Monday, December 17, 2012

All my Christmas' at once

Hey. It's only six sleeps til' Christmas, but who's counting?

I'll tell you who's counting; me.

It wasn't cheap, and it took a little bit of running around, but this year I bought twenty-four different advent calendars.
The thing about advent calendars is I always want to eat all 24 chocolates on the first day, and so this year, with 24 advent calendars all to myself, I get to eat the equivalent of an entire advent calendar every single morning.
Oh and hey, as a special Kennys Christmas Trix- Turn your regular advent calendar chocolates from boring choc into exhilarating choc-mint by brushing your teeth.

Thanks for reading, see you soon, send me your old advent calendar when you're done with it, and from all of us here at kenny pittock dot com, have a great holiday season, you deserve it. 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Couldn't be happier

Hey, here's a piece I made a few months ago. 

It's titled SD Card. It's acrylic on ceramic, 3.1 x 2.3 x 0.2cm.
I included the piece in the Funny Games exhibition earlier this year.

If you went to the show you might've missed it, I tucked it away pretty low to the ground behind this sculpture by Anna Higgins.
Happier days, that's what memory cards are all about right? 

I keep changing my mind on what I think this piece is all about, sometimes I think it's pretty funny and sometimes I think it's pretty sad. 

Either way I couldn't be happier.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

If you want blood, you got it

Hey, late last night these three drawings fell out from the back of the book I was reading.

I made the drawings about 4 years ago, in December 2008. They're all just marker on 21cm x 15cm, acid free 110gsm cartridge paper. 

All three drawings are of somebody donating blood.

The drawings aren't especially good or bad, but what's worth mentioning about them is that I was also donating blood at the time I drew them. 





I'd forgotten all about it until I saw these drawings again, but yeah, it was pretty funny laying back on the Upwey Community Centre stretcher, looking at the other people laying back on the other Upwey Community Centre stretchers, and scribbling away with my right arm while the needle sucked blood out of my left. 

The nurse advised me not to draw until afterwards, but I assured her it was a bloody good idea. I thought I was so cool, ha, but I'm sure I just looked like a weirdo as usual.

(PS. Make me an offer I can't refuse if you're interested in buying these drawings, I'd be happy to sign the back of them in blood. Or, if for some strange reason you'd rather I didn't bleed on them, I guess I could just use pencil).

Sunday, December 02, 2012

Jodie Fosters birthday

Hey, so you know Jodie Foster? Sure you do, the American actress and film director, she's been in a million movies. I don't know many of them, actually I think Silence of the Lambs is the only one I've seen, but she was pretty good in that though hey.

Here's Clarice on a late night talk show spinning a basketball on her finger.
Apparently Jodie Foster also did the voice of Maggie in a recent episode of The Simpsons, although I haven't seen the episode. 
Admitting you haven't seen an episode of The Simpsons is always a bit of a shameful thing to do; we're all expected to have seen every one. Fortunately, admitting I haven't seen this particular episode; Four Great Women and a Manicure staring Jodie Foster as Maggie, is a lot less shameful than any other episode because apparently, and not to say that this is in any way a reflection on what I'm sure is an Oscar worthy voiceover performance by Jodie Foster, Four Great Women and a Manicure is the "lowest rating episode in terms of viewers in the shows history".

If it isn't already obvious I should point out that the reason I'm getting all my information from wikipedia and talking mostly about The Simpsons is because I don't really know a whole lot about Jodie Foster. Somebody who does know a whole lot about Jodie Foster though is the hilarious Sydney based artist Daniel Mudie Cunningham.

Since 1996 Daniel's been working on an obsessive and loving series of Jodie Foster fan art titled The Jodie Foster Archive. Here's a link to Daniels website. And here's a photo of Daniel, taken from the website.


The other day, on Monday, November 19, Jodie Foster turned 50, and to mark the occasion Daniel asked a small handful of people to film a message wishing Jodie a happy birthday.

I'm very happy to say that amongst all the very talented people Daniel asked, he also asked me.

All the messages were then edited into this one 16 and a half minute video which was put onto both youtube and vimeo on Jodies birthday.

(In case you're in a rush, I'll let you know that my message starts at exactly 13 minutes in).
Thanks again to Daniel for inviting me to contribute, and also a thanks to my dear old pal Amanda for doing such a great job filming and helping me out as I struggled to control 50 helium balloons, a cordless drill and a Golden Gaytime.

After all this maybe tonight I should make a point to watch a Jodie Foster film, but realistically I'll probably just watch The Simpsons.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The next three nights

Hey, I guess one of the reasons I have this blog is so that I can hassle you about the things I have coming up, so ok, here's the three things I'll be doing over the next three nights and I'd love it if you could come along to any or all of them.

Thursday, November 29, otherwise known as Tonight, my buddy Nelson Walkom, the extremely talented musician, is playing a set at the Highlander Bar. I can't wait. He's really, really good. Also, at some point during the set he'll be playing that song I wrote the lyrics for.
So yeah, come hear that and many even better songs live at the Highlander tonight. Highlander's at 11a Highlander Lane, which is just off Flinders Lane right near Flinders Street Station. Nel goes on at 9.15.

Then, Friday, November 30, otherwise known as Tomorrow Night, is the opening of a collaborative group show I'm in at Rearview Gallery. I wrote about it briefly here. It's a pretty different kind of show for me because I've been working with some guys who make work very differently to how I do. It's been such a productive and fun experience and I think it's gonna be a really interesting show. 

As well as many collaborative works I also have a handful of new works in the show that are just mine that I'm also really excited about. So yeah, come have a drink at Rearview Gallery tomorrow night, you won't regret it. Rearview's just off Stanley Street, directly behind 244 Smith Street, in Collingwood. The opening starts at 7 and goes for a couple of hours.

And then, Saturday, December 1, otherwise known as Not Tomorrow But The Day After, is the Three One Six Oh! Short Film Festival at the Cameo Outdoor Cinema in Belgrave. It's gonna be pretty funny seeing my video up on the big screen, placed in between much more serious, dramatic short films. For more information I've briefly written about it here

So yeah, in summary, come to Melbourne City tonight to hear great music, Collingwood tomorrow night to see great art and Belgrave the night after to watch great short films.

Ok, I think that's everything, I should really get back to installing the Rearview Show. As a side note, Jock and I were just hacking into a bit of the Rearview Gallery wall and much to our surprise this photograph came out. 
I'd love to find out what the story is with this photo being in the wall, maybe someone will be able to fill me in tomorrow night at the opening. If you can identify the person in the photograph please let me know, (or possibly contact Crimestoppers). 

Thanks for reading, hope to see you soon.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Urine for it now

Hey, here are one hundred urinal cakes, each one individually hand made from clay, baked in the kiln at 1200 degrees and then iced in glazing. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would.
One thing I realised from making these things is that a lot of people don't know what urinal cakes are. The simple answer to this is that they're basically just disinfectant chemical tablets that are put in the bottom of urinals to try and stop the urinal from smelling like a urinal.
Earlier this morning I put all 100 cakes into the urinal in the VCA toilets, our Grad Show is tonight and it seemed like a harmless enough way to literally take the piss out of it.
Here's my best bud Dan breaking them in.
Between 6 and 8pm there's gonna be hundreds of people using the urinal so I imagine the cakes will take quite a bit of punishment, but if you're keen for a little bit of free art then feel free to head to the urinal and scoop out a piece or two. Get in early though, as the cakes are only going to get smellier as it gets into the wee hours of the night. 

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Johnny been good

Oh hey, Ger-die mite. Last week my buddy Dan Petersen and I made a painting for our tutor Jon Campbell, as an attempt to show him our highest appreciation for having been such a great mentor, as well as just a great friend, to us both over the three years of our undergraduate course.

Jon won the Basil Sellers $100,000 art prize this year, and so when deciding what to make him it was pretty obvious we had to have some fun with that. 

Cheque out what we came up with.
I'd always wanted to make a novelty cheque, and as Jon is such a humble guy, the gesture of presenting him with one definitely seemed like the thing to do.

We used the colour scheme from Jon's iconic yeah painting
and based a lot of the framework for our novelty cheque on a variety of other novelty cheques, including my buddy Tom Polo's.
To make our painting a true collaboration, Dan and I took it in turns painting each letter, number and line.

We were working on the tightest of deadlines and so going letter for letter made the painting process about as intimate as it gets.
We presented the cheque to Jon at the end of year Painting Party last Friday. 

When the time was right I called Jon up the front and gave him the distraction present; a large bouquet of Basil. (I offered to sell it to him). During this moment Dan swooped in from the back and we presented Jon with the painting.
(If you look in Jon's hand in the bottom left you can see the Basil Bouquet).

Dan and I are very aware that completing our Bachelor of Fine Arts isn't really the end of anything, only the beginning, and that Jon, one of the most generous and encouraging men I know, will certainly continue to be a great friend and mentor for us throughout the years.

But even still, Jon is a legend and we did want to take a moment to say thanks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Blah, blah, blah.

Is Jon, Is Good.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Running on empty

Hi, nice to see you. How you feeling? You hungry? Today I missed lunch. I was real hungry. I wrote the word EMPTY onto my grumbly tummy. 

My friend Fat Dan, who didn't miss lunch, told me that it was too political.

I lifted his shirt and wrote FULL on his.
That's all for tonight, it's not good to blog on an empty stomach.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Nice to meat you!

If hotdogs could talk I think we all know what they'd say;
The life-size dogs are acrylic on ceramic and made in 2012. 
These photos were all taken on my phone and underneath bad fluorescent lights, the same kind of lighting you might expect to see real hotdogs waiting under.

I put the dogs onto a wall at uni last night just to see how they'd look. 

It was late and everyone had gone home for dinner. The only person who happened to walk past my yummy welcome was a security guard, although when he did he was looking the other way.
I love the security guards at uni, but even still he made it clear that it was time for me to go.

To keep the hotdogs hot for my journey home I stopped by the microwave on the way out.
That's all I have to say really, I guess I'm feeling a bit like a hotdog myself, I just wanted to say hi.

Hi.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

CALL ME! CALL ME! CALL ME!

Hey, thanks for calling. Here's a work I made in 2011, it's acrylic on doily.
I guess if it were entirely true though then I wouldn't have a blog.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Laughing all the way from the bank

Hi, here's a couple of cheap photos of my new million dollar painting.

It's titled Common wealth.
Common wealth is acrylic on canvas, and is 91 x 91 x 3.5cm

This piece is the latest in a series that aims to blur the lines between sculpture and painting, as well as realism and abstraction.

I installed the painting on the outside of my local branch.
Wham bam bank you ma'am.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Come to Alaska and see a thing or two

Hey, I should've mentioned this earlier, I'm in an exhibition in Alaska.
Which means I'm going to Alaska.
Which means you should go to Alaska.
Come to Alaska!
No, not Alaska the largest state in America, even better, I'm talking about Alaska the art gallery in Sydney.
You might not have heard of Alaska. It's only a year old. Apparently the gallery's been converted out of an old mechanics office in some forgotten underground car park in the heart of Kings Cross.


You've probably heard of Kings Cross, it's been in the news a lot lately as the hot spot for many, many cases of bad, bad people doing bad, bad things.
But don't be frightened, me and my Alaska gang will be there to personally come to your rescue should Chris Isaak's bad bad baby decide to show up. In fact, if she, or any other Kings Cross baddie does show up, I think it's safe to say they'll be so impressed with the art that they'll forget all about doing any bad bad things.


Oh and hey, click on this sentence to see my little bio on the Alaska website.


So make the smelly old Sydney Bienalle priority number two, and make number one ANYTHING, EVERY-THING AND ONE OTHER THING. The opening's on Wednesday. The show runs until August fifth.


In the meantime, here's 25 seconds of Chris Isaak dancing.
I talked to Chris backstage after the show and he told me he was dancing because he's excited about Alaska.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Loss and delusion

I went by myself to the current exhibition on at the Melbourne State Library; Love and Devotion: from Persia and Beyond.

The show is mostly illustrated books from the twelfth century, protected under bullet proof glass.

No, just kidding, the glass isn't really bulletproof.

At least I don't think it is. Although I didn't try to shoot through it.

Anyway, in reading through the twelfth century books I learnt all about the exhilaration and extensive heartache of Layla and Majnun, or as 18th century poet Lord Byron described them, the "Romeo and Juliet of the East".

If you want to know more about Layla you can just listen to Eric Clapton.

In fact, a copy of Claptons 1970 Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album cover was indeed included in the show, orignally painted by French Danish painter Emile Theodore Frandsen de Schaumburg.
My favourite thing about the show was watching the husbands sitting and waiting while their partners enjoyed the exhibition, this seemed to me to be the biggest exhibition of Love and Devotion on display.

This man was my favourite. He waited the longest.
I started to draw him.

I wasnt finished, but before I could do any more his partner had returned.
At this point it sort of occurred to me what a funny situation I'd found myself in.

It might've been because of the time of day I'd gone but the place was completely packed out, and with me as the only exception, everybody in there was paired off in two's. It was as if the gallery had been built by Noah.

 And here's me later on in a second hand store reading Dating For Dummies.
Perhaps in another 800 years from now the state library will hold a revised version of this exhibition, and even though Dating for Dummies isn't Persisan, my fingers are crossed that the curator will have the heart to also include this book inside one of the glass cabinets.

Obviously if the State Library does do that though everybody will try and steal it, my solution to this would be to use bullet proof glass.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Ten-neth Kenneths

  Kenneth the Menneth
1. Kenneth Faried
2. Kenneth Newkirk
3. Kenneth Parcell
4. Kenneth Goldsmith
5. Kenneth More
6. Kenneth, Florida
7. Kenneth Jackson
8. Kwenneth Paltrow
9. Kenneth Boyd
10. Kenneth Branagh

(All from Google images)