La Clique: What I was banging on about

So, a while ago I blogged about La CLique. This is what I was talking about.

Neeed I say more?

Headspace update

It's been a while since I've blogged, and there's been such a lot going on, I thought it might be nice to get it all out here.

So, I have made some inroads to becoming a stylist. I have done some assistant styling with a great operator Renee Brown. She's a fashion stylist, very well established in Melbourne and I was lcuky to help her put five shows together for the Loreal Fashion Festival. It was great fun, although to be honest, I'm not thinking that fashion styling is really my thing. Dressing models can be a hoot and all, but I am thinking of doing something a bit more... sustainable.. substantial? Not really sure of the right word here.

Then I assisted an amazing stylist and designer Alez Zabotto-Bentley in putting on a massive event for Vodafone at a bar called the Lexington in the city. This guy has an endless well of energy to cast from, and I really learned to keep my eyes open, that I need to develop an intimate knowledge of my surroundings and to keep commited to the vision at all times. I was very lucky to be working with him, a little beyond my experience level at the moment.

Still, it would be nice if he paid me.

I am now starting work with Kim Hallis. She styles apartments and houses for re-sale and has a massive warehouse full of furniture and furnishings to do her work. She seems pretty amazing too, although it's early days yet.

My savings are dwindling considerably and I really need to secure a reliable income. That is my objective for this week - I imagine it will involve some customer service, maybe f+b, but maybe not. I am turning lots of stones.

Other than that, I am in good spirits. Look, I have good days and not so good. Days when I let the financial concerns get the better of me. But I am trying to just live normally, trusting that the universe will look after me, and that I too, will not let myself hit redundancy, just as I won't let myself get out of shape.

In the middle of all it all is uni. I love it, it is keeping me sane. No small task...

Inspiration: Elmgreen and Dragset

Conceptual art can be hit or miss, but this hot homo duo from Denmark and Norway have good aim. Their work is emotive, multi layered and beautifully executed.

Take for example Prada Marfa, Texas, 2005: by a desert highway the duo have constructed a Prada boutique. The building juts out of the baron landscape like a first tooth. It is much like any urban Prada boutique with clean lines, aqua glass fronatge and embellished awanings. Only this boutique is never to be open, it's shoes and handbags are never to be tried on or purchased, despite being picked by Muiccia Prada herself. Instead the shop is left to degrade in the desert over time, hence monumetalising an institution that is otherwise obsessed with the new.

More on Elmgreen and Dragset later...

Prada Marfa, Texas 2005

You Rock: Annie Lennox

So, not only has she one of the most incredible voices I have ever laid my ears on, nor has she provided the world with some of the best songs of my time, and some of the best music videos of my adolescence, but she is also an advocate of peace:

I don't believe that you can ever solve the problem of terrorism by acts of brutal retaliatory violence. I think the so-called war on terror is scandalous because it is a cover-up, and not a solution. It is in fact America's second Vietnam. I do not believe the Iraqi people are being liberated. They are being destroyed. I do not believe the planet can continue ad infinitum with our endless exploitation of its natural resources. I do not believe that human beings have ever created a political structure which works for the benefit of all, rather than the few.

She's ageing well too - no plastic fantastic there..

Funny: very.

Stolen: My beloved bike

To the dear person who stole my bike from Ripponlea Train Station sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon,

Thank you.
You have no doubt unwittingly done me a great service. Perhaps at the bike shop I will meet the man of my dreams, (and so will he). Perhaps it will be the guy who helps me lodge my insurance claim, or perhaps I will just have a beautiful day selecting a new, sweeter set of wheels and matching helmet. Perhaps I would have been killed or had my legs amputated in a horrific accident had I mounted it, as intended, yesterday on my trip to the shops. Perhaps I was to fall prey to a bikey gang and end up being tortured in a totally un-hot manner.

I wish you all the best, and fear for you that your will need each of my good wishes. I only hope they carry some gravity. For from what I believe about the universe and all that, is that those who steal are destined to be stolen from. Maybe this has already happened.

All lovers make the same mistakes

I totally relate to this. Maybe I just need to get beaten up..

Weekend away at Moonta Bay

I just had the best trip to Adelaide. Was so lucky to be invited to Rosalie and Aaron's wedding - seriously beautiful. Then there was time down the coast with non stop singing and flamenco dancing on the beach, night nudey swims and jumps off the jetty. And beer, there was some beer too.

I feel all fresh and inspired. Content and grateful to be blessed with such talented and generous friends.

I'm a lucky boy.

Moths to a flame

Spiders On Drugs

Green light

It was gruelling. I didn't think I was going to get in, there were loads of tough questions, but at the end of the day they were on my side and I got the unofficial word that yes, I am in.

I am one very happy boy. Thanks to everyone who's supported me to get to this point, you rock. You really do.

So now the work begins. Lookout, 2007 is looking like a very big year.

More stuff...

Some of the stuff is a challenge to photograph.. but challenge is good, yes!
Here's more.

Portfolio Progress

Here's some of the work so far.. They're sketches, that could all do with some development, but at least they're ideas that have made it out of my imagination and into reality.

Global Warming: no longer a warning.

It’s not yogic to battle, but in this case, it’s time to go to war. We’ve received the diagnosis, and we’re in trouble. We’re responsible for the situation, every one of us. Meaning, that we are able to respond.

We, as a people, do not have time to waste. There should be no more time spent pointing fingers at each other. No more energy invested in pessimism. It’s time for us all to come to action. It’s time to take positive steps forward, be they big or small.

The task ahead is for us as a people to reduce our footprint on this planet. That means living differently. It means living sustainably. It means increasing our understanding of why we live the way we live, and what we need to change.

In a time of war, we put all our energy into defending ourselves. Let’s make no mistake, this is war. It’s World War 3; in which the world fights for the world.

Bring out the propaganda. Put us on rations. Enlist the young, the old, the women, the men and the children. Think strategically, and accept no excuses. Let’s listen to each other’s ideas, and never forget that this is for everybody.

Imagine:
Every roof in Australia is lined with solar panels.
Every building fitted with a rainwater tank.
Every dwelling self-providing at least 50% of it’s own energy.
Every garden self-watering.

Imagine:
Government reclaiming its role of governing industry.
Industry becoming carbon-neutral. More, carbon credited.
Industry taking responsibility not just for its waste, but for some of others.

Imagine:
People choosing bikes over cars. Fitter people.
Our cities developing public transport systems that are safe, efficient and reliable, day and night, and provide its users not just transportation, but autonomy.

Imagine:
Effective recycling, whereby we use the nutrients in our organic matter to replenish our baron soils.
Effective recycling, whereby we us this paper, this glass and this plastic, not bury it.
Going to the supermarket with empty vessels, coming home with full ones. Repeat.

Imagine:
Consuming less, living more.
Cooperating with each other to a greater good.
Good vibes from establishing a sense of community, both local then global.
Good vibes from reclaiming our power, as more than consumers, but as thinkers and creators.

Imagine thinking of the environment and not feeling despair. This last step, is our first step.

It's worse than we thought people!

Portfolio Panic!

Yesterday, I decided to apply for a Diploma in Visual Arts at RMIT.
Exciting, yes?

Well, at 2.40 next week, which is 175 hours away from the time of posting, I will be presenting a potrtfolio of artistic work consisting of about 20 works to a panel of 3.

Currently I have... 0 works.
Terrifying.

But it's ok. I have decided to be very honest about this, and to put together a "7 day portfolio", which I intend to make the story of me. Which will be much like the story of O, but less erotic.

Wish me luck!
I will post my progress (or lack thereof)...

Inspiration: Amatuer Art.

Thought Audit

Since my sacking, I have been feeling pretty good - but just finding it a little hard to relax. I have been doing a little meditation course, and it seems that the first step to mind control is just to listen to your thinking: a thought audit.

Well, I tried listening, but I'd forget I was listening and just end up thinking. So I tried a bit of writing. I'll admit there was some beer involved. It helped.

Brief: The Screens

Well, here it is. I have been thinking of working as an artist slash designer for some time, and now is the time to stop thinking and start acting. All creative work needs a purpose, some structure - a brief. I have been inspired by lots of different themes and ideas. But finally, they have all come together as one.

So, here dear reader is my brief.

My studies in Architecture and in New Media had parallel themes. In architecture we were interested in the division of space (internal/external, private/public etc) and of the framing of views. In New Media, my thesis dealt with the mediation of emotion, particulary relating to global media events such as the war on terrorism. Persitent in all of these themes were the presence of screens.

Be they a fly screen, a tv screen. The screen is a multi media interface. It represents a shift in thought, evokes a shift in feeling and hence in behaviour.

At the essence a screen will filter light (information). But we have a multitude of uses of them. Sometimes we project onto screens, sometimes we use them as protection, or as devices of deception, as smoke screens. Sometimes screening is a process of interrogation.

The brief is to develop screens that challenge people's thinking of the screen as interface. To work across media - be it mesh or glass or light or sound or vapour or timber or cord or fabric or material. It is also to work with the idea of art enmeshed with the everyday. So to create beautiful, attainable, useful works producable for lots of different people.

Time to get to work! This is just a draft, so expect it to get updated..

This pic is of a page in a magazine, Art Review. I should have more details of the artist.. But I don't. Naughty!

Goodbye Natasha

Today, my beautiful friend Natasha leaves to undertake humanitarian work in Darfur, Sudan.

I fear for her life, but beneath the fear is a knowing that Darfur needs Natasha, and Natasha needs Darfur.

I love you with all my heart. I'm always with you, and you are always with me. Wierdly, today we both cross our own frontiers. We were blessed to have some time together late last year. I loved it. When you are strong and brave, it holds me to the same thinking. Nothing is unachievable. We might work on the other sides of the planet in different directions, but we work together.

Go forth.

Sacked

So, I lost my job last week. It's never nice having others make your choices for you, but in this case, I feel no anger and little sadness. I am a little apprehensive, but I figure it's time to put my priorities in order.

It's time to get real.