The past two days have been gainfully spent sticking clay on a skull. The workshop, run by Dr Susan Hayes at the University of WA involved building up the muscle, fat and skin to create an anatomical facial reconstruction. Fascinating and fun. And, for me, a great way to reinforce a course of self-guided study of anatomy – covered in previous posts – which has included books, video and life drawing but this element has been by far the most enjoyable.
Expression of interested for future workshops to shayes@amhb.uwa.edu.au
Last night’s opening of The Underpass Motel exhibition was also the launch of the film from which it all began. Looking around the gallery (as best one could – it was standing room only) at the paintings, sculpture and drawings being shown it was easy to see why the film itself might be forgotten.
The collaborative video project began 18 months ago when Stuart Elliott invited eight artists to take a room in a motel which didn’t exist. Beyond that there was no brief and few of the artists knew what anyone else was doing. Most of us had never met. We all worked in different ways with different mediums – pencil-drawn animation, puppetry, live action and computer animation. The rooms we made and the characters which inhabited them had nothing in common, no storyline and no controlling direction. From this came hours and hours of footage in every format imaginable from which someone had to make a film…
Those “someones” were Patrizia Tonello and Graham Taylor. Their participation was noted in a press release which said “Pivotal to the creation of the movie trailers was the involvement of Graham Taylor and Patrizia Tonello. Graham …3D animation, web and graphic design. Patrizia, a well known local artist, brought not only artistic skills to the project but found herself developing great editing and film skills. …Together they created a world that has incorporated Stuart’s themes and iconography, weaving a story about a story about a yellow suitcase that keeps appearing, a case that is baffling police…”.
What that doesn’t tell you about is the thousands of hours of creative editing which turned a disparate pile of disks into The Underpass Motel. It’s pretty easy to miss that they made a story where there was none. It doesn’t mention that working within a group of eight single minded artists can be far more difficult than attempting to herd cats. It doesn’t tell you anything about their own animation – computer generated by Graham and stop motion puppetry by Patrizia. Nor does it say that they also created the posters, the packaging design and the booklet which accompanies the dvd.
And while all this was going on Patrizia was, like the rest of us, painting and sculpting for the exhibition. Hardly surprising then that only 9 of the 111 works being shown are hers. In the catalogue we see 8 paintings and one sculpture. There are also some of the sets used in her film which are being shown with the others in a room behind the main gallery space. Not listed: is the film itself. Nowhere does it say that Patrizia is a tenacious and talented filmmaker deserving more than an ordinary place in the list of collaborators. Nor that without her and Graham The Underpass Motel would be just a pile of disks. We need to keep that in mind for ourselves when we are watching the video or seeking out her work. Make the effort. Her puppet, a little old man, is to be found sitting on the edge of her set – look for him – he’s exquisite.
See you there,
Amanda
Patrizia Tonnello is represented by Gallery East in North Fremantle – details of current work can be found there. Her own website shows a wonderful visual history of her work.
Graham Taylor’s website includes both still images and animation.
The Underpass Motel exhibition is showing at the Turner Galleries until the 7th November 2009.
The Underpass Motel DVD is also available from the project’s website.
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An exhibition curated by Perdita Phillips and Stuart Elliott
Wednesday 7 October 2009 6-8 pm
The Junction Gallery
N block Swan TAFE Midland Campus
(at the back of the campus, Lloyd Street, Midland, Western Australia)
Exhibition runs 8-22 October Monday to Friday 9:30 to 4:30
Featuring the work of Michael Arnold, Paul Caporn, Peter Dailey, Clare Davies, Stuart Elliott, Eva Fernandez, Richard Foulds, Matthew Jackson, Michael Jurotte, Peggy Lyon, Adrienne Marshall, Geoff Overheu, Perdita Phillips, Lorraine Pichette, Gregory Pryor, Bruce Slatter, David Small, Sue Starcken Andrea Wood
The title of this post says it all – the Underpass Motel, a collaborative video project, which took over my life, my heart and my sanity (!) for the past 18 months is up on YouTube with a couple of trailers… take a look.
This is part of the countdown to official launch on the 9th October at the Turner Galleries.
I’ve talked already about the Underpass Motel – a project that’s been keeping me off the streets for the past 18 months…
I’m pleased to announce now that there’s a story about it in the current issue of Artlink magazine.
Underpass Motel is a collaborative video project described as a “series of musings or dysfunctional daydreams” by eight artists with very different styles. We then went on to produce works related to the film – drawings, sculpture and paintings. The dvd will be released at the opening of the exhibition on the 9th October 2009 at the Turner Gallery. The exhibition will include some of the sets, puppets and props used in the making. The dvd itself is over 2 hours long – with the main film, “making ofs” by each artist and extra scenes.
Alla Prima by Richard Schmid is one of my favourite art instruction books. But before I go on about it – the reason for the post in fact – is that this book is very much still in print and not readily available secondhand. It’s not listed on Amazon as a new book – only a few secondhand copies and those are priced high. There aren’t many secondhand ones because it’s a keeper! Perceived rareness means high prices – in this case anything from $70 from an Amazon reseller to $750 for an ex-library copy advertised at Abebooks… (the word soundrel just came to mind.) Bottom line – Alla Prima is available from the author’s website. They are easy to deal with and prompt – my copy arrived in Western Australia without fuss or delay. Urban rumour has that Richard self published Alla Prima because several publishers knocked him back when he presented his first manuscript. It’s now in it’s seventh printing…
OK, a brief opinion because I absolutely have to get up to the studio and get some work done.
This is not a book for the rank beginner. Actually it might be if you’re a serious beginner. Where it really comes in is for those who have been painting for a bit and are frustrated with both their own efforts and the myriad of conflicting advice from books, workshops and artists who insist that their way is the only way. That’s the biggest thing I took away from this book back when I was dizzy-headed with exactly that.
His offering by way of instruction is more of a good sound discussion with an experienced artist blessed with commonsense and a sense of humour. He encourages you to work – with a clear indication of what work you need to do. There are no promises of instant anything.
Like this on composition after a discussion that sorts out nomenclature; separating harmony, pattern, balance, lines of direction, movement etc etc…
How do you make judgements about your own designs? My advice is to learn all you can about what has already been done. There are many books available that present design theory with helpful graphics and in more detail than this book. Some books are worthwhile, but others, because they are so rigidly dogmatic, or even written in vague terms, should not be taken seriously. Make sure that the ideas and explanations in them are written in plain everyday English instead of arty gobbledygook such as this: “Unity is harmony in balance with objective rhythmic dynamics.” That kind of drivel is simply ostentation concealing ignorance, and it leads nowhere.
And, no, I ain’t getting a free copy of the new book to say any of that. I just got mad that there are rip-off merchants out to get any anyone who goes looking for a copy of a book they’ve heard good things about.
Amanda
One must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times.
Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.
Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.
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In my last post I asked if anyone knew the maker of the statue I have used as a model in a couple of paintings. Thanks to Major… I can now henceforth and forever credit Tom Frantzen as the artist who sculpted the dog I’ve come to call Blue…
Het Zinneke (1999, Bruxelles, Rue des Chartreux)
This “dog thrown into the Senne river” is named “Zinneke” after a Flemish word meaning “mongrel”. Because he is a dog of mixed breed, he symbolises the multicultural nature of Brussels. He is a proper “street sculpture”, as he really is built-in; his legs are sealed into the pavement and the post he is peeing on had been there long before him. The post became part of the sculpture.
This sculpture, commissioned by the Chartreux district committee to attract tourists, was created in the spirit of the “zwanze”. With this dog, Frantzen offers a visual example of this form of humour to all passers-by, especially those looking for an opportunity to share something and have fun together.
The series of paintings involves Blue doing things other than “watering” bollards and the other models came from stock photos, drawings of my own dog Jack and photos of a friend’s dog also (just to cause confusion) called Jack… Het Zinneke however was the first.
The WA showing of Dr Perdita Phillips In Vetland exhibition opens on the 28th August to show the results of her 2009 Art Meets Vet Science Artist in Residency program at Murdoch University’s School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. Her X-ray sculptures, photographs and drawings will be situated in both the clinical and research areas. For full details as to times and events see the In Vetland blog.
In addition to her own work, in order to do something a little different, Perdita combined her interest in collage and maps by calling for images from other artists to create a large wall piece. The aim was to show a ‘world’ of ways that animals are represented by connecting many images together. My contribution came about when a friend forwarded on the invitation suggesting that “Blue might get a guernsey”.
So who’s Blue? He’s a character in the body of work I’ll be showing in October as part of the Underpass Motel exhibition. He appears in animation and in a series of paintings. This one, which is showing as a digital image at In Vetland, is an oil on panel study for a larger work which, as yet, remains untitled. Blue is a good and sturdy cattle dog with a gritty sense of humour yet he encompassess more layers of meaning than a fine torta – few of them much fun. None of which are going to be explained… ever. Blue also doesn’t exist.
The model for this incarnation was a Belgian statue called Tennike Pis which is located on the corner of Kartuizersstraat and the Rue de Vieux Marche aux Grains in Brussels. Unfortunately that is all I know of him – enquiries as to his maker have drawn a blank. Does anyone know?
Have fun Amanda
