Issue 100 April 2013

LISTINGS NSW / ACT

(80)

TASMANIA

(80)

MELBOURNE

(81]

CENTRAL VICTORIA

(90)

EASTERN VIC

(95)

MURRAY RIVER

(96)

NORTHERN VICTORIA

(97)

WESTERN VICTORIA

(98)

Issue 100: APRIL 2013 trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture Published by Newstead Press Pty Ltd, ISSN 14493926 STAFF: administration Vanessa Boyack - admin@ troublemag.com | editorial Steve Proposch - art@ troublemag.com | listings - listings@troublemag.com CONTRIBUTORS: Mandy Ord, Ive Sorocuk, Inga Walton, Rebecca Fitzgibbon, Courtney Symes, Cassandra Scalzi, Neil Boyack, Terry Chapman, Robyn Gibson, Ben Laycock, Jase Harper, Darby Hudson. Trouble 100 designs by Horse.

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Troublemag Subscribe to our website: www.troublemag.com READER ADVICE: Trouble magazine contains artistic content that may include nudity, adult concepts, coarse language, and the names, images or artworks of deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Treat Trouble intelligently, as you expect to be treated by others. Collect or dispose of thoughtfully.

trouble

FEATURES

april 2013

(04) COMICS FACE

(66) STRALIAN STORIES

Neil Boyack

(12) PATRICIA PICCININI

(69) ‘LINK’

Darby Hudson

Ive Sorocuk

Steve Proposch

(20) SOCIAL WORK

Rohan Anderson

(20) TESTING GROUND: PLACE

AND DISPLACEMENT

Rebecca Fitzgibbon

(26) TEXT ALLEY: THE CASTLEMAINE

XMAS CONTROVERSY

Steve Proposch

(34) ACTEASE

Courtney Symes

(69) BOB CLUTTERBUCK:

DRIVEN BY THE PROCESS

Terry Chapman (74) CAROL PORTER:

DIALOGUE VS BABBLEOGUE

Steve Proposch

(78) GREETINGS FROM

MACHU PICHU

Ben Laycock

(38) MELBURNIN’

Inga Walton

(44) ADELOUD

Cassandra Scalzi

(46) APRIL SALON absolut

(60) GREENWISH #13

Robyn Gibson + Horse

COVER: Our APRIL 2013 cover design is by HORSE and has been exclusively commissioned for this 100th anniversary issue of Trouble.

DIS IS DE DISCLAIMER! The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. To the best of our knowledge all details in this magazine were correct at the time of publication. The publisher does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions. All content in this publication is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without prior permission of the publisher. Trouble is distributed online from the first of every month of publication but accepts no responsibility for any inconvenience or financial loss in the event of delays. Phew!

CALL FOR ENTRIES ARTHUR GUY MEMORIAL PAINTING PRIZE $50,000 prize Entry forms bendigoartgallery.com.au Winner Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2009: Jan Nelson, Walking in Tall Grass (Tom), oil on linen. Collection Bendigo Art Gallery

Bendigo Art Gallery 42 View st bendigo Victoria 3550 t 03 5434 6088

TAKE A LOOK AND SEE WHAT’S IN STORE AND ON STAGE...

SEASON BROCHURE AVAILABLE FROM MAJESTIX ON 5333 5888 OR VISIT HERMAJ.COM

Image: Heretics and Epicureans (detail) courtesy the artist

BARRY GILLARD: HELP! I FEEL A STRONG WEAKNESS DRAWINGS IN THE SPIRIT OF DANTE ALIGHIERI AND OTHERS SAT 6 APR - SUN 26 MAY 2013 artgalleryofballarat.com.au

Natalie Weir’s

R&J Produced by Expressions Dance Company and Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Image by Justin Nicholas

Love plays a major role in all our lives, but as Shakespeare knew too well, does not always guarantee a fairy-tale ending.

Tuesday 7 May 8pm Set across three different eras, and telling three different versions of events, Expressions Dance Company turns the classic story of Romeo and Juliet on its head, cutting to the essence of what is real, human and inevitable. Winner of Outstanding Achievement in Choreography at the 2012 Australian Dance Awards, R&J reinforces the notion that love – no matter what age you are, or what era you live in – is eternal, and its power, everlasting.

With music composed by John Babbage and recorded by prolific music ensemble Topology, R&J celebrates contemporary performance at its most bold and powerful.

Tel: 03 5434 6100 thecapital.com.au The Capital is proudly owned and operated by The City of Greater Bendigo

EDC has received financial assistance from the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

The Australian Government is proud to be associated with this tour through the national performing arts touring program, Playing Australia, which gives Australian across the country the opportunity to see some of our best performing arts.

Tour managed and coordinated by arTour, an initiative supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

newsteadtattoo.org

3/4/5 May, 2013 NEWSTEAD, VICTORIA Rohan Anderson, Andrew McKenna, Jospehine Rowe, Courtney Collins, Cate Kennedy, Black Cab, Carmel Bird, Amy Espeseth, Archer Shepherd, Andrew Till, Patrick Pittman, Jackie Kerrin, Jordie Albiston, Dr Fred Cahir, Frank Golding, Gordon Dowell, Eric Dando, David Thrussell, Neil Boyack, Abraham Mamer, Adib Khan, Emmi Scherlies, Tru Dowling, Megan Anderson, Geoff Brown, Lucy Sussex, and more.

Patricia Piccinini

by Steve Proposch

Imagining Another Life

The Long Awaited 2008, silicone, fibreglass, human hair, plywood, leather, clothing, 152 x 80 x 92 cm high.

Photo: Graham Baring. Courtesy of the artist, Tolarno Galleries and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

“In imagining another life we can remake the world as we would prefer, we can create a perfect life without having to see whether it would actually work, we can just trust that it would all turn out.”

- Patricia Piccinini, Artist’s Statement, In Another Life, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington, NZ (2006)

continued >>

“I think people are often surprised when they meet me,” says Patricia Piccinini. “I am not at all ‘out there.’ In fact I’m very quiet and ordinary. And I am always a bit surprised when people find my work strange or confronting. To me they are just beautiful and reflective of the world around me.”

Piccinini has always loved the idea of creating an entire world of her own.

In her catalogue essay for In Another Life she places world-building at the core of her artistic motivation. “I guess that is why you become an artist,” she writes, “because you get that opportunity.”

Opportunity has been no stranger to Piccinini over the years, and her power to take those opportunities through inspiration, to perspiration, to realisation, has kept pace with her soaring career. A lot of contemporary artists have ‘signature’ pieces, materials or symbols that can be reflected throughout many of their works as an instantly recognisable icon or style.

Penny Byrne has her dolls. Robert Jacks has his guitar. Piccinini is one of the few modern artists who might boast many of these.

Surely just about everyone in the country has seen the ear on the mouse’s back (Protein Lattice, 1999, Republic Tower billboard, Melbourne).

Then there are the motorcycle helmets for aliens (Car Nuggets), the big-eyed babies (Foundling, We Are Family, and others), the cuddling Vespas (The Stags, 2008), the monkey-children and weird pets, and so on.

Her work manages to be both reflective on and of itself, and yet all the time be looking in new directions. As an oeuvre, then, her work should perhaps be viewed more in terms of themes than icons – the strange, the impossible, the perfectly imperfect – these are her signature tools.

Again from her In Another Life essay: “What I have learned is that the world of my imagining is nowhere near as strange or impossible as I first thought. In fact, the more I learn about the ‘real’ world, the more I realise just how truly bizarre it is,” she says. “Out-weirding the world, however, is not the point of creating your own alternative universe. Firstly because that is almost impossible – for every strange creature you can think of there is a stranger one out there already – and secondly because it just adds to the clutter of the world. (Although I have to admit that I am a big fan of things – the more the better!) I think the point of crafting another life is so that you can talk about this one, and not just to yourself but also to the people around you.” >>

Patricia Piccinini / Steve Proposch

< The Stags 2008, fibreglass, automotive paint, leather, steel, plastic, tyres.

Dimensions installed, variable.

Photo: Graham Baring Courtesy of the artist, Tolarno Galleries and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

“I think my vision is more on what we are thinking about now than what things will be like in the future.”

S.P. You have a futuristic vision, do you read much science fiction or are you more inspired by science fact?

P.P. I guess I’d have to say neither. I look much more at art than science. Of course I have read some science fiction, but I am in no way a sci-fi nut. I often return to Octavia Butler, Mary Shelley and David Cronenberg but the majority of my reading is much more general. Similarly, my access to ‘science fact’ is really just a by-product of living in the contemporary world. I look much more at art and art history than anything else. In the past, artists could turn to religon and myth to provide them with an alternative world of unlimited possibilities in which they could base their vision and connect to the culture around them. In many ways, I think that science now provides similar cultural narratives and a set of issues and imperatives.

I think my vision is more on what we are thinking about now than what things will be like in the future.

increasingly focused on a singular idea of what is right and beautiful and correct.

I have this book on ‘rare breeds’, which contains a myriad of weird and wonderful farm animals that are becoming extinct as we continually standardise our herds in search of the ‘perfect’ cow or pig.

That makes me really sad. I feel sorry for that ‘imperfect’ pig with its crazy hair or whatever, and I feel sorry for us that we might lose that from the world. If I want anything from my work it is that it might make people a little better at seeing the good in the imperfect.

S.P. Describe your perfect world.

P.P. My perfect world is very diverse and very tolerant.

• Until 13 April 2013 The Future’s Not What it Used To Be, Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, U.K. • 26 April – 30 June 2013 Nature of the Beast, The New Art Gallery Walsall, U.K. • 6 – 19 May 20 13 Patricia Piccinini, Gallery 4, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australia

S.P. You also have a penchant for weirdness, and a soft spot for ‘incorrectness’. Where do you think this springs from?

P.P. That is hard to answer. I guess it comes from a sympathy for those who don’t fit in. Maybe it comes from being a migrant growing up in Canberra, being aware of being different. I also think the world is Trouble issue 1 April 2004, featuring a detail from Piccinini’s We Are Family.

Patricia Piccinini / Steve Proposch

Sphinx 2012, silicone, fibreglass, human and animal hair, bronze 122cm H x 110cm x 55 Courtesy of the artist, Tolarno Galleries and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

Neil Boyack’s

SOCIAL WORK: Rohan

Anderson

Which member of your family influenced you the most?

Mum … she taught me how to grow veggies, work with animals and plants … out of the three kids I’m the only one who took an interest in that sort of life.

Who is the best teacher you have ever had?

Angelo Pellegrini … author of The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life … he is inspirational.

How similar are your political beliefs to those of your family?

Totally different. Most of my family are Liberal voters and seek materialistic wealth … I despise money.

What do you think is your main purpose in life?

To pass on DNA to the next generation. There is no real purpose in life. No-one will remember anything.

Have you ever come close to dying?

I suffer from depression and anxiety so at times I thought I was dying … there was also a time where I wanted to die, when I was forced to go to a Savage Garden concert.

Do you believe in the existence of evil?

Yes, humans are intrinsically good, or evil. Evil is a mental thing that comes from the environment you grow up in.

How do you make important decisions?

I am a reflective person. I give myself time to think, weigh things up … many of my decisions are spur of the moment and I totally commit tot them.

Have you ever been lost?

Metaphorically I have been lost, but not geographically … there was a time when I was leading a corporate existence. I was lost in societal expectations not knowing I could escape and get back to what I love.

Do you have a favourite family story?

I tell my kids about the day I touched a water monitor, put my head in a wombat hole and saw him, caught my biggest crayfish and touched a female trout … I did all this in one day on the river.

What do you hope for?

Survival … not materialistic wealth, just survival.

What do you like the best about your body?

My hands … they do stuff like cooking, showing affection, making things, collecting walnuts, gutting rabbits …

What is stopping you?

Nothing.

Rohan Anderson is the author of Whole Larder Love and a modern day hunter-gatherer. He will be speaking at The Salt of the Earth for Newstead Short Story Tattoo, at the Newstead Community Centre (VIC), Saturday 4th May, 2pm - www.newsteadtattoo.org We have 3 copies of Whole Larder Love to give away to our readers. First to join us on Twitter after 1st April will win. https://twitter.com/troublemagazine

PLACE

< Keren RUKI, a place to stand 2013. Astro turf, safety vests, plastic tube, nylon, reflective tape.

AND DISPLACEMENT Testing Ground Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre Hobar t, 14 March – 28 April, 2013 www.sac.org.au/ events/testingground/ www. tendaysontheisland. com/2013-program/ testing-groud

There is so much talk of “place” in the arts - and particularly in Tasmania - that it is uniquely refreshing to see an exhibition addressing our illusions of place and their opposite; displacement. continued >>

Testing Ground is Salamanca Arts Centre’s major exhibition for 2013, during Ten Days on the Island; a group show curated by Tasmanian Aboriginal artist Dr Julie Gough.

The overarching emphasis of Testing Ground is on creating a laboratory of artists’ self-initiated reflections on ancestry and identity relating to place and space, destabilizing popular expectations about culture, race and gender.

Through her own art practice and as a curator, Dr Gough explores both the personal and the global in place, space and practice, with works held by NGA, NMA, NGV and most State galleries. In 2009 she curated the Australiawide touring group exhibition tayenebe: Tasmanian Aboriginal Women’s Fibrework, and was recently on the curatorial team of INSIDE: Life in Children’s Homes at the National Museum of Australia.

Testing Ground’s 14 contributing artists are from around Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Holland, China and the USA, including Keren Ruki, Martin Walch, r e a, 1491s, Siying Zhou, Christian Thompson, Sue Kneebone, Rebecca Dagnall, Perdita Phillips, Trudi Brinckman, Nancy Mauro-Flude, Darren Cook, Ólöf Björnsdóttir and Jeroen Offerman.

All, in their own way, explore a key intention: to destabilize populist expectations about culture, nature and place for both artist and audience. It sounds ambitious, but is a delicate and personal matter addressed in many ways; directly and obtusely. These are familiar concepts, if not terms; place and displacement are often defined by geopolitics, and increasingly so in our global era.

In probing – or testing – the ground on which we live and work, we probe the fissures of contemporary sense of place in many dimensions at once; physical, emotional, spiritual and political.

Perception, persona and identity are indelibly linked to place, as inescapable as our cultural heritage and DNA. Ambiguous yet emotionally powerful, contemporary art can trace social history as much as personal history.

Victorian/South Australian artist Sue Kneebone’s photography series Continental Drift reflects on the history of repressed human movement and the white cordon surrounding the Australian continent. Her allegorical statues created at the centre of the British Empire and placed into the remote salt

lakes in the centre of South Australia, have become mythical apparitions of displacement.

They become haunting and disembodied notions of personal conquest into an unforgiving foreign land.

The works in Testing Ground are at all serious, however; they are often playful, teasing and toying with ideas of national identity and cultural forgetting.

Testing Ground / Rebecca Fitzgibbon

Five artists and activists from Minnesota and Oklahoma working as The 1491s put a modern face on Native American cultural issues. Since 2009, the collective’s video and comedy sketch works have both celebrated and self-ridiculed Indian country, garnering a following on YouTube and selling out theatres.

The irreverence and slapstick reference to ancient traditions usurped in today’s world is not disrespectful, but deeply personal.

Where does sacred culture thrive, when a native reservation’s main employer is a casino and it hosts the traditional pow-wows?

Making peace between the worlds takes some humour.The only way forward is through reconciliation, considering the many sides of history, the late Tasmanian Elder and matriarch Aunty Ida West asserted.

Tasmanian artist Nancy Mauro-Flude’s work Valetudo delves into indigenous correlations and time-traipsing technology as a eulogy to Ida West. Mauro-Flude created a handsequined Haitian Voudou flag, signifying a connection between a mortal and a virtual presence beyond the patterning. >> image: Sue Kneebone, Continental Drift 2013

“Where did I put the remote control?

Is that strange package a bomb?

Will a McDonalds hamburger kill me?”

Will Coles: Concrete Chips / Mark Holsworth

It is also physically established with subtly subversive technology; viewer activation via smart phone and an embedded AR Layer pattern in the flag forges a bridge between the gallery space and a healing garden at Wybalenna, the site on Flinders Island where exiled Tasmanian Aboriginal people were incarcerated from the 1830s.

New Zealand artist of Tainui descent, Keren Ruki’s work Turangawaewae (Maori meaning: “your place to stand”) is a sculpture referring to tribal homelands, meeting houses and sense of place in society. A strip of Astroturf lettering spelling out this word signals that Australia is not Maori land; they are not the “people of this land”.

Road worker safety vests, shredded and rolled in clear tubing like the traditional Maori pake fibre cloaks, the modernized regalia indicates modern Maori life in Australia; with many people working on the roads or in the mines, building the infrastructure for the adopted country.

Tasmanian artist Martin Walch’s Sticks and Stones is a video rendering of a realtime generated video stream, running

Testing Ground / Rebecca Fitzgibbon

through the full cycle of place names officially listed by the Nomenclature Board of Tasmania (2007).

This is mesmeric digital mapping. Each place name is digitally marked on an invisible map of Tasmania, each listing fading over around 20 seconds. The result is a dynamic map of the island that is constantly being formed and dissolved.

Walch examines the over-writing of history, environments and experience; the ways in which nomenclature both reflects and constructs political and social structures through naming.

Common to these works is an indication of the stripping Indigenous identity through Colonisation; in language, place names, hierarchical and education systems. This one tactic of displacement is universal to native peoples around the world.

Today’s network culture and technological process coming through in ar t incorporates the broad spectrum of place and displacement, information exchange, trade in goods and people, that is all par t of globalization.

It is shaky ground and it is indeed our job to test it.

Rebecca Fitzgibbon is a Hobart-based arts and culture writer, columnist, sub-editor and MONA events media manager rjfitzgibbon@gmail.com @BecFitzgibbon > Nancy MAURO-FLUDE. Valetudo (detail) 2013, hand sequined-embroidered knitted polyester flag, embedded AR layer.

The Castlemaine Christmas Controversy Text Alley

by Steve Proposch

The occasional problem when asking people to express their opinion is that you may not always like what you hear. This fact was evidenced during the recent Castlemaine State Festival (15 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 24 March), when a storm in a teacup was brewed in reaction to the work of a Year 10 Secondary College student. continued >>

The Castlemaine Christmas Controversy / Steve Proposch

Frederick Street in Castlemaine was, to locals, an unlikely place for controversy. Flanked by the Bendigo and ANZ Banks to the front, and the alternative entrance to Chemmart at the rear, it also sports a handy but tight little off street parking area where, one could imagine, conflict might erupt from time to time in the form of bent fenders, but rarely if ever in the form of a challenge to deep and long-held ideological beliefs.

During the Castlemaine State Festival, however, Frederick Street was briefly transformed by a project called Text Alley, curated by local artist and teacher Clayton Tremlett.

“Text Alley is a project that has developed with the Castlemaine Secondary College in partnership with the State Festival,” says Clayton. “We’ve had partnerships over three festivals now. The project was initiated through me

by Deborah Ratliff – the visual arts coordinator – and also Terence Jaensch who’s the literature coordinator for the festival, and the intention was to give an opportunity for art students to make public works, as well as an integrated project with English students across the College, so we’ve got works from year 8, 9 and 10 students.

“Concrete poetry was a central theme in a lot of the works,” he says. “What we’re looking at is street art, and combining imagery with a word or statement that has some sort of content and ... not necessarily provocation, but some content in it that challenges an audience. “ We are talking at the Festival’s opening night party following a tumultuous few days for Clayton. The first public appearance of his pet project in Frederick Street on Wednesday had provoked an almost instant response after an elderly man was reported to have been seen: “shaking with anger while looking at the artwork”.1 Other residents were witnessed shielding the eyes of their children and hurrying past the work.

The Festival’s initial reaction was to censor. The word “lie” was removed from the offending statement “Christmas is a lie” and apologies were offered. But other things were happening, rumbles beneath rumbles. Another statement read: “Let Bogans be Bogans” in thick gothic font. A generally positive statement most would think, yet in Castlemaine it found enemies. >>

The Castlemaine Christmas Controversy / Steve Proposch

> “There’s been a few slurs thrown around here lately and then that’s put up,” said resident Brian Smith for one.

“It’s not the best.”2 The conversation continued on local radio all that day and heated up the next, when it was discovered that the words “this aint art” had been illegally spray-painted just to the right of the now infamous Christmas reindeer.

Clayton Tremlett points out the irony in that situation. “The only crime that has been committed so far is the actual graffiti over a work that is sanctioned,” he says. “There is no thought in that act of offending the artist who has made the work, but the offender feels so vehement about the statement that artist is making that they feel they have a right to silence that artist’s expression by spray painting over it and thereby damaging somebody else’s property. The irony is that the person, if they’re caught, will potentially be fined $206,000, whereas we have permission to paste up works on paper, which will be removed once the Festival is over.”

By Friday, the Festival’s opening day, yet another offender had crept up overnight and reinstalled the word “lie” back into the original statement. By this time, Clayton was excited. “In terms of a public conversation it’s actually quite healthy when you keep it in context,”

he says. “Making the statement that Christmas is a lie from the mouth of a reindeer is a very subtle way of trying to introduce a topic that’s challenging to people, and that was my brief to the students. It’s no good just trying to make outrageous statements; you’ve got to have carefully considered statements. So we studied at least three internationally known artists for the quantity and quality of their work and started developing ideas.

“The thinking behind that as a teacher who is teaching about street art, is that we are bombarded by billboards, advertising and all sorts of imagery that we have no control over, so how do you make a statement in that environment with relevance to you and how you feel, given an opportunity in a public situation. The students chose to make a range of responses and some are poignant, some are humorous and some are benign. That is a cross section of how students feel about themselves and about who they are and how they feel in a public place.

“Many people have agreed with me already,” he continues. “The statement ‘Christmas is a lie’ is a truth, and the reality for some people in facing that truth can be a bit overwhelming. But when you consider that a 16-year-old has made that individual statement. …”

It is an important point. The work operates successfully on a number of levels, both as an acknowledgement of the hardcore commercial reality of Christmas, and of the myth that holds it all together. In one frosty breath the reindeer speaks of Santa Claus, Elves, and a giant magic toy factory somewhere in the North Pole. These are among the very first lies we tell our children, and most parents maintain the fantasy as long as they are able.

While perhaps looming large in the minds of those offended, I suspect that for the artist Christ barely came into it. Religion was probably a dim, distant idea, connected to Christmas but of little relevance these days, when it is all about knowing you won’t get enough money together to buy a PS4 on its release (which you can bet will be in time for Christmas), and so you will have to wait another 6-12 months for Sony to magically drop a few hundred off the price and pick up all the stragglers by the following Christmas. In that case what you are dealing with

is the very obvious commercial truth of big corporations taking advantage of the world’s largest cultural festival to market new products at the highest price possible to the most people possible and thereby make the most money they can possibly make. Such companies have been practicing their

art for many, many years now, and they are getting pretty good at it.

For a ‘Western’ teen at least there is no relief to that reality, where advertisers and salespeople lurk in wait around every corner with some cool new way to spend, and while we trust our teens to innately take charge of important commercial decisions, they are not to be left to their own devices outside of a shopping mall, and in any case are constantly monitored

by CTV. In such a light the statement that ‘Christmas is a lie’ might be seen as a mature and thoughtful line in the face of the shameless capitalism that is approved and fully recommended by your local church.

In other words, the Text Alley project was a complete success. After all the fuss is dead and gone what we can say for sure is that for a couple of weeks in March 2013 one iconic – if normally dreary – location smack bang in the centre of Castlemaine lit up with an impressive selection of paste ups from some of our bold and bright young

local things, and while a precious few didn’t like what they saw, the rest of us thought it a pleasure and a privilege to see such fresh minds at work.

FOOTNOTES: 1. Bendigo Advertiser, ‘Student artwork removed after residents complain’, Eloise Johnstone, 15 March 2013.

2. ibid.

Text Alley pics by Steve Proposch

ACTease

In a recent Author Talk with the National Library of Australia, Elizabeth DATELINE: APRIL 2013 Gilber t (author or Eat, Pray, Love)

by Courtney Symes shared some wise advice as she tried to explain her writing talent: “I don’t totally understand why I was given the ability to write … I just try to remember that my obligation is to that gift and to that “which led to a shift towards large, bold and relationship … “... you’re not in charge of what people think of you. You’re not in charge of what people think of your work. You’re only in charge of knowing that you’ve done all you can to create the very best thing that you’re capable of creating and whatever becomes of it once you put it out there in the world is kind of none of your business. I always say there are three aspects that go into to being a successful artist. One is that you have to have talent; two is that you have to have discipline; and three is that you have to have luck. You’re not responsible for how much talent you’re given.

You’re not responsible for how much luck you’re given. The only piece of it that’s yours is the discipline. So forget about those other two things and just do that – put everything that you can into that.” A motivating philosophy for the artist in all of us this month.

At first glance, a viewer would be forgiven for thinking that the works included in the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition, Stars in the river: The prints of Jessie Traill had been created by a man. Intricate etchings of masculine industrial-era constructions such as bridges and power stations hang adjacent to images that capture streetscapes and city scenes from everyday life in Melbourne, as well as far-flung locations such as London, Belgium and Italy. Traill studied with John Mather in Melbourne, before travelling to London and studying with Frank Brangwyn,

dramatic compositions”. I’m mesmerized by Traill’s series of etchings that document the construction of Sydney Harbor Bridge from 1927-1932. “Traill’s prints are recognised as vital to the evolution of post-war Modernism,” and I can’t help but wonder if Traill works so naturally in the medium of etching because it allows her to explore a deeper level of detail other mediums deny.

I’m also fascinated by Traill’s independence.

Images of exotic locations are contrasted with the wild beauty of the Australian bush and reveal an adventurous woman by today’s standards, let alone for the beginning of the 20th century. I admire Traill’s jet-setting attitude and courage to seek out adventure for herself and her ar t – she sets a fine example for Australia female ar tists. Join Sheila Galbraith (ar tist, author and relative of Jessie Traill) in the Project Gallery on 11 April at 12.45pm as she shares personal memories of ‘Cousin Jessie’s’ life and work.

Australia wouldn’t be the richly diverse and splendid country it is today if it were not for the accomplishments of some amazing females over the last century. The National Por trait Gallery is celebrating these talented women in a new exhibition, First Ladies until 16 June. Some of the iconic women featured in this exhibition include our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, Governor General, Quentin Bryce, as well as less well known women such as Jessie Street (co-founder of the

< Sir William DARGIE (1912-2003), Margaret Court 1962, oil on canvas. Private collection

continued >>

NSW Social Hygiene Association to provide information and advice to women on family planning and maternal health) and sporting greats such as Marjorie Jackson and Cathy Freeman. Painted and photographed portraits of women from a variety of fields such as the ar ts, business, sport, science, academia and politics are included in the exhibition.

Also at The National Portrait Gallery, The National Photographic Por trait Prize is on until 19 May. With a $25,000 prize up for grabs, it comes as no surprise that competition was stiff with over 1200 entries.

From these entries, 53 works were shor tlisted and Janelle Low’s por trait, Yhonnie and Indiana was awarded first prize. After Indiana’s health began to deteriorate, Yhonnie contacted Janelle and requested that she make a por trait of her and Indiana. The National Photographic Por trait prize is well wor th a look if you want to check out some fresh new talent from Australia’s aspiring and professional por trait photographers. The diversity of the images included in the exhibition ensures that there’s < Jessie TRAILL, Building the Harbour Bridge VI: Nearly complete, June 1931 1931, etching, printed in black ink with plate-tone, from one plate, plate-mark 37.6 x 14.8cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1979 © Estate of Jessie Traill.

ACTease / Courtney Symes

something for everyone. Personally, I was drawn to Morganna Magee’s photograph of Katie and Jaylen Cornish. Katie’s son Jaylen was born with Gastroschisis, “a deformity that starts in the womb and affects the digestive system of the child”. Although this condition is rare, it’s usually treatable through major surgery when the child is born. “Jaylen had the most extreme case of the disease the hospital has ever encountered” and has spent the first 19 months of his life in hospital. Jaylen’s mum Katie spends every day in hospital by his side. Katie is a 21-year-old single mother.

Some well-known faces also make an appearance throughout the entries. Bean no more 2012 is Quentin Jones’s por trayal of English actor Rowan Atkinson, separated from his infamous character, Mr Bean. Jones recalls their meeting, saying “During a recent visit, I was very careful not to make any mention of Mr Bean or the television show, and instead talked about cars, which is one of his passions. As a result, he was happy to be himself in this por trait.”

Sharon Zwi also pays tribute to David Stratton (former director of the Sydney Film Festival, film critic and presenter of ABC TV’s At the Movies) with her unique ‘life diary’ featuring 25 images of David throughout his life. Zwi uses mostly full-face photos to “explore the idea of a por trait as a life diary, using multiple images of David over his lifetime, going from one instant to a wholeof-life por trait, trying to evoke traces of memory, history, place and mood”.

- www.portrait.gov.au Canberra’s centenary celebrations continue with the National Library of Australia’s tribute to the original designers of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Based in Chicago, USA, the couple

were excited to learn of Australia’s ‘tender’ for designs for a national capital in 1911.

After winning the competition, Walter and Marion (his new wife and professional par tner) moved to Australia in 1914 to oversee the project and remained until the mid-1930s. Curator Christopher Vernon has sourced a unique array of objects for this commemorative exhibition, including: magnificent silk paintings, furniture and other objects designed by the Griffins, as well as photographs and drawings. Many of these items are on public display for the first time.

The Dream of a Century: the Griffins in Australia’s Capital runs until 10 June.

- www.nla.gov.au Warakurna is a Western Deser t community where ar tists par ticipating in the National Museum Australia exhibition, Warakurna: All the Stories Got into our Minds and Eyes come from. The exhibition includes a selection of paintings and sculptures. Whilst these pieces are intriguing to look at, they also serve a purpose and tell a story. The paintings in par ticular are comprised of Western Deser t symbols and dots that form historical and everyday images. These images serve as a record of key events, people and describe what life is like. Ar tists featured in the exhibition include Eunice Yunurupa Porter, Judith Yinyika Chambers, Dianne Ungukalpi Golding, Jean Inyalanka Burke and Dorcas Tinamayi Bennett. Highlights include the vibrant colours featured in all of the paintings, a striking large woven basket by Nancy Nyanyarna Jackson and one of each of the torches and cauldrons used for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Runs until 3 November.

- www.nma.gov.au Courtney Symes is an arts writer based in Canberra.

ACTease will return NEXT MONTH:.

DATELINE: APRIL 2013

by Inga Walton

< Torii KIYONAGA, Chōzan of the Chōjiya, kamuro Shiori and Tsumagi (c.1782), from the series “Models for Fashion: New Year, Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsu moyō), vertical ōban, nishiki-e, 39.1 x 25.9 cm. Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō), William Sturgis Bigelow Collection.

The Golden Age of Colour Prints: Ukiyo-e from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (until 2 June, 2013) makes its fifth and final stop at Shepparton Art Museum before these fragile and valuable works on paper are returned to storage to be rested for five years. The exhibition was first shown at the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts (October, 2010-January, 2011). The sister institution of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Nagoya/Boston opened 17 April, 1999 with the launch of the 20-year Partnership (1999-2019) between the two venues.

The present selection of ninety-six ukiyo-e prints (“pictures of the floating world”) is drawn from the largest and finest Japanese print collection outside Japan, with over 50,000 works ranging in date from the eighth century to the twenty-first. The core of the collection, comprising over half of the present holdings, was acquired in Japan in the 1880s by the Boston physician and collector Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow (1850-1926). Bigelow donated his vast collection of Japanese art, over 40,000 various objects, to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1911.

A genre of woodblock prints, ukiyo-e had originally been an offshoot of the bookpublishing industry. Around 1680, publishers in the ‘new’ capital of Edo (now known as Tokyo) began to make single-sheet pictorial prints as well, created for popular consumption and reflecting an incredibly ‘modern’ sensibility. Much like posters and advertising today, the prints were cheap enough to be used as disposable decorations, and were often displayed in homes. The social elite initially considered the works crude and unsophisticated, since the subject-matter was deemed superficial and unworthy of being called ‘art’. Ukiyo-e depict various aspects of the fashionable world of urban culture, beauty

and entertainment; the hedonistic pleasures of the tea houses, elegant geisha wearing the latest kimono styles, the stars of kabuki theatre and sumo wrestling, the rarefied glamour of famous courtesans, and the newly popular genre of depicting idealised bijin (beautiful woman). Such were the sensory delights and amusements available to the newly affluent middle class that developed during the Edo period (1615-1868), when Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns and was largely cut off from the outside world.

Initially, only India ink was used to produce simple black and white prints known as sumizuri-e (black ink printed pictures). This was followed by a style of hand-coloured print using red and/or yellow as well known as tan-e (red-lead pigmented picture) or suo-e (dark red sapanwood pigment picture).

Public demand for ukiyo-e, coupled with wealthy patrons willing to fund innovations, led to further advances in the printing process with early multi-colour prints, known as benizuri-e (rose coloured printed pictures), appearing in the 1740s. The exhibition’s focus is the ‘Golden Age’ of ukiyo-e (ōgon jidai or ukiyo-e zenseiki) when artist Suzuki Harunobu (?1725-70) perfected a technique of polychrome printing in 1765 to include seven continued >>

Melburnin’ / Inga Walton

> or eight colours with embossed and burnished areas. These multiple colour prints ushered in a new level of artistic and technical prowess and came to be known as nishiki-e (brocade pictures), which set the standard for over a century afterwards. They were an absolute sensation, and quickly became the most widespread and successful commercial phenomena of Edo period Japan, particularly across the Tenmei (1781-89) and Kansei eras (1789-1801).

Thresholds for Disorientation (27 April-26 May, 2013) at Langford 120. Her hard-edged geometric works demonstrate an exacting eye for colour and juxtaposition which has most recently garnered Adamson-Pinczewski an artist residency through the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts in upstate New York.

(The Foundation commemorates the pioneering contribution of the couple and the association of their firm, Golden Artist Colors, with some of the twentieth century’s most renowned artists).

Although it is the artists who are usually credited, the production of these highly refined prints was a complex collective effort involving the carvers who incised the woodblocks with great precision, the printers who skilfully transferred the images from the printing block to paper in delicate washes of pigment, and the publishers who coordinated the entire process. It was the latter who bore the financial risks by employing all those involved, commissioning the imagery, handling the distribution of the finished works and, in most cases, owning the shops that sold the prints. The exhibition focuses on the art of three master printmakers who were key innovators in the medium: Torii Kiyonaga (17521815), Kitagawa Utamaro (?-1806) and Tōshōsai Sharaku (fl. 1794-95), a mysterious figure whose production tenure lasted just ten months, but from which 147 works have been identified.

The works of other contemporaries such as Chōbunsai Eishi (1756-1829) and Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) demonstrate how this genre came to be one of the most pervasive and enduring influences on Western art.

“My recent work investigates the impact of modern architecture and urban space on contemporary abstract painting. I have observed that reflection and spatial warping, including the experience of disorientation, are frequently experienced in major cities on a daily basis. For instance, we regularly view the physical world through a series of highly warped reflections within the built environment. Through investigating reflective and reductive colour schemes and surface qualities, I create pulsating visual effects that are comparable to the refraction of changing light on newer buildings made from highgloss glass and polished metals”, AdamsonPinczewski comments. “These paradoxical visual experiences, including the sensation of push-pull, or simultaneously looking at, looking through, and looking backwards, are explored in my paintings. I devise these sorts of illusory spatial effects in order to create new perceptual scenarios and compositional structures for the viewer, which I hope will elicit a perceptual and physiological response”.

• Shepparton Art Museum, 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton, Victoria, 3630: www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au • Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts: www.nagoya-boston.or.jp • Boston Museum of Fine Arts: www.mfa.org

One of Australia’s foremost contemporary abstract artists, Samara Adamson-Pinczewski, presents her first solo exhibition since 2008,

Adamson-Pinczewski is particularly looking forward to expanding the parameters of her practice during her residency in October this year. “It is directly linked to my artistic concerns, in particular, material preoccupations relating to new synthetic colours influenced by digital technologies, surface variation and accretion. I look forward to the opportunity of receiving

>

Samara ADAMSON-PINCZEWSKI, Far-flung (detail) 2012, acrylic on canvas, 183 x 183 cm.

professional advice from the Golden paint technicians, and am very responsive to exploring new ideas, materials, processes and techniques in my work”, she enthuses. “I will create a series of paintings on paper and canvas that experiment with the latest acrylic paint materials and technologies available, including a wide range of pigments, mediums and varnishes. I intend to focus on fluorescent colours, gels and pastes to further develop my work in creating scintillating optical effects. I anticipate that the unique chance to explore a different colour palette and cutting-edge surface textures will lead me to refine the sensation of movement, spatiality and theatricality I strive

for in my work. I aim to create the impression of disorientation that portends to feelings of uncertainty and fragmentation in everyday life”.

• Langford 120, 120 Langford Street, North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051: www.langford120.com.au • Artist site: www.sapart.com.au

Obscura Gallery is showing To the Surface (11 April–9 May, 2013) a capsule collection of ‘drowned’ works from photographer Meg Cowell which will no doubt evoke thoughts of Ophelia’s tragic demise; “Her clothes spread wide/And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up...Till that her garments, heavy with their drink/Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay/To muddy death”. >>

Melburnin’ / Inga Walton

> Meg COWELL, Lens Mist 2012, 133 x 92 cm, Giclée print (ed. of 5).

> To better facilitate her work, Cowell installed a 1000 litre pool in her inner-city backyard and carefully arranges theatrical costumes, lingerie and couture clothing in suspension.

“My objective in submerging my subjects is to generate a sense of the garments being ‘inhabited’, not only by their absent wearer, but also by a complex series of moods, emotions and characters. By using water as a medium of buoyancy and illusionistic display, I seek to bring these garments to life”, she explains.

It may seem like a complicated way to play ‘dress up’, but for Cowell the physical act of transforming the inanimate clothing “to express pose, emotion and character has motivated my engagement with the wider symbolism of clothing as a vehicle of transformation and medium of visual expression”.

Cowell explores notions of fantasy, illusion, and what she calls “the icons and rites-ofpassage in Western myth, specifically the ‘princess’ archetype”, with particular reference to the long history within Western art of magnificent genre portraits which proclaimed status and conveyed meaning by emphasising a lavish display of dress. She is also particularly cognizant of the role contemporary media representations- be they in film, music videos, reality TV, or popular culture- play in the shaping of social attitudes towards dress and its capacity for wish-fulfilment. “Fairy tales and children’s book illustrations have inspired my interest in the transformative symbolism of clothing, particularly those instances where a dramatic change in outer garments signifies a life-changing moment”, Cowell observes. “In Disney film adaptations, the downtrodden or exiled character becomes a princess through the donning of a special or magical dress. That is reflected in real-life situations such as Lady Diana’s enormous bell-shaped wedding gown

confection which served to proclaim her formal transition from ‘civilian’ woman to a real-life princess before an audience of millions”.

Amplifying the sensory and emotional values fabric can suggest to the viewer is of great importance to Cowell. “I arrange and manipulate fabric in a way that hopefully communicates something beyond what the garment itself, within its original purpose and intended use, can convey. I don’t make the ensembles myself, but I often add the seductive little touches – the ribbons, collars and cuffs – I also hand sew the bustles and corsets to give the dresses that important wasp waist”, she says. There is also a certain aspect of mischief in Cowell’s productions, as many of the garments are hired from theatre playhouses and costume shops that remain unaware of her intentions.

“I no longer tell them! The dresses are almost always ‘Dry Clean Only’ so this adds an element of drama to my process, especially since the owners take my credit card details as a bond against damage. My methods for getting around this involve a hair-dryer, an iron, tissue paper and a pair of straitening irons. I’ve not yet been found out!”, she admits.

Cowell is also a finalist in the thirteenth annual Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery (6 April-19 May, 2013) with her work “Sweet House” (2013). She will next exhibit in Melbourne as part of the “Exploration 13” showcase of emerging and unsigned artists at Flinders Lane Gallery (18 June-13 July, 2013).

• Obscura Gallery, First Floor, 285 Carlisle Street, East St. Kilda, Victoria, 3183: www.obscuragallery.com • Gold Coast City Art Gallery, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, 4217: www.theartscentregc.com.au • Artist site: www.megcowell.com

by Cassandra Scalzi DATELINE: APRIL 2013

Okay, I must be honest... Adelaide following the Fringe Festival was looking a little frightening at first glance! The so called ‘’Big Retirement Village’’ does seem to love all things vintage, with the Barossa Vintage Festival kicking off on the 30th of March. First held in the golden olden days of 1947, it is the largest and longest running wine and tourism festival in Australia, including more than 150 art, craft, music, literature and heritage events.

A classic case (excuse the pun) of ‘Vintage in Perspective’, as the countless winery tours on offer in the Barossa Valley refer to it. But let’s put something else in perspective. Following the copious amounts of creative events, controversially concentrated into a short period of time, it seems the art loving people of Adelaide need to wind down and do what, it can be strongly argued, we do best in this state ... wine and dine! During April, the East End Wine Down, is a pop up urban laneway taste fest in the East End of Adelaide, where apparently there will be ‘’Rock Star Winemakers’’ and in the organizer’s own words, “ A DJ spinning funky beats. Cool peeps and great eats. Sip it good.’ ’

Festival in April. And there seems to be no shortage of choices for food and wine festivals following the Fringe.

One can ‘’sip it good’’ in the South East, at Sips in the Sticks held at the Glenroy Shearing Shed, which again sounds a little suss to me as I immagine some fun in the haystacks happening!

Weary and exhausted art lovers and those suffering from the overload of petrol fumes from the V8s, can get down to the Semaphore Foreshore for Wines and Fishes on the 13th of April, where there will be, well wine of course, live entertainment, art, (which always seems to be tucked into these things to give them more credibility as a cultural gathering), and an oyster shuck off. Shucks! Adelaide is getting serious now...

I’m not sure why the Porchetta Party on the Fleurieu Peninsula on the 10th of April, consisting of a three course Italian style lunch under the vines, part of the Sumptuous Regional Celebration, makes me think of a scene from the GodFather. I’m not sure what’s worse – organized crime festivals or swingers parties, vintage style.

Other musical acts and performers – miraculously some might say – to be making appearances in Adelaide soon are Josh Groban (at the Adeaide Festival Centre), The Foals, The Rubens and The Kooks. By the way, any ideas why Adelaide is referred to as a city full of Kooks?

Perhaps it has something to do with my state’s other I suddenly feel scared about my City of Churches disturbing label as Murder Capital of Australia. I think a and am wondering whether it is really a town full of State of Swingers and Sex Romps in the Sticks would pissheads who use the arts as an excuse to fuel their be much better in the whole scheme of things when alcoholism (funny that Adelaide is home to the National it comes to tourism! I should also mention, speaking Wine Centre!) and love of 90s American pop such of the sticks, that there is also another lovely choice as songs from Salt and Pepper. Perhaps the previous for music lovers, with the Coriole Music Festival AdeLOUD writer had a point for pulling out before back in May on the Fleurieu Peninsula, at the Coriole things got as bad as some embarassing beats or poetry! Winery in McLaren Vale to be precise! In its 15th year now, the festival promises to showcase a ‘’Clash of Not only does Adelaide boast Rock Star Wine Makers, the Romantics’’ with fine music, food and wine again, but I have just discovered during my challenging quest bringing some of Australia’s finest Chamber musicians. to find the best of Adelaide, that we are also home Music will be selected by Music Director, Professor to a Pork Star! No, I am not referring to an Adult Film Christopher Burrell and highlights the continuous star, but to our home grown Pork Star ... her name is demarcation between the classical and modern. More Saskia Beer and she heads a not to be missed tour of of a melody of modern and classical styles, is sure to be the Adelaide Central Markets, marked on the calendar explored during the Festval of Russian Ballet, when they from the 11 – 12th of April, as the ‘’Bacon Trail’’. Bacon come to town later in October. lovers can expect to learn how to follow their snouts through the array of stalls in search of the best bacon for breakfast! Certainly a big one on the calendar, which NEXT MONTH: the Kona Dirty Weekend, Coonawarra Arts Festival and more. forms part of the official Adelaide Food and Wine

photo: Adelaide can be a such a drag ...

APRIL SALON

1. Catherine NELSON, Sydney Spring 2013, pigment print from digital photograph, edition of 7, 150.0 x 150.0 cm. Other Worlds, held simultaneously at Michael Reid Sydney (44 Roslyn Gardens Elizabeth Bay, NSW), and announcing the opening of Michael Reid Berlin (AckerstraĂ&#x;e 163 D-10115 Berlin), 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 27 April - www.michaelreid.com.au

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2. Georgina CUE, Nyx (detail) 2012, embroidery thread on fly-screen, 62.0 x 92.0cm.

Collection of the artist. Photo courtesy of the artist. Northern Lights, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, 7-27 Snake Gully Drive, Bundoora (VIC), until 5 May - bundoorahomestead.com

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APRIL SALON

APRIL SALON

PREVIOUS SPREAD: Jessie NGAIO, Slutmonster and Friends, presented by Darebin Arts Speakeasy as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Northcote Town Hall, Studio 1, 189 High St, Northcote (VIC), Tuesday 2 April (Preview), Thursday, Friday, Saturday 4th – 6th, 11th – 13th and 18 – 20th April, 10pm - www.slutmonster.com.au 3. Michelle HAMER, We’re all gonna die 2013, hand-stitching on perforated plastic, 51x68cm Photographer: Marc Morel. I Send Mixed Messages, Counihan Gallery, 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick (VIC), 12 April – 3 May - www.michellehamer.com 4. Chris STUBBS, Forgive Them Mother 2000, ceramic and timber, 165 x 80 x 38cm. Courtesy the artist and the Australian Wildlife Art Galleries, Munro Photograph

by Lindsay Roberts. On the Edge, Gippsland Art Gallery, 68-70 Foster Street Sale (VIC), 30 March – 26 May.

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APRIL SALON

5. Sam YONG, Uncle Brent 2013, pencil on Bristol paper 210gsm, 42cm x 30cm. Men With Beards, raising funds for Melbourne City Mission, Off the Kerb, 66B Johnson Street Collingwood (VIC), 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 19 April - www.offthekerb.com.au

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APRIL SALON 6. Nic PLOWMAN, Figure study no.2 2013, watercolour and graphite on stretched paper, 140hx100 cm. Nudes & Portraits, The Art Vault, 43 Deakin Avenue, Mildura (VIC), 3 – 22 April - www.theartvault.com.au 7. Robert BAINES, Bracelet from Saaremaa(?) 2004, gold, plastic, metal car, Banyule Art Collection.

Presented in ‘The Playroom’ for Home – Reframing Craft and Domesticity at Hatch Contemporary Arts Space, 275 Upper Heidelberg Road Ivanhoe (VIC), 4 April – 11 May - www.banyule.vic.gov.au NEXT SPREAD: CAVE URBAN, mengenang (memory) 2013, a wind-driven installation of 222 bamboo ‘bird-scarers’, each a musical instrument tuned to D-minor. Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe. Winner of the People’s Choice Prize.

Photo by Clyde Yee.

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Green Villages is an initiative by the City of Sydney purpose-built “to nurture and celebrate sustainable living.” They also offer grants for community programs with an emphasis on partnerships between local community groups and not-for-profit orgs. Their ‘Matching Grants’ of up to $10K cash or in-kind support like venue hire of City owned buildings, are available all year round. Importantly, they don’t just match community raised cash but include the contribution of volunteer labour, from digging ditches to set-up, pack down and meeting time. It’s an awesomely simple way to add measurable value to volunteer initiative and energy, without breaking the bank! www.greenvillages.com.au

Revolutioni designed th each year to blender buil cleaned and appiances b per minute,

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“At thediscarded heart of the machinecomposed o he R2B2construction after being R2B2 “appalled number of electronic household appliances is aThe pedal powered flywheel that not only drivesfood the appiances alsogrinder acts asand an energy lightweight o landfill”.

R2B2 is a human-powered combination processor, but coffee hand storage device. ... the wheel can be up toconstruction 400 revolutions resulting in stored energy are laid in s lt from easy to maintain materials.

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Britain’s firs producing d squeezed, p meet the pow

Temple nig booties and this wasn’t dance club

Self-Powered Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first eco-friendly nightclub opened in July 2008 and featured a hugely innovative power-producing dance floor. The technology uses springs below the floor to compress crystal blocks which, when squeezed, produce small electric charges. The charges are then drained into batteries and stored to help meet the power needs of the club. While patrons dance, the floor moves and creates more electricity.

ClinkaBLOK is an easy and economical masonry alternative, made from lightweight expanded clay aggregate. Blocks made from expanded clay aggregate have been used for more than 50 years in many European countries, and are the benchmark standard for environmentally friendly and healthy buildings in Scandinavia. ClinkaBLOKs are a natural product – pH neutral and composed of expanded plastic clay, cement, fly ash and water – and much less brittle than other lightweight blocks, clay masonry or concrete blocks. They are easy to cut and work on site by hand and are laid in standard brick bond with normal mortar mixed in a ratio of 1:4 (cement:sand). AWESOME!

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Dance Floors Temple nightclub in San Francisco followed suit in 2011, when 1,400 club patrons shook their booties and booted up 480 watts over 10 hours of dancing. For Paul Hemming, the nightclub’s founder, this wasn’t a one weekend gimmick, but part of his overall wish to make Temple the most sustainable dance club in the world.

stralian stories with Neil Boyack

P

atrick White once said that he hoped Australians never found out

what it was to be Australian. I agree with this sentiment. Time and time again, whenever this sort equation is rolled out for public picking (Anzac day, Grand Final day, Melbourne Cup day, Australia/Survival day, Olympic gold in the pool) in the hope that the “Aussie” baseline will be somehow be clarified, we end up in a debate over meat pies, the Cronulla riots, footy Vs rugby, kangaroos, mateship, sinking piss, boat people, off-shore processing, Aboriginal people, white people, yellow people, otherness.

Things ultimately go the way of that inadequate, overused description ‘unAustralian’, punctuated by default absolutes that arrest the discussion. Australian culture is a never-ending story. There are Australian traits, Australian ways, and ultimately an Australian culture, but who would want to capture, cage and tag such a wild, loveable, liquid beast?

From its ancient earth, Australia has forever, offered agency for change, life, renewal. Aboriginal people were the first to experience this 60,000 years ago or more. Convicts changed their fortunes here, and became landowners by usurping Aborigines. Previously barren women, who left the polluted, poverty stricken English cities, were suddenly able to conceive when they arrived; such was the fertile, clean and health-promoting environment. We have the Eureka stockade, our twenty minute civil war, where an array of miners from many ethnicities and cultures joined forces against colonial authorities. Australia absorbed post WWII immigration which brought Europeans en-masse, admittedly through a white-Australia-policy, and the Vietnam War created a need for Vietnamese refugees to

run for their lives, many of whom ended up here. Today the political football that is boatpeople punches above its weight and has potential for many to be a vote-changing issue, such is the perception of its substance socially, morally, and economically. But this is what it is to be Australian – not so much the drab platitude that “we’re all immigrants”, because the nature of time belies this – what we do have is the freedom to be from somewhere else.

The essays in Joyful Strains are hard to read at times, because the racism and inequality experienced by some of its contributors doesn’t represent, I would argue, the views and sentiments of Australian readers of this particular text. Yet all Australian readers know that racism lives and breathes in the broader community mutating and manifesting pervasively at esoteric and more obvious levels. Bumper stickers that say “If you don’t love it, leave it” key into nationalistic sentiment that ranges from soft nostalgia and Banjo Patterson to hate-filled National Socialist movements. There is also the barrage of Southern Cross “Eureka” flags that are appropriated for everything from the Union movement, to that of a more

Gurt by Sea: the freedom to be from somewhere else Joyful Strains, Affirm Press rrp $24.95

extreme nationalism married with outlaw imagery and underdog messages. Ballarat City Council, a pillar of strong governance, accountability and transparency I’m sure, also uses the Southern Cross for its identity.

Nothing is wrong with this. All robust cultures and communities need to offer avenues of identity, freedom of speech, freedom to associate. Many writers in Joyful Strains reflect on how difficult it was to accept the freedom Australia offered to simply be.

In Joyful Strains we find disorientation, beautiful accidents, serendipity and kindness in a pure form. Discovering early on that his homeland wasn’t where he wanted to be, Chris Flynn was happy to leave his native Ireland, so beginning “the process of reinvention”. A change of longitude and latitude fitted his plan of personality and identity change, and this “automatically promoted” him to Ambassador of Ireland complete with cute accent. Dmetri Kakmi found that anonymity was impossible in a Turkish village, “privacy an incomprehensible concept. Neither one of these words existed for me until I came to Australia”.

His essay pulls into focus the changes and adaptations he needed to make as a new arrival. The same experience came for Malla Nunn who suggested that Australia was “a country that offered us freedom and anonymity” which contrasts the family’s previous environment.

Growing up in public is one thing, getting used to being nobody is another. Chi Vu suggests that “one task of a migrant is to move from a sense of alienation in the new

country to a sense of being comfortable with that alienation”. Alienation is a key indicator for life before acquiring a personal Australian narrative. The development of this narrative, or new roots, is the essence of Joyful Strains in my view.

After reading a few essays a deeper theme emerges within Joyful Strains and that is the individual owning two stories, loving two places, or constantly comparing where they have come from to what they are in the moment. I have two histories myself, being born and taken from my mother, put into state care then adopted to join another family history. I feel lucky to know both of my stories and how my attachment to this world came to be. Yet coming from another land, another culture, another language, must be both a blessing and a hindrance.

Having to rely on the trust of strangers, the patience and the support of the unknown continued >>

Stralian Stories / Neil Boyack

> interlocutor in order to communicate is a risky preoccupation. The old cultural roots, at times, must be ignored for the new roots to take hold and to develop. It is convenient at times to trade on either story, and it must also involve a sense of betrayal.

I have personal experience of this having to manage the ownership and filtering of information, but only within one culture.

This is the conundrum faced by those who have come from somewhere else. Michelle Aung Thin states that she is “well versed in seeing two places at once” and admits that “committing to one place isn’t so easy. It is hard to focus. There is always the possibility of a life lived somewhere else”.

Australia. Surely however, there are millions daydreaming in the opposite direction, most notably those who are tantalisingly close, and stuck in the offshore processing system. Joyful Strains proves that Australia is big enough to accept faults, inequalities, discuss them, and try to address them with an open ended dialogue. The big ones, like colonisation-Invasion will be unending and will remain a defining feature, a “state of state” if you will.

Other issues like the perception that a monoculture runs Australian media, raised by some within Joyful Strains, is possibly realistic but morphing. It is a story the world over that the ruling class decrees the Near my little country town, Newstead, ruling culture. The ruling class in Australia there are canoe trees and carved, patterned is certainly white, middle class, privileged, trees, signposts from the Jaara people. yet I would argue open to ideas, criticisms, There are Chinese graves from one hundred dialogue, and at times, warranted verbal and fifty years ago in the cemetery and abuse. Australia is a multicultural society Anglo Saxon graves there are separated that rests on the reliance on the metainto antiquated religious strains, baggage narrative of a strong dominant culture that that came with owners. These are simple, allows broad movement within its bubble. profound reminders that Australia has been This is a fact. If pure equality were to exist taking on new arrivals forever, and laying somehow, somewhere, it could not include them to rest, and taking care of them, in religion, this is proved daily throughout the their adopted home. There is room of world. There is racism in Australia, there is course for those who aren’t committed to inequality, there is goodness, and honey. If Australia. I am sure there are thousands of something better is waiting, if the gap is to people who, disappointed in the result of be closed, it relies on people to get out their efforts to get here, daydream of leaving there and do something about it.

Neil Boyack is a writer and social worker. He is creator and director of the Newstead Short Story Tattoo. His new book Self Help and Other Works is out now, Check www.neilboyack.com and www.newsteadtattoo.org

Bob Clutterbuck

Driven

by Terry Chapman

by the

Process

< Bob CLUTTERBUCK / Breadline Posters, printer, Fight for an independent and nuclear free Pacific (detail) 1984, screen print. Private collection © The artist

BOB CLUTTERBUCK IS BUILDING HIMSELF a new house. It is tucked in behind the levee bank that protects Newstead when the Loddon takes to flooding.

The new dwelling is a construct of old school portables, that look nothing like school portables. Iron clad and timbers polished, it is bright, airy and girt by veranda, with a studio appending in which he hopes to eventually have time to “throw a bit of paint on some canvas, and see where it goes”.

While Bob is banging in nails, over in Ballarat some of his early works are hanging in the Art Gallery as part of the Got The Message?

50 years of political posters exhibit. When they were sourcing pieces for this show, there were plenty in Bob’s folio to pick from. As a poster artist in the 1980’s, Bob was employed by Red Letter in Brunswick, an organisation sprung from government-funded unemployment programmes. There Bob was charged with running workshops, assisting artists and coming up with a broad range of poster-works himself - advertising, promoting and rallying for whatever was the cause du jour. And in the 80’s there was no shortage of those.

with rich experience and a back catalogue of issue-heavy artworks trumpeting social movements (Women’s Lib, Tenants’ Rights), environmental flashpoints (uranium mining, Franklin River) and various political stoushes (such as conscription, land rights and union arm-wrestling). His folio covers the whole dining-table as Bob flips colourfully through what amounts to a good few decades worth of activism and high emotion. It reads like a graphic novel about a society in adolescence.

When the poster money ran out and the unions no longer needed so many banners, Bob turned his considerable talents to scenic art. He did set design for Channel 9 and The Red Letter organisation (later morphed took to daubing his acrylics upon restaurant into Red Planet, which among things screens, the sides of buildings, railway walls connected with the development of CERES) and even in people’s bedrooms. He found a was composed of a “broadly left-leaning, big demand for works of trompe-l’oeil, the partly ideological” collection of artists, and optically deceiving technique that delivers it kept Bob in paints throughout the decade three-dimensional trickery, and over fifteen until the funding “kind of ran out”. It left him years has compiled an impressive CV of continued >>

Driven by the Process / Terry Chapman

“it is impossible to stay in the income-fromartwork loop, living so far from the city ...” > assignments both private and high profile. He has made art of the walls of the children’s ward at the Shepparton Hospital, refurbished the entire Ghost Train at Luna Park (“had a lot of fun with that”) while giving the park’s iconic laughing mouth its badly needed facelift; he co-produced large scale aboriginal works in the Territory and painted the set for the locally-shot movie Romulus My Father. His more recent scenic art achievement was to redesign the artwork on the Melbourne Zoo’s heritage-listed carousel, turning it from a tired depiction of animal barbarism (hunters with guns on a merry-go-round?) into a global celebration of wildlife and habitat.

longer able to rely on art works to pay his way (“it is impossible to stay in the [income-fromartwork] loop, living so far from the city”), Bob’s day job has him now splashing paint of a different hue, donning the white overalls and rolling and brushing the insides of people’s houses.

When his new place is finished and the bank no longer haunts him, Bob aims to unbox his acrylics and turn this time to more personal projects. Where once he art-worked for others, and yes, there was the activist element to his early stuff, (“though the propagandist, didactic approach is not really me”), his inspirations are now internal. As he mines his subconscious for material before hurling paint at the canvas and seeing what materialises, So what of Bob’s new habitat? Drawn away from St Kilda by the desire for change and a he insists the whole activity is “driven by the preference to own his own place, he fell into process”. No prescription, no narrative, just an Newstead some thirteen years ago, lured, he outpouring into abstract, from which people thinks, by “the artistic energy” he felt around can interpret what they like. here. Painters, musos, writers and places It is this kind of artwork that Bob today finds to get decent coffee, there was creative vibe “personally nourishing”. He expects that a enough to inspire him to source a house and few of his products might find their way onto nestle in behind the levee. As enterprising the walls of his new home, which looks not as he is artistic, Bob sought to meet his far from completion. And if anyone would mortgage not just through his art but at one be keen enough to pay to put a piece of him stage co-establishing Dig cafe, the town’s key on their own wall, well, “that would be the coffee-spot. No longer involved there, and no icing on the cake”. > Bob CLUTTERBUCK, Save the Franklin, Damn the Government 1983, screen print. Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat. Purchased, 1985 © The artist Got the message? 50 years of political posters, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Lydiard Street Ballarat (VIC), 2 March – 14 April - www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au

Carol Porter

Dialogue versus babbleogue Pre internet and post social media >\ The late sixties and seventies were a marvelous time to be involved in the arts. Rebellion was in the air and people were motivated to take to the streets â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in large numbers and often â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to protest against war, gender injustice and social/racial inequality. The Australian art world was being created anew with an emphasis on speaking in our own voice and telling our own stories.

There was also a political and creative synchronicity with other experimental artists and performers around the world.

We believed that you could collectively and individually achieve powerful outcomes with limited means - punks, poor theatre, stateless theatre groups, performance artists using only their naked bodies and poets howling at the void.

A career in the arts driven by satnav. Even graffiti and stencil art, which starts out to affront sensibilities is quickly co-opted by galleries. Artists who used to disguise their identities are now promoted as celebrities.

We are trained to be more textual about our work - how we look and speak about ourselves is more important than the work we produce or the experience we create. How we appear to others We were optimistic about changing is supremely important. Pleasing public the world through art and had the opportunity to put our ideas into practice taste and aesthetics and giving that a price tag is the whole of the game. Prettiness - cheaply. Rents were low and part time is popular, bland is beautiful. Liking is as jobs were plentiful. If all else failed, artists close to expressing an emotion as we and performers had their own special get. Love that wall candy today; replace it dole and a newly formed national arts with a similar piece tomorrow. Forget the funding body. A window of economic visceral and rough, digital is glassy smooth good times, created a wave of artistic and gives nothing away. And mostly noactivity in spite of often dubious box one notices that there is something not office and sales figures. quite satisfying about all this.

Now students and arts practitioners must focus on making money from their art I should also say that tumbling through from the outset, artistic outcomes are the cracks and crevices of our manicured driven by market needs. No time to live a cultural carpet there is some exciting and little, make the big mistakes and find out beautiful art being made by artists of all who you are and what you want to say. persuasions. >>

>

PREVIOUS PAGE: Carol PORTER, Red Planet Posters, printer, Beautifully slim 1992, screen print. Private collection. © The artist. Got the message? 50 years of political posters, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Lydiard Street Ballarat (VIC), 2 March – 14 April - www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au > Carol PORTER, some men will do anything 2012, digital print.

I moved to New York in 1979 to continue making theatre for a couple of years with a group called Nightshift, which began at the Pram Factory in Carlton. Living in Manhattan was a most excellent adventure and I was having a very good time until I became aware that a substantial number of people were having a really miserable time – the homeless, illegal aliens, refugees who were ignored or despised. I started to make screenprinted posters with a group of artists, mostly expatriates of various nationalities, and one other Australian from Nightshift. The posters dealt with a variety of political and social issues and were all intended as giveaways, fundraisers and street posters. Anti commerce and no signature artists. The group was Black Cat, a name and symbol used previously by anarchist groups. We were also involved in teaching printing and design skills, and squatting in abandoned buildings, assisting predominantly Puerto Rican and African American communities claim and renovate their apartments in the South Bronx and Lower East Side.

There’s probably no such thing as the work/ life balance. If you are passionate about your work, you just do it as much as you can and work, art and life sort themselves out, one way or another.

I have been fortunate to work for substantial amounts of time in collectives and community organisations where there is remuneration for creative work and a little more flexibility about where and when hours are worked.

>\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\ >\

Last year I thought I would try to consciously market and sell my work but so far I have been spectacularly unsuccessful as an arts business. As a sole trader one is responsible for conceptualising, creating, manufacturing, accounting, marketing and selling. The real cost of the resulting work can never be realized. We all want cheap stuff no matter what it is. Artwork becomes a consumable like a biscuit or software and just as ephemeral. (Unless of course the artist is either dead or a celebrity and therefore has a product worthy of investment.)

Previous discretionary spending on random visual art is now more likely to be spent on ‘me feeling good’ activities like yoga or overseas travel. Anything left over is going into paying down mortgages and into savings accounts. The cost of living in Australia is now very high and if you need to rent studio and living spaces you will be paying off investors’ mortgages and then some.

There would be light on the horizon if we all had access to alternative energy sources; if

governments eliminated negative gearing (less property speculation) and devalued the dollar; if there was more practical acknowledgement of the social value of art making and artists could survive without the need to always commodify their work.

As artists, we need to continue doing what artists have always done – pooling resources, sharing spaces and knowledge, listening, challenging, inventing and inspiring us all.

Carol Porter, March 2013

MACHU PICHU

DARKEST PERU PART XII Straight out of Lord of the Rings, perched precariously on a narrow saddle between two towering peaks, shrouded in mist, sits the ancient citadel of Machu Pichu. Carved by hand out of solid rock it has withstood the ravages of time for over 500 years. Home of the weavers of the sacred cloth, the citadel was deliberately made extremely difficult to find and almost impregnable, only accessable by a narrow path traversing a sheer rock face where one false move could lead to certain death. In 400 years of raping and pillaging the Spaniards never found Machu Pichu and that is the only reason it remains intact, for if they had found it they would surely have raised it to the ground and built a church in its place, as they did everywhere else in Latin America.

words & pics: Ben Laycock

Anywhere in Peru, if you see a little red flag dangling in a doorway, it means the Chicha is ready. There are two donkeys and a llama dutifully waiting outside this little hut ready to guide their inebriated masters home, a service your modern motor vehicle is unable to perform. I poke my head inside the door. It is dark and smokey and steamy. The ceiling is covered with soot.

A large vat on the fire is bubbling and fermenting and giving off a pungent smell that is both repulsive and attractive. After adjusting my eyes I see the room is full of hardy peasants guzzling from glasses the size of small buckets who have paused momentarily to take in the interloper.

Chicha is Peruvian grupa. I thought it would be really potent but it is actually piss-weak so one must imbibe vast quantities to get the desired effect, so I settle down for some serious drinking.

Meanwhile, other members of the family have been getting up to all sorts of mischief. My youngest daughter bursts into the hotel room waving a tiny bag of white powder and says, ‘look what I found’ In shock, I demand to know where she got it.

“Well I was just innocently walking down the street when two boys said: ‘Hey Gringa, you wanna buy some mariuanna?’” So my 15 year old daughter says, “No, do you have any coke?”

“Yeah, sure,” they say, “just come with us.”

So she does. She hops in a car with two nefarious characters that she has never met and they drive into the badlands, the no go zone of Lima. I am of course dumbfounded by my daughter’s combination of naivity and insouciance. My daughter was actually starting to get a little apprehensive too, all alone in a car in a dangerous part of a strange city, surrounded by strange men. But they drop her off at their parents clothing

shop while they go and get the goods, then they drop her back to the hotel, all safe and sound.

In principal of course, being the responsible adult and all, I should refuse to take part in the proceeding shenaningans, but since my daughter has gone to so much trouble, risking her life and all, I feel it is the least I can do to join the party. A good time is had by all, just when reality starts to rear its ugly head again, my my daughter says, “they are coming back later, with some more”. So we end up dancing the night away in Baranquilla with our new-found friends. In the end I was so overcome with love and effection I wanted to get their phone numbers and email addresses so we could be pals forever, but they said they don’t do emails or phone numbers. I was a bit miffed at first but in hindsight I can understand.

A Peruvian Lament The streets are filthy The roads are rough The buses are late The trains are slow The showers are cold The beer is warm The coffee is weak The toilets are smelly The children are dirty The peasants are ignorant The beggars are annoying The muggers are lurking The gringos are arrogant The water is foul The rivers are toxic The Police are thieves The dogs have rabies Hey, but the cocaine is sublime!

NSW / ACT

sydney • Art Gallery of New South Wales ARTEXPRESS 2013, until 14 April. We used to talk about love, Balnaves contemporary: photomedia until 21 April. The fashion of Helmut Newton and Bettina Rheims, until 19 May. Art Gallery Rd, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000.

T: (02) 9225 1744, www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

TASMANIA

hobart • MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Ancient, modern and contemporary art.

Monanism the permanent collection – evolving over time. Our next exhibition opening 19 June, 2013 is The Red Queen curated by DAVID WALSH, OLIVIER VARENNE and NICOLE DURLING asks why homo sapiens have always made art – is it integral to human evolution?

Fees: $20/adult; under 18s are free. Autumn/ Winter opening hours: 10am to 5pm, closed Tuesdays. Food, bars, winery, microbrewery, accommodation, bookshop and library. 655 Main Road Berriedale, Tasmania, 7011. T: (03) 6277 9900, www.mona.net.au

2014 s a m s t a g applications close 30 June 2013 www.unisa.edu.au/samstag 08 8302 0865

MELBOURNE

box hill • Box Hill Community Arts Centre 2 – 14 April, Box Hill Community Arts Centre Student Exhibition featuring. 16 – 28 April, Idea to Exhibition - Held in conjunction with National Youth Week students have produced a series of finished pieces using a variety of mediums for this group exhibition. Opening Night: Thursday 18 April 6pm - 8pm 470 Station Street Box Hill T: (03) 9895 8888 www.bhcac.com.au

• Whitehorse Artspace Until 20 April 2013, Byzantine Art and Icons.

The Whitehorse Artspace welcomes celebrated iconographic artist ANNA PRIFTI, together with her students, for a fascinating exhibition of Byzantine Art and Icons.This exhibition explores the timeless tradition of painting ‘icons’ – of Christ, the Virgin or one of a number of revered saints or sacred stories. Demonstrations will be held on Saturdays during the exhibition. Please call 9262 6250 or check www.boxhilltownhall. com.au for further information.Image: Anna Prifti The Road to Resurrection (detail) 2011, egg tempera and gold leaf on wood, 75cm x 50cm, c the artist.

Hours: Tues and Fri 10am-3pm, Wed and Thurs 9am-5pm, Saturday noon-4pm. T: (03) 9262 6250, 1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill VIC 3128, www.boxhilltownhall.com.au

University of Ballarat Post Office Gallery Art Gallery Ballarat 10am - 5pm daily www.ballarat.edu.au/gnap www.facebeook.com/postofficegallery

brunswick • Counihan Gallery in Brunswick 12 April – 5 May, opening: Thursday 11 April, 6 – 8pm. Gallery one: MICHELLE HAMER, I Send Mixed Messages. Gallery Two: PHUONG NGO, My Dad the People Smuggler. Saturday 20 April, 2.30 pm: Panel Discussion: Mixed Messages – On Urbanism and Economics in Art and Design. Featuring Stuart Harrison, Architect, Author and Broadcaster | Gretchen Wilkins, Acting Program Director, Master of Urban Design, RMIT University and Director, Studio Apparatus | Danielle Whitfield, Assistant Curator, Fashion and Textiles, NGV | and Ben McKeown, Artist. Saturday 27 April, 2.30pm: Artist talk with Phuong Ngo. Image courtesy of the artist: Michelle Hamer, Know Your Enemy (detail) 2013, mixed yarn on perforated plastic, 53 x 81cm.

233 Sydney Road, Brunswick 3056 T: (03) 9389 8622; www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery. E: counihangallery@moreland.vic.gov.au

bundoora • Bundoora Homestead Art Centre Northern Lights, 1 March – 5 May. ROSALIND ATKINS, LOUISE BLYTON, JU-YUEN MERRAN CHEW, PETA CLANCY, GEORGINA CUE, RACHEL FEERY, FRANCES GALLAGHER, GWEN GARONI, MARY HAMMOND, SOPHIE HARALAMBAKIS, KATHERINE HATTAM, SIRI HAYES, ANNA HOYLE, HILARY JACKMAN, JUSTINE KHAMARA, HELEN KOCIS EDWARDS, KIRSTEN LYTTLE, BEATRICE MEGALOTTI, REBECCA MAYO, VIV MILLER, POLIXENI PAPAPETROU, CLARE RAE, DIANNE SELBY, JACQUI STOCKDALE, JENNYFER STRATMAN, NAT THOMAS, SARAH VELI, ANNE WARREN, SHARON WEST, ELAINE WILLIAMS, JESSI WONG. Image: Georgina Cue, Nyx (detail) 2012, embroidery thread on fly-screen, 62.0 x 92.0cm. Collection of the artist. Photo courtesy of the artist.

7-27 Snake Gully Drive, Bundoora.

(Melways 19 G2) T: (03) 9496 1060; http:// bundoorahomestead.com WE LIKE TO WATCH ... http://www.youtube.com/user/troublestudios/

deer park • Hunt Club Community Arts Centre Galleries 6 April – 11 May AUDREY CARDONA BUTTIGIEG, Eye-deas (Main Gallery), drawings exploring the surreal and expressive capacity of eyes. BRAD AXIAK, NIGEL GILLIES the Sunshine Line (Foyer Gallery), photographs documenting change around the railway at Sunshine. To April 19 ABSTRACT COLLECTIVE Pop-up Abstract (Rm 4 Gallery), new abstract paintings. Image: Brad Axiak, 34 (detail) 2013.

Centre open Mon-Thurs 9am - 7.30pm, Fri 9am - 4.30pm, Sat 9am -12.30pm. Closed Public Holidays. 775 Ballarat Road, Deer Park (Melway 25, F8) T: (03) 9249 4600 E: huntclub@brimbank. vic.gov.au www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/arts

doncaster

• Manningham Art Gallery JOE BONACCORSO: The Mirror Stage – Gallery One, 10 April – 11 May. Solo exhibition.

Introduces the reflected image as a platform for a series of exquisite paintings. BARRY CLARIS: Birdscene – Gallery Two, 10 April – 11 May. Solo exhibition. Presents a series of fantastical and hyper-realistic studies of birds produced in a variety of techniques. Manningham Victorian Ceramic Art Award 2013 NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES www.manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery for terms and conditions and online entry.

Image: Barry Clarris, A Raptor of the Robotic World (detail) 2012, gouache and pencil on arches watercolour paper, 86 x 66cm.

MC² (Manningham City Square), 687 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 3108. Mel Ref. 47 F1. Open Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 5pm. T: (03) 98409367. E: gallery@manningham.vic.gov.au; www. manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery Free entry.

east melbourne • The Johnston Collection House Museum & Gallery Fairhall: Barbara Brownlow & Alexandra Brownlow Rearrange Mr Johnston’s Collection 12 March – 19 June. Melbourne interior designers Barbara Brownlow and Alexandra Brownlow rearrange William Johnston’s collection. Against the backdrop of Johnston’s extraordinary collection, this guided tour explores the idea of 21st century living designed around historic objects. Gallery: Women Making History: Writers, Thinkers, Makers, Icons 1700– 1900 12 March – 19 June. Inspired by the bicentenary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, explores the role of women as writers, thinkers, makers, archetypes and artistic subjects from the 18th century to the close of the 19th century. Image: attributed to Derby porcelain factory (est. circa 1748-1848), figure (Minerva), circa 1780-1785.

Bookings essential www.johnstoncollection.org

geelong • Geelong Gallery A question of scale – maquettes and small sculpture from the permanent collection, until 21 April. NICK MOUNT – the fabric of work, until 12 May. Corporeal – a print exchange folio, until 12 May. Geelong region artists program: Selected works, until 14 April. Seascapes – Jon Frank, 20 April to 26 May. Image: Nick Mount, White granulare composition (detail) 2006, fifteen scent bottles from a unique batch of Gaffer enamel rose, blown glass, granulare murrini, surface worked, assembled. Reproduced courtesy of the artist. Photography: Grant Hancock.

Geelong Gallery, Little Malop Street, Geelong 3220. T: (03) 5229 3645, www.geelonggallery. org.au Free entry. Open daily 10am to 5pm.

Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday.

healesville • TarraWarra Museum of Art Until 14 April 2013 NADINE CHRISTENSEN and ANNE WALLACE: Recent paintings. A selection of Nadine Christensen’s recent paintings featuring still life arrangements positioned across landscapes and abstract motifs and Anne Wallace’s recent paintings of psychologically charged urban environments. 20 April – 16 June 2013 Vibrant Matter. Drawing predominantly from the TWMA collection with selected loans, Vibrant Matter highlights the richness and diversity of Australian abstraction since the 1950s. The selected paintings and sculptures incorporate formal invention, experiments in process and use of new materials, highlighting the myriad ways in which abstraction can powerfully convey complex ideas and feelings including: spiritual and metaphysical concepts and experiences; hidden correspondences and rhythms lying beneath outward appearances; elemental structures and forms; numinous experiences; and psychological transformation.

Image: Nadine Christensen, Hourglass arrangement (detail) 2012, acrylic on board, 150 x 120 cm. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide.

Visit website for public programs and events.

Admission: $5 (children, students and pensioners free). TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville.

For information and bookings visit twma.com.au

langwarrin • McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park Until 14 July 2013: McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award 2012. Until 9 June – Made in China, Australia. Australia’s leading Sculpture Park and Gallery. Until 9 June – Momentum.

390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin (Mel. Ref. 103 E3 only 45 min from St Kilda!) T: (03) 9789 1671. Gallery Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm (Entry by donation).

McClelland Gallery Café, Tues-Sun 10am-4.30pm.

Guided Tours: Wed and Thurs 11am and 2pm, and Sat and Sun by appointment only. Prior bookings highly recommended. E: info@mcclellandgallery. com, www.mcclellandgallery.com

melbourne • BLINDSIDE Wednesday 17 April – Saturday May 4, Opening Thursday 18 April, 6-8pm. G1: Mess Between – featuring JOSEPH BREIKERS, DAVID CAPRA, KEL GLAISTER, STEPHEN PALMER. Curated by CATHERINE CONNOLLY. G2: Leela Schauble – Uncertain. Image: David Capra, A Discussion of Prophetic Dance 2001, performance still #13, performance Space, Sydney. Image courtesy the artist.

BLINDSIDE, Nicholas Building, 714/37 Swanston St (enter via Cathedral Arcade lifts, cnr Flinders Lane), Melbourne. Hours: Tue to Sat 12-6pm. T: (03) 9650 0093

• fortyfivedownstairs 19 March – 6 April Urban Scrawl by GAVIN BROWN, paintings; 19 March – 6 April Delight in the Detail - Consumed By The Everyday by ROBYN RICH, KAREN LLOYD JONES and CATHERINE HULL SINCLAIR, paintings; 27 March – 7 April Bad Boys of Music Theatre: All Washed Up! MICF, comedy cabaret; DC3: The Ringtone Cycle MICF, comical theatre; You’re tearing me apartment: The Roomsical MICF, comical theatre; 9-20 April Unwrapped Hong Kong by MICHAEL PEARCE, works on paper; 9-20 April Murders and Echoes

by CLARE MCFARLANE, paintings; 10-21 April Assassins, STEPHEN SONDHEIM, music theatre; 15 April STREETON TRIO, classical concert; 23 April – 5 May Linoprints

by VICTORIA MCCAFFREY, linocuts; 23 April – 5 May We Don’t Know Everything Yet by SALLY FITTS, drawing and sculpture; 26 April – 12 May Cruising Paradise, The Graduates, theatre. Image: Clare McFarlane, Shuddering Echo I (detail) 2012, acrylic and aerosol paint on canvas, 1400 x 1000mm.

45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 3000. T: (03) 9662 9966 www.fortyfivedownstairs.com

trouble is on twitter too

moonee ponds • Incinerator Gallery Nightwatch: Urban Nocturnes and the Power of Narrative. 5 April – 12 May. Photography exhibition with MARK KIMBER (SA), REBECCA SHANAHAN (NSW), SARAH NGUYEN (NSW), RICHARD LIPP (VIC), TAMARA WATT (VIC), PAULA BINNIE (VIC) and EMMA LESLIE (QLD). Picnic at Phoenix Falls, DOMINIC KAVANAGH. 5 Apr-12 May. New installation as part of the Atrium Project, STUDIO OSK. Presenting Ori, a new installation as part of the Garden Project. 22 March – 28 April, Dreams of Africa, ABIDI ABDI MOHAMED, various forms of African art.

Opening hours: Tues to Sun, 10am-4pm.

Free Entry. Incinerator Gallery, 180 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds VIC 3039 T: (03) 8325 1750, E: incinerator@mvcc.vic.gov.au, www. incineratorgallery.com.au

northcote • Slutmonster and Friends Awarded ‘Highly Commended in Comedy’ 2012 Melbourne Fringe. “It’s a sick, twisted and perverted play that’s gutbustingly hilarious” – Squirrel Comedy. “A Mighty Boosh cum Tim and Eric satire of sexual conquests and gender relations; and that’s no mean feat. Yes, dick jokes, toilet humour and fine, fine art.” - Audrey Schmidt Presented by Darebin Arts Speakeasy as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Tuesday 2 April (Preview), Thursday, Friday, Saturday 4th – 6th, 11th – 13th and 18 – 20th April, 10pm, Northcote Town Hall, Studio 1, 189 High St, Northcote, www.slutmonster.com.au

COWWARR ART SPACE

SERVING ART FOR 20 YEARS

RESIDENCIES, EXHIBITIONS - FOR OUR FULL STORY

WWW.COWWARR.COM

southbank

• ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Art See the artists of the future now in NEW13. ACCA’s annual commissions exhibition, NEW offers rising Australian artists the chance to make a bold, brave new work for the gallery’s large exhibition spaces. Those selected are the artists to watch into the future. For the past five years, the series has been proudly supported by the Balnaves Foundation and is widely considered to be one of the most important commission opportunities for Australian artists. NEW13 has been curated

by ACCA’s Associate Curator, CHARLOTTE DAY. Selected artists are BENJAMIN FORSTER, JESS MACNEIL, ALEX MARTINIS ROE, SANNE MESTROM, SCOTT MITCHELL, LINDA TEGG and JOSHUA PETHERICK. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank. Gallery hours: TuesdayFriday 10am–5pm.

Weekends 11am-6pm.

Mondays by appointment. T: (03) 9697 9999 Admission: Free. www.accaonline.org.au

st andrews • The Baldessin Press and Studio Artists / writers retreats, workshops, studio access etc in tranquil bushland 50 kms from Melbourne. T (03) 97101350, www. baldessinpress.com

sunshine • Sunshine Art Spaces Studio & Gallery Artist studios, gallery and shop front. Four resident artist share the space and host a regular open studio on the second Saturday of each month. Opposite the studio is a Gallery space, which currently hosts the exhibition Viewfinder by DANNY SGRO, 8 April – 5 May. Opening hours vary, call to confirm. 2 City Place & 11 Sun Crescent, Sunshine (Melway 40, H1) T: (03) 9249 4600 E: artspaces@brimbank.vic. gov.au; www.sunshineartspaces.com.au

upwey • Burrinja Gallery Lajamanu: Early Paintings, until 12 May. Dating back to the beginning of acrylic painting in Central Australia, this exhibition features rarely seen canvasses by Warlpiri men and women from the remote Aboriginal community of Lajamanu, 500km northwest of Alice Springs. Imaginary Ornithology, until 12 May. An interactive sound installation by PETER MCLLWAIN. Image: Peter McLlwain, Lattice Toucan - Ramphastos latticei (detail).

Cnr Glenfern Rd and Matson Dr. Tue to Sun 10.30am-4pm. T: 9754 8723. W: burrinja.org.au

wheelers hill

• Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) Until 28 April 2013, PEACE. This important exhibition seeks to find a picture of PEACE and includes photographs made by prominent photographers from the Australian photographic collective DEGREE SOUTH. These photographers include TIM PAGE, ASHLEY GILBERTSON, STEPHEN DUPONT, BEN BOHANE, MICHAEL COYNE, DAVID DARE PARKER, JACK PICONE and the late SEAN FLYNN. Image: Ashley GILBERTSON, Occupy Wall Street demonstrator meditates in Zuccotti Park on November 16 2011, pigment ink-jet print, courtesy of the artist.

860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill 3150.

Tues - Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 to 5pm, Closed Mon. T: (03) 8544 0500, E: mga@ monash.vic.gov.au, www.mga.org.au

CENTRAL VIC ballarat • Art Gallery of Ballarat Until 14 April Got the Message?: 50 Years of Political Posters. Image: PAUL GARBETT (detail). BARRY GILLARD: Help I Feel a Strong Weakness, drawings in the spirit of Dante Alighieri and others, 6 April – 26 May. T: (03) 5320 5858 Free entry. Open daily except Christmas and Boxing Day. E: artgal@ballarat. vic.gov.au; www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au

• Ballarat Arts Foundation Grants Rounds for emerging artists: 1 – 31 March and 1 – 30 September. Visit Downloads on www.ballaratartsfoundation.org.au or T: (03) 5332 4824 or M: 0409 352 268

• Print Council of Australia Inc. Printmakers and print collectors stay in touch with print exhibitions, events and technical issues through IMPRINT magazine. Members receive frequent email updates and information about opportunities (courses, forums, group exhibitions and competitions). Subscriptions $65/year or $45 concessions see website: www.printcouncil.org.au or phone T: (03) 9328 8991 for membership details

2 MAR TO 14 APR 2013 artgalleryofballarat.com.au

• Her Majesty’s Saturday 6 April 7.30pm, Melbourne Opera’s The Merry Widow; Sunday 14 April 1pm, MetHD screening Parsifal (Wagner) Saturday 13 April 3pm and 7pm, BOXMAN; Saturday 20 April 7.30pm, The Girls in Grey; Sunday 21 April 2pm, TONY FENELON in Concert presented by the Ballarat Theatre Organ Society; Sunday 21 April 7pm NT Live screening People by ALAN BENNETT; Friday 26 April 7pm and Saturday 27 April 5pm, Freefall.

Her Majesty’s Theatre, 17 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat. Box Office/Ticket Sales: MajesTix T: (03) 5333 5888 Box Office hours - Monday to Friday, 9.15am - 5pm and one hour prior to performance starting times. http://www.hermaj.com/ • Post Office Gallery Sat 13 Apr – Sun 19 May Guirguis New Art Prize (GNAP) 2013. Ballarat’s inaugural $20,000 national acquisitive art prize featuring the work of REBECCA BAUMANN, FERGUS BINNS, PETRINA HICKS, ASH KEATING, BONNIE LANE, RICHARD LEWER, ANGELICA MESITI, DAVID ROSETZKY, DARREN SYLVESTER, BRENDAN VAN HEK and PAUL YORE. Exhibited at 2 venues - Art Gallery of Ballarat (AGB) and the Post Office Gallery, University of Ballarat. Image: Jill Orr, In the Beginning (detail).

Post Office Gallery cnr Sturt and Lydiard St Ballarat. VIC 3350 or AGB, 40 Lydiard St Nth.Ballarat VIC 3350. Mon to Sun 10am – 5pm (during GNAP). Contact Shelley Hinton, Curator, PO Gallery (03) 5327 8615 s.hinton@ ballarat.edu.au or www.ballarat.edu.au/ gnap or Peter Freund, Marketing and Public Programs Officer, AGB (03) 5320 5858 or www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au.

• Radmac Radmac Office Choice (incorporating Radmac Gallery) is on the move. Your one stop shop for office and school supplies, computer consumables, copy and specialty papers, art and craft supplies and much much more is relocating to 110 Armstrong St South. Phone, fax, email and web remain the same.

Radmac Gallery, 110 Armstrong Street South, Ballarat 3350. T: (03) 5333 4617 Hours 8.30am to 5.30pm Mon - Fri, 9am to 12pm Sat.

bendigo • Artsonview Framing and Gallery Expert custom framing by GEOFF SAYER. Conservation and exhibition framing also available. Plus a small but interesting range of original artwork and photography. Ceramics and etchings by RAY PEARCE, limited edition prints by GEOFF HOCKING now in stock. 75 View Street. E: sayer@iinet.net.au; T: (03) 5443 0624

• Bendigo Art Gallery Shadowlife, an Asialink/ Bendigo Art Gallery exhibition, 13 April - 28 July 2013. Image: FIONA FOLEY, The Oyster Fisherman I (detail) 2011, digital print on Hahnemühle paper.

Courtesy of the artist, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.

42 View Street, Bendigo. T: (03) 5434 6088. www.bendigoartgallery.com.au

• The Capital - Bendigo’s Performing Arts Centre ACO2 the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s precocious little sister, connects the next generation of talented young Australian musicians with the stars of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, creating a combined ensemble with a fresh, energetic performance style. Accordion player JAMES CRABB is famous around the globe for his passionate performance of the seductive and dramatic tango music of Astor Piazzolla. Hear the exhilarating tangos, Baroque and contemporary classical pieces with the vibrant young musicians of ACO2. Sunday 21 April. Tickets: www.thecapital.com.au

• Community & Cultural Development (CCD) www.bendigo.vic.gov.au - for arts, festivals and events info at your fingertips. Select Council Services, then Arts Festivals and Events for Events Calendar and Arts Register. The CCD Unit is an initiative of the City of Greater Bendigo. E: eventscalendar@bendigo.vic.gov. au T: (03) 5434 6464

• La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre VAC Gallery: To 5 May WENDY KELLY, LOUISE BLYTON, MAGDA CEBOKLI and GORDON MONRO Non-Objective Conversations by 4.

Access Gallery: 27 March to 21 April MARTHA ATIENZA My Navel is Buried in the Sea. 24 April to 19 May MICHAEL HARKIN hominis dignitate.

Image: Wendy Kelly, Shift (detail) 2010, mixed technique on canvas 137.2 x182.8cm.

121 View St, Bendigo. T: (03) 5441 8724 W: www.latrobe.edu.au/vac

castlemaine • Arts & Culture: Mount Alexander Shire Phee Broadway Theatre Foyer Exhibition: STEVEN J COVENTRY, A Sensory Experience 2 – 25 April 2013. Arts Fields 2013 Information Session Save the Date Saturday 4 May. Subscribe to the Mount Alexander Shire arts newsletter to find out more details by emailing arts@mountalexander.vic.gov.au Arts & Culture Officer, Tegan Lang, Community Activity and Culture Unit, Mount Alexander Shire Council. T: (03) 5471 1793; M: 0428 394 577; E: arts@mountalexander.vic.gov.au

• Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum Until 26 May BARRY SINGLETON: A Survey from Public and Private Collections and an Exhibition of Current Work, Higgins Gallery.

Image: R W Sturgess Among the Marigolds (detail) 1923, watercolour.

CAGHM, 14 Lyttleton Street Castlemaine, Vic. For full list of events and exhibitions log onto: www.castlemainegallery.com

• Greengraphics: web and print We design anything, in web or print. Call (03) 5472 5300 or visit www.greengraphics.com.au

newstead • Dig Café Until 3 April, The Society of Newstead Amateur Photographers (SNAP) showing photographic portraits. SNAP are: ANN BOLTON, ROBYN WHITE, JUDITH MUNRO, MAUREEN CRAPPER, GAIL LEECH, AMANDA HOYNE and MARGARET HARRIS. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open Wednesday and Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday and Saturday 9am - late, Sunday 9am-4pm. Cnr Lyons and Panmure Streets Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2744; www.digcafe.com.au

• Pocket Gallery 1 April – 31 May 2013 HUGH WALLER. Image: Apparition (detail) 2012, pigmented inkjet print on paper, 95 x 70 cm. www.hughwallerart.com Pocket Gallery is a community-run art space located at Newstead Rural Transaction Centre (RTC) 45 Lyons Street Newstead VIC 3462.

Artists are invited to exhibit at Pocket for free.

E: pocket@troublemag.com for info or find us on Facebook.

• Karen Pierce Painter, Illustrator, Art Teacher, Community Artist.

Quality prints and cards. Old Post Office Studio, 22 Panmure Street Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2459, www.karenpierceart.com

EASTERN VIC cowwarr • Future Now An annual exhibition of VCA honours graduates visiting regional Victoria in 2012/13 presented

by The Substation and the VCA. Featuring artists ZOE CROGGON, GEORGINA CUE, CATHERINE EVANS, INEZ DE VEGA, NORIKO NAKAMURA, DARREN MUNCE and RENUKA RAJIV, 19 April – 25 May 2013. Opening Friday 19 April, 6-8pm. Image: Zoe Croggon, Arms Outstretched (detail) 2012, paper collage.

Cowwarr Art Space, 2370 Traralgon Maffra Rd Cowwarr, Gippsland, Vic 3857; www.cowwarr.com

mildura • The Art Vault 3 – 22 April NIC PLOWMAN Nudes & Portraits; ANNE SPUDVILAS Response to the River.

24 April – 13 May RUTH LE CHEMINANT Connections; HEATHER BURNESS Bound to the River. Artists in Residence: Nic Plowman; Ruth le Cheminant; Heather Burness. Image: Nic Plowman, Figure study no.2 (detail) 2013 watercolour and graphite on stretched paper 140hx100 cm.

43 Deakin Avenue, Mildura 3500. T: (03) 5022 0013 E: juliechambers@theartvault.com.au www.theartvault.com.au Gallery Director: Julie Chambers. Wed - Sat 10am to 5pm and Sun Mon 10am to 2pm.

• Mildura Arts Centre 4 April – 4 August 2013, Recent Acquisitions from the Mildura Arts Centre Collection. 11 April – 30 May 2013, VicRoads Centenary: Keeping Victorians Connected for 100 years 1913 - 2013. Until 29 April 2013, Creatures and Critters: a menagerie of artworks from the Mildura Arts Centre Collection.

Until 31 July 2013, Lazy days and landscapes from the Mildura Arts Centre Collection. Image: JENNY WATSON (b.1951), Horse Series No. 1: Palomino with Championship Ribbon, 1973, oil and acrylic on canvas © Mildura Arts Centre Collection.

Mildura Arts Centre, 199 Cureton Avenue, Mildura VIC 3500. T: (03) 5018 8330; F: (03) 5021 1462; www.milduraartscentre.com.au

swan hill • Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery Until April 28 – In[two]art. In[two]art comprises the works of thirty artist couples. The exhibition demonstrates the varying ways in which they live, work and influence one another. This is a Maitland Regional Art Gallery Touring Exhibition.

“This exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia.” Image: DEBORAH PAAUWE, Untold Story 2010, Giclee print.

Opening hours 10am-5pm Tuesday to Friday, 11am-5pm Saturday and Sunday. Horseshoe Bend, Swan Hill, 3585. T:(03) 5036 2430 E:artgal@ swanhill.vic.gov.au; www.swanhillart.com

MURRAY RIVER

NORTHERN VIC

benalla • Benalla Art Gallery Opening hours 10am - 5pm. Benalla Art Gallery, Bridge Street, Benalla, Victoria, 3672. T: (03) 5760 2619; E: gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au; www. benallaartgallery.com

shepparton • Shepparton Art Museum 7 March to 2 June: The Golden Age of Colour Prints: Ukiyo-e from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Until 30 June: Occasional Miracles: Contemporary Artists Respond to the SAM Ceramics Collection. Until 19 January 2014: Crawling Through Mud: Australian Ceramics and the Japanese Tradition.

70 Welsford Street, Shepparton VIC 3630; T: (03) 5832 9861; E: art.museum@shepparton. vic.gov.au; www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au Director: Kirsten Paisley. Open 7 days, 10am to 4pm (public holidays 1pm to 4pm).

LAUNCH PARTY Saturday 18 February 2012

wangaratta • Wangaratta Art Gallery 30 March - 21 April Elemental: MARY-ROSE RILEY and Light & Dark: BÄRBEL ULLRICH. Paintings & mixed media work by northeast artists. Image: Mary-Rose Riley, Lake Hume 2 (detail) 2012, acrylic on canvas.

56 Ovens Street Wangaratta. Director: Dianne Mangan, Hours: Mon-Tues 12-5pm; Wed-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 1-4pm. T: (03) 5722 0865, F: (03) 5722 2969, E: d.mangan@wangaratta. vic.gov.au or gallery@wangaratta.vic.gov.au; www.wangaratta.vic.gov.au then follow the links to the gallery. Follow us on Facebook.

• Free arts activities, live music & tours of SAM: 10.00am to 5.00pm • Sir John Longstaff: Portrait of a Lady Exhibition • 2011 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award Exhibition • 6 New Permanent Collection Galleries For more information visit sheppartonartmuseum.com.au 70 Welsford St, Shepparton, 3630 VIC p 03 5832 9861 f 03 58318480 e art.museum@shepparton.vic.gov.au

WESTERN VIC ararat • Ararat Regional Art Gallery The Wandering: Moving Images From The MCA Collection and Four Generative Videos, GORDON MONRO, 14 March to 14 April.

Plastic Fantastic, ANNABELLE COLLETT, 14 March to 28 April. Image: Annabelle Collett, Red Armour 2012 Town Hall, Vincent Street, Ararat. Mon to Fri 10am-4.30pm, w/ends 12-4pm. Free entry. T: (03) 5352 2836; E: gallery@ararat.vic.gov.au; www.facebook.com/araratgallery

halls gap • Grampians Brushes 13 7 – 12 September. A workshop program for visual artist at Halls Gap on the edge of the Grampians National park. 15 fantastic tutors in the program each offering a 2 day (Sat&Sun) and 4 day workshop (Mon-Thur). Tutors: DAVID FRAZER, VAL MCCANN, LORRAINE LEWITZKA, ANTHONY PELCHEN, CATHERINE HAMILTON, BARRY & LUCY MCCANN, HERMAN PEKEL, JOHN WILSON, HELEN COTTLE, MALI MOIR, GALI WEISS, JENNIFER BARNETT, KATE FRENCH, ROBERT KNIGHT and ROSS PATERSON. M: 0428 825 971; www. grampiansbrushes.com.au

horsham • Horsham Regional Art Gallery Until 14 April 2013: SKATER – portraits by NIKKI TOOLE of skateboarders. A National Portrait Gallery and Geelong Gallery touring exhibition.

Curated by Dr C Chapman, NPG Senior Curator.

21 Roberts Ave, Horsham. Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 1-4.30pm. T: (03) 5362 2888; E: hrag@ hrcc.vic.gov.au; www.horshamartgallery.com.au

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