Filed under: Music
Wow! I finally saw Battles last night. They performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Luminous festival curated by Brian Eno. As expected, it was an amazing performance with outstanding sound. It was as simple as could be. There were few props aside from simple lighting putting focus squarely on Battles and their show—if I had one complaint it might be directed at lighting, minimal though. Overall it was a mesmerising and trance-like experience which left my head feeling as if it were inside out. The thoughts inside though were clear.
Working really gets in the way of making art. These days I’m finding it hard to spend enough time in the studio each week. I have loads to do. One of my works in progress is Reading Room, an archive project of sorts involves images and articles gleaned from the glossies and re-filed, and therefore recontextualised. For a tally of the titles I’ve so far consumed this year see flipability on Turnstile. Today I managed to get through a measley thirteen magazines, however, I also managed to spend a good few hours photographing around Chippendale. Back to work tomorrow, but not after a night at the Sydney Opera House to see Battles. Very excited.
Filed under: Art
If you’re into drawing, and even if you’re not, get along to the NAS Gallery and see the two exhibitions currently showing, A Field Guide: From Antlers to Islands and What, Large Art from 1720 to 2009. Start at the ground floor and marvel at the drawings from the NAS collection shown alongside props from the drawing department. For those who have studied at the NAS the props may provide fond memories or recall disastrous drawings made—maybe that’s just me. Small studies detail the changes in society, in styles and attitudes while simultaneously showing how the focus on drawing at NAS has remained clear.
Upstairs the mood shifts. The first indication that things are about to change is the small sign outside the small entrance way opposite the lift: Viewers are warned that there is some nudity (or something along those lines). A step or two on and viewers are confronted with an enormous dick—there is really no other way to describe it—running almost the length of the gallery. It makes you laugh out loud, and you can’t deny its presence. But elsewhere there are more laughs, I particularly liked the deadpan humour of Swiss Landscape Paintings and the sumptuous Instrument For Measuring the Universe made from small paint blobs in one of the most obsessive works I’ve seen. There are many other works to enjoy in What, Large Art from 1720 to 2009, particularly Bach Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004 which sees What play in the gallery at 2pm from Tuesday to Saturday until 13 June 2009. It is a remarkable performance that adds to the experience of this exhibition, a contender for Exhibition of the Year.
Filed under: Music
Jenny Wilson’s new album Hardships! doesn’t quite match the brilliance of her first album Love and Youth. While there are standout tracks—and the lyrics remain hard-edged—Jenny has shifted direction into a sort of R&B. Hardships! is a more serious affair that doesn’t have the quirky edge electro edge that made Love and Youth so lovable. I was so excited to hear a new release was in the air. I was hoping for boppy tracks like A Brief Story with its soft whistle and amusingly hard lyrics. Or more of the fun that was Let My Shoes Lead me Forward and Love Ain’t Just a Four Letter Word or the moodiness of Crazy Summer.
That’s not to say that Hardships! isn’t enjoyable. It is, its just different. It’s softer, slower. Like a Fading Rainbow is closest to the feel of the first album, a wonderful slice of pop as is Clattering Hooves and the first single The Wooden Chair rewards on repeat listens. Hardships! is a beautiful album, one produced, written, played and sung by Jenny Wilson in her own studio in Sweden. Check out her website from more info.
Tonight in the studio I sifted through all the random bits of paper and card I’ve been collecting over the years. Some I wondered what had originally excited me about it while others triggered memories of places visited—Berlin and Paris were the stand outs. There were bar codes, food tags, fortune cookie readings, the bottom of suduko puzzles pointing to where solutions could be found, file labels, slips of paper with the names of all the check out assistants who hadserved me over the past year or so, recycle labels, CMYK print tests and more. I got some pleasure from sorting through these odds and ends, the little things that few us pay any attention to. I wonder why I do what I do sometimes…
I was in the studio last Friday working on a few things. Three little projects that are really more about having some fun than finite end results at the moment. I’ve been collecting certain things for sometime: magazines, tops & matchbox cars. Last week I was was able to begin laying out these collections to get an idea of what was going and what kind of number I was going to need. I’m going to need a heap of plastic bottle tops for the crochet carpet. If you can help please let me know. I’m based in Sydney at the moment.
The matchbox cars too will need some bolstering. I’ve got about a tenth of what I need. If you can help please let me know. They can be in any state, but I do need hundreds.
As for the magazines, I spent a solid few hours skimming through a good range of titles—see Flip-ability for a full list of titles read so far this year. The lasting story, or rather headline, was from Cosmo: Does my vagina look big in this? There seemed to be a theme in Cosmo: on another page there was a rather lame article about a vagina day spa which proved to be an eye-grabbing coverline. I recall a coverline from Cleo now: Read his bum.
At the moment I’m living in Waverley, a Sydney suburb which is just a quick ten minute walk to the beach. Early in the week, late at night I go down to the recycling room to pick through the spoils before the bins are taken to the streets. The aim of my wandering is to collect as many bottle tops as I can muster for my crochet floor piece and to see what magazines I can gather for the Reading Room project.
I have to admit that I love Eurovision. It flashy, campy, trashy, bad and fantastic. This year it is in Moscow, apparently staged in the former Moscow Olympics stadium, and costing more than any other previous event. Hungary and Greece are the most hilarious entries so far. Sweden has left me speechless, a new genre perhaps Techno-Opera?
SBS in Australia have again stuffed up with the commentary. I had been looking forward to hearing Graham Norton—from all accounts he was hilarious—take-over from Terry Wogan for some months so was horrified to hear the two SBS commentors. As far as commentators go they were OK, they were just different to Wogan. It is quite often Wogan’s commentary that makes the Eurovision TV spectacle, and this year, at least in Australia, we weren’t treated to it.
Filed under: Art
Wow! A mostly terrific exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Well known for her dots and balls, Kusama is also a master at transforming space and altering perception. The mirrored rooms are the obvious standouts, particularly Fireflies on the water, a mirrored room that made you feel as if you might be in deep space and the deep, deep sea simultaneously. Magnificent. The darkened, black-lit polka dotted room was also fun as was the film Flower Orgy. I can’t say I was excited as others by the silver balls or the boat. For more see her Yayoi’s website.
Filed under: Art
From The world won't listen trilogy
A bit of mixed bag really. The stand-out work is by Phil Collins—not of the Genesis variety— and his third installment of the world won’t listen (el mundo no escuchará, Bogotá, 2004; dünya dinlemiyor, Istanbul, 2005; dunia tak akan mendengar, Jakarta and Bandung, 2007). Combining Karaoke, stuning fake landscape backgrounds, the music of The Smiths, a dose of enthusiasm, and a combination of passion and pathos results in one of the most engaging works to be seen in Australia since te 2008 Biennale of Sydney.
The rest was a mixed affair. Cao Fei’s Whose Utopia was engaging as was the Mangano sisters’s Absence of evidence. For the most part, the rest was disappointing. What TV Moore’s was on about is anyone’s guess. His confused piece channeled Sean Gladwell but with none of the beauty while his self-portrait on acid was nothing more than pun, and weird at that. . It looked like the work of an artist with too much money to spend. what will I do, what will I do? I know I’ll do a self-portrait on acid… See for yourself: Art Gallery of New South Wales: Double Take Exhibition.
