Issue 81 July11

Page 1

JULY 2011

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Find out more about all our undergraduate, postgraduate, part-time and short courses for adults and youth in 2011.


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS GRANTS OF UP TO $10,000

Support for the development of new Victorian touring exhibitions of contemporary art, craft or design Who can apply? > Public galleries > Craft councils > Contemporary art spaces > Aboriginal corporations > Universities Closing date: Friday 30 September 2011 Guidelines: www.netsvictoria.org.au NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund (EDF) grants are supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria and the Community Support Fund.

NETS Victoria is supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.


CALLING FOR ENTRIES

$10,000 BSG ART PRIZE ALL THEMES, ALL SIZES, ALL MEDIUMS FRAMED OR UNFRAMED 50 FINALISTS SELECTED SHOW RUNS 12-25 AUG 2011 OFFICIAL OPENING & PRIZES 6PM FRI 12 AUG 2011 YOU CAN ENTER UP TO 4 WORKS. ENTRY DEADLINE MIDNIGHT 31 JUL 2011

ENTER ONLINE AT www.bsgart.com.au

bsg Brunswick Street Gallery 322 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 10am-10pm Tue-Sun P: 0419 390 478 mark@bsgart.com.au www.bsgart.com.au


CAROLINE PHILLIPS, TIMOTHY KENDALL EDSER, CATHERINE EVANS, MARK FRIEDLANDER, KATE JUST, CLARE RAE, JULIE SHIELS AND INEZ DE VEGA Interior Architecture To 24 July Kate Just and Caroline Phillips have each been supported by The Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant, a NAVA initiative made possible through the generous sponsorship of Mrs. Janet Holmes à Court and through the support of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts. Julie Shiels has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, it arts funding and advisory body. La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre

SUE ROGERS 121 View Street Instinct and Inclination Bendigo, VIC, 3550 To 10 July

+61 3 5441 8724 latrobe.edu.au/vacentre

DAVID GOLIGHTLY Sequences 13 July – 7 August

La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre 121 View Street, Bendigo, VIC, 3550 T: 03 5441 8724 121 View Street E: vac@latrobe.edu.au Bendigo, VIC, 3550 W: latrobe.edu.au/vac +61 3 5441 8724 Gallery hours: Tue - Sun 10am - 5pm latrobe.edu.au/vacentre

La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre

Image: Timothy Kendall Edser, Tension 16, 2009, digital C-type print. Photography by Linda Tegg.


JULY 2011

FEATURES (12)

THE SURREALIST VISION

[18]

SYDNEON

Inga Walton Bambam

(24)

MELBURNIN’

(32)

BORN TO CONCRETE

(35)

JULY SALON

(60)

GREENWASH #24

Courtney Symes Courtney Symes Superficilicious Patrick Jones

(62)

HAND MADE MUSIC

(64)

FAR AWAY HOME

(66)

GREETINGS FROM MT BUGGERY

(68)

GREENTHIEF

Dean McInerney Bambam

Ben Laycock Retribution

LISTINGS (20) (22) [23] (26) (50) (56] (56) (57) (58) (58)

NSW / SYDNEY ACT TASMANIA MELBOURNE CENTRAL VICTORIA BAY & PENINSULA EASTERN VICTORIA MURRAY RIVER NORTHERN VICTORIA WESTERN VICTORIA

WARNING: 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.



SURREALIST

TTH HEE

Surrealism, n: psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner – the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern. André Breton (1924) < continued overleaf >


Dorothea TANNING (United States b.1910), Chambre 202, Hôtel du Pavot (Room 202, Hôtel du Pavot), (detail) 1970, wood, fabric, wool, paper, paint, carpet, light bulbs, wallpaper, imitation wood panel. Installed dimensions variable. Purchased 1977. Collection: Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris © Dorothea Tanning/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011.

VIS VISIO ION N alton by inga w


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The Surrealist Vision / Inga Walton

Surrealism:The Poetry of Dreams at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), is the first major survey exhibition of surrealist art in Australia since 1993.The Centre National D’art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris has loaned the core of its surrealist collection, Europe’s most significant, including 189 various paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper and films by 56 artists, dating from 1913 through to the late 1970s. The Surrealist movement has its origins in Dada, an informal zeitgeist which corresponded to the outbreak of World War I, and peaked from 1916-22. Dada was essentially anti-bourgeois in nature, its adherents rejected the belligerent nationalism and expansion of colonial interests they held to be the root cause of the war. Dada positioned itself in opposition to cultural, artistic and intellectual conformity; its intention was to be disruptive and offend sensibilities. “Dada soulève tout! (Dada stirs up everything!)”, they proclaimed. Two ‘Dada Manifestos’, by German author and poet Hugo Ball (1886-1927) in 1916, and by Romanian poet and essayist Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) in 1918, articulated the movement’s antiestablishment convictions. Writer André Breton (1896-1966), who had taken control of Dada’s Paris off-shoot in 1921, became disillusioned with what he considered to be the gratuitous nihilism the group espoused, and believed it had stagnated intellectually. “Dadaism, like so many other things, was for certain people no more than a means of sitting down ... We are subject to a kind of mental mimicry that forbids us from delving deeply into anything and makes us look harshly on what was once so dear”. Breton, who had trained as a medical doctor in 1913, continued his studies during the war in a neurological ward in Nantes. He was fascinated by the unconscious, automatism, ethnography, and drawn to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, whom Breton met in Vienna in October, 1921. Surrealism found its initial expression as a literary movement through Breton’s Le Manifeste du surréalisme (1924), and its sequel (1929). It was perpetuated in subsequent decades through the journals he founded, La Révolution surréaliste (1924-29), Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution (1930-33), and Le Surréalisme, même (1956-59). The link between literature, poetry and painting was to be one of the defining characteristics of surrealist art; as an aesthetic, it discredited ‘reality’ and rejected conventional representations. Breton proposed that apparent contradictions within reality could be resolved creatively through the autonomy of art, where “the eye exists in its wild state”. He organised the first group exhibition of surrealist paintings, ‘La Peinture surréaliste’, in 1925. Several artists associated with Dada, including Francis Picabia (1879-1953), Jean Arp (1886-1966), Joan Miró (1893-1983), and André Masson (1896-1987) would gravitate to the new Surrealist ideas. The concept of the ‘readymade’ in the influential works and experimental films of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) presaged the surrealist penchant for using ‘found’, cult, and ‘fetish’ objects, and incorporating fragments of existing media. < continued overleaf >



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The Greek-born Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), who propagated the idea of scuola metafisica (Metaphysical art) is widely acknowledged to have provided the impetus for Surrealism in art. His irrational cityscapes combined forms emblematic of classical culture with those of modernity, cluttered interiors featured an array of unlikely objects, within environments full of portent but devoid of figures. The collages of German artist Max Ernst (1891-1976), which utilised anatomical imagery, Freudian-inspired text, and recycled content from ‘anti-art’ popular culture sources were expressive of the surrealist desire to uncouple thought from the shackles of rationalism. Ernst’s large-scale paintings, like Ubu Imperator (1923), are dominated by bizarre iconography derived from a state he referred to as “semisleep”, and highlight the fragmentary and episodic nature of ‘dream narratives’ which preoccupied the founding surrealists. Ironically, the two artists who came to be most closely associated with the surrealist style would both fall foul of the movement’s ‘father’, Breton. The works of Belgian René Magritte (1898-1967) have achieved widespread fame through innumerable reproductions. His style has been frequently appropriated and plagiarized throughout the advertising world (a field in which Magritte and his brother Paul worked) and in other media. He influenced later movements such as Pop, minimalist and conceptual art, and continues to be referenced both in popular culture and by other artists. Magritte’s self-portrait Le fils de l’homme (The Son of Man) (1964), of a figure by the sea wearing an overcoat and bowler hat with his face obscured by a green apple, is probably his best known work.

It featured prominently in director John McTiernan’s 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, and was the template for the Norman Rockwell homage Mr. Apple (1970). Magritte produced his first surreal painting, Le Jockey Perdu (The Lost Jockey) in 1926, and played a central role in establishing the Belgian surrealist group. He held his first exhibition in Brussels the following year, which was lambasted by the critics. Soon after, Magritte moved to Perreux-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs of Paris, where he participated in the principal surrealist scene until 1931. In 1946 Magritte published his own Manifeste in Surréalisme en plein soleil (Surrealism in Full Sunshine), criticising the “unbearable torpidity” of the ‘official’ surrealist style, which antagonised Breton. Magritte’s work was less concerned with depicting images drawn from the unconscious; his method of disrupting established representations was to use everyday objects in unlikely or subversive scenarios, or shift them to incongruous places. He gave a new context to familiar things by nudging the viewer’s perception of reality and illusion in a way that is at once fickle, occasionally arch, satirical, and delightfully escapist. Six of his paintings and a bronze sculpture are on view including the Le viol (The Rape) (1945), one of Surrealism’s most confronting and provocative images, which transposes a woman’s naked torso to form her face. The work follows Magritte’s pattern of creating composite images by exploring pictorial equivalents. It acknowledges, in the bluntest manner, the sexual overtones, entrenched attitudes, and erotic voyeurism prevalent in almost every aspect of our lives. By obliterating the woman’s individual face, Magritte reduces her to a sexual archetype indistinct from any other, save for her blonde tresses. She is anonymous and universal, like a broken statue recovered from an ancient temple, a theme used in Les marches de l’été (The marches of Summer) (1938), in which the torso appears to be in a state of transition. Several Magritte works depict metamorphosing objects, in Le modèle rouge (The red model) (1935) a pair of boots transform into human feet, drawing attention to the associative relationship between animate and inanimate objects.


The Surrealist Vision / Inga Walton

The flamboyant, prodigiously creative, and genre-skipping Salvador Dalí (1904-89) would go on to become one of the dominant figures in twentieth century art; arguably the first globally known art super-star. An unapologetic narcissist and incorrigible self-promoter, he forged various commercial arrangements to disseminate his work to the widest possible audience, and lent his name to a variety of licensed products. Dalí arrived in Paris in March, 1929 and was welcomed into the Surrealist’s inner circle, but it was not a relationship of long duration. He was expelled from the group in 1934 after a conflict with Breton over the coterie’s political radicalisation towards the French Communist Party; this was of little interest to Dalí who was more concerned with sexual obsession, oedipal drama, and erotic interplay. Hallucination partielle: six images de Lénine sur un piano (Partial hallucination: six images of Lenin on the piano) (1931) typifies Dalí’s ‘paranoiac-critical’ method, and is replete with several of his recurring motifs, the piano (representing bourgeois values), the ants, and the distant father-figure (a source of conflict). The Gallery’s in-house Australian Cinémathèque is screening a thirteen-part program covering the surrealist sensibility in film, The Savage Eye: Surrealism and Cinema. Included is the infamous Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) (1929) by Dalí and compatriot Luis Buñel. Buñel’s work is explored in The Surrealist Quotidian, including his most renowned films, Belle de Jour (1967), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and That Obscure Object of Desire (1977). In 1953, Buñel declared, “The cinema seems to have been invented to express the power of the subconscious whose roots penetrate so deeply into poetry ... the film seems to be the involuntary imitation of the dream”.

Silent film screenings are accompanied by scores commissioned from musician-inresidence Damon Black of the Brisbane experimental band Secret Birds. These include four films (1923-29) by Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky, 1890-1976), the only North American artist to have been actively involved at the inception of both Dada and Surrealism. Although better known as a photographer, Man Ray was also active as a sculptor, painter and filmmaker. He qualified the latter diversion by explaining, “All the films I made were improvisations. I did not write scenarios. It was automatic cinema. I worked alone. My intention was to put the photographic compositions that I made into motion”. Deciding to devote himself to photography in 1921, Man Ray refined such techniques as ‘rayographs’ and solarisation while maintaining a successful commercial career working for the likes of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. The position of Surrealism as one of the most important and influential artistic movements of the twentieth century can be traced through later artistic manifestations, by centenarian Dorothea Tanning, Jackson Pollock (1912-56),Victor Brauner (1903-86) and Paul Delvaux (1897-1994). Breton’s conviction that the world beyond appearances held the key to liberating consciousness prompted his advocacy of non-Western, folk and indigenous art forms, the art of the mentally ill and untrained artists (later known as Art brut or ‘Outsider art’) as fields worthy of serious attention from collectors, museums and the wider public, a legacy of inclusion that continues today. - www.qag.qld.gov.au/surrealism - www.centrepompidouparis.com

Surrealism:The Poetry of Dreams, Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Stanley Place, South Bank, Brisbane, (QLD), until 2 October.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: André Masson (France/Belgium 1896–1987), Le labyrinthe (The labyrinth) (detail) 1938, oil on canvas, 120 x 61cm. Donation of Basil and Elisa Goulandris 1982. Collection: Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris © André Masson/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011 THIS SPREAD:Yves TANGUY (France/United States 1900–55), A quatre heures d’été, l’espoir ... (Four o’clock in summer, hope...), (detail) 1929, oil on canvas, 129.5 x 97cm. Purchased 1978. Collection: Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris © Yves Tanguy/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011.


DATELINE: JULY 2011

by Bambam

Car culture has a long and rich history across the world and is an integral part of Australian experience. Construction artist Tanya Stubbles’ new series borrows aspects and experiences from that culture, and is heavily inspired by her early teenage years and childhood growing up in the country town of Nowra. Tanya has memories of wild days watching guys “doing the mainee”, and wild nights in hotted-up muscle cars, old Holden utes and the infamous Sandman ‘shaggin’ wagons’. “Doing a burn-out in the main drag would always be greeted with cheers and jeers from the boys and flirty come-ons from all the young girls,” says Tanya. “I was one of those tarted-up girls and became fascinated by cars and what they reflected about someone’s personality, aspects of self and the way we were perceived in the world.” But On The Road, Tanya’s next exhibition at Rex-Livingston Projects in Flinders Street Surry Hills is about more than passionate, teenage memories. The series explores our own intimate relationships with cars, the landscape that we drive them through and the act of being on the road. South Coast-based Tanya was a recent finalist in the prestigious Wynne prize at the Art Gallery of NSW, currently hanging in the Salon des Refuses. She has exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Alice Springs and China. She describes herself as a social landscape painter. “My goal is to explore the Australian identity, our stories and pastimes. I seek to create iconic images, which weave together stories of the land, its people and history. Through the use of nostalgic and sentimental elements sourced from all over Australia, I create works which speak to the people of their experiences.” >


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> Construction offers an opening to access the subconscious through materials which in turn trigger the memories of childhood experiences and pastimes.

organisation has opened many Lomography Stores worldwide, and plans to open one in Sydney towards the end of the year. Watch this space!

Tanya Stubbles: On The Road, Rex-Livingston Projects, Lv 1 / 59 Flinders St, Surry Hills, 14 July – 7 August. Opening night drinks Thurs 14 July, 6-8pm - www.rex-livingston.com/projects

You can catch a fresh La Sardina and check out the range of other Lomography cameras at Incu, Shop RG 23/24, The Galeries, 500 George St, Sydney.

Catch of the Day - Launch of the newest Lom- A fantastic collection of object makers from ‘the big smoke’ share their work with reography camera La Sardina in Sydney’s Incu gional NSW, in the exhibition Places & Spaces. On a no-so-balmy Friday evening (17 June) Curator, Zara Collins brings artists from we attended fashion store Incu at Sydney Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney to Cudgmall The Galeries for the launch of the egong Gallery in the greater west of NSW, newest Lomography camera. La Sardina was to showcase their talent and the diversity of launched at 4pm Vienna time and parties Australian art, craft and design. are being thrown by Lomographers all over the world to celebrate the newest addition The exhibition will feature over 45 artworks to their range of over fifty models. Lomo including a ceramic floor installation by cameras use film, and they have a plastic case Greame Bannerman, illustration/embroiwhich allows light onto the unexposed film dery by Laura McKellar, ceramics by Isobel through the sides of the camera allowing Pegrum, Sophie Milne and Kate Dunn. Jewelthe photographer to capture the world in lery designers working with precious metals surprising and unusual ways – producing include Matina Bourmas, George Plionis and creative shots with vivid colours, grain-patJason Moss. Contemporary jewellers working terns, fisheye distortion, multiple exposure with non-traditional materials include Zoe panoramas, and much more. Brand, Carlie Henderson, Pheobe Miller, La Sardina, inspired by a simple can of sardines, Katrina Freene, Chloe Waddell and unique takes super wide angle shots, and is equipped ceramic jewellery by the ‘Goldenink duo’, with a flash and four colour filters – there are Katherine Wheeler and Abby Seymour. of course no fish inside, only fresh 35mm film! Places & Spaces. Cudgegong Gallery, 102 The camera comes in four colourful designs: Herbert Street, Gulgong, NSW, 2 September El Capitan, Fischer’s Fritze, Seapride and Mara– 17 October. thon. Something for every fish fan. As we nibbled on sardine canapes with a crowd of excited Lomo fans we chatted to Karen Boudakian, who has been a Lomographer for eleven years and helped bring the Lomography movement to Australia. Dressed in a chic sardine-scale outfit, Karen explained to us how the Lomographic Society has grown from a small movement in Vienna into a globally active organisation with over half a million members, all dedicated to experimental and creative snapshot photography. The

SYDNEON was aided and abetted this month by Geoff Sirmai, Lisa Bowen, and Zara Collins, and continues in next month’s issue of Trouble. We welcome your comments, party pics, performance and exhibition news, and invitations. Send to: sydneon@introuble.com.au

IMAGE:Tanya STUBBLES, Drive by the Seaside 2011, mixed media, 84 x 84 cm. On the Road, Rex-Livingston Projects, Lv 1 / 59 Flinders Street Surry Hills, 14 July – 7 August.

Sydneon logo by Robert Pollard


Numbers You Can Numbers Count On* You Can Count On* Numbers

SYDNEY / NSW

20

the blue mountains

• Journey in Nature – a Pochoir exhibition The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah is proud to announce the return to their Artist In Residence program with 2011/2012’s resident artist, Mel Jones. Mel’s exhibition Journey in Nature using Pochoir technique will open in the Visitor Centre at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden on Saturday 2 July and run through to Sunday 14 August 2011. Bells Line of Road, Mount Tomah, NSW 2758. T: (02) 4567 3000; www.mounttomahbotanicgarden.com.au

campbelltown

website for more details of shows in June www.atthevanishingpoint.com.au

sydney

• Art Gallery of New South Wales Until 10 July Unguided tours: Anne Landa award for video and new media arts 2011. Until 7 Aug Eikoh Hosoe: theatre of memory. 18 Jun - 4 Sept The poetry of drawing: Pre-Raphaelite designs, studies and watercolours. Until 3 May 2012 New contemporary galleries featuring the John Kaldor Family Collection. Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000. T: (02) 9225 1744, *When audited by the CAB www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

You Can Numbers Count On* You Can Count On*

• University of Western Sydney windsor Sculpture Award • Hawkesbury Regional Gallery UWS Acquisitive Sculpture Award valued up 8 July – 21 August: Form, Fire and Fruition to $25,000. Landcom People’s Choice Award, *When by the CAB ceramics. (Geoffaudited Crispin) plus contemporary $5,000. Entries close Friday 2 September 2011. Mon - Fri 10am - 4pm, Sat and Sun 10am For application forms or information visit the UWS 3pm, (Closed Tues and public holidays), Free website: http://virtualtours.uws.edu.au/home admission. Deerubbin Centre -1st Floor, 300

cowra

• Cowra Regional Art Gallery 77 Darling Street Cowra NSW 2794. Tues to Sat 10am - 4pm, Sun 2 - 4pm. Free Admission. www.cowraartgallery.com.au

newtown

George Street Windsor 2756. T: (02) 4560 4441. *When by the CAB F: (02) 4560 4442,audited www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

*When audited by the CAB

• At The Vanishing Point Inc. Until 17 July, Stars, Sky, Trees, Breeze, Jagath’s journey, Jagath Dheerasekara, curated by Djon Mundine. 21 July to 7 August, reverse=bread.from(crumbs), curated by Michael Petchkovsky. 565 King Street Newtown NSW 2042, Thur - Sun, 10am - 6pm. T: (02) 9519 2340 See our

Numbers You Can Numbers Count On* You Can Count On* *When audited by the CAB

Proudly Audited by

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au Proudly Audited by Proudly Audited by

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au Proudly Audited by

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au


Artists are invited to submit work for inclusion in the fifth

UWS Sculpture Award

Exhibition to be held on the University of Western Sydney’s Campbelltown Campus from 5 May - 3 June 2012

Campbelltown

Image reproduced courtesy of artist Janik Bouchette Resilience, 2010. Photograph by Kim Armstrong

Prizes

For application forms or information contact:

UWS Acquisitive Sculpture Award, valued up to $25,000

Monica McMahon (02) 4620 3450 or monica.mcmahon@uws.edu.au

Landcom People’s Choice Award, $5,000

Rosemary Hopkins (02) 4620 3460 or r.hopkins@uws.edu.au

Entries close Friday 2 September 2011

Or visit the UWS website http://virtualtours.uws.edu.au/home

Complimentary accommodation in a Studio Apartment will be provided to all Interstate and regional finalists, coinciding with the dates of installation (29th April – 1st May, 2012) and de-installation (3rd June – 5th June 2012) of the exhibition courtesy of Quest Campbelltown.


ACT

22

acton

• ANU Drill Hall Gallery Kingsley Street, Acton ACT. T: (02) 6125 5832, www.anu.edu.au/mac/content/dhg

braddon

• QL2 Centre for Youth Dance Inc Home of Quantum Leap youth dance ensemble. QL2 has a 12 year track record of excellence in youth dance. It is home of Quantum Leap: an auditioned youth dance ensemble; and to the Soft Landing program: assisting the best dance graduates to find their creative pathway. Gorman House Arts Centre, Ainslie Avenue, Braddon ACT 2612. T: (02) 6247 3103 www.QL2.org.au

canberra

• National Gallery of Australia New Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art galleries: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection at the National Gallery of Australia comprises over 7500 works and is the largest in the world. Each of the new gallery spaces specifically designed for a different geographic region or aspect of Indigenous art and, where possible, paintings and sculptures are illuminated overhead by natural daylight. From 8 July, 2011: Out of the West - Art of Western Australia from the national collections. Out of the West is the first survey exhibition outside Western Australia to present a large sample of Western Australian art from presettlement until today. Works by established early artists, ROBERT DALE, THOMAS

TURNER, and KATHLEEN O’CONNOR, as well as those by more recent artists such as HERBERT MCCLINTOCK, ELISE BLUMANN, and RODNEY GLICK, will be shown, alongside significant works by many less familiar names. Open daily 10am - 5pm. Parkes Place, Parkes, Canberra 2600. T: (02) 6240 6411, www.nga.gov.au.

griffith

• PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery 23 June to 10 July Kerstin Styche: Walan Budhang Yinaagirrbang (Strong Black Women); Bronwyn Jewel: Erub July 1. 14 to 31 July Andrée Lawrey and Barb Smith: Fyshwick. PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre, Manuka Circle Griffith ACT. Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm, weekends 12 noon to 4pm. T: (03) 6295 7810; www.photoaccess.org.au • 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.


TASMANIA

devonport

• Devonport Regional Gallery 25 June – 17 July, 2011, opening Friday 24 June, 6pm, Main Gallery, Before the Move: works from the Permanent Collection. In Conversation with Ellie Ray, lunchtime series Tuesday 28 June, 12.30pm. The Little Gallery, Emerging Artist Program Dawn Blazely Unfolded Untouched. Exhibition coinciding with NAIDOC Week (3 – 10 July). Open Mon - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun and pub hols 12 5pm. 45 Stewart Street, Devonport, Tasmania 7310. E: artgallery@devonport.tas.gov.au T: (03) 6424 8296, www.devonportgallery.com

hobart

• Inflight ARI Dark/Light - FELTspace ARI at INFLIGHT (exchange exhibition), 8 – 30 July. Gallery hours: Wed - Sat 1 - 5pm. 100 Goulburn Street, Hobart. www.inflightart.com.au • MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Opening exhibition, Monanism containing DAVID WALSH’s favourite works. 22 January – 19 July 2011. Including: Egyptian antiquities, numismatics,

Snake by SIDNEY NOLAN, ARTHUR BOYD, ALBERT TUCKER, BRETT WHITELEY, along with some of the more infamous Young British Artists (YBAs) JAKE and DINOS CHAPMAN, MAT COLLISHAW, MARC QUINN, and DAMIEN HIRST. Along with WIM DELVOYE’s Cloaca Professional. Hours: 10am to 6pm daily; Coming up: August 6 to October 17: Experimenta Utopia Now. Also: The Source Restaurant, Mona Pavilion accommodation, Moorilla winery, Moo Brew micro-brewery, a wine bar and cellar door. T: (03) 6277 9999, www.mona.net.au, Entry FREE. 655 Main Road, Berriedale, Tasmania 7011

salamanca place

• Inka Gallery Inc. Not-for-profit, artists’ run, original contemporary art. Exhibitions three-weekly. Open 10am4pm daily. Salamanca Place, Hobart. T: (03) 6223 3663 www.inkagallery.org.au; www.inkagalleryhobart.blogspot.com • Salamanca Arts Centre 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart. T: (03) 6234 8414, E: info@salarts.org.au, www.salarts.org.au


DATELINE: JULY 2011

by Courtney Symes

Art has a healing quality that allows us to communicate our feelings and ultimately assist us in coping with various situations. Our relationships with the world around us, which encompass other people, our surrounding environment, and even our health, are just a few of the many catalysts that can prompt artistic responses. As a viewer, it is often rewarding to learn that the art we enjoy has had a cathartic effect on the artist as well. Exhibitions such as the Cancer Council Arts Awards and Libby Byrne’s Vision over Visibility are two excellent examples of how artists have employed art to recover from adverse health problems. Embark on a healing journey with us this month as we celebrate these artists’ roads to recovery, as well as other goingson around Melbourne. Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards exhibition offers a creative outlet for Australians affected by cancer. The theme of this year’s exhibition ‘I am’, was selected to encourage entrants to express their own experience with cancer - personally or through a loved one. The awards were open to entrants of all ages and entry categories and included short stories, poetry, film, visual art, indigenous art and children’s writing and art. Expert judges of each category include: Deb Verhoeven (writer, broadcaster, film critic and lecturer); Emma Mayall (Acting Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery Victoria); Arnold Zable (acclaimed writer and story teller); Jennifer Harrison (renowned poet) and Lee Darroch (Yorta Yorta woman, Indigenous artist and owner of Gurranyin Arts). All artworks selected for the exhibition will convey that “no two cancer journeys are the same ... Whether it be directly or caring for a loved one, all cancer journeys invoke a range of emotions from anger and denial, to fear, hope and even joy.” Runs from 10 – 29 July at 120 Collins St. The exhibition will also tour to other Victorian locations. - www.artsawards.com.au Libby Byrne’s latest exhibition, Vision over Visibility is her creative response to an eighteen-month struggle with a medical condition called Optic Neuritis. This challenging illness affected Byrne’s optic nerves and her ability to process visual information – a particularly cruel affliction for an artist. Byrne explains that her “experience of Optic Neuritis has meant that I have often seen the world as though dusk is continually falling. The brilliance of colour that I have known in the world around me has been replaced by colours that have sometimes been indistinct and muted.”


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This has affected Byrne’s creative process, resulting in “occasions when I was overwhelmed by the physical work of processing the mass of visual material that confronted me in the course of a day.” Despite this being “a cruel experience for a visual artist to live with and one I was not keen to embrace,” Byrne managed to turn adversity into opportunity. “Through gritted teeth I attempted to be patient with my optic nerves until I could overcome this condition and get back to ‘normal’.” By accepting her condition as part of her life journey and using her creativity to guide her through, Byrne was able to surrender her need to control every aspect of her creative process. The exhibition title, Vision over Visibility is a lyric from U2 song, The Moment of Surrender. Byrne’s featured works are “the result of learning to surrender and rest into the ‘vision’ that I experience in simply being before the canvas, whilst letting go of the desire to control that which is ‘visible’ or indeed no longer visible, even to the artist.” Vision over Visibility runs until 17 July at Kinross House, Uniting Church, Toorak. Byrne will also host an Artist’s Floor Talk on Sunday 3 July at 2pm. - www.toorak.unitingchurch.org.au The Archibald Prize 2011 hits the road this month and will be appearing at the TarraWarra Museum of Art from 2 – 31 July. Now in its 90th year, the Archibald Prize is a key event on the Australian art calendar and an unmissable exhibition for art enthusiasts. The primary focus of the awards is to support Australian artists, as well as portraiture of great Australians. The exhibition features work from 41 finalists, including Ben Quilty’s 2011 winning piece, Margaret Olley. TarraWarra is conveniently located in the picturesque Yarra Valley wine region, so the combination of an exhibition visit and a weekend break is alluring... - www.twma.com.au Tasmanian documentary photographer, Ricky Maynard’s latest exhibition, Ricky Maynard: Portrait of a Distant Land at the Ian Potter Museum of Art features sixty images from six of Maynard’s collections of work. Powerful portraits of Indigenous Australians and striking landscapes are the heroes throughout this exhibition. Curator Keith Munro has successfully presented each collection of works together, whilst ensuring the exhibition has a natural flow and is easy for the viewer to navigate. Maynard’s key collections include Returning to Places that Name Us, which features five close-up portraits of Aboriginal men and women; Urban Diary and In the Footsteps of

Others, the latter comprised of images showcasing the natural beauty of the east coast of Tasmania, including beaches and the bush. The diversity of Maynard’s subject matter is refreshing, highlighted in the contrast between The Moonbird People series, including a close-up shot of the worn, hardened hands of a birder, whilst No More than What You See is the study of prison life for another group of Aboriginal people. The Ian Potter Museum of Art observes that “For Maynard, documentary photography is about truth and honesty in the pursuit of social justice, about photography as witness to history, about the connection between place and story and feeling.” Runs until 14 August. - www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au From 22 – 31 July, the Gertrude Street 2011 Projection Festival, Hidden: Spaces and Places will illuminate Melbourne’s long winter nights. Twenty-four moving, still and installation works will be on display at different sites from 6-12pm every evening. Featured artists will be encouraged to “turn to the hidden within or investigate the streetscapes, surfaces, shapes and spaces of Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.” A series of events will also run in conjunction with the exhibition, including an Opening Night Party on Friday 22 July at The Workers Club, Stories Around the Fire: the Hidden History of Aboriginal Fitzroy on Sunday 24 July, Gertrude Art Tours on Thursday 28 July and Sensory Overload, a music and projected art extravaganza at The Workers Club, Friday 29 July. Participating artists including Ian de Gruchy, Kit Webster,Yandell Walton, Arika Waulu, Nick Azidis, Olaf Meyer, Lindsay Cox, Salote Tawale and Rowena Martinich will light up your night out in Fitzroy this month. - www.thegertrudeassociation.com Exploration Eleven at Flinders Lane Gallery is an annual exhibition that showcases the fresh talent of emerging artists who are unsigned or have just graduated. The show also links buyers to new works from “the promising artists of tomorrow” across a variety of disciplines, including painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation. A $5,000 prize, sponsored by Pleysier Perkins Architects is up for grabs, the winner of which will be selected by art collector Arthur Roe and arts writer/publisher, Susan McCulloch OAM. Look out for pieces from artists including Leah Bullen, Camille Hannah, Robyn Hosking, Danny Cohen, Irene Finkelde, Jo Davenport, Mark Richards and Jackie Cavallaro. Runs until 16 July. - www.flg.com.au < Trevor WEIR, Untitled (detail), digital image, part of the Cancer Council Victoria Arts Awards 2011. melburnin’ logo by Ryan Ford


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box hill

• Alcove Art Shop Box Hill Community Arts Centre, 470 Station Street Box Hill. Winter Delights Exhibition, 27 June – 9 July. Unique hand crafted gifts, see website for details: www.alcoveartshop.org.au, Proudly sponsored by Box Hill Community Arts Centre and City of Whitehorse. • Box Hill Community Arts Centre Alcove Art Shop - Winter Delights, 28 June – 9 July; Art Without Borders - A Migrants Journey in Textiles, 11 – 15 July; Box Hill Ballet Association 60 Anniversary Exhibition, 18 – 30 July. 470 Station Street Box Hill, T: (03) 9895 8888, bhcac.com.au • Whitehorse Art Space 14 July – 31 August 2011 Norma Bull: An Australian Artist at Home and at War. A fascinating exhibition of works by enigmatic local artist Norma Bull (1906 – 1980). Saturday 6 August 2pm Norma Bull: An Extraordinary Woman, lively talks with Cr Helen Harris OAM and the curator. Bookings essential on (03) 9262 6250. And in the All Nations Foyer: A Survey of Indigenous Art in the Whitehorse Art Collection featuring work by Gordon Bennett, Jimmy Pike and Zeta Thomson. Saturday 23 July 2pm, Curator’s floor talk. T: (03) 9262 6250. 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

brunswick

• Brunswick Arts Space Solo shows by Sally Kidall, Jesse Dayan and a collaboration by Jessica Kelly and Taë Schmeisser, opening Fri 8 July, 6-9pm, running until 24 July. 2a Little Breese street, Brunswick. Thu - Fri 2 - 6pm, Sat - Sun 12 - 5pm. www.brunswickarts.com.au • Counihan Gallery in Brunswick Until July 17: The Brunswick Project, a series of site-responsive installations from the Slow Art Collective, including TONY ADAMS, CHACO KATO, ASH KEATING, DYLAN MARTORELL and guests. From 29 July: Three Sisters, an exploration of shared memories by MEREDITH CAPP, MELINDA CAPP and FIONA CAPP. L’Imperfetto, mixed media artworks by ROSETTA PAVONE. 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick T: (03) 9389 8622. Hrs: Wed-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun 1pm5pm. Closed public holidays.

burwood

• Deakin University Art Gallery 1 June to 9 July. Ephemeral by Nature – Lasting by Design: Works on paper and artists’ books from the collections of the City of Whitehorse and Deakin University. 20 July to 3 September Discovery: Recent Honours and Postgraduate Practice/Exegesis Work. Recent works by Deakin University’s honours and PhD candidates from the School of Communication and Creative Arts who are presenting work in progress, or who have recently completed their designated degree. Gallery hours 10am - 4pm Tuesday to Friday, 1 - 5pm Saturday. Closed Public Holidays, Free Entry. 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood 3125. T: (03) 9244 5344; F: (03) 9244 5254, E: artgallery@deakin.edu.au; www.deakin.edu.au/art-collection

carlton

• La Mama At La Mama Theatre, 205 Faraday St: till 10 July, Sarajevo Suite by HELEN LUCAS; 13-17 July, The Privilege Gene by LLOYD JONES; from 20 July, Waiting For Godot, by SAMUEL BECKETT. At La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond St: till 17 July, Conspiracy by JOHN KIELY; 19-31 July, La Rejectamenta by STUART ORR. Bookings T: (03) 9347 6142 or www.lamama.com.au

collingwood

• James Makin Gallery Exhibiting: MARK SCHALLER, Painting the Figure, 7 – 30 July. Gallery Hours: Tues Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 5pm. 67 Cambridge Street, Collingwood, 3066. T: (03) 9416 3966; E: info@jamesmakingallery.com; www.jamesmakingallery.com


MELBOURNE

dandenong

• Walker Street Gallery 4 – 27 July 2010 Environmental Expressionism by Peter Biram and Christopher Myers. Also Plastics, photographs by Neil Walker Walker St Gallery Cnr Walker and Robinsons Streets Dandenong 3175. Mon - Fri 11am to 5pm, Sat 11am to 3pm. Closed Sunday and public holidays. T: (03) 9706 8441, F: (03) 9706 7651, E: walkerstreetgallery@cgd.vic.gov.au www.greaterdandenong.com

deer park

• Hunt Club Community Arts Centre Galleries 20 June to 30 July Bubblewrap by Susan Nichols. Centre open Mon-Thurs 9am7.30pm, 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 Gallery Green Space, by Simon Grennan 22 June – 9 July; Just a Painter Now by Christopher Shelton 20 July – 6 August. Manningham Gallery, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 3108. Open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm, Saturday 2 to 5pm. E: gallery@manningham.vic.gov.au; www.manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery

east melbourne

• The Johnston Collection House Museum and Gallery Fairhall: Fair Hall To Glad Parlour: The Flower, Its Beauty and Meaning In Art and Ornament, 4 July – 19 October. Explores the social and cultural histories of botanical motifs through their representation on objects in William Johnston’s Collection. Gallery: The Garden of Ideas, 4 July – 21 October. An Australian Garden History National Touring Exhibition exploring historical styles of gardens and gardenmaking through literature, art and architecture. Bookings essential: www.johnstoncollection.org; T (03) 9416 2515

eltham

• Eltham Library Community Gallery 24 June – 5 July: Oils and Art by DAMIEN SKIPPER. 7 – 27 July: Impressionist Woman by DIANA JACKSON. Hours: Mon - Thurs 10am - 8.30pm, Fri - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun 1 - 5pm. Panther Pl, Eltham, Melway 21 J5.

fairfield

• NMIT – Bachelor of Illustration A degree for those wishing to be a specialist in the creative industries. For information visit www.nmit.edu.au/illustration or call T: (03) 9269 8888

fitzroy

• Brooklyn Arts Hotel Brooklyn is beautiful, friendly, quiet, interesting, quirky and personal, within walking distance of central Melbourne. 48-50 George Street Fitzroy. T: (03) 9419 9328 www.brooklynartshotel.com.au • Colour Factory Gallery Alone in my room by Linsey Gosper. Exhibition dates: 8 – 30 July. Opening night: 7 July, 6-8pm. 409 - 429 Gore Street, Fitzroy 3065. T: (03) 9419 8756, F: (03) 9417 5637. Gallery hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 1 - 4pm. E: Gallery@colourfactory.com.au, http:// www.colourfactory.com.au/gallery/ • Port Jackson Press Print Room Exhibiting: DAMON KOWARSKY and KYOKO IMAZU Collaborate: 24 June – 17 July. Winter Salon – Frame Prices Reduced, 23 July – 19 September. Little Window of Opportunity: KYOKO IMAZU, 18 June – 16 July. JONATHAN PARTRIDGE, 23 July – 20 August. Tues - Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 5pm. 61 Smith Street, Fitzroy, 3065. T: (03) 9419 8988; E: info@portjacksonpress.com.au; www.portjacksonpress.com.au

footscray

• Magnani Papers Australia Beautiful fine art papers for printmaking, painting and drawing. Mention this Trouble ad and get 10% off! 40 Buckley Street Footscray 3011. T: (03) 9689 5660, www.magnani.com.au E: james@magnani.com.au

healesville

• TarraWarra Museum of Art 2 – 31 July. Archibald Prize 2011. TarraWarra Museum of Art is proud to be the exclusive Victorian host of the 2011 Archibald Prize, one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious art awards. Book online at twma.com.au. Car parking is limited. For transport options visit twma.com.au. For further information phone Yarra Valley Visitor Information Centre T: (03) 5962 2600.Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am-5pm. 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville.


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langwarrin

• McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park Australia’s leading Sculpture Park and Gallery. 29 May to 7 August Your Move: Australian artists play chess, a Bendigo Art Gallery travelling exhibition. 29 May to 7 August Mike Nicholls: Primitive soul. McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award 2010, 21 November to 17 July 2011. 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 Sculpture Park at 2pm. Prior bookings highly recommended. E: info@mcclellandgallery.com, www.mcclellandgallery.com

melbourne

• Ballarat International Foto Biennale Looking for salvation? Well the Ballarat International Foto Biennale may not be the best place to look. But if photography is your passion, don’t miss BIFB’11. 20 Aug – 18 Sep 2011. www.ballaratfoto.org • Blindside Artist Run Space 1 – 2 July Sound Series II with artists Ben Byrne, Ben Kolaitis, Ceri Hann and more. Performance Fri 1 Jul 6pm, Circuit-bending Workshop Sat 2 Jul 2pm. RSVP for workshop to info@blindside.org.au. 6 – 23 July (opening Thu 7 Jul 6-8pm): Karla Marchesi. 27 July – 13 August (opening Thu 28 Jul 6-8pm): Gina Clifford, Zinzi Kennedy and Bonnie Lane. Nicholas Building, 714/37 Swanston Street (enter via Cathedral Arcade lifts, cnr

Flinders Ln), Melbourne. Hours: Tue to Sat 12 - 6pm. T: (03) 9650 0093, www.blindside.org.au • fortyfivedownstairs The Burlesque Hour Loves Melbourne, Finucane & Smith, theatre; 28 June – 14 August, Coloured In by REG MOMBASSA, works on paper; 28 June – 9 July, Figurative Paintings by TONY TUCKSON, paintings. Painting by BRONWYN RAVEN PURRULA, paintings, 12 – 23 July; The Intelligence of the Heart by Bronwyn Berman, mixed media and works on paper, 26 July – 6 August; Restless Coherence by Zhao Hongjun and Ding Bifan curated by Jade Yang, paintings, 26 July – 6 August. 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 3000. T: (03) 9662 9966; www.fortyfivedownstairs.com • Matt Irwin Photographic Gallery Photographic art from canvas to card. Mention Trouble for 10% discount! Shop 4, 239 Flinders Lane (enter via Scott Al) www.mattirwin.com • Platform Artspace Tunnel Vision, 1 – 31 July. Group show of ‘goddess like proportions’. Featuring work by five female street artists including Baby Guerilla, SEARious Jones, Rachee Renee, Snotrag and Joske the Hater. Degraves Street Subway, Melbourne. E: info@platform.org.au; http://platformartistsgroup.blogspot.com/ • RMIT Gallery Friday 17 June – 14 August Gioielli d’Autore. Padova e la Scuola dell’oro. Italian Contemporary Jewellery. Padua and its Jewellery School. Highlighting the importance of the city of Padua as a centre at the forefront of contemporary jewellery, this exhibition explores the creative development


MELBOURNE of artists whose innovative jewellery designs and education philosophy led to the creation of the renowned Padua Jewellery School, from its origins in the 1950s until today. More than 100 breathtaking works on display reveal how the artists made their innovative choices based on research of materials, aiming at reaching harmonious balance and purity of form. RMIT Gallery: 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne 3000. T: (03) 9925 1717 F: (03) 9925 1738. E: rmit.gallery@rmit.edu.auwww.rmit. edu.au/rmitgallery. Free admission. Lift access. Mon-Fri 11am to 5pm, Sat 12.00 to 5pm, closed Sun and public holidays. Note: Open for RMIT Open Day Sunday 14 August 12-4 pm. Become a Fan of the Gallery on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter@RMITGallery.

narre warren north

• Artgallop Gallery Shop Life is Still entries invited at $5 per work.Opening 1 July. Open Studio Sketching Days 30 and 31 July - free. Quaker Barn 3a Reservoir Rd. T: (03) 87904756. E: rosmead@gmail.com www.artgallop.net

northcote

• Arts Project Australia This Sensual World, exhib dates Sat 4 Jun – Wed 20 Jul 2011. This Sensual World explores and celebrates the diverse expression of human sexuality present in the work of Arts Project Australia’s artists. Featuring work by John Button, Brigid Hanrahan, Paul Hodges, Adrian Lazzaro, and Chris Mason amongst others. Steven Perrette Solo, exhib dates Sat 4 Jun – Wed 20 Jul 2011. With eye-searing colours and heavy pencil renderings, Steven Perrette’s works on paper depict the poignant journeys of the traveller in this modern world. This is Perrette’s first solo exhibition. Detours Through Abstraction, Sat 23 Jul to Wed 7 Sep 2011. Opening Sat 23 Jul, 3-5pm. Curated and opened by Alex Baker, Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria. This exhibition presents artists who engage with aspects of abstraction, but who are not necessarily flag bearers for abstraction, certainly not with a capital “A”. In the 21st century, few artists would present such a fervent ideology. Featured artists in this exhibition choose a variety of abstract approaches, or explore the unsteady ground on which abstraction has always found itself, even if these approaches are simply detours en

route to another destination. Detours include the monochrome; distillation and reduction; pattern and decoration; text as image; abstraction and inelegance (so-called “bad painting”); and the relationship of abstraction, mark making and depth of field in creating fictional spaces. Artists: STEVEN ASQUITH, JOHN BATES, BORIS CIPUSEV, TONY GARIFALAKIS, JULIAN MARTIN, KITTY NORSTER, REBECCA SCIBILIA, and KATE SMITH. Gallery Hours: Mon to Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm. Location and contact details: Arts Project Australia, 24 High Street Northcote Victoria 3070. T: (03) 9482 4484 F: (03) 9482 1852 E: info@artsproject.org.au; www.artsproject.org.au For artwork enquiries and appointments please contact Arts Project Australia gallery.

prahran

• A Show of Hands A series of hand portraits by Jacqui Grantford, featuring hands of well known and everyday people. With each portrait there is a story – inspirational, sad, and heart warming – including people such as Harold Mitchell, Tony Gould, Simon Madden, Coxy ... and many more. 19 July to 7 August, 2011, Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street Prahran.

preston

• NMIT Visual Arts Courses Design, Graphic Design, Photoimaging, Painting, Printmaking, Photography, Illustration. Full and Part time options plus short courses. See our website for all information www.nmit.edu.au/visualarts. T: (03) 9269 1431

A SHOW OF HANDS

www.jacquigrantford.com Chapel off Chapel, July 19 to August 7, 2011


MELBOURNE

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southbank

• ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Art NATHAN COLEY - Appearances. Scottish artist and Turner prize exhibiting artist Nathan Coley creates a major commission and exhibition for ACCA, transforming the exhibition hall into an Oscar Niemeyer inspired civic plaza, and creating a scale model of Melbourne’s Scots’ Church. A highlight of the exhibition will be a new ‘lecture’ work, where actress CATE BLANCHETT becomes architect, narrating a slide show of ‘supposed’ architectural projects her office has undertaken. NATHAN COLEY, Appearances, 28 May – 24 July 2011. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank. Gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday 10am 5pm. Weekends 11am - 6pm. Mondays by appointment. T: (03) 9697 9999. Admission: Free. www.accaonline.org.au

wheelers hill

• Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) Special Exhibition and Wilbow Galleries, In The Spotlight: Anton Bruehl photographs 1920s -1950s, 23 June to 11 September 2011. Focus Gallery, PRUDENCE MURPHY: Boys with guns, until 17 July 2011, HEDY RITTERMAN: Preservation, 20 July to 21 August 2011. Monash Gallery of Art, 860 Ferntree Gully Road (cnr Jells and Ferntree Gully Roads), Wheelers Hill 3150. Director: Shaune Lakin. Tues - Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 to 5pm, Closed Mon. Gallery gift shop, Lamp Café and sculpture park. T: (03) 8544 0500, E:mga@monash.vic.gov.au; www.mga.org.au • This Space For Rent Seriously. For only $4 a line it’s yours to do with as you will. E: listings@introuble.com.au

st andrews

• The Baldessin Press and Studio Workshops, art retreats, studio access in the bush. See www.baldessinpress.com or T: (03) 9710 1350

upway

• Burrinja Gallery Naked Beast – Where the Wild Things Are, until Sun 10 July, new works by artists in the Dandenong Ranges. Attitudes from Altitude: oil paintings by ROBERT LOGIE, until Sun 17 July. 351 Glenfern Road. Tue to Sun 10.30am - 4pm. T: (03) 9754 8723; www.burrinja.org.au

CALL FOR PROPOSALS Eugenia Lim, Makeshift 2005 (video still)

Manningham Gallery is seeking proposals from artists and curators for the exhibition program in 2012 For information and application forms please visit www.manningham.vic.gov.au/ gallery Applications Close 1 August 2011

699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster p (03) 9840 9367 www.manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery



32 HEIDE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART XX

by Courtney Symes

Above Born to Concrete Installation View Heide Museum of Modern Art

Concrete Poetry is the fusion of art and text. As an art form, it can be conveyed through a variety of mediums including printmaking, typed text, photography, sculpture and more. A rare exhibition subject, Concrete Poetry is the genre du jour at Heide Museum of Modern Art and the headline act of current exhibition Born to Concrete. Exhibition curators, Katarina Paseta and Linda Short selected works from Heide’s collection of 300 Concrete Poetry pieces. Paseta and Short explain that “The Museum has one of the most significant collections of Concrete Poetry in Australia and this exhibition was developed to showcase this material.” Generously donated gifts, (particularly from the estates of editor and writer Barrett Reid and Concrete poet Sweeney Reed) are included in the collection that consists of typewritten texts, prints and sculptures, as well as books and other publications. In addition to pieces by Sweeney Reed, the exhibition prominently features works from artists such as Alex Selenitsch and Alan Riddell. Paseta and Short believe that “The works in Born to Concrete are visually engaging, thought-provoking

Right Sweeney Reed, Rose I 1977 Embossed etching 16.5 x 16.3 cm Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne Gift of Pamela, Mishka and Danila McIntosh 1990 © Pamela McIntosh

and many are historically significant, so we hope visitors respond to the exhibition on a number of different levels.” As curators, they felt that their “overall aim was to present an engaging exhibition that demonstrates how Concrete Poetry evolved in Australia and the diversity of works in the Heide Collection.” Born to Concrete certainly is engaging. The catchy exhibition title alone grabs our attention from the start. Born to Concrete was the first Australian journal to exclusively feature Concrete Poetry from 1974-75, with the journal name originally coined by Poet Jas H. Duke. A total of four journal issues were published and each one was edited by a selected contributor, including Duke, Chris Croft, Rosemary Edwards and Peter Murphy. The Concrete Poetry movement emerged during the 1950s and was led by writers such as Eugen Gomringer from Switzerland and The Noigandres from Brazil. Works featured in this exhibition explore the rise in popularity of Concrete Poetry in Australia from the 1960s to present day.


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Paseta and Short believe that “The emergence of Concrete Poetry is significant as it transformed the definition of what poetry could be and how it was experienced.” Concrete Poetry pushed the boundaries of art and literature by “Expanding the written and phonic possibilities of language beyond standard printed or spoken forms, concrete poets aspired to create poetry that would ‘exist in the world’.” Although Born to Concrete predominantly features the work of Sweeney Reed, Alan Riddell and Alex Selenitsch (who were all an integral part of the development of Concrete Poetry in Australia), many other artists, such as Ruth Cowen, Aleks Danko, Jas H. Duke, Peter Murphy, TT.O, Mike Parr and Richard Tipping have also experimented with this art form. The exhibition also includes pieces from Scottish artist, Ian Hamilton Finlay. The inclusion of several of Finlay’s pieces in the exhibition highlights his influence on other artists such as Sweeney Reed. Finlay and Reed first met in London during the 1960s when Reed was based at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. The pair formed a firm friendship that continued throughout Reed’s life.

Finlay is considered to be Britain’s foremost Concrete poet, originally known for his poetry, plays and short stories. His pieces “present themes that would endure in his work: the sea and seafaring, as well as man’s relationship with nature.” In Star/Steer 1966, “Finlay evokes the poetic idea of a ship navigating the ocean.” Writer Rosemarie E. Palke observes that “the entire pattern describes a zig-zag movement reminiscent of a ship’s changing course (in response to prevailing winds and waves).” The silver screenprint on a grey background evokes the image of a stormy, turbulent day at sea. “Throughout his career Finlay was constantly extending the boundaries of poetry, exploring and developing new techniques of preservation,” demonstrated through works ranging from booklet poems to sculptural installations. Works from Australian-born artist Alan Riddell are also included in Born to Concrete. Originally a journalist, Riddell founded and was editor of poetry review, Lines during the 1950s and 60s before becoming involved in the British Concrete Poetry movement in 1963. A key example of Riddell’s work, Eclipse is featured in Born to Concrete. Eclipse consists of three pieces and “assumes the forms of the sun and moon at different stages in a solar eclipse.” Each piece features bold colour combinations: yellow ground with red text, red ground with silver and gold text and black ground with gold and orange text. Continued overleaf >


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PAGE 35: Rew Hanks, The Hunter and Collector (detail) 2010, linocut 104 x 70cm. Contemporary and Collectable Australian Printmakers, Metropolis Gallery, 64 Ryrie Street Geelong (VIC), 16 – 30 July. CENTRE SPREAD: Michael JOSEPH, Beggars Banquet ‘Mandolin III’ (detail) - Sarum Chase, North London, June 1968. Rendition: A History of the Rolling Stones, The Raw Gallery, 11 Yarra Place South Melbourne (VIC), 8 July – 7 August. THIS SPREAD: 1. George MATOULAS, Map of Australia 2009, collograph with chin colle. Pharos, main gallery, The Art Vault, 43 Deakin Ave, Mildura (VIC), until 18 July. 2. Dane BEESLEY, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2006). Splitting the Seconds: A Photographer’s Journal by Dane Beesley will be officially launched on 22 July, 2011 at Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane (QLD) and will be available for purchase online and at selected bookstores throughout Australia - www.photodane.com. NEXT SPREAD: 3. Catherine Staughton, Cathy Staughton and John Edler Leonardo’s Lost Robot Love 2 Robot Dream 2007, gouache and ink on paper, 76.5 x 56.5cm. This Sensual World, Arts Project Australia, 24 High Street, Northcote (VIC), 4 June – 20 July 2011. 4. Julian Meagher, From where you’d rather be, 2011, oil on linen 120 x 80cm. Group Show Come Together: Fergus Binns / Jasper Knight / Clifton Mack / Julian Meagher / Laurel Nakadate / Oliver Watts, Chalk Horse, 94 Cooper Street Surry Hills Sydney (NSW), 23 June - 3 July 2011. 1


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5. Kate James, The Nodal Point 2007-2008, horsehair and wood, 7.5 x 35 x 9cm. Kate James: The Other Side of Despair, Inaugural exhibition at Daine Singer, Basement 325 Flinders Lane Melbourne, (VIC), 24 June – 30 July. 6. Mark Drew, Enemy 2010. Revolver Upstairs Poster Wall, 229 Chapel Street Prahran (VIC), during July. Photo: China Heights Gallery. 7. San Cisco, playing as part of Fremantle’s Winter Music Series Hidden Treasures, Working Musicians’ Dinner Sessions, 54 High Street Fremantle (WA), Thursday 28 July, 6:45pm. More info at www. facebook.com/ hiddentreasures fremantle.

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8. Lindsay GOSPER, Alone in my room 06’ 2011, c-type print, 100 x 85cm. Alone in my room, Colour Factory Gallery, 409 - 429 Gore Street, Fitzroy (VIC), opening 7 July 6-8pm, 8 – 30 July. 9. Baby Guerilla, Falling 2011, photograph of paste up and stencil. Tunnel Vision, a group show of ‘goddess like proportions’, featuring work by five female street artists including Baby Guerilla, SEARious Jones, Rachee Renee, Snotrag and Joske the Hater, Platform Artspace, Degraves Street Subway Melbourne (VIC), 1 – 31 July. NEXT SPREAD: Tony THORNE, Finish of the Finishing Room, digital, 91 x 70cm. The Last Days of the Mill: Tony Thorne. The end of Burnie’s 73 years of industrial paper making in prints and drawings. With poems by Peter Hay. Burnie Regional Art Gallery, Wilmot Street Burnie (TAS), 16 July – 11 September.




Calling for Submissions The La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre 2012 Exhibition Program Contemporary artists and curators are invited to submit proposals to exhibit in the VAC Gallery and Access Gallery in 2012. Visit the VAC website for application guidelines: www.latrobe.edu.au/vacentre Deadline for applications is Wednesday 31 August 2011

La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre 121 View Street Bendigo, VIC, 3550 +61 3 5441 8724 latrobe.edu.au/vacentre

La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre 121 View Street, Bendigo, VIC, 3550 T: 03 5441 8724 121 View Street E: vac@latrobe.edu.au Bendigo, VIC, 3550 W: latrobe.edu.au/vac +61 3 5441 8724 Gallery hours: Tue - Sun 10am - 5pm latrobe.edu.au/vacentre

La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre


ARTS FUNDING


CENTRAL VIC

50

ballarat

• Art Gallery of Ballarat Let It All Hang Out! Australian Arts of the 1970s, 18 June – 7 August. A diverse collection of works in different media that are confronting, unusual, often humorous but always political in some shape or form. Kat Pengelly – Launch Pad, 25 June - 14 August. Launch Pad is an exhibition of ‘conceptual haute couture’ by Kat Pengelly, who uses sculptural and imagemaking processes to create artful outfits. Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat Vic 3350. Open Daily. Free entry. T: 5320 5858; E: artgal@ballarat.vic.gov.au; www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au • Arts and Cultural Development City of Ballarat For arts and cultural initiatives, events, art register, support or advice please call T: (03) 5320 5643 or go to our website www.ballarat.vic. gov.au and follow the links from community and culture, arts to art connections. • 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 • Ballarat International Foto Biennale Interested in Mongolian throat singing? Well the Ballarat International Foto Biennale may not be your cup of tea. But if photography is, don’t miss BIFB’11. 20 Aug – 18 Sep 2011. www.ballaratfoto.org

RADMAC

art * graphic * office and school supplies

*we supply service* 104 Armstrong St North, Ballarat 3350 Phone (03) 5333 4617 Fax (03) 5333 4673 Email radmac@ncable.net.au

• Gallery on Sturt NICK MORRIS - Nick Morris - “Heart Balm Can Help.” Exploring the boundaries of where I am heading, 13 July – 10 Aug. (Opening 15 July, 68pm). Mon - Fri 9am - 5.30pm. Sat 10am - 2pm, Sun open by appt. 421 Sturt St, Ballarat 3350 www.galleryonsturt.com.au • Her Majesty’s Sunday 3 July, 1pm The Met in HD Die Walkure; Wednesday 13 July, 10am and 12.30pm, ScoobyDoo Musical Mysteries; Saturday 16 July, 2pm and 8pm Savoy Opera Trial by Jury and HMS Pinafore; Tuesday 19 July, 2pm John MacNally’s Love & Roses with a touch of Shamrock; Sunday 24 July, 2pm Victoria Welsh Choir; Thursday 28 July, 8pm Rebecca O’Connor Simply the Best as Tina Turner. 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. • Kirrit Barreet - Aboriginal Art and Cultural Centre Now exhibiting community works. 403-407 Main Road. www.aboriginalballarat.com.au • The Known World Bookshop & Apartment Great s/h books, coffee bar and a boutique city apartment. 14 Sturt Street, Ballarat. T: (03) 5332 8114 • Post Office Gallery Wed 29 Jun – Sun 10 Jul NAIDOC: Indigenous Visual Arts; Wed 13 – Sat 23 Jul KELLY DEVROME: Oneiric Veil; Wed 27 Jul – Sat 13 Aug UoB Undergrad Visual Arts. Post Office Gallery, Arts Academy, University of Ballarat. Cnr Sturt and Lydiard Sts Ballarat. VIC. 3350. Mon/Tue by appt. Wed - Sat 1 - 4pm. T: (03) 5327 8615, E: s.hinton@ballarat.edu.au www.ballarat.edu.au/artsacademy. • Radmac Radmac Gallery 104 Armstrong St (Nth) Ballarat 3350. T: (03) 5333 4617, Gallery Hours: 8.30am to 5.30pm Mon - Fri, 9am to 12pm Sat. Entry Free. Enrol now for art classes. Gallery and studio space available.


Let It All Hang Out Australian Art of the 70s

18 Jun - 7 Aug Image: Frank Littler, Pro News (detail), circa 1975, oil on composition board. Collection: Art Gallery of Ballarat, 1977

Art Gallery of Ballarat 40 Lydiard Street North Ballarat Victoria 3350 Telephone: 03 5320 5858 artgalleryofballarat.com.au


CENTRAL VIC

52

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. New ceramics by RAy PEARCE now in stock. 75 View Street. T: (03) 5443 0624, E: sayer@iinet.net.au • Bendigo Art Gallery Exhibition: American Dreams: 20th century photography from George Eastman House, to 10 July; The White Wedding Dress: 200 years of wedding fashions, opening 1 August. Art and Tea 10.30am Wednesday 20 July. This month’s guest speaker is kerry Anderson, guide at Buda historic house and garden, Castlemaine, this is a free event, all welcome. 42 View Street, T: (03) 5434 6088. www.bendigoartgallery.com.au • Bob Boutique Hidden Eloise new postcards prints. 17 Williamson Street, Bendigo. open: Sat - Sun 11am - 3pm, Mon - Fri 11am - 3pm. www.bob.net.au

Unit is an initiative of the City of Greater Bendigo. E: eventscalendar@bendigo.vic.gov.au T: (03) 5434 6464 • El Gordo Cafe & Art Space Exhibitions: The Reinvention of History by designer/artist SoPhEEA, until 8 July. Photography by LEoN CoLE, 9 July – 12 August. hours: Mon-Fri 8am-4.30pm. Also open Sat 9 July, 9am - 2pm. • La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre VAC Gallery: To 24 July Interior Architecture, TIMoThy kENDALL EDSER, CAThERINE EVANS, MARk FRIEDLANDER, kATE JUST, CARoLINE PhILLIPS, CLARE RAE, JULIE ShIELS and INEz DE VEGA. Curated by CARoLINE PhILLIPS. 27 July – 4 September Synapse, kAREN WARD. Access Gallery: To 10 July Instinct and Inclination, SUE RoGERS. 13 July – 7 August Sequences, DAVID GoLIGhTLy. Gallery hours: Tue - Sun 10am5pm. 121 View St, Bendigo. T: (03) 5441 8724; www.latrobe.edu.au/vac

• The Capital Info and tickets online at www.thecapital.com.au. T: (03) 5441 6100 or visit 50 View Street, Bendigo. Ballet Revolution, Sunday 31st July, 7:30pm. Full list of shows at website.

carisbrook

• 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

• The Knowing Stone Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned, did it? yet very we know that, while the end may be a while away yet, by the scent of the juice of avon it is coming. Don’t be scared – be prepared!

BENDIGO RICHMOND

ESSENDON SUNBURY

FIND ALL YOUR ARTISTIC NEEDS AT ARTHOUSE www.arthousedirect.com.au

• Music Recording by Mark Woods Bald hill Music Studio - Professional recording and mastering. T: (03) 5464 1346 www.myspace.com/markwoodsaudio



54

castlemaine

• Art Supplies Castlemaine Extensive range, art gift ideas, kids art materials, 10% art student discount, special orders welcome. Tues - Thur 9am-5pm, Fri 9am - 5.30pm, Sat 9am-1pm. 25 Hargraves Street. T: (03) 5470 5291, E: artsuppliescastlemaine@gmail.com • Arts Officer - Jon Harris Community Activity and Culture Unit Mount Alexander Shire Council Jon Harris (Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri) PO Box 185 Castlemaine 3450. T: (03) 5471 1793, M: 0428 394 577, E: arts@mountalexander.vic.gov.au • Bent Ironwork Artist’s sculptural work, architectural and wrought iron work by STEVE ROWE. 54 Bagshaw Street Harcourt. M: 0400 538 344 • Buda Historic Home and Garden BudaFest’11 26 – 28 August. Gardeners growing communities - a weekend of fun, with lectures, workshops, displays, stalls, a Garden Ramble, Garden Art, and much more. T: (03) 5410 1060 for a program, or go to www.budacastlemaine. org Buda, home of the noted Leviny family from 1863 to 1981, featuring authentic furnishings, arts and crafts collection, significant heritage garden. Nursery selling drought-hardy and heritage plants. 42 Hunter Street, Castlemaine 3450. T/F: (03) 5472 1032; E: admin@budacastlemaine.org. Open Wed - Sat 12 - 5, Sun 10 - 5. Groups by appointment. • Burke’s Music Specialising in independent music. 66 Mostyn Street. E: music@burkesmusic.com.au T: (03) 5470 6003

CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN ART & DESIGN

GALLERY

CUSTOM, EXHIBITION AND CONSERVATION

FRAMING

74 MOSTYN STREET (ENTER VIA UNION ST) CASTLEMAINE VIC 3450 TELEPHONE: (03) 5470 6446 (FORMERLY TEMPLETON STUDIO)

• CASPA Above the Mantle, three-dimensional etchings by SHERIDAN JONES. Opening Sat 9 July 2pm until 31 July, 10am – 5pm daily. Above Stoneman’s Bookroom, Hargraves Street. www.castlemainefringe.org.au/caspa • Cherry Tennant’s Studio Gallery At any time view Cherry’s paintings, drawings, photographs, greetings cards and poetry books. 160 Hargraves Street (cnr Hall St), Castlemaine. To ensure she’s there phone first. T: (03) 5470 6642. You may also contact her for tuition details. • Falkner Gallery 2 June – 14 August (Gallery closed July) International Art Posters. 35 Templeton Street, Castlemaine Hours: 11am - 5pm Thurs - Sun T: (03) 5470 5858, E: falknergallery@tpg.com.au • greenGraphics: web and print design Domain (www) registration and web hosting. T: (03) 5472 5300, E: info@greengraphics.com.au www.greengraphics.com.au • Instramental We stock all your instrument needs, have a full digital recording studio, and tuition spaces. 12 Templeton Street, Castlemaine 3450. T: (03) 5470 5913, www.instramental.com.au • Louise Smith Fine Art Art Consultant and Valuer, Australian and Indigenous Art. Houghton Park. 43 Odgers Road, Castlemaine Vic 3450. M: 0418 519 747 E: louiseart@bigpond.com www.louisesmithfineart.com • Lot 19 Art: The Winter Salon Exhiber, 8 – 10 July; The lot19 spring sculpture prize is seeking submissions for this acclaimed indoor/outdoor prize, now incorporating the tonksculpture prize. Check the website for details lot19art.com • Phil Elson Pottery Fine hand thrown porcelain tableware and large porcelain bowls. 89 Templeton Street. T: (03) 5472 2814 www.philelsonpottery.com • The Union Studio Contemporary Australian art and design gallery, custom, exhibition and conservation framing, hand finished Australian hardwood frames, canvas stretching and stretchers. The Union Studio, 74 Mostyn Street (enter via Union St) Castlemaine. T: (03) 5470 6446 Open 7 days.


CENTRAL VIC • Victoriana Gaye Husband and wife duo Vicki Gaye Philipp and Jeff Raglus are having Winter in the Goldfields, Sat 2 July, The Guildford Music Hall with ROSE TURTLE ERTLER, 8-11pm, $10; and Sun 14 August, The Elphinstone Hotel, 4-7pm.

lyonville

kyneton

maryborough

• Gallery 40 Current exhibition: Stonehenge 2010 Photos by MARGARET CHANDRA of varied moods of Stonehenge. Opens 31 July – 1 August. SatMon in August. 40 Mollison Street, Kyneton. Contact Margaret Chandra: M: 0438 356 025 E: chandramarg@yahoo.com.au; http:// galleryinkyneton.blogspot.com • Kyneton Daffodil & Arts Festival Prize for Art Kyneton Daffodil and Arts Festival will award $500 to the winner of the 5th Annual Art Prize for an art work containing daffodils and relating to the region. People 17 and older are invited to enter. Winner announced at Festival Opening September 1 and on exhibition during Festival. Entry Guidelines www.kynetondaffodilarts.org.au or on application to the Festival (03) 5422 2282. • Stockroom Makers, artists and project space. 16 July – 14 Aug Black Moon-Light (A ceramic Journey in Three Chapters), PETRUS SPRONK. Mud, Wool, and the Forest Floor (A Journey into a Tall World), PETRUS SPRONK and TERESA POLETTI GLOVER. Landscapes and Longings, JENNIE STEWART. Opening Sat 16 July. 98 Piper St, Kyneton 3444. T: (03) 5422 3215. Wed - Sun 10:30am to 5.00pm. www.stockroomkyneton.com

lancefield

• MAD Gallery and Café To 3 July 2011 Post Your Art, .postcards, sponsored by Macedon Ranges Shire Council. 4 – 21 July 2011 Running Out Of Air, paintings by GEORGIA LAUGHTON and NICOLE TATTERSALL, opening 2-5pm, Sunday 10 July. 22 July – 18 August 2011 Circles, tree bark, mandalas and labyrinths by JULIE FRASER and PETA VERROCCHI, opening 2-5pm, Sunday 24 July. 24 July 2011 2-5pm: Sunday Sounds #23, open mic. Music afternoon, free to all. Contemporary 2D and 3D fine art, new exhibition every 4 weeks. 19 High Street, Lancefield. T: (03) 5429 1432, E: art@madgallery.com.au, www.madgallery.com.aum, Café and Gallery open daily 10am to 5pm.

• Victoriana Gaye Husband and wife duo Vicki Gaye Philipp and Jeff Raglus are having Winter in the Goldfields, Sat 13 August, The Radio Springs Hotel, Lyonville. 12 midday-4pm. • Station Antique Emporium - Lic. Café Regional Wine Centre and Gallery Built in 1890 over 372 sq. metres of antiques and art. Delicious menu, exquisite coffee and teas. 10am - 5pm, closed Tues. Café by Night Thurs (carvery night), Fri and Sat. Live entertainment every Fri from 7.30pm. Café open Saturday nights. T: (03) 5461 4683 • Victoriana Gaye Husband and wife duo Vicki Gaye Philipp and Jeff Raglus are having Winter in the Goldfields, Fri 12 August, Maryborough Railway Station Bar and Cafe. 7.30-10.30pm.

newstead

• Dig Café 18 July until 30 August Sticks and Stones by local artist Michael Hampton, photographic exhibition. Winter hours: Closed Monday & Tuesday. Open Wednesday and Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday and Saturday 9am-late, Sunday 9am-9pm. Cnr Lyons and Panmure Sts Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2744 • Karen Pierce Painter, Illustrator, Art Teacher, community artist, quality prints and cards. T: (03) 5476 2459, www.karenpierceart.com

seymour

• Old Post Office Art Gallery and Restaurant PAUL MARGOCSY bird paintings 7 Aug to 18 Sept. Also other artists on show. Wed to Sat, day and eve plus Sunday lunch.T: (03) 5792 3170; www.artseymour.com.au

talbot

• The Corridor Art Gallery Upstairs at London House, Talbot. Open weekends. M: 0408 596 524.

taradale

• Shelf Life Gallery at Taradale Wine & Produce Featuring: Tales for Midwinter by JENNY NESTOR, 10 June – 22 July. Taradale Wine and Produce, 120 High Street, Taradale. Fri, Sat and Sun 11am - 6pm. T: (03) 5423 2828


BAY & PENINSULA

56

geelong

• Geelong Gallery BARRY GILLARD - Persistent folly until 24 July; Reflections of the soul - Chinese contemporary ink wash painting, 16 July to 11 September. Little Malop Street, Geelong. T: (03) 5229 3645, www. geelonggallery.org.au, Free entry. Open daily 10am to 5pm. • Geelong Performing Arts Centre 50 Lt Malop Street Geelong. Info and tickets online at www.gpac.org.au or phone T: (03) 5225 1200. Find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/geelongperformingartscentre • Metropolis Gallery 16 – 30 July Contemporary and Collectable Australian Printmakers Anna Austin, Dean Bowen, Jazmina Cininas, Robert Clinch, Madeleine Goodwolf, Nicolas

Goodwolf, Graham Fransella, David Frazer, Rew Hanks, Deborah Klein, Damon Kowarsky, Clare Whitney, and Deborah Williams (courtesy Australian Galleries). 64 Ryrie Street Geelong 3220. T: (03) 5221 6505. Director: Robert Avitabile. www.metropolisgallery.com.au

mornington

• Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery 30 June - 7 August: Surface Tension: The art of Euan Macleod 1991-2009, A Tweed River Gallery touring exhibition, curated by Gavin Wilson and W. D. Knox: Nocturnes and Harmonies. A Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition. Civic Reserve, Dunns Road, Mornington. Tue - Sun 10am - 5pm. Open 10am - 5pm Queen’s Birthday, Monday 13 June. T: (03) 5975 4395, E: mprg@mornpen.vic.gov.au, http://mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au/ EASTERN VIC

gippsland

• Call for Nudes Nowa Nowa Nudes 2011: Nude self portrait (Narcissism Prize) $5,000; Open (Tricia Allen Prize) $2,000. Nude works in any medium. Contact: Andrea Lane E: andrealane@bigpond. com; M: 0438 352370; or T: (03) 5155 7277. • Gecko Studio Gallery AILEEN BROWN - Recent Linocuts, 19 June to 16 July. Opening Sunday 19 June from 2-5pm. Gecko Studio Gallery. 15 Falls Rd, Fish Creek, Vic 3959. E: framing@geckostudiogallery.com.au; T: (03) 5683 2481; www.geckostudiogallery.com.au Open 10 – 5pm, Thur to Mon. • Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale Until 10 July, Dreamweavers - A Gippsland Art Gallery and NETS Victoria touring exhibition. Until 24 July The Shilo Project - Contemporary artists reinvent the sleeve of Neil Diamond’s 1970 album ‘Shilo’ in their own style. A NETS Victoria touring exhibition developed by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne. 9 July to 28 August Encounters with the Uncanny - Kiron Robinson explores the vulnerability of form to project a world where everything becomes uncertain, through diverse mediums such as photography, neon, large scale installation, site-specific intervention

and video. 16 July to 11 September William Delafield Cook – A Survey. The first major survey exhibition of this significant Australian artist in over two decades. The exhibition focuses on Delafield Cook’s landscape paintings from 1977 to 2011, with an emphasis on works that are epic in size, sensation and scope. Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 68 Foster Street Sale VIC 3850. T: (03) 5142 3372 F: (03) 5142 3373. Open: Mon - Fri 10am 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 - 4pm. For public holidays hours visit our website. Director, Anton Vardy. E: gallery_enquiries@wellington.vic.gov.au www.wellington.vic.gov.au/gallery • Maffra Exhibition Space Until 7 August Of Wrecks, Ruins and Derelicts – paintings by Charles Desira exploring the relationship between people and the things they have built, lived in, worked in and discarded. Maffra Exhibition Space, 150 Johnson Street, Maffra Open Mon and Wed - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 12pm, Closed Tues and Sun. Enquiries to Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale T: (03) 5142 3372. • Kerrie Warren, Abstract Expressionist kerriewarren.com.au and kerriewarrendesigns. com.au


MURRAY RIVER

mildura

• The Art Vault Concertina Bookbinding Workshop, with George Matoulas, Saturday, 2 July, 1-5pm, $50, conc: $30 - 12 places only. Phone or email to reserve a place. Dual Opening: To 18 July: GEORGE MATOULAS, Pharos, main gallery; ANDREW GUNNELL, Idea Drift, small gallery. Dual Opening: 20 July – 8 August VICKI REYNOLDS, Land Agency, main gallery; BEN LAYCOCK, The River, small gallery. Artists in Residence: George Matoulas, Andrew Gunnell, Vicki Reynolds, Anne Spudvilas. 43 Deakin Ave, Mildura, Vic. Wed - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun - Mon 10am - 2pm. T: (03) 5022 0013. Director: Julie Chambers. www.theartvault.com.au • Mildura Arts Centre Mildura Arts Centre Regional Gallery is closed while the Centre undertakes an exciting redevelopment of Mildura’s arts and cultural precinct. For details on Mildura Arts Centre Outreach projects, see our website for more information. 199 Cureton Avenue, Mildura VIC 3500. T: (03) 5018 8330; F: (03) 5021 1462; www.milduraartscentre.com.au • Mildura Palimpsest #8: Collaborators and Saboteurs Friday 9 – Sunday 11 September 2011. A weekend of art, talk and convivial dinners. With over 50 International and Australian artists represented, Palimpsest # 8 examines the idea that we are all collaborators and saboteurs in the created worlds we inhabit. www.artsmildura.com.au

• Mildura Writers Festival 14 to 17 July 2011. Four days of food wine and words. www.artsmildura.com.au/writers/ • White Cube Mildura Three micro galleries in three locations in Mildura. July: RACHEL KENDRIGAN, HEATHER LEE and STUART HILLS. Stefano’s Café Bakery, 27 Deakin Ave. Klemm’s Newsagency, 53 Langtree Mall. Shugg Group, 126 Lime Ave. E: whitecubemildura@gmail.com; www.whitecubemildura.blogspot.com

swan hill

• Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery A small piece please, 28 June – 31 July. This exhibition showcases some of the smaller works from the gallery’s permanent collection. Small in size, but often big in impact. Elaine and Jim Wolfensohn Gift – Suitcase Kit, Blue case: Technology, 1 July – 31 July. This unique exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia features art objects that can be handled, unlike traditional art works. About Time: Australian studio tapestry 1975-2005, 1 July – 14 August. The exhibition presents tapestries by leading artist-weavers from Ararat Regional Art Gallery’s permanent collection, alongside selected loans from public and private collections. Roman Rudnytsky: Piano Recital, 9 July, 8pm. This popular and passionate pianist is a graduate of the famous Juilliard School in New York; additional studies include masterclasses in Austria (the “Mozarteum”) and Italy. This recital will include works by Beethoven, Schumann, Clementi, Grainger Goodchild and others. Horseshoe Bend, Swan Hill 3585. T: (03) 5036 2430, www.swanhill.vic.gov.au/gallery

CENTRE STATE PRINTING 52 Loch Street, Maryborough, Vic, 3465 Ph: (03) 5460 4222 Fax: (03) 5461 1424 Email: ben@csprinting.com.au

Multi & Full Colour Printing Specialists


NORTHERN VIC

58

benalla

• Benalla Art Gallery Jus’ Drawn: The proppaNOW Collective, A Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts and NETS Victoria touring exhibition to 3 July. Richard Dunn, 4 Paintings after Albert Namatjira to 7 August. James Rankin Photography 9 July – 24 July. Artists Artists 30 July – 25 September. Bridge Street, Benalla, Victoria, 3672, Opening hours 10am - 5pm, T: (03) 5760 2619. E: gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au, www.benallaartgallery.com

milawa

Wangaratta Art Gallery. Director: Dianne Mangan, F: (03) 57 222 969, T: (03) 57 22 0865, E: d.mangan@wangaratta.vic.gov.au or gallery@wangaratta.vic.gov.au WESTERN VIC

ararat

• Ararat Regional Art Gallery Town Hall, Vincent Street. Mon, Wed to Fri 10am – 4.30pm, w/ends 12 - 4pm. T: (03) 5352 2836 araratregionalartgallery.blogspot.com

halls gap

• LiTTLE ArtSpace Exhibitions changing monthly. 1 – 31 July, Bundled & Bound eco dyed textile art by KATE MARTIN, KATHY BEILBY and SUSAN MATHEWS; 1 – 31 August, wilderness photography by KEVIN McGENNAN. LiTTLE ArtSpace (adjacent to The Olive Shop) 1605 Snow Road, Milawa. Mon Wed 10am to 4pm, Thur - Sun 10am to 5pm. E: littleartspace@gmail.com.

• Mountain Grand Boutique Hotel Enchanting getaway in Halls Gap. Delightful dining in The Balconies restaurant with fine local wines and live jazz on weekends. Conferences and functions are our specialty. If you have a longing for the way things used to be. Your hosts Don and Kay Calvert. T: (03) 5356 4232 E: don@hallsgap.net www.mountaingrand.com

shepparton

• Hamilton Art Gallery The Spirit in the Land, 19 May – 10 July. Contemporary Australian Studio Glass 24 May – 31 July. Australian Drawings 31 May – 24 July. 107 Brown Street, Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 12pm and 2 - 5pm, Sun 2 - 5pm. T: (03) 5573 0460, www.hamiltongallery.org

• Glasson’s Art World, High St Shepparton Art Supplies, Graffiti Art Products, Artists Designer Gallery, Dookie Art Retreat, Archival Framing. E: info@glassonsartworld.com.au, www.glassonsartworld.com.au • Shepparton Art Gallery Until 17 July, The Drawing Wall #4: RICHARD LEWER. 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton VIC 3630. Gallery CLOSED for redevelopments from until Feb 2012, please visit the website for updates. Director: Kirsten Paisley. Free entry. Café. T: (03) 5832 9861, E: art.gallery@shepparton.vic.gov.au, www.sheppartonartgallery.com.au

wangaratta

• Wangaratta Art Gallery 4 June – 17 July 2011, The second biennial, Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award. Featuring 42 contemporary textile artists from all over Australia; 4 June – 17 July 2011, Contemporary textiles by LIZ WILLIAMSON, VALERIE KIRK and MANDY GUNN, Installed Wangaratta Perfroming Arts Centre foyer (next door to Gallery in Arts Precinct), Coincides with textile award; 29 June – 12 July 2011, Stitched Up Textile Festival, exhibitions and workshops, Coincides with textile award.

hamilton

horsham

• Horsham Regional Art Gallery 9 July – 4 Sept. The Stony Rises Project. A NETS Victoria Touring exhibition developed by RMIT Design Research Institute. Artists and designers: Vicki Couzens, Lesley Duxbury, Ruth Johnstone, Seth Keen, Gini Lee, Jenny Rowe, Marion Manifold, Laurene Vaughan, Kit Wise and Carmel Wallace. Horsham Regional Art Gallery, 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

natimuk

• Goat Gallery A new show every month featuring the widely ranging skills of local artists. 87a Main Street. Weekends 1 - 4pm and by appointment. M: 0418 997 785 www.goatgallery.com.au



60

PATRICK JONES

greenwash

#24

Suck and Truck “It’s a gift under our land,” says Michael Opie, the managing director of Big Wet Natural Spring Water, in relation to his proposed second commercial bore licence at Musk, in central Victoria. I had initially called Opie in June 2009 to ask him questions about this underground water commons. Currently local residents, Hepburn Shire Council and Big Wet are at the Victorian Civil Administration Tribunal over this issue, and it is possible that Shire folk will not only have to put up with continued private extraction and trucking of public water for non-primary capitalisation, but potentially be lumped with the damages that Opie’s trucks are causing to local roads. I rang Opie again recently to ask him more questions. I just cannot fathom why he is permitted to make this resource commercial, for non-primary use, transport it to Melbourne to fill private swimming pools, or on-sell it to other bottled water companies such as CocaCola Amatil (Mt Franklin) and Cadbury Schweppes. Goulburn-Murray Water is the private company that oversees the licensing of bores in the region and, even though G-M W are ultimately answerable to the Minister for Water, there seems to be little environmental accountability for companies such as Big Wet being carried out by public watchdogs. In 2009 I spoke to Randal Nott, a hydrologist at the Department of Sustainability and Environment, who said that onsite and immediate area ecological testing is quite extensive for a commercial bore, however nobody, to his knowledge, is assessing the pollution caused by the transportation and bottling of groundwater. Contrary to Nott’s “extensive testing” a number of neighbours, immediate to Opie’s bore, complained about their groundwater drying up in the summers of 08/09 and 09/10. After Michael Opie’s initial set up costs in permits and hydrological surveys, he is permitted to start pumping water, buying the precious resource for a mere $3.15 per megalitre, or in real terms, about 10 cents per water tanker load (28,000 litres). Considering the cost of a 600ml bottle of water, there’s a pretty big margin there. Why then does Opie want the public to pay for the damages that his company produces? In our recent correspondence he declined to answer this and several other questions on the basis that VCAT still hadn’t made a ruling. In 2009 it was encouraging that G-M W indicated an interest in making the parish of Wombat, which includes Opie’s bore in Musk, a water management overlay. This

would mean there would be much more ecological scrutiny being administered to the two aquifers in this parish. Two years later it appears that only one aquifer has been made a groundwater management area, but not the aquifer that Opie draws from. The problem of harvesting finite natural resources aggregately is culturally systemic; the abstraction of accumulating figures that don’t stack up to the reality of what the land can physically support, or what the atmosphere can absorb. As Michael Opie pointed out to me in 2009, if he wasn’t doing it someone else would be, a statement that is apparently meant to absolve him of having an ethic on this matter. Opie believes his business is conducted sustainably despite the steady stream of 28,000 litre water tankers he employs for cartage between Musk and Melbourne, not to mention distribution out across the country after bottling. For Australians to drink water bottled in plastic we now burn well over 500,000 barrels of oil every year. In 2006, figures from the Australasian Bottled Water Institute Inc. show the amount was a mere 315,000 barrels. That’s about 35% growth in three years. Imagine the waste products, plastics and emissions involved. It is not surprising therefore that Jillian Broadbent, a director of Coca-Cola Amatil (a company that occupies 70% of the bottled water market), was also, throughout this three-year period of growth, a director of Woodside Petroleum. Mount Franklin and Pump bottled water brands are, of course, Coca-Cola’s healthiest products in relative terms. Their other products actively contribute to the obesity and diabetes epidemics and related health disorders associated with high-sugar and high-preservative based foods and drinks, especially prevalent in young people today. But with all their products, industrial-scale polluting is unavoidable


Image: Patrick Jones, Pop Fascism (detail) 2008. Just Free Water campaign, 2007 – ongoing.

and no amount of greenwashing or positive PR can remedy the fact that bottled water is a brown industry dressed up to look green and healthy. Opie told me that Coca-Cola Amatil is a model corporation with whom he’s proud to do business. The water Michael Opie is privileged to use and sell for profit in real terms still belongs to the Djadjawurrung people. Several years ago Djadjawurrung activist Aunty Sue Rankin asked the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment to produce documents proving that the Crown has the right to occupy these lands. According to the Daylesford Advocate newspaper on June 2, 2004, local DSE officers acknowledged that

they “cannot produce these documents and doubt that such documents exist.” Since the Djadjawurrung’s almost total genocide in the mid-nineteenth century, the Monarch of England has supposedly “owned” this resource, although it is also argued it now belongs to the people of the Hepburn shire by proxy. In all this we can see that ownership of groundwater, like all other natural resources in Australia, is at first sight ambiguous. But the ambiguity only comes from the fact that many Australians do not actively acknowledge the brutal colonising past on which most of our industries are acculturated; a past, on the back of which, Michael Opie has secured his “gift under our land”.

Patrick Jones is an artist and writer of poetry and essays. He is currently undertaking doctoral research between the areas of poetics and ecology within the Writing and Society Research Group, UWS. He is part of Artist as Family collective. He blogs at: www.permapoesis.blogspot.com and vids at: http://vimeo.com/permapoesis


62 22 by DEAN MCINERNEY

Before the 20th Century, music evolved at a rate comparable to that of the lungfish. It lagged behind literature, mechanics, hairdressing and civil law. To veer away from orthodox scales, harmony and key was to risk the wrath of that much feared and tyrannical beast, the music lover. In the 1910’s a generation of Modernists tried to turn this on its head. Composers such as Percy Grainger, Charles Ives, and Edgar Varese abolished classical orchestration, used unconventional percussion, and instruments from foreign lands. Most would find it difficult to realise their ideas. Varese would spend half his days dreaming of electronic instruments that didn’t exist, whilst a young composer named Harry Partch would invent an entirely new orchestra. By creating a unique hybrid of FarEastern and Wild Western Folk instruments, Partch also pioneered “hand-made” music. Electronic music began in the 1920’s with the invention of vacuum tube valves and thus the first sound oscillator. The “Theremin” and the “OndesMartenot” were the first electronic instruments made and used in musical compositions. Beautifully simple, they would spawn an ever growing wave of tinkering by an ever increasing number of hands.

By the 1950’s the development of both the tape-recorder and the first synthesiser would open the flood-gates all through the modern world, Sound Laboratories surfaced in television stations, universities and advertising agencies. One simply could not “buy” a synthesizer at a music shop, you had to make one, or know someone who could. Electronic music was solely the domain of scientists and artists working together, and in many cases the distinction between the two professions had evaporated. By the beginning of the 60’s however, the first mass produced synthesizers were being released. These days, even with the advent of “off-the-shelf ” software that can emulate every sound from a harpsichord to a S.C.U.D. missile; people are still inventing and modifying their own instruments. There is a world-wide subculture of hand-made electronic music, commonly referred to as “circuit-bending”. In North America, this network has been evolving for some time. Symposiums, workshops and performances occur in cities such as Austin, New York, Toronto and Los Angeles. Hand Made Music is an identifiable name that unifies these scenes with other groups whose passion is in the traditional arts of acoustic instrument making, and “poor-instruments” such as the cigar box guitar. These communities have a lot in common – a D.I.Y. ethos that embraces skill and a sense of collaboration, with both eschewing the obsessive brand name consumerism of the “professional” player. People like Rod Cooper, John Jacobs and Ben Kolaitis are part of a local network of performers who modify and marry existing instruments, toys and self engineered circuits into tailor made sound-devices. Each person has a different background and come from different parts of


photo-elements JULIAN WEARNE, ANDREW GARTON, KERSTIN GROH, PETER HYDE

the country, yet they have all taught themselves what they know, informally, under the steam of their own curiosity. Performing amongst other like-minds under various names, such as the “GLTCHD Collective”, or “Crackside”, often at the “Make it Up Club”, a weekly improviser’s night at Bar Open in Fitzroy. Melbourne based musician and artist, Rod Cooper, started as a student of sculpture who integrated automation and sound into his work. In very little time the notion of sculpture faded into the background and he was making electro-acoustic instruments – amplified string instruments modelled on the essential structure of the banjo, hurdygurdy, or zither, or coil-based tone generators. Rod also has a keen interest in the music of South East Asia, especially the Javanese Gamelan sound. He sought out and worked with contemporary Indonesian sound artists in Yogyakarta. Touring extensively has taught him the virtue of a small light instrument. His recent tour of the USA was done with a small modified Banjo that fused the sonic quality of Bluegrass into his trademark experimental music. John Jacobs has been making different types of electronic music in Sydney since the early 1980’s, from industrial noise through to the dance-floor. Deeply involved in the radical politics and strategies of the Post-Punk subculture, John produced experimental radio on 2JJ and 2SER. At the same time he was engineering for ABC Radio National where he now produces the critically acclaimed “Night Air” and “Pool” a site for collaborative arts projects. John Jacobs believes entirely in the benefits of the hands on “magic” of improvised circuitry. A certain mystical zeal underpins his work, this zeal extending to the work of his colleagues. John makes instruments that are art-objects fused with comedy, wonder and irony, many integrating into the bodily electronic “circuit” of the player themselves.

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Harking from the Bendigo experimental music scene, Ben Kolaitis experiments in new and whimsical ways of triggering and controlling sound. MIDI systems controlled by light, graphite pencil drawing and even common fruit makes for an amusing sight, whilst eliminating the use of strings, reeds and skins typical to most instruments. Like Jacobs, Kolaitis’s interest is in creative community, and this is why he pushed for a public forum for creative instrument making. His time in regional Victoria demonstrated the resilience of a marginal artistic field, when in a network of supportive colleagues. This August, in Melbourne, “Hmm... Festival of Hand Made Music” will make an informal debut. Featuring performances, networking, and workshops on how to make electronic and electro-acoustic instruments, “Hmm....” is the first of its kind in Australia. The organisers want Instrument Makers or those wanting to become one to register interest, make proposals, or just get on a mailing list by contacting them via their contact form at: http://handmademusic.me/. Keep your eye on the site for updates, but keep in mind that activities are confirmed for these dates in the following venues. Tuesday 9th – Thursday 11th August BUS GALLERY Basement 673 Bourke St, Melbourne. Saturday 20th – Sunday 21st August

KIPL GALLERY 136 Roden St, West Melbourne. Friday 26th - Sunday 28th August WEST SPACE GALLERY refer to“www.westspace.org.au” for new location.


FAR AWAY

HOME

an exhibition of familiar feelings in an unfamiliar world

A relatively new venue on the scene at just over one year old, the people at Plump Gallery nonetheless made us feel at home with an exhibition designed to provke thought about that which is closest to our hearts. Far Away Home featured three emerging female artists: Leia Sidery, Lisa Bowen and Bekky Keong. Leia’s work in this exhibition is a series of oil paintings called ‘Fear and Wonder’. These pieces shift through allegorical renderings of magic realms, hinting at the mystery that lies beneath the surface of outward appearance and experience. With a flair for the mischievous and fantastical, Sidery’s paintings extend an invitation to revisit fairytale realms, yet are always ghosted by the potential for danger. Lisa Bowen is a mixed media artist who grew up in small-town England. She studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College between 1999 and 2003, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts. Lisa found her way to Australia and the glorious inner West of Sydney four years ago, where her love for sunshine and the creative local community took firm root, lending to her work a new perspective. Lisa’s work is kind of a celebration of failure: our flaws, personal problems and life’s losers. In Far Away Home she exhibited a series called ‘How to String a Sentence Together’ (pictured). The work came about after she found a copy of The Penguin Book of Clichés, amnd began thinking about these curious little collections of words that we are so often told to avoid. She then began to notice that in nearly every conversation she encountered, clichés were used. Beginning to “collect” these clichés as they appeared naturally in conversation, Lisa found herself cherishing them – labouring over each letter as she stitched, and then lovingly framing each phrase. “Every day as more clichés popped up, I became ritualistic about writing them down immediately, before they were gone!” she says. Bekky Keong is young artist based in Sydney. As an extraordinary student, Bekky received the HSC Distinguished Achievement award in Textiles and Design with the highest scores in NSW. Her Textiles Major Work was selected for TexStyle; making her one of only twenty five students in the State. While she works in a variety of mediums, much of her work is a variation of textiles and/or photography. She is passionate about the simple beauty and joy art can create. She addresses this through her use of intriguing aesthetics, texture and intricate, detailed techniques. For Far Away Home Keong created a world for her charismatic fabric creatures, ‘The Smogs’. These soft, colourful and strange looking beings are all handmade from recycled materials. The installation ‘Smog on a Mountain’ depicted an imaginative land of quirky, friendly little beasts. Each Smog is made with a unique, lovable outer and inner character suitable for all viewers. These charming individual creations have acquired their own traits, interests and personalities, and Bekky worked within the gallery space to build a place where the Smogs felt right at home. CHECKOUT: Plump Gallery: full of Juicy concepts and ripe ideas. 240 Enmore Road, Enmore (NSW) - http://plumpgallery.org/



GREETINGS FROM MOUNT BUGGERY by Ben Laycock

After toning our muscles in the nut field free of charge, we headed farther up the lovely Wonangatta valley, following the lazy river swishing from side to side, rolling green pasture rolling past your eyes (Jacinta commented that the country had been well and truly pasteurized), golden poplars swaying in the gentle breeze. Excuse me while I jot down a poem or two. Was that Arthur Streeton perched on yonder crag, immortalizing the scene for posterity? As the valley narrows we begin to wonder how to extract ourselves from this cul-de-sac. Our avowed aim is to drift across the high plains (cult movie reference, 2 points please) and reach the lofty mountains on the distant horizon: Mount Despair, Mount Disappointment, Mount Halfwitt, Mount Buggery. The very names engender a sense of danger and excitement. The bucolic pasteurized valley abruptly ends at an almost vertical wall of stony scree, traversed by the aptly named Billy Goat Gruff Track. In my minds eye I can see the Patriarch himself perched on a rocky outcrop surveying his dominion for interlopers out to steal his harem. A twang of exquisite envy pierces my bosom. My reverie is interrupted by my erstwhile companion; “What the fuck are we gunna to do now? As we sit contemplating the improbable in our trusty Subaru, (we call her Suzy) serendipitously, a friendly cow farmer turns up to assure us that the improbable is probably the impossible. “Your toy car will only make it half way up at best, and at worst you may well return with only half a car.” At this juncture a dark shadow envelops us. We sheepishly look up to a behemoth of a vehicle, bristling with bull bars and winches and CB radios and shotguns and dead animals dripping with fresh blood. Two cheery, fresh-faced hoons straight from the Lee Kernigan show at Dargo lean casually out of the window, display their natty Ned Kelly tatts and snigger, before proceeding right over the top of our Suzy without even touching it. They turn the Johnny Cash up to eleven on the quadraphonic sound system, throw their ciggies out the window into the dry grass, down their VBs in one gulp, crush the cans in one hand then hurl them into the bush, fart in unison, gun the engine and take off straight up the vertiginous incline, heading for Redneck Nirvana: The Bogan High Plains; heavenly playground for cashed up Bogans. That left us sitting in a cloud of dust and apprehension. As we followed their precipitous trajectory, (visually if not physically) we noticed they had taken great care to mark their route with periodically jettisoned beer cans glinting in the sun, no doubt to find their way back in the moonlight. Despondently we turned tail, and we had so looked forward to watching the lovely cows grazing in the mountain meadows, maybe even catch the man from Snowy River rounding up wild brumbies. But those bloody Greeny spoilsports reined all that in, didn’t they? Just for the sake of a few frogs that would have become extinct before anyone knew they existed.


Now, how about this? Although ‘The Mountain Cattlemen’ apparently consist of a mere nine families, their ability to build themselves Icon status is legendary. It seems like every second Toorak tractor sports a ‘Cattlemen’ decal, the poster boys of the Collins Street Farmers who care not a jot for “Land Rights for Gay Whales” but who none the less desperately want to show they believe in something, so they have settled on The Holy Bloody Cows. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, for those tireless campaigners saddled with the seemingly endless task of extracting the cows from the bush, it has been a long and gruelling war of attrition, involving countless studies by important people with letters after their names, all pointing to the incontrovertible fact that grazing does not stop blazing, no matter how well it rhymes. Interestingly, one of the most telling snippets of evidence is based on a tiny plot of land, no more than a couple of acres, that a wise old lady had the foresight to fence off when she was a lot younger, but no less wise. Look inside the fence today and you will be overwhelmed by the array of wildflowers all jostling for light and space, whilst just outside the wire is a monoculture of plain grass. The high country is redneck Nirvana, cris-crossed with tracks that go nowhere in particular but appear to be put there for the sheer unbridled pleasure of driving up and down and round and round. The rougher the track the better the challenge. Any man who finishes the day with his truck not entirely spattered with mud is a poof and must sleep alone for fear he may hear a strange sound in the night and need a cuddle. So it is rather ironic don’t you think, that these big tough fellows in their uniform of check shirts and Akubra hats, at the helm of vehicles that resemble tanks; the very embodiment of masculine power, seem to be losing the battle to fill the bush with cows. And who are the implacable foes they have locked horns with? Why, the humble and unassuming bushwalkers, birdwatchers, and of course the indefatigable Field Naturalists, who by and largely consist of little old ladies that love nothing more than shedding all their garments and trilling about in the forest, smelling the lovely flowers.

photos by Ben Laycock


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TOUR DATES: JULY 1st FRI Melbourne - Pony | 2nd SAT Traralgon – Saloon Bar | 7th THU Newcastle - Hamilton Station Hotel | 8th FRI Canberra - The Basement | 9th SAT Sydney - Lansdowne Hotel | 15th FRI Toowoomba - Norville Hotel | 16th SAT Brisbane - Woodland Bar | 23rd SAT Caloundra - Kings Beach Tavern | 24th SUN Gold Coast - Elsewhere Bar


Retribution

written by Greenthief She said goodbye To her son I will see you soon In a better place Then the devil came, took her away He was confused Asked his neighbour, where did she go? His friend then spat, For us the holocaust never ceased He packed his bags Promised to return, then escaped He wrote a book Of the revolution he would lead He spread the word Of the atrocities he had seen One hundred strong His army marched right through the night He stared right into the eyes of the devil Then, just before the lights dimmed, he said one thing Today marks a new dawn, let the blood spill Tomorrow will have to wait, mark my words it will The bell was rung, word had spread of this day They heard the call, grabbed their swords, joined the cause He yelled to them, history’s about to turn They will pay ... With their blood pictured l to r: Tom Abbott, Julian Schweitzer and Maui Manu - www.greenthief.com

Retribution is on its way, time has come for us to pay


Numbers You Can Numbers Count On* You Can Count On* *When audited by the CAB

*When audited by the CAB

CoVER: Jazmina CININAS, Micah is half of everything (else), 2011, reduction linocut, 21.5 x 31cm. Contemporary and Collectable Australian Printmakers, Metropolis Gallery, 64 Ryrie Street Geelong (VIC), 16 – 30 July.

Trouble

Issue 81 July 2011 is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture, distributing to over 1,200 locations Nationally. CAB Membership Application approved, October 2010. Published by Newstead Press Pty Ltd, PO Box 177 NEWSTEAD 3462. ISSN 1449-3926 ABN 46 138 023 524 STAFF: administration Vanessa Boyack - admin@introuble.com.au | editorial & advertising Steve Proposch - art@introuble.com.au | listings - listings@introuble.com.au Proudly Audited by

CONTRIBUTORS: Mandy Ord, Inga Walton, Bambam, Darby Hudson, Courtney Symes, Patrick Jones, Dean McInerney, Ben Laycock, Ive Sorocuk. LAYOUT: (Hand Made Music & Born to Concrete) Dale Harris - www.studioink.com.au, (The Surrealist Vision) Robert Pollard. For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au 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 Proudly Auditedinby whole or in part in any form without prior permission of the publisher. Trouble is distributed from the first of every month of publication but accepts no responsibility for any inconvenience or financial loss in the event of delays. Phew!

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au




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