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)