Time to get out of the studio again for a bit of fresh air and convivial company without so much of the winter wet-stuff pelting on the pastels… (how’s that for poetic?)
We’re off to the Fish Market Reserve in Guildford at 2:00pm Sunday 2nd August. (Yes, that’s this Sunday.) See Artist Safari website for more details.
There have been changes to the Midland life drawing groups. Yes that was plural – there are now two – and if these are well supported more sessions will be added at the newly established Midland Junction Arts Centre. In fact, we need to support the whole venture with enthusiasm – ideas for other art groups, workshops and exhibitions in the new space will be welcomed. Contact: Swan Community Arts Officer Rachel Birighitti on 0424 023 871.
Monday mornings
Organised by the Centre for the Celebration of the Human Figure
9.30am – 12.30pm at the
Midland Junction Arts Centre
Cale St & Gt Eastern Highway, Midland
Cost $12 – BYO Materials
Easels are available
Contact: Peter on 9293 2363
Wednesday evenings
Organised by the Midland Artists Group
7.00pm – 9.30pm at the
Mechanics Institute Hall
Meadow Street, Guildford
Cost $12 – BYO easels & materials
Contact: Ben on 0403 319 562
Heard of them? They’re the artists behind a film called The Way Things Go. I will explain but I’m supposed to be up the hill finishing a painting (it’s not going that well which is why I’m down here – I’m procrastinating…) so I’ll make this quick by quoting You Tube:
In 1987 Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss built a enormous, precarious structure 100 feet long out of common items. Using fire, water, gravity, and chemistry they create a mind-blowing chain reaction of physical and chemical interactions and precisely crafted chaos.
And while I was grabbing that I borrowed a teaser of the animation – about 4 minutes worth – the real thing goes for half an hour. (Yeah, yeah, I know about the Honda advert – these guys did it first.)
So why am I telling you about a 20+ year old video now? I first saw it 3 years ago and, quite simply, had never forgotten it. It was in class – I only saw it once. Grrr… This past year I’ve done pretty nothing but animation. (Now doing pretty much nothing but paint.) Then just a month ago I stumbled on a little book about the film – tell you about that in a minute – and for the hell of it went hunting. Sure enough, it’s now out on DVD and available from Amazon. I wasn’t sure if it would work in our clunky old DVD player but intrepid I am. And it does. Yes!
In the same package came a copy of a book put out by the Tate on F&W’s retrospective called Flowers & Questions. Cut to the point here – it’s a good book – lots of pictures interspersed between articles/critiques/reviews by different writers. OK, so a few of them are dull and academic, but most are an easy and interesting read. Each is followed by a bunch of pictures of the particular work they were talking about. It’s one of those books that you can dip into when you have a few minutes. Good with coffee.
The big surprise was that F&W have done so much other work using materials as varied as plaster, unfired clay, photos, more films and, best of all, sculptures of everyday objects made with polyurethane. The objects are convincingly real – imagine a workman’s bench in a small room in a gallery looking exactly like that – no didactic – yet everything in there is fake. People stick their head in to look and suffer the uncomfortable feeling that they’ve intruded on a someone’s workspace. A delightful twist on Brillo boxes… And craftsmanship ain’t always such a bad thing. I (and no doubt every other self-respecting sculptor), having seen this, am curious as to what the material actually is – a quick Google says there are lots of kinds of polyurethane.
The other book, the one that prompted all of this search, was The Way Things Go by Jeremy Millar, is OK but not as easy to get along with. It’s smaller but then it’s only looking at that one work. One for die-hard enthusiasts or fellow academia. Good selection of pictures of the the film though. And not too expensive – sooooo – if you have a parcel on the way maybe do F&W justice and read both.
Have fun, Amanda
Yesterday Studio A was abandoned without a backward glance. Destination: Midland Town Hall.
The event was to assist with curating the Print(Ed) exhibition with Jánis Nedéla. (If you don’t like where your work is hung I will immediately deny all responsibility and demote myself to the role of “fetch and carry”.) It looks great.
The opening should prove to be a big night – there are over 70 entries from artists hailing from all over Perth. And I will break the code of silence to tell you that the standard is high. Whether you’re a printmaker or an appreciator of print – attendance is mandatory- even if it’s raining. I will cast an extra lure: by reminding you of the wine, nibblies and a Town Hall full of prints and printmakers. What more could you want?
Opening this coming Thursday night, 30th of July, at 6pm. Location: Midland Town Hall Great Eastern Highway, Midland
I won’t be able to wriggle out of it either because I’m one of the speakers. And goodness it’s my annual cake day (gave up calling it a birthday – I’ve had too many) – instead – I’ll be providing some of the entertainment.
Public speaking, by the way, for the weak-knee avoider is actually really easy because you can’t lose no matter what you do. Even if one falls flat on one’s face – one’s worst enemy will be delighted!
For further information contact City of Swan Visual Arts Officer Rachel Birighitti on 0424 023 871
Have fun,
a
Yours truly trundled of to the Midland Town Hall yesterday to be photographed for the local newspaper, alongside Puff the Magic Dragon, as part of the promotion for the Myths, Stories, Legends exhibition. The telephone interview turned out to be the easy bit. Out of respect for the occasion I went to the trouble of makeup and hairspray as well as changing the paint stained rags for something clean and tidy (fashionable or elegant being somewhat beyond my meager dress sense or wardrobe). That, of course, was reason sufficient for the skies to open up to a downpour minutes before I HAD to get out of the car. I don’t mind stomping puddles at all and in fact, love walking in the rain, but making a dash for it in unaccustomed high heels was not in the same league.
Thus, if you notice a picture of a bedraggled rat (trying her best to smile) in the community newspaper it was me – looking worse than usual.
Hope you were having more fun than I was!
Amanda
My recent post getting all nostalgic about vintage Tetris reminded me that I was going to wax lyrical in a wistful response to James Gurney, of Dinotopia fame, over his coining the phrase “dead-tech”. You’re not following his blog? You should. James has begun a series of articles on old graphic arts equipment and the first thing he hauled out to show the young ‘uns was the waxer. Ah… it was enough to send me hunting through my own cupboards.
Pictured, is what was my trusty forerunner to repositional spray adhesive, which was in turn the forerunner to Ventura Publisher for the bookish (remember that?) or Quark Xpress for the hip.
Said implement, was the means to making stuff stick temporarily. After rolling the reverse of a bromide to the sound of… dunno how to explain it… it would be pasted down with a good rub using the heel of the palm. Not in the right spot? It would be peeled up to be moved with the mere flick of a blade at the corner. The bit of bromide would then be lifted with the blade (so as not to touch the wax with ones fingers) and put lovingly in the new position. Or should this be the umpteenth round of changes: slammed down in disgust.
Oh, yes, the scent of molten wax wafting across a light-table…
Have a good laugh,
Amanda
(wondering if there’s a use for it in the studio…)
Puff the Magic Dragon
I just finished re-making Puff the Magic Dragon – not as a diptych this time – but a triptych in one frame. The experience of having the duo hung on opposite walls in an exhibition p’d me off so bad that I went back to Studio A and started over. After some thought, I made a new version that would make sure it couldn’t happen again. Well, not this side of having someone take to the work with a saw. Could happen…
It actually works out well because the Myths, Stories, Legends exhibition it’s headed for (opens this week) calls for up to 150 words to explain the thoughts behind the work. Puff is (in part) my response to:
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail,
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff’s gigantic tail.A dragon lives forever but not so little boys,
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.Excerpts from “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (1959) a poem by Leonard Lipton
This new work, of the same name as the old one – oh, yes I can – is *giclée on canvas again but this time mounted on board rather than stretched. I made the frame too because I wanted to put the title on the work as is usual with printmaking. The style of the label, however, is more like that of works of old – copper set into the wood.
There were a couple of ways I could get the wording onto the copper – as printmakers do by etching with acid but chose instead to use ferric chloride as they do for making printed circuit boards. Why? Because I had the stuff laying around. (It’s a long story.)
The first step, however, was to get a mask or a resist onto the copper. When that part was done I liked it so much I left it be and didn’t bother etching it and that’s what you can see in the photo – toner on copper. The method used to transfer the resist, I’m thinking, might be of use to someone else out there in art land… because it too uses stuff you probably have lying around. (Disclaimer: I know this is good for ferric chloride, you can Google how, but don’t know if it works with acid)
Gloss inkjet photo paper Laser printer or photocopier An iron
Have fun,
Amanda
PS I’m going to give Type Tamer my giclée supplier a plug. (They’re in Malaga. That’s Malaga in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, not the one in Spain…) I will however declare that I do have an interest in the company but also state that the work stands for itself.
Do your remember Tetris? Well, if you were a sharp-eye’d Googler today you’d have noticed the special version of their logo celebrating 25 years of addictive block-plonking. It was an occasion fit to be reported by the UK Telegraph and WMBF News.com (among others).
Then, if you clicked on the Google logo, you got a list of lots of relevant places – including links to sites where one can play Tetris. That’s how I found that tetris.com have an online adaptation of the old ’89 version… yep, monochrome – complete with the old music. Guess who didn’t get quite so much done in the studio today? (You didn’t need to know where to find it either, did you?) My excuse is that stuff’s been a bit tough in Studio A these past weeks and more than a few games of my old favourite was somehow soothing this morning. And, when I interrupted my typing to go find the name of the music – so I could tell you that listening to bla bla bla was a lot better than humming the ancient campfire number “No body loves me, everybody hates me, I think I’ll go eat worms” (I told you it was bad) – I discovered, courtesy of Wikipedia, that more than a couple of people (who appear to know about these things) confirm that the mood-enhancement wasn’t all in my head… (so to speak).
According to intensive research from Dr. Michael Crane and Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play. When first playing Tetris, brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task…
In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr Emily Holmes reported in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing ‘Tetris’ soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hope to develop this approach further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in PTSD, but emphasized that these are only preliminary results.
So, there we go. Stressed out? Play Tetris.
Have fun,
Amanda
The last Art Safari was properly promoted and perpetrated as frottage involving the portrait of a sheep called Hamish. These works of art were achieved with assorted media including, but not limited too, charcoal, rocks, and newsprint as per Wikipedia’s definition:
In frottage the artist takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a “rubbing” over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as is or used as the basis for further refinement. While superficially similar to brass rubbing and other forms of rubbing intended to reproduce an existing subject
Unfortunately, to quote our esteemed leader:
It has been gleefully pointed out to me that frottage has a rather different meaning – at least outside the realms of art. I’ll let the gentle reader find it out for themselves. For the speculation about whether I am a New Zealander and consequently have odd affections for sheep – it is not true; although I would have to say that Hamish is a particularly lovable specimen of the breed. Given that the technique of frottage was popularised by the French Surrealists I suspect that it’s addtional meaning may have provided those artists some extra frisson. Jeff
I shall save the equally uninformed the trouble of looking it up, again resorting the ever informative Wikipedia:
In psychiatry, the clinical term frotteurism (no longer called frottage, although commonly called toucherism) refers to a specific paraphilia which involves the non-consensual rubbing against another person to achieve sexual arousal. The contact is usually with the hands or the genitals and may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area. …In common speech frotteurism is called groping…
What more can a girl do other than say “I’m of good English origin” and splutter “oh my…” accompanied by a red face. (Not to mention thoughts of trying it out with a beloved human being!)
Embarrassed, Amanda
Hamish the sheep thoroughly enjoyed the attention of those Safarians brave enough to take on Jeff’s challenge to frottage a woolly portrait. At least we think Hamish enjoyed it. Or rather he enjoyed the extra rations of sheep cubes tossed in his general direction in hopes of getting him to stand still. An old poddy (a bottle-reared sheep) Hamish is thoroughly tame and didn’t mind the easels at all. The results were as varied as the materials found to create texture – leaves, twigs, wood, rocks and simply the ground. We were all working on fairly light paper (newsprint, butchers paper and light cartridge) using as many types of media as could be found with a good rummage in the kit: charcoal, graphite and in the image below powdered pigment which was applied with brushes.
Lots of fun,
Amanda
