YEWTH
SKATEBOARDING | SURFING | BMX | ART | ADELAIDE
SPRING / SUMMER 2014 ISSUE 002 - FREE
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WELCOME TO ISSUE 2 OF YEWTH MAG... We hope you enjoy reading the magazine and add it to your collection! Editor | Design | AdvertisingCaleb Sweeting Contributing WritersDave Court, Lachy Pfitzner, Rhys Gogel Contributing PhotographersChe Chorley (Front Cover), Daniel Purvis, Eddy Hamra, Ella Smith,Lachy Pfitzner www.facebook.com/YEWTHmag yewthmag@hotmail.com instagram.com/yewthmag
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INTERVIEWS: Skateboarder/ Artist - Gabriel Cole (10-17) Skateboarder/ Photographer - Lachy Pfitzner (18-29) Clothing label/ Average (Cat 30-35) Mental Health awareness/ headspace (40-41) Surfer/ Artist - Henry Jock (42-51) Bmx Rider - Tristan Gray (52-56) Photo: Lachy Pfitzner
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FROM THE EDITOR There was a time this year where I worried more about how amazing other people were at skateboarding and how lousy I was in comparison. You know, I’d be sitting there at my local skate park (Osborne) and I’d see other guys pulling off these crazy kick flips over the four stair, and I couldn’t even Ollie the three... It was one of those why bother moments. But skateboarding isn’t about competition, or about comparing yourself with someone else. It’s about having the freedom to progress at your own pace. And this applies to surfing, art, BMX and any of the shit you see in this mag. There was one guy I encountered this year who helped me look at the skateboarding scene through a different lens. I’m talking about Gabriel Cole, the brains behind Adelaide clothing labels Pirate Material and Taxi Boardriders. I met him at Tooth and Nail Gallery a few weeks after the launch of issue 1 of YEWTH (which went off by the way!) He introduced me to Keep it Wheel (another Adelaide creative) before showing me around the gallery. Then we all went out for coffee, and it was on the way to Bar 9 when I realisedwhat skateboarding is about. It’s about having fun! We were just skating together commuting from point A to B, laughing and having a good time screeching around Rundle Mall… We weren’t bummed out because we couldn’t control our boards like Andrew Reynolds; we were excited and motivated to get our lattes! I ride my skateboard to school every day and can relate to this - school can be monotonous for some, but literally pushing yourself to school can push you to do better. (Makes sense doesn’t it.) If you’re reading this magazine you probably don’t drive, you skate and if you do drive I bet your usually driving somewhere to hop out your Commodore and skate! In the words of Gabriel Cole it doesn’t need to be anything too ‘gnarly,’ progressing in skateboarding can literally be riding through town to your favourite coffee shop. I don’t need to compete with other guys; I can just compete with myself - as long as I am better at skating now than what I was 6 months ago that’s all that matters. And if I’m not who gives a shit, skateboarding isn’t like soccer they can’t make you sit on the bench for underperforming! - Caleb Sweeting
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Left- Henry Harding, Nose Bonk Above- Harding, 50-50 grind Below- All the boys having a break from a hard days skating in St Kilda, Melbourne. Photos: Daniel Purvis
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Interview: Sweeting | Photos: Daniel Purvis
Gabriel Cole Sweeting- So what is TAXI BOARDRIDERS, we had some confusion from readers of issue 1 who said, “What the fuck is that Taxi advert on the back?” Let’s clear that up. Cole- That’s so funny… But first we can turn that speaker off if you want man. (Gabriel has this jazzy music playing in the background). It’s just to create a community in Adelaide that is proud of its own scene and to inspire people to contribute to their own scene. Whether that’s through supporting each other through music, making shit or art itself… So the idea would be to create a little outlet and push a scene that will inspire crew to be involved essentially. TAXI BOARDRIDERS being the simplicity of skateboarding around town and pushing from point A to point B being that’s what a taxi is about… And then the criteria being that it’s all about the city boy steez, it’s about art, it’s about riding bikes, it’s about music – it’s about that whole outlet related to skateboarding… The essence of it is you still push plank around town and skate to coffee shops and shit like that (it doesn’t need to be too gnarly). We want cats to contribute be part of it.
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Taxi Boardriders Pirate Material
CiAO CiAO | Gabriel Cole
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This definitely clears the air for some confused heads out there. What about Pirate Material? Pirate Material is my alter ego; I have been doing it for a few years. It’s inspired by the streets (original PM) and to me it represents the childish boy inside of you… its holding still to those ethics of when you were a child and the artwork’s inspired by childish things as well. I make it in a way that kind of looks childish and relates to a lot people, but then it’s also quite a technical art form- It looks like it’s through a child’s eyes but the actual process is obviously quite difficult. Yeah I can see where you are coming from. Are there any skateboarding brands that influence your designs for TAXI and Pirate? I can’t tell
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by looking at them, which is props to you as an artist because nobody likes a copycat brand. Well I mean I obviously really like skateboarding, it’s really fucking tough… It’s just so amazing.
‘Vogue’
I think I like skateboarding itself, more than I like skateboarding brands they don’t really attract me from a design perspective. I just think they are a bit bizarre and people buy into them a little too much.
I mean obviously Polar is really cool and what a lot of cats don’t realise is that Polar is heavily inspired by Matisse, Henri Matisse being the very famous artist up there with Picasso. All those cut outs that Pontus does they’re all essentially Matisse reinterpretations. So Polar is cool and I really like the idea of Bianca Chandon. From a brand point of view I am inspired more by Japanese clothing rather than skateboarding brands. I also really love old school Stussy, when Shaun Stussy was at the prime of it and I really loved Mambo when they were at the prime of it as well. Yeah so they’re the two that like…. Well, Stussy is a bit fucked now, but back in the day it was the most amazing shit.
Yeah I love Mambo, Reg Mombassa is a legend! I guess you spend a large chunk of your time here at Tooth and Nail Gallery? Not really, I am pretty busy. I just try and come in here when I’ve got time; I try and make an effort… It’s like you’ve got to keep doing it, you have to put in a fair few hours, especially when you are starting out because you have to learn a lot and you are very slow when you are starting out, you get faster and faster the more work you do. You need to draw and expose yourself to design every day. But at this stage I am pretty fresh. I have a fair bit of other stuff going on in my life, like running and uni. So I try and put in a lot of effort into getting out to the studio and painting.
And we screen print all the stuff for Taxi as well, same as Pirate Material, so we’ve taught ourselves how to do that process. Are you going to make it bigger than just shirts? Can we expect hats, then a full clothing range for TAXI BOARDRIDERS? I am not really sure…
“I want to respect the need that I wouldn’t buy something that is shit. So I feel kind of strange about just importing these hats from China and putting Taxi over the top of it.”
I would only do it if we could control it. I don’t want to be stuck up about it, but the way I look at it is I would only sell it if I would rep it myself. So, yeah of course we would love to get into that type of stuff, but I think at this stage people get too exaggerated about trying to go too big too soon. Just focus on the simple things first- instead of making ten tees make two dope tees or make a dope sticker or something like that. The process of drawing the stuff takes a little while as well, keep it hand drawn, no bull shit. Cole was born with a partially formed arm: In 2010 he competed in the Commonwealth Games, followed by the London Paralympics in 2012 and won a silver medal at the 2013 world championship in Lyon for the 100m T46 category.
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Designing at Tooth & Nail for PM drop 003
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Gabriel Cole at work
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At this point I stop the recording and Gabriel shows me around the Tooth and Nail studio and gallery. I am in awe of the two buildings, which are used as a working space for 45 local artists. All the drawings are essentially 2D, because that’s how kids draw. So I try and restrict myself a lot with the style that I am doing which makes it really hard. So I don’t do outlines, I don’t draw 3D. And those characters (the jigsaw pieces) all have two fingers because that’s all I have on my left arm. So I thought it would be funny to put something so individual on there, but most people don’t really notice it. “TOYS ARE TOYS SO DON’T BE 1” Photos: Daniel Purvis ‘First Love’ on display in Tooth & Nail
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THROUGH Story & Photos | Lachy Pfitzner Skateboarding and my take on photography can be seen in many different ways. Firstly there is your typical 9-5 office worker who drives around in a 2005 Mercedes Benz, these common types will walk past you and either be talking to themselves or explaining to you why you shouldn’t be standing on a park bench or in a tree taking photos. Secondly there are those members of society who actually respect what you are doing and your freedom of expression. This article is probably sounding very stereotypical but that’s not the idea at all, I mean it’s like me saying that all skateboarders are drug addicts, it’s not like that but it’s this sort of shit that pisses me off.
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Those people who don’t respect the time and effort that ‘less valuable or less known’ members of the creative world put into their work.
what I want, because tomorrow there could be something new and even better than the previous model that was released two weeks earlier.
The first time I picked up a camera with the intent of actually perusing photography was about 4 years ago. I got my hands on a good old Canon 600d (which funnily enough I still use to this day). Whist I’m not here to bag the camera because it is a great amateur DSLR, it has served its time in my hands ... Although my bank account will argue otherwise its time that I upgrade. However, now with the hundreds of new ‘amazing’ cameras on the market it’s hard to decide
This is the reason why I picked up my old Pentax SF7 and for those of you who don’t know much about cameras it’s an old 35mm film camera from the late 80s. I had hardly used film before and wanted to test my skills. Instantly I fell in love with the ‘film look’, which everyone and their Canon cameras are searching so hard to try and get. Shooting on film is a whole new ball game and something really interesting.
THE LENS Photo | Grenfell Street
Firstly you only have a limited number of shots and there is no playback button where you can review your shot, making it all that more challenging to select the perfect settings and compose the shot exactly how you want it. In saying this I love the challenges that I face using film, and the whole process of taking a photograph and waiting for it to be developed is unlike anything I have experienced with my photography before. Part 2 of this feature rolls into an interview with Lachy about how he feels about all aspects of photography including iPhone’s, GoPro’s and who inspires him most.
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THROUGH THE LENS PART 2
Sweeting- Why did you take that photo of a dude on the ground surrounded by pigeons? Pfitzner- I am just really into street photography and I saw a dude sitting there in a park and it looked interesting cause he was just surrounded by pigeons and he wasn’t moving at all, it almost looked like he was frozen in time. So did you like the way you captured that moment? Yeah I think it looks pretty sweet... That was the first photo that I shot on the roll of
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INTERVIEW | SWEETING Photo | Pigeon Man
film, so that was the first photo I looked at when I got the roll back after not taking photos on film camera for ages. I was like wow that looks sick… Now I have to go do more of this… So I bought ten more rolls of film and started getting more photos. It’s amazing, there is probably only three or four good photos on a roll of film. You would take twenty photos, but you only ever get three or four good ones… If you’re lucky, so the rest are just throw-aways.
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THROUGH THE LENS PART 2
Do you find it more difficult taking photos of people skateboarding because it is harder to capture the moment? I am not taking proper photos of skating as in a sense, it’s not people busting kickflips down like fifteen stairs or whatever because you just can’t do that. Film is a whole different world than digital, which makes it far more challenging to do certain things. But just lifestyle shots of people doing tricks and hanging out are perfect for film.
1. Beau Ollie This shot was taken in Chinatown at 9am on a Sunday morning whilst I was shooting for my Super 8 project ‘Free Form.’ I don’t know what it is about Chinatown but it just has that look, combine that with a film camera and you get something crazy. Although this shot wasn’t composed the way I would have liked it still makes for a sweet photo.
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2. Beau Beau Hinge looking seductive whilst filming for a Super 8 film in Chinatown.
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There is one of Jimmy filming for Dial Up and then Callum doing a Tre flip at Vic Square, I think that was a pretty sweet photo as well. So it is more about capturing the moment of people doing the trick, than really capturing the trick itself? Yeah like not capturing the apex of the trick, I don’t know if apex is the right word, but just that whole in action like just showing people having fun- well that is my interpretation of film anyway. It is just so outdated; there are only two places in Adelaide that develop film. So it’s much harder to get your hands on, but I guess it more of a ‘hipster’ thing you could say, but really it is about enjoying it.
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So how much does a roll of film cost and how much does it cost to get it developed? A roll of twenty-four shots is about $9 and then it costs about $13 to get developed- so it works out to about $1 a photo... So you are burning a hole in your pocket, it’s a bit like a boat.
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THROUGH THE LENS PART 2
How do you feel about social media and how easy it is to take a photo with your phone and instantly upload it vs. taking a photo on a camera with film and putting in the effort to get it developed? Do you think we have taken for granted what photography really is? I mean, I am only eighteen so I can’t speak from old times, but you know iPhones are the way of the future, the cameras are insane, like journalists reporting in third world countries are using iPhones to capture the stuff that you would usually have to take a $5000 camera to do because they are just that good. However, it is not the same. You know you take a photo and then you have got it, then you use some shitty filter app to like make it look even worse and it is just not the same.
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“Journalists reporting in third world countries are using iPhones to capture the stuff that you would usually have to take a $5000 camera to do because they are just that good.”
Film is as raw as it gets, not even film but photography in general. I think that people with iPhones think that they are photographers. You are not. You are just another member of society just going around taking photos of Port Power marching down the street or whatever hahaha (on the day of this interview Port Adelaide were playing against Richmond and there were thousands of fans marching through the City). I probably sound very against it, you know I take photos on my phone and put it up on Instagram, but that is beside the point. If you want to take a proper photo you have to have some sort of knowledge about it to take a good one. But with an iPhone it does it all for you, you just press the button and you’ve got it.
3. Milly Adelaide may be a shit hole for almost everything arts related but there is something about this spot that keeps me coming back. My girlfriend and I always go to this spot to look over the city but there was something about this day and the sunset that made it special. I just love lens flares and natural light. The sun almost makes it look like she is glowing.
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THROUGH THE LENS PART 2
So when you do take photos ‘properly’ do you like using filters or do you try and keep them as natural as possible? With film and all the photos that are in this article they are all raw, I have not done anything to them they are all unedited…
achieve this effect with a filter… Yeah, I mean I have done that we have all done that before…
Yeah I have done that before haha… Well in saying that it is not the same, like you can’t put I love the way the lighting a 1980s film filter on your works on film, like looking at iPhone photo and expect it the pigeon photo the way that to look like a photo straight orange came through on the out of a Pentax. It just bottom… doesn’t work. Yeah! That was just a bench, a bench that is not Are there any photographers orange, but film just makes that you look up to and take everything looks so different inspiration from? than it actually is and that’s There is this one guy called why I like it so much. Cartier Bresson he was from the 1860s or something like And even I feel people on that. Instagram are trying so hard to take a photo and try and So he didn’t have an iPhone?
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No he didn’t! It was all film and the stuff he did was incredible, like you just have to look it up on the internet (possibly your iPhone). He was one of the biggest street photographers of the time and it is all film obviously because that is all they had back then and it is just amazing some of the stuff that he captured… Like we do time lapses of the street now, with cars zipping past and light trails and he was doing that on a film camera! And it is crazy, but apart from that I just see stuff and go with things that look cool. I will take a photo and work with it until I get it right. I usually take one photo of the subject, say if I am taking a photo of a guy laying there looking like he
is passed out in Victoria Square that was just a single shot, but I just took a while getting the framing right to where I wanted it, but with iPhones people take like thirty photos of one girl standing in front of a shop posing and then they pick the best one. What about GoPro’s and action cameras? This is turning into a massive rant, just call it rant hahaha. Nah, well personally I am not a fan of GoPro’s because it takes away from the whole creative side, I mean there are creative aspects like you can stick them where you can’t put other cameras, like underwater and bottoms of skateboards and stuff but,
“You can’t put a 1980s film filter on your iPhone photo and expect it to look like a photo straight out of a Pentax. It just doesn’t work.”
unless you have got a screen on the back and even that is still pretty hard to see what you are filming, so it is kind of hit or miss, but with talk of the new GoPro shooting in 4K at 120 frames that is crazy, and for like 600 bucks or something that is going to be the new thang!
Photo | Henri Cartier-Bresson, Hyères, France (1932) Gelatin silver print
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Interview: Sweeting | Photos: Lachy Pfitzner
AVERAGE CAT We all want to achieve something in life, whether it be Adelaide’s first skateboarding documentary (Ambivalence) or the magazine you are reading at this very moment in time. However, Van Vladissis the man behind Adelaide clothing label Average Cat believes the only way to make something work then prosper is by letting it grow organically. In other words don’t expect too much, too soon. If you love what you do and want to be successful, it will take some time to unfold and blossom. This concept has worked wonders for Van. His clothing label has become quite popular among the youth of SA and in July he launched his first AC Flagship store with the help of Renew Adelaide. Located in the suave Regent Arcade you will usually find Van chilling in the shop watching episodes of Family Guy, accompanied by old school rap beats echoing off the concrete floor. As you can see from the photographs the place is dark, which only adds to the laidback vibes radiating from this shop all day long...
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Owner: Van Vlassis
Regent Arcade | Shop front
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> Van at the front of his AC Flagship Store located in the Regent Arcade
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>Inside the store you are very welcome kick back on the lounge and watch some Family Guy
Making this magazine isn’t an easy process, but I imagine creating your own fashion label isn’t a walk in the park either. When did the idea to launch Average Cat first pop into your mind and was there any doubt that it would become as popular as it has today? If you’re worried about whether it becomes popular or not when you first start, you’ll never start. I began doing something I enjoyed and let it grow organically. Basically I was a fan of street wear, street art and graphics, so it came from that space. The feeling of creating something, from inception to end product was very attractive to me, so it was a natural transition.
“If you’re worried about whether it becomes popular or not when you first start, you’ll never start. I began doing something I enjoyed and let it grow organically.”
Every brand has a target audience, what crowd of people in society are most inclined to rep Average Cat? The core of AC started off with and continues to be screen-printed graphics on garments. Street wear, street art and hip-hop culture are the main influences for AC. What inspires us most is to tell a story through art and fashion and whoever gets that appreciates what we do, whether they’re from the culture or not.
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+ Looking at your range of clothing, I get the feeling you draw inspiration from patterns. Also I notice the absence of bright colours, while sticking to predominately black, white and red. But even more interesting is your tribute design, ‘Camo Spring,” which is inspired by Syria. What can we expect from your summer range, pops of floral possibly?
of the Middle East conflict I recommend checking it out. We’re about to drop our spring collection and its predominantly graphic based with simple design. We tend to stick to somber aphonic colours although in this collection there is a multi colour graphic. Also the nature & approach of our graphics and themes coincide with those darker colours.
Average Cat is stocked in places like USG in the Myer Centre and Daklinic, and in July you launched your first store in the Regent Arcade (coincidently on the same night as issue 1 of YEWTH mag)… Can you describe the atmosphere in your AC Flagship? Because I feel at home in your store, and that vanilla candle you have burning in there is the shit! Where can I get some?
A dark space | Exposed roof and concrete floors stay true to the street wear label
Our ‘Camo Spring’ hoody was based on the conflict in Syria and the history/ background of the Assad Regime. We did a write up on it and it’s a great read. If anyone is interested in learning about one element
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It goes back to the image and story of our brand and also ties into the feel/look of our flagship. If you’ve been in there, what I’ve just said would resonate.
There’s a cool shop across the road from me - Boo & who, they’ve got me covered!
Getting back to the feel of the store – that goes back to the idea of story telling. It was very important to me that the vibe and aesthetics of the store highlight who we are and what we’re about. From the concrete floors to the exposed ceiling, I think we’ve achieved that. When you walk in you get it.
“It was very important to me that the vibe and aesthetics of the store highlight who we are and what we’re about. From the concrete floors to the exposed ceiling, I think we’ve achieved that. When you walk in you get it.”
Where do you hope Average Cat will end up in the future? What advice would you give to young designers who wanting to launch their own brand, who just have no idea where to start or how to begin? I don’t think it’s a matter of hoping for something in the future. We obviously want AC to grow to it’s fullest potential but that can only be done on concentrating
For designers wanting to start – what I just mentioned ties into that question. Just ‘doing it’ is very underrated. Everyone gets the term but not very many people employ it. If you’re genuinely passionate about wanting to start you’ll find a way – find out who it is you look up to or draw inspiration from and flick them an email for advice, you’ll find that they’ll be very receptive & willing to help. You don’t have to know how to begin, what’s important is that you begin. I had no idea how to use design programs before I started, but I started anyway. ______________________
> Captain Paisley Tee | $50
DETAILS: 04, Regent Arcade, Adelaide www.averagecatclothing.com Friendly neighbours of Average Cat located in the Regent Arcade:
on today and the day-to-day tasks that need to be done in order for that future organic growth. In other words I’m not ‘hoping’ for the future I’m doing what needs to be done today.
Boo & Who? Closet Mod Created Range Average Cat Have You Met Charlie? Sarah Rothe Jewellery Potted Thoughts
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headspace Woodville
Mental health affects young and old people in society, but regardless of your age it can sometimes be difficult to admit you have a problem and face the reality of your situation. I believe in order for individuals to speak up and ask for help, we need to discuss the issue and ensure that everyone is aware that there are organisations out there willing to help you deal with what you’re going through. I spoke with Ella Smith, a 21 year-old Youth Reference Group member from the newly opened headspace at Woodville, and she shared all the options and support that the organisation provides for young people in Western Adelaide.
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So if you, or someone you know needs a push in the right direction listen up!
eheadspace for people who don’t want to interact face to face.
It can be hard for young people to admit problems they may be battling in their day to day lives … What is headspace and how can the organisation help young people with these issues? It’s basically an organisation with a whole bunch of centres all over Australia, advertising itself as a free walk in, phone up and send email service, so anyone 1225 years anywhere can walk into headspace and go “hey I need help” and we try our best to see them quickly and keep them coming in until they no longer need help. So it’s really accessible to walk in, call up or even there is
What privacy is in place for people under 18 years old seeking help, who would rather their parents not know for whatever reason? It’s entirely confidential because it’s a clinical service… You can involve your parents if you want to, but you are at no obligation to as long as you are 16 years old. You don’t need a Mental Health treatment plan to see one of the counsellor’s at headspace Woodville and the great thing is you can be referred on to see workers from other services that work out of headspace Woodville. Check out our website for more details at headspace.org.au/Woodville.
Interview: Sweeting | Photos: Ella Smith What programs /activities are in place for people to deal with issues such as depression without resorting medication? For the clinical side of things we have social workers and councillors who do not prescribe medication – it can just be talking, listening and coming up with techniques to work through it. We also head out to local events, like the event we are doing today is a mindfulness event which is a de-stress activity where you can relax and think about techniques of coping with different things.
want to drop them off? headspace Woodville is accessible by public transport as well, so we’ve got buses and the train station down the road, so if you don’t have a car it easy to commute to our facilities being a young person without a car. Details: headspace Woodville 888 Port Rd Woodville SA 5011
Some of our readers don’t drive, so how do you accommodate for younger people to pop in without relying on reluctant parents who for some reason don’t
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HENRY
JOCK WALKER Interview: Dave Court Photos: Eddy Hamra & Che Chorley
Henry Jock Walker is a surfer and artist who uses his art practice to mess around with the crossover between the two areas. I first met Jock in mid 2014 through the award winning arts initiative Mr IST. As a part of the exhibition we were putting together, he created a sealed booth from sheets of plastic and 90s denim ads and blasted paint all over everything inside using an array of tools and machines he had fashioned. Soon after this he won the Advertiser Business SA Contemporary Art Prize for SALA 2014, had a little story on Sunrise and a solo show in the CACSA project space, as well as a bunch of other ongoing projects, so he’s keeping busy. On top of all this, he’s a good dude who can grow a good beard.
Right: In the studio with Henry Photo: Eddy Hamra
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So let’s start off with Henry’s mobile studio, what’s all that about? Art, travel, surfing, collaboration, meeting new people, places and experimenting with ideas and making in new contexts. I started off buying my van and wanted to extend my art practice, from what I started at art school.
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You did Visual Arts UniSA undergrad right? Yeah undergrad at UniSA, I figured out there that I’m not very medium or technique specific, more interested in following ideas where they’re leading and kinda creating many different processes. Using the colours orange, blue and white have been a big part of that, kind of gluing together these different processes into the same concept.
Another day in the office. Photos: Eddy Hamra
HENRY JOCK WALKER And how did you choose art school? Did you go straight out of high school and knew what you wanted? Or what did you do? I took a year off, I went to Indo for a while, and then I came back and did this one course for design and wasn’t very into it. Then I took another year off and went overseas to Europe and then I came back and went nah I wanna make art, not design. I suppose I started off at art school thinking I’d just make surf art, I had no idea about art, I just liked making it and I wanted to make stuff to do with surfing, I kind of have in a way. So surfing was always your number one thing? I mean it’s just been a
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passion that’s always been on the parallel and managed to find its way in, always infiltrating what I’ve been doing. Did you always surf since you were a kid? Like grow up surfing or grew up just at the beach? Grew up in the country then moved near the beach when I started high school. Mid-way through high school I really got into surfing, a lot of my mates were already good at surfing by the time I got into it… but yeah, I did honours at VCA in Melbourne, my pitch for project was about surfing, about researching the surfing community and researching surf and art history and thinking about
combinations and making connections and thinking about contemporary surf art pretty much. After studying that for a couple of years and a couple years of shows I was like, what next? And that led me to think about how to expand and that was using surfing and art to learn about other stuff while I travelled. I mean, travelling’s a pretty big part of surfing as well; you travel to go searching for waves. So is that the next step? A global Henry’s Mobile Studio? Well yeah, I’m pitching at the moment to do a residency in Indonesia soon, so that’d be a research project to do a full proper HMS in Indo and Asia.
And that’ll be you driving around surfing and painting and stuff? Yeah do a whole bunch of projects over there interacting with the local communities, I suppose it’s started out as something I wanted to do solo but it ended up being a lot more collaborative than I had imagined. Through doing this next wave festival I got heaps into pushing what collaborations could be in the project and the process of these organic and growing relationships and what comes out of them.
Then that even made me think about my individual practice and how I nearly enjoy more the collaboration than the individual practice, or a combination of both. I’ve become more and more interested in team work processes.
What did you do in Europe when you were over there? Just travelling as a grommet with my girlfriend at the time, working in Ireland I was coaching surfing and working in a little bar and we’d like hitchhike to go to work every day, hitchhiking like half an hour.
“I’ve become more and more interested in team work processes.”
Hitchhiking every day, that must have been risky? Nah like never, we’d leave like half an hour early every day and we’d get picked up every day, sometimes in like hell sports cars and stuff, it was pretty funny, because it was the two of us we’d get rides every day. Because there were no buses and we didn’t have a car there was no option, its pretty common over there.
Mick and Henry’s Surfboard Factory Museum Photo: Che Chorley
HENRY JOCK WALKER What was surfing like in Ireland? Heaps of great fun waves over there, it was really cold but because it was in summer it wasn’t too bad. Is there much of a scene there? Obviously if there’s good waves. Yeah up in Bundoran there’s a massive scene, I suppose it’s like 10 years ago I was there so it’d probably be huge now. When I was there, they were kind of like a lot less developed than we are here in Australia, so it was funny, I was like a kook when I was here but when I was over there they thought I was a professional cos I’d be doing a little air or something and they’d be like, whooah! I can’t believe you just did that! Let’s talk a bit about our project, I think that represents your practice well, we’ve got the van with the travelling, the spin top with the painting and the surf board with the surfing. Yeah I suppose and that’s three pretty serious tangents in my work, the painting machines I’ve been using a lot in the workshops as I was going round Australia, I’ve been creating a lot of live gallery performances
with painting machines, like loose backyard jobs. What’s some of the other machines you’ve had? Cos you had the leaf blower at mr IST, and the fan… Yeah the leaf blowers definitely a favourite, some other ones, made of bikes that make big circles. I’ve got a motor that spins around and I just attach things to spin around, what else have I got… the fan I just tip paint into and that makes some nice marks blasting paint onto the wall, just using all those things in an ongoing performance in my studio as well is pretty fun, to make that kind of chaos. Tell us how your surfing painting works… So I make a painting while I’m surfing, like I’ll take a canvas out in my mouth and a little tube of paint in my wetsuit somewhere and stand up on the wave and make the painting while I’m going across the wave. I made a few for this show in Created Range. So you went around to all the different ARIs (Artist Run Initiative) with the mobile studio? Yeah I had different shows, I did a residency at Albany at the bottom of WA, stayed
there for a month and had a show at the end of that, did a bunch of performances everywhere I was, went up to Darwin and hung out at DVAA (Darwin Visual Arts Association) and did performances there with Trevy the Rubbish Warrior out front of the Vinnes Soup Kitchen, tough crowd! Tell us about Trevy. Oh my god, Trevy is the most incredible human being, he lives homeless up in Darwin and he’s just an extreme human, against the grain to the next level. He doesn’t drink alcohol or do drugs or anything but he just is so against like social systems, I met him and we did a little jam project for a day and I ended up hangin out with him all day every day pretty much for a week and I kinda saw Darwin, as much as I could have seen, through Trevy’s eyes. He was incredible, he knew so many great humans, he introduced me to all these artists, I was kind of on the outer and wasn’t really meeting anyone in Darwin until I met Trevy and was hanging with him and he just introduced me to so many people and so many kind of underground scenes. And how did you meet him?
Making art at Newport Photo: Che Chorley
“So I make a painting while I’m surfing, like I’ll take a canvas out in my mouth and a little tube of paint in my wetsuit somewhere and stand up on the wave and make the painting while I’m going across the wave.”
Through the DVAA, he was hanging about doing a project there and the leader there Leanne Waterhouse was like hey you should meet Trevy. But yeah he walks around the streets and just gets rubbish from the side of the road and make sculptures out of it in the middle of the street so he’ll make like hundreds of sculptures a day all over Darwin and he’s been doing that for years so everyone knows who he is and knows about him, he’s had lots of docos on him and all sorts of stuff. He went for mayor one year, he got like 5000 votes, he was only 2 votes off getting mayor of part of Darwin.
He recently spray painted freedom propaganda all over the outside of the court then dressed up as a judge and chanted what he had written to the TV cameras! Then went to jail for a couple of months… he is no virgin to controversy!!!
“He recently spray painted freedom propaganda all over the outside of the court then dressed up as a judge and chanted what he had written to the TV cameras!”
That’s awesome. It was ‘vote number 1 for homeless bum’ that was his chant. It’s funny I still talk to him on the phone all the time, we have these really long conversations and he’s trying to transform things and it’s like I don’t think he realises it’s like everything he does is already transformed. He’s just doing it, he’s always writing poetry and always making songs, making art, he’s just a creative human and he’s so excited about the basic things of life that he doesn’t need to exist within the system. Although it would be nice for him to get a bit more recognition for his endurance! SURF + ART | 49
HENRY JOCK WALKER What are some crazy travel stories you’ve got from going around the country? I met these two guys, Bongo and Munga surfing in WA. I surfed with them for a couple days, we got great waves, I ran into Bongo in Broome a month or so later… I better go out, Bongo’s rockin’ up. So I met up with Bongo at the pub and had a few drinks and then he was just talking to this girl most of the night and I was like, this kinda sucks, and I was wrecked ready for bed so I had a few more drinks and said, alright I’m off see you later guys, and she was like, oh do you and your mate want to come out on the boat with us? And I’m like what do you mean? Fuck yeah we’ll come out on a boat with you, and she was like, you guys have got no idea. Next minute we’re walking down the road with fifteen people and we’re like, what is going to happen? And they took us out to this little dingy and we all got in and they took us out to this massive cruise ship, all
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these guys were like staff on this massive cruise ship and as we were getting onto the boat the guy driving the dingy was like – guys, eat, drink do whatever you want, just make sure you write it all down so we can replace it for the guests tomorrow. And we got on to this crazy boat party, it was out of control. There was a guy on the boat called Jock, and he was like your names Jock, my names Jock and he made me have about 6 shots of Patrone in a row like JOCK, JOCK HAVE A SHOT! JOCK yeah JOCK! So pretty much as soon as I got on the boat after those shots I was feeling pretty wobbly legged. It was all sorts of fun, we were jumping off the top of the boat, there was a helicopter, we didn’t get to go in that though. I woke up the next morning and there was like all these people there and it was me and Bongo that wasn’t part of the crew haha.
Trevor the Rubbish Warrior. Photo: Henry Jock
How did everyone else get off then? I think they were still crashed out and they must apparently for the room that I was sleeping in it cost like $20,000 per night or something ridiculous, just cruising around and get in the helicopter and fly over the Kimberleys. So awesome, so how did you get off? How did they not bust you? Yeah they just took us back when new people were coming out; I just waited for like half an hour on the boat. That’s probably the best story of the trip. So what’s up next? I’m doing team work at the moment for Reconciliation with Amanda Radomi, and that’s been a really awesome process, we’re excited about each others’ work so were going to do a whole bunch more paintings together, there might be an outcome
for that soon. Doing a work for Felt natural, another teamwork with Steve Langdon and Jungle Phillips, we’re going to be making a painting structure in Rymill Park, that’s in November. I’m applying for a couple of shows in Sydney for the middle of next year and then applying for the research trip to Indonesia so that’ll be my two focuses. And lots of surfing over the summer? Yeah lots, going to Tassie and Queensland, I might do a surfing performance painting show in Queensland when I am there over summer. If you want to see more content revolving around the Adelaide surf scene, please contact us via email at yewthmag@hotmail.com.
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TRISTAN GRAY
Tristan showing us how to properly table out of the satellite dish
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Interview: Rhys Gogel
| Photos: Dave Rubinich
‘Tritto’ being handsome
There’s quite a few differences between young Tristan Gray and I, one being 8 years age difference, but I choose to look more at similarities for example we both really, really like riding kids bikes. ‘Tritto’ as we affectionately call him is one of those kids that just ‘has it’. Combine a lack of fear, natural bike control and a good attitude means at a young age he has already earned the respect of a lot of riders and people with in the Adelaide BMX community. First time I met and seen Tristan ride he was a random encounter a few years back at a skate park on a random weekday. He came up to my friend and I, where he introduced himself, blown away with how dialled he was at tricks I would consider very technical and the fact he was a good kid/man child we started hanging out and riding together from that point. Caleb at YEWTH mag asked me to put together an interview of an ‘up and coming’ rider from ADL and Tristan is right up the top of the list. Enjoy.
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‘UP AND COMING’ RIDER
TRISTAN GRAY What year you in at school and how long until you get your P’s? Year 11 and not long now hahaha. What’s it like living in a deepest part of the Adelaide hills? It’s the worst! Especially when you don’t have your licence. Well what do you do for fun in Forreston when you can’t get anywhere?? Go ride out on the street or play Forza on Xbox. How long ago did you get your first bike? When I was about 2 or 3 but got my first bmx when I was 13. Was it a moto or BMX? Got my first moto when I was 8.
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And how long have you been riding? Will be 4 years this Christmas. Do you remember the brand of your first bike?? First proper bmx was a wethepeople. When was the first time you did something that really scared you? Probably when I first tried backies when I was 13, me and a friend shaped some dirt jump with our feet then just sent it haha. So that was your first backflip? What about tail whips when did you first learn them? Yeah it was on that sketchy jump and I was 13 when I learnt tail whips as well. When was the last time you
did something that really scared you? I’m not really sure haha. What do you think of the BMX scene in Adelaide? It’s so good, there’s always people to ride with! And in your opinion how is Australian BMX different to the rest of the world? I’m not really sure because I’ve never been overseas but there isn’t many contests or anything like that in Australia. What do you think of Adelaide as a city? It’s pretty good, needs an indoor skate park though! What is your favourite type of Obstacle to ride? Quarters, dirt, rails etc. I find it all fun! But probably park.
Warm up tailwhip down Port Adelaide. Photo: Rubinich
The first time I seen you ride it was easy to see straight away that you had a good mix of man size tricks and some technical moves under your belt, what goes through your mind when you’re about to try something crazy and big like a front flip from quarter to small bank? Haha I’m not sure but I’m always really stoked if I get it first try! We have been riding together more and more lately, even recently you came and hung out for a few days while some of Aus’s best street riders were in town. Did you learn anything from watching them ride/film? Yeah it’s been good! I learnt that I want more pegs and a freecoaster! You naturally ride like a man possessed, and the problems
with this is it means you get injured often, what injury you dealing with at the moment? Got a bit of a bad knee at the moment but it should be good soon! Do you think you will ever listen to me when I suggest you do some style and flow tricks first and save the
bangers for the end of a session? Haha maybe, I just do whatever I find fun. On having fun and learning something new, what’s one trick you can’t wait to try/ learn?? I’m not really sure but when my knee’s better I’m going to be filming an edit so there
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got ya license/freedom, girls, parties, booze/drugs, other sports, work etc. Do you think you have enough love for riding your bike that you will be able to juggle progressing your riding and a busy teenage tinder filled lifestyle?? Haha I will be riding way more as soon as I get my licence! I love riding my bike.
TRISTAN GRAY
Superman Indian at city dirt. Photo: Dave Rubinich
should be a few in that. What makes you want to progress your own riding?? I always have fun when I learn something new. How do you expect you’re riding style to change as your get older? I want to ride everything like park dirt and street, and might put 3 or 4 pegs on. We usually ride with you on a Sat and then Sunday and I will see on social media that you’re out racing your motorbike, is this something you do for fun or is racing motorbikes something you might like to have a serious crack at one day?
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I’ve only ever done one race which was fun but I only usually go out riding with mates. But I don’t think I will ever take it serious. Bmx is way better! Why do you think Bmx is way better than motos?? Because you can ride Bmx where ever you want and you don’t have to pay. And if you weren’t riding Bmx what do you think you would be doing? Footy? Haha… No not footy. I would be riding my moto! You’re at that age now where us older guys see a lot of the young up and coming riders usually stray from the riding a bit, you know just got ya
This is a pretty open question, but what do you hope to get out of riding? Have fun and if I could do it as my job that would be so rad! What’s something you like doing when you aren’t riding your bike? Seeing friends that don’t ride and going to the river or beach. Lastly any thanks? Thanks Dad for taking me to the city most weekends so I can ride! And thanks Little Black Bike, Colony and Dishonour for helping me out!! And follow me on Instagram @TRISTANGRAY_BMX Do you know an ‘up and coming’ rider in Adelaide? We want to hear from you! yewthmag@hotmail.com
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