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.