride With Prejudice.

Balance, 1979, Kodachrome.

Issue 39 - November 2020

60

Pride With Prejudice, 2002, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Pillar of Salt, 2000, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

61

My work is political art either exploring the body politic, social politics, Waiting For Nesara, 2002, Giclee, Germination of an Idea, 2002, Giclee, or governmental politics. In 2006 I developed a series of work titled Thirteen: Portrait of a Teenager from repurposed photos taken by my 13 year old stepdaughter of her own body, an example is Kiss. These were innocent private photos by a child coming into self-awareness of her body as an emerging teenager. Three years later, recognising what her images meant, we held a solo exhibition of her photos and my digital imaging at Uniting Arts Toorak complete with the publication of a book. The opening speech was presented by a female reverend of the Uniting Church and Sir Robert

Menzies’ son was a member of the gallery board of directors. Copies of the book found its way into all the state and national libraries, but then came the Henson affair where Sydney artist Bill Henson was harangued by the police, media and federal politicians for photographing semi-naked teenagers. The backlash I felt was the removal of my book from the shelves of the National Library in Canberra and the demand that I refund them the purchase price. When I challenged the chief librarian about censorship, the lame excuse offered was that they were overstocked. Several years later my book that was in the NLA legal deposit was placed on the library shelves.

Page 63: Kiss, 2005, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

62

Issue 39 - November 2020

63

As a result of the now all pervasive prudery and political correctness that swept through the Australian art world, I stopped working with models and began to focus on world current affairs examining the social eccentricity and dark underbelly of humanity. Challenging the Goliath, Children Overboard and The Cost

referenced a new direction that became increasingly political. Two new series of work titled Children of War and Snapshots of Suburbia evolved into many hundreds of artworks that were exhibited both internationally and to a lesser extent locally. Some of these were published in book form and in magazines. When the global financial crisis rocked the world in 2009-10, I produced a video artwork titled When I Grow Up. The work portrayed how the world was via a series of animated artworks with current news media grabs as a narrative, this was counterbalanced by a series of interviews by young children expressing positively how the world will be when they grow up. One 8 year old expressed that “When I grow up all the greedy, selfish,

rich people will be sent to Mars to live on bread and water�. This work was exhibited in 35 countries including Russia, China and Iran, and won multiple awards in Spain and Germany. It was followed up by two similar format videos titled Conspiracy and Where Do We Go When We Die?

Issue 39 - November 2020

64

Children Overboard, 2007, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

65

Challenging the Goliath, 2004, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

66

The Cost 2007 Giclee Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

67

Having been a teacher at University, Tafe, Secondary and Primary School levels I have always worked collaboratively with young people. More recently, having also played the role of a parent, my work has evolved into a critique of current tendencies in society that I perceive as a threat to the healthy development of children. The worrying slide towards totalitarian governments worldwide has become

fuel for a new series of artworks titled Who’s Watching Who Watch Who. These works focus on the new trend of live video streaming on public social network websites but also reference the increasing tendency of governments to

public and private surveillance of our lives, recently exampled by the incredulous arrest of a pyjama clad pregnant young woman in her home, for posting a Selfie Love Me, 2017, Giclee. Neil Howe.

comment about a protest march on her Facebook page.

Issue 39 - November 2020

68

After School, 2017, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

69

While that event was during the CoVid lockdown in Victoria, I also have concerns that children as young as six are being given unsupervised access to smart phones with live video streaming capabilities by doting parents. While in the most part this leads to innocent documents of dance and play in lounge rooms and bedrooms as seen on Apps like TikTok and Likee, there is much more to be concerned about apart from high EMF exposure, which is exampled in the work After School, Selfie Love Me and The Narcissist.

Psychologically this open and easy access to the internet is gendering new levels of voyeurism and narcissism previously only seen in older adolescents. Very young children are playing out role models as

they see in the mass media because social media apps reward them for the number of likes they get.

During the recent virus pandemic lockdowns, live streaming and zoom conferencing exploded exponentially replacing our normal daily social contacts at work and at school. This is a massive social engineering experiment that has worrying consequences for the future.

Social isolation and people programmed to wear masks have led to the development of an App that superimposes a digital mask over the face of the broadcaster. Corona Daze is a deliberately haunting work with a Mona Lisa like gaze that reflects the loneliness of a teenager in her bedroom communicating with her

peers via her phone .

Issue 39 - November 2020

70

Corona Daze, 2020, Giclee. Neil Howe.

The Narcissist, 2020, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

71

As our technocratic society evolves it also exposes its dark underbelly to search engines like duckduckgo.

In Juvie, Julian, An Inconvenient Truth, Red Sock in the Wash, New School, Block Kids and The Tunnel are works, among a hundred others, that reflect aspects of our society that many people find difficult to contemplate, like the work of respected friend George Gittoes exposing the horror of wars. I remember a comment I heard from a couple viewing Children Overboard at an art auction called Bid For Freedom held by the Brigadine nuns to raise funds for the refugee detainees in Australia. They loved the artwork but felt the truth of the subject matter was too dark and unsettling to hang on their lounge room wall. Prime Minister

Howard lied to the public that boat refugees were throwing their children overboard to be rescued by the Australian Navy, this was to turn public sympathy away from refugees seeking asylum in Australia. In these unsettling polarizing times where ever-more public revelations expose the ugliness of the world, it also exposes the love and beauty that I also seek to show. Pool and Just Hanging are playful works while Gassed, Don’t Frack and The Last Protestor document how a rural community came together in love and harmony to stand down a mining company and the government when threatened by coal seam gas mining.

Once There Were Trees of course acknowledges climate change.

Page 73: Top: Julian, 2016, Giclee. Bottom: Red Sock in the Wash, 2019, Giclee. Right: In Juvie, 2016, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

72

Issue 39 - November 2020

73

An Inconvenient Truth, 2017, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Block Kids, 2020, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

74

Gassed, 2014, Giclee. Neil Howe.

The Last Protestor, 2014, Giclee.

Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

75

The Tunnel, 2020, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

76

Don’t Frack, 2014, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Just Hanging, 2016, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

77

My artwork borrows from the social realists of the pre-war 1930’s, I document life as I see it in a time of immense change. Being both digital and political it has not seen favour with Australian and American critics, curators and public galleries, but in Europe I find a large audience who embrace content that encourages contemplation and debate. As an artist

I seek truth and beauty in my art as I perceive it, I don’t make pretty pictures, if it offends you then that is your problem not mine, everyone sees with a different eye and a different mind. Therein lies the value of art.

- Neil Howe Š 2020.

Right: Pool, 2014, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

78

Website: https://neilbs.wixsite.com/neil-howe

Video artworks: https://vimeo.com/user4513931 When I Grow Up: https://vimeo.com/14257134 Conspiracy: https://vimeo.com/51418690

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Neil Howe © 2020.

Right: Once There Were Trees, 2015, Giclee. Neil Howe.

Issue 39 - November 2020

79

B R A D

& with tide my only companion! how many years have passed since I rowed that dinghy

out into the harbour, set the oars idle & with tide my only companion! lay down in the tiny belly where, eyes closed,

E V A N S

to an open sky, amidst an absence of gulls a presence of water lapping against the side of that dinghy my then young heart a fond stranger to a mid-life me.

Issue 39 - November 2020

80

B R A D E V A N S

durian

they lay like broken dreams

I saw them for sale

balding and almost yellow

at a Thai Festival

from jaundice or neglect.

amongst ’ladyboys’ in wigs -

at £55 ea.

warming it up

they remained there -

on the stage

on tour & unliberated sun-aged exotics

their puffed out bellies

drying in boxes.

wobbling to the sound of music

I resisted the urge

of a strange western

to cut one open and run,

selection…

risk the wrath of the crowd to let the flies finally feast in summer heat.

Issue 39 - November 2020

81

Edward Milan

Issue 39 - November 2020

82

EDWARD MILAN Edward Milan grew up in and around Newcastle NSW and studied Visual Arts at the University of Newcastle.

He currently lives in Newcastle, making and exhibiting art and teaching at the TAFE Newcastle Art School.

Page 82: Something for someone who has everything , mixed media, 18 X 20 X 8 cm. Edward Milan 2019.

Right: Buoy, mixed media, 180 X 45 X 45 cm.

Edward Milan 1998.

Issue 39 - November 2020

83

Learning to Speak, maquette painted wood, 10 X 30 X 15 cm. Edward Milan 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

84

EDWARD MILAN - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin?

After finishing high school I was taught black and white photography and started drawing a bit and was encouraged to apply to go to art school, I completed a portfolio and secured a place in the BAVA course in 1983 at the Newcastle College of Advance Education. (which later became the University of Newcastle).

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

I wanted to act when l went through school and auditioned for NIDA and screen tested for a few movies before settling into my art studies.

Describe your work?

I make sculpture and 3D assemblage work that revolves around themes of joy, a longing for childhood, narratives of the sea, and ideas about displacement and uncertainty. I work with mostly reclaimed materials and craft my work with my hands.

Issue 39 - November 2020

85

What is the philosophy behind your work?

“My art work comes from an obsession of making things by hand and referencing the everyday, the commonplace, not the high tech manufactured cool, this is the raw, the hands on, the gritty world of making things that talk about the who, the how and the why of us. It’s a thing that is here, it has arrived and it’s in

front of you. For some, value and worth come from these things; ideas, poetry and imagination. “

Do you have a set method / routine of working?

By drawing, cutting, painting and assembling materials, I produce sculptural assemblages from a range of recycled materials often using hand drawn templates to produce multiple images and motifs. I use a similar method for making small scale sculptures, although I also incorporate more involved processes like modelling and casting into the works.

Why do you choose this material / medium to work with?

I like working directly with materials, I like to “get my hands dirty”. By working in this way, I can achieve aesthetic outcomes that appeal to me.

Page 87: Box of Ships, painted wood, 20 X 20 X 20 cm. Edward Milan 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

86

Issue 39 - November 2020

87

How important is drawing as an element to your artwork?

Drawing helps me get my ideas out of my head and to come up with ideas.

What inspires your work / creations?

I think I am inspired by what I see around me, by a desire to express the joy of living, listening to music, reading books, most recently the words of writer Howard Jacobson, “Grappling with what is not straightforward”.

What have been the major influences on your work?

I guess I am self-driven, living in a coastal city with a horizon full of ships.

What are some of your favourite artworks and artists?

Artists like Jean Tinguely, David Smith and Julio Gonzalez influenced my early work, and now the work of Martin Kippenberger, Christo and Eduardo Paolozzi feed my aesthetic.

Any particular style or period that appeals?

Late 50’s early 60’s.

Issue 39 - November 2020

88

Kingmaker Mixed media 80 X 80 X 12 cm.

Edward Milan 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

89

What are the challenges in becoming an exhibiting artist?

For me, exhibiting artwork is a way to speak about the who, why, where of me and let others have an insight into another way of thinking. With that comes a certain amount of risk, there

will always be criticism, positive and negative, and there’s no accounting for taste. I exhibit for myself and enter a lot of prizes, so not being selected is part of the territory. Some things make you grow stronger and help you keep your resolve.

Think Engine, mixed media, 210 X100 X 175 cm. Edward Milan 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

90

Name your greatest achievement, exhibitions?

Working collaboratively with Minnie Heath on the Hannell Street Gateway project in 1996 was a highlight of my artistic career. The opportunity to learn how the indigenous people lived

and to be a part of the celebration of that was great. Also, the opportunity to create the Ghostship at Hillview in 2018

was

another

highlight:

the

curators of that exhibition trusted and

allowed me to play in their park and create a monumental sculpture.

Big fun.

Bridge detail, Hannell Street Gateway, collaboration with Minnie Heath. 1996.

Issue 39 - November 2020

91

How has the COVID 19 Virus affected your art practise?

The Covid 19 shutdown allowed me time to make an exhibition, I had to postpone a show from June to

late August, so it wasn’t too bad. I was able to spend quite a lot of time in my workshop.

What are you working on at present?

All the Time in the World, mixed media, 150 X 150 cm. Edward Milan 2018.

I am currently completing an artwork to enter in the Blake Prize and completing a sculpture for the Sculpture in the Vines exhibition in late October. I am working on a solo exhibition for late 2021 in

Newcastle and have been asked to participate in a collaborative project with a group of Newcastle based artists to be exhibited at Newcastle Art Gallery, that should see the light of day in 2023/24.

- Edward Milan Š 2020.

Ghostship, Wollimbi, mixed media, 1200 x 240 x 450 cm. Edward Milan.

Issue 39 - November 2020

92

Ghostship, Hillview Sculpture, mixed media, 1450 x 240 x 480 cm. Edward Milan 2018.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Edward Milan Š 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

93

M A

G G I

E H

An Island in the Moon

Visionary aesthetic, an undisclosed faith The farmer bends light night and day, song to voice

Requiem . aeternam

Water spirits torrent forgiveness, bridges border race

A

Mythical spirits guide humanities, experience

L

Luceat . eis

L Issue 39 - November 2020

94

Colours of a word integrating footnotes, Indigenous memory proposed remains, rhymes of an ancient State Counting in time, belief proliferates Founding ways while notions question, unknown pseudonyms desired fate

Benedictus Tired eyes reflect murals, of a forgotten dream.

The poet’s masterpiece Reformed renaissance Confiding innocence Notes of a penned State

Deus . Sabaoth Issue 39 - November 2020

95

Revolutions time, the red dragon sings Passing snakes restore fate

Covenant writings carve generations, a memoirs painted philosophy, philosotates

Exaudi . orationem . meam

In-between each dancing divine, hidden theories preach as movements divide A spear tainted with blood, anointed by oil. This cup

of wine . red to white .

Dona . Nobis . pacem

Issue 39 - November 2020

96

Everlasting ekphrastic prayer, orating epochs colour of solace

The yester-harvest seeds contemplation, A crossroad stations the ever-quest

through this adorned dream . . .

Grace

- Maggie Hall Š 2020.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Maggie Hall Š 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

97

RANDY FOCAZIO

Issue 39 - November 2020

98

RANDY FOCAZIO Randy Focazio is a contemporary

artist

and actor based in Los Angeles, USA. Focazio grew up in Boca Raton, Florida.

He is mainly a self taught artist and has attended the Art Centre School of Design in Pasadena, where he studied filmmaking.

Known for his surrealist, dark and cerebral art works ‘I like to paint things that are not there.’

Page 98: Birth of the Universe, oil / collage, Randy Focazio 2010.

Right: The Witches, oil, Randy Focazio 2009.

Issue 39 - November 2020

99

Teeth Oil Randy Focazio 2015.

Issue 39 - November 2020

100

RANDY FOCAZIO - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin?

I was scribbling on dressers as far back as a toddler and when I was supposed to be doing maths in school scribbling

on papers so basically for a long time. My mother was a nude model and I remember going with her and being out in a little side room and given paint by the artists as she sat , maybe that's where it all began I'm not entirely sure.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

I think you just are or aren't ....meaning you are born that way. But yes it was always in my mind’s eye. There's an old Scorsese short I use to watch "Life Lessons" from the New York stories film with Nick Nolte as a famous painter I was enamoured with. "I want to be like him" I thought! A famous artist. I loved comics when I was young ( still do) then I discovered fine art and how art could be more so began I devouring art books.

Untitled, oil, Randy Focazio 2009.

Issue 39 - November 2020

101

Describe your work?

Probably the hardest question to ask an artist ….. it would be categorized as psychedelic or surreal I guess.

I hate using clinical art theory terms like lexicon of images. It's really just my inner mind and whatever is coming out.

There’s a lot psychosexual stuff going on of course but a lot of it like some of the more abstract landscapes might be an internal memory of the Everglades (which I grew up around) and an illustration of that primordial energy or feeling of it.

When I'm making something I don't necessarily have an idea of what it is, it's just coming out. I'm usually more interested in what other people think it is. The more

abstract

designs are no different than Buddhist Sanskrit or aboriginal line

paintings. It's the beautiful unconsciousness of being in the moment and whatever energy an artist taps into. My work varies so it’s

difficult to

describe in one lump statement because there's a lot going on in different pieces that aren't

necessarily the same as another. I'd have to sit down with specific pieces and explain them or what I was trying to do. I like to create a thin narrative in my work , one that asks more questions than gives answers though. In many of my pieces I'm trying to break the Brechtian wall of the framing or the perceived way a piece should be framed. In general I am interested in the abject as well the phantasmagorical.

I've been doing these very visceral organic landscapes for a while now and I'm still not entirely sure what they are except it's coming from somewhere ... they are sort of like Tanguy landscapes in that there's no real definable or recognizable image but you know there is on that subconscious level when you look at it. They're very alive .... it's to me that indecipher-

able energy behind the every day, it's there lurking and you can catch it in a drawing it’s like a lingering dream that stays with us they convey some hidden meaning or feeling.

What is the philosophy behind your work?

Metaphysical.

Issue 39 - November 2020

102

Anthropomorphic landscape #1, oil, Randy Focazio 2016.

Landscape, Oil, Randy Focazio 2014.

Issue 39 - November 2020

103

Do you have a set method / routine of working?

I don't have a specific routine or method or working but if there is one it involves a lot of coffee and

staying up till late hours working on stuff while watching movies. Movies or TV shows in the back helps me concentrate once I get going on something and in some way becomes part of them.

Why do you choose this material / medium to work with?

There's nothing like oil paint its magic, but I love doing digital work as well. I love scanning something I painted or putting a drawing into an art app and manipulating it or making strictly digital works from Photoshop. Today here are no limits and one specific medium is not necessary.

Right: Untitled, pen & ink on paper, Randy Focazio 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

104

How important is drawing as an element to your artwork?

Drawing is extremely important it's the basis of any project or idea. I'm a born doodler. "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" is a great book. A lot of my work is done by the automatic drawing process and it's just amazing. I can be on the phone talking about something trivial like paying a bill while my

pen is just moving along. Five minutes later these images have just popped out of you and it's just amazing because

composition wise it can be

perfect and you are thinking I couldn't

have

consciously done this how did I place everything so perfect. It not always like that but a lot of the time it is.

Right: Spiral, pen & ink on paper, Randy Focazio 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

105

The Masturbator, Oil ( first oil painting), Randy Focazio 1999.

Issue 39 - November 2020

106

The Bardo, oil, Randy Focazio 2012.

Issue 39 - November 2020

107

What inspires your work / creations?

I'm a romantic so I believe I'm attuned to something mystical and on some level receiving visions. I grew up behind the Everglades and was aware of an underlining energy it permeated I could see with my mind’s eye. I can still remember a dream I had of a spectral alligator coming through my sliding glass door. That

inspiration or energy is everywhere

maybe more concentrated in some areas. I spent some time at a cafe in Los Angeles when first moving there which had a strange dark energy I was in tune to which fed my work.

Right: Untitled Landscape, oil on wood, Randy Focazio 2016.

Issue 39 - November 2020

108

What have been the major influences on your work?

Well everything and anything can be an influence as they say even stuff you might not notice on a conscious level. I'd say dreams I have a very deep dream world when I sleep and I tend to remember heavy fragments. The exterior of life not matching up to a desired one... so the interior needs to make one I guess? Nature and books are influences. I'm fascinat-

ed by twisting vines and thorns. I love getting in real close with a camera and capturing that world beneath ours. I was heavily influenced by William Burroughs cut up writing techniques especially "The Soft Machine." The writing induces a sort of literal LSD and creates pictures in the mind. It’s kind of like magic on some sort of level. I created my own cut up book after rereading his stuff so much. Art begets art. Any form of surrealism has inspired me as it makes sense to me.

Right: Landscape, oil, Randy Focazio 2017.

Issue 39 - November 2020

109

What are some of your favourite artworks and artists?

David Bowie , Ernst, William Burroughs, Dali, David Lynch ,Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, Escher, Ives Tanguy, Hieronymus Bosch, H.R. Giger. Composition wise Bosch is a huge influence and I love "Garden of Delights." I think many of my paintings could be landscapes of hell or some netherworld. My mother read me Dr. Seuss when I was a kid so I know his work ( staircases going nowhere) imprinted on me . I love the films and art of David Lynch. He feels no need to explain the work, he makes people take it in on an unconscious level. I’m a huge cinephile love Mario Bava. Cronenberg and the Mad Max films. Somewhere in my mind I'm a cross between Eastwood's man with no name and the Road Warrior, ha. Influences can be troubling because for the longest time you are copying them or their style. It really takes a while to get your own voice.

Any particular style or period that appeals?

Surrealism as mentioned, Dadaism, German expressionism , I love abstract expressionism to. I've done just about Lilith Expulsion from Eden, oil, Randy Focazio 2010.

every style at this point and or mixed them up.

Issue 39 - November 2020

110

The oracle, digital collage, Randy Focazio 2010.

Issue 39 - November 2020

111

What are the challenges in becoming an exhibiting artist?

Well it's usually based on academia and going to the right schools. That's not the only way, the other is basically getting your work seen by the right person to take you to that not level.

Name your greatest achievement, exhibitions?

I'm not sure if had mine yet. I recently sold a piece in a group show I'm hoping he'll become a collector at some point or someone sees that piece and wants one.

How has the COVID 19 Virus affected your art practise?

Creatively it hasn't I'm fine with staying in and isolating.

I'm not doing anything much different I haven't been doing. My output has actually been great but the annoyance is when your computer breaks down and the Apple Store near you isn't open.

Untitled, digital collage, Randy Focazio 2010.

Issue 39 - November 2020

112

The Hierophant, Digital / sculpture, Randy Focazio 2015.

Issue 39 - November 2020

113

The Magicians Oil on paper Randy Focazio 2017.

Issue 39 - November 2020

114

Daemon Oil Randy Focazio 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

115

What are you working on at present?

We'll I'm out

of town so basically just drawings for

whatever I decide will be the next big piece I do. I've got so many drawings it's hard to make up my mind. I really want to make large works now. I’ve also been painting on tables which is fun because it's a little different than hanging something on a wall. I think that can sell better.

What do you hope viewers of your art works will feel and take with them?

A feeling. Even if you hate it that's something ... if it bothers you so much you have to comment about it is great it means you forced someone to be uncomforta-

ble. I got that with quite a few pieces when I was in school. Mind you I don't just want negativity attached to the experience. I want people to love it but I want them to walk away as if they've maybe seen themselves in a piece or say it gave me a feeling. I've had a few that have done that to people.

Oil painting on table, Randy Focazio 2019/2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

116

Untitled, pen & ink, Randy Focazio 2010.

Untitled, pen and ink on paper, Randy Focazio 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

117

Untitled, oil, Randy Focazio 2019.

Venus in the Land of Milk and Decay, oil, Randy Focazio 2009.

Issue 39 - November 2020

118

Your future aspirations with your art?

To be on everyone's wall ... how great would that be. I want to inspire adolescent minds to make art the way Giger did for me.

Forthcoming exhibitions?

We'll I was going to be in this gallery on the island of Ischia but then Covid hit so right now it's just your magazine.

- Randy Focazio Š 2020.

https://www.instagram.com/rfocazio/?hl=en https://www.flickr.com/photos/13213364@N06/

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Randy Focazio Š 2020.

Self Portrait, by Randy Focazio 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

119

3 P O E M S

M A

G G I

E H

A L L Issue 39 - November 2020

120

Whispers of tylanolic paper Clean this filthy mind I stick my finger up your ass Written fallacies fade into yesterday’s milk The ocean salt air that dissolves time An antique moment that breaks like shattered glass Your putrid lies make my eyes burn Lost years for memories sake The next promise, a lie like the last you made

Burnt Issue 39 - November 2020

121

M A

G G I

E H

A L L Issue 39 - November 2020

122

I have decided there is no evil I have decided there never was

I have decided the word is misinterpreted

I have decided the letters sound Vile

I have decided this because I am woman I have decided this because I am the Vial

I am the Vial that held the wine who gave blood to each believer

I am the Vial to heal the lips who gives her body to drink

I am the body that touched the moon

Rune Issue 39 - November 2020

123

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Maggie Hall Š 2020

M A

G

G I

E

H

A L

L

Issue 39 - November 2020 124

A dance of riddles play by my bed

Back to University

Repeating bird in my head

A campus awaits

Words

This breath First Class

Rhymes scream in wakeful nights

Next offence

Sunrise

Pooling tickets The aftermath

Get up Get dressed

Citizen Cain

Brush teeth

Second Class

Grab bag Don’t forget the keys !

The orator speaks without words The speaker orates without verse

Drive daughter to school

The listener listens without recourse

Drop off Third Class The 40 Zone !

Honours

Pass

Issue 39 - November 2020

125

Gaia Maria Walicka

Issue 39 - November 2020

126

Gaia Maria Walicka Gaia Maria Walicka is an interdisciplinary artist practicing primarily in jewellery as well as media

including video and performance. With a background in theatre, she studied Visual Arts at CAE, Melbourne, prior to completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silvers mithing) at RMIT, Melbourne in 2019. Her graduate work was selected to be a part

of the Fresh 2020 exhibition, at the gallery Craft Victoria, Melbourne. She was also the recipient of the 2020 Future Leaders Award. Her practice investigates the entanglement of the body with technology,

and

considers

the

themes

of

contemporary bodies, identity and the in-between.

Her work is an ongoing research into the relationship between self and world.

Page 126: Mechanisms of Self-Awareness, dimensions variable, Gaia Maria Walicka 2018.

Dispersion, ring, sterling silver, Brazilian aquamarine, pearls, glass beads,

75 x 67 x 66 mm. Gaia Maria Walicka 2019. Photograph courtesy of Andrew Barchem.

Issue 39 - November 2020

127

Metamorphosis, brooch series electroformed copper mesh sterling silver stainless steel, 78 x 81 x 30 mm. Gaia Maria Walicka 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

128

GAIA MARIA WALICKA - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin?

From a really young age my mother encouraged me to pursue many creative endeavours like dance, visual arts and the performing arts. During my adolescence I became passionately consumed with dark room photography. In 2008 I studied theatre in Barcelona and later Visual Arts at TAFE before completing my Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT in 2019. My artistic passion has evolved throughout my life, and these experiences have contributed to my studio approach and practice.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

I always wanted to pursue some kind of creative profession and throughout my life I always needed some kind of creative medium as an expressive outlet. Through out my childhood and early life I considered many different creative paths some of these included architecture, painting, photography, dance and fashion design. I feel like now I landed somewhere in the middle of all these things.

Describe your work?

I primarily make jewellery objects; however, my work is interdisciplinary. I have an expanded practice and use the interplay between a variety of other mediums such as performance, video, and photography to explore my ideas and concepts. The materials and techniques that I use to make my jewellery and objects varies depending on the ideas and concepts I am exploring in my work. However, the primary materials I have been worked with until now have been precious metals such as sterling silver, copper and brass.

Issue 39 - November 2020

129

What is the philosophy behind your work?

My work investigates the nature of contemporary bodies, identity and the in between. It explores our entanglement with new technologies, how they have reconstructed our bodies and changed our perception of self. My work challenges dual ways of thinking in order to create new identities and a more hybrid interconnected sense of self. In my work I explore contemporary bodies, and challenge the dualities between inside and outside, mind and body, human and technology, and technology and nature. I am interested in investigating the relationship between the body and the jewellery object exploring the body as a collaborator or a material. I explore the boundaries and interplay between external and internal worlds through investigating how the art objects choreograph the body. My practice is an ongoing investigation between the relationship between self and world.

Do you have a set method / routine of working?

To create a new body of work I will usually start with research into my concept. However, I am always reading, learning and looking at the world around me. Therefore, this constant feed of information as well as my current experiences will always influence and tie into the work I am making at any point in the process, whether intentionally or sometimes more subconsciously. In this way, there is a constant flow back and forth. Every work comes together a little bit differently. There are times I might pickup a direction that I left off in previous works, or revisit past unfinished or unexplored ideas.

Sometimes the experimentation with a process or material can inspire the beginning of a work. I only use a more methodological set approach as a starting point when ideas and inspiration isn’t flowing.

Issue 39 - November 2020

130

Why do you choose this material / medium to work with?

Initially, I studied the broader visual arts, drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking and then for my first year of university I majored in painting and video. My first introduction to jewellery was through a casting elective through which I was captivated by its history, meaning and dialogue. Jewellery is one of the most ancient art forms, people wore jewellery before they wore clothes. Historically it is a ritual object, marking one’s identity, rites of passage and connection to the spiritual world as well as a connection to network of people, places and ancestors. Jewellery is so directly connected with the body, therefore it was a very appropriate medium to use for exploring the relationship with the body as well as identity.

I also love that jewellery sits between the fine arts, fashion and design disciplines, and even alchemy, it means I can go in many different directions with it. In my practice I explore the body as a collaborator or a material. My interest in the body and performance comes from studying theatre and yoga, and my love for dance. I have an interdisciplinary practice which is now very common within contemporary arts as well as other creative fields, I find this way of practicing really exciting and

it opens up a lot of possibilities.

How important is drawing as an element to your artwork?

I use some drawing in the development of my work, but it is definitely not central in my practice. Occasionally, I will need to make some technical drawings to work out how to construct the work. I love life drawing classes, I find them meditative and

although there is no direct link to my practice, it can assist me in creating a deeper understanding of the body.

What inspires your work / creations?

My inspiration for creating my works are sometimes small things in my surroundings and other times bigger existential themes. A few of my inspirations include the human body, nature, metamorphosis processes within nature, science fiction and history.

Issue 39 - November 2020

131

N E T W

O R K E

D B O

D I E S Networked Bodies , 2019, archival inkjet print on canson platine fibre rag, 130 x 197 mm. Directed by Gaia Maria Walicka. Photography Tomer Domb.

Issue 39 - November 2020

132

Networked Bodies, 2019, archival inkjet print on canson platine fibre rag, 130 x 197 mm. Directed by Gaia Maria Walicka. Photography Tomer Domb.

Issue 39 - November 2020

133

Networked Bodies, 2019, archival inkjet print on canson platine fibre rag, 130 x 197 mm. Directed by Gaia Maria Walicka. Photography Tomer Domb.

Issue 39 - November 2020

134

Networked Bodies, 2019, archival inkjet print on canson platine fibre rag, 130 x 197 mm. Directed by Gaia Maria Walicka. Photography Tomer Domb.

Issue 39 - November 2020

135

Networked Bodies, 2019, archival inkjet print on canson platine fibre rag, 130 x 197 mm. Directed by Gaia Maria Walicka. Photography Tomer Domb.

Issue 39 - November 2020

136

Networked Bodies, 2019, archival inkjet print on canson platine fibre rag, 130 x 197 mm.

Directed by Gaia Maria Walicka. Photography Tomer Domb.

Issue 39 - November 2020

137

Networked Bodies, 2019, Film Still, single channel video.

Issue 39 - November 2020

138

What have been the major influences on your work?

Dance and its relationship with the body has significantly influenced my work, including the Butoh dance training I did in theatre school and the work of choreographers such as Wayne McGregor and Sasha Waltz. Fashion is another major influence on my work, especially the work of more avant-garde designers. Spirituality has always been a really part of my life and is inevitably influenced my work. I have recently been drawn to the philosophy of Jungian psychology, I explore some of these ideas in my work. In my art practice I explore, process and interpret my experiences and the world around me. My curiosity often draws me to explore things that I don’t understand or that repel me but at the same time I am drawn to, I believe this a way to process and integrate these into my experience.

What are some of your favourite artworks and artists?

This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many and my inspiration comes from such a broad range of artists from many different disciplines. If I had to name a few Olafur Eliasson, Bill Viola, Rebecca Horn, Lucy McCrae, Gijs Bakker, Naomi Filmer, Anish Kapoor, James Turell and Louise Borgeois.

Any particular style or period that appeals?

I love Surrealism and Minimalism and how these movements really shifted the way the we experience and perceive art.

What are the challenges in becoming an exhibiting artist?

It is difficult to put your work out into the world, but at the same time it always feels really rewarding to achieve this. Each time I learn something really valuable and how I could do it differently the next time. Every time I put work out there, whether through an application or an exhibition, I believe is an achievement in itself, and that is my focus.

Issue 39 - November 2020

139

How has the COVID 19 Virus affected your art practise?

COVID 19 has had a big impact on my practice. I was supposed to travel to Europe and Israel and do an artist residency in Barcelona this year. Melbourne has also been in a long strict lockdown, which means all the galleries have been closed, I have had to work from home, it has been a very challenging time here. However, this time has given me the opportunity to research and further reflect on my work, but I have been missing exhibitions and libraries a lot.

What are you working on at present?

A new body of work that expands on notions of choreography. Through my investigation of choreography, I am exploring the relationship between space, body and time. I am continuing to explore how the jewellery object choreographs the body, and the relationship between the object and the body and interplay between internal and external world. In extension, I am considering the way the art objects choreograph the body of the viewer within an exhibition space, in the reception of the work. Also I am working on a video installation collaboration with another artist, Kathleen Harvey. We are exploring ideas of identity and embodiment, challenging the dualities between material and digital worlds.

What do you hope viewers of your art works will feel and take with them?

I hope it inspires curiosity and encourages the viewer to question the way they look at the world around them. I hope with another way of looking at the world, a more integrated and whole perspective as opposed to a dual standpoint, there could be more hope for the future. I believe if we see everything as an extension of ourselves rather then separate, including the things that make us uncomfortable, it may inspire us take responsibility for the way we live in this world. In saying this, ultimately it is between the viewer and the artwork. I would like the viewer to have their own experience and the connection with the work.

Issue 39 - November 2020

140

Networked Bodies, sterling silver, dimensions variable. Gaia Maria Walicka 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

141

SKIN SERIES

Skin Series, paper, 16 x 23 x 45 mm. 23 x 27 x 46 mm. Gaia Maria Walicka 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

142

Skin Series, brass wire, fabric 27.5 x 35 x 67 mm. 26 x 37 x 65 mm. 22 x 24 x 58 mm. Gaia Maria Walicka 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

143

Untitled, neckpiece, enamelled copper and sterling silver, dimensions variable. Gaia Maria Walikca 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

144

Your future aspirations with your art?

I would like to do more international residencies. I would also like to collaborate with other disciplines. I am currently in dialogue with someone in the realm of science and engineering, about the possibility of using science and technology processes to create or grow materials. I am interested in integrating science, technologies and processes within nature, to explore future materials and processes that work more harmoniously with the planet. In this way, interweaving processes between nature and technology and challenging the duality between them. I am interested in creating less separation between disciplines, rather find a way they can work together to open up new possibilities.

Forthcoming exhibitions? Yes, I am in the process of applying for exhibitions for 2021. COVID has meant that galleries in Melbourne have been closed which has set back the exhibition programs for the next year.

- Gaia Maria Walicka 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

145

Networked Bodies Install images, Gaia Maria Walicka, Craft Victoria Gallery, Photographs Michael Pham.

Issue 39 - November 2020

146

Networked Bodies, 2019, install photograph, Craft Victoria Gallery.

https://www.gaiawalicka.com/ All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Gaia Maria Walicka Š 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

147

A N K A W H A T Issue 39 - November 2020

148

ANKA WHAT Contemporary artist Anka What is presently based in Nelson Bay, Newcastle, NSW. What has widely travelled the world and lived in many different countries over the years.

From 1978 – 1980 What was involved with Stage Design for the experimental theatre group ‘Remont’, Warsaw Poland.

Later 1983 – 1988 she studied Painting and Printmaking at North Adelaide School of Art and in 2002 studied Animation and Multimedia in Sydney.

From 2015 to 2020 travelling extensively through Asia, where Japan became a focal destination and her discovery, obsession with Bunraku Puppetry.

Her work has been represented in many exhibitions and galleries in Newcastle, Sydney and nationally in Australia.

Page 148: Umbrella Tree, acrylic on canvas,

H100 x W120 cm. Anka What.

Before Typhoon, acrylic, gouache, enamel on canvas, H60 x W60 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

149

Somewhere Home, acrylic on canvas, H60 x W 122 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

150

ANKA WHAT - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin?

When I was a child.

I remember creating an ‘illustrated book’ at the age of about 5. It was all about cats.

Gender specific. Girl Cats would wear skirts and Boy Cats sported shorts.

They all wore watches for some reason. Adventures at the Playground, in various gardens and at my mother’s kitchen.

I produced endless pages of that. Hooked for life. Sometimes cats create your destiny.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

I guess so.

I was always drawing and making things.

There was very little encouragement when I was growing up, due to the culture I was born into. I was supposed to marry a rich man. LOL I got lost in Art instead. An act of rebellion perhaps?

Issue 39 - November 2020

151

Describe your work?

This is a hard one.

I think that your work evolves correspondingly to your age and life experience.

I am a Painter and Printmaker. My style varies according to the mediums I use.

In the past, my work was all about human body and sex. Lots of it.

Flattering associations with Tolouse Loutrec and Egon Schiele were often used to describe my work.

However, we grow older, life changes and so does creative output.

My work is more pensive now.

Hidden messages and discrete commentary about ‘life and everything’ prevail.

What is the philosophy behind your work?

My work has always been autobiographical.

It is kind of journal of my life. I tend to illustrate my thoughts and often dreams. Events.

Not intentionally, this is how my brain operates.

Actually, I really do not like the idea of having to explain my work. My statement is out there – on canvass or paper. Out to personal interpretation of the viewer. Sometimes people see things in my images that I have not even intended. That gives me fresh perception of my soul.

Page 153: Parts of My Brain, acrylic on canvas, H120 x W 180 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

152

Issue 39 - November 2020

153

Do you have a set method / routine of working?

No, I do not.

Sometimes I feel numb and do nothing but thinking for days.

As opposed to bursts of energy and urge to create. I can paint for 24 hours at the time; little nap and starting again. There is no explanation of madness.

Why do you choose this material / medium to work with?

I work in many mediums.

It can be acrylics on canvas, gouache on paper or simple ink drawing.

Etching, Monotype or Lithograph. I also paint on stones. It all depends of what I feel at the time and the best way to translate it.

How important is drawing as an element to your artwork?

Very important.

I cannot stress it enough. If you cannot draw – there is nowhere to go, unless you cheat.

When I was accepted to the Art School (so exciting! Considering I could hardly speak English then) I expected to spend lots of my time learning how to draw properly.

To my disappointment, we were encouraged to take photos instead. Because we could.

Drawing was considered unnecessary. I was shocked by that approach.

I don’t think you can go abstract if you don’t learn how to draw first.

Issue 39 - November 2020

154

Nightmare Acrylic on canvas H76 x W66 cm.

Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

155

What inspires your work / creations?

My life and dreams.

What are some of your favourite artworks and artists?

F. Hundertwasser is my Guru. I adore his lack of conformism. This is a man who spent ONE day at prestigious Ecole des Beaux – Arts in Paris and quit due to disappointment of being forced to follow the rules. Totally self-educated, he went on to create unique architectural statements all over the globe. Not to mention his 2-D works.

I can make a long list of artists and styles here, but I believe that being a creative person, one soaks in the influences on daily basis. One day Hokusai blows your mind, day after you remember Chagall. Influences are endless if you keep your mind open.

Any particular style or period that appeals?

Japanese Edo Period and European Art Deco. Yes, there is a strong connection if you think about it.

What are the challenges in becoming an exhibiting artist?

PLS, do not get me started.

I can write a never-ending essay about it.

It is a brutal, nepotistic world and I advise everybody who reads it to become an Accountant. LOL Issue 39 - November 2020

156

Curse I and Curse II, gouache and ink on paper, H28 x W21 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

157

Name your greatest achievement, exhibitions?

Frankly, my biggest achievement/challenge was being accepted to the Art School.

Two years after I immigrated to this country with no English language skills.

Competition was fierce; there was no way for me to ‘talk myself’ into acceptance, therefore I got in purely on the merit of my work. Creative life followed.

How has the COVID 19 Virus affected your art practise?

This is a weird one.

I have become very pensive and retrospective. I know that many other people did the same.

I started creating handmade, illustrated books. Just like those Cat Stories when I was a kid.

This time, it was no playground tales – I am dwelling on my

past and drawing it.

Those books are hand written, which is a joke as I type everything and lost my calligraphy skills. Nobody (but one special person) will ever see those creations before I die.

Then, I will get famous. Post mortem. LOL. Head #4, gouache and ink on paper, H28 x W21 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

158

What are you working on at present?

My own take on Bunraku Puppets.

Rapidly disappearing Japanese Art that has originated in Osaka in 17th. Century.

I wanted to learn how to make the actual Puppets while in Japan, but it is rather complicated. Man’s world.

They like to take a 13 years old apprentice boy and train him over the years to become a Master. Kids are not interested these days.

Being a middle-age, pink woman with basic Japanese language skills > I have no chance to be trained. No matter how enthusiastic and eager to learn I am.

Therefore, I decided to paint my versions instead.

For those who are not familiar – I am talking about Puppet Theatre.

No dialogue, the story lines are always over dramatic and usually end in death.

Just the way I like it.

Head #5, gouache and ink on paper, H28 x W21 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

159

Head #1, gouache and ink on paper, H28 x W21 cm. Anka What.

Head #3, gouache and ink on paper, H28 x W21 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

160

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is a world view centred on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.

The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.” It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法 印, sanbōin), specifically impermanence (無常, mujō),

suffering (苦, ku) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空, kū).

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.

Originating in Taoism during China's Song dynasty (960-1279) before being passed onto Zen Buddhism, wabi-sabi was originally seen as an austere, restrained form of appreciation.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful

piece of art. The kintsugi technique may have been invented around the fifteenth century, when Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate after breaking his favourite cup of tea sent it to China to get it repaired.

Head #6, gouache and ink on paper, H28 x W21 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

161

Sekimori-ishi, acrylic, gouache, enamel on canvas, H 60 x W 122 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

162

Sekimori-ishi Sekimori-ishi (boundary-guard stone) is used in Japanese zen or tea gardens, to guide visitors along a prescribed route.

According to the stories, Sekimori-ishi is related to the great tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591). The story goes that once Rikyu had invited a famous Zen priest, but before the guest arrived, Rikyu put a small pot in front of the door. With this, he silently tried to challenge his visitor to find a way in without crossing that symbolic barrier. … It is all crap.

What really happened was > the owners of overcrowded Tea Houses were too busy to send customers away.

In typical style (only in Japan) – they started placing stones wrapped in rope in front of the entrances.

The customers knew that the house was full and did not enter.

Only LATER, the Buddhist Temples adopted the symbolism that is still used today.

Having said that, it is a Kyoto thing and not even many Japanese are familiar with it.

I have visited an amazing Kosouji Temple in Kyoto couple of years ago.

The grounds are enormous, covered by pebbles and it is not permitted to wear shoes inside.

It is rather hard to walk on small stones.

Therefore, they installed shelves, that provide red slippers of various shapes and sizes.

The ignorant tourists like me can wear them while wondering around.

Of course, those slippers return mismatched and placed incorrectly. I found the randomness of it fascinating.

I also placed my Sekimori – ishi stone on one of the shelves.

As we – the Westerners misbehave, do not respect the tradition and they let us in to fund those spiritual places. Therefore, welcoming Slippers and NO ENTRY stone.

Issue 39 - November 2020

163

Sad Oni, acrylic, gouache on canvas, H 75 x W 100cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

164

SAD ONI. … Japan again.

I am not a religious person, but find Shinto tradition fascinating and inspiring.

This painting is the only ‘spiritual’ image I have created in my life.

Imagine walking down very busy road in Tokyo. There is a concrete Supermarket and Petrol Station next to it. It is fast and noisy all around you.

Then, you notice a little Torii squeezed between that concrete. You enter, and suddenly the calmness happens. There is no sound.

I have no idea how they do it – it is the same in China.

Anyway, ONI means Demon. Demons are not allowed inside Shinto Shrines.

Torii is that red or orange entrance to the Shinto Shrine.

Except, they only started painting them red last century – some kind of protection against termites (as the gates are made of wood).

Originally, they painted them white.

I had no idea when I was working on that image > my Japanese friend informed me about the fact, after looking at my painting.

My Demon sits on white bench that symbolizes that Gate to the Shrine. He is sad, as he cannot go in.

There is a large Bonsai tree inside (calmness/tranquillity) my demon is longing for.

The white thing my ONI wears on his head symbolises ENSO = another Shinto symbol for protection and wellbeing.

To his right is that Boundary Stone, that tells him that he is not welcome.

The white square on the top right is a Chinese thing. Buddhist origins.

They design modern buildings with large, empty spaces in them (holes actually) for Bad Spirits to exit.

It is also done in Japan, but not that often.

Issue 39 - November 2020

165

Insect, gouache and ink on paper, H15 x W15 cm. Anka What.

Pumpkins, gouache and ink on paper, H15 x W15 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

166

Mushrooms Gouache and ink on paper H 20 x W 14 cm.

Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

167

Sakura, gouache and ink on hand made rice paper, H18 x W12.5 cm.

Birds, gouache and ink on hand made rice paper, H20 x W13 cm.

Issue 39 - November 2020

168

What do you hope viewers of your art works will feel and take with them?

A piece of my soul.

Your future aspirations with your art?

My aim is to make people think gain.

Our attention span is getting shorter by day. I wish that my work could slow the pace down a bit. Something to contemplate. Goodness and fear.

Forthcoming exhibitions?

Open for offers.

- Anka What Š 2020.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Anka WhatŠ 2020.

Year of the Pig, gouache and ink on paper, H16 x W10 cm. Anka What.

Issue 39 - November 2020

169

EDMOND THOMMEN

Issue 39 - November 2020

170

EDMOND THOMMEN Swiss born photographic artist and designer living in Sydney.

Edmond Thommen describes himself first, and foremost, as a Photographic Artist.

For him the magic starts with the camera and his photographs.

The female figure forms the basis of his artworks.

“I have spent over 30 years as a professional graphic designer, which has helped me to achieve creative and intriguing works with my blended nude images”.

“To be unique in the art world involves an unflinching commitment to one’ own visual language.”

Issue 39 - November 2020

171

UNDER HER SKIN Photographic art has always been more than the image; it is a blending of a visual moment with the movement of the soul, the conveyance of emotion and the gentle awakening of the intent of the artist.

Blended Nudes takes Edmonds mastery of colour and form to create works that intertwine the charisma of the human form with the organic urban experience.

Subtle and thoughtful composition has resulted in works that have a unique playful personality. The use of blurred lines, soften edges and abstract concepts leave the viewer free to explore, imagine and form their own interpretation of the tones, textures and experience.

Edmond perfected this unique method originally by combining composited black and white negatives; today his own unique process sees digital technology image and editing technology pushed to their artistic limits to produce gallery quality expressions of Edmonds vision.

Issue 39 - November 2020

172

A metamorphosis of charismatic nudes and organic urban textures, ‘Under her skin’ (the title of the exhibition) creates fascinating blends of body shapes with naturally organic and manmade elements.

Allow yourself to discover the deep, complex world that Edmond has created. Bring yourself, your point of view, your baggage, to the art and it will reward you far more than any cursory appraisal could. You will not regret it.

Edmond’s images have received wide acclaim with his work acquired by astute collectors both in Australian and overseas.

- Stephen Pierce • updated by Edmond Thommen September 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

173

Exhibition ‘Under her skin’ blended by Edmond Thommen 18 November – 1 December 2020

@ M2 Gallery • 4/450 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 Sydney Opening hours: 11am – 7pm Saturday & Sunday 9.30am – 7pm

Issue 39 - November 2020

174

http://www.thommenart.com.au

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Edmond ThommenŠ 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

175

Sydney Old and New Issue 39 - November 2020

176

L O R R A

My overseas travel has been stopped by Covid-19. Due to border closures, visits to many states other than NSW, is also impossible. These difficult times have made me concentrate on my own city of Sydney. Art galleries and libraries are open,

so I have spent some time looking at the art they had to offer.

I

The State Library of NSW and the Art Gallery of NSW have

N

and the harbour. The paintings mainly feature the iconic

E

many early original artworks depicting Sydney street scenes scenes and buildings of the day, such as the Sydney GPO, the construction of the Sydney harbour bridge and the existence of Lady Macquarie’s chair. I photographed some of the early

F

paintings of Sydney and then walked around Sydney finding

I

them as close as possible to the scene today. I hope you

the area depicted by these paintings and then photographed

L

enjoy “Sydney Old and New”.

D

Much of the information about the artists and the paintings has

E

been taken from the plaques next to the paintings, provided by

S

the relevant institute.

Issue 39 - November 2020

177

Architect and Sculptor of the Anzac Memorial.

The Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park was officially opened in 1934. Sydney architect Charles Bruce Dellit won the design competition for the memorial, receiving a prize of ÂŁ250 in 1929. In collaboration with English artist and sculptor Rayner Hoff, Dellit created the elegant art deco style building.

Left: War Memorial

By Herbert Reginald Gallop c 1934 Oil on canvas Presented to the State Library of NSW by Mrs Gallop, 1973.

Born in 1890, artist Herbert Gallop first exhibited at the age of 17. He joined a commercial art studio after serving in World War 1 and took evening classes under Julian Ashton.

Issue 39 - November 2020

178

ANZAC MEMORIAL

Right: War Memorial Photo 2019, by Lorraine Fildes.

The War Memorial has stood the test of time. The main difference between the painting and the photo is the background where high rise buildings dominate the war memorial.

Issue 39 - November 2020

179

Macquarie Street, Sydney

By Frances Payne c 1916-35 Oil on canvas – acquired 2016 State Library of NSW.

Brisbane-born Frances (Frankie) Payne was one of the highest-paid women illustrators of her day and a prominent member of the Society of Women Painters.

This painting depicts three terrace buildings, which formed part of the Horbury Terrace, in Macquarie Street opposite the State Library.

These terraces were some of the most desirable residences in the colony during the 1840s. The building on the far left is Wyoming, built in 1911,

on the corner of Hunter and Macquarie streets.

As one of the first high-rise blocks of professional chambers,

it

reflects

the

development

of

Macquarie Street as a prestige address for the medical profession.

Issue 39 - November 2020

180

Macquarie Street Sydney The two remaining terraces on Macquarie Street opposite the State Library.

The Wyoming building still stands but one

of the terraces in the painting has been demolished and the land included in the construction of the high rise building on the right.

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

181

St Mary’s Cathedral This paintings bird’s-eye view is taken from St James’ clock tower, looking over Prince Albert Road and Hyde Park. St Mary’s Cathedral, then at only half the length of its intended cruciform design. By 1890 incremental additions saw the nave roof raised directly behind

the northern gable; and completion

of the square Cardinal’s Tower. Further construction from 1913 to 1928 (after this streetscape was painted), saw further extension to the nave, making St Mary’s the longest church in Australia. The final instalment of twin spires on the cathedral’s southern façade took place in 2000.

Left: Old St Mary’s Cathedral

By Norman Carter (date unknown) Oil on canvas Presented by Norman Carter, 1962 to the State Library of NSW. Issue 39 - November 2020

182

St Mary’s Cathedral,

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

This photo shows the incredible length of the church when the nave was extended and the addition of the twin spires completed.

Issue 39 - November 2020

183

G E O

R G E S T

R E E George Street, Sydney, 1883

T

By Alfred Tischbauer

Oil on canvas – presented by Sir William Dixson, 1935 to the State Library of NSW. Issue 39 - November 2020

184

Alfred Tischbauer was a scene painter at the Paris Opera, but was displaced by the radical revolutionary government of Paris in 1871, the Paris Commune. After coming to Sydney in around 1880, Tischbauer taught perspective at East Sydney Technical College and was an active participant in Sydney’s arts

community.

This painting of George Street, taken from just north of the GPO, shows Thompson & Giles’ fabric shop, on the left. This shop was demolished in 1890 to make way for Martin Place.

George Street, Sydney.

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

185

Barrack Street, Sydney 1942

By Roland Wakelin Oil on canvas – acquired 2016 by the State Library of NSW.

Roland Wakelin, born in New Zealand in 1887, moved to Sydney in his twenties to study at the Royal Society School. He worked for many years as a commercial artist.

This streetscape records a dramatic episode in Sydney’s wartime history. The General Post Office clock tower, at 64 metres, was one of the city’s tallest structures at the time. It was dismantled in midJune 1942 as a precautionary measure, following the entry of Japanese midget submarines into Sydney Harbour on the night of 31 May to 1 June 1942. During the dismantling of the clock tower,

each of the stones was marked to facilitate its rebuilding which did not take place until March 1964.

Issue 39 - November 2020

186

B A R

R A C

Barrack Street, Sydney

K

This photo shows the clock tower fully

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

restored. Unfortunately the building itself is covered as it was undergoing

S T

maintenance work at the time this image was taken.

R E E

T Issue 39 - November 2020

187

Argyle Street and Cut

By Sydney Long c 1902

Oil on canvas – transferred from the Art Gallery of NSW, 1920 to the State Library of NSW. Sydney Long, born in 1871, studied at the Art Society of NSW School under Alfred Daplyn and Julian Ashton. He won the Wynne prize for landscape painting twice, in 1938 and 1940.

The painting depicts the Argyle Cut and Playfair Stairs looking from east to west. Created as a shortcut between the shores of The Rocks, the roadway cut through deep rock between Circular Quay and Millers Point. Using convict labour, work began in 1843 and was completed in 1859.

Most of the sandstone removed from the cut was used to form the seawalls around the Quay.

Issue 39 - November 2020

188

Argyle Street and Cut Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

The Argyle Cut was altered during the construction of the approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1920s. The Playfair Stairs no longer exist nor the buildings shown in the painting..

PP

Issue 39 - November 2020

189

The view from Sydney’s Observatory Hill, looking over The Rocks, remains relatively unchanged on the south side of the harbour largely due to the efforts of Jack Mundy an Australian union and environmental activist. He led the 1970s New South Wales Builders' Labourers Federation in the famous green bans, campaign

to

protect

the

built

and

natural environment of Sydney

from

excessive

and

inappropriate

development. Thanks to Jack Mundy and the Union movement we have The Rocks in Sydney preserved. When you look at the North side of the harbour you can clearly see the huge cluster of high rise buildings, luckily Luna Park was kept and hence the buildings do not totally overshadow the harbour.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was just 20 years old when this work was painted by Roland Wakelin. Originally from New Zealand, he became a central figure in the development of modernism in Australian art in the early twentieth century. He specialised in rural landscapes and urban scenes exemplified in this work.

Issue 39 - November 2020

190

T H E

R O C K S Picnic at the Rocks, Photo 2020, Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

191

C I R

C U L

A R

Q U A Departure of the Orient – Circular Quay, By Charles Conder - 1888

Oil on canvas - Purchased 1888 by the Art Gallery of NSW.

Y Issue 39 - November 2020

192

Arriving in Australia in 1884, Charles Conder became one of the key founders of the

Heidelberg

school

of

Australian

impressionism. He returned to Europe six years later and there he mixed with leading artists and writers. In 1892, Toulouse-Lautrec

painted

his

Henri de portrait.

Conder's work was rated highly by many notable artists, such as Pissarro and Degas.

Conder’s painting depicts a wet cloudy day at Circular Quay. In 1888 Sydney Harbour was what you call a working harbour with steam and sail cargo and passenger ships arriving and leaving from Circular Quay. A small steam ferry can be seen at the wharf in the foreground.

My photo was taken on a bright sunny day,

there are no steam or sail vessels only a smart motorised ferry at one of the Circular Quay ferry wharves. Very few cargo ships come into Sydney Harbour, they now go to Botany Bay. Circular Quay is now a tourist mecca with only ferries dashing around the harbour.

Circular Quay, Photo 2020, Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

193

To accommodate the growing demands

on

the

Customs

Office due to the expansion of maritime trade to the colony, Government Architect Mortimer Lewis

designed

this

Greek-

revival style building, completed

in 1845. The building, although completely

altered

through

renovation and additions, still sits at the head of Circular Quay.

George Peacock depicts the

rear of the building, and brings the scene to life with the detail of townsfolk going about their daily people

business.

Aboriginal

are seen in the fore-

ground – a frequent detail in images of Sydney

from this

time.

Customs House Customs House and Circular Quay, Sydney NSW, 1845. By George Edwards Peacock

Oil on board – Presented by William Dixson in 1929 to the State Library of NSW. Issue 39 - November 2020

194

Customs House Photo 2020, by Lorraine FIldes.

At ground level, from the side of the building, you cannot see the harbour.

There is a narrow lane at the back of Customs House, with a high rise building on the other side of the lane.

Issue 39 - November 2020

195

Sydney Harbour Bridge

View of Sydney Harbour Bridge under construction, c 1930. By M. K. Smyth

Oil on canvas – acquired in 2016 by the State Library of NSW Issue 39 - November 2020

196

Marjorie Kane Smyth, also known as Marjorie Burnell, was born in 1888 in St Kilda, Victoria. She was a modernist painter, architect and designer who exhibited in Sydney in the 1920s and 1930s.

The construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, over eight years from 1923 to 1932, was a significant historical event. It provided a

focus as

for

optimism

employment

as

well

during

the

Depression. The bridge captured the imagination of Smyth and fellow artists such as Grace Cossington Smith and it was depicted many times during the stages of its construction.

This work shows the bridge from the northern side.

Sydney Harbour Bridge from Milsons Point Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

Due to levelling for a park the terrain from where Marjorie worked no longer existed.

Issue 39 - November 2020

197

Sydney Harbour Bridge construction inspired many artist to redefine their visions of the city and the harbour by incorporating this new industrial structure into their paintings. This painting shows the massive frame-work in mid-construction, emerging from the shores of North Sydney. It reveals Grace Cossington Smith’s view of the bridge as a dynamic work-inprogress.

In a powerful translation of forms through colour and light, the painting radiates optimism and energy in a

celebration of modern engineering. The artist made many pencil studies onsite, which she inscribed with notes on colour, took these back to her studio and transformed them into an iconic expression of Sydney’s most enduring urban monument.

The curve of the bridge

By Grace Cossington Smith – 1928-1929 Oil on canvas - Purchased by the Art Gallery of NSW, 1991.

Issue 39 - November 2020

198

The curve of the bridge

Under Sydney Harbour Bridge Looking East from Milsons Point Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

199

Following are two paintings by Sydney art student Alfred Macdonald. He completed the pair of paintings to document the changes to Wynyard Square.

Construction of an underground rail system to link the

suburban rail network to the centre of Sydney was recommended by a Royal Commission in 1908. the City Circle was delayed by World War 1, although excavation for the new tunnels and stations began in 1916. Work recommenced in 1922, with Museum and St James stations opening in 1926. To minimise disruption to road traffic, the new line passed through the city under roadways and public parks.

Connecting Central Station to Wynyard, via Town Hall, the western arm of the City Circle line opened on

28th February 1932, to coincide with the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in March.

Wynyard Park during Wynyard Station Excavations, 1927

By A.E. Macdonald Oil on canvas – Acquired by the State Library of NSW, 1951.

Issue 39 - November 2020

200

Wynyard Park

Right: Looking over Wynyard Park to Wynyard Street.

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

201

In this View, old Scots Church, the first Presbyterian Church in Sydney can be seen behind the site of the excavation. This original church was built in the Norman-Gothic style, "typical of the rural churches in Scotland". This stone church with its plain tower

seated 1000 people and opened in 1826.

In 1918 the State Government wanted to widen York Street to facilitate the new bridge traffic. As a consequence Scots Church was resumed and a new building block was allocated for the new building.

The new Assembly Building became available in September 1930. The Building had originally been designed as a 12 storey Gothic-style building but due to the Depression only a 5 storey building was constructed.

The Scots Church was designed by Rosenthal,

Rutledge & Beattie and built by Beat Bros in 1929.

Since 2005, the 1929 building has supported a high rise apartment building on top of it, designed by Wynyard Park & the Old Scots Church during Wynyard Station excavations, 1927

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer.

By A.E. Macdonald Oil on canvas – Acquired by the State Library of NSW, 1951.

Issue 39 - November 2020

202

S C O T S C H U R C H

The new Scots Presbyterian Church at 42-44 Margaret Street can be seen on the far left across Wynyard Park.

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

Issue 39 - November 2020

203

Sydney in 1900s was being transformed and

P I

modernised by removing many colonial buildings.

Wide-scale demolition soon reshaped the city’s character and skyline.

T

In 1927, Vickery’s Chambers, at 76 Pitt St, fell to

T

significance for Norman Carter, who lectured

the path of progress. This building had special in art at the Sydney Technical College, and for Sydney

S T R

University’s

architecture

department

through to the 1940s. Carter had previously rented a studio in Vickery’s Chambers, and taught life classes there for the NSW Royal Art Society.

Carter was also Vice President of the Society of Artists which had its meeting rooms there.

E E T

Left: Demolition 76 Pitt Street, 1927

By Norman Carter Oil on Canvas Presented by Norman Carte, 1962 to the State Library of NSW.

Issue 39 - November 2020

204

Right: Telstra building now at 76 Pitt Street.

Photo 2020, by Lorraine Fildes.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Lorraine Fildes Š 2020.

Issue 39 - November 2020

205

S E I G A R

F U S I O N Issue 39 - November 2020

206

FUSION SEIGAR Fusion represents the victory of art in hard times.

This series shows the combination of different artists: the original wooden sculptures of the artisan J. Miguel Granados, the artistic dress of the designer Laura Hernรกndez and her well-

established brand Noah, the inventive makeup of Dailos Gonher, the lighting and photography assistance of Hugo Cebriรกn, de Curbelo shop as the setting, and the recreation with the professional model Mabe Hernรกndez of the

Plastic People project of the photographer Seigar. The photographs are the result of the melting of these artists' disciplines and ideas to claim the importance and need for art. Fusion is a symbol of the triumph of teamwork.

Issue 39 - November 2020

207

Issue 39 - November 2020

208

Issue 39 - November 2020

209

Issue 39 - November 2020

210

Issue 39 - November 2020

211

SEIGAR Seigar is a passionate travel, street, social documentary, conceptual and pop photographer based in Tenerife. He feels obsessed with pop culture that he shows in his series. He is a fetishist for reflections, saturated colours, curious finds, and religious icons. He also flirts with journalism and video. His main inspiration is traveling. His aim as an artist is to tell tales with his camera, creating a continuous storyline from his trips. His most ambitious projects so far are his Plastic

People, a study on anthropology and sociology that focuses

on the humanization of the mannequins he finds in the shop windows all over the world, and his Tales of a City, an ongoing urban photo-

narrative project taken in London. He is a philologist and also works as a secondary school teacher. He is a self-taught visual artist, though he has done a two years course in advanced photography and one in cinema and television. He has participated in several exhibitions and his works have been featured in many publications.

He has collaborated with different media such as VICE and WAG1.

He writes for Dodho Magazine and for The Cultural about photography and pop culture, and for Memoir Mixtapes about music.

Lately, he has experimented with video forms. His last interest is documenting identity. Recently, he received the Rafael Ramos GarcĂ­a International Photography Award.

Issue 39 - November 2020

212

Team credits: Artisan and wooden sculptor: J. Miguel Granados @j.miguelgranadosdesign

Fashion Designer: Laura Hernรกndez Noah @noah.custom Model: Mabe Hernรกndez @mabetefehene Makeup Artist: Dailos Gonher @gonherdailos Lighting and photography assistant: Hugo Cebriรกn Serrano @hugocebrian Creative director and photographer: Seigar @jseigar Location: de Curbelo Shop @salvadorcurbeloprieto

Webpage: seigar.wordpress.com Social Networks: Facebook/Instagram: @jseigar

Galleries: flickr.com/photos/theblueheartbeat/albums All rights reserved.

Issue 39 - November 2020

213

NEWS Issue 39 - November 2020

214

NEWS Issue 39 - November 2020

215

ROS ELKIN P

E R C

E P T I O N Issue 39 - November 2020

216

PERCEPTION 1 November - 23 December 2020

ROS ELKIN SOLO EXHIBITION Newcastle artist Ros Elkin works across a wide range of mediums, responding to colour and movement.

Whether it be in the vastness of space or the seconds in time, light is captured in paintings that explore the visceral connection with beauty we sometimes don’t always appreciate.

Complementing her acrylic paintings are ink drawings based on fallen undergrowth, along with photography, printmaking and ceramics in a showcase of Elkin’s diverse artistic practice.

arts.centre@muswellbrook.nsw.gov.au

Corner Bridge and William Streets, MUSWELLBROOK NSW.

http://www.roselkin.com.au/

Page 216 : Deep Impact , acrylic on canvas, H122 x W183 cm. Ros Elkin 2018.

Issue 39 - November 2020

217

B A C K T

THE AESTHETIC TABLE

O

Jacquie Garcia

B

Kathryn Grushka

A C

Clare Skates

K G

13 - 26 NOVEMBER 2020

A L L I E

S

BACK TO BACK GALLERY 57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW Hours: Fri Sat Sun 11am - 5pm

www.newcastlepotters.org.au Issue 39 - November 2020

218

THE AESTHETIC TABLE Jacquie Garcia Kathryn Grushka Clare Skates

The exhibition ‘The Aesthetic Table’ celebrates explorations in relational materiality between the work of three female artists, Jacquie Garcia, Kathryn Grushka and Clare Skates. It celebrates ones’ fundamental engagement with art and the aesthetic experience through the domestic rituals of life such as table setting. It focuses on the handmade and the significance of dwelling and being domestic through the relationships between clay, fibre, glass and paint. The works can be located both within the personal and beyond, to encounters with the imagination and nature, working with a colour palette of neutrals, blacks and blues. The exhibition is a study on the still life, a contemporary re-construction of forms and textures as the artists reframe meaning through their domestic aesthetic juxtapositions. The exhibition brings people to the table in exciting new ways to celebrate the hand made in everyday life.

www.newcastlepotters.org.au Issue 39 - November 2020

219

B

E

A

X

C

H

K

I B

T

I

O

T

B A C K

2020 CALENDAR Oct 23 - Nov 8

30 local artists bring colour and happiness to the

A

13 - 26 Nov

L

THE AESTHETIC TABLE

L

Jacquie Garcia Kathryn Grushka Clare Skates

S

Xmas Takeaway

O

Newcastle Studio Potters Inc

N

2021 CALENDAR

gallery – ceramics, drawings, glass, print,

G

E

I

Colour My World

photography and mixed media.

I

4 - 20 December

57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW

C

February 12 – 28

A

Life’s Journey

L

Helen Jackson

E

March 5 – March 21 The Salon

N D

Hours: Fri Sat Sun 11am - 5pm

www.newcastlepotters.org.au

A

R Issue 39 - November 2020

220

B A

Xmas Takeaway 4 - 20 December

B A

C

C

K

K

T

T

O

O

B

B

A

A

C

C

K

K

G

G

A

A

L

L

L

L

I E

S

57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW

I

Hours: Fri Sat Sun 11am - 5pm

E

www.newcastlepotters.org.au

S Issue 39 - November 2020

221

ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM R E B E C C

A R A T H

40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.

Phone: 0431 853 600

www.art-systems-wickham.com/

Director: Colin Lawson Issue 39 - November 2020

222

ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM CALENDAR 2020 K 30 OCT OBER – 8 NOVEMBER

E

SHIFTING SYMBOLS

R R

REBECCA RATH

I E

13 - 29 NOVEMBER

From Fires to Lockdown KERRIE COLES

C O L

4 - 20 DECEMBER - XMAS SHOW

E S

40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.

www.art-systems-wickham.com/ Issue 39 - November 2020

223

https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Shop 1-3 The City Arcade, 120 Hunter Street, Newcastle, NSW 2300 Issue 39 - November 2020

224

Barbara Nanshe Studio Online Shop Handmade. Ethical. Bespoke. Unusual. Original. Individual

https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Shop 1-3 The City Arcade, 120 Hunter Street, Newcastle, NSW 2300 Issue 39 - November 2020

225

Gallery Gift Shop at Home An online store featuring a variety of wearable artworks - bracelets, scarves and earrings as well as homewares.

https://timelesstextiles.com.au/product-category/gallery-gift-shop/

Issue 39 - November 2020

226

E X

2 NOVEMBER - 6 DECEMBER

H

JUDI NIKOLESKI

I B

UN-TAMED

7 – 20 DECEMBER

SECOND FLIGHT CECILY GRACE

I T I O N

21 DECEMBER - JANUARY 31, 2021 Fusion: NCEATA

3 FEBRUARY - 14 MARCH, 2021 LINKAGES

Eszter Bornemisza

C A L E N D A R

CECILY GRACE

GALLERY - EXHIBITION OPEN 90 Hunter St, Newcastle East . NSW.

https://timelesstextiles.com.au/ Issue 39 - November 2020

227

STUDIO LA PRIMITIVE ARTS ZINE

Arts Zine was established in 2013 by artists Eric and Robyn Werkhoven. Now with a fast growing audience, nationally and internationally.

Their mailing list includes many galleries, art collectors and art lovers.

The Zine is free, with no advertising from sponsors. It is just something they wanted to do for the Arts, which has been their lifelong passion.

Featuring artist’s interviews, exhibitions, art news, poetry and essays.

In 2017 it was selected by the NSW State Library to be preserved as a digital publication of lasting cultural value for long-term access by the Australian community.

www.studiolaprimitive.net

Click on cover image to view previous issue.

Issue 39 - November 2020

228

Click on cover to view the issue.

Issue 39 - November 2020

229

Click on cover to view the issue.

Issue 39 - November 2020

230

Click on cover to view the issue.

Issue 39 - November 2020

231

Click on cover to view the issue.

Issue 39 - November 2020

232

Musings on Pain & Pleasure, acrylic on canvas,

P R I M I T I V E

www.studiolaprimitive.net

S T U D I O

L A

H40 x W 30cm. E&R Werkhoven 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

233

Issue 39 - November 2020

234

POETRY & SCULPTURE The publication includes a collection of poems written

over

recent

years,

penetrating

and

profound observations on life. And a selection of Eric’s dynamic and prolific sculptures.

Enquiries contact: E: werkhovenr@bigpond.com

Page 206: Left - Front cover, The Fall, Autoclaved aerated cement / cement / lacquer, H32 x W46 x B38cm. Eric Werkhoven 2013.

Page 206: Right - CHINA, Autoclaved aeratedcement / adhesive cement / lacquer, H93 x W44 x B27cm. Eric Werkhoven 2012.

Right: Eric Werkhoven at Studio La Primitive Photograph by Robyn Werkhoven.

Issue 39 - November 2020

235

STUDIO LA PRIMITIVE - FASHION FANTASTIC

Artists Eric & Robyn Werkhoven’s journey into the world of fashion featured in ART QUILL blog spot.

https://artquill.blogspot.com/2020/08/studio-la-primitive-fashion-fantastic.html Issue 39 - November 2020

236

Art Quill Studio Marie-Therese Wisniowski,

http://artquill.blogspot.com/ GLOBAL WARMING - SURVIVING REMNANTS. MT Wisniowski.

Hand printed employing the artist's signature Multi-Sperse Dye Sublimation (MSDS) technique using disperse dyes and native flora on satin. H20.5 x W20.5 cm. The Americas Biennial Exhibition & Archive Collection, University of Iowa, Iowa, USA

Issue 39 - November 2020

237

Issue 39 - November 2020

238

Rhino Images - Art and the Rhinoceros Lorraine Fildes and Robert Fildes.

Art and the Rhinoceros - There are over three hundred Rhino images in this book.

Whether in the ancient past or in the present the rhinos are always represented as huge, powerful and solitary animals. The book includes paintings, drawings, woodcuts, etchings, rock carvings and sculptures of the rhino all depicting the power of the animal.

These images of the rhino range from early civilisations such as in China, Roman Empire, Indus civilisation in Pakistan/ India area and from Southern Africa down to current day images of paintings and sculptures produced by modern day

artists.

The text indicates where you may find these wonderful images as well as the websites of the artists concerned, the caves where the rhino images have been found and the places where posters use the rhino image.

There are very few of these magnificent wild animals left in the world, so unless they are protected and managed, artistic images will soon be the only viewing option.

Rhino Images – Art and the Rhinoceros, First Edition, 2017, is available for download at The Rhino Resource Centre web site.

Direct Link :

http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=ref_detail&id=1518479271

Page 238: White Rhino crash at Whipsnade Zoo, England. Image: Robert Fildes Š 2019.

Issue 39 - November 2020

239

GALLERY ON DOWLING

Helene Leane Jeanne Harrison

Catchment, Chichester, H90 x W120 cm., Acrylic ,Helene Leane 2020.

120 Dowling St. Dungog NSW.

www.heleneleane.com Issue 39 - November 2020

240

DUNGOG

BY DESIGN

GALLERY 224 Dowling St Dungog, NSW. RE-OPENED TO PUBLIC https://www.facebook.com/ DungogbyDesign Issue 39 - November 2020

241

E D M

O N D T H O

M M E

N Issue 39 - November 2020

242

Art Studio Supplies Online Exhibition quality art materials delivered to your door.

www.artstudiosuppliesonline.com debra@artstudiosupplies.com

Issue 39 - November 2020

243

R

R

A

A

N

N

D

D

Y

Y

F

F

O

O

C

C

A

A

Z

Z

I

I

O

O Untitled, pen and ink on paper, Randy Focazio, 2020.