Art news
I cannot get enough of the work of Auckland photographer, Yvonne Todd. There's just something creepy - almost gruesome - about her pictures which is reminiscent of a more deliberate and contrived Diane Arbus or the work David Lynch. From the soft "glamour shot" lighting to the dead stare and bedizen styling of her subjects; in Todd's images you sense that something is not quite right - and that inturn evokes that universal human fear of the unknown and the not easily understood.
Were you always the little shit at birthday parties who prematurely (no one can use that word now without gross connotations: thankyou commercial radio advertising) blew out all the candles on the birthday kid's cake whilst coating the icing in a fine layer of spit?
Yes? Then get your birthday suit on and come down to Don’t Come store and gallery in Melbourne.
Martin Bell has decorated the gallery to coincide with the launch of his new book My Birthday Party. My Birthday Party is a journey through Bell’s vivid imagination, documenting all the magic through cubby houses to little cream-filled cakes. The exhibition is only on for one more day, so party on down to Don’t Come!
Sydney artist Erin Forsyth is originally from New Zealand but has been here for the past year or so just meeting people, loving people, losing people, hanging out, drinking, working shitty jobs, losing shitty jobs, absconding to L.A etc etc. All the while she's used these experiences to produce the most beautiful and f****d up pen work and paintings you could get from one brain and a pair of hands. Much of this work makes up HEX; Erin's most comprehensive and freaking amazing exhibition yet. Presented by Black and Blue, Hex see's Erin speak through acrylic paintings, fastidious pen work - and an aerosol installation that will leave even the most paint-stoned writers in awe - to question the black magic and white lies of today’s visual communication. Hex opens this Thursday night at 6pm (where you can view the work with a few complimentary Jamesons) and runs until March 30.
Who didn’t have a sugar-coated yet brief
obsession with Pez dispensers at some time in their childhood? You know the
drill… start the collection with your classic Minnie Mouse dispenser and after
doing a bit of research, realise that you could NEVER collect them all, and
turn your attention to chip packets in hope of a rare Tazo that would make you
the envy of the playground. Yes, it’s true that the handful of Pez dispensers I
saved my pocket money for are long lost, tossed into the mass-grave of primary
school fads that also contains my Tamagotchi, Chia Pet and
“The Brain” Yo-Yo. And quite frankly, I haven’t
actually given a thought to Pez and all it’s painfully colourful, dextrose-ridden,
head flippin’ glory for a good few years. Until now.
Enter Micky Mouse: the suicide bomber. Don’t
forget Pluto the cannibal and Bob the Builder the ladies man. French artists, Jean
Sebastien Ides and best-friend Ivan Duval (aka Atypyk) have hand-transformed
everyday sickly saccharine cartoon characters into characters with an edge. Certainly
not the kind of folk you’ll find in the next Disney film, unless Mickey
Mouse decides to give up
Hehe. Here is the winner of the 2008 "Bald Archy" Prize - an annual competition that's apparently judged by a cuckatoo named Maude and has since 1994 been artfully taking the piss out of Australia's Archibald Prize. As you can see it depicts "Our Mary" sporting a child at her breast (and, as Australia's leading news outlets are insightfully pointing out, a pair of "thunder thighs") while her husband Prince Frederik enjoys what appears to be a frosty Carlsberg and a re-adjustment of his man parts. The work was painted by Newcastle railworker James Brennan, who reckons it just popped into his head while he was vacuuming the house. Other portrait subjects in the 2008 Bald Archies included Daniel Johns, Ben Cousins and comedian Chris Lilley in J'Aime mode.
How precious is this? It's a musical jewelry box designed by Kristen Hassenfeld; an American artist who's known for her intricate, ethereal and tear-jerkingly beautiful installations - which she constructs almost entirely from paper. This, however, is not made from paper but resin and was created for Cereal Art in a limited run of 1000. I love it because it's kind of ugly - in that busy, kitschy sort of way that my taste in decoratives is all about. I also love it because when you open it it plays the Velvet Underground's "I'm Sticking With You" while the swans you see in the picture swim around a lotus flower. Zing.
"General Admission" is a collection of live music documentary images that have been taken by Victoria photographer; Leah Robertson, without the gravy-train help of a backstage media pass. The photos cover festivals like Meredith and The Big Day Out as well as your more intimate gigs - all shot from within the crowd, with the lense firmly remaining at the point of view of the humble concert goer. "General Admission" is Leah's first solo show and can be viewed at Melbourne's IMP Gallery until March
