Fastidious foam: the not so exquisite corpses of Hany Armanious

Hany Armanious
Empathy Chart

The old surrealist game of exquisite corpse was once again rinsed off and hung out to dry at Roslyn Oxley9 last Thursday night. If unfamiliar with the game, its what Breton and the rest of the surrealists used to make - something from bits of nothing in the early days of the movement a century ago. This was of course, the sculptural beginnings of found object turned modern mythical edifice that filtered on through the rest of the 20^th century.

And now here again almost one hundred years out of date, Hany Armanious has given us something that can only be distinguished from a retrospective by the fact that he worked fastidiously with foam to reproduce found objects instead of simply using them: a manikin head on a sphinx on a box; cardboard tubes, under a log, under a gray thing...it was beautiful. At least that's what I overheard. The 20-something up-and-comers in attendance went out of the way to exercise their extended adjectives that night, though all their theater only fell on deaf ears while the older patrons of Oxley9 simply wandered around seeming a little more puzzled than usual.

Everyone agreed with admiring relief on one wall piece-slash-torn notice bound. Seems it was the only work that was almost similar enough to something that could safely be comment on...sounds confusing...go see the show and find out for yourself.

But seriously, Roslyn Oxley9's press writer Amanda Rowell leads us to believe that through these works we find an 'otherness' in the slippage of the real and unreal of every day objects. Hmmmm...despite the ambiguity of these works delaying our judgment, in no way do they transgress the object/observer relationship to mitigate the encompassing experience of the 'Uncanny Valley'. Juan Munoz or even Felix Gonzalez Torres have been extending further into anthropomorphic sculpture and found object than Armanious' work dreams of, and with no need for expensive fabrication techniques for validation. Really, these sculptures don't boil down to answer the 'intriguing' question “What is it”, as Rowell claims, they only incited the assumption that 'they don't mean anything'.

Art should insight us shouldn't it? It should move us deeper into our understanding of the human condition. And isn't there a much greater discussion of 'otherness' in that than in a reductive, labored critique of the uncanny?

A bitter taste came to my mouth whilst watching the next generation of art school students work their way through the free beers and giggle about finding their next sculpture in a wheelie bin. Seems the only insight from this show was a cheap hangover and a couple of contacts.

A.A. Gabriel

ARTIST PROFILE: James Jirat Patradoon

My pants got a hole in them. I went to DJs to get another pair that didn't have holes. I stumbled upon the handiwork of an old aquaintance's printed onto a Mambo t-shirt.

JAMES JIRAT PATRADOON

I first saw Patradoon's work while frantically getting a form signed in the printing building at COFA in my student daze. The image struck me as hip, now, and awesome and when I bought my first copy of "Empty" magazine it had a Patradoon on the cover. It was the Semi-Permanent issue and Patradoon was that gold nugget of graphic design bliss.

If Warhol was Tech-Noir Punk then he would have lived in the shadow of James Jirat Patradoon's pop style. Patradoon's art is the bad boy of artworks, his figures hyper-masculine, donned in lucho-libre masks munching on obscene quantities of nutri-grain or violently battering an opponent of sorts. His would send a shiver down my spine if it weren't for the sugary delight of his colour palettes. His work follows a leading crusader through a journey outside place and time. His images are linked by subject matter but not event, they speak of comic books but they aren't sequential the figures wild and the compositions considered. A show at the Firstdraft here and a few clothing label deals there Patradoon is definately one of the promising talents of today making it!

James currently has his art on display at Oxford Art Factory until the end of April.

the prints are in - working with a local council

It's been many months, a few anxiety attacks and countless meetings (telephone, office and site inspections) but my exhibition is nearly done. Today, a minor triumph as the photos went to the printers and were accepted! I'm a Photoshop newbie and had to text my designer of a brother for advice on how best to save (Tiff and 300 dpi! he said) and size images. There was a whole load of math in it at one point, which was very overwhelming.

The project I've been working on is actually one that was originally intended as a zine. The idea was pretty simple - I'd lived and grown up in this neigbourhood and was always curious about certain people and places that had become fixtures of the area. People who lived there knew about them, about the mysterious blue shopfront window that revealed itself as a cakeshop after about 5 years of trade and the roundabout that is actually in the shape of a peanut for no good reason. I wanted to know more about these things, how they came to be, an explanation of sorts but also an invitation for residents to become more curious about their surroundings.

It was actually based on a column I used to write when interning in Seoul, South Korea that was called 'A Glimpse of Seoul.' As a tourist, who didn't speak a word of Korean, it was incredibly difficult to pen an article each week about a quirky happening or person. I did manage to make friends with a basketball cheerman but the rest was pretty tough going. My aim, having come from a history and media major, was to investigate in a highly accessible way, how geographical spaces become felt places, where feelings of belonging and pride begin to emerge.

How this transformed from a zine idea into a Council funded project was all a bit of an accident. A good buddy of mine, illustrator Matt Huynh had done a few similar story-telling micro history projects with the support of his council (Fairfield and Cabramatta seem to be very supportive) and he encouraged me to see if I could get some help. So I wrote up a proposal, having never written one in my life - that broke my idea down to synposis, motivation and expected outcomes. I had done a little bit of research into the Council's aims in the arts area and tried to do a bit of match up. I also trawled through their site until I found the contact details of the Arts and Culture Development Officer.

It wasn't immediate but things started unfolding slowly. I was contacted and guided into rewriting my proposal complete with a quote, take out arts insurance (in case any of my interviewees tripped or something) and start work. It was so cool when I got my first advance! I just liked the terminology, it made me feel legitimate about what I'm most interested in doing. It was awesome to be paid to hang out with people, take their pictures and find out their story. In the process I spent time with everyone from the local baker, an award-winning primary school aerobics instructor, who at 50 put my flexibility to shame and the softly spoken toy librarian at the local library who went through all the possible learning benefits from toys.

The op shop ladies were my favourite. They were generous with their time, funny, thoughtful and delightfully anachronistic. Though they made me eat this chocolate coated biscuit that the cat licked because they didn't want it to go to waste. That was gross.

I'd encourage anyone to approach a Council directly and ask for funding. There weren't any grants going at my local Council so I didn't bother waiting. I also think that people appreciate it if you are quite forward, they usually call it 'initiative' and know exactly why you want to do what you're proposing.

I learnt a lot accidentally. About boring but important practical things like invoicing and accomodating the Council's needs, especially when the invitations went out and the formalities are being finalised. It is difficult not having complete ownership of a project, I struggled with that at times but am thankful that at the end of the day, there is someone to pay my printing bills so I have have big shiny mounted photos and have access to a space and an audience during exhibition that I probably wouldn't have ordinarily.

This will also be my first solo show and my first chance to work one on one with a curator. Tony Curran is curating the show and faced a very difficult task of making me realise that my aesthetically 'perfect' design for the exhibition (cramming everything into one room to give it a sense of organised clutter and overwhemling community) was not practical for the audience and didn't allow the project to be viewed in a way that focused on the writing as well as the photographs.

And Maxine McKew is coming! The project was also produced in direct response to the 2007 Federal election, in which my neighbourhood became the site of a very significant campaign between the standing Prime Minister and a newbie. The campaigning was aggressive and sparked so much excitement amongst the community and this was my way, after the media hype had died down to remind everyone that they existed as a local community before they were localised into a political one.

Come along if you're free, the show opens 25 March 2009 at Brush Farm House, 19 Lawson street Eastwood. Opening starts at 6.30pm and the show is open until April 2.

A Parisian excursion

I flick over to this girl's fashion blog frequently, because she seems so excited about getting dressed in the morning and running her own online vintage store. Her enthusiasm for Levis cut-offs is incredible.

In one of those blogger-makes-it-in-the-real-world stories that really only happen in America (remember the Julie Julia project that made it into a book, soon to be film?), a pic posted on her blog ended up on the mood board for Esteban Cortazar, the designer currently behind Emanuel Ungaro.

And suddenly she was in France, front row of his show, having been specially invited and fitted with an Ungaro dress. Such a nice story!

Anthony Bennett

Anthony Bennett, self-portrait in the bathroom discussing beauty, bukowski and brett whiteley with my ex, now a stripper, who likes to dress as wonder woman, 2008

This guy is definately THE artist to watch. Making it into the Archibald, The Wynne and The Sulman prizes with three different works and being the only artist whose work I actually like in any of the prizes (except Del Kathryn Barton) this artist is one of the strongest Aussie's of today. While Jasper Knight and Ben Quilty might be leading the young artist race, Anthony Bennett can paint more than just portraits and figure-ground and he drips better than Jasper! He ought to work on his titles though.

I took a photo of his landscape of insufficient green… where mountains are crushed for speaking out, but the gallery attendent made me delete it in front of him. When he wasn't looking I managed to get this snap of the idea of a michael hutchence haiku... wasn’t it nietzsche who first said god is dead and tom cruise is a dick?

Recipes for success part 2

When I was in primary school, I was given a copy of '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' by my Dad. I pulled a face and it was exchanged for something a little more child friendly and very likely, something pink and shiny. Though now, when I'm very tired and demotivated to do anything creative after a full day of work, I get a bit curious about what it said inside.

There are a hundred different theories about getting inspired, staying inspired, maximising productivity and work practices. I get very distracted learning about a whole lot of them. Apparently Japanese author Haruki Murakami wakes up whilst it's still dark, brews himself a very black coffee and writes until dawn.

It's all very distracting. But I think the people I find to be consistently creative and most importantly still happy in doing what they do, are constantly in a state of curiosity and excitement about the smallest things. All of which eventuate into a steady state of action and production, even if it is for their own means.

Take a peek at:

Popperbox, The Snail and the Cyclops, Shelbyville, Tony Curran, Simply Breakfast, and Luke Austin.

RECIPES FOR SUCCESS??

All Good in Theory

The arts don't seem to make much economical sense these days, despite precedents such as the Whitlam government's purchasing of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. The National Gallery of Australia held (and still holds) the most important American cultural artifact (of its time) for ransom and strengthened Australia's international reputation and negotiable power over America. Some say this purchase cost Whitlam his place in Parliament. However the arts have persisted throughout history longer than science, industry, and economics itself. It seems that the arts are innate to culture whatever the medium and expression.

Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling are how we take in information from our environment. Some artforms utilize a variety of senses - theatre and others use only one - photography. The persistence of sense for sense's sake is invaluable in the development of children and civilizations the same. The effects of sensory stimuli (the arts) on an audience are essentially the backbone to tv, nightclubs, parties, good books, your true love, the clothes you wear, the food you eat.

So if it's so important how do you get from making it to making a living off it?

Tony Curran