happy halloween!

happy halloween everybody!

hope you all had you're share of frights.....I certainly did today at work. As it was so hot, I had a number of male customers come in without shirts on, and I must say at least 99% were rather horrifying, particualry one who was hairier than Ron Mueck's "Wild Man" with moobies ( man boobs), and a fat gut hanging out which he insisted on pressing up agains tthe sneeze glass. Who needs horror films when you can look at Narren Warren bogans on a hot day?

Anywho, now I have burned that mental image into you minds, you should all check this guy, he is a master at pumpkin carvings!

http://www.villafanestudios.com/pumpkins.htm

And now for something completely different

And for no reason at all here is a video I recorded at one of the soundwave concerts I went to earlier this year:

The Dwelling

ACCA”s exhibition of “The Dwelling” brings together a series of spooky works from leading contemporary artists to show their interpretation of what a dwelling can represent. It was a different exhibition to what we usually see. Twelve artist from all over the world created may different views on what a dwelling can mean,

One particular artwork that stood out to me was Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller titled “ Opera for a small room”. It was created in 2005, and it is a room that is 260 x 300 x 450 cm big. In this room, there is one main viewing point, and 3 small side views. As you look through the main viewing room, you see 2 desks, with a vintage record player, and a microphone that looks like it’s from the 1950’s. The walls and floors are all covered in vintage records and they all have the name “R.Dennehy” on them. The artist purchased these from an Op Shop, so there was always a fascination about what the man was like, and has he had such a vast collection of different styles of music, I think this artwork was an interpretation of what they think his life might have been like.

There are different coloured light bulbs surrounding the edges of the room. There are old Persian rugs on the floor, and a Campbell’s tomato tin that is acting as a lamp shade. There is a chandelier hanging from the center of the room with chains coming off the side and going into the corners in the ceiling. There is one chair next to the main table with the record players on them. Behind the main tables are loads of record/vinyl players from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. Just in front of the table is a red velvet curtain on either side, and 4 chairs facing the table, almost like a concert/opera.

The beginning of the performance the lighting in the room and the exhibition area is normal, the music sounds like an orchestra is warming up. The lights dim in the exhibition room, only 4 lights are on in the wooden room. Some nostalgic music from the 1940’s comes on; a demented and deep male voice comes on through the speakers and says:

“A man alone in a room
Turn Table records
She was walking the road
With her shoes in her hand
Where the fuck was she going?”

A few moments pass, he hums along with the female voice on the radio. Then the sound of thunder and rain comes on, the music slows down then stops. His voice comes on again:

“Animals taking over the walls
Chewing on the wires
If they start on the records I am going to have to poison them
He begins to weep
(At this point a soft female’s voice comes on and starts to sing an opera song)
Doctor….
I need to talk to a doctor”

At this point an even deeper and demonic voice comes on and tells him repeatedly to relax. Then the main character says:

“I’m disappearing”

Suddenly only the red lights are lighting up the room and “When a man loves a woman” by Percy Sledge comes on the speakers. The demonic doctor’s voice appears again, telling him to relax. The main character then says:

“Forget everything
I want to remember
Yes, I remember
I was walking down the road that night
Cows watching me in the field
Could see a train coming
Slowly towards me lighting up the trees”

There is a loud train noise, it is so loud it rocks the room, the chandelier shakes and the lights turn to a dull blue. The sound of crickets then comes on the speakers and covers up the sound and overpowers the sound of footsteps in the gravel. The man’s voice comes back on:

“The man howls at the moon”
(He howls)

The tape clicks over. The blue lights disappear, only a light shining on the tomato tin lights up, then followed by the normal lights. Suddenly a loud male voice signs a triumphant opera tune, the lights then flicker as though the power of the voice is affecting them, it then slowly dies and a soft piano tune comes on and the voice says:

“He waits in the room
Plays records over and over
Is that all you do?
Where the fuck was she going?
It was the train
Trying to beat the train
Music doesn’t really change anything
But helps him in a way he can’t understand
It’s an opera after all
Everyone understands it in the end”

The lights then dim, until you can barely see anything in the room, his voice comes back on and says:

“He picks up his guitar
Walks center stage
Audience waits
(the song then turns into a powerful rock ballad, the blue, red and yellows lights light up the room like a rock concert)
She was walking down the road
With a dazed look on her face
Fellow in the ditch
(then rather than speaking, he sings this next part)
Coppers in flames
Road kill is crawling
Wings flapping in the wind
Run through smoke
(he then goes back to speaking this part)
The truck was weaving towards me through the flame
I didn’t know what to do
She was walking down the road
Shoes in her hand
(The music then beings to climax, and get more powerful)
Smudge marks on her face
Wind blew back her hair”

The music softens, the lights in the “stage” disappears. The house lights light up the exhibition room and the wooden room, there is a roar of applause, then quiet.

I really liked this artwork, it was a deep insight into the psyche of a man who is controlled by his music and is essentially a shut in. He describes how he is fine with the rats eating his home and essentially leaving him in darkness but not if they eat his records. I then think that he relives the loss of his love interest, as he thinks he needs a doctor the room take on a dark and evil appearance as he talks about the speeding train and truck going through the flames, which suggests that she was killed, and as he howls at the moon he realizes he is a monster, He then feels guilty as I think she had a fight with him because all he does is listen to his music, and as she was leaving him, she died. So he is left to wallow in his small room, controlled by his music for the rest of his life, alone. The title of the artwork “opera for a small room” is very fitting as operas tend to tell a story, usually containing some form of tragedy, with a climatic ending. And as he says “It’s an opera after all, everyone understands in the end” I think he is trying to figure out what went wrong, trying to understand his own story.

And while we are on the subject of opera, you should check out this video clip from one of my favorite films called “Repo! The Genetic Opera”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otdH3SLNx-s

Ron Mueck - Wild Man

Although I was overwhelmed when I saw “Wild Man” by Ron Mueck, this was not my first encounter with his artwork. I think in 2005 or 2006 I went to the National Gallery of Victoria to see his sculpture called “Pregnant Woman”. Mueck's early career was as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo, and the Jim Henson series The Storyteller. Ron Mueck’s hyper real sculptures of humans both clothed and naked are replicated in micro detail in every aspect of the body – pores, veins, hairs, blemishes, wrinkles – with a veracity that deceives the eye and challenges our perception of reality. To achieve this Mueck also plays with scale – his sculptures despite their apparent truthfulness to life are never life size they are either gargantuan or miniature.

I really liked this artwork, it shows a man with long hair, an equally long beard and a hairy body. Immense detail has gone into showing every detail on the human form, from showing the protruding veins in the figures tense and red hands, moles and pimples over his body, and the size difference in the pores over his skin as they get bigger on his face. I think this figure is intimated by those around him, he has a fearful expression on his face and his upper body is very uptight and he is kind of leading backwards and has tense hands and feet. This artwork suggests that regardless of the figures large scale he can be just as intimidated as a small child, as he is clutching the chair so hard I feel that it his safety in his exposed state. The layout of the exhibition was rather spacious, but the sculpture was placed in the back corner, as though her were trying to hide from the viewer.


I loved how Mueck could create a 9ft sculpture that has all intimidating features that people would expect in today’s society, yet with the scared expression on his face, you feel sorry for him.

Another artist that you should look up if you like this type of work is Patricia Piccinini. I saw her exhibition in Bendigo on 2006, well worth a look.

The Offering

Robbie Rowlands is a sculpture artist who discovered and transformed old building sits to make a statement about the community. For the exhibition of “The Offering”, Rowland discovered an old church in Dandenong that was due to be demolished. The church was an active building in the community until January this year and was built 105 years ago.

Rowland uses this church to try and show how it being demolished shows what is happening to the community. He cuts through parts of the building to show how the community is falling apart, along with the building. He grew up in a Christian family so this project was a bit sensitive for him. He felt the need to cut parts of the roof off, a part of the floor covering the old baptism bath, and cutting a cross out of the cupboard, and cutting little lines in it to make it look shriveled and dead in the back corner of the building, which is where the old Sunday school room was. By placing the dead cross here, it suggests that due to the lack of interest in the youth to save this building it has died, along with their faith.

It was a harder job for Rowland to do as he usually rips up mist of the floors, but the demolition crew had already removed about 97% of the floors and due to his upbringing, it was constantly on his mind what his mother would think of him, helping to destroy a church.
I appreciate Rowland for what he was trying to achieve, I like that some artist push the boundaries of art, and go outside the traditional paint on canvas or clay sculpture, but I personally don’t believe this is art. I can understand that by ripping up parts of the church to represent the downfall of the community and to some extent people’s faith, but the demolition crew did a much more successful job at destroying the inside of the church.

Roger Ballen: Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal

Roger Ballen’s exhibition Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal was a powerful and disturbing exhibition showing a wide range of photography from 1983 to 2007. As Shaune Lakin, Director of the MGA states "Roger Ballen is one of the world's most important photographers. As with all great works of art, Ballen's photographs are at once beautiful and challenging: they raise serious questions about ethics and social responsibility, class and race. This is a rare opportunity to see some of the most powerful images produced in our lifetime."

Ballen’s photographs show his experience in the slums of South African. Ballan was trained as a geologist and taught himself photography in his spare time which soon turned into his career. In the 1970’s, while looking for a potential mining site he began to photograph the houses and people he met. He then travelled to some of the poorest areas and built a relationship with those who lived there which enabled him to get the photos. His images appear not to have an awful lot of depth, they appear to be taken straight forward and there are very little shadows.

The exhibition was rather spacious and a vast majority of the images were small, so to really see the disturbing features in the images you to go up close to view them. A photograph that really stood out for me what titled “ Dresie and Casie twins” which was taken in 1993. This picture shows two very tall men, with well defined features, they almost look mutated. Their ears really stick out to the sides, and have more of a square and tall head. They are both drooling, but are wearing white shirts which show that they have been worn for quite some time without being cleaned, if they can be cleaned. The also seem to have a judgmental stare, as though they are fending off outsiders. The photograph is black and white as it can show the use of line, shape and a small amount of contrast in the photograph considerably better than colour and it can reflect what the society in South Africa is like, very bleak.

I like the exhibition for its shock value, but didn’t like the images of dead dogs and rats. Mainly because I have pet rats and have seen one die in my arms, and my dog whom I had since I was 5 years old had to be put down the day before we went to this exhibition bought up some emotions that one would not like to feel, ever.

Design Now!

Design Now! was an exhibition at the Melbourne Museum is an annual exhibition that presents the work of outstanding graduates from applied art and design courses nationwide. There was a broad range of designs that were shown from furniture to jewelry to embroidery. The exhibition was very spacious which allowed you study the artworks in great detail however the lighting was a bit of an issue, it only highlighted the artworks which created a lot of shadows so it was hard to tell if this look is what the artists were aspiring to achieve.

One design that I really liked was by a student from the University of South Australia called Harrah Wright. Her artwork titled “Your Threads Are Showing” was completed in 2008. The artwork showed a series of phrases and images of a girl’s face and hands placed carefully on the wall that have been created by embroidery. Although the front of the embroided pieces are tight and neat, the threads are left flowing out the back.

There are nine phrases in the artwork and this is what they say as they descend down the wall:

“She’s a lot like you”
“She can do no wrong”
“She is the only”
“She knows how”
“She won’t let it”
“She said it’s easy”
“She takes”
“She used to be”
“She sees what she wants”

Next to these phases are the following embroided images from bottom going up the wall:

A hand reaching up out of darkness
Hand over face
A face half covered in shadows
Shadowed face hiding behind hands
Face looking up, slightly happy expression
Face, very light at the top

It appears as the images descend down the wall they appear to get darker and more hidden by the hands. It shows the subject is slowly falling into a downward spiral of darkness. I feel that when she depicts the subject with hands over her face, I think she is attempting to shield herself from doubt and pain. But the last image of her face is nearly completely covered in shadows, almost like she has accepted her fate.
I think that by having the loose threads of cotton hanging out the back of the images and phrases, the artist is trying to show that the person and phrases put on a strong and sturdy portrayal on the outside to try and be defensive again attacks. But the small and frail threads that make up this front are really weak and lifeless. The phrases have a positive outlook, but are just as frail and fake as the person it is trying to comfort.

H G Giger

H R Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer that has done a great deal of work for films and musicians as well as his personal work. Giger got his start with small ink drawings before progressing to oil paintings. For most of his career, Giger has worked predominantly in airbrush, creating monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal, nighmareish dreamscapes. However, he has now largely abandoned large airbrush works in favor of works with pastels, markers or ink.

His most distinctive stylistic innovation is that of a representation of human bodies and machines in a cold, interconnected relationship, described as “biomechanical”. His paintings often display fetishistic sexual imagery. His main influences were painters Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dali. Giger is perhaps the best-known sufferer of night terrors and his paintings are all to some extent inspired by his experiences with that particular sleep disorder, he keeps an artist's pad near his bed to draw out his nightmares. It was in this fashion that he came up with horrific designs of the monsters for Alien. He studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich (from 1962 to 1970) and made his first paintings as a means of art therapy.

Giger has won many awards for his work, such as the design for the alien in the film “Alien”, which was inspired by his painting Necronom IV and earned him an Oscar in 1980. His books of paintings, particularly Necronomicon and Necronomicon II which were made in 1985 and his work frequently appears Omni magazine which has continued his rise to international prominence.

I am a huge fan of Giger’s work, his work reminds me of a darker and morbid version of Dali, and I love the great amount of detail that goes into his work. And just a bit of trivia; he designed Jonathan Davis’ (the lead singer of KoRn) microphone stand. The design of the stand was later adapted to Giger's "Nubian Queen" transforming it into a fine art sculpture.

H R Giger

H R Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer that has done a great deal of work for films and musicians as well as his personal work. Giger got his start with small ink drawings before progressing to oil paintings. For most of his career, Giger has worked predominantly in airbrush, creating monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal, nighmareish dreamscapes. However, he has now largely abandoned large airbrush works in favor of works with pastels, markers or ink.

His most distinctive stylistic innovation is that of a representation of human bodies and machines in a cold, interconnected relationship, described as “biomechanical”. His paintings often display fetishistic sexual imagery. His main influences were painters Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dali. Giger is perhaps the best-known sufferer of night terrors and his paintings are all to some extent inspired by his experiences with that particular sleep disorder, he keeps an artist's pad near his bed to draw out his nightmares. It was in this fashion that he came up with horrific designs of the monsters for Alien. He studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich (from 1962 to 1970) and made his first paintings as a means of art therapy.

Giger has won many awards for his work, such as the design for the alien in the film “Alien”, which was inspired by his painting Necronom IV and earned him an Oscar in 1980. His books of paintings, particularly Necronomicon and Necronomicon II which were made in 1985 and his work frequently appears Omni magazine which has continued his rise to international prominence.

I am a huge fan of Giger’s work, his work reminds me of a darker and morbid version of Dali, and I love the great amount of detail that goes into his work. And just a bit of trivia; he designed Jonathan Davis’ (the lead singer of KoRn) microphone stand. The design of the stand was later adapted to Giger's "Nubian Queen" transforming it into a fine art sculpture.

Stelarc

Stelarc is an Australian performance artist whose works focus heavily on futurism and extending the capabilities of the human body. Most of his pieces are centered around his concept that the human body is obsolete. Stelarc's idiosyncratic performances often involve robotics or other relatively modern technology integrated with his body somehow. In 25 different performances he has hung himself in flesh hook suspension, often with one of his robotic inventions integrated. In another performance he allowed his body to be controlled remotely by electronic muscle stimulators connected to the internet. He has also performed with a robotic third arm, and a pneumatic spider-like six-legged walking machine which sits the user in the center of the legs and allows them to control the machine through arm gestures.

His works have been heralded for their abilities to embrace a wider audience, the best example of this was his allowance for the worldwide audience to log into the exhibition and thus access or control the electrodes his own body was hooked up to. He explores and extends the concept of the body and it’s relationships with technology by blending human, mechanic, medical imagery, prosthetics, robotics and the internet. Stelarc even found a surgeon to graft a third ear onto his forearm. Although it doesn’t work, he hopes to have a microphone fitted to allow other people to listen to what his third ear picks up.

I personally am interested in his suspension work as I appreciate all forms of body modification. I like how he combines ancient rituals with futuristic designs of medical and technical advancements to improve the human form.

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Typolution

“Typollution” is an animated film using only type to show the effects of pollution on the environment, using the song "Nostrand" by Ratatat to set the flow of the video and was directed by Olivier Beaudoin.This animated video is a great interpretation of Beaudoin’s view of pollution and what effects it is having on all living creatures. The start of the video shows rain falling to the ground, then many flowers start to grow, then a large tree with leaves. Soon a small forest has grown, and animals have been created, such as snails and butterflies. Then as the music starts to climax, a large “H” rips up through the ground, destroying a tree, then all these large letter start ripping up the forest to make way for a road. Then a factory that is creating smoke is blowing up into the air, then black and intimidating black clouds form and leaves start to fall off the tree to show they are dying from the pollution, it is then revealed that the leaves are made out of question marks, which end up being the last thing you see on the video. These clouds then destroy everything, including the factories creating the smoke.

The use of characters in the same Arial font is very well done. The music in this animation certainly has a major part in the video, it starts off rather calm and soothing, and as soon as the letters shoot up it gets slightly faster with a more heavier beat and bass line which creates tension.
I liked the video as it very powerful in showing how humanity is killing the forest, even though we don’t like to call it killing, we call it “industry”, and that soon our own creations will be our demise.

Rob Sheridan

Rob Sheridan is a graphic designer and a majority of his work is done for promoting the American industrial band Nine Inch Nails. He is the art director for the band and is in charge of photography, designing CD’s, DVD’s, websites, their iPhone application and merchandise design. I am very fond of his work not only because he designs for my favorite band, but for the work he does as sideline projects. He frequently posts artwork and releases prints on his Sketchblog, which he describes as "an exercise in creative discipline - an attempt to get myself to draw more and play around with images and ideas that wouldn't fit in my professional work.

This artwork titled “Cereal Mascot Reunion” is one of his more complex artworks in his folio. To begin this, Sheridan hand paints the initial design using a pen tablet then using Photoshop and Coral Painter to add detail. Sheridan generally tends to avoid using too much photoshop, as using it too liberally can quickly take the organic quality out of the hand drawn image; however there are a few places in this artwork that I think he felt it was appropriate to use. I think he likes to use an insane amount of detail in all of works as they are usually large prints, this artwork in particular is 22” x 17” full size. He goes to great lengths with his attention to detail, even using Budweiser labels around the bear can, David Bowie and KISS album covers on the floor, a retro space invaders game cartridge on the floor and a picture of the late Farrah Fawcett in the background.

I feel he is very concerned with getting his characterizations just right, on his sketchblog, it shows how he did nearly three rough sketches until he was happy enough to import it into photoshop. He wanted the mascots to look depressed, kind of representing old friends who are having a reunion but then come to the realization that after many years, they don’t have anything in common and are bored. Except for the character Cap’n Crunch, who is reading an erotic magazine and is slightly aroused. This artwork certainly portrays the melancholy “nothing will ever be as good as it used to be” type of nostalgia that the artist seems to be fond of.

Yeah, I just love his work and felt I need to share it with you all. Here is a link to his sketchblog:

http://www.rob-sheridan.com/sketchblog/

And a video that he did with Nine Inch Nails that I adore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErUUynThycw


And another, fast forward to 1:40 and watch for at least 40 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AOJLtJJsRA

Liu Xiao Xian

Liu Xiao Xian’s exhibition at RMIT’s gallery titled “From East to West” portrayed a blending of Eastern and Western culture through the eyes of the artist. Upon entering the gallery, you see three very large faces peering down at you from the feature wall. The faces are of Mao, Buddha and an unknown Asian man. On the surrounding walls are A1 images of Asian families standing in front of iconic disseminations around the world such as Buckingham Palace and the Sydney Harbor Bridge, but directly behind them were tacky backdrops of Asian homes and scenery.

To the left of the exhibition was a long room that had continuous images of plates, also referred to as “china”, sitting on the ground outside an abandoned factory with grass and vines growing amongst them. This artwork symbolizes the fall of communism in China.

To the right of the exhibition is a large image of Jesus and a statue of Buddha, portraying them in their most common form, Jesus wearing a crown of thorns and Buddha who is at peace. So it’s from these initial observations the artist seems to be portraying how his move from communist China to the freedom of Western society has had two dramatic changes on the most powerful forces on the Earth, religion and the government.

One of Xian’s artworks which is titled “Game Set” is placed on a stand next to one of the images in the main area. The bottom of the artwork is almost like a target and placed carefully upon it are small sculptures of Australian and Chinese icons. In the red centre, which personally to me represents the Northern Territory and the history of Australia, there are a couple of Aboriginal figures facing a figure of the Queen, next to them are men in business suits. In the second circle, some more Aboriginal figures, Ned Kelly and another Jesus. These figures are all facing away from the central “leaders”, which suggests this was Xian’s view on how the leaders in Western society were viewed. The third circle was green, there were more Aboriginal and businessman figures on this layer, as well as a Victoria Bitter beer can, then there were figures of B1 and B2 from the children’s program “ Bananas in Pajamas”, the icon for the “Bonds Underwear” company and a jar of Vegemite. It contains figures of icons that are well known Australian products, which could be representing Australia’s main source of income. The 4th and final circle is blue which has more of the Australian icons as well as a few Lifesavers, which obviously represents the coastline.

I think this artwork suggests that at the core of democracy, civilians still turn their backs on the government and not trust or rely on them, but they still have the freedom to live as they wish, the artwork gets more inviting on the outside. Not just the artwork but the exhibition in general reflects the Xian’s view on how much freedom and space he has in Western society and how he has adapted from his move from China to Australia.

And whilst we are on the topic of adapting to foreign territory, you should have a look at an artist called Liu Bolin, who paints himself to blend in with his surroundings. Here is the link to see some of his work:

http://v1kram.posterous.com/liu-bolinthe-invisible-man