trouble
june
2012
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EASTERN VICTORIA
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Issue 91 June 2012 trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture Published by Newstead Press Pty Ltd, ISSN 1449-3926 STAFF: administration Vanessa Boyack - admin@troublemag.com | editorial Steve Proposch - art@troublemag.com | listings - listings@troublemag.com CONTRIBUTORS: Mandy Ord, Ive Sorocuk, Emmi Scherlies, Lisa Bowen, Courtney Symes, Robyn Gibson, Darby Hudson, JeanFranรงois Vernay, Ben Laycock, Jase Harper, Matt Emery, Matt Bissett-Johnson. Find us on Facebook - www. facebook.com/Troublemag Subscribe to our website - www.troublemag.com DIS IS DE DISCLAIMER! The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. To the best of our knowledge all details in this magazine were correct at the time of publication. The publisher does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions. All content in this publication is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without prior permission of the publisher. Trouble is distributed online from the first of every month of publication but accepts no responsibility for any inconvenience or financial loss in the event of delays. Phew!
FEATURES (4) (16)
trouble
june 2012
COMICS FACE
(46) JUNE SALON
ART AT PLAY
(62) STRALIAN BOOKS
Ive Sorocuk
Emmi Scherlies
Crackerjack
Jean-François Vernay
(24) THE ARTIST AND THE VIDEOGAME
(64) TASMANIAN TRAVELOGUE
(32) SOCIAL WORK: IVAN DURRANT
(66) GREETINGS FROM DARKEST PERU PART III
Lisa Bowen
Controversial
Jean-François Vernay
Ben Laycock
(36) MELBURNIN’
Courtney Symes
[42] GREENWISH #7 Robyn Gibson
[45] MESSAGES FOR ME BUT THEY CAN BE FOR YOU TOO IF YOU WANT ALSO Darby Hudson
COVER: Tim STORRIER, The histrionic wayfarer (after Bosch) (detail) © Tim Storrier. 2012 Archibald Prize winner. Archibald Prize 2012, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville (VIC), 9 June – 8 July - twma.com.au SPECIAL SPANKS to Emmi Scherlies for her generous editorial support. READER ADVICE: Trouble magazine contains artistic content that may include nudity, adult concepts, coarse language, and the names, images or artworks of deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Treat Trouble intelligently, as you expect to be treated by others. Collect or dispose of thoughtfully.
Vernon Ah Kee Tall man 2010 (detail), courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane
21 June – 12 August 2012
Controversy: The power of art
ANDREW • DAVILA • DUCHAMP • DURRANT • GOLDIN • GOYA • HIRST • HUAN • KENTRIDGE • LEFEBVRE • MAPPLETHORPE • PARR • PICCININI • POLLOCK • ROBERTSHAW • ROBERTSON-SWANN • WHITELEY • & OTHERS
Civic Reserve Dunns Rd Mornington VIC 3931 Open Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 5pm T 03 5975 4395 http://mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au
Image (left) Damien Hirst For the Love of God, Believe 2007 silkscreen on paper with glazes Private collection, Melbourne © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2012/Licensed by Viscopy, 2012 (right) Jules Lefebvre The Grasshopper (La Cigale) 1872 oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Felton Bequest, 2005
L A S N K FI EE W
Bendigo Art Gallery 11 March - 17 June Actress, Bride, Princess – witness the evolution of Grace Kelly’s style
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL Some sessions sold out www.gracekellybendigo.com
Exhibition organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco Proudly owned and operated by the City of Greater Bendigo with additional support from Arts Victoria
Exhibition Sponsors
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42 VIEW ST BENDIGO VICTORIA 3550 BENDIGOART GALLERY.COM.AU
Exhibition Supporters A participant of the 2012 L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program
Grace Kelly (detail). © Everett Collection / Rex Features
‘Missing Lives’ Photography Exhibition
The wars that scarred the Balkans in the 1990s cost the lives of about 140,000 people, a quarter of whom simply vanished and were reported missing by their families. In 2010, almost 15,000 people remained unaccounted for. The photo exhibition ‘Missing Lives’ documents the International Committee of the Red Cross’ ongoing struggle to reunite these families after war. Photos by award-winning photographer © Nick Danziger / pictures for ICRC Nick Danziger document 15 individual stories of people seeking the truth of what happened to their loved ones.
Open daily during Refugee Week Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd June, 11am to 3pm Venue: Kangaroo Flat Art Inc Space The Arcade, 144 High Street Kangaroo Flat Date: 5th to 28th June 2012 Cost: Free Proudly presented by the City of Greater Bendigo and the International Humanitarian Law department of Australian Red Cross.
Glassimations 6 June to 14 July 2012
Deakin University Art Gallery, Deakin University, Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood Victoria 3125. Melways Ref 61 B5. T +61 3 9244 5344 F +61 3 9244 5254 E artgallery@deakin.edu.au Hours Tuesday–Friday 10 am–4 pm, Saturday 1 pm–5 pm, free entry. Gallery closed on public holidays. Please visit deakin.edu.au/art-collection for exhibition details. Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
Lienors Torre and Alastair Boell Vivienne Screaming 2012 Image courtesy of the artists
TAN ONA OD I T L H
HAMILTON ART GALLERY, 13 JUNE - 9 AUGUST AN RMIT SCHOOL OF ART & NETS VICTORIA TOURING EXHIBITION CURATED BY STEPHEN GALLAGHER
Jane SAWYER Collaboration (part 1), 2011 & Collaboration (part 2), 2011
East Keilor Community Bank速Branch
Find us on Facebook 53 Wyong Street Phone 9331 5811
The School for Wives
by Molière Classic French comedy translated by Justin Fleming and directed by Lee Lewis
Thursday 28 June 8pm Friday 29 June, 11am
2012
17 LYDIARD STREET SOUTH BALLARAT VIC 3350 ADMIN 5333 5800
TICKET SALES MAJESTIX 5333 5888 HERMAJ.COM
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GARETH SANSOM ALTERNATIVE PERSONA 19 MAY - 1 JUL Gareth Sansom Trans-Trains II (detail) 2003 digital photograph, 74 x 122cm, private collection, Image courtesy the artist and John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne, Š Gareth Sansom, licensed by Viscopy
Art Gallery of Ballarat | 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat Vic 3350 03 5320 5858 | artgalleryofballarat.vic.gov.au | Open 9am - 5pm
JADA Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award
First Prize $15,000 with a further $15,000 in acquisitions Promoting contemporary Australian drawing
ENTRIES NOW OPEN On display at Grafton Regional Gallery 26 October - 2 December 2012 Download an entry form at www.graftongallery.nsw.gov.au or contact the Grafton Regional Gallery 02 6642 3177 gallery@clarence.nsw.gov.au GRAFTON REGIONAL GALLERY
IMAGE: Jenova Chen, Flower 2009
by Emmi Scherlies
When most people think of art, they first picture sculptures, paintings and prints. Titles such as Pac-man, Flower, Minecraft, Metal Gear Solid 4, or Flight Control don’t generally spring to mind, much less the creators of these masterpieces. However, these game masters have embraced new mediums to bring art into our modern lives rather than the gallery. Video games are a perfect embodiment of art. The Australian Oxford Dictionary defines art as ‘the various branches of creative activity concerned with the production of imaginative designs, sounds, or ideas’. Game designers use technology as a medium to create art in which we can interact. Australian game developer Rob Murray says, ‘games are my art ... they are the ultimate canvas’. More specifically, he argues that game design might best be compared to architecture. He explains, ‘we create spaces for people to explore and move around in’. ACMI’s upcoming exhibition Game Masters, celebrates the creators behind leading and independent game titles. The exhibition features digital artworks, interviews with the ‘gaming gods’, and 125 playable games. It all begins in the arcade era, and takes us through each generation of consoles, computers and the latest phase: smart phones. ACMI has even commissioned a new game, for Android and iPhone, with each level corresponding with sections of the exhibition. >>
> The beginnings of video games can be traced back to the innovative concepts of scientists such as US nuclear researcher, William Higinbotham. In 1958, he spent three weeks developing a rudimentary version of Pong using an oscilloscope and a lab computer usually used for plotting missile trajectory. His idea was to create an exhibit for an upcoming open-day to engage visitors. A few years later Spacewar! was created, but the idea was never patented or copyrighted — probably because the game ran on a computer the size of a refrigerator worth $120 000.1 These creative innovations paved the way for the video game boom of the 70s, with famous arcade titles such as Space Invaders (Tomohiro Nishikado, 1978) and Asteroids (Ed Logg, 1978). Arguably the most popular arcade game to date, Pac-man, swept the world in 1980. The creator, Toru Iwatani, apparently dreamt up Pac-man when he was inspired by a pizza with a slice removed. Eighteen months later Puckman was released in Japan. In the US, the game was renamed as Pac-man to prevent giggling boys inevitably vandalising the ‘p’ to an ‘f ’. 1 These simple games were highly addictive. As a young girl, I remember eagerly typing lines of commands into our DOS computer to bring up Pac-man. Like most people, I was never able to get past the first few levels; however the game was so addictive that across the world a few people spent countless hours discovering that Pac-man could only reach 255 levels. On the 256th level, the right side of the screen scrambled due to the limited memory usage of games at the time. Despite a $100 000 prize being awarded to anyone that could beat the famous ‘split-screen’, it was never claimed. The level was only beaten when Pacman was rewritten in Flash. Gamers had many theories about what would happen
when the level would finally be conquered ... but the game simply restarted at level one. Jumping a couple of decades into the future, Flower (thatgamecompany, 2009) epitomises games as art. It approaches the gaming experience in an entirely original way by utilising the Playstation 3’s ‘tilt’ technology. The player begins the game as a single petal in an endless sea of grassy knolls. Pressing any button creates movement by summoning a soft breeze, and is directed by gently tilting the controller from side to side. The sole objective is to flow through the fields, bringing life and colour to barren lands. Flower is a game which entertains purely through aesthetics and emotion. On completing the first level, I watched a bare tree blossom into life. The beautifully detailed graphics brought simple and pure joy. As IGN describes, ‘the majesty of it all stems from the fact that Flower says so much by saying so little — as if a Zen poem had been lovingly shaped into a video game’.
Art at Play / Emmi Scherlies
Another innovative release is Minecraft (Marcus Persson, 2011), which provides players with infinite possibilities. The developers of Minecraft created gameplay allowing you to build or destroy anything your heart desires, with a few rules: stay out of lava, don’t fall from a great height, don’t drown, and don’t let the monsters (including creepers, ghasts and zombie pig-men) get you at night. Likewise, your imagination can run wild (e.g. my husband built a glass fortress with a lava waterfall), however you cannot defy basic rules of nature. For instance, if you are like me and continually destroy large chunks of earth by accident, you have to wait patiently for grass to regrow after you refill the large craters. And to my dismay, building a veranda over your garden will kill your flowers because they are no longer able to photosynthesise. The retro visuals have a basic pixelated design, proving that creativity and gameplay can be art in their own right, not just immaculate visuals. >>
IMAGE: Toro Iwatani, Pack Man 1980
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Art at Play / Emmi Scherlies
> In contrast to Minecraft, the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 4 (Hideo Kojima, 2008), although highly entertaining, isn’t ground breaking. Metal Gear Solid 4 is an action packed shooter requiring stealth, agility and ... lots of guns. It is the complex storyline, portrayed in stunning cinematic quality, that sets it apart from the rest. The ‘acting’ of the game’s characters is on par with a blockbuster movie. This enthrals the player, allowing them to feel genuine emotion for the character, Snake, in the same way they would with the main character in a movie. App stores for touch phones are the latest addition to the gaming scene. These casual games are cheaper to produce, and have enabled smaller companies to publish more of their creations. For instance, Australian company Firemint, has estimated that Flight Control (2009) cost $50 000 to create. In contrast, Metal Gear Solid 4 cost $60 million to produce. Rob Murray, CEO of Firemint, sat down to create Flight Control on his Christmas break when he was inspired by the newly available ‘touch’ technology. In an interview with Murray he revealed to me his creative process. Murray
explains that every artist has a medium in which they are most comfortable and creative, ‘for me that’s encoding’, he said. He wanted to make a playable version of his game as soon as possible. His idea of controlling aircrafts by drawing flight paths was new and innovative; therefore he had to build the entire game from scratch. Amazingly, just three weeks later Flight Control was born, and has now sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Flight Control feels like a return to simpler days, and the charming 60s airline feel of the visuals, sound and ‘jolly good’ language seems rather fitting. Flight Control is no less addictive than Pac-man and has been described by IGN as the ‘potato chip’, since you can’t play it just once. So are video games art? Game developer Warren Spector (Disney’s Epic Mickey, 2010 and Deus Ex, 2000) has the final word: ‘Games are art — get over it.’ 2 Game Masters is at ACMI from 28 June to 28 October 2012 – www.acmi.net.au FOOTNOTES 1. Hunter, W 2000, From Pong to Pac-man, viewed 26 April 2012, <http://www.designboom.com/eng/ education/pong.html> 2. Bodman, C, interview with Head of Exhibitions at ACMI, 4 May 2012.
IMAGE: Metal Gear Courtesy Konami Digital Entertainment Co, Ltd.
IMAGE: Rob Murray, Flight Control 2009
Lisa Bowen
Back in the 90s, there was nothing I liked better than a good shoot-em-up. I spent a lot of my teenage hours gruesomely massacring zombies, members of the military, and purely innocent bystanders – all virtually, you understand – in the worlds of my computer games. Pretty soon I realised that all this violence simply wasn’t me – I hate violence! I am an artist! I wanted something more; I wanted to be challenged by games, like I was challenged by my favourite artists’ work. I wanted an immersive experience that took me on a journey that wasn’t a journey to war, so I found and fully embraced the puzzle adventure game genre. I explored, solved puzzles, and collected treasures to my heart’s content. One game that struck a chord with me was Ico, designed by Fumito Ueda in Japan. Ico featured an atmospheric set and soundtrack, and deliberately minimalist ‘action’ gameplay in order for players to fully immerse themselves in the experience, exploring and discovering the world in the game as if it were reality. Ico is widely considered an example of videogames as art. After Ico, my quest to discover something similar to play was a disappointing one. More and more, my visits to Blockbuster to hire games led to my arriving home empty handed. All the available games seemed to centre on war and bloody violence, so I eventually gave up my search for other worlds to explore and made a decision to concentrate harder on Ico. As it happens, there are many artists working with the medium of videogame technology to create a unique immersive experience, and have since the very start. Neil Jenkins, an artist and programmer from the UK and now based in Sydney, has brought together a selection of artworks from the genre to curate The Garden of Forking Paths; originally shown as part of the Electrofringe festival in Newcastle in 2009, the exhibition has been touring ever since in association with dLux MediaArts. I visited Neil at his home in Marrickville, where he talked me through some of the work in the show.
The Artist and the Videogame IMAGE: Cute x Doom, Anita Fontaine (Australia) and Mike Pelletier (Canada)
Tale of Tales (Michael Samyn & Auriea Harvey) – The Path: This was the work that inspired Jenkins to produce The Garden of Forking Paths, and I was delighted to discover that it shares some attributes with my old favourite Ico. The Path takes its inspiration from the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood; though from an earlier, much darker version of the story than the one most of us will know. The game features six red riding hood characters, and one by one we play out their stories as they make their way along ‘The Path’ to grandmother’s house. There are few instructions provided with the game, only ‘Go to grandmother’s house and do not stray from the path’, and ‘Let go in order to interact’. Aside from these brief guidelines we are left on our own to figure out what to do. Surprisingly, it is impossible to progress in the game if you follow the instructions and stay on the path.The story is told only through subtly interacting with the woods environment surrounding the path.The soundtrack for example, by composer Jarboe, is designed to adapt with the circumstances taking place and never repeat itself. >>
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IMAGE: Tale of Tales, Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey
The Artist and the Videogame / Lisa Bowen
> Inspired by silent movie soundtracks where the disconnection between sound and image creates an eerie ambience, there are no sound effects, just endless, ever-soslightly changing sound-scapes. Samyn and Harvey have described The Path as a slow game: “There are no ticking clocks or monsters to defeat. No hard puzzles will ever halt your progress. Most activities in the game are entirely optional and voluntary. The player has all the freedom in the world to explore and experience. For us, a game is good when it allows us to play, when it makes us think and feel something, when it makes us discover something about life, when we feel the pure joy of immersion” – and what better way to immerse oneself in a game than to explore and discover its meaning for yourself? The Tale of Tales team have produced a number of games which follow similar concepts, and they have written a manifesto for their work called the Real Time Art Manifesto. Their rules are as follows: 1. 3D is a medium for artistic expression. 2. Be an author. 3. Create a total experience. 4. Embed the user in the environment. 5. Reject dehumanisation, tell all stories. 6. Interactivity wants to be free. 7. Don’t make modern art. 8. Reject conceptualization. 9. Embrace technology. 10. Develop a punk economy. continued next page >>
> Anita Fontaine and Mike Pelletier – CuteXdoom II: CuteXdoom is Fontaine and Pelletier’s hyper-coloured modification for the extremely violent battle game Unreal Tournament 3. In the game we take the role of Sally Sanrio, who has decided she wants to become a member of a religious cult called CuteXdoom, whose followers believe that ‘the possession and worship of cute material objects will ultimately lead to happiness’. In order to progress in the game and gain acceptance by the cult, Sally must collect as many ‘cute’ objects as possible, then present them as an offering to the CuteXdoom leader, the Robot Panda Guru. The setting for CuteXdoom is the playing field from Unreal Tournament 3, and in Fontaine’s distorted version of the battleground, aspects of the original game resonate, but are turned on their heads. Fontaine replaces Unreal Tournament’s futuristic techno-gladiators with bunnies and teddy bears; swaps the original in-game war cries of ‘triple killll!’ and on screen messages such as ‘killing spree!’ for ‘You got a toy!’, and ‘Let’s have a nice game with me!’; and has added a soundtrack which takes me back to my innocent adventures with Pac-man in the 80s. Our hero Sally’s surname ‘Sanrio’, is a reference to the brand behind Hello Kitty, and even if you didn’t catch on to this reference, the entire game draws on the imagery and paraphernalia of Kawaii (the Japanese ‘cute’ aesthetic), and of course, with the objective of collecting all the cute objects Sally herself is comparable to our obsession for material culture. While playing the game, I had a sense that something was seriously wrong. Sure enough, in the end – like in real life when we fanatically hoard and our consumption gets out of control – Sally’s obsessive collecting turns bad. In CuteXdoom II, Sally offers her cute collection to the Robot Panda Guru and gains access to the cult, only to realise that the seemingly harmless pretty things have become a poison in her system. The gameplay distorts, the soundtrack darkens, and we find we need to start gathering a different collection altogether – medicinal items to bring us back to health so we can flee this nightmare before it’s too late! >> IMAGE: Cute x Doom
The Artist and the Videogame / Lisa Bowen
The Artist and the Videogame / Lisa Bowen
“The gameplay is peppered with short flashes of lurid patterns, reminiscent of computer glitches and old-school ‘loading’ pages ...” > The gameplay is peppered with short flashes of lurid patterns, reminiscent of computer glitches and old-school ‘loading’ pages; but on closer inspection, there are symbols here you recognise – syringes, marijuana leaves, rotting teeth. This imagery is repeated in the wallpaper displayed as part of the installation in the gallery space, bringing Fontaine’s surreal world of CuteXdoom out of the screen and into real life, and so drawing the player further into her world. Fontaine has created other fantastical virtual spaces to draw us into. Perhaps most interestingly, she has created a world within a pre-existing world: the web-based virtual environment Second Life. Technocolor, the Harlequin Lodge (2008), was an interactive performance and installation only accessible from within the online world of Second Life. Sadly, despite numerous attempts, I have never been able to successfully immerse myself in Second Life. Upon logging in and landing on the virtual soil – despite my efforts to learn how to walk with my new legs – my avatar inevitably performed a
The Garden of Forking Paths, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery until 8 July 2012 – www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/services/hawkesburyregional-gallery Game Masters is at ACMI from 28 June to 28 October 2012 – www.acmi.net.au
dance of walking around in circles and colliding head-on into obstacles. Millions of others however, have invested their time and patience into learning how to walk again, and have forged meaningful existences in the Second Life communities living lives they could only dream of in the real world. Residents of Second Life describe the experience of Anita Fontaine’s Technocolor as ‘a garish but irresistible fantasy escapade’, and ‘a fairytale of unadulterated escapism; the embodiment of virtual living’. Even in this environment of endless possibility, Fontaine seems to have created something really exciting and different. It is truly an artist who sees the potential of gaming technology in a radically different way. Artists make their own rules, and to those working with videogames, the term ‘game’ is perhaps not entirely accurate. Their intention is to deliver an experience. I think I may have found where my next ‘gaming’ experiences will come from. I am ready to explore some new worlds!
IMAGE: Cute x Doom
NEIL BOYACK’S
SOCIAL WORK: Ivan Durrant
Which member of your family influenced you the most? Rather a strange question, as I grew up in an orphanage and other institutions, so I’d have to blame it on others – the most important with regards to my art, being the late Georges Mora, my first art dealer, who gave me the great advice: no need to push commercially, just concentrate on your work, and it will happen in the long run. I’ve been at it now for 43 years and I’m sure he’ll be right soon. I’m looking forward to finally being an overnight success. How similar are your political beliefs to those of your family? On the very few occasions I meet with my six siblings, I find it better not to discuss politics in fear of building distain and hate towards them. I’ve learnt to accept other good things about people in spite of their opposite politics to mine. Political views generally align themselves with variations in selfishness and moral codes, and luckily for me, my wife and two adult offspring swim in the same soup bowl. What do you think is your main purpose in life? It’s only very recently that I’ve even contemplated purpose, and at
65 I’m convinced there is none. But the best way to live is to take courage and therefore happiness in being yourself, as the only real possession we have to offer is ourselves. That makes us all of equal value with no need for fears or doubt. Do you think it’s ok to lie? Small lies are a necessary part of living with others. Regardless if I believe someone is rather stupid, I’m going to deny it to their face to protect their fragile ego. Like most people, I feel it’s an act of kindness. It’s the selfish, self-serving, manipulative lies that are totally wrong. Those politicians knew the children weren’t thrown overboard. What does freedom mean to you? Freedom is to be able to think and act without the weight of social and political pressures; it does not mean being free to do anything to deliberately harm others, as I have a strong belief in a social contract to live, let live and exist without fear of harm. How do you make important decisions? It’s sometimes hard to know what was an important decision until years down the track. To give up Economics and become an artist at the age of twenty was >>
Ivan DURRANT, Five pigs’ heads 1978–79, synthetic polymer resin, oil, enamel, perspex, brass. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of the Philip Morris Arts Grant, 1982 © Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2012.
> probably the most important decision of my life, yet it was done with no deep thought, no care for the future, but just the burning desire to do my own thing. I must say, though, I do mull over yes and no’s for a long time these days before eventually trusting my gut – maybe that’s not really trusting my gut at all. How do you feel about someone taking their own life? It hurts me deeply when I hear of someone committing suicide. I guess my main compassion and sorrow is for their tormented, miserable state of mind before the act. I know how great life is and it burns me inside to know that there’s another person who is so distressed that they can’t know it. To choose euthanasia in a no-win degraded life that bears no resemblance to being human, seems sensible and correct. Do you think things happen for a reason? I know I shouldn’t, but any time I hear somebody say : ‘Things happen for a reason,’ I grade them down on the IQ scale. If we live in the world, things just happen; great things happen; shit happens. Now look at it like this: there are a thousand ants and a bird swoops
down and takes one. I’m sure the other ants don’t suddenly say: ‘Things happen for a reason’. It was just bad luck for that ant and good luck for the others. What beliefs do you have that you think will never change? I’ll always believe that contact in relationships with other people is one of the true roots to happiness, and combining that with allowing them and yourself to have freedom of thought is life itself. And of course, more importantly, the Collingwood football team will always be the greatest. Do you believe in the existence of evil? I don’t believe in the existence of evil as it expresses the view that there is some kind of devil creature making the rules and maybe even possessing the evil-doer – brainless fantasy. However, I do believe in a right and wrong way to act, and some acts being at the most extreme end of the wrong direction. Again, it’s all to do with a social contract and our ability to know when we’re injuring somebody. I do believe there are psychopaths who have no sense of empathy. continued >>
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Is any religious text important to you? No. Religious texts, per se, are not important to me; however the majority of The Ten Commandments express the respect that people have of eachother when living harmoniously – there’s just no need to invent a god in the mix. Have you ever come close to dying? In the year 2000 I had a cancerous kidney removed (too much cadmium paint over my arms for years). I did think there was a possibility I might die in a year or so, but that thought dissipated quickly as if it were a mere splinter in my finger. Why this should be, I don’t know, and luckily I’m still here thirteen years later. However, due to some minor cock-up during the kidney operation I did actually die, but was brought back. Being dead obviously didn’t bother me, as I didn’t know, but I can tell you there was no white light, no fairies, gods or devils in sight. What do you like the best about your body? I like the way my body has some magic ability to convince my brain that it is young, handsome and desirable all the time. Just think how great the world could be without mirrors. What do you think would be the best thing about being the opposite gender? I have no desire to be a female and I’m absolutely at home in my skin. If I imagine myself as a female I’d be a lesbian; there’s no way my imagination can stretch away from the love and desire of women. I suppose there’s a small matter of multiple orgasms – I’d like to have a crack at those. Have you ever been lost? I’ve never been physically lost, but when placed in an orphanage aged at around seven, and seeing my mother walk away into the distance, leaving me in the company of thirty other inmates, I was totally alone. Is there anything you find irresistible? Patting my dog is irresistible. I guess it’s a lot to do with the shared love and trust. It just makes me feel good. What is stopping you? The only thing that stops me doing all that I’d like is time, and the physical impossibility. But that’s not a bad thing: I accept my overactive desire to invent
SOCIAL WORK with Ivan Durrant
and play. What do you like most about where you live? I’ve lived for the longest time in Benalla than any other place. This has given me an enormous network of friends varying from artists, poets, chefs. bakers, footballers, plumbers and so it goes on. The interconnectedness of all these people being in a country town is more like what I feel we’re genetically programmed for; I believe our enjoyment comes from the collective cohesion of small communities, yet most people are forced to live in cities of millions too scared to talk to their neighbours. The advances in technology and food production have thrown most people into a life that may take a few million years of accidental evolution to become completely comfortable with; no wonder people like camping and sitting around an outdoor fire with a few friends. That’s where art comes in, it gets us back to one on one: the viewer in touch with the mind, the very person of the artist. The painter becomes your neighbour, your friend willing to reveal his most personal thoughts – he’s toasting your marshmallow. If I asked a good friend of yours what you were good at, what would they say? It’s really going to depend on which friend. I have a lot of friends and I share in some way in all their interests. I hope they’ll say I’m good at being a friend. What stays the same in your life, no matter how much other things change? No matter whether things are going right or things are going wrong, it always seems to be a driving force to invent and make art. That will always be the case. Ivan Durrant is showing in Controversy: The power of art, An exclusive Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition, Civic Reserve, Dunns Road, Mornington (VIC) 21 June – 12 August 2012 - www.mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au > Huan ZHANG, 12 square metres 1994 DVD: 3:02 minutes, colour, stereo. Purchased, 2008. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund. Controversy: The power of art, An exclusive Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery.
DATELINE: JUNE 2012 by Courtney Symes
‘Hotel California’ by the Eagles is one of my all-time favourite songs. There are numerous explanations for the lyrics of this 1977 hit, suggesting the song is a metaphor for the American Dream and the hedonistic lifestyle of the music industry during this time. This month I was pleasantly reminded of Hotel California’s haunting (yet brilliant) lyrics, “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave” when I came across Counihan Gallery’s latest exhibition, First and Last. > Max Dominic PIANTONI, The Descent of the Dodo 1.4: “The moon can fly but it has no wings!” 2011, archival Inkjet Print 80 x 64 cm. Courtesy the artist.
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Coburg’s First and Last Hotel (on the corner of Boundary and Sydney Roads) is the last hotel for miles along the Hume Highway. Due to its close proximity to the Fawkner Cemetery, the First and Last Hotel specialises in wakes and memorial functions. Counihan Gallery’s latest group exhibition, First and Last draws inspiration from this local hotel as it “addresses notions of the unfamiliar and the uncharted as well as the transitional realms of the dying and departed”. The seven local artists featured in First and Last include: Jenna Corcoran, Alister Karl, Max Dominic Piantoni, Carmen Reid, Adele Smith, Ive Sorocuk and John Stevens. Through the use of video, sound and sculptural installation, each of the artists explore the morbid themes of “death, ritual and mortality”. John Stevens uses sound, whilst Carmen Reid utilises installation to further explore the proceedings and rituals of funerals and wakes. Descent of the Dodo is Max Dominic Piantoni’s interpretation of the story behind the extinction of the flightless Dodo bird. Ive Sorocuk also explores the notion of extinction and evolution, whilst Alister Karl takes a historic approach with his pictorial installation that “smashes the paradigm of a spherical Earth, in reference to historical seafaring missions that set out to prove that the world was indeed flat”. First and Last makes for a diverse, yet highly entertaining exhibition, addressing themes that are stereotypically morbid in an original and thought-provoking way. Runs until 24 June – don’t miss the artist’s talk on 16 June. - www.moreland.vic.gov.au
Melburnin’ / Courtney Symes
Purveyors of performance will love the Candle Ends Mini Festival 2012, a fringe performance festival featuring Australian artists at Brunswick Arts Space. Now in its fourth year, this year’s festival will consist of a combination of theatre, dance, music, multimedia, spoken word and puppetry across 13 ten-minute performances. Some of the artists involved in the festival include: Alia Vryens, Anna van Veldhuisen, Perri Cummings, Sarah Berryman, Colin Craig, Frederica Cunningham, Kali Hulme, Eva Anagnostou, Gina Moss, Kerensa Diball, Kip Brennan, Nina Buxton and Sara Trachtenberg. Co-creator of the Candle Ends Festival, James Wray explains that the festival is “a rare opportunity for theatre makers to explore their ideas in front of an audience. I love being able to provide a space for performers to develop in a space without financial pressure, so that they can focus on their art and share it with the world.” Runs until 9 June. Visit www. erinvothproductions.com for bookings. Live Love Life at Box Hill Community Arts Centre is an exhibition of works coordinated by the Nell Street Painters to raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Australia (OCA). All works featured in the exhibition need to include the colour teal – OCA’s signature colour. Works sold from the exhibition will fund programs that educate people on the risk factors and early symptoms of ovarian cancer, as well as providing support for people affected by the disease. Runs from 5-10 June. For more info visit www.ovariancancer.net.au and www.bhcac.com.au continued >>
XTRA XTRA Pamela KLEEMANN (in collaboration with Carolyn LEWENS), Hairline 2011, digital print on wallpaper, human hair, metallic thread, H24cm x W 30cm. Pamela Kleemann is opening speaker at Sharing the Scares - A NBCF Photography Exhibition and Auction, 29 June 2012 at James Makin Gallery, Collingwood, Don’t miss being a part of this gala charity event to raise awareness for breast cancer research. Brigitte Duclos (Gold 104.3) will be opening the event, which features multi-award winning photographers: Samantha Everton, Katrin Koenning, Penelope Beveridge, Melanie Faith Dove, Andrew Maccoll, Lisa Saad and many more. This event will bring together an amazing exhibition of photographs and auction pieces to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF).
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In her latest exhibition, Transfigure at Blindside, Lauren Simmonds’ dynamic works are described as a confluence of “part performance, part anthropological study and part handmade craft”. Utilising contrasting materials such as fragile paper and cheap reflective plastics, Simmonds has created an abstract creature that is “projected onto the surface of two static, paper cut-out sculptures. This creature breathes and moves, without a face, hidden. The imagery harks back to a more primitive culture where expression came through form, gesture and colour”. Simmonds’ recent 2011 residency in Berlin has been instrumental in developing her ideas and forming her fascination with sculpture, performance, sound and movement. By creating a “space that goes beyond the surface of a canvas,” Sally Tape’s works encourage her viewers “to travel along them as they sit in formation hung in a straight line on the gallery wall, each side of the frames just as inviting as the flat surface in the front”. Tape’s inspiration for her latest exhibition, Voyeuristic Pleasure, Patterns and Architecture at Blindside stems from numerous sources: “fragments of architecture witnessed in a split second as travelling through the built up environment...The patterns are a moment seen from a tram or car moving through the architectural landscape of a city, the strips are personal moments discarded from a snapshot taken with a camera”. It is the rarity of these fleeting moments and visions that make Tape’s work so special and ensure that the viewer feels privileged to share this experience with the artist. Both exhibitions run until 16 June. - www.blindside.org.au Why are ancient ruins so appealing to artists? This month Geelong Gallery explores artists’ fascination with old, crumbling buildings as subject matter in their exhibition, In search of
Melburnin’ / Courtney Symes
the picturesque – the architectural ruin in art. Curated by Dr Colin Holden, the exhibition features an outstanding collection of works from European masters including: Bernardo Bellotto, Claude Lorrain, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Salvator Rosa and JMW Turner. In contrast to the European works from the late 16th to late 19th centuries, 20th century Australian artists such as Victor Cobb, Russell Drysdale, Margaret Olley, Lionel Lindsay, and William Blamire Young are also featured in the exhibition. Historically, interest in the classical civilisations during the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as increased tourism to Rome during the 18th century resulted in consumer demand for fine art depicting renowned ruins. It is also thought that “ruins were laden with meaning…They often symbolised the folly of human ambition,” for both artists and viewers. Whatever the allure of ancient ruins, In search of the picturesque is a poignant tribute to our rich, diverse history and some of the world’s most historically significant sites. Runs until 24 June. - www.geelonggallery.org.au Glory Box is burlesque at its best. Creator, Moira Finucane of Finucane and Smith presents a sizzling burlesque extravaganza, featuring a hot international cast including female sword swallower Miss Behave, cabaret star Ursula Martinez, the star of Europe’s demi-monde circus, Anna Lumb, as well as writing from The Slap author Christos Tsiolkas. Described as “Burlesque Hour meets Pandora’s Box”, Glory Box promises a fusion of “demi-monde nightclub with jaw dropping cabaret, insolent and exotic live art, circus & sideshow, butoh & disco, grand guignol and backroom ballet in a seductive spectacle”. Runs from 7 June – 1 July at fortyfivedownstairs. - www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
ROBYN GIBSON
greenwish #7
No Fracking Way! I thought I’d write something lighthearted, joyous and witty this month, but my hackles went up reading about more fossil fuel industry shenanigans, so I’m afraid it’s more despair for the time being! As if we’re not doing enough damage to the planet’s beauty and resources for the sake of our own comfor t and wealth, our favourite mining magnates intend to destroy much of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef – not to mention our global climate – so they can export more coal. A three-minute video created by GetUp! outlines the disastrous effects of the planned massive coal industry expansion: to expor t the goodies, tens of thousands of tonnes of Great Barrier Reef seabed will be dredged 1 – this just one in a long list of environmental and social calamities. Renewable energy doesn’t have the vested interests in Australia that fossil fuel has. Symbolic of this is the renewable energy target currently set by Australia (20% by 2020). Laughable, really, when compared to the aims of some of the world’s poorest countries: Tuvalu and the Cook Islands aim to produce all their electricity from renewable sources by 2020; Timor-Leste – Asia’s poorest country – aims to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2020. 2 In Australia the fossil fuel industries reign supreme. Their lobbying power is reflected in the lack of political will to transition to a less polluting energy landscape, and subsequently the lack of investment in renewable technologies. Coal, coal seam gas (CSG) and shale production projects, on the other hand, are readily given the green light by State and Federal governments. >> IMAGE: https://getup-production.s3.amazonaws.com/
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Our position or opinion is always relative, but our culture’s addiction to growth, power and wealth so often dictates the outcome of an issue, particularly when it comes to the natural environment and our consumption of its resources. Too often the needs and importance of indigenous people and native species take second place when compared to economic growth, jobs figures and trading power. A system based on short-sighted goals of economic growth, three-year governance, corporate greed, and shareholder interest does not bode well for those parts of our world imbued with an intangible net value. Forests, waterways, wild animals and their habitat, air quality, people’s social and emotional well-being, long-term community goals, and respect and compassion for other beings are incongruous in so many ways with this system that allows any such intricacies to fall through the cracks as a matter of convenience, therefore rendering them less ‘real’.
Greenwish#7 / Robyn Gibson
waste salt over 30 years, and that the wastewater from wells could include such toxic chemicals as “boron, silver, chlorine, copper, cadmium cyanide and zinc … many of [which] would be toxic to aquatic organisms.”4
Amazingly, the industry is forging ahead, taking over farming land and setting up wells, with no apparent idea of the consequences of their actions. It’s a sad indictment on the governments’ responsibilities, and on the lack of care we show for each other, future generations and for the planet on which we depend for survival. What if the same power was fostered to paint a more sustainable energy picture for the country? Thankfully many are working towards this, despite the forces against them. Grassroots organisations and individuals, as usual, lead the way in taking responsibility for local – and therefore global – energy needs. In Victoria, Hepburn Wind is a successful community-owned wind farm model, meeting the demand of 2300 average Victorian households5 from two As an example, in the coal seam gas (CSG) turbines near Daylesford. A group is gleaning debate currently raging in eastern Australia, farmers, environmentalists, community groups growing initial support for a similar project and political organisations are coming together in nearby Castlemaine. Each year, thousands of households install grid-interactive solar to protest the ‘business as usual’ approach power systems, reducing their demand on the of the industry. Apart from its aggressive national supply. And increasingly, governments land take-over, no one knows how much and industry are listening to grassroots activist water the industry will use (in fact, data organisations like GetUp! What a relief! People shows huge discrepancies in the projected power still shows the way, and relieves me of water use in Queensland mines: the CSG my despair on a regular basis. companies estimate 61 gigalitres per year; the Federal Government Water Group’s Michael Leunig sums it up for me: “For the first estimate is 467 – 1500 gigalitres per year.3 time humanity’s got to make this decision – do As a comparison, Queensland householders we humble ourselves and stop. This would be use a total of 308 gigalitres per year). And a huge step for humanity that it’s never taken no-one knows how much salt, waste water before, to say ‘this far and no further’.”6 and toxic chemical waste will be produced, FOOTNOTES: 1. www.getup.org.au 2. The Guardian how the mining will affect the Great Artesian Weekly 18.05.12, ‘Clean energy sources embraced Basin or the significant areas of agricultural by small island nations’, p.13 3. ABC website http:// production reliant on the Basin. This is not a www.abc.net.au/news/specials/coal-seam-gas-byminor industry – there are proposals for up the-numbers/ 4. ABC website http://www.abc.net. to 40,000 CSG wells in Australia in the next au/news/specials/coal-seam-gas-by-the-numbers/ 5. 20 years or so. Modelling suggests it could Hepburn Wind website www.hepburnwind.com.au produce as much greenhouse gas as all the 6. Film Australia website http://www.filmaust.com.au/ wilderness/pdf/michaelleunig_transcript.pdf cars on Australian roads, 31 million tonnes of
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1. Dawn DUNCAN-SMITH, Secret Garden 2012, hand stitched in silk, 90 x 45cms. Buda Contemporary Textile Awards and Exhibition 42 Hunter Street Castlemaine (VIC), 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 17 June. - www.budacastlemaine.org 2. Rona GREEN, Damarques, 2011, linocut and ink. 2012 Banyule Contemporary Ar t Fair, Banyule Ar t Space, 14 Ivanhoe Parade Ivanhoe (VIC), 23 May to 20 June. - www.banyule.vic.gov.au/arts
JUNE SALON PREVIOUS SPREAD: Luke CLOSE Everything is one 2012, acrylic on canvas. Return to Country, Grafton Regional Gallery, 158 Fitzroy Street Grafton (NSW), until 1 July www.graftongallery.nsw.gov.au 3. Tim SUN (9 years), The Year of the Dragon 2012. All Creatures ..., Whitehorse Art Space, 1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill (VIC), until 31 July - www.boxhilltownhall.com. au 4. Clare RAE, Untitled #5 from the series Light Weight 2011, lightbox, 150 x 100 x 15 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Beam Contemporary. Encounters, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Corner Glen Eira and Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield (VIC), 31 May – 24 June - www.gleneira.vic.gov.au NEXT SPREAD: Nan GOLDIN, Joey in my mirror, Berlin 1992, Cibachrome © Nan Goldin, Courtesy Marks Gallery. Controversy: The power of art, an exclusive Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition, Civic Reserve, Dunns Road, Mornington (VIC), 21 June – 12 August 2012 - www.mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au
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JUNE SALON 5. Tegan WHEELDON, Hanky 2011, ink on cotton. Mending Memories, Trio Ar t Studio and Gallery, 98 Trio Road Kyneton (VIC), 26 May – 16 June. 6. Emil Otto HOPPÉ, Ezra Pound 1918, gelatin-silver print cour tesy of the EO Hoppé Estate Collection. Hoppé portraits: society, studio & street, Monash Gallery of Art (MGA), 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill (VIC), 9 June – 29 July 2012. - www.mga.org.au NEXT SPREAD: Glenn MORGAN, Us in the bedroom (I love you) 2012, pen and ink wash. 2012 Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard St North, Ballarat (VIC) until 24 June - www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au
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7. Joseph BEUYS, Filzanzug (Felt Suit) 1970, felt, cotton, ink on synthetic fabric and metal safety pins; edition 69/100. JW Power Collection,The University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art. Joseph Beuys and the ‘Energy Plan’, University Art Gallery, War Memorial Arch, northern end of the Quadrangle, University of Sydney (NSW), until 29 June - www.sydney.edu.au/museums 8. Sal HIGGENS, Dark Passenger 2011, oil and mixed media on canvas. Mourning Chorus (Phoenix), Sheffer Gallery, 38 Lander Street Darlington (NSW), 27 June – 7 July - www.sheffergallery.com
stralian books with Jean-François Vernay
As the Melbourne International Jazz Festival is about to kick off (or already has), I thought it might be timely to explore the affinities between music and fiction. Some distinguished authors devote their lives to the trial of novel-writing by patiently re-writing whole excerpts of their painstaking works so as to bring the art of fiction to perfection. They would go as far as to hone every bit of sentence simply to achieve the musicality of read-aloud words. Carmel Bird, among others, has this quite distinctive Flaubertian attitude to her fiction, as she confesses in The Automatic Teller (1996): “Reading work aloud after you have written it is something some writers do, and some don’t. I do. ...
coined to describe his reading aloud test. By revising his text over and over again, Koch pays special attention to the musical ring of words at every step of the creative process. The cadence of the prose in his lyrical debut novel entitled The Boys in the Island (1958) is behind this incantatory rhythm which takes its source in various prosody effects such as varied repetitions, the presence of a leitmotiv and a network of almost canon-like echoes. Even though it is discreet, there is a definite kinship between the narrative of The Boys in the Island and music. Like Philip Salom’s Toccata and Rain (see our March issue), Charlotte Wood’s The Submerged Cathedral (2004) also takes after
“Reading it helps me to know for sure whether I have said what I wanted to say, and whether the rhythms of the sentences are right. ...” Reading it helps me to know for sure whether I have said what I wanted to say, and whether the rhythms of the sentences are right. I am very keen on the rhythms. One of my greatest pleasures is when I get together with Michael Fortescue, who plays the double bass in Hobart, and he improvises on the bass while I read my work, any of it, not stuff that has been specially prepared. Each time we do it there is the possibility that it won’t work, but it always has.”
a classical piece of music: La Cathédrale engloutie (1910) by French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Wood’s parents’ love affair became the starting point for this intriguing novel which a critic from The Bulletin likened to Debussy’s piano prelude: “Wood’s writing is made of the same stuff as Debussy’s music: exquisite and sometimes dissonant chords; delicate, slow notes; a gentle, passionate witness of the patterns submerged within the real order of things; of longing and elegy. And of love.”
Christopher Koch – a former poet – has also been inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s ‘épreuve du gueuloir’, a phrase the French novelist
But music does not inform The Submerged Cathedral thematically (the novel does not deal with musical impressionism), or
The Sound of Fiction & All That Jazz stylistically as in The Boys in the Island, or even structurally like Toccata and Rain. It may sound slightly cliché to draw an analogy between music and fiction as Roland Barthes did in his lecture courses and seminars at the Collège de France, originally published in 2003 in France under the title La Préparation du roman – “The literature of today: brings to mind the last movement of Haydn’s Farewell: one after the other, the instruments stop playing; only two violins remain (they carry on playing the third); they remain on stage but snuff out their candles: heroic and melodic” – but why is it that authors take a lively interest in music and frequently get inspired from it? Admittedly, seduction is the very substance of fiction which will bring psychical pleasure to readers thanks to its narrative tricks and gift for invention. On top of voicing what people wish to hear, like advertising agents (Peter Carey and Barry Oakley, for instance, came from that sort of background), authors can coat their tales in a poetic musicality which will bewitch most music-loving readers. The melodic line therefore contributes to the largely underrated pleasure of the text, which is something you will hardly derive from a science book. Jean-François Vernay is the author of The Great Australian Novel – A Panorama (Melbourne: Brolga, 2010). His latest book, a reflection on
the nature of fiction, will soon be released by editions Pascal in Paris.
Carmel Bird
Jean-François Vernay’s
Tasmanian Travelogue Part I
IMAGE: John Smith, Boarfish with diver at Waubs Bay, Bicheno (detail) 2012, photograph.
Tasked with the privilege to report on my ten-day trip to Tasmania’s East Coast as writer-in-residence, following the invitation I received from the From France to Freycinet Festival organizers David and Jennifer Lathwell, I came across a series of mind-expanding adventures that, I feel, could benefit Trouble Magazine readers. Stopping at Triabunna for the kickoff of the Francophile festival, I met a score of Hobart-based medical students who came to the East Coast townships for their “Rural Week” programme. While debriefing with a PowerPoint presentation that would make trite comments sound more seriously professional to the local community, their genuine interest in their training came through loud and clear. One of the slides listing their various goals read: “Understanding the attractions of a rural community”. Tourism-wise, it is not hard to gather why anyone would visit Coles Bay, Australia’s first plastic bag free town, or Swansea which is home to the multipleaward winning ecotarian restaurant The Ugly Duck Out – almost fresh out of Portlandia, America’s satiric big hit comedy series – or even Bicheno which prides itself on having more than 300 sunny days year in year out when temperatures drop in places like Hobart and Launceston.
and there will be no mobile coverage if you are travelling on Vodafone), for the East Coast smacks of the dolce vita. Slow-paced activities make you switch from tee time to teatime, from dry-shod strolls along the Swansea foreshore path bordered by lichen-covered boulders to nonchalant hikes in Freycinet National Park renowned for its distinctive pink granite rock formations and generous wildlife, from shorebird-watching to whale-spotting (alternative spotting also include pods of Bottlenose Dolphins, penguins and Australian Fur Seals that occasionally bask in the sun) while cruising to the Wineglass Bay, and from relishing gourmet food on the Big Lunch Tour to petting and admiring the wonders of nature at East Coast Natureworld. The peacefulness is largely explained by the youth drain that has emptied these townships blighted by unemployment and scant education infrastructure. As a result, families move to Hobart or Launceston when their offspring reach senior high or university level.
Commercials on local channels certainly know their audience like the back of their hands when promoting CDs by Neil Diamond, Michael Bolton and Julio Iglesias, and no doubt that the ageing population on the East Coast will pick up the phone to place an order … if the locals have the time for that sort of thing. Where on If you want to avoid touristy and crowded the mainland the intellectual elite might places like the capital city, Autumn is the take up artistic callings when retiring to best season to discover the serene scenery avoid being bogged down in a dreary daily of the East Coast, a season that puts the routine, educated retirees on the East impact of colonisation in the limelight, Coast embark on speculative profitable an impact given away by the exogenous (and tax deductible) ventures, mostly in deciduous trees displaying their full array of hospitality (but also other businesses like different coloured foliage that sprinkles the logging trailers, for instance), to keep busy landscape – all native trees being evergreen. and contribute to the dynamism and range Fear no stress and no technology that makes of services the local Bureau of tourism people absurdly accessible to everyone showcases to visitors. else, as American novelist Thomas Mallon TO BE CONTINUED… once observed (Internet cafés are scarce
DARKEST PERU PART III – Brazil
words and pics Ben Laycock
After getting over the Andes unscathed we arrive safely in Sao Paulo, a city of maybe 20 million inhabitants, vying with many others for the ignominious title of Largest Metropolis in the World. From the window of the plane we can see an ocean of high-rise apartments as far as the horizon. An awesome sight. These Catholics sure know how to populate. To our dismay the international airport is strategically placed on the opposite side of the city to the domestic terminal. Surely this could not be achieved by sheer stupidity alone, a large dose of corruption must have been involved. We get a free 2-hour tour of the bustling chaos of the city as a consequence. We arrive in Balniario Camborio tired and frazzled and disoriented, as you can imagine. Balniario is a small city of some quarter of a million people, near Florinopolis on the south coast of the Atlantic. It is a new city of high-rise apartments, as is the Brazilian way. They have to cram all those people in somewhere. Imagine Surfers Paradise full of Brazilians instead of self-funded retirees. After an emotional reunion with Kali she is summoned to help prepare a little show of Samba dancing put on for our benefit. Imagine my surprise when my 16-year-old daughter emerges decked out in a full Samba outfit like you see in the Mardi Gras. All feathers and boas and sequins on top but very little indeed below the neck. She then proceeded to perform a most provocative routine with her male partner. All eyes seem to be on me, gauging the reaction of the paternal head of the family. Would I express shame or pride? Before we have time to take a breath we are whisked away to a dinner party with her Rotary host family in their luxury apartment on the twelfth floor over looking a beautiful bay. It soon becomes obvious that Kaliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hosts are Pillars of Society. They have invited a small selection of their friends from the higher echelons: a prosecutor, a judge and the Chief of Police no less, just the sort of people with whom I mingle, but usually from the other side of the dock. >>
Greetings From ... / Ben Laycock
> A scene of hilarious mayhem ensues, not unlike a scene from The Tower of Babel, involving 3 languages all being spoken at the same time: Portugese, Spanish and English. The aim of the game is to listen carefully till you decipher a phrase that is not totally incomprehensible and answer in that language. Copious quantities of Cachaca, the local intoxicant made from cane sugar, help us break the ice and enjoy the frivolity but it soon takes its toll on our comprehension. A high point for me is having the honour of hosting a toast the greatest revolutionary in the world, Che Guevara. We tuck into Feyjuada, a traditional slave food made from left over pig’s giblets that has become the national dish. I eat an ear. Its fatty and slimy but I keep it down in the interests of multi-culturalism. Unfortunately Feyjuada is not the only element of slavery my hosts continue to enjoy. Brazil can lay claim to the dubious title of ‘Most Iniquitous Nation on Earth’ The top 1% has the same wealth as the bottom 50% combined. The next morning, after the standard breakfast of chocolate cake, we spend the day recuperating on the beach. Brazilians live on the beach and that is where they practice their egalitarianism. You can be fat, ugly, old or as pale as a Goth, everyone is welcome on the beach. The locals have no compunction about striping down to the bare essentials to walk the dog. Speedos and runners for the blokes and the ‘dorrito and dental floss’ for the sheilas. In fact one need never leave the beach. Ambulant traders hawke everything you could possibly need. There are quaint little bars every 100 metres where one can prop on a stool and drink Caipirinhas until you fall off your perch and have a little nap on the sand, then a romp in the surf to wake up. Next Chapter – Iguasu Falls. The biggest waterfall in the whole world. - www.benlaycock.com.au
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your art life online
the blue mountains • The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Saturday 30 June – Sunday 12 August: MEL JONES – artist in residence final exhibition, Tomah in Pochoir. The last 12 months of Mel Jones’ artist in residency at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah, culminates with this Pochoir exhibition. View Mel’s unique vibrant landscapes, characterised by crisp lines and brilliant colours using the old world technique of hand cut stencilling. Open 9.30am-5pm. Free entry. T: (02) 4567 3000; E: tomah@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au. Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ Mount-Tomah-Botanic-Garden/120351291351529 - www.mounttomahbotanicgarden.com.au
canberra • National Gallery of Australia Until 15 July 2012 – EUGENE VON GUÉRARD: Nature revealed. Eugene von Guérard is arguably Australia’s most important colonial landscape painter. The exhibition features over 150 works, including many of von Guérard’s beloved iconic landscapes, as well as beautifully illustrated sketch books, and never-before-seen paintings. Until 22 July 2012 – undisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial. From across the country, 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have been selected to represent Indigenous arts today. Gallery visitors will have the opportunity to experience the dynamic visual expression of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Open daily 10am - 5pm. Parkes Place, Parkes, Canberra 2600. T: (02) 6240 6411, www.nga.gov.au
NSW / ACT
• PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery 24 May to 10 June SAMUEL TOWNSEND: Postcards form Texas; CHRISTINE RUFFLET: Noble Conquest. 14 June to 1 July JANE BURTON TAYLOR: Earth; BRIAN JONES: Bower Birds. 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 Image: Jane Burton Taylor, Earth.
cowra • Cowra Regional Art Gallery See our website for this month’s exhibitions. 77 Darling Street Cowra NSW 2794. Tues to Sat 10am - 4pm, Sun 2 - 4pm. Free Admission. www.cowraartgallery.com.au Image: G.W. Bot Glyphs: Tree of Life (detail) 2012, watercolour and graphite on colombe paper, 100cm x 100cm. Winner 2012 Calleen Art Award.
sydney • Art Gallery of New South Wales Australian Symbolism: the art of dreams, until 29 July 2012. Contemporary galleries, from 26 May 2012. JACKY REDGATE: the logic of vision 2 Jun – 9 Sep 2012. KAMISAKA SEKKA: master of modern Japanese art and design, 21 Jun – 26 Aug 2012. 18th Biennale of Sydney: All our relations 27 Jun – 16 Sep 2012. Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000. T: (02) 9225 1744, www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
newtown • At The Vanishing Point Inc. Until 10 Jun: Phone+tics – part of the Head On Festival – curated by NATHAN PENZER. PATRICK O’ROURKE – works in charcoal. Hours: Thurs to Sun 10am to 6pm. 565 King Street, Newtown 2042. T (02) 9519 2340. E info@atthevanishingpoint.com.au; www.atthevanishingpoint.com.au
windsor • Hawkesbury Regional Gallery Until 8 July: Garden of Forking Paths (dLux/ MediaArts Touring Show) Deerubbin Centre, 1st Floor, 300 George Street Windsor 2756. T: (02) 4560 4441 F: (02) 4560 4442; MonFri 10am-4pm Sat & Sun 10am-3pm, (Closed Tues and public holidays). Free admission. www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au
hobart • INFLIGHT ARI INFLIGHT @ CAST’s Establishment project, 11 – 17 June. 27 Tasma Street, North Hobart. Vicious, Shit-eating, Godless Vermin by TOM O’HERN; Silence.Sound.Light.Cycles: Work In Progress by DANE CHISHOLM & LILA MELEISEA. Both open 6pm, Friday 15 June, runs to 7 July. Hours: Wed-Sat 1-5pm. 100 Goulburn St. Hobart. www.inflightart.com.au
TASMANIA
• Inka Gallery Inc. Not-for-profit, artists’ run, original contemporary art. Exhibitions three-weekly. Salamanca Place, Hobart. Hours 10am-5pm,T: (03) 6223 3663 www.inkagallery.org.au; www.inkagalleryhobart. blogspot.com
• MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Ancient, modern and contemporary art. Monanism the permanent collection - evolving over time. Some pieces are moving or going, others are staying. Forever. Like SIDNEY NOLAN’s Snake (1970 – 1972). Opening June 23, Theatre of the World by JEAN-HUBERT MARTIN. Up to 350 artworks and objects of curiosity spanning 4,000 years of creativity. Fees: $20/adult; under 18s are free. Autumn/ winter opening hours from 30 April: 10am to 5pm, closed Tuesdays. Food, bars, winery, microbrewery, accommodation, bookshop and library. 655 Main Road Berriedale, Tasmania, 7011. T: (03) 6277 9900, www.mona.net.au
devonport • Devonport Regional Gallery 5 May – 10 June Moving Parts, curated by ASTRID JOYCE and ELLIE RAY. ANTHONY JOHNSON, ED KING, JACOB LEARY, CHRISTOPHER JAMES LIAUBON, NANCY MAURO-FLUDE, ADAM RISH, GEORGE SMILEY, PIP STAFFORD. 16 June – 1 July North West Art Circle Opening Friday 15 June, 6pm. The Annual North West Art Circle exhibition represents local artists working predominantly in watercolour and oils. 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 Image: Christopher James Liaubon, Cartes De Visite The Exiled Agitators, screenprinted strawboard, acrylic paint, PVC adhesive, found mantle piece, 170 x 18 cm, cards 11cm x 7cm.
box hill • Box Hill Community Arts Centre 29 May – 3 June Reconciliation Week exhibition Recognition Australian Indigenous artists from the Melbourne Region; 5-10 June NELL STREET PAINTERS, Live Love Life, 1317 June Box Hill Hand Spinners & Weavers Kaleidoscope; 19 – 24 June Refugee Week exhibition Global Gathering; 26 June-1 July BHCAC youth exhibition Idea to Exhibition. 470 Station Street Box Hill T: (03) 9895 8888 www. bhcac.com.au Image by Miranda Madgwick.
• Whitehorse Art Space To 31 July 2012 All Creatures.... Young students from NEW STAR ART SCHOOL exhibit their creatures alongside sculptural creatures from the Whitehorse Art Collection. The New Star Art School practices a unique teaching technique based on key Eastern and Western art education systems. This technique is designed to rapidly develop artistic skills in children of all ages. 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 Image: TIM SUN (9 years), The Year of the Dragon.
brunswick • Brunswick Arts Space 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 June, 7.30pm, Candle Ends Mini Performance Festival 2012, Duration 2hr, $25/20. Brunswick Arts is accepting applications for the first half of 2013. 2a Little Breese Street, Brunswick. Thu-Fri 2-6pm, Sat-Sun 12-5pm. Brunswickarts is accepting applications for 2012, check out www. brunswickarts.com.au
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• Counihan Gallery in Brunswick 24 May – 24 June: A room for ordering memory: MELANIE JAYNE TAYLOR. First and Last: JENNA CORCORAN | ALISTER KARL | MAX DOMINIC PIANTONI | CARMEN REID | ADELE SMITH | IVE SOROCUK | JOHN STEVENS. Gallery open Wed-Sat 11am to 5pm, Sun 1pm to 5pm. 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick 3056 T: (03) 9389 8622; www.moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery. E: counihangallery@moreland.vic.gov.au IMAGE: Alister Karl, Monster.
• Counihan Gallery in Brunswick Invites proposals from artists wishing to exhibit in our inaugural Moreland Summer Show. The Moreland Summer Show (8 November – 8 December) is an open entry event celebrating work by contemporary artists who live or work in the City of Moreland. The thematic group exhibition provides an opportunity for artists and creative practitioners to exhibit new work in a professional gallery environment. Artists are required to create work that considers the exhibition theme and context. Please follow the link for more details: www. moreland.vic.gov.au/gallery Applications Due: Friday, 15 June 2012 by 5pm.
burwood • Deakin University Art Gallery 6 June to 14 July Glassimations An exhibition of contemporary Australian artworks that bridge the materials of glass and animation to produce works with qualities that are unique to these two mediums and yet create a dialogue between them. 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
deer park • Hunt Club Community Arts Centre Galleries Until 6 July 2012. Brimbank Staff Art Exhibition – discover the hidden artistic talents of the staff that work for Brimbank City Council. Centre open Mon-Thurs 9am - 7.30pm, Fri 9am - 4.30pm, Sat 9am -12.30pm. Closed Public Holidays. 775 Ballarat Road, Deer Park (Melway 25, F8) T: (03) 9249 4600 E: huntclub@brimbank.vic.gov.au www.brimbank. vic.gov.au/arts
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• Manningham Gallery 23 May – 16 June Colour Theory. Each year Manningham Gallery celebrates National Reconciliation Week with an exhibition of contemporary artwork by Indigenous artists working in Victoria. This year’s exhibition highlights recent work by ROBYNE LATHAM, ANNA LEIBZEIT, STEVEN RHALL and PETER WAPLES CROWE. June – August Manningham Gallery is Relocating. Following Celebrating Reconciliation, Manningham Gallery will relocate to a new space within Manningham City Square (MC²), 687 Doncaster Road, Doncaster. Comprising two exhibition spaces, the new Manningham Art Gallery will create opportunities for a diverse mix of exhibitions and be a major focal point for art and cultural activities in Manningham. For more information visit www.manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery Manningham Gallery, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 3108. Free entry. Open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm, Saturday 2 to 5pm. T: (03) 9840-9367. E: gallery@manningham.vic.gov. au Image: Robyne Latham, Landscape 2 2011, egg tempera on canvas, 1520 x 300mm (detail).
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east melbourne • The Johnston Collection House Museum and Gallery Fairhall: After The Meal: A Taste For Excess 5 March – 22 June. Melbourne architect and restaurateur, Pascale Gomes-McNabb rearranges William Johnston’s collection. This guided tour explores the hedonistic aspects of eating against the backdrop of Johnston’s extraordinary collection. Gallery: Pride & Ornament: The Folly of Vanity 5 March – 22 June. Explores vanity in its various forms, from the creation of beauty and concealment of physical flaws, to more complex ideas about how collecting and connoisseurship can be used to construct identity. Bookings essential www.johnstoncollection.org
fitzroy • Colour Factory Gallery to know a veil by HEDY RITTERMAN. Exhibition dates: 7 – 30 June. Opening night: 7 June, 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, www. colourfactory.com.au/gallery/ Image: Hedy Ritterman, Ima (after Ema desending the stairs).
• Upstairs at the Napier Gallery Opening: 6-9pm Thursday 7 June, 2012. Exhibition: 7 – 29 June, 2012. Gallery One: Swamp by LUCY SELLECK. Swamp creates a fantastic natural history terrarium for hyperrealist interspecies voyeurism. Gallery Two: Stuffed and Mounted by RICHARD ROWLANDS. This project explores the displacement of found objects reformed as sculpture. Non-traditional materials and appropriated objects are combined to investigate local, social and environmental histories from the private and public domain. 210 Napier Street, Fitzroy (above the Napier Hotel).
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
ivanhoe • Banyule Arts Space 23 May – 20 June 2012 No.1: The 2012 Banyule Contemporary Art Fair - one group of leading Banyule artists expressing the diversity of contemporary art practice in one space. Featured artists: RONA GREEN, CAZ GUINEY, LENE KUHL JAKOBSEN, IRIANNA KANELLOPOULOU, AMY KENNEDY, ANGELA LYNKUSHKA, GEORGIA THORPE, and WAYNE VINEY. Curator: CLAIRE WATSON. Banyule Arts Space: 14 Ivanhoe Pde, Ivanhoe. Wed-Sat 11am-5pm. Free Entry. T: (03) 9457 9851; www.banyule.vic.gov.au/arts
langwarrin • McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park 1 April to 15 July, Beyond the Self: Contemporary Portraiture from Asia. A travelling exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery. Australia’s leading Sculpture Park and Gallery. 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin (Mel. Ref. 103 E3 only 45 min from St Kilda!) T: (03) 9789 1671. Gallery Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm (Entry by donation). McClelland Gallery Café, Tues-Sun 10am-4.30pm. Guided Tours: Wed and Thurs 11am and 2pm, and Sat and Sun by appointment only. Prior bookings highly recommended. E: info@mcclellandgallery.com, www.mcclellandgallery.com
melbourne • Announcing an exciting new Expression of Interest Program at Signal Signal’s new Expression of Interest (EOI) Program provides an opportunity for artists and arts organisations to propose new projects to undertake at Signal. New ideas and proposals are welcome from artists and organisations of all disciplines for projects that engage young people 13 to 20 years. The Signal EOI Program supports artist fees and material expenses up to $20,000. Expressions of interest are now open. Closing date 29 July 2012. Signal is a creative arts studio dedicated to young people 13 to 20. Further information, guidelines and proposal forms can be found at www.signal.net.au • Blindside Artist Run Space 30 May – 16 June: G1 SALLY TAPE, Voyeuristic Pleasure, Patterns and Architecture. G2 LAUREN SIMMONDS, Moments of Stillness for an Evolutionary Race. 20 June – 7 July: G1 ELIZABETH PEDLER, Interventions in the Present Moment. G2 STEPH WILSON, Ain’t got no business doing business today. Nicholas Building, 714/37 Swanston St (enter via Cathedral Arcade lifts, cnr Flinders Lane), Melbourne. Hours: Tue to Sat 12-6pm. T: (03) 9650 0093; www. blindside.org.au Image: Jack Rowland, A Fine Day, 76cm x 122cm, oil on canvas, 2010.
• 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
• fortyfivedownstairs 7 June – 1 July, The Burlesque Hour: The Glory Box by FINUCANE & SMITH, burlesque theatre. 6 June – 16 June, Heartlands Refugee Fine Art Prize 2012, MULTICULTURAL ARTS VICTORIA, visual art. 19 June – 14 July, 2012 Victorian Architecture Award Entries, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, architecture installation. 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 3000. T: (03) 9662 9966, www. fortyfivedownstairs.com
• Ours Have Faces The Hidden Faces of the Archibald Unveiling the talent of Victorian Artists in the 2012 Victorian Salon des Refusés. Rival the selection of the ‘Official Prize’. View these exciting and diverse portraits – submitted but unselected – Vote for your choice and WIN. Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, 2 Convention Centre Place South Wharf. 18 June – 16 August, 2012. Open daily, nightly Free Admission. Enquiries: 0418 347 814 E: jtaylor@ozlink.com.au Image: Zoë TuckwellSmith by MARTIN LANG.
• RMIT Gallery 29 June – 25 August: YULYULYU: Lorna Fencer Napurrurla. The first major exhibition of well known Warlpiri artist Yulyulyu LORNA FENCER NAPURRURLA (1924-2006) traces her development as a highly original artist and highlights her importance as a master painter within the Lajamanu region and within the broader framework of central desert art movement. Presented by Mimi Aboriginal Arts and Crafts in association with Artback NT Arts Development and Touring. This exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia. Public Program 29 June: 12-1 pm Margie West curator talk. 29 June – 25 August: Stars of the Tokyo Stage: Natori Shunsen’s Kabuki actor prints. An inspiration to artists for centuries, kabuki draws on Japan’s rich folklore, literature and history, as well as violent, romantic and scandalous events, to present lavish dramatic performances. This exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia reveals the dynamic world of Japan’s kabuki theatre through superb actor portraits created by artist NATORI SHUNSEN (1886–1960) in the 1920s and 30s. A selection of spectacular kabuki robes further illustrates the extravagance of the theatrical form. Public Program 26 July:12-1 pm Lucie Folan, curator talk. 29 June – 25 August: Kindness/Udarta: AustraliaIndia Cultural Exchange. Celebrating 20 years of the Australia-India Council’s successful program of cultural exchanges between Indian and Australian visual artists, writers and musicians, Kindness/Udarta: Australia-India Cultural Exchange bears witness to the depth of vitality that only the arts can so readily engender.
With more than 117 writers, visual artists and musicians including THOMAS KENEALLY, ALEXIS WRIGHT, LES MURRAY, ROBYN BEECHE, CALLUM MORTON, JENNY WATSON, HAKU SHAH, GIRIRAJ PRASAD, NALINI MALANI, SEEMA KOHLI, BHARTI KHER, SHILPA GUPTA, SUBODH GUPTA, PRADYUMNA KUMAR AND RANBIR SINGH KALEKA. Public Program 2 August: 5.30-7 pm. RMIT Gallery: Indian cultural celebration, with music, food and readings. Special guests Indian author Kiran Nagakar and Australian author CHRISTOPHER KREMMER. 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, Thurs 11-7. Sat 12 to 5pm, closed Sun and public holidays. RMIT Gallery open on RMIT Open day Sunday 14 August. Become a Fan of the Gallery on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter@RMITGallery. Now open to 7pm Thursday nights.
moonee ponds • Incinerator Gallery Artecycle 17 May – 8 July. Environmental and Sustainability Sculpture Prize and Exhibition. It’s Never Too Late To Mend, RAYNA FAHEY. 13 April – 13 May. The Atrium Project: Filling The Void. Rotating yearlong sculpture and installation with Hatchlings by EWEN COATES, 13 April – 13 May. Opening hours: Tues to Sun, 10am-4pm. Incinerator Gallery, 180 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds VIC 3039 T: (03) 8325 1750, E: incinerator@mvcc.vic.gov.au, www. incineratorgallery.com.au
southbank • ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Berlinde De Bruyckere, We are all Flesh, 2 June to 29 July, 2012. Selected works from extraordinary Belgian sculptor BELINDE DE BRUYCKERE, including the rarely seen and iconic 019 and two new commissions for ACCA. De Bruyckere’s haunting sculptures of metamorphosising horses, trees and humans recall the visceral gothic of Flemish tre-cento art, updated to a new consideration of the human condition. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank. Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm, Weekends and Public Holidays 11am-6pm. Mondays by appointment. T: (03) 9697 9999. Admission: Free. www.accaonline.org.au
st andrews • The Baldessin Press and Studio Artists / writers retreats, workshops, studio access etc in tranquil bushland 50 kms from Melbourne. T (03) 97101350, www. baldessinpress.com
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upwey • Burrinja Gallery Memories – Contact with White People. Explore the theme of contact with white colonisers from the Aboriginal perspective. Depictions of policemen, cattle, prison trees, massacre sites and nuclear test sites tell stories of dispossession, disempowerment and destruction, and yet their telling provides future hope, until 24 June. Cnr Glenfern Rd and Matson Dr. Tue to Sun 10.30am-4pm. T: (03) 9754 8723. W: burrinja.org.au Image: Jack Dale Mengenen, Chained Gang (detail).
wheelers hill • Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) 9 June – 29 July 2012 Hoppé portraits: society, studio & street. 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill 3150. Tues - Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 to 5pm, Closed Mon. T: (03) 8544 0500, E: mga@monash.vic.gov.au, www.mga.org.au Image: EMIL OTTO HOPPÉ, Ezra Pound 1918, gelatin-silver print courtesy of the EO Hoppé Estate Collection.
geelong • Geelong Gallery In search of the picturesque - the architectural ruin in art until 24 June. InsideOutside until 24 June. Geelong region artists program 2012 Art Unlimited until 17 June. Geelong region artists program House and home - MALCOM BYWATERS 23 June to 29 July. Geelong Gallery, Little Malop Street, Geelong 3645. T: (03) 5229 3645, www.geelonggallery.org.au, Free entry. Open daily 10am to 5pm. Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Image: Bernardo Bellotto, Ruins of the Forum, Rome c. 1743, oil on canvas. Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1919.
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mornington peninsula • Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Until 11 June: ROY LICHTENSTEIN: Pop remix, a National Gallery of Australia exhibition. 21 June – 12 August: Controversy: The power of art, an exclusive Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition. Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Civic Reserve, Dunns Rd, Mornington VIC 3931. T:: (03) 5975 4395; W: mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au. Open Tuesday – Sunday 10am-5pm.
ballarat • Art Gallery of Ballarat To 24 June Rick Amor Drawing Prize 2012. 12 May to 24 June Missconceptions by CATH JOHNSTON. 17 May to 1 July Other by TRACY MOFFATT. 19 May to 1 July Alternative persona by GARETH SANSOM. T: (03) 5320 5858 Free entry. Open daily 9am to 5pm. E: artgal@ballarat. vic.gov.au; www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au
• Ballarat Arts Foundation Grants Rounds for emerging artists: 1 – 31 March and 1 – 30 September. Visit Downloads on www.ballaratartsfoundation.org.au or T: (03) 5332 4824 or M: 0409 352 268
CENTRAL VIC
• Ballarat Arts Foundation – MIB 2012! Anything You Can Do, 2pm, Sunday 24 June, Her Majesty’s Theatre. BAF presents another in their blockbuster series of concerts showcasing established and emerging artists ‘made in Ballarat, in a light-hearted battle of the sexes on stage featuring jazz, music theatre, opera and dance. Directed by PETER TULLOCH, with MD IAN GOVAN, arrangements by GRAEME VENDY, and hosted by BRUCE ROBERTS of WIN News, it stars ROGER LEMKE, JACQUELINE DARK, AND CHELSEA GIBB. Booking: Majestix (03) 5333 5888 or www.hermaj.com
• Her Majesty’s Friday 1 June 8pm, Dusty the Concert; Saturday 2 June 8pm, The Housekeeper; Monday 4 June 7pm, MetHD La Traviata; Wednesday 6 June 8pm, Divine Divas; Tuesday 12 June 2pm, Showstoppers of London’s West End; Wednesday 13 June 8pm, GUY SEBASTIAN Armageddon; Friday 15 June 8pm, DAVID CAMPBELL’s Let’s Go; Thursday 28 June 8pm and Friday 29 June 11am, BELL SHAKESPEARE’s The School for Wives by Moliere; Saturday 30 June 7.30pm, MELBOURNE OPERA’s Carmen; Wednesday 4 July 7pm and Thursday 5 July 11am, Happy Birthday Peter Rabbit; Thursday 5 July 8pm, The Man in Black. 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. • Post Office Gallery Wed 16 May – Sat 9 Jun WENDY BOLGER: Pleasure Framed; Wed 13 - Sat 30 Jun MARKS 12: Recent work by Ballarat Visual Art Secondary Teachers. Post Office Gallery, University of Ballarat. Cnr Sturt and Lydiard St Ballarat. VIC. 3350. Mon/Tue by appt. WedSat 1-4pm. T: (03) 5327 8615, E: s.hinton@ ballarat.edu.au; www.ballarat.edu.au Image: Wendy Bolger, Mungo Framed 1 2010, type C photograph. Courtesy the artist.
• Radmac Now Showing at the Radmac Gallery through June a new Resident and Artist to Ballarat ROBYN GREEN. Robyn has a long history with Ballarat through her ancestors dating back many years, Robyn is self-taught and has always had a love for animals; this is evident with her bright and colourful range of animals and scenery created in acrylics. Also we have local artist ANA, a will be displaying her a work of Dream Real Art with Nature using mixed media and photography. Both are exhibitions not to be missed. Radmac Office Choice (incorporating Radmac Gallery) is your one stop shop for all your office and school supplies, computer consumables, copy and specialty papers, art and craft supplies, art classes (bookings essential) and much much more. Radmac 104 Armstrong Street (Nth) Ballarat 3350 T: (03) 5333 4617 Gallery Hours 8.30am to 5.30pm Mon – Fri, 9am to 12pm Sat.
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
bendigo • Bendigo Art Gallery 11 March to 17 June Grace Kelly: Style Icon. Organised by the V&A Museum, London and the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco. 42 View Street, Bendigo. T: (03) 5434 6088. www. bendigoartgallery.com.au Image: Grace Kelly, 1953. © Everett Collection / Rex Features.
• The Capital Info and tickets online at www.thecapital.com.au. T: (03) 5441 6100 or visit 50 View Street, Bendigo. Full list of shows at website.
5434 6100 www.thecapital.com.au 50 VIEW STREET BENDIGO
• Community & Cultural Development (CCD) www.bendigo.vic.gov.au - for arts, festivals and events info at your fingertips. Select Council Services, then Arts Festivals and Events for Events Calendar and Arts Register. The CCD Unit is an initiative of the City of Greater Bendigo. E: eventscalendar@bendigo.vic.gov. au T: (03) 5434 6464
• La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre VAC Gallery: To 24 June JUAN FORD – Lord of the Canopy. 27 June – 29 July MICHAEL NEEDHAM – Long Shadowed Land. Access Gallery: To 17 June MARK SELKRIG – Mapping the In-Betweens. 20 June – 15 July FRANCES GUERIN – Longitude of Home: An Exploration of Irish Australian Heritage. Sculpture Courtyard I: To 17 June DIANE THOMPSON A Parallel Universe: Reflections on the Wave. Gallery hours: Tue - Fri 10am-5pm, Sat - Sun 12pm-5pm. 121 View Street, Bendigo. T: (03) 5441 8724; www. latrobe.edu.au/vac Image by Juan Ford (detail).
• Sutton Grange Art Show Sutton Grange Hall 22 – 24 June 2012 (Cnr. Faraday/Sutton Grange Road and Bendigo/ Sutton Grange Road). Exhibition and sales of paintings and sculptures. Opening Night commencing 6.30pm 22 June will be a memorable event of burning braziers amongst outdoor sculptures, accompanied by a piper. Drinks and refreshments - $10pp. Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm, $2pp. Enquiries: 0402 238 870
• Dudley House Inhabitants Exhibition -5 local women exhibiting their interpretations and perceptions of the Bendigo area. Opens Fri. 15 June, 6pm. Exhib. Dates 15 – 29 June, 10am-4pm.
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castlemaine • 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
• Buda Historic Home and Garden 2 – 17 June 2012 Buda Contemporary Textile Awards and Exhibition. A property of national significance. Home of the creative Leviny family from 1863 to 1981, featuring their personal belongings, original furnishings and arts and crafts collection. 1.2 hectares of heritage gardens to wander including plant nursery. 42 Hunter Street, Castlemaine 3450. T/F: (03) 5472 1032, W: www.budacastlemaine. org Open Wed - Sat 12-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm. Groups by appointment. Image: DAWN DUNCAN-SMITH, Secret Garden 2012, hand stitched in silk, 90 x 45cms.
• CASPA Continuing On – a diverse collection of works including a variety of media by an eclectic group of local emerging artists. Opening Fri 1 June 6pm until Fri 22 June. Above Stoneman’s Bookroom, Hargraves St. www. castlemainefringe.org.au/caspa
• Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum MAX MIDDLETON: Painter of Light, until 24 June. Buda Contemporary Textiles 2012 Exhibition & Award 2 – 17 June. Richard Crichton: Works from the Studio 1 – 29 July. 14 Lyttleton Street Castlemaine, Vic. For full list of events and exhibitions log onto: www. castlemainegallery.com Image: Max Middleton, Creation of a New Day (detail) 1977, oil on canvas. Collection of the artist.
• Falkner Gallery Until 10 June: Taken CHRISTOPHER RACE and NICHOLAS SERGEANT, photography, and All Sorts of Snippets, LIZ CAFFIN, DAVID FRAZER, ANITA KLEIN, ANITA LAURENCE, ROBYN RAYNER and ILSE VAN GARDEREN, prints, drawings and paintings. 14 June – 2 Sep This Dress Belonged to ...Fact and Fiction: CHERYL KENNEDY and LINDA MCLEAN, mixed media sculpture 35 Templeton Street, Castlemaine Hours: 11am-5pm Thurs-Sun. T: (03) 5470 5858; E: falknergallery@tpg.com.au; W: www.falknergallery.com.au Image: Cheryl Kennedy, sculpture.
• Greengraphics: web and print We design anything, in web or print. Call (03) 5472 5300 or visit www.greengraphics.com.au
• Lot19 Studios and Artspace We are currently seeking submissions for the annual spring sculpture prize! see the website for details, and for ongoing exhibitions and arts events. Lot19 Langslow Street (up Mcshannags Road) Castlemaine. www.lot19art.com
• Nunan Gallery New and retrospective art work. Be unafraid – come and visit and enjoy. Open Frid. Sat. Sun 10am to 5pm. The gallery will be closed from 7 until 26 June. Nunan Gallery, 40 Campbell Street Castlemaine. T: (03) 5470 6724; E: brian@briannunan.com; www.briannunan.com
• Union Studio Framers and Gallery Custom, exhibition and conservation framing. Contemporary art and design gallery. June-July Winter Stockroom DAVID FRAZER, DAVID RANKIN, ROBERT JACKS, KIM BARTER, KENNETH JACK, MICHAEL WOLFE, WILLY TJUNGURRAYI, GEORGE WARD TJUNGURRAYI, MICHELLE PLEASANCE, MAKINTI NAPANAGKA, HUGH WALLER, CATHERINE PILGRIM. Open 7 days. 74 Mostyn Street (enter via Union St) Castlemaine. www.unionstudio.com.au T: (03) 5470 6446
charlton • Charlton Arts Annual Film Festival At the newly renovated Rex Theatre. Fri 8 – Sun 10 June. Seasons tix $70 for 8 movies and some refreshments. Details T: (03) 5491 1647; or www.rextheatre.org.au
kyneton • Kyneton Daffodil & Arts Festival Prize for Art It’s on again. Kyneton Daffodil and Arts Festival will award $500 to the winner of the 6th Annual Art Prize for an art work containing daffodils. People 17 and older are invited to enter. Winner announced at Festival Opening 30 August and on exhibition during Festival. Entry Guidelines www.kynetondaffodilarts.org.au or on application to the Festival (03) 5422 2282
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• Gallery 40 New exhibition: Nature/Near & Far – MARGARET CHANDRA’s photos of water, mountains and trees for landscape lovers! Open 11am-4pm, Sat-Mon 2 June until 2 July. 40 Mollison Street,Kyneton. Contact Margaret Chandra: M: 0438 356 025; E: mchandra@ gallery40.com.au; www.gallery40.com.au
• Stockroom Makers, artists and project space. 7 June to 8 July (opening Sat 9 June, 4.30pm) MATTHEW AND DANIEL BUTTERWORTH, Remain Calm; ALISON EGGLETON, Within Patterns; GRANT NIMMO, When the northern wheel turns. Thurs-Mon 10.30am-5pm. 98 Piper Street, Kyneton 3444. T: (03) 5422 3215. www.stockroomkyneton.com
• Tegan Wheeldon @ Trio Art Studio and Gallery Mending Memories, an exhibition by TEGAN WHEELDON, 26 May – 16 June. Trio Art Studio and Gallery, 98 Trio Road Kyneton. E: trioart@yahoo.com.au Gallery Hours 10am-4pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Trio Art Studio and Gallery, Call for Contemporary Artists to exhibit in the gallery, 98 Trio Road Kyneton. Gallery Hours 10am-4pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. .E: trioart@yahoo.com.au
newstead • Dig Café June exhibition TIM MELLINGTON, photographs of various parts of Victoria and Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open Wednesday and Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday and Saturday 9am - late, Sunday 9am-4pm. Cnr Lyons and Panmure Streets Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2744; www.digcafe.com.au Image by Robert Pollard.
• Gathering Gathering is located in Newstead, 15 minutes from Castlemaine, 25 mins from Daylesford. We stock all original, all Australian, all handmade goods. Perfect for shopping for that special gift or for something for yourself. You can find one of a kind pieces for grownups and kids to wear, adorn yourselves with, and place in your home. It is a space in our community to see hand making at its best. Panmure Street Newstead.
• Karen Pierce Painter, Illustrator, Art Teacher, Community Artist. Quality prints and cards. Old Post Office Studio, 22 Panmure Street Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2459, www.karenpierceart.com
woodend • WAG, Winter Arts Show Woodend is an hour out of Melbourne along the Calder Highway, or a similar country train ride on the Bendigo line. The show is held at the old railway refreshment rooms of the Woodend Railway Station around the crackling fire necessary for our hilly climes. Saturday will see the launch of our Station Mural at 11am created by budding artists from the ‘Folio Club’ with guidance from JENNIFER BARNETT. Sat 9th, Sun 10th, Mon 11th June, 10am-4pm. Gold coin donation. IMAGE: MARYSIA JAROSINSKA, Family portrait 2012, silkscreen.
gippsland • KW Abstract Art KERRIE WARREN, Abstract Expressionist opens her studio on the 1st Sunday of every month. A great opportunity to view and purchase large works on canvas and stoneware ceramics. Visit the website for details... www.kerriewarren.com.au
EASTERN VIC
healesville • TarraWarra Museum of Art 9 June – 8 July. Archibald Prize 2012. TarraWarra Museum of Art is proud to be the exclusive Victorian host of the 2012 Archibald Prize, one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious art awards. TarraWarra Museum of Art, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville. For information and bookings visit twma.com.au Image: TIM STORRIER, The histrionic wayfarer (after Bosch) (detail) © Tim Storrier. 2012 Archibald Prize winner.
mildura • The Art Vault To 11 June SHANE JONES Figments main gallery; DEIRDRE EDWARDS River Mapping small gallery. 13 June – 2 July DEBORAH WILLIAMS On its Own main gallery; BRUNO PACCARD Through a Frenchman’s eyes small gallery. Artists In Residence: DEIRDRE EDWARDS, SHANE JONES, DEBORAH WILLIAMS, ROSALIND ATKINS. 43 Deakin Avenue, Mildura 3500. T: (03) 5022 0013 E: juliechambers@theartvault.com.au www. theartvault.com.au Image: Deborah Williams, her world, 2012, etching, engraving, roulette, 71 x 98 cm, edition 20.
• Mildura Arts Centre 9 May - 16 June 2012, Who are these animal headed humans? RACHEL KENDRIGAN. Venue: Rio Vista Historic House, 199 Cureton Avenue, Mildura. Open Wed – Mon: 11am-4pm. 1 - 29 June 2012, The Art of Noise: WALTER ISON. Venue: LEAP Project Space, 39 Langtree Ave, Mildura. Open Tues-Fri: 11am-3pm. Mildura Arts Centre Regional Gallery is closed while the Centre undertakes an exciting redevelopment of Mildura’s arts and cultural precinct. 199 Cureton Avenue, Mildura VIC 3500. T: (03) 5018 8330; F: (03) 5021 1462; www.milduraartscentre.com. au Image: Walter Ison & Jill Antonie, The Art of Noise image graphic.
MURRAY RIVER
• Mildura Writers Festival 19 – 22 July 2012. Four days of food wine and words. Featuring DRUSILLA MODJESKA, LIZ MOORE (US), LES MURRAY, ANNA GOLDSWORTHY, ROBERT GRAY, BARRY HILL, EVELYN JUERS, PETER ROBB, CHRIS WALLACE-CRABBE, JOHN WOLSELEY, MORAG FRASER, JOE DOLCE. Includes awarding of the Philip Hodgins Memorial medal, convivial lunches and dinners, and discussions in a relaxed atmosphere. For info and tickets visit www.artsmildura.com.au or phone (03)5022 9542. Image: Winter by Robert Watson.
swan hill • Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery Swan Hill Print and Drawing Acquisitive Awards 2012, until 8 July. PANDA - Acquisitions from the Swan Hill Print and Drawing Awards until 3 June. Inside the Line, interactive exhibition. 5 June – 8 July. Horseshoe Bend, Swan Hill 3585. www.swanhillart.com; T: (03) 5036 2430
Swan Hill Print & Drawing Acquisitive Award 2010 Winning Print: Deborah WIlliams, Pause 2009, engraving and roulette intaglio, 71 x 89 cm.
benalla • Benalla Art Gallery Of Love and War, Australian War Memorial Touring exhibition to 10 June. Spirit in the Land a McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park and NETS Victoria Touring Exhibition 22 June to 29 July. Bridge Street, Benalla, Victoria, 3672. Opening hours 10am-5pm. T: (03) 5760 2619. E: gallery@ benalla.vic.gov.au; Please check the website for details: www.benallaartgallery.com
NORTHERN VIC
shepparton • Shepparton Art Museum Sam Jinks: Body in Time, 3 May to 1 July. 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton VIC 3630; T: (03) 5832 9861; E: art.museum@shepparton.vic. gov.au; www.sheppartonartmuseum.com.au Acting Director: Ryan Johnston. Open 7 days, Free Entry.
LAUNCH PARTY Saturday 18 February 2012
wangaratta • Wangaratta Art Gallery 26 May – 10 June 2012, TONY FLINT – Roads to Nowhere, NE Vic artist, paintings and drawings. 16 June – 22 July 2012, PETITE – Contemporary Miniature Textile Art by artists from all over Australia. 23 June 2012 – 8 July 2012, The Gifts of Embroidery – NE Branch of the EMBROIDERERS GUILD OF VICTORIA in The Workshop Space. 56 Ovens Street Wangaratta. Director: Dianne Mangan, Hours: Mon-Tues 12-5pm; Wed-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 1-4pm. T: (03) 5722 0865, F: (03) 5722 2969, E: d.mangan@wangaratta.vic.gov. au or gallery@wangaratta.vic.gov.au; www. wangaratta.vic.gov.au then follow the links to the gallery. Follow us on Facebook.
• Free arts activities, live music & tours of SAM: 10.00am to 5.00pm • Sir John Longstaff: Portrait of a Lady Exhibition • 2011 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award Exhibition • 6 New Permanent Collection Galleries For more information visit sheppartonartmuseum.com.au 70 Welsford St, Shepparton, 3630 VIC p 03 5832 9861 f 03 58318480 e art.museum@shepparton.vic.gov.au
Image: INGA HANOVER, Master Series. Users’ reference, (detail) artist book, found and new silk, cotton, denim and plastics, hand and machine stitching, silk screening, digital printing, drawing, beading, dying, fusing. Courtesy of the artist.
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ararat • Ararat Regional Art Gallery KATE JUST: The Knitted Works 20042011, 17 May to 8 July 2012. Town Hall, Vincent Street. Mon, Wed to Fri 10am – 4.30pm, w/ends 12 - 4pm. T: (03) 5352 2836 facebook.com/araratgallery
hamilton • Hamilton Art Gallery GRAEME FINN: Waiting for the shadows to paralyse, until 26 August. Abstract paintings by this internationally significant local artist. Tooth and Nail, until 12 August. Organised by RMIT this exhibition features sculptural ceramics from contemporary Australian and Chinese makers and reflects upon the contrasts and similarities of ceramics from a recent and ancient traditions. Consciously selected as non-functional or sculptural works this exhibition also shows the versatility of the ceramic medium. 107 Brown Street, Mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am 12pm and 2 - 5pm, Sun 2 - 5pm. T: (03) 5573 0460, E: info@hamiltongallery.org, W: www. hamiltongallery.org Image: ROBYN PHELAN, Depleted 2009, Southern Ice Paperclay, cobalt glaze, 36 x 29 x 24 cm.
horsham • 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
WESTERN VIC
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