Trouble September 2015

trouble 127

All images Rosemary LAING: effort + rush, courtesy Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Š the artist. In order of appearance: a dozen useless actions for grieving blondes #7 (detail) 2009, type C photograph, 77 x 133 cm, edition 7/8. Jim (detail) 2010, type C photograph, image size: 110 x 237.5 cm, edition 3/8. Private Collection, Sydney. one dozen unnatural disasters in the Australian landscape #2 (detail) 2003, type

C photograph, 110 x 205.7 cm, artist proof. Collection GRANTPIRRIE/ Private. one dozen considerations, Totem 2, Emu 2003, type C photograph, image size: 90 x 172 cm, edition 1/8. National Art School Gallery presents major exhibition of work by acclaimed Australian artist Rosemary Laing, effort + rush, NAS Gallery, Forbes St, Darlinghurst (NSW), 20 August - 15 October 2015 - nas.edu.au

CONTENTS EFFORT+RUSH: ROSEMARY LAING National Art School Gallery .................................................................. 02 COMICS FACE

Ive Sorocuk .........................................................................................

THE MADNESS OF ART: MY COUSIN BILLY

Jim Kempner ......................................................................................

L.U.V : TAKE ME TO THE SEA Steve Proposch ..................................................................................

AS THEY ARE: COLONIAL LIFE & THE ART OF S.T. GILL Sasha Grishin .....................................................................................

SEPTEMBER SALON

Supercillious .......................................................................................

CRAIG MUNRO: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF EDITING Social Work ........................................................................................

SPOTLIGHT ON: BRUNSWICK BOULDERING Stuart Beekmeyer ..............................................................................

GREETINGS FROM BEYOND THE PALE: DERBY - CITY OF MUD

Ben Laycock ......................................................................................

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24 34

44 48

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COVER: Julio FALAGÁN, Pretendientes (detail) 2015, inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist. Power to the People!, RMIT Gallery, Swanston Street Melbourne (VIC), 25 September – 24 October 2015 - rmit.edu.au Issue 127 SEPTEMBER 2015 trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture Published by Trouble Magazine Pty Ltd. ISSN 1449-3926 CONTRIBUTORS Ive Sorocuk, Jim Kempner, Sasha Grishin, Inga Walton, Stuart Beekmeyer, Ben Laycock, love.

Find our app at the AppStore follow us on issuu , twitter Subscribe at troublemag.com READER ADVICE: Trouble magazine contains artistic content that may include nudity, adult concepts, coarse language, and the names, images or artworks of deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Treat Trouble intelligently, as you expect to be treated by others. Collect or dispose of thoughtfully.

DIS IS DE DISCLAIMER! The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. To the best of our knowledge all details in this magazine were correct at the time of publication. The publisher does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions. All content in this publication is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without prior permission of the publisher. Trouble is distributed online from the first of every month of publication but accepts no responsibility for any inconvenience or financial loss in the event of delays. Phew!

This comic first appeared in Trouble September 2010

art comedy series

My Cousin Billy “Check’s in the mail,” but not in Jim’s bank account. Cousin Billy is put on the case.

Jim reminds Dru to remind Jim to move his car by four.

visit: themadnessofart.com/

TAKE ME TO THE SEA

L .U .V

In today’s largely programmed musical landscape new pop duo L.U.V – Maya and Vivi Mohan (20 and 17 respectively) – rock an authentic live sound and undiluted, joyful energy. Their independently released single ‘Take Me to the Sea’ harks back to times when bands could jump into a recording studio and play their music just as they did on stage.

INTERVIEW Steve Proposch

How would you sum up your performance philosophy?

Vivi & Maya: We want it to be real and happen live as it happens with all the attendant risks that come with musicians playing their own instruments and coming to every gig with as much as they can offer. Interpretative creativity is a particularly human enterprise and we want every performance – whether in front of an audience or in a recording studio – to be unique and expressive of the moment.

When you were young, did you dream of becoming musicians?

Vivi: Always, yes. It was one of the only things I could ever imagine myself doing. We grew up with our Dad being both a musician and a great music lover – with over 5000 records and hundreds of cd’s in the house, music came to sound like a second language. Other things came to mind but were drowned out by the beat. In grade ten I was contemplating becoming a doctor but while up late studying and listening to The Beatles I just thought ‘Let it Be’.

Maya: Kind of. When I was little I used to play this game where I was in a band and we would travel around the world. As I got older I kept learning more instruments and loved playing but I didn’t think I would become a musician. As I was finishing school, one of my favourite things to do was to investigate new bands and listen to their songs and soon I realised that I kind of liked doing that more than anything else – I loved thinking about how songs were put together, what I liked about them, what I would do with that little melody or that drum beat.

And it occurred to me that maybe I could write songs as well!

There are lots of jobs – and some vocations – in the world, why music?

Vivi: I guess it’s the fact that one song can become so much more than a song.

You can listen to it and for the short time that it’s playing the music feels like the whole world around you. Like a good book (I also love writing!) or a great movie, when you really get into a song you never want it to end – and then it does, and the next song starts. There’s that moment when that happens where you just feel like you can go out and do anything and that’s a feeling that I – we – want to give to other people.

Maya: I studied chemical engineering at university for a year because I loved chemistry at school but began to feel dissatisfied and a bit concerned that I wouldn’t like the kinds of careers available in the field. I started writing some of my own songs and when working on lyrics or melodies would ask Viv what she thought. We began working on them together and found that two of us meant two lyricists, two vocalists and twice as much fun! L.U.V was begun.

L.U.V - Take Me to the Sea / Steve Proposch

What is the genesis of the band’s name?

Vivi: One of our maremmas – they are Italian livestock guarding dogs – is called LLV, which is an old Norse name for girls and means ‘defence’ or ‘protection’. Our mum suggested this for the band’s name and then our little sister, Agnès, said why not L.U.V instead of L.L.V.

L.U.V

A QUICK QUIZ

Who are you? Where did you grow up? What are your backgrounds? Where do you live?

Vivi: Dad’s Irish (and was born on a ship on the high seas), mum’s a mix of Italian, Irish, English and French. If only this was the beginning of a joke …

Maya: We were born in Sydney and lived there ‘til I was seven and Vivi was four. Then we moved to Maleny in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to be closer to family. From there we moved down the other side of the Blackall Range to a farm in Conondale where we grow tapas peppers (such as Pimientos de Padron) which are supplied to restaurants around Australia.

We’ve both done lots of work picking peppers and manning farmers’ markets on weekends.

Though we both now live in Brisbane, we go home regularly where there’s a veritable menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, cows and people.

Can you tell us a bit about your first single – Take Me To the Sea? Maya: We wanted to write a song that was motivating and made people want to dance and be involved with the music. We see it as an anthem: Go and do and be what you want. It’s about figuring out what you want and where you want to be. We thought the sea

1. Favourite song?

Vivi ‘A Day in the Life’ by The Beatles Maya ‘This Must Be The Place’ by Talking Heads 2. Favourite band/performer of all time?

Vivi The Beatles Maya U2 3. Favourite contemporary band/performer?

Vivi Lana Del Rey Maya Radiohead (maybe not so contemporary!)

4. Which band are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

Vivi & Maya Irish artist, Hozier, at The Riverstage in Brisbane in November 5. What song would you most love to cover?

Vivi ‘I Want You to Want Me’ by Cheap Trick Maya ‘There She Goes Again’ by The La’s

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L.U.V WAYS

TO TELL MAYA & VIVI APART

was a nice metaphor for this – its beauty and vastness and mystery. It represents freedom but at the same time the unknowableness that comes with adventure. What is it that everyone is looking for…?

Vivi: We wrote the verses of the song first – they were meant as an insight into what it can feel like to be lost, to not know where you’re going or to know where you’re going but not knowing how to get there. The chorus came quite naturally after that. We wanted to make it something that would feel like a push, a bit of energy, a symbol. It’s not an answer to the questions of what or where but an urging on to keep looking, to be courageous.

What else do you have up your sleeve – do you have other singles ready to go?

3. Who fidgets?

Vivi She fidgets, I don’t

Vivi & Maya: We have three other songs ready to go – recorded, mixed and mastered. We’ve been working on these songs for the last two years or so, although we finished recording them in January. We’re currently working on about another ten songs – dreaming of an album down the track! We kind of just keep writing and demoing ideas and if they don’t work then we’ll just leave it and maybe revisit it later. We like to be working on lots of different songs. Each one puts us in a totally different headspace, and trying to bring them all together and creating threads throughout them is really fun.

4. Instrument of Choice?

Maya Piano Vivi Ukelele

What’s good about working together? What do you most admire about each other?

5. Wearing?

Maya Rose gold Vivi Highly polished Doc Martens (multiple pairs, though not wearing them all at the same time – sadly I’m not a centipede!)

Vivi: The best thing about working together – being sisters – is that we have really good communication. We know each other so well that we pretty much know what the other is thinking. We often pre-empt the other’s ideas or come to the same conclusion at the same time. It makes working really efficient when

1. Eye colour?

Vivi Blue Maya Hazel 2. Sleeping habits?

Vivi I sleep, she doesn’t

L.U.V - Take Me to the Sea / Steve Proposch

you’re on the same wavelength. Because we grew up together we’re also really open to each other and understanding, so there’s not a lot of problems when one of us doesn’t like the other’s idea, which can always be an issue when different creative minds/creators/artists come together to meld ideas. (Though of course we have our moments!) We don’t get offended.

Maya: Definitely how much fun we have. We’re so comfortable with each other and have such similar senses of humour that we literally spend the entire time laughing. There are so many videos of us when we’re working on songs (some featuring our cat), just dying of laughter What are you currently doing besides the band? Do you work/study?

Vivi: Currently I’m shining shoes, whilst simultaneously playing ukelele, to make ends meet – a hard gig but someone’s got to do it!

Maya: I’m studying music at Queensland University of Technology and just doing a lot of work on the music, website and film clip. Occasionally I give Vivi a couple of bucks to clean my shoes! (I would never pay her for playing ukelele.)

What are your plans for the future musically? What do you want to achieve?

Vivi & Maya: As much as we can. Take us to the sea!

Find out more about L.U.V at luvtheband.com where you can click the link to hear their song on Triple J Unearthed. Their clip will be up on youtube soon!

COLONIAL LIFE AND THE ART OF S.T. GILL

Sasha Grishin

Although S.T. Gill died 135 years ago, the current exhibition at the State Library of Victoria, Australian Sketchbook: Colonial Life and the Art of S.T. Gill (until October 25) is the first major retrospective exhibition of his art to be ever held. So why did he have to wait for so long for his fifteen minutes? As curator of this exhibition and author of a major monograph on the artist, this question has somewhat perplexed me and I have tried to explain it to the best of my abilities.

A few words about the artist. Samuel Thomas Gill was born in 1818 in Perriton, a small village in Somerset, England, where his father was the Baptist minister. He grew up in the Devon – Cornwall areas, where his parents ran separate schools for young gentlemen and young ladies. His father entered business and dissented to join the Plymouth Brethren. Gill initially studied in the home school, attended William Seabrook’s Academy, worked in an art framing and lithographic print shop in Devonport and then painted backgrounds for a London-based silhouette studio.

We have, surviving from his teenage years in England, a profusely illustrated sketchbook with pen and ink and watercolour sketches. Here there is already an expression of an early love of dogs, hunting and an outdoors life, plus a wit and a love of social narrative. Following the death of two of his siblings in an outbreak of smallpox, Gill and his family migrated to the newly established colony of South Australia, where they arrived just before Christmas in 1839.

< S.T. GILL, Improvident diggers in Melbourne 1869, watercolour, State Library Victoria.

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In the Antipodes he spent his first twelve years in South Australia, where he recorded the colony’s first mining boom, ‘Coppermania’, the streets of Adelaide and the journey of exploration, where the camel shot the explorer. It was also in South Australia that he first encountered the Indigenous inhabitants, where he observed their traditional ways of hunting and living with the environment and gradually developed an empathy with the Indigenous peoples. The economy of South Australia dipped badly once gold had been discovered in neighbouring Victoria, and the colony was severely depopulated. Gill joined the rush and left for the Victorian goldfields. There is no evidence that he set out in search of gold, but by mid-1852 he had commenced sketching on the goldfields of Mount Alexander, Bendigo and Ballarat.

Between August and October 1852 his 48 lithographs, Sketches of the Victoria Diggings and Diggers As They Are by STG were issued in two sets and almost overnight Gill became the highest profile artist of his day. Diggers on the way to Bendigo has become something of an iconic image for the Australian gold rushes, where three diggers followed by a child and accompanied by a dog are shown from behind walking after a dray pulled by oxen. In this image Gill opens his narrative on the life of the diggers. The warm clothes would suggest that they are travelling in winter, possibly in June or July as the accompanying dated lithographs suggest.

They carry their rolled-up blankets on their backs, basic mining equipment, including a tin dish and cradle, together with weapons with which to defend themselves should they strike gold. The figures are highly individualised, but at the same time anonymous; it is the tale of everyman on the way to this Australian El Dorado.

Unlike many of his fellow artists, Gill set out to give the gold rushes a human face.

He translated the whole enterprise into a number of human situations, which rang true to the experience of those who were on the goldfields in the early 1850s.

While hysteria was being whipped up by politicians and in the media about boat people from Asia, ‘coolies’ or ‘celestials’, as they were called, who were said to be invading Australia to steal our jobs and our gold, Gill showed hardworking Chinese living in harmony with the rest of the miners. We have the first image of a Chinese takeaway restaurant in Australia, where food is advertised as being always ready and with customers taking it away in canisters. Where Gill does comment on racism on the goldfields, such as in the watercolour which he has titled Might versus Right, he leaves us in no doubt as to where his sympathies lie, as a group of Anglo-Irish thugs attack a number of terrified, but peaceful, Chinese miners. In other words, Gill emerged as a democratic socialist and increasingly became a bit of a thorn in the side of the establishment. Although the presence of women on the goldfields

< TOP John Alloo’s Chinese restaurant main road Ballaarat 1855, lithograph, State Library Victoria.

BOTTOM Interior of John Alloo’s Chinese restaurant main road Ballaarat 1855, lithograph, State Library Victoria. NEXT SPREAD Troopers pursuing bushrangers 1871, watercolour, State Library Victoria.

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was widely noted in written accounts, as well as in some journals kept by the women themselves, they are almost invisible in the art of the goldfields. Gill was the exception. In his lithograph Zealous gold diggers, Bendigo, dated on the stone at 1 July 1852, a woman nurses her baby in one hand, while she rocks the goldextracting cradle with the other. Her infant daughter handles a shovel, loading the ore-bearing soil into the cradle from the wheelbarrow, while her husband pours into the cradle the buckets of water with an ‘Aquarius’, the long-handled dipper in which the ‘bucket ladle’ is attached to a pole.

Gill’s women of the goldfields were not shy dainty things, but women of character.

The official ban on the sale of alcohol fanned a lively trade in sly grog from the euphemistically termed coffee tents. From the back of one of these, a large woman serves a string of customers. We learn from contemporary sources that there was a Mrs Bunting: “She was well known as a sly grog-seller, and has been fined some dozen times or more, from 20 pounds to 50 pounds a time; but she did not care for it, she still went on, and set the law at defiance …” It was also noted that when she appeared on horseback armed with pistols, bushrangers would gallop off in the opposite direction. Gill does not vilify the customers at the sly grog shanty, as one would find in the moralising graphics following in the Hogarthian tradition, these are quite orderly diggers shown relaxing on their mandated day of rest. As one has become accustomed to see in Gill’s art, a canine commentary in the foreground provides a clue to the reading of the work, with a dog sleeping it off in the wine barrel.

After four years in Victoria, Gill had developed a high profile, was compared to Phis and Cruikshank in the press, and was quickly becoming a household name.

However, reputation was not to be equated with financial success and in January 1856 we have a newspaper advertisement for an auction of a ‘splendid collection of watercolour drawings’ by Gill. Our knowledge of Gill’s private life is incomplete, but he appears to have had a wife, but no children. He left Victoria abruptly with another woman, Elizabeth, with whom he fled to Sydney, where he arrived on May 20, 1856. Repeating the work pattern he developed in South Australia and Victoria, Gill launched himself in making scenes in and around Sydney and before long the Sydney Morning Herald was to declare that “Mr. S. T. Gill has made for himself a reputation in the Australian colonies as a water-colour artist such as is

Colonial Life and the Art of S.T. Gill / Sasha Grishin

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seldom obtained by an individual in any country.” Nevertheless, in Sydney, Gill failed to replicate the success of Melbourne and although he was in demand in some quarters, he struggled to make a living.

Gill was back in Melbourne by early 1864 and was to stay here for the remaining 16 years of his life. During this period in his art practice he was diverse, prolific, and worked at the height of his powers to produce some of his most incisive and profound art. Increasingly, his work of the 1860s celebrated an Australian reality, an Australian way of life and the Australian character. Elements of the Australian character which may have formed in rural Australia by the 1840s were brought together on the goldfields in the following decade and were given their earliest pictorial articulation in the art of Gill. Gill’s bushman, who huddles by the campfire with his dog, protects the herd, brands the cattle, sees the Aboriginal people as equals with whom he labours, searches for a lost child in the bush and finds peace in a bush funeral, is the one who appears throughout the pages of The Australian Sketchbook. Gill’s later work is spirited, beautifully executed and laced with wit.

Gill was never an outsider, living outside the society which surrounded him and which he depicted, but he did fail to find for himself a comfortable niche in the emerging structures of the colonial art world. He was our colonial conscience and a hugely significant artist who presented us to ourselves as we were at a time when society wanted to practice selective amnesia. About a dozen years after his death, a notice appeared in the general art magazine commemorating Gill “… But S.T.G., for thirty years in the early history of this colony, was diligently engaged in depicting the scenery, the streets and the people of this new country. He was a man you might see and even notice moving hither and thither in Melbourne, but he did not look like the ideal artist … And yet, although his name is not high upon the scroll of artist-fame, his work, [is] wonderful, abundant, and in its way, perfect.”

Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM

Curator, Australian Sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of ST Gill and author of ST Gill and his audiences

Australian sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of ST Gill, State Library of Victoria, Keith Murdoch Gallery, Melbourne (VIC), until 25 October 2015 - slv.vic.gov.au

NEXT SPREAD ST GILL, Title page, The Australian Sketchbook by STG, 1864–65, chromolithograph, State Library Victoria.

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september salon

september salon

PREVIOUS SPREAD: Michael ZAVROS (Australia QLD, B 1974), Bad Dad 2013, oil on canvas, 110 x 150cm. Courtesy of the artist, Phillip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane and Starkwhite, Auckland. GOMA Q: Contemporary Queensland Art, QAGOMA, Stanley Place, South Bank, Brisbane (QLD), until 11 October 2015 - qagoma.qld.gov.au THIS SPREAD: Frans SNYDERS (Flemish 1579–1657), Concert of birds (1630–40) oil on canvas, 136.5 х 240.0 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Inv. no. ГЭ-607). Acquired from the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall, 1779. Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne (VIC), until 8 November 2015 - ngv.vic.gov.au

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THIS SPREAD: 1. Andrew ROGERS, Bunjil, You Yangs, Australia 2006, granite, 100m x 80m. Reproduced courtesy of the artist. Geoglyphs—the land art projects of Andrew Rogers, Geelong Art Gallery, Little Malop Street Geelong (VIC), until 22 November - geelonggallery.org.au 2. Tim HILLER, Domestic Connecting No.1 2015, photograph, edition of 4 + 1 AP. Domestic Connecting, TRISTIAN KOENIG, 19 Glasshouse Road Collingwood (VIC), until 15 September 2015 - tristiankoenig.com NEXT SPREAD: 3. Shaun TAN (Australian born 1974), They made their own houses 1997, illustration for The Rabbits by John Marsden, published by Thomas C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1998, pp. [9-10], synthetic polymer paint, gouache and coloured pencils, 34.8 x 52.3 cm (image) 39.7 x 56.2 cm (sheet), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Gift of Albert Ullin OAM, 2014 © Shaun Tan. Bunyips and Dragons: Australian Children’s Book Illustrations, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square Melbourne (VIC), until 4 October 2015 - ngv.vic.gov.au 4. Martha ACKROYD CURTIS, The Video’s Suitcase Walk 2015, a public art performance, supported by City of Yarra, in the City of Yarra Council Area (VIC), 1 August 2015 – 1 March 2016 - thevideossuitcasewalk.net 5. Rona GREEN, The Surgeon 2015, hand coloured linocut, 108 x 76cm. Image reproduced courtesy of the artist and Australian Galleries.

Inking Up: Clayton Tremlett, Deborah Klein, Rona Green, Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 14 Lyttleton Street Castlemaine (VIC), 29 August – 18 October 2015 - castlemainegallery.com

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The Sydney Opera House presents the fifth GRAPHIC festival, Sydney (NSW), 28 September – 11 October 2015.

LEFT: Nicola SCOTT (art) Trevor SCOTT (inks), for Earth 2 #1, July 2012 cover date, DC Comics © copyright DC Comics.

Part of FREE TALKS on Sunday 11 October. BELOW: Still from Del Kathryn BARTON in collaboration with acclaimed director Brendan FLETCHER on Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale & the Rose, featuring the voices of Mia Wasikowska, Geoffrey Rush and David Wenham, with a soundtrack composed by GRAPHIC’s very own Sarah Blasko – the screening will be followed by an intimate Q&A with filmmaker Brendan Fletcher. See graphic.sydneyoperahouse.com/ for more details.

CRAIG MUNRO

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ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF EDITING SOCIAL WORK

Towards the end of 1971, Craig Munro was faced with a difficult decision. After taking a year’s leave from his cadetship in journalism at Brisbane’s Courier-Mail to study full time at the University of Queensland, he was offered a job by Frank Thompson, the publisher at UQ’s burgeoning literary Press. Craig took the job despite his earlier promise to the Mail’s “unpleasant” editor-in-chief that he would return to the newspaper that had trained him for three years. But, only a few weeks into his new role, Craig began to have serious doubts about his fresh career path. As explained in his new book Under Cover: Adventures in the art of Editing, “my first task as editorial assistant was to photocopy endless sets of page proofs in an unventilated, claustrophobic room. Day after day, as I fed a monster-sized copier that filled the air with nauseating fumes, I became more despondent about having left the lively and familiar world of journalism behind.”

One afternoon Craig decided he’d had enough, and called the Courier-Mail’s editor-in-chief to ask for his old job back. ‘You’ve made your bed,’ the editor grunted, ‘and now you’ll just have to lie in it.’

Over the next decades, Craig went on to become involved in an invigoration of Australian publishing. After spotting Peter Carey’s work in an indie magazine, Munro edited Carey’s debut, The Fat Man in History. He went on to publish several of Carey’s award-winning novels, edited David Malouf’s classic work, Johnno, and helped to bring about UQP’s Indigenous publishing list. Munro championed Olga Masters and Barbara Hanrahan, edited a young Murray Bail, and became firm friends with Top of the Lake scriptwriters Gerard Lee and Jane Campion.

In Under Cover, Munro recounts all of this and more with humour, insight, and warmth, shedding a welcome light on arguably the most daring, innovative, and well-funded period that Australian publishing has ever witnessed.

What was your favourite book as a child?

CRAIG MUNRO: Little Toot Was Just a Tug - given to me by my Canadian grandfather who once took me out on his fishing boat. Best of all, the book came with a pink 78” record. I can still sing that catchy song, sixty years later.

If I asked a good friend of yours what you were good at, what would they say?

CM: Impersonating a resolute and windswept Scot.

What stays the same in your life, no matter how much other things change?

CM: Porridge for breakfast.

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Which member of your family influenced you the most?

CM: My mother, who always took me with her on our regular visits to the local library.

Do you have a favourite family story?

CM: My first dog was a black and white terrier who lived up to his name Patches by lying in wait for me under our front stairs in Cairns and biting the backside out of my pyjama pants.

What does freedom mean to you?

CM: Having sufficient time to enjoy thoroughly completing every task – from repainting my old timber boat to researching and writing a new book.

Do you think things happen for a reason?

CM: Things tend to turn out well if the timing is right, and just thinking the time is right can be very empowering.

Do you believe in the supernatural?

CM: My favourite film-maker Werner Herzog describes the belief system of the people of the Amazon who distrust waking life and believe reality can only be discerned in dreams. In that sense, the imagination itself is a powerful supernatural force.

Is any religious text important to you?

CM: As a writer and editor, I believe all texts are important because words and images cast such a magic spell.

Have you ever come close to dying?

CM: When I crashed a car off a mountain in the middle of the night after a party in 1969.

What do you like the best about your body?

CM: That it feels weightless in my winter wetsuit swimming in Sydney Harbour.

What do you think would be the best thing about being the opposite gender?

CM: Being socially at ease and effortlessly articulate.

Who is the best teacher you have ever had?

CM: I’m tempted to say talkback czar Alan Jones who was my inspirational grade seven teacher at Ironside State School in Brisbane, but the prize goes to my Jaguar-driving grade eight teacher Mrs Kerr who left a whirlwind of learning in her wake.

Have you ever been lost?

CM: Never, because I’m obsessed with maps, and memorise my route in advance of any foray into unfamiliar territory. Everyone else uses Google maps but there’s no substitute for spreading a good-quality paper map out on a table in anticipation of the journey.

Craig Munro is an award-winning biographer and the founding chair of the Queensland Writers Centre. As UQP’s inaugural fiction editor, he worked with many emerging writers who have since become celebrated authors, and in 1985 he won the Barbara Ramsden Award for Editing. His other books include Wild Man of Letters and Paper Empires (co-edited with Robyn Sheahan-Bright). Since 2012 he has been a judge of the Miles Franklin Literary Award. His latest book is Under Cover: Adventures in the Art of Editing (Scribe, 256pp, ISBN: 9781925106756, AU$29.99) - scribepublications.com.au

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รท ART MEETS DESIGN: SPOTLIGHT ON

BRUNSWICK BOULDERING PLAZA

Climbing design program & feasibility BOULDERGEIST | Plaza design & Developer MORELAND COUNCIL | Fabricator BIG FISH

This project merges public sculpture and recreation by creating a climbable centrepiece for a new public plaza in Melbourneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s northern fringe.

How has the project played out in terms of turning your original vision into reality - what compromises have you had to make?

Stuart Beekmeyer: The project has turned out far beyond expectations. The initial aim was just to get a public bouldering wall in Brunswick as there are tonnes of climbers here and the sport has a vibe that would suit the area. As a climber I would have been happy with some nicely overhanging ply up against a wall.

The entire project was a series of opportunities and compromises that was navigated by a team within council, myself, the climbing community and the Brunswick community. The opportunity to create the space came up when we won a Justice Department grant to use a bouldering wall as a way of activating space to discourage anti-social behaviour.

The challenge then was to shut down the street which was done via many community consultations and events, an eight week trail shutdown where a pop-up park was held. The pop-up had events constantly which, gathered a tonne of support. Then there would have been lots of wrangling in council to get the funds and right people on board that I never saw.

In terms of the boulder the biggest challenge was providing climbing that would suit dedicated climbers, novice climbers and the general public then package it in a way that works as public art as well as active recreation. You need a 3-metre fall zone around the most overhanging point of the form so you lose space quite quickly. You have to be precise with the way the form is constructed. >>

How does this facility compare to others around Australia?

SB: There are two examples of custom built urban bouldering in Australia that I know of. The oldest is Burnley bouldering walls under the South Eastern Freeway.

It is run by the Victorian Climbing Club who I used on Brunswick to route-set and maintain the climbing on the form. The other is in Cairns. It looks nice. Big slopey fibreglass blocks and a roof surrounded by old Ficus trees. This is the first time bouldering has been applied to a new urban plaza in the spot where the sculpture or water feature usually goes. It is more a reflection of the use of urban bouldering overseas. The US, UK and China especially use the idea.

This boulder is made from textured metal and that’s something I have not seen elsewhere internationally. Because it’s metal it acts as a big reverb chamber so we put a guitar jack in it and you can plug in. It’s essentially a big guitar pedal when it’s used in that mode.

What is the shape and form of this work inspired by?

SB: Movement. The form was created to facilitate a physical sequence of planes which could then be choreographed by route setters, who turn that sequence into what is climbed by the public. The planes set up the ability to create beautiful movement to experience for a wide range of climbing abilities. At every point of surface you have to be able to relate to the potential movement of the body in 360 degrees.

The form on a macro level is a battleship painted with dazzle pattern. Brunswick is where a lot of start up creative practices come to turn into established practices, which creates an amazing ecosystem of creative talent and support. It can be a challenge to survive at times, especially in the start up phase. A furniture maker I know calls it “Battlefield Brunswick, where every day is a battle to survive”. He likes to say it like he’s doing a promo for a Hollywood blockbuster. From that idea I thought it would be apt to have Battleship Brunswick. Maybe that’s the moral to the piece. Creative practice is a battleship and if you work hard, get strong, focused and stay humble then you can do things you once thought improbable.

Art Meets Design: Brunswick Bouldering Plaza / Stuart Beekmeyer

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What does this facility offer people locally?

SB: Free bouldering 24 hours a day. A new public space that doesn’t stop when commerce stops, and a sculpture. I think it also gives people an added reason to come into Brunswick. Where else can you shop, eat, coffee, boulder then go see a band. I think the plaza will become a vibrant social hub where people go because they know stuff will be going on. Beyond the climbing there is a lawn, food truck spaces, trees and two big street art commissions by prolific Melbourne painters.

Something that will happen over the following years is occasional performance at the space. I want to see how performers use the vertical terrain of the boulder and I like the idea of occasional free public theatre. I’d love to see festivals like Dance Massive or Fringe use it if they can. That brings even more possibilities into the area.

Do you expect it to be a drawcard for climbers further afield?

SB: Yes. Melbourne is an international city. Lots of people who come here are from places that has a lot of climbing. The Grampians and Mt Araplies are considered world class destinations that people travel a significant distance for. Climbers just want to climb and anywhere that you can train for free will attract anyone passing through. You get lots of internationals at Burnley as it is.

Between Brunswick and Burnley an international gets one facility to train hard at and one to socialize at, which is pretty good for free.

Can u tell us a bit about the most exciting new and upcoming developments in climbing facilities and technology?

SB: 3D modelling and scanning has the potential to change the way we create form. But I think the most significant change is in climbing culture.

Climbing is booming as a sport on an international level. I think this project shows progression in the application of climbing rather than a progression in technology. My next project is in Craigieburn gardens and the exciting part of developing that piece is that it will link with Brunswick. People from Craigieburn could be introduced to bouldering and have a reason to come to Brunswick, which could be a gateway to all sorts of interesting paths. Maybe it’s more about developments in sociology than technology.

How does this park express and/or address some of those developments?

SB: By setting a precedent more than anything else. It just will be a good space to visit. Im looking forward to not seeing it as a project and just seeing it as my free bouldering wall. I think when your’e down there at 9pm on a nice spring day, eating a burger and watching the people do their stuff along the wall it will all make sense. It’s movement, stacked on art, stacked on sculpture in a fun little plaza. The idea that it can even exist is a major development.

For more info on this project visit bouldergeist.com.au or see it for yourself at Wilson Avenue, Brunswick (VIC).

Ben Laycock

GREETINGS FROM BEYOND THE PALE PART 11 – DERBY: CITY OF MUD

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In medieval Europe a white picket fence was all that separated the village from the heathen savages beyond ...

We bid a fond farewell to Fitzroy Crossing and its quaint country pub and head for Derby (pronounced Derby), the once bustling capital of all the Kimberley, now but a faded replica of its former self. Derby has been eclipsed by the new kid on the block: Broome, with its swaying palm trees, its shiny pearls and its endless beaches. In contrast, Derby is not a pretty town, surrounded as it is on three sides by brown, smelly mudflats that are sprinkled with the occasional dugong carcass, but it has its charms (none of which I have yet discovered).

The tides are gargantuan in these parts, the highest in the world, up to ten metres, so the shoreline can be a kilometre away. The jetty is a kilometre long and ten metres high at the end, built by slave labour. At low tide the ships rest in the soft mud.

But the locals are not put off by the dearth of sandy beaches, far from it, they bloody love their muddy world. They feed on giant mud crabs. They love mud love-ins, which are very good for the complexion apparently. They have invented mud football. As luck would have it we arrive just in time for a game. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Derby Derby, and it is not for the faint-hearted.

The mud is a foot deep and very muddy, so everything happens in slow motion.

Pretty soon all the players are the same shade of brown. This does wonders for race relations, but makes it hard to locate your team-mates.

Next morning bright and early l wake with an inexplicable urge to explore the featureless wasteland of mud. A few short steps from the Post Office and l am at the edge. The mud looks deceptively approachable, but looks can be deceptive in the outback, as I soon learn. I have not taken more than a few steps before my thongs are stuck fast and must be abandoned. I continue barefoot, a decision I will come to regret later in the day, along with other decisions, but for now I am in bliss, the soft sensuous mud squishing and squelching between my toes.

Soon I am striding along, lost in the open space, infused with a joyous sense of boundless freedom, like an endless ad for Coke. I walk for hours, and presently come across a creek that seems fordable. It is, but on the far side the mud just gets deeper and deeper and deeper. I am soon bogged up to my waist in ooze.

< BoreTrack by Kdliss - Own work.

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Greetings From / Ben Laycock

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I cannot stop my mind dredging up old Tarzan movies involving ‘quicksand’. I know I should turn back, but just like Johnny Wiesmuller, it is not in my nature.

I manage to haul myself out and slither across the surface on my belly like a crocodile. I stab in my claws and drag my body forward. I am ‘in the moment’.

Lifting my head and sniffing the breeze for fresh meat, I have entered the mind of the crocodile. There is a gurgling sound behind me. It is only a little mudcrab but the spell is broken, I come to my senses. ‘I am fresh meat,’ I think to myself. ‘I could enter the belly of the crocodile. What the fuck am I doing wallowing around in their favourite habitat?’

I plough through the mud like a man possessed till I emerge on the other side unscathed. It feels good to be to be human again, standing upright on hard, salt encrusted mud. My relief is short lived. I find myself on the horns of a dilemma.

The sun has reached its zenith, baking the ground to a crisp. My body is well protected in a casing of mud, but the soles of my feet are suffering. I cannot return to the soft cool mud of the creek where danger lurks. I cannot step out onto the hot ground.

I search the pitiless wasteland. There is nothing but hard, flat, crusty, salty, stinking, scorching, hot mud as far as the eye can see. The odd protruding cow bone or dugong bone is not a welcome sight. The distant horizon is a mirage.

The icypole vendor is a mirage. The angel of mercy is a mirage. There is nothing to do but ‘hot-foot’ it out of there (literally).

I run full pelt to a tiny sliver of water some way off and cool my heels (literally), then dash to the next, then the next. At times the pain is intense. In a strange reversal of roles, every puddle becomes an island of refuge. Finally I reach the motley shade of a gnarled and twisted gumtree. The relief is palpable. In relative comfort I ponder the lessons of my ill-fated excursion. A.) Don’t go out into the midday sun without your shoes on. B.) Don’t play crocodile with real crocodiles. C.) Don’t underestimate the adventure to be extracted from a featureless plain of plain mud.

IN THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE: Your intrepid wayfarer is swept up on a wild ride into the beating heart of The Kimberley by gun-toting desesperados involved in a dubious scheme that is outside the law anywhere except Colorado U.S.A. Ben Laycock grew up in the country on the outskirts of Melbourne, surrounded by bush.

He began drawing the natural world around him from a very early age. He has travelled extensively throughout Australia, seeking to capture the essence of this vast empty land.

In between journeys he lives in a hand-made house in the bush at Barkers Creek in central Victoria - benlaycock.com.au Imagery © 2015 CNES / Astrium, Map Data © 2015 Google