Issue 84 Oct11

OCTOBER 2011

FREE

Only Victorian venue Works by leading 20th century artists including William Dobell, Margaret Olley, Margaret Preston, Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Grace Cossington Smith and Sidney Nolan.

For lunch, accommodation and travel packages contact the Gallery

Jeffrey Smart (Australia, b.1921) Truck and trailer approaching a city, 1973 (detail) Painting Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales Š Jeffrey Smart

Art Gallery of Ballarat 40 Lydiard St Nth Ballarat VIC 3350 T. 03 5320 5858

artgalleryofballarat.com.au Lending institution

Principal sponsor

Media partner

Tourism partners

Download Entry Forms www.mcclellandgallery.com Tel +61 3 9789 1671

McCLELLAND SCULPTURE SURVEY 2012 CALL FOR ENTRIES McCLELLAND AWARD $100,000 APPLICATIONS OPEN 19 SEP – 21 NOV 2011

ELAINE SHEMILT Antarctic Journeys: The dry valleys and South Georgia To 16 October 2011

JUSTIN ANDREWS Systems 19 October – 27 November 2011 La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre

BRIDGET KEENA 121 View Street Bendigo, VIC, 3550 Limbo +61 3 5441 8724

5 – 30 October 2011 latrobe.edu.au/vacentre

La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre 121 View Street, Bendigo, VIC, 3550 T: 03 5441 8724 121 View Street E: vac@latrobe.edu.au Bendigo, VIC, 3550 W: latrobe.edu.au/vac +61 3 5441 8724 Gallery hours: Tue - Fri 10am-5pm, Sat - Sun 12pm-5pm latrobe.edu.au/vacentre La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre

Image: Justin Andrews, Set Axis Formation Slave (study), 2011, Digital photomontage, Dimensions variable.

Image courtesy the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne.

PRESENTS Dirty Work Comedy

DAMIAN CALLINAN IN

THE MERGER

Written & performed by Damian Callinan

Wednesday 19 Oct, 8pm

The Old Fire Station, View St Bendigo

(Also playing at Heathcote, Elmore & Pyramid Hill)

In a sequel to his multi-award winning

Sportsman’s Night,

Damian revisits the dysfunctional Bodgy Creek Roosters Football Club. Coach Troy Carrington embarks on a program to recruit players from the Asylum Seekers Refuge Centre.

Bookings 5434 6100 or www.engineroompresents.com.au

HAVE YOUR SAY The Arts and Culture team at the City of Ballarat are keen for the Ballarat community to provide input into the future development of arts and culture in the city.

If you are involved in the arts in any capacity, whether that be as a practitioner or as part of the audience, please take five minute to complete our online survey and help provide input into the future development of the arts in Ballarat.

Go to: http:ballarat.checkboxonline.com/arts.aspx to complete the survey.

Backspace is a gallery space located at the rear of the Art Gallery of Ballarat in Alfred Deakin Place, and is an initiative of the City of Ballarat’s Art and Cultural Development Team. Applications are now open for inclusion in the 2012 exhibition programme. Successful proposals will receive marketing support and an opening function. No fee is charged for exhibiting and no commission is taken on sales.

For further information contact Tegan Lang.

Email: teganlang@ballarat.vic.gov.au Phone: 03 5320 5643 (Wed/Thurs)

PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITIES The City of Ballarat’s Public Art Advisory Committee is offering four new public art commissions via an expression of interest process.

• The Chinese in Ballarat Sculpture $100,000 • Swan Pool Sculpture, Lake Wendouree $25,000 • Town Hall Projection Mentor Project 10 artists @ $1,500 each artist • Signal Art – painting of traffic signal boxes 10 artists – 20 boxes @ $1,000 each artist For expression of interest documents Contact Julie Collins – Public Art Officer juliecollins@ballarat.vic.gov.au (03) 5320 5643 (Mon/Tues)

All deadlines 25th November 2011 Free lunch time talk by New York sculptor MARSHA PELS, in the Art Gallery Ballarat, 12noon, 17 October. All welcome.

OCTOBER 2011

FEATURES (12)

POLYESTER IN ODORAMA

[16]

SYDNEON

[20]

GANESH VS THE THIRD REICH

(22)

MELBURNIN’

(32)

OCTOBER SALON

(42)

READ IN PEACE

(46)

INCREDIBLE BLUE

(56)

GREENWASH #27

(58) (60)

Gerard Elson Bambam

Liza Dezfouli

Courtney Symes Oarsome

Jean-François vernay helen Rickards Patrick Jones

THE HUNTER

Jarrod mawson

GREETINGS FROM GOL GOL Ben Laycock

LISTINGS (18) (18) [19] (24) (30] (31) (48) (53) (54) (54)

NSW / SYDNEY ACT TASMANIA MELBOURNE BAY & PENINSULA EASTERN VICTORIA CENTRAL VICTORIA WESTERN VICTORIA MURRAY RIVER NORTHERN VICTORIA

WARNING: 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.

Contemporary artists, curators and collectives are invited to submit proposals to exhibit as part of the Hunt Club Community Arts Centre’s 2012 exhibition program.

Visit our website for application guidelines: www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/arts Applications Close Wednesday 2 November 2011

Hunt Club Community Arts Centre 775 Ballarat Road, Deer Park 3023 T 03 9249 4600 www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/arts

Image: Leanne Clayton Bodice Quilt (detail) 2006 felt cotton. Photo: Lisa Hilli

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

By Gerard Elson

This year, the Edinburgh International Film Festival opted to go out – not with a bang – but a whiff.

Tab Hunter & Divine, 1981

It’s the 2011 Edinburgh International Film Festival’s penultimate night, and along with a crowd of game fellow movie hounds, I’m seated in the Edinburgh Film House’s voluminous Cinema One. Eagerly, if somewhat anxiously, we’re awaiting a late-night screening of John Waters’ satirical melodrama, Polyester, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Why the apprehension? Personally, it’s one of only a few of Waters’ films that I’ve never seen, so I’ve no idea what sort of squalid spectacle Baltimore’s self-styled ‘Pope of Trash’ will be subjecting us all to tonight. But that’s not quite it: I’ve watched Divine — Waters’ early muse, star of Polyester and the most infamous drag queen in film history — notoriously devour dog-shit at Waters’ command in Pink Flamingos.

How much more gut-churning than that can you get? Besides, I already know Polyester to be Waters’ first cross-over hit, the movie which took him from the underground to the multiplex, transforming him in the eyes of the general public from an x-rated degenerate and peddler of irredeemable filth to the rascally lampoonist of American ideals we know him as today.

No, my trepidation comes not so much from what we’re going to see tonight, but rather what we’re going to smell: for tonight, for the first time in over a decade, Polyester screens in ‘Odorama.’

Waters originally devised the crude scratch ‘n’ sniff gimmick as a means of further immersing the audience in the terrible world of Francine Fishpaw, the film’s olfactorily tortured ‘heroine’ – a Baltimore housewife played by Divine in what’s arguably her most affecting performance. Cards are dispensed to audience members upon presentation of their ticket. On each card are ten circular pink patches; on each patch, a number. An instructional short screens before the feature. In this, a ‘scientist’ with a mock fuzzy European accent outlines how Odorama works. At certain points in the film, a number will flash on-screen. When it does, one scratches the corresponding patch, prepares for the worst, puts nose to card and takes a whiff.

Tonight’s sure-to-be-redolent event is the effort of Midnight Movies, a London-based outfit who’ve been injecting the city’s film life with their left-of-centre pep for over three years now. The occasion is a milestone for founders Nadia Attia and Michael Pierce: it’s their first event outside of their native England.

To celebrate, they’ve put on a proper bash in conjunction with Little Joe Magazine. A pre-movie soiree in the Film House bar finds the crowd dressed in their bad-taste Baltimore best, tippling custom-mixed cocktails named after Waters’ hometown. Later, there will be prizes awarded not only for the ‘Best Dressed’ attendees, but for the ‘Worst Smelling’ ones too. To help judge the latter, the audience will be asked to sniff at the armpits of their neighbours. >>

continued from previous page

In his pre-recorded video intro before the film proper, Waters announces, “Video killed midnight movies.” But really, he’s only half right. While the arrival of video did indeed stick a knife in the back of the original midnight movie tradition, re-situating former cinema-goers in front of their television sets, the death was only a modal one. In truth, the homeformat boom simply brought about a permutation in the midnight movie phenomenon – it’s never really gone away. It’s actually probably healthier than it’s ever been, thanks to the advent of DVD and the propagation of affordable home theatre systems.

Recent years have seen niche guerrilla film clubs sprout up all over the world; in bars and clubs, in galleries, in empty warehouses, in universities and libraries, and, of course, in people’s own homes.

Yet we’re living in an age marked as much by nostalgia as a hunger for immediacy and progress. And so, as home-format viewing threatened to monopolise the midnight movie experience, old appetites began to stir once again. People once more wanted to experience these works as their makers intended – that is, projected from film onto a cinema screen in a theatre filled with like-minded enthusiasts.

Polyester in Odorama / Gerard Elson

Such cravings inspired Attia and Pierce to found Midnight Movies, which started life with a late-night screening of Brian Yuzna’s Society in February 2008.

Now the event boasts a core audience of around 100 people per month. Past events have seen the red carpet unfurled for such cult luminaries as Dario Argento, John Landis, Edgar Wright and Bruce Campbell. Waters is thrilled to add his name to their mushrooming list of star patrons. He’s astounded that a film he shot 30 years ago on a budget of US$300,000 — amateur by today’s standards but by far the largest he’d ever worked with at that point in his career — is playing tonight as a newly-restored print to an adoring young audience at a major international film festival. He’s particularly delighted by Midnight Movies’ success in recreating the film’s foul-smelling scratch ‘n’ sniff cards; though in 2011, the technology has been updated.

Tonight we need only rub on their pink numbered patches to uncork the malodors beneath.

The film itself turns out to be one of Waters’ nastiest – not revolting-nasty, as per Pink Flamingos, but nastyspiteful and misanthropic, yet hilariously so. It shows Waters at a curious point of transition: not yet the fullthroated champion of the fringe dwellers and >>

LEFT Dr Polyester ABOVE Polyester Protesters © Midnight Movies so-called delinquents he’d soon become with both Hairspray and Cry Baby, but still striving to say more than the callow ‘fuck yous!’ he preached only to the choir with the likes of Pink Flamingos and Multiple Maniacs.

In Polyester, poor Francine is put through a gauntlet of grotesque humiliations for the sole crime of being no more than a docile Catholic homemaker. Her bloated husband (David Samson) is outed as a seedy pornographer, elopes with a crass, make-up caked harlot (Waters regular Mink Stole) and begins taunting her via late-night prank phone calls; her oversexed daughter Lu-Lu (Mary Harlington) falls pregnant to a vile local hood; and her son Dexter (Ken King), a friendless, glue-huffing foot-fetishist, is revealed as the serial criminal who’s been stamping on ladies’ feet all over town. It’s a work of indefatigable cynicism, directed with a sneer, presented in quotation marks and intended to be viewed at one remove. What’s more, the Odorama makes us, the audience, the butt of its best joke: we’ve literally paid to smell shit.

as we inhale these foul fragrances, together, like idiots, voluntarily, when instructed, in the dark, we all groan in raucous disgust, as we might if we were to smell the real putrid thing. That’s why I’ll always go in for chances like these – part with my hard-earned for the pleasure of sniffing vomit and shit, as it were: it might sound willfully regressive, or cloistered, or naïve, but for me, now, at age 26, there’s still sheer joy to be found in these weird, unnatural acts of anonymous communal make-believe. Granted, the same could be said about all moviegoing, but thanks to Odorama, there’s an extra strata of disbelief to be suspended that makes events like tonight seem especially precious.

Tomorrow, the Edinburgh International Film Festival will trickle to an end for another year with a full day of last-chance repeat screenings. I have two on the agenda myself; one’s a silly Norwegian mockumentary about fairy-tale monsters, the other’s a collection of avant-garde shorts. I’m eager for both. But as the credits roll in Cinema One at the Film House, I get the feeling that, like many here at As it turns out, my fears of gagging at the rancid aromas Polyester, I’m going to wake tomorrow feeling like I’ve of Waters’ suburban hell ultimately prove unwarranted. already had my closing night.

While few can be called pleasant, none of the scents— fart, skunk musk, glue and rotten sneakers among www.midnight-movies.co.uk them—are so sickening as to really turn a stomach. But www.littlejoemagazine.com

16

by Bambam

There are few things I enjoy that I don’t enjoy better upside down. Artist Shaun Gladwell knows what I’m talking about, and from 28 October at Anna Schwartz Gallery at CarriageWorks, you may find out too. Gladwell will present new video works, photographs and sculptures as part of his first Australian commercial exhibition in five years, in a show titled Riding with Death Redux. The exhibition includes a limited edition skateboard designed

by Damien Hirst, from which Gladwell has erased Hirst’s work. Also showing is a video work of renowned Australian traceur Ali Kadhim performing dangerous street acrobatics. There is also a video that was filmed inside a military jet fighter. Zoom!

In part, this an exposition of just how cool the life of a commercially successful artist can be. Shaun Gladwell certainly seems to have it all – including the respect of his peers. His new works have been created in widespread locations: in London where Gladwell is currently based, on the streets of Sydney’s CBD, and during his time as an official Australian war artist in Afghanistan.

This exhibition coincides with a retrospective of Sydney-born Gladwell’s Perpetual 360 Sessions, which is currently showing at cultural institution Schunck* in The Netherlands.

Shaun Gladwell: Riding with Death Redux, Anna Schwartz Gallery at CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, 28 October – 10 December.

Otherwise, October is the month for awards (ch-ching!) around Sydney, with the Paddington Art Prize opening and the Portia Geach Memorial Award having already been awarded.

The Paddington Art Prize is to be held at Menzies Art Brands Gallery in Kensington this year. This $20,000 prize for “a painting >

DATELINE: OCTOBER 2011

inspired by the Australian Landscape” turns eight years old and has an extra trick up its sleeve this year, with an inaugural Prize sponsored by Gavin Wilson and Maggy Todd of a two week Artists’ Retreat at Warry’s Cottage at Hill End. In addition, International Art Services will again be Sponsoring the People’s Choice Award of $2,000, and Menzies Art Brands will present a prize of art supplies to the value of $500 for Honorable Mentions.

“The Paddington Art Prize is a vote of confidence for the National Finalists,” says Founder and Principal Sponsor, Marlene Antico. “It presents them with an opportunity to have their work promoted and exhibited to the discerning collectors of Australian art, and showcases their paintings to a large National audience.”

Marlene professed delight that the prize would once again be supported by the UNSW COFA, who offers a selected artist the opportunity to produce a limited edition print under its auspices. Opening night and prize presentations will be held on Wednesday 5 October from 6pm - 8pm and will be officially opened by Professor Ian Howard, Dean of UNSW COFA. Paddington Art Prize, Menzies Art Brands Gallery, 12 Todman Ave Kensington, Sydney, 4 – 16 October www.paddingtonartprize.com.au.

The Portia Geach Memorial Award was established in 1961 as a testamentary trust

by Florence Kate Geach in memory of her sister. Artist Portia Geach spent much of her life campaigning for the rights of women in Australia and was determined to make a living from painting. As such, the Portia Geach Memorial Award remains a prize

specifically for Australian female portraitists.

Geach was widely acclaimed as a leading artist and was a frequent commentator in the national media. The initial endowment to establish the award was 12,000 Australian pounds. The first prize given under the aegis of the Award was made to Jean Appleton in 1965 for a self-portrait, and comprised a £1,000 prize. In 2011 the Award is worth A$18,000, and is awarded

by The Trust Company as trustee, “to the entry with the highest artistic merit.”

The judging panel this year included: Jane Watters (Director of National Trust S.H Ervin Gallery), Eleonora Trigboff (Publisher / Editor of Art and Australia) and John Beard, renowned Australian artist, who, in their collaborative wisdom, chose 31 year old Kate Stevens, from Braidwood, as winner for her portrait of animator, street and video artist, Willy Bernardoff. The judges also highly commended Sparrow Man by Michelle Dawson, for its “compelling and memorable imagery, strong composition and painterly application.” Both artworks will hang in the 2011 Portia Geach Memorial Award Exhibition along with entries that include portraits of Rebecca Gibney, Glen Boss, Pru Goward (MP) and retired High Court Judge Michael Kirby, at the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery until 30 October. In a first for the prize, the exhibition will tour to the Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah, next year from 3 February to 18 March, 2012.

SYDNEON continues in next month’s issue of Trouble. We welcome your comments, party pics, performance and exhibition news, and invitations.

Send to: sydneon@introuble.com.au IMAGE: Shaun GLADWELL, Shakespeare Inverted.

Sydneon logo by Robert Pollard

SYDNEY / NSW

18

cowra

• Cowra Regional Art Gallery 77 Darling Street Cowra NSW 2794. Tues to Sat 10am - 4pm, Sun 2 - 4pm. Free Admission. www.cowraartgallery.com.au

newtown

• At The Vanishing Point Inc. 565 King Street Newtown NSW 2042, Thur - Sun, 10am - 6pm. T: (02) 9519 2340, www.atthevanishingpoint.com.au

penrith

• Penrith Regional Gallery Snapshot is an annual, open photographic competition exclusively for teenagers (1319yrs), produced and presented by Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest.

The 2011 competition witnessed the largest participation in its five year history with over 400 photographs. The selected photographs are included in the Snapshot 2011 exhibition on display from 10 September – 13 November.

Penrith Regional Gallery, 86 River Road Emu Plains NSW 2750. T: (02) 4735 1100

sydney

• Art Gallery of New South Wales Until 6 November The mad square: modernity in German art 1910-1937. Until 20 November KAThy TEmiN, My Monument: Black Garden.

Until 2 January 2012 One Hundred Flowers.

Until 5 February 2012 What’s in a face? Aspects of portrait photography. Until 3 may 2012 New contemporary galleries featuring the John Kaldor Family Collection. Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000. T: (02) 9225 1744, www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

windsor

• Hawkesbury Regional Gallery Until 16 October: Art Express. 21 October – 4 December: Man of the Series: FRANK NOWLAN. mon - Fri 10am - 4pm, Sat and Sun 10am - 3pm, (Closed Tues and public holidays). Free admission. Deerubbin Centre -1st Floor, 300 George Street Windsor 2756. T: (02) 4560 4441. F: (02) 4560 4442, www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

ACT

acton

• ANU Drill Hall Gallery 29 September – 6 November: Triptych: Mais Mais Wright Wright.

Kingsley Street, Acton ACT. T: (02) 6125 5832, www.anu.edu.au/mac/content/dhg

canberra

• National Gallery of Australia Until 6th November 2011: Fred Williams – Infinite Horizons. FRED WiLLiAmS is one of Australia’s greatest painters. he created a highly original and distinctive way of seeing the Australian landscape and was passionate about the painting process itself. This is the first major retrospective of Williams’s work in over 25 years and highlights Williams’s strength as a painter. Now showing: Out of the West - art of Western Australia from the national collections.

Out of the West is the first survey exhibition outside Western Australia to present a large sample of Western Australian art from presettlement until today. Works by established early artists, ROBERT DALE, ThOmAS

TURNER, and KAThLEEN O’CONNOR, as well as those by more recent artists such as hERBERT mCCLiNTOCK, ELiSE BLUmANN and RODNEy GLiCK, will be shown, alongside significant works by many less familiar names.

Open daily 10am - 5pm. Parkes Place, Parkes, Canberra 2600. T: (02) 6240 6411, www.nga.gov.au.

griffith

• PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery 6 – 23 October Hang it yourself - works by members; and in the multimedia Room KiRi NORThAm: Aridela. 27 Oct – 13 Nov TONy STEWART: Moral Ambiguiities; and PAUL LAU: Conquering Matildas. PhotoAccess huw Davies Gallery, manuka Arts Centre, manuka Circle Griffith ACT. Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm, weekends 12 noon to 4pm. T: (03) 6295 7810; www.photoaccess.org.au

TASMANIA

devonport

• Devonport Regional Gallery 8 – 23 October, opening Friday 7 October, 6pm. main Gallery: RACT Youth Portrait Prize.

The youth Portrait Prize is the creation of RACT insurance and is conducted in close collaboration with Tasmanian Regional Arts and major sponsors Clemenger Tasmania and GEON. Tasmanian artists aged under 30 are invited to enter and are required to portray a living Tasmanian who has inspired them. The exhibition will tour to other venues around Tasmania. The Little Gallery: Emerging Artist Program Jo Green PAN IC, an exhibition of photographs and poems by NW artist JO GREEN. Created from personal experience and observations on lovers and her immediate family, Green’s seductive photographs are juxtaposed with poetry that is powerful, honest and at times shocking. Open mon - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun and pub hols 12 - 5pm. 45 Stewart Street, Devonport, Tasmania 7310. E: artgallery@devonport.tas.gov.au T: (03) 6424 8296, www.devonportgallery.com

hobart

• Inflight ARI Atmospheric Relations AmANDA ShONE, opens Friday 7 October, 6pm. Exhibition run 8 – 29 October. Gallery hours: Wed - Sat 1 - 5pm. 100 Goulburn Street, hobart. www.inflightart.com.au • Inka Gallery Inc. Not-for-profit, artists’ run, original contemporary art. Exhibitions three-weekly. Salamanca Place, hobart. Opening hours 10am-5pm.

T: (03) 6223 3663 www.inkagallery.org.au; www.inkagalleryhobart.blogspot.com

• MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart Ancient, modern and contemporary art.

Monanism becomes the permanent collection evolving over time. Some pieces are moving or going, others are staying. Forever. Like SiDNEy NOLAN’s Snake (1970 – 1972). Wim DELvOyE exhibition starts 10 December thru 2 April, 2012.

Expect more cloacae, Tattoo Tim, carved tyres, Delft-blue shovels. From 4 Oct, $20 adult entry fee for non-residents of Tasmania. Open 10am to 6pm, closed Tuesdays. Food, bars, winery, microbrewery, accommodation, bookshop and library. 655 main Road Berriedale, Tasmania, 7011. T: (03) 6277 9999, www.mona.net.au • Salamanca Arts Centre 7 – 30 October, Top Gallery: Be With Me, KARiN ChAN; 7 – 9 October, Long Gallery and Sidespace Gallery: Optomeyes Art Exhibition; 11 – 23 October, Sidespace Gallery: Bread and Circuses, JON KUDELKA; 12 October, Long Gallery: The Art of Christmas; 18 – 30 October, Long Gallery: Hutchins Art Prize. 77 Salamanca Place, hobart. T: (03) 6234 8414; E: info@ salarts.org.au; www.salarts.org.au • Tassie Tassie Tassie Repetition is nine-tenths of advertising law. For example, did you realise that listings in Trouble cost only $4 per line? No? it’s amazing actually. if you don’t believe me E: listings@introuble.com.au for a quote ... NOW!

What would happen if one of the major deities of Hindu mythology went back in time and took on Hitler? The Third Reich, after all, appropriated the swastika symbol, an ancient icon of Hindu culture; now the elephantheaded god Ganesh wants it back. This bizarre and ambitious notion is the premise of the latest work by a Geelong-based theatre company, Back to Back Theatre, who are noted for their uniquely provocative and hilariously honest theatre.

“It’s pretty audacious and ambitious,” says Bruce Gladwin, director of Back to Back Theatre. “We’ve got a character from India in the Nazi world, meeting the Heart of Darkness. The characters are all powerful ... this play takes place in an epic landscape.”

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich

by Liza Dezfouli

What inspired the theatre company to create this story? “A number of factors,” says Gladwin. “Back to Back undertakes a free-form sort of creative development. A fascination with Ganesh came up in conversation, and a curiosity about neo-Nazis.

The material eventuates out of the collective unconscious of the actors. We’re bringing these stories to life for the audience through the experiences of the actors, while trying to find a way of staying true to the company’s objectives.

Nazi Germany is so strongly represented on the page and in film,” he adds. “How do we do that in the theatrical realm?”

Taking on such giant subjects brings singular challenges. “We felt that we had no right to tell this story,” notes Gladwin. “No-one in the company is Jewish. It’s a sensitive issue. It’s a fraught period of time to represent. We are aware of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Jews along with homosexuals were killed, we are aware of the enormity of that and we were overwhelmed by moral and ethical considerations.”

“We felt that we had no right to tell this story ...

No-one in the company is Jewish.”

These sensitivities ended up providing a big part of the work, as Gladwin explains: “We looked at that – the feeling that we had no right to tell the story and why we feel it is so difficult to tell it, and found that is the interesting thing. The play works on two levels, first we have the hero’s journey, and second the story about the makers of the work making it – a play within a play.”

of the castle was fitted out with a large gas chamber and 70,000 people were murdered.” The castle now houses a gallery and a memorial to those people killed at the time. Gladwin says Back to Back didn’t want to tour the site. “To know that it exists is enough. We had the opportunity to go to the locations but the actors found it too confronting.”

Gladwin says the play echoes the hero’s journey as identified by Joseph Campbell. “It is well represented in the realm of popular culture; the actors have a great sense of authority and understanding of that.”

However, there are aspects of the work which are not so familiar. “Large chunks of the text are in German.

Some of it is in Sanskrit,” he continues. “It is a huge challenge for our actors.” Sanskrit? “It’s like Latin in that it’s not spoken anymore,” Gladwin explains. “But it is the language of ancient Hindu texts so it was appropriate to use it.” In any case, the performers have on board Ganesh, who is the god of overcoming obstacles. “If you have a problem and you want to Issues of power, both on an institutional basis and in overcome it, you take it to Ganesh. Back to Back is so day to day life, connect directly with the sort of thing well-suited to overcoming problems. The members of Back to Back are perceived to be different so there members of Back to Back Theatre know only too are social hurdles to overcome. But it’s not as though well. “Our actors are people who are perceived to have intellectual disabilities,” says Gladwin. “At times we’re sitting around discussing these things. We’re employing people with disabilities but what we want their role is defined by disability but they prefer to to be known for is having created an incredible body be seen as theatre makers. They are professional actors who are interested in the realm of making art. of work, and that audiences come away having had a profound experience of theatre.”

Ultimately we want to make a really amazing piece of work which will transform people. This piece is Back to Back Theatre is something of a veteran in the very confronting,” he continues. “But it isn’t heavy.

Victorian theatre scene. “The company has been going It is very funny in most parts but it does touch on for 23 years,” Gladwin notes. “Different people come the sensitive points. We are exploring the material. A and go. We’ve been with the current configuration company like Back to Back is well suited to deal with about four years.” How does the Director think this sort of thing.” audiences will respond to this new work? “Most of The company was confronted with evidence of Nazi our work is presented in the context of a festival where people are open to seeing a diverse range of Germany’s dealings with the disabled while on tour work,” Gladwin observes. “We have strategically tried in Austria. “A couple of hundred thousand people to position ourselves. We try not to anticipate how an with disabilities were murdered during the Nazi audience will react to new work but it’s great when occupation of Austria,” says Gladwin. “We were audiences haven’t seen our work before. Ultimately touring in Europe, working in Austria 18 months we want to make a really amazing piece of art. We ago. We were in Linz, which is the birth place of want to leave resonances with audiences that stay for Hitler. There is a castle that, prior to WWII was months, if not years, to come.” an institution for people with disabilities. It was It sounds like it could almost be two discrete works.

How does it cohere as a unified piece of theatre? “It is an examination of power,” explains Gladwin. “It’s a play about the operations of a Fascist government and a story about subtle power dynamics. The thematic links are seen within the rehearsal room. I am interested in making the audience work to some degree. I don’t feel the compulsion to set it all up in a clear manner.

Cohesion exists in the mind of audience. The idea of theatre is very present in our work,” he adds. “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich has elements of a costume drama and elements of post-dramatic theatre.”

advanced in terms of care and support at the time, it was a real leader. When the Nazis occupied Austria they took control of the institution. The basement

Back to Back Theatre is presenting Ganesh Versus the Third Reich at The Malthouse, opening at the end of September as part of the Melbourne Festival.

by Courtney Symes

It’s old-meets-new in Melbourne this month with a delightful mix of exhibitions that reach into the past or nod to the future. NGV’s This Wondrous Land: Colonial Art on Paper transports viewers back in time to Melbourne’s early settlement days, whilst 10 ways to look at the past details the personal journeys of ten artists as they explore their own history through memories and culture. Stepping forward in time, RMIT’s Space invaders focuses on the movement of art from the street to the galley and we travel into space with Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen at ACMI. This Wondrous Land: Colonial Art on Paper at NGV highlights Melbourne’s remarkable transformation over the last two hundred years. Curated across two separate gallery spaces (in the NGV International building and The Ian Potter Centre), the exhibition focuses on two themes: exploration and settlement in Australia and the development of Melbourne. Whilst NGV International’s settlement and exploration component of the exhibition concluded at the end of September, part two, focusing on the development of Melbourne continues at the Ian Potter Centre until 27 November. This exhibition explores Melbourne’s architecture, infrastructure and society prior to the 1880s, through works from artists such as Eugene von Guérard, Edward La Trobe Bateman, Georgiana McCrae and George Alexander Gilbert. The inclusion of works from Indigenous artists such as Tommy McRae and William Barak also offer a broader perspective of life during this period. The diverse collection of drawings, watercolours, prints, paintings and sketchbooks all provide a flavour of life in this new and exciting country.

This Wondrous Land is a fascinating historic snapshot, as well as a celebration of Melbourne’s progress and achievement since settlement.

10 ways to look at the past at NGV’s Ian Potter Centre explores “themes of history, memory and the passing of time”. Works featured in the exhibition have been selected from NGV’s permanent collection from artists including Brook Andrew, Emily Floyd, Martyn Jolly, Narelle Jubelin, Peter Kennedy, Richard Lewer, Tracey Moffatt, Tom Nicholson, David Noonan and Ricky Swallow. Each artist explores the concept of ‘the past’ differently. Some focus on personal histories, whilst others draw on collective memories that relate to their culture. The diverse range of works is comprised of a variety of mediums including photography, >

DATELINE: OCTOBER 2011 > sculpture, prints, watercolours and video art.

Peter Kennedy’s compelling installation, One long catastrophe features digital images combined with text and neon lights. Kennedy explores the concept of human conflict in relation to German literary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin’s theory that history is “a continuum within which human conflict is doomed to repeat itself.” Runs until 5 February 2012 - www.ngv.vic.gov.au Gooch’s Utopia: collected works from the Central Desert at Bundoora Homestead features a collection of paintings, sculpture, batik, carvings, works on paper, and spare part art from Utopia in Central Australia (north of Alice Springs). Rodney Gooch (1949-2002) worked with aboriginal people for over 20 years and was an advocate for aboriginal art and music in Central Australia. Gooch’s relationship with the Utopian people was strengthened when he began managing the Utopia Women’s Batik Group in 1987. Featuring work from artists including Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Lyndsay Bird Mpetyane, Ada Bird Petyarre, Kathleen Petyarre and Angelina Pwerle, this exhibition explores their culture and unique relationship with the land, flora and fauna in the region. Runs until 23 October - www.bundoorahomestead.com Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen at ACMI is a must-see exhibition for star-gazers and space enthusiasts alike. The exhibition combines fact and fiction, showcasing a variety of films that detail the history and future of space exploration, such as footage from the 1969 moon landing, as well as films such as Alien, Moon and Sunshine. The imagination is captivated further with the inclusion of genuine NASA artefacts and costumes from films such as Austin Powers, Total Recall and Star Trek. There is also an exciting new piece of work (developed in Melbourne) that offers visitors the opportunity to view the surface of Mars in 3D. Runs until 29 January 2012 - www.acmi.net.au The striking collection of monochromatic and bicolour works in Tate Adams’ latest RMIT exhibition delivers a powerful first impression. Adams’ work becomes even more impressive when you learn that he is 88 years old. A renowned printmaker, Adams established RMIT’s artist print department in 1960 and taught there for 22 years. Elizabeth Cross, Graeme Pebbles and the late George Baldessin all studied under Adams during his tenure at RMIT. Adams also established the Crossley Gallery in 1966 (the only commercial gallery to focus on printmaking in Australia), as well as Lyre Bird Press which produced livres d’artistes (artist’s books) until 2002. Still an active artist, Adams now prefers to

work with gouache instead of intricate woodblocks.

One of Adams’ latest works, Pandanus features in this exhibition and demonstrates the evolution of his style, which has overcome the need for sharp eyesight and physical co-ordination. The evolution and development in Adams’ practice will hopefully mean that we will continue to see more works from this gifted artist.

Evolving from old-school street graffiti, tattooing, graphic novels, punk illustration and even toys, street art is a growing movement with blurred boundaries between the gallery and the street. Space invaders: australian . street . stencils . posters . paste-ups . zines . stickers is RMIT’s latest exhibition to pay homage to this diverse and ever-evolving art form. The exhibition features 150 works from 40 Australian artists, which have been selected from the National Gallery of Australia’s collection over the last ten years. The works featured are as diverse as their underlying messages, i.e. political messages and ‘ad-busting’ via anti-commercial imagery. A variety of large-scale works line the gallery walls, whilst several showcase cabinets display a selection of sketchbooks, comic books, zines and stickers with ironic logos, such as ‘American Excess’.

The second exhibition room also features a very cool zine wall that visitors are encouraged to peruse. Space invaders and Tate Adams are both at RMIT Gallery until 6 November - www.rmit.edu.au Mis-design is collaborative project between the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the Victorian College of the Arts, Swinburne and RMIT universities at a number of Melbourne locations that explores the relationship between art, design, consumerism and contemporary culture. US artists, Adam Kalkin and Andrea Zittel both feature at the Ian Potter Museum of Art. The Adam Kalkin Tennis Academy (AKTA) includes a half-sized tennis court (complete with green synthetic grass) on the ground floor of the Potter. The AKTA will host a variety of activities, such as daily tennis workshops, as well as talks from sports psychologists, physicists and philosophers. Andrea Zittel’s smockshop archive (20062010) is also located on the ground floor of the Potter and consists of a collection of smocks and smock patterns, as well as drawings and blogs. The smockshop project commenced when Zittel recruited a group of contemporary artists to customise her simple smock dresses. The dresses were then sold in gallery pop-up shops in the US, London and Berlin. Runs until 6 November - www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au IMAGE: Jumbo and Zap, X-ray man-machine pointing a ray-gun at the amphibians (detail) 2010, hand-painted poster. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Acquired with the support of Calypso Mary Efkarpidis, 2010 © Jumbo and Zap. melburnin’ logo by Ryan Ford

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box hill

• Alcove Art Shop Unique hand crafted gifts. Proudly sponsored

by Box hill Community Arts Centre and City of Whitehorse. www.alcoveartshop.org.au • Box Hill Community Arts Centre 2 – 8 October Needlework Tapestry Guild of victoria; 11 – 23 October Box hill Community Arts Centre Biennial Art Competition Transformation; 25 October – 4 November Box hill Community Arts Centre Tutor’s Exhibition.

470 Station Street Box hill. T: (03) 9895 8888, bhcac.com.au • Whitehorse Art Space 1 October – 5 November Landscape DONALD RAmSAy. A notable local artist exhibits in the Whitehorse Art Space as part of the invited Artists Program. Join the artist for a floor talk on Saturday 15 October, 2pm. Bookings are essential (03) 9262 6250. And in the All Nations Foyer: 4 October – 8 November Beauty and Harmony iconographic art of Eastern Christianity. Join the artists for afternoon tea on 8 October at 2pm. Demonstrations every

The Vintage Element .com.au

1st Floor 142-144 Weston St Brunswick East 3057 Open Saturdays only 10am - 4pm

Saturday from Noon onwards. iconographer Anna Prifti will demonstrate along with talented students. T: (03) 9262 6250. Tues and Fri 10am - 3pm, Wed and Thurs 9am - 5pm, Saturday noon - 4pm. T: (03) 9262 6250, 1022 Whitehorse Road, Box hill viC 3128, www.boxhilltownhall.com.au

brunswick

• Brunswick Arts Space Solo shows by ChLOE vALLANCE, BETh DOUGLAS and OzLEm SEN, Opening Fri 28 October, 6 to 9pm, until 13 November.

2a Little Breese Street, Brunswick. Thu-Fri 2-6pm, Sat-Sun 12-5pm. Brunswickarts is accepting applications for 2012, check out www.brunswickarts.com.au • Brunswick Brunswick Brunswick Told you so. Llistings in Trouble cost only $4 per line. Try emailing us at: listings@introuble.com.au for a quote ... NOW!

MELBOURNE • Counihan Gallery in Brunswick 14 October until 6 November: Gallery one: RUShDi ANWAR: Poetic reading for material transformation. Gallery two: NiCOLE POLENTAS and ChRiSTOPhER EARL miLBOURNE: Psychomanteum. (map ref 1-D) 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick 3056 (next to Brunswick Town hall). T: (03) 9389 8622, F: (03) 9387 4048, E: counihangallery@moreland.vic.gov.au Gallery open Wed-Sat 11am to 5pm, Sun 1pm to 5pm.

Closed public holidays.

burwood

• Deakin University Art Gallery 14 September to 22 October: Geelong ReImagined and Observed Works from the West Coast by JAN SENBERGS. This exhibition celebrates the acquisition of a major work by renowned artist Jan Senbergs, for the Deakin University Art Collection. The exhibition reveals Senbergs’ longstanding preoccupation with victoria’s West Coast. Like an inventor and

navigator, Senbergs combines imaginary conceptions of landscape with the world as it rolls out before his eyes. Gallery hours 10am 4pm Tuesday to Friday, 1 - 5pm Saturday. Closed Public holidays, Free Entry. 221 Burwood hwy, Burwood 3125. T: (03) 9244 5344; F: (03) 9244 5254, E: artgallery@deakin.edu.au; www.deakin.edu.au/art-collection

carlton

• La Mama At La mama Theatre, 205 Faraday Street: throughout October - Explorations Season of Events: poetry, dance, music, comedy, performance art, play readings and works-indevelopment by various artists. Bookings T: (03) 9347 6142 or www.lamama.com.au

Moreland City City Council Council Public PublicArt Art Show Show Moreland October 22 –– 30 30 2011 2011 October

MoreArt celebrates Moreland’s unique urban character and gives artists and the community a chance to reimagine their neighbourhood.

19 artists have been selected to present both indoor and outdoor temporary art works along the Upfield Train Line between Brunswick and Fawkner.

MORELAND

BELL St COBURG

GOWRIE FAWKNER

MoreArt is coming to a station near you.

Stretch your legs, catch a train or ride a bike and discover the secrets of MoreArt. Tours by bike or on foot can be booked throughout October.

Program details www.moreland.vic.gov.au follow the links to Arts and festivals.

ALBION St

UPFIELD

26

dandenong

• Walker Street Gallery The Shadow Stage by POLixENi PAPAPETROU and nightly under water by JANE BURTON. Artist’s Reception Sunday 9 October, 3.30pm.

Exhibitions continue to 29 October. GEORGE KAmiKAWA and NORiKO TADANO play a free concert, Sunday 9 October, 2pm. Dandenong Artists Network, 7pm on Thursday 13 October, Guest speakers mARCUS WESTBURy and ROBBiE ROWLANDS. Walker St Gallery, Cnr Walker and Robinson Streets Dandenong 3175. mon - Fri 11am to 5pm, Sat 11am to 3pm. Closed Sunday and public holidays. T: (03) 9706 8441, F: (03) 9706 7651, E: walkerstreetgallery@cgd.vic.gov.au www.greaterdandenong.com

deer park

• Hunt Club Community Arts Centre Galleries 10 to 29 October Watercolour by current and past students of the hunt Club Community Arts Centre’s watercolour painting class. Centre open mon-Thurs 9am - 7.30pm, Fri 9am - 4.30pm, Sat 9am -12.30pm. Closed Public holidays. 775 Ballarat Road, Deer Park (melway 25, F8) T: (03) 9249 4600 E: huntclub@brimbank.vic.gov.au www.brimbank.vic.gov.au/arts

doncaster

• Manningham Gallery Refelctions on Faith 5 – 22 October. manningham Gallery, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 3108.

Open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm, Saturday 2 to 5pm. E: gallery@manningham.vic.gov.au; www.manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery

BENDIGO RICHMOND

ESSENDON SUNBURY

FIND ALL YOUR ARTISTIC NEEDS AT ARTHOUSE www.arthousedirect.com.au

east melbourne

• The Johnston Collection House Museum and Gallery Fairhall: Fair Hall To Glad Parlour: The Flower, Its Beauty and Meaning In Art and Ornament, 4 July – 19 October. Explores the social and cultural histories of botanical motifs through their representation on objects in William Johnston’s Collection. Gallery: The Garden of Ideas, 4 July – 21 October. An Australian Garden history National Touring Exhibition exploring historical styles of gardens and gardenmaking through literature, art and architecture. Bookings essential: T (03) 9416 2515, www.johnstoncollection.org

eltham

• Eltham Library Community Gallery 6 October – 1 November Decay and Renewal

by LyNNE JOhNSTONE. hours: mon-Thurs 10am-8.30pm, Fri-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm.

Panther Pl, Eltham, melway 21 J5.

fairfield

• NMIT – Bachelor of Illustration A degree for those wishing to be a specialist in the creative industries. For information visit www.nmit.edu.au/illustration or call T: (03) 9269 8888

fitzroy

• Brooklyn Arts Hotel Brooklyn is beautiful, friendly, quiet, interesting, quirky and personal, within walking distance of central melbourne. 48-50 George Street Fitzroy.

T: (03) 9419 9328 www.brooklynartshotel.com.au • Colour Factory Gallery Flithy by GLENN SLOGGETT. Exhibition dates: 7 October – 29 October. Opening night: 6 October, 6-8pm. 409 - 429 Gore Street, Fitzroy 3065. T: (03) 9419 8756, F: (03) 9417 5637.

Gallery hours: mon - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 1 4pm. E: Gallery@colourfactory.com.au, http:// www.colourfactory.com.au/gallery/ • The G8 Collective ThE G8 COLLECTivE” – Eight talented artists from South Gippsland – GRANT FLAThER, KERRy SPOKES, ANNiE STARK, ABiGAiL vAN ROOyEN, SUE GiLFORD, ANNiE PARRy, hELEN WiLKiNSON and JANE POWER. Exhibition: 15 to 27 October. Opening event at 6pm, 15 Oct. Fitzroy Gallery, 274 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy. T: (03) 5683 2481 for more info.

MELBOURNE

footscray

• The Dog Theatre in residence at Footscray Town hall, cnr hyde and Napier Sts (continuation of Footscray Road). Fringe Festival 2011 Season Opens 21 Sept – 8 Oct. Wed - Sat / Bar Opens 6pm.

EThEL ChOP & ChUmS and ThE ANT FARm ORChESTRA, Unpack This!, with GEOFF PAiNE, ROSS DANiELS, SyD BRiSBANE and miChELLE NUSSEy. Home Stretch: TOm DAviES, directed by JOhN BOLTON. Rentokil: written by BARRy DiCKiNS, directed by PETA COy, with ChRiS PALFRAmAN. Coral Browne, a photographic exhibition of the life and times of one of Footscray’s finest! To find out times, and book online go to www.thedogtheatre.com or www.melbournefringe.com.au or T: (03) 9660 9666 • Magnani Papers Australia Beautiful fine art papers for printmaking, painting and drawing. mention this Trouble ad and get 10% off! 40 Buckley Street Footscray 3011. T: (03) 9689 5660, www.magnani.com.au E: james@magnani.com.au

frankston

• B’artiste Lounge Bar and Cafe To 7 October Chisholm students L-plate series.

Exhibition of young printmakers. Auction and gala event Fri 7 Oct from 6pm, all works affordable and 10% of sale goes to charity (TBA). B’artiste 2/12 young Street, Frankston.

• Frankston Arts Centre (FAC) & Cube 37 Gallery From 4 October; Cube 37 Gallery; Peninsula mental health Week Exhibition; FAC main Foyer; KAyE FREEmAN; JASmiNE APPLEDORE; Peninsula WoodTurners; BRENDA PETTiTT. Open mon - Sat. Free admission. T: (03) 9784 1896; www.artscentre.frankston.vic.gov.au

ivanhoe

• Banyule Arts Space Unravelled, artists’ books and typographical prints from the Banyule Art Collection, 22 Sept – 12 Oct. Banyule Arts Space 14 ivanhoe Pde, ivanhoe, viC. Wed to Sat: 11am–5pm. Curated

by CLAiRE WATSON. T: (03) 9457 9851

langwarrin

• McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park Australia’s leading Sculpture Park and Gallery.

21 August to 30 October. Dreamweavers, A Gippsland Art Gallery and NETS victoria Touring Exhibition, The Syndicate: A Sculpture installation by SimON GiLBy, An Art On The

move Touring Exhibition and JOhN FARmER: Landscapes and Vignettes. 390 mcClelland Drive, Langwarrin (mel. Ref. 103 E3 only 45 min from St Kilda!) T: (03) 9789 1671. Gallery hours: Tues - Sun 10am - 5pm (Entry by donation). mcClelland Gallery Café, Tues - Sun 10am - 4.30pm. Guided Tours: Wed and Thurs 11am and 2pm, and Sat and Sun Sculpture Park at 2pm. Prior bookings highly recommended. E: info@mcclellandgallery.com, www.mcclellandgallery.com

melbourne

• Blindside Artist Run Space To 1 Oct (opening 15 Sep, 6-8pm): How did it come to this – LyNDAL mAy STEWART and mADé SPENCER-CASTLE; Metamorphose – hELvi APTED. 5 – 8 Oct (opening 6 Oct, 6-8pm): Poles Apart – an experimental film event curated by NATALyA mALLER and part of the melbourne Fringe Festival 2011. 12 – 29 Oct (opening 13 Oct, 6-8pm): Constant – BRODiE ELLiS. Nicholas Building, 714/37 Swanston Street (enter via Cathedral Arcade lifts, cnr Flinders Ln), melbourne. hours: Tue to Sat 12 - 6pm. T: (03) 9650 0093, www.blindside. org.au • Collective Notions Textile art exhibition at the “The Open Space Gallery”, Eckersleys, 97 Franklin Street, melbourne from 8 – 19 Nov. 2D and 3D works in textiles, fibres and found objects, metals, perspex, silks and wools from 13 contemporary textile artists. visit www.collectivenotions.com

28

• fortyfivedownstairs Four Play, by SERGi BELBEL, directed by SCOTT GOODiNG, 30 September – 9 October, theatre. Evolving Possibilities by ShANNON mCGRATh, 4 – 15 October, photography; Toward the Haze by REBEKAh STUART, 4 – 15 September, photography; Whiteley’s Incredible Blue by BARRy DiCKiNS, directed by Julian meyrick, fortyfivedownstairs in association with melbourne Festival, 13 – 23 October, theatre and live jazz; Skin Deep by ANiTA mERTzLiN, 18 – 29 October, painting; Sol by GEORGiA ThORPE, 18 – 29 October, woodcut prints; A Stranger In Town by ChRiSTiNE CROyDON and ALiCE BiShOP, 27 October – 13 November, Theatre. 45 Flinders Lane, melbourne, 3000. T: (03) 9662 9966; www.fortyfivedownstairs.com • Level 17 Artspace @ Victoria University 4 – 15 October: Level 17 Artspace in association with melbourne Festival presents look closer by DANiEL KiNG. Curated by KiRSTEN RANN. Gallery hours: mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 12pm - 4pm. Free Entry. Level 17 Artspace, victoria University City Campus, (map ref 14-D), 17/300 Flinders Street melbourne vic 3000. Gallery Director/Curator: Kirsten Rann. T: (03) 9919 1931, E: kirsten.rann@vu.edu.au, W: http://creativeindustries.vu.edu.au/level17.html • Matt Irwin Photographic Gallery Be inspired - amazing and creative urban street photography of melbourne and the rest of the world. Open 7 days a week. matt irwin Gallery, Shop 4, 239 Flinders Lane (enter via Scott Alley) www.mattirwin.com.au

RESIDENCY

www.cowwarr.com

• RMIT Gallery 2 September – 5 November Space invaders: australian . street . stencils . posters . pasteups . zines . stickers. Drawn entirely from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, the first Australian institution to have collected this type of work, this exhibition surveys the past 10 years of Australian street art.

Featuring over 100 works by more than 40 Australian artists, this exhibition celebrates the energy of street-based creativity recognising street stencils, posters, paste-ups, zines and stickers as comprising a recent chapter in the development of Australian prints and drawings. This exhibition is supported by the Contemporary Touring initiative through Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program, and the visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and state and territory governments. The Cultural Partner for Space invaders: australian . street . stencils . posters . paste-ups . zines . stickers is NewActon/Nishi and molonglo Group.

The exhibition is also supported by Special media Partner Triple J. Artists AEON, AzLAN, ByRD, CiviL, DLUx!, JAmES DODD, ADRiAN DOyLE, GhOSTPATROL, hAhA, KiLL PixiE, miShA hOLLENBACh, JUmBO, ASh KEATiNG, LiSTER, mAKATRON, mARCSTA, mEEK, mEGGS, miNi GRAFF, miSO, mONKEy, NAiLS, NUROK, OKiPA, PhiBS, PRiSm, PROOF, PSALm, REKA, REKS, RONE, DAN SiBLEy, ROBERT Sim, SixTEN, AL STARK, SyNC, TWOONE, vExTA, xERO, yOK, zAP and zine makers represented by Sticky institute. Public Program The Graffiti Wall, a public art project, with artists NAiLS, Twoone and Al Stark. Location, opposite RmiT Gallery, off Little LaTrobe Street. Enquire at Gallery reception for map. 6 October 11am 12 noon: Free Seniors Festival morning tea and live printing event with Twoone. Seniors only please. Bookings for all events essential.

(03) 9925 1717. 2 September – 5 November TATE ADAmS. Now in his 80s, Townsvillebased printmaker Tate Adams Am shows no sign of slowing down. Adams has adopted gouache as his favoured medium, leaving behind the intricacies of the woodblock. This exhibition showcases a broad spectrum of work from one of Australia’s most acclaimed printmakers. RmiT Gallery: 344 Swanston Street, melbourne 3000. T: (03) 9925 1717

MELBOURNE F: (03) 9925 1738. E: rmit.gallery@rmit.edu.au www.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery. Free admission.

Lift access. mon-Fri 11am to 5pm, Sat 12.00 to 5pm, closed Sun and public holidays. Become a Fan of the Gallery on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter@RmiTGallery.

• First Site Gallery This is Not Fine Art: Contemporary Practice from the BA Photography, 5 – 15 October. Opening 4 Oct, 5:30-7:30pm. Artist talks 13 Oct, 1pm. Eight recent graduates and current students from RmiT’s renowned photography degree who have established art practices, including WARWiCK BAKER, LiA STEELE and KOBiE NEL. Curated

by Daniel Stephen miller. 344 Swanston Street, melbourne. www.link.rmit.edu.au/first_site.html

moonee ponds

• Incinerator Gallery Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11am-4pm. incinerator Gallery, 180 holmes Road, moonee Ponds viC 3039. T: (03) 8325 1750, E: incinerator@mvcc.vic.gov.au, www. incineratorgallery.com.au

narre warren north

• Artgallop Gallery Shop November Competition Painted Pets Entries $10. Life Drawing 1st and 3rd Saturday mornings. Quaker Barn 3a Reservoir Rd. T: (03) 87904756. E: rosmead@gmail.com www.artgallop.net

north melbourne

• Langford 120 JAN DAviS, Trace, and FRANK WERThER, Etchings from the Werther Estate. Exhibitions run 15 Sept – 29 Oct. Opening drinks Sat

17 Sept, 2-5pm. Gallery hours: 11am-5.30pm Wed to Sat, Sun 12-5pm. Langford 120, 120 Langford Street, North melbourne. T: (03) 9328 8658; m: 0433 138 058

northcote

• Arts Project Australia Dionne Canzano Solo, 10 Sep – 15 Oct 2011.

DiONNE CANzANO’s work conveys a wildness and strength that focuses on subjects close to her heart. Fresh off the press, 10 Sep – 15 Oct 2011. Curated by JAKOB SChmiTT and BEN WALSh. Featuring vALERiO CiCCONE, PAUL hODGES, CAmERON NOBLE and JODiE NOBLE amongst others. Movement & Emotion, opening Wed 19 Oct 6-8pm, Thu 20 Oct – Sat 26 Nov 2011. Curated by PAUL hODGES. Exploring movement in paintings and the emotions of people in everyday life.

Featuring STEvEN AJzENBERG, PATRiCK FRANCiS and BRiGiD hANRAhAN amongst others. Jodie Noble Solo, opening Wed 19 Oct 6-8pm, Thu 20 Oct – Sat 26 Nov 2011.

Featuring a series of autobiographical and other portraits. Gallery hours: mon to Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 10am-5pm. Location and contact details: Arts Project Australia, 24 high Street Northcote victoria 3070. T: (03) 9482 4484 F: (03) 9482 1852 E: info@artsproject.org.au; www.artsproject.org.au For artwork enquiries and appointments please contact Arts Project Australia gallery.

prahran

• one hundredth gallery For everyone new to art. Dedicated to aspiring and emerging artists. Now taking applications. www.100thgallery.com

MELBOURNE

30

southbank

• ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Power to the People: Contemporary Conceptualism and the Object in Art, 6 October to 20 November, 2011. Power to the People, created by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art for the melbourne international Arts Festival, presents works from over 15 Australian and international artists who have revisited, revised and revitalised the artmaking strategies of the 1960s and 70s. Using Conceptual Art as its historical reference point, the exhibited works demonstrate a continued reconsideration and move away from the art ‘object’ into more performative, documentative, research and participatory modes of art making. Artists: PETER FRiEDL, OLAF NiCOLAi, DORA GARCíA, ROmAN ONDáK, FiONA mACDONALD, JONAThON mONK, KiRSTEN PiEROTh, STUART RiNGhOLT, Ján MAnčuškA, nAthAshA JohnsmESSENGER, SETh PRiCE, mARiO GARCiA TORRES, GOLDiN + SENNEBy, LUCAS ihLEiN & iAN miLLiSS, DEREK SULLivAN AND ThE POST PROJECT, AGAThA GOThE-SNAPE, mATThEW ShANNON. Duration: 10am-8pm daily until Saturday 22 Oct, then from TuesFri 10am-5pm, Sat – Sun and Public holidays 11am-6pm, mon by appt, until 20 November. www.accaonline.org.au for associated events.

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 111 Sturt Street, Southbank. Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 10am–5pm.

Weekends 11am-6pm. mondays by appointment. T: (03) 9697 9999. Admission: free. www.accaonline. org.au

geelong

• Geelong Gallery 2011 Geelong Acquisitive Print Awards, until 20 November. The O’Donohue & Kiss gift – International and Australian Prints, until 20 November. Shell arts – Geelong region artists program: Out of darkness, into the light – SimON BENz, until 16 October. Shell arts – Geelong region artists program: Retrospective – DAviD TURNER, 22 October to 4 December.

Little malop Street, Geelong. T: (03) 5229 3645, www.geelonggallery.org.au, Free entry. Open daily 10am to 5pm.

st andrews

• The Baldessin Press and Studio Artists / writers retreats, workshops, studio access etc in tranquil bushland 50 kms from melbourne.

T (03) 97101350, www.baldessinpress.com

upway

• Burrinja Gallery Stories of Song and Dance – Performance and the Burrinja Collection. Rare ceremonial objects from New Guinea and dance boards from the Kimberley, until 16 Oct. ALiDA LEEREvELD: Steeds Voorwaarts (Always Further) – A Retrospective until 30 Oct. Cnr Glenfern Rd and matson Dr. Tue to Sun 10.30am - 4pm. T: (03) 9754 8723. www.burrinja.org.au

wheelers hill

• Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize 2011, 15 September – 16 October 2011. Brummels: Australia’s first gallery of photography, 22 October 2011 – 22 January 2012. Wilbow Gallery, Transcendence: photographs by DAviD STEPhENSON, 15 September – 16 October 2011. Deep skin: photographs by Tim hANDFiELD, 22 October 2011 – 22 January 2012. Displaced images of distant objects: izABELA PLUTA, 21 September – 16 October 2011. Slow photography: JOhN STREET, 22 October – 11 December 2011. monash Gallery of Art, 860 Ferntree Gully Road (cnr Jells and Ferntree Gully Roads), Wheelers hill 3150. Director: Shaune Lakin. Tues - Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 to 5pm, Closed mon.

Gallery gift shop, Lamp Café and sculpture park.

T: (03) 8544 0500, E:mga@monash.vic.gov.au; www.mga.org.au BAY & PENINSULA

• Geelong Performing Arts Centre 50 Lt malop Street Geelong. info and tickets online at www.gpac.org.au or phone T: (03) 5225 1200. Find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/geelongperformingartscentre • Metropolis Gallery Collectors Show 8 – 22 October. 64 Ryrie Street Geelong 3220. T: (03) 5221 6505. Director: Robert Avitabile. www.metropolisgallery.com.au

EASTERN VIC

gippsland

• Cowwarr Art Space October G1: ABBAS mEhRAN painting G2: Sculpture CLivE mURRAy-WhiTE. 2730 Traralgon/maffra Rd, Cowwarr. www.cowwarr.com Find us on Facebook.

• Kerrie Warren, Abstract Expressionist Artist Corporate and private collections. Studio Open by Appointment in Crossover, victoria – m: 0411 480 384; www.kerriewarren.com.au • Gecko Studio Gallery Points of View - A group show by students of mANDy GUNN in a variety of media, until 15 October. Bulabil Boordup Djerrup Barboon Yinin Da Booyegigat Nonoongarrang Gananoonoon Mangkie Marrambin (“two good mates celebrate the creation of our thoughts with you”), KATE zizyS (etchings and drawings) and miCK hARDiNG (wood artifacts and print overlaid with copic markers), 16 October – 19 November.

Opening Sunday 16 October from 2-5pm. Open 10am-5pm, Thur to mon. Gecko Studio Gallery, 15 Falls Road, Fish Creek, vic 3959 T: (03) 5683 2481; E: framing@geckostudiogallery.com.au; www.geckostudiogallery.com.au • Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale 3 September to 23 October Alexander Knox – Dark Star. Dark Star presents a range of recent works, ranging from light installations to large-scale sculptures by melbourne based artist ALExANDER KNOx. 17 September to 13 November, Nicholas Chevalier – Australian Odyssey. NiChOLAS ChEvALiER (1828-1902) was one of Australia’s foremost colonial artists.

Australian Odyssey is the first ever survey of his Australian works, presenting over one hundred paintings, sketches and lithographs, including many works never before publicly exhibited.

Please note that the Gallery will be closed on Sunday 23 October. Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, 68 Foster Street Sale viC 3850. T: (03) 5142 3372 F: (03) 5142 3373. Open: mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat - Sun 12 - 4pm. For public holidays hours visit our website. Director, Anton vardy.

E: gallery_enquiries@wellington.vic.gov.au www.wellington.vic.gov.au/gallery

• Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale – Maffra Exhibition Space 7 October to 26 November Maffra, Portrait of a Country Town – Paintings by local artist KEN ROBERTS explore different vistas, views, characters and places of this country town, maffra. maffra Exhibition Space, 150 Johnson Street, maffra Open mon and Wed - Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 12pm, Closed Tues and Sun. Enquiries to Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale.

T: (03) 5142 3372.

• Switchback Gallery ChARLES FARRUGiA: Micro-Mirror 7, Re-assembling the Past, The small works 1984 – 2011. Curated by Rodney Forbes. you are invited to the opening of this exhibition at 5pm on Tuesday 4 October. Exhibition dates: 5 to 20 Oct, 2011. Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Building 6S, monash University Gippsland Campus, Churchill 3842. T: (03) 9902-6261 E: gippsland@artdes.monash.edu.au mon-Fri 9am to 5pm or by appt. For additional works just Google CharlesFarrugiaFineArt

healesville

• TarraWarra Museum of Art From 15 October 2011 William Delafield Cook. A Survey The first major survey exhibition by this significant Australian artist in over two decades, focusing on his landscape paintings from 19772011, with an emphasis on works epic in size, sensation and scope. A Gippsland Art Gallery travelling exhibition. Jacqueline Mitelman: Facetime. JACQUELiNE miTELmAN has been a portrait photographer since the mid-1970s. intimate in detail and classical in composure, she depicts a rich panoply of Australian society, from unknown individuals to distinguished writers, artists, scientists. This survey exhibition will investigate the development of her portraiture over three decades. Until 13 November. JAMES MORRISON: The Great Tasmanian Wars. A rare opportunity to see morrison’s magnificent epic painting from the TWmA collection in its entirety. Comprising 55 individual canvases this figurative painting is a fantastic collage of nature, a stunning vision teeming with different forms of life. For public programs and events at TWmA please visit website. TarraWarra museum of Art, 311 healesville-yarra Glen Road, healesville viC, 3777 www.twma.com.au

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: Daniel KiNG, Primitive 2011, digital print, 119 x 84 cm. Level 17 Artspace in association with melbourne Festival presents look closer by Daniel King, Level 17 Artspace @ victoria University, 17/300 Flinders Street melbourne (viC), 4 – 15 October.

THIS SPREAD: 1. Tate ADAmS, Pandanus 2010, sugarlift aquatint on magnani Acquerello 5050/7, edition 35. Printer: Jo Lankester at Garage Press, Townsville, Qld. image and paper size: 68.3 x 49 cm. Collection of the Print Council of Australia. 2.

William DELAFiELD COOK, Farm 2005-11, acrylic on linen, 101.5 x 122 cm. Rex irwin Art Dealer © William Delafield Cook. William Delafield Cook: A Survey, TarraWarra museum of Art, 311 healesville-yarra Glen Road healesville (viC), 15 October 2011 – 12 February 2012.

NEXT SPREAD: 3. Costume from Sunshine (2007, dir. Danny Boyle). Photo credit: mark Gambino/ACmi. Star Voyager: Exploring Space on Screen, ACmi, Federation Square, melbourne (viC), 22 September 2011 – 29 January 2012. Exhibition open daily 10am - 6pm. more at www.acmi.net.au/starvoyager. 4. John BRACK, Nude with two chairs 1957, oil on canvas, 81.3 x 61.0cm stretcher; 95.8 x 75.7 x 5.8cm frame. Purchased 1957. Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales. Australian modern masterpieces, an exhibition from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat (viC), 4 October – 27 November 2011.

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OCTOBER SALON

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OCTOBER SALON

PREVIOUS SPREAD: 5. isobel KNOWLES & van SOWERWiNE, It’s a Jungle in Here (detail) 2011, interactive installation with stopmotion animation, audio. A world premiere visual arts event at the 2011 melbourne Festival, Screen Space, 30 Guildford Lane melbourne (viC), 14 – 29 October, opening Thursday 13 October, 6pm. 6. Tim SiLvER, , Untitled (bust) (Selleys Spakfilla Rapid) 2011, series of 3 images, 46 x 58 cm each, archival ink on archival paper, courtesy Breenspace © the artist. Tim Silver: Everything in its right place, Breenspace, Level 3, 17–19 Alberta Street Sydney (NSW), 9 September – 8 October.

THIS SPREAD: Arthur BOyD, The mockers 1945, oil on canvas on hardboard, 84.3 x 102.2 cm board; 86.2 x 104.0 x 3.0 cm frame.

Purchased 1965.

Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australian modern masterpieces, an exhibition from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat (viC), 4 October – 27 November 2011.

READ IN PEACE reflections on writers and readers by Jean-François Vernay

I

n April 2011, I had the great pleasure to launch the Australian

updated version of my book, The Great Australian Novel – A Panorama. I say ‘great pleasure’ because, after years of time-consuming research and intensive reading of books that I borrowed from various Australian libraries and purchased, my non fiction book has officially been acknowledged on this ver y special occasion. And no matter how formal it might look, a book launch is a somewhat nonchalant social event where your family, friends and supporters turn up to show their appreciation of the book and/or your personality.

Frank Moorhouse once said in an attempt to put books in a nutshell: ‘there are three things that can happen to a book – it can be a bestseller; it can die and be forgotten; or thirdly, the book can become a success of esteem.”1 Panorama du roman australien has definitely become a success of esteem. Given the little appeal for Australian fiction in France and barring the unexpected, it is most unlikely that the book will some day make the bestseller list. Any other derivative source of income (such as prizes, film rights, translation rights, etc.) for that kind of subgenre (i.e. reference book) would also be wishful thinking. The very fact that I am dealing with fiction as subject-matter and covering Australia marginalizes my work to the spine-chilling ‘niche’ market – a euphemism for a market that is too restricted to be lucrative.

So if a launch is the right occasion to make your book available to people, there is sometimes this slight misunderstanding that your friends, if not relatives and acquaintances, turn up and wait patiently, while sipping a glass of champagne and relishing a mouthful of tantalizing appetizers, until they receive their copy gratis, out of friendship or kinship of course ... what else? While it is a writer’s duty to reward all people who have been instrumental in the making of the book (key supporters, inspirational muses, big-hearted sponsors, and perhaps your most understanding and patient banker who has been week-in week-out intrigued by your literary genius by giving you assiduous calls) with a complimentary copy garnished with the most grateful inscription, friends, relatives and acquaintances are probably not aware of what it takes to write non fiction, and of the great divide between fiction and non fiction writers.

First, non fiction writing would legitimately require more research funds and travel expenditure than fiction writers would need to flesh out their plots. Second, when it comes to sponsorship, there are fewer opportunities in terms of literary schemes (such as grants or writers-in-residence programs) and prizes for non fiction than fiction writers. Third, chances of non fiction writers who are not concerned with filling pages with sleaze and glitz finding an enthusiastic commercial publisher are likely to shrink away. In effect, publishers prone to consult risk-assessment specialists may even ask for matching funds to avoid deficit. And if they finally turn a blind eye to the obviously largely underrated manuscript, the non fiction author will be forced to resort to vanity publishing where a greater investment beyond the preliminary research budget will be required. >>

When the non fiction book is finally released, just as you would think that the obstacle course is over, there is this second slight misunderstanding whereby readers imagine authors to earn squillions of dollars thanks to book sales, thus affording them to become international celebrity writers overnight. Apologies for shattering any illusion, but you need to be some high profile and prolific novelist like Jostein Gaarder to be able to treat a table of fourteen fellow writers to a scrumptious dinner in a Chinese restaurant at Brisbane Writers Festival (Thanks heaps Jostein, I owe you one!).

The quasi-gratuitousness of reading now on the Internet in research centres, in game form with book-crossing, and through free lending libraries is bound to reduce book sales. Richard Walsh has already voiced his concerns about authors’ loss of earnings when their books are being borrowed instead of purchased but Australia has a fabulous system that, so far, has unfortunately not been emulated in France. With the respective implementation of Public Lending Right and Educational Lending Right schemes by the Federal Government in 1985 and 1994 (ELR being interrupted from 1996 to 2000), authors gain financially from their works in libraries. As Walsh bluntly states it, ‘If those who want to read books in a library are genuinely indigent then Public Lending Right should be conceived of as the government’s payment on behalf of those who themselves cannot afford to contribute to author’s incomes.’2 That is why the great majority of authors would naturally welcome this egalitarian and fair measure. Yet, the only impediment to benefit from the Public Lending Right Act 1985 is that the work must be available for consultation in a minimum of fifty libraries in Australia. And there crops up again the great divide between fiction and non fiction writers.

With a few exceptions (political memoirs, celebrity biographies, cookbooks, practical guides and manuals of all kinds), non fiction books sell far less than fiction, hence their limited circulation. Five hundred copies of Panorama du roman australien got published through the first print run while The Great Australian Novel – A Panorama has a greater circulation of two thousand copies. One might think that this figure is impressive, but a novel’s initial print run is usually five thousand copies! These print runs are not decided out of the blue, for they are subjected to the whims of the book market and therefore based on precise calculations that match public demand. In other words, readers are most likely to ask for just any novel than, say, my literary history in some well-stocked library. >>

As an inevitable result, libraries are less likely to buy non fiction and non fiction writers are less likely to benefit from PLR and ELR because their books will not be held in a minimum of fifty libraries nationwide. For a concrete example: to benefit from what is originally meant to be an egalitarian and fair scheme, 10 % of the initial production of Panorama du roman australien must be held in libraries when just 1% of the initial production of any regular novel is enough to compensate novelists. And you may have forty-nine books available for public lending nationwide, writers will get peanuts ... which one might find handy if one is to toast to the ludicrous plight of most non fiction writers.

I wish that some decision-makers might reflect on this, and readers alike when they come up to a book launch and expect writers to deplete their own stock and give away their books like ‘read me’ promotional stickers. Respectable non fiction authors who have been passionate about their writings and have gone into a great deal of effort to make their painstaking works entertaining do not wish to force readers into reading their books. What is the use of trying to make your prose as engrossing as can be when you should feel that there is no other way that people will read you, save if they receive the book from the author’s hand as a birthday/ Christmas/ house-warming/ speedy recovery present, or simply out of friendship/ kinship? (Did I leave out any other good occasion to treat someone to a book?)

Some readers might get the misleading impression that writers often go through a bout of egotism when they highlight their predicament in the pubic sphere but, like Dorothy Green and many other writers before me, I am willing to run that risk.

Allow me to conclude with a final slight misunderstanding that begs for correction.

Rest assured that most non fiction writers have NOT warmed up to the idea of becoming noted philanthropists by investing thousands of dollars into research, and in some cases by giving matching funds to a publisher or by self-publishing their works, and eventually by buying their own stock to distribute it generously to anyone interested in reading the ill-fated book. I am in a position to let you know that this way of dealing with books does not contribute to the self-esteem of non fiction writers who might just as well be sent to the pauper’s grave – RIP. Jean-François Vernay blogs at http://jean-francoisvernay.blogspot.com/ FOOTNOTES: 1. Frank Moorhouse, ‘A Literary Living’ in Neil James (ed.), Writers on Writing (Sydney: Halstead Press, 1999), p.86. 2. Richard Walsh, ‘One or Two Words in Favour of Barabbas’ in Neil James (ed.), Writers on Writing, p.94.

Brett Whiteley’s

incredible blue

Helen Rickards

Brett Whiteley was Australian art’s most vivid and conflicted character – a capricious genius plagued by a swirling imagination and creeping addictions that pushed him to the very edges of ar tistic expression. fortyfivedownstairs and the Melbourne Festival offer an extraordinary insight into one of Australia’s most outrageous and revered ar tists. Witness a remarkable mind, free but tormented, hur tling toward destruction in the moment of greatest creative release.

Barry Dickins, a Melbourne literary icon and multi-award winning playwright, was Whiteley’s friend and wrote his biography Black and Whiteley, published in 2002. In Whiteley’s Incredible Blue he has composed a poetic picture of the artist, inviting the audience in to see, hear and experience the genius and the torment.

“I wanted to depict the kind of great but damaged artist who’d be recognisable anywhere,” says Dickins. “Whiteley’s flamboyant style is recognised as swiftly as it’s seen, but the soul of the man is utterly unknown.

“By the time he turned twenty, Whiteley was a household word, a euphemism for everything shocking and erotic. He became one of the most outrageous International artists ever known by the time he was twenty-two. In the swinging 60s, when he lived in London, heroin was freely available and little did artists know how addictive it was. It destroyed their health, talent, families and souls. Whiteley was a heroin addict all his life; getting into it, getting off it, getting dead.”

This premiere production of is the first dramatisation about this remarkable Australian figure – a glimpse into his life, his influences and his demons. Through a fusion of words and music, Whiteley’s imaginative world, saturated by vivid colours, outrageous forms, disturbing images and bold expressions of Australia’s collective unconscious is exposed.

It is a new and controversial rendering of Whiteley’s hallucinatory incandescence. The audience will be taken on a voyage at the end of his life into his wild imaginings, riding on poetry and music.

Whiteley always painted to music, and this theatrical journey is interwoven by the free jazz of The Calvert George Fine Trio. Free jazz form performance uses jazz idioms and, like jazz, it expresses the voice of the musicians themselves. Compositions are improvised in real time, by controlling melody, harmony and rhythm together, and in Whiteley’s Incredible Blue, winding throughout, around and with Dickins’ text.

“Whiteley’s flamboyant style is recognised as swiftly as it’s seen, but the soul of the man is utterly unknown.”

Actor Neil Pigot (Red Dog, Oranges and Sunshine, Blue Heelers and many others) is directed by Julian Meyrick in the intimate surrounds of Melbourne’s vibrant independent theatre fortyfivedownstairs.

Recently, Meyrick directed Patricia Cornelius’ multi award winning play, Do got go gentle... – also produced and presented by fortyfivedownstairs (2010). Whiteley’s Incredible Blue has been stagecast in the luminescent ultramarine blue that became the artist’s hallmark. The scene is set by designer Meredith Rogers and lighting designer Kerry Saxby who joined the creative team during its early development at Melbourne Theatre Company where it had its first public reading in 2004.

“It’s a fabulous piece,” Meyrick says. “a forceful, poetic flight of the imagination, merging seamlessly with a winning act of empathy – a transmigration of souls.

I feel privileged to work with Barry.

He has more writing talent in his little finger than some of us have in our entire bodies.”

Nine years in the making, this world premiere, limited season of Whiteley’s Incredible Blue is a clear standout of the Melbourne Festival. fortyfivedownstairs in association with the Melbourne Festival presents Whiteley’s Incredible Blue By Barry Dickins. Directed by Julian Meyrick, 13 – 23 October 2011 IMAGE: fortyfivedownstairs, Whiteley’s Incredible Blue, Neil Pigot Photo: Jeff Busby

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ballarat

• Art Gallery of Ballarat Exhibitions: Australian Modern Masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 5 October to 27 November, 40 key works from some of the great names of Australian art. Adult $12, Concession $8, Child Free. A guiding hand: prints and directors 1967 - 2011, until 27 November. Project window exhibitions: DAviD ROSETzKy – Nothing like this, until 13 November. Concerts: Singers of the Black Book and Damask, 16 October, 2.30pm; Goldfields String Quartet, 30 October, 2.30pm.

Talks: JOhN O’LOUGhLiN, 12 October, 12.15pm; vanessa Burgess on RUPERT BUNNy and CLiFTON PUGh, 26 October, 12.15pm. Event: Chinese mooncake Festival, 1 and 2 October. 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat vic 3350. Open daily. Free entry. T: (03) 5320 5858; E: artgal@ballarat.vic.gov.au, www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au • Ballarat Arts Foundation Grants Rounds for emerging artists: 1 – 31 march and 1 – 30 September. visit Downloads on www.ballaratartsfoundation.org.au or T: (03) 5332 4824 or m: 0409 352 268 • Gallery on Sturt Open 7 days a week throughout Biennale, mon - Fri 9am - 5.30pm, Sat / Sun 10am - 4 pm. 421 Sturt St, Ballarat 3350 www.galleryonsturt.com.au • Her Majesty’s To 30 October, Royal South Street Competitions.

For session details: www.royalsouthstreet.com.au. her majesty’s Theatre, 17 Lydiard Street South, Ballarat. majesTix: (03) 5333 5888

of Ballarat. Cnr Sturt and Lydiard St Ballarat. viC. 3350. mon/Tue by appt. Wed-Sat 1-4pm.

T: (03) 5327 8615, E: s.hinton@ballarat.edu.au www.ballarat.edu.au.

• Radmac Radmac Gallery, 104 Armstrong St (Nth) Ballarat 3350. T: (03) 5333 4617, Gallery hours: 8.30am to 5.30pm mon - Fri, 9am to 12pm Sat. Entry Free. Enrol now for art classes. Gallery and studio space available.

bendigo

• A Baker’s Dozen of Bridal Frocks On display in shop windows in the Bendigo CBD Frocks out of Clay by SUziE O’ShEA, 1 August – 6 November. Booklet and map produced by the Bendigo Advertiser is available at the Bendigo visitor information Centre.

• A Greek Odyssey A visual celebration of painting in the Greek islands by six Bendigo artists. 7 to 23 October, Dudley house, view Street. Bendigo.

• Artsonview Framing and Gallery Expert custom framing by GEOFF SAyER. Conservation and exhibition framing also available. Plus a small but interesting range of original artwork and photography.

New ceramics by RAy PEARCE now in stock. Also on display, SUziE O’ShEA’s Frocks Out of Clay. 75 view Street.

T: (03) 5443 0624, E: sayer@iinet.net.au

• Kirrit Barreet - Aboriginal Art and Cultural Centre Now exhibiting community works. 403-407 main Road. www.aboriginalballarat.com.au • The Known World Bookshop & Apartment Great s/h books, coffee bar and a boutique city apartment. 14 Sturt Street, Ballarat.

T: (03) 5332 8114 • Post Office Gallery Wed 5 – Sat 29 Oct mARK GRAvER: Promenade; Impact 7: Month of Print, international multi-Disciplinary Printmaking Conference: Intersections & Counterpoints. Wed 12 Oct at 12.30 mark Graver talk at UB AA Theatrette.

Post Office Gallery, Arts Academy, University

RADMAC

art * graphic * office and school supplies

*we supply service* 104 Armstrong St North, Ballarat 3350 Phone (03) 5333 4617 Fax (03) 5333 4673 Email radmac@ncable.net.au

CENTRAL VIC • Bendigo Art Gallery Exhibition: The White Wedding Dress, 1 August to 6 November. 42 view Street, T: (03) 5434 6088. www.bendigoartgallery.com.au • Bendigo Bendigo Bendigo Repetition is nine-tenths of ... am i boring you yet? yes, but now you know that listings in Trouble cost only $4 per line. See? it works. E: listings@ introuble.com.au for a quote ... NOW! • Bob Boutique Blythe dolls coming in end of October. 17 Williamson Street, Bendigo Open Sat and Sun 11am-3pm, mon and Tues 11am-3pm, Wed-Fri 11am-5pm. www.bob.net.au • Book Now Secondhand bookseller. Proprietor Garry murray. 1 Farmers Lane Bendigo. Open 7 days 10am - 5pm. T: (03) 5443 8587 • The Capital info and tickets online at www.thecapital.com.au.

T: (03) 5441 6100 or visit 50 view Street, Bendigo.

The Engine Room presents DAmiAN CALLiNAN in The Merger, Wednesday 19 Oct, 8pm, The Old Fire Station. Full list of shows at website.

• Ceramics Handbuilding With mARiA vANhEES Thursdays, new classes starting on 6 Oct., 6-9pm, $350 for 10 weeks. m: 0428 991 294. Join my mailing list for updates on future classes. E: mariavanhees@yahoo.com • Community & Cultural Development (CCD) www.bendigo.vic.gov.au - for arts, festivals and events info at your fingertips. Select Council

Services, then Arts Festivals and Events for Events Calendar and Arts Register. The CCD Unit is an initiative of the City of Greater Bendigo.

E: eventscalendar@bendigo.vic.gov.au T: (03) 5434 6464 • El Gordo Cafe & Art Space Exhibitions: The Quircus digital illustration by DALE hARRiS and LEAh hARTLEy, until 7 October; The Forest Flaw, crafty handmade toys

by ROByN hELBARD, 8 October – 12 November.

Open: mon-Fri, 8am-4.30pm & Sat Oct 8, 9am 2pm. Chancery Lane, Bendigo. m: 0413 447 518. www.facebook.com/elgordobendigo • La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre vAC Gallery: To 16 October ELAiNE ShEmiLT Antarctic Journeys: The dry valleys and South Georgia. 19 October – 27 November JUSTiN ANDREWS Systems. Access Gallery: To 2 October KiR LARWiLL, DiANA ORiNDA BURNS and ROByN GiBSON background. 5 – 30 October BRiDGET KEENA Limbo. Gallery hours: Tue - Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun 12pm-5pm.

121 view Street, Bendigo. T: (03) 5441 8724; www.latrobe.edu.au/vac • Landscapes and Memories 29 October – 13 November 2011: Landscapes and Memories, an exhibition of works by mAGGiE hUmBLE, Dudley house, 60 view Street Bendigo. Supported by the City of Bendigo.

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castlemaine

• Art Supplies Castlemaine Extensive range, art gift ideas, kids art materials, 10% art student discount, special orders welcome.

Tues - Thur 9am-5pm, Fri 9am - 5.30pm, Sat 9am-1pm. 25 hargraves Street. T: (03) 5470 5291, E: artsuppliescastlemaine@gmail.com • Arts Pathway Course 2011 at Continuing Education. T: (03) 5464 3299, E: info@con-ed.com.au • Arts Officer - Jon Harris Community Activity and Culture Unit Mount Alexander Shire Council Jon harris (Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri) PO Box 185 Castlemaine 3450. T: (03) 5471 1793, m: 0428 394 577, E: arts@mountalexander.vic.gov.au • Bent Ironwork Artist’s sculptural work, architectural and wrought iron work by STEvE ROWE. 54 Bagshaw Street harcourt. m: 0400 538 344 • Brian Nunan Studio & Gallery visit the gallery of BRiAN NUNAN. Retrospective and new controversial artworks. Open Saturday and Sunday or by appointment. 40 Campbell Street Castlemaine. T: (03) 5470 6724. E: brian@briannunan.com • Buda Historic Home and Garden A property of national significance. home of the creative Leviny family from 1863 to 1981, featuring authentic furnishings and arts and crafts collection. Wander around the heritage garden, enjoy the picture-perfect spring, and then buy your own Buda plants in the Nursery.

42 hunter Street, Castlemaine 3450. T/F: (03) 5472 1032, E: admin@budacastlemaine.org.

Open Wed - Sat 12 - 5, Sun 10 – 5. Groups by appointment.

• CASPA Pathless – works on paper by ALEiShA NG. Opening Friday 7 Oct 6pm until 28 Oct, 10am – 5pm daily. Above Stoneman’s Bookroom, hargraves Street. www.castlemainefringe.org. au/caspa • Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum Greg moncrieff: Now and Then, 10 September – 23 October. This melbourne based artist has investigated the process and philosophy of collage/ assemblage in his art practice

for over 35 years. his mixed media works utilise a wide range of materials and technical processes, largely inspired by the inventiveness of European artists who worked in similar areas in the early decades of the twentieth century. 14 Lyttleton Street Castlemaine, vic.

For full list of events and exhibitions log onto: www.castlemainegallery.com • Castlemaine Creative Artists Present their Annual Exhibition at Tog’s Place, Lyttleton Street. Sept 9 - Oct 13. Open 9am-5pm daily. A diverse range of works by local artists.

• Cherry Tennant’s Studio Gallery At any time view Cherry’s paintings, drawings, photographs, greetings cards and poetry books. 160 hargraves Street (cnr hall St), Castlemaine. To ensure she’s there phone first.

T: (03) 5470 6642. you may also contact her for tuition details.

• Falkner Gallery 6 Oct - 27 Nov: CAROLE BULLOCK, Shifting Place in the Landscape, paintings, drawings, etchings; DAviD FRAzER, Half Way Home, etchings, wood engravings, lithographs. 35 Templeton Street, Castlemaine hours: 11am - 5pm Thurs - Sun T: (03) 5470 5858; E: falknergallery@tpg.com.au • greenGraphics: web and print Design, domain registration and web hosting. T: (03) 5472 5300, E: info@greengraphics.com.au www.greengraphics.com.au • Phil Elson Pottery Fine hand thrown porcelain tableware and large porcelain bowls. 89 Templeton Street. T: (03) 5472 2814 www.philelsonpottery.com • The Union Studio Contemporary Australian art and design gallery, custom, exhibition and conservation framing, hand finished Australian hardwood frames, canvas stretching and stretchers. The Union Studio, 74 mostyn Street (enter via Union St) Castlemaine. T: (03) 5470 6446 Open 7 days.

charlton

• 31st Charlton Rotary Art Exhibition.

Shire hall, opening Fri. 7 October at 7.30pm.

Sat.8 Oct and Sun 9 Oct, 10am-5pm; mon.10 Oct, 10am-1pm. T: (03) 5491 1571.

CENTRAL VIC

daylesford

• Paradiso Arts Milestones Exhibition.

During melbourne Cup Week from monday 31 October to Sunday 6 November (excluding Wednesday 2nd), STEFAN NEChWATAL will host Milestones, an exhibition of his recent works in recycled steel, timber and mosaics. A wide range of sculptural furniture and garden art that function for inside and outdoor use will be displayed. many of the pieces Stefan designs and creates have a strong spiritual or cultural element. Ecologically sustainable and recycled materials are incorporated whenever possible to create a special, much loved and timeless appearance. The theme Milestones reflects Stefans’s long-held passion for the culture and architecture of Spain. The three doors pictured on the exhibition poster, made in earlier years, are the milestones. They led Stefan on a progressive journey to his current day inspiration to create new artworks based on the reja – the traditional Spanish/moorish wrought iron door and window grille. Stefan’s exhibition showcases an exotic exploration of this utilitarian feature and juxtaposes this historical element into the 21st century. Paradiso Arts, 1089 Telegraph Road, Sailors Falls (6 km south of Daylesford). Open monday 31/10 to Sunday 6/11/2011 (closed Wednesday). 11am to 5pm. T: (03) 5348 6600; W: paradisoarts.com.au

glenlyon

• The 5th Annual Glenlyon Sculpture Show.

There are numerous art shows throughout central victoria where our talented painters, printmakers and photographers can showcase their work.

Sculptors don’t have as many opportunities but the Annual Glenlyon Sculpture Show aims to even things up. Once again, in the main street of Glenlyon, local sculptors will fill the lovely 1890s Glenlyon hall and the lawns outside. Opening night is the 29th of October, it continues over the Cup weekend and closes on the 6th of November.

kyneton

• Ruby Café Exhibition Bouteilles D’Amour by KEviN SmiTh. vibrant affordable paintings celebrating wine, dining. lovers and friends. Opening Friday 21 October, 5-6pm. 101 mollison Street. E: kevinsmithart@bigpond.com • Stockroom 15 Oct – 6 Nov Muzzle zeal Ry hASKiNGS. Whatever doesn’t work mASATO TAKASATA, LiSA RADFORD, LANE CORmiCK. Social Contract: 44 mELiSSA mACFARLANE, DiGBy BANKS, opening Sat 15 Oct. 98 Piper Street, Kyneton 3444. Thurs - mon 10:30 am to 5 pm. T: (03) 5422 3215, www.stockroomkyneton.com • Print Council of Australia Inc. Printmakers and print collectors stay in touch with print exhibitions, events and technical issues through imPRiNT magazine. members receive frequent email updates and information about opportunities (courses, forums, group exhibitions and competitions). Subscriptions $65/year or $45 concessions see website: www.printcouncil.org.au or phone T: (03) 9328 8991 for membership details.

S T U D I O G A L L E R Y

•••••••••••••••••••••••••• F R A M E R S

• • • PHIL ELSON • AND THERE WAS SUCH CLEAR LIGHT IN BILBAO • • • MICHAEL WOLFE • • TOMORROW WILL BE THE SAME, • THOUGH NOT AS TODAY •

UNION STUDIO GALLERY & FRAMERS 74 MOSTYN STREET (VIA UNION ST) CASTLEMAINE t: (03) 5470 6446 www.unionstudio.com.au OCT 8 - NOV 20 OPEN 7 DAYS

Count On*

When audited by the CAB 52

lancefield

• MAD Gallery and Café To 13 October 2011 I Am figurative paintings

by DANiEL BUTTERWORTh. 14 October to 10 November 2011 Collaboration paintings

by BiLL & hELEN KEmP. Softly, Nature Touches impressionist landscapes, flowers

by JENNiFER mATThEWS. Opening 2-5pm, Sunday 16 October. 23rd October 2011 2-5pm: Sunday Sounds #26 Open mic. music afternoon, free to all. Contemporary 2D and 3D fine art, new exhibition every 4 weeks. 19 high Street, Lancefield. T: (03) 5429 1432; E: art@madgallery.com.au, www.madgallery.com. au, Café and Gallery open daily 10am to 5pm.

When audited by the CAB

mount macedon

• Macedon Ranges Open Studios Weekend 22 – 23 October The Gallery at mount macedon is a collective of local artists from the macedon Ranges.

Five venues set within a comfortable driving distance of each other in the scenic macedon Ranges, will feature twenty two artists who will combine to demonstrate and show how they approach their medium. There will be plenty of original work on display and for sale.

Entry is free. For brochure see website on: www.thegallerymtmacedon.com.au . Brochures available at The Gallery 684 mt macedon Rd mt macedon open Friday-Tuesday.

Numbers You Can Numbers * Count On You Can Count On*

CENTRAL VIC

• Karen Pierce Painter, illustrator, Art Teacher, community artist, quality prints and cards. T: (03) 5476 2459, www.karenpierceart.com • Newstead Press home of Trouble since 2004.

talbot

• The Corridor Art Gallery Upstairs at London house, Talbot. Open weekends. m: 0408 596 524.

taradale

• Taradale Wine and Produce *When audited by the CAB

Live local music Sat 8 October 3-6pm. Come and enjoy live music in the sun, whilst enjoying a fine wine. Free admission, all welcome. Taradale Wine and Produce, 120 high Street, Taradale. *When by- the Fri, Sat audited and Sun 11am 6pm. CAB T: (03) 5423 2828

Numbers You Can Numbers Count On* You Can Count On*

woodend

• Welcome to our Woodend Art Group Annual Spring Exhibition On 7th 8th and 9th October. Come and see Artists at work incl. RiChARD ChAmERSKi on Sat. Afternoon and others during the weekend whilst taking in the beaurtiful work of our local and talented artists. hours from 7pm Fri, Sat *When byDoor the CAB and Sun, 10am audited to 4.30pm. prizes daily.

We’re at the Railway Station, Woodend.

*When audited by the CAB

newstead

• Dig Café Closed monday & Tuesday. Open Wednesday and Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday and Saturday 9am-late, Sunday 9am-9pm. Cnr Lyons and Panmure Sts Newstead. T: (03) 5476 2744

Proudly Audited by

is ...

Proudly Audited by

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au

Proudly Audited by

Proudly Audited by Proudly Audited by

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au Proudly Audited by

WESTERN VIC

ararat

• Ararat Regional Art Gallery Town hall, vincent Street. mon, Wed to Fri 10am – 4.30pm, w/ends 12 - 4pm. T: (03) 5352 2836 araratregionalartgallery.blogspot.com

dunkeld

• Every Drop Counts An experimental art collaboration between South Western District artists SUE FERRARi, PhiL WARD and ALiSON EGGLETON at Off The Rails Gallery, Dunkeld. Open weekends of 22 – 23 October, 29 – 30 October and Sat 5 November 2011, 10am – 4pm. For more information visit www.offtherailsgallery.blogspot.com.

• lost in sculpture 2011 A biennial outdoor exhibition of sculptures and installations along Salt Creek trail, Dunkeld, 22 October – 6 November. For more information visit wwwdiscoverdunkeld.com

halls gap

• Mountain Grand Boutique Hotel Enchanting getaway in halls Gap. Delightful dining in The Balconies restaurant with fine local wines and live jazz on weekends. Conferences and functions are our specialty. if you have a longing for the way things used to be. your hosts Don and Kay Calvert. T: (03) 5356 4232 E: don@hallsgap.net www.mountaingrand.com

hamilton

• Hamilton Art Gallery 50 Years of Collecting 1961-2011 - A Celebration! 9 August – 16 October. includes the inaugural JOhN WOLSELEy Tapestry commissioned to mark the event. 107 Brown

Street, mon - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat 10am - 12pm and 2 - 5pm, Sun 2 - 5pm. T: (03) 5573 0460, www.hamiltongallery.org

horsham

• Horsham Regional Art Gallery Until 6 Nov. EWEN ROSS: Territory 2005-2010.

An exhibition that surveys and celebrates the work and contribution Ross has made to the cultural life of horsham. it involves recording his experiences within and the changing landscapes of the Wimmera. horsham Regional Art Gallery, 21 Roberts Ave, horsham. Tues - Fri 10am - 5pm, Sat - Sun 1 - 4.30pm.

T: (03) 5362 2888; E: hrag@hrcc.vic.gov.au; www.horshamartgallery.com.au

natimuk

• Goat Gallery A new show every month featuring the widely ranging skills of local artists. 87a main Street.

Weekends 1 - 4pm and by appointment. m: 0418 997 785 www.goatgallery.com.au

port fairy

• Customs House Gallery @ Blarney Books and Art Australian Children’s Picture Book Show including works by FREyA BLACKWOOD, NiCKi GREENBERG, ChRiS mcKimmiE, SARAh KATE miTChELL, ROBERT iNGPEN, ShAUN TAN, JO ThOmPSON. Plus artworks from ShAUN TAN’s Oscar winning film, The Lost Thing ... not to be missed! hours: 11am to 4pm, Thursday to Sunday or by appointment. Free admission.

Director: Des Bunyon. 37 James Street, Port Fairy 3284, E: arthouse@aussiebb.com.au m: 0448 348 974

54

MURRAY RIVER

mildura

• The Art Vault Dual Opening: to 10 October, Gallery 1 BELiNDA FOx Finding my way - home; Gallery 2 SOPhiA SziLAGyi Recent works. Dual Opening: 12 – 31 October, Gallery 1 hOSSEiN and ANGELA vALAmANESh Selected Works by; Gallery 2 mARiE LUND Simple Alchemy. in Residence: mARiE LUND, hOSSEiN and ANGELA vALAmANESh, BiLL yOUNG and ANiTA LAURENCE. 43 Deakin Ave, mildura, vic. Wed - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun - mon 10am - 2pm. T: (03) 5022 0013. Director: Julie Chambers. www.theartvault.com.au • Mildura Arts Centre Still Life: The Food Bowl, KEN & JULiA yONETANi, until 13 November 2011; venue: Rio vista historic house, 199 Cureton Avenue, mildura. KOPI: Connected to Country, mAREE CLARKE, until 7 October 2011; venue: LEAP Project Space, 39 Langtree Avenue, mildura.

Indigenous Australians at war from the Boer War to the present, a Shrine of Remembrance touring exhibition, 18 Oct – 24 Nov; venue: LEAP Project Space, 39 Langtree Avenue, mildura. mildura Arts Centre Regional Gallery is closed while the Centre undertakes an exciting redevelopment of mildura’s arts and cultural precinct. For details on mildura Arts Centre Outreach projects, see our website for more information. 199 Cureton Avenue, mildura viC 3500. T: (03) 5018 8330, F: (03) 5021 1462, www.milduraartscentre.com.au • White Cube Mildura Three micro galleries in three locations in mildura. October: EUNiCE WAKE, ELiF yAvUz and JACK FiShER. Stefano’s Café Bakery, 27 Deakin Ave. Klemm’s Newsagency, 53 Langtree mall. Shugg Group, 126 Lime Ave. E: whitecubemildura@gmail.com, www.whitecubemildura.blogspot.com

swan hill

• Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery Jus’ Drawn: The proppa NOW Collective, 7 October – 13 November. A NETS victoria touring exhibition developed by Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts. KERRyN FiNCh: Married to a blockie, 27 September – 23 October. Smoke and Mirrors: recent ceramic works by LyN RiCE, 25 October – 27 November. horseshoe Bend, Swan hill 3585. T: (03) 5036 2430, www. swanhill.vic.gov.au/gallery

NORTHERN VIC

benalla

• Benalla Art Gallery Focus: JUAN DAviLA 1 October – 20 November; SiDNEy NOLAN: Drought 7 October – 27 November; JOHN KELLY in Focus 30 September – 10 October; 6th international Drawing Biennale 15 October – 13 November. Bridge Street Benalla, victoria 3672. Opening hours 10am - 5pm. T: (03) 5760 2619, E: gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au, www.benallaartgallery.com

shepparton

• Glasson’s Art World, High St Shepparton Art Supplies, Graffiti Art Products, Artists Designer Gallery, Dookie Art Retreat, Archival Framing. E: info@glassonsartworld.com.au, www.glassonsartworld.com.au • Shepparton Art Museum The Drawing Wall #5: viv miLLER, until 28 October 2011. Sir John Longstaff: Portrait of a Lady, 18 February to 22 April 2012. 2012 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award, 18 February to 22 April 2012. 2012 Sidney myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award Applications Open online 1 Nov 2011. Shepparton Art museum, 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton viC 3630; T: (03) 5832 9861; E: art.museum@shepparton. vic.gov.au; www.sheppartonartmuseum.com. au Acting Director: Ryan Johnston. Free Entry.

The museum is closed for redevelopment until February 2012, please visit website for updates.

wangaratta

• Wangaratta Art Gallery 8 Oct – 6 Nov, JazzART Award and JazzART Next Youth Awards. Coincides with Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. 8 – 23 Oct, Flights of Fancy, JENNiFER BROmLEy, ANNE GALBRAiTh, TANiA mAGENNiS, JO vOiGT, JAN WAGNER, ROSE WEDLER. Wangaratta Art Gallery. Director: Dianne mangan, T: (03) 5722 0865, F: (03) 5722 2969, E: d.mangan@wangaratta.vic.gov.au or gallery@wangaratta.vic.gov.au

Jus’ Drawn:

The proppaNOW Collective A Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts & NETS Victoria touring exhibition www.netsvictoria.org.au Vernon AH KEE Unwritten (detail), 2010 charcoal on paper Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane

7 October - 13 November

Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery Horseshoe Bend Swan Hill VIC 3585 T: +61 3 5036 24307

58

PATRICK JONES

greenwash

Wheel of progress-capitalism “We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist.”

– Derrick Jensen

http://permapoesis.blogspot.com/

#27

IMAGE: Patrick Jones, pen and watercolour on paper, 2011

The Hunter

Jarrod Mawson

If you were to rank all cinematic endevours based on risk potential, literature adaptations would unquestionably be right near the top. Adaptation of one medium to another of significant difference is a process that rarely goes smoothly, frequently running afoul of narrative, pacing and developmental issues, as the components unique to each medium come crashing together.

It’s an uphill battle for films if this ilk, and things are no different for The Hunter, an upcoming Australian film based on a novel by the same name. Penned by veteran Australian author Julia Leigh, The Hunter is the venturesome story of Martin (Willem Dafoe), a secretive hunter-for-hire who is well experienced in dealing with contracts from dubious corporate big shots. Martin is paid a pretty penny to track down, kill and acquire samples of endangered and otherwise extinct fauna – an illicit practice that would be viewed none too fondly in the eyes of anyone with a penchant for Mother Earth. Martin’s globe spanning career prevents him from settling down and he leads a basically solitary lifestyle that has shaped his personality and relationships, or lack thereof.

Given a task unlike any other, Martin is shipped away to the Tasmanian wilderness to hunt down what is reportedly the last remaining Tasmanian tiger, a species otherwise thought of as extinct. Based on a handful of ho-hum, semi-reliable sightings of the beast, and racing against the clock before others in the same trade catch wind of the valuable specimen, Martin’s story is split between his solo adventuring through richly vegetated forests, and a quaint, isolated town where his employer has felt fit to put him up.

These polarising set pieces thematically mirror Martin’s personal development, as most will quickly realise. The Hunter isn’t really about the Tasmanian tiger at all, but about Martin’s struggles and identity. Though not at all dislikable, Martin possesses an arguably unintentional introverted personality, a product of his aforementioned lifestyle and career choice, that has allowed him to comfortably construct emotional barriers to prevent himself getting too close to those around him. Stranded in a remote community, he quickly finds himself caught up in local dramas, mostly surrounding a dangerously escalating clash between the working loggers and protesting greenies, and the emotional epicenter of a distraught mother and her two children, who lost their father under suspicious circumstances.

Though the premise is intriguing, The Hunter unfortunately flip-flops in execution.

No longer able to rely on extensive descriptive terminology and somewhat limitless exposition found in literature, the linear and restrictive narrative enforced by film takes it’s toll, particularly on Martin’s relationships. Willem Dafoe, as usual, performs well and above expectations, completely embodying the character of Martin and his inner conflicts, but the limited screen time dedicated to people around him and their intertwining relationships – particularly in how they affect Martin – lack the convincing developments needed to sell their importance. >

Willem Dafoe and Frances O’Connor in The Hunter.

> While Dafoe deserves no criticism, a disappointing performance by the film’s other big name actor, Sam Neill, and undeveloped characters all round, too often make it seem like The Hunter is spelling out events and relationships rather than genuinely developing them. Oftentimes it’s easy to peg a film that has been adapted from a written story, and The Hunter sadly struggles to shake this title, missing opportunity and potential that would have been hooked by snappier narrative writing.

All is not lost, however, as beneath the problems lies a legitimately intriguing plot. Martin’s metamorphosis from a cold, gun for hire to a relatable and emotionally driven human is inspiring to watch, and as Martin uncovers the mystery of this supposed last remaining thylacine, the symbolism and parallels of his adventure slowly unravel.

And If Dafoe’s performance and the admittedly still enjoyable plot aren’t enough to make The Hunter worth a watch, then the beautiful cinematography should be. Daniel Nettheim and crew have stepped outside of the usual Hollywood conventions to film gorgeous Australian landscapes.The breathtaking vistas and misty horizons of Tasmanian rainforests and swamps are a refreshing change for a medium sorely lacking in captivating shots of Australia’s natural wonder. After seeing The Hunter don’t be surprised if you feel like jumping on the next plane to Tassie to track down your own extinct marsupial (sans all the emotional drama).

The Hunter will be released Nationally on 6 October 2011.

GREETINGS FROM

GOL GOL

Leaving Sleepy Hollow on a sunny Sunday morning. The hills peter out soon enough and we’re rolling through endless plains, very sparsely treed, just the occasional old man red gum that the farmer hasn’t got around to cutting down. Forty years of driving past on the combine harvester muttering to himself, “ I must cut down that fucking tree before I die”.

It gets so monotonous that I wake up my sleepy navigator when I see a hill. “Look Jaz, a whole mountain range”. Turns out it’s just piles of wheat covered in blue plastic.

So much wheat they don’t know what to do with it. The silos are full so they just pile it up higgledy-piggledy. Did you know we grow enough wheat to feed one hundred million people? We could feed the whole of Africa, but they can’t afford it, and we can’t give it to them as it would have a detrimental effect on prices. A pity really, to watch them all starve to death while our wheat feeds a billion mice.

I do love nothing more than rolling down the highway, with my arm out the window, singing at the top of my lungs, watching our shadow race across the waving grass, but it’s such a guilty pleasure these days.

The sad little towns roll by, so picturesque in their evanescence; Inglewood, Nhill, Speed (?), Whichiproof, Rainbow. The locals have taken to propping effigies in the street to make it look bustling. It’s such a long time since they sold anything at the general store that they have changed the sign to Antiques. The flood has finally subsided in Charlton, but not the anger; lots of big hand-painted signs cursing the loathsome insurance companies. Plenty of squashed animals on the road as usual.

Lucky I brought my trusty pocket guide to identifying 2D wildlife. I am always pleased to see the dead animals on the side of the road, it means there must be plenty more out there; the smart ones. If there were none that would be a worry.

Lots of signs on the highway to keep one amused on the long journey; signs to keep you awake; ‘Don’t sleep and drive!’ The previous sign demanded ‘Take a power nap now!’ I did, but ran off the road almost immediately. One sign says; ‘Concentrate on the road. Do not read this sign!’ A hand-made sign says: ‘Salt 4 Sale’. Last year it said: ‘Hay 4 Sale’.

Those clusters of tall concrete silos at railway sidings remind me of cigarettes, so I get the uncontrollable urge to light up. Apparently they have been classified as subliminal advertising and must bear a sign stating ‘This is not a giant cigarette’. Great behemoths whiz by constantly, carting several tons of pesticides from one saturated paddock to another, and they wonder why we’re reluctant to eat that shit.

As the sun reaches it’s zenith we pull into Rainbow.

I thought Castlemaine was quiet. The floor on the general store is worn down to the knots, the faded frocks in the window are just coming into fashion again now. The place is as empty as the Marie Celeste. We could have strolled out with a brand new gramophone.

We’d come to ferret out an old mate from a bygone era. Last time I laid eyes on Fabian he was an angelic youth with a mop of blonde curls and a butterfly net glued to his hand. His hair is now short and grey, but he still clutches the net. He has a sinecure locating colonies of critically endangered insects and preserving their habitat before they become evolutionary history. The last skerricks of natural bush consist of thin slivers on the roadside verge, so Fabian drives around all day then plucks his specimens from the radiator; the modern day version of the butterfly net.

As the sun sinks in the west, appropriately enough, we find a lovely little spot on the Murray at Gol Gol. Time is of the essence, so we quickly set up tent, lasso dead branches – there is no dry wood below four metres – light fire, make tea, sit, relax. Aahh, the great outdoors. Soon enough we hear the chug chug chug of The African Queen as she rounds the big river bend, but to our dismay it is just another party of cashed up Bogans on their Super Deluxe Houseboat, belching and farting and spewing their way to oblivion. With typical Bogan sensitivity they weigh anchor directly across the river and immediately start up the doof doof music and the outboard on the dingy and the jet skis and even the mini bike, all accompanied by much guffawing and yelling of ribald abuse. There goes the neighbourhood. I did have the naïve notion that the locals loved the Murray River, despite them constantly referring to it as ‘The Main Drain’, but it seems they only ever get upset when it is too low for their beloved water-skiing. When, after exhaustive studies that cost millions of dollars by learned people with letters after their names, the government suggested ever so meekly that maybe, just maybe, we could give a wee squidgeon of precious water back to the iconic river to stave off complete ecological breakdown, the collective response from the mouth to the headwaters was emphatic; the proposal was torn to shreds and stomped on and burnt in a giant bonfire reminiscent of Crystal Nacht.

And what, prey tell, do they actually do with all that lovely water they suck from the river with their massive diesel pumps day and night? They feed the World Wide Wine Glut, or they grow so many oranges they rot on the trees. And if you think that‘s bad, you should see what the dry land farmers get up to; the seasons are so erratic out in the Mallee you get a good crop one year in every three or four if you’re lucky, but you never know how things will pan out so you plough the field anyway, sow the crop, pray for rain and hope for the best. If you get the best you’re laughing all the way to the bank, if you get the worst, seven thousand acres of topsoil ends up in New Zealand where it is said to give the snow a lovely pink tinge.

Ben Laycock September 2011 www.benlaycock.com.au

Numbers You Can Numbers * Count On You Can Count On* *When audited by the CAB

*When audited by the CAB

COvER: BACK TO BACK ThEATRE, Ganesh Versus the Third Reich. Photo by Jeff Busby.

Presented by malthouse Theatre and melbourne Festival, merlyn Theatre, The malthouse, 113 Sturt Street Southbank (viC), 29 September – 9 October 2011. www.malthousetheatre.com.au ABOUT ThE PRODUCTiON: Back to Back Theatre creates new forms of contemporary theatre imagined from the minds and experiences of a unique ensemble of actors with disabilities, giving voice to social and political issues that speak to all people. Based in Geelong, Australia, the company makes work locally and tours globally. Directed by Bruce Gladwin. Devisors mark Deans, marcia Ferguson, Bruce Gladwin, Simon Laherty, Sarah mainwaring, Scott Price, Kate Sulan, Brian Tilley and David Woods. Lighting Design Andrew Livingston, Bluebottle Design. Construction mark Cuthbertson. Costume Design Shio Otani. Performed by mark Deans, Simon Laherty, Scott Price, Brian Tilley and David Woods. http://backtobacktheatre.com/ Issue 84 October 2011 Trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture, distributing to over 1,200 locations Nationally. CAB Membership Application approved, October 2010.

Published by Newstead Press Pty Ltd, PO Box 177 NEWSTEAD 3462. ISSN 1449-3926 ABN 46 138 023 524 STAFF: administration Vanessa Boyack - admin@introuble.com.au | editorial & advertising Steve Proposch - art@introuble.com.au | listings - listings@introuble.com.au CONTRIBUTORS: Mandy Ord, Gerard Elson, Proudly Audited by Jase Harper, Bambam, Liza Dezfouli, Courtney Symes, Jean-François Vernay, Helen Rickards, Patrick Jones, Jarrod Mawson, Ben Laycock, Ive Sorocuk. Subscribe to our website - www.introuble.com.au information DIS IS DE DISCLAIMER! The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily thoseFor of more the publisher.

To visit www.auditbureau.org.au 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 Proudly Audited in whole or in part in any form without prior permission of the publisher. Trouble is distributed from the first of everyby month of publication but accepts no responsibility for any inconvenience or financial loss in the event of delays. Phew!

For more information visit www.auditbureau.org.au