Tickled Pink in association with the Breast Cancer Network Australia

From 7 – 31 October 2009, Tickled Pink will be hosted at Artereal Gallery in Rozelle (Australia) to support Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) – the peak national organisation representing Australians personally affected by breast cancer.

The director, staff and artists from Artereal Gallery and the broader arts community have come together to organise the Tickled Pink fundraising event, which is an exhibition of work by 25 of Australia’s finest contemporary artists.

Opening night pink drinks with the artists and tasty pink treats will be served on Wed Oct 7 from 6 – 8 pm.

The art work exhibited includes sculptures, works on paper, oil paintings, photographs and mixed media works made specifically for the exhibition by leading local and interstate artists such as Kate Rhode, Claude Jones, Damian Dillon, Andrew Lavery, Christine Polowyj , Cecilia Fogelberg, Glen Henderson, Sarah Parker, Anne MacDonald, Sylvia Schwenk, Ruth Hassall, Nola Diamantopoulos and Cash Brown.

Nola Diamantopoulos has generously donated her time and expertise to hold workshops for women living with breast cancer to explore their journeys through art making and meditation. Some of these works will also be exhibited, and we gratefully acknowledge Tilly’s Art Supplies for donating the workshop materials.

Money raised from the sale of artworks and activities during the event will directly assist BCNA to continue its work ensuring Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer have the very best information, treatment and support possible.

This includes the distribution of the My Journey Kit, a free comprehensive information resource for women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. BCNA works to ensure that women diagnosed with breast cancer, and their families, receive the very best treatment, care and support possible – no matter who they are, or where they live.

BCNA acknowledges the tremendous efforts of Artereal Gallery, Art Almanac, Tilly’s Art and Office Supplies, Darling Park Wines, The Art Scene and the artists in supporting our work, and encourages the local community to participate and help to make a difference to women and their families.

Artereal Gallery
Street:  747 Darling Street
Rozelle, NSW Australia

Opens: 6pm. Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Digital Fringe is calling for Youuuuuuuuu.

Ferret around your hard drives for (video, stills or audio), dig out those gems and have your work seen on hundreds of public screens in Melbourne.

Uploaded content will play on an extensive network of screens around the world: from retail television display walls to huge urban screens, hospitality venues, galleries, libraries and many other public nooks and crannys.

Visit digitalfringe.com.au to submit your works and for more festival info, or contact us – people@digitalfringe.com.au

Digital Fringe is produced by Horse Bazaar as part of the MelbourneFringe Festival (September 23 – October 11)

Crappy Taxidermy

Wow this is pretty errr interesting. Basically a site made up of photographic contributors who are well – taxidermists. Either that or some people just have a lot of time on their hands, a fascination for death and morose sense of humour.

http://crappytaxidermy.com/

The site operates via a TUMBLR dashboard and I must say all the recent raves about Tumblr appear to be true. It does seem to rival Twitter in respect of what you can post and fashion to customise an individual look and feel! I haven’t sorted mine out yet but I’m working on it. GG

Nicolas Guilbert Animals and Company

The eye of the photographer Nicolas Guilbert takes us on a journey. In some shots, it summarizes the relationship between animals: homo sapiens, that is placed on top of the pyramid of the food chain and intelligence, and others, those he meets, he deals often lovingly, sometimes cruellyThe exhibition coincides with the ‘Open’, during which all the exhibition spaces of the village of Mougins are celebrating.For the occasion, music, theater, dance and performance are part of the program.

Human history is intimately linked to that of animals.The development of societies in the Neolithic age was a leap forward from the time when domestication began. The hunter became farmer, he began to accumulate wealth. Well before urban legend, the myth was strongly present in all civilizations.How many animals have inhabited the imagination of our ancestors with these creatures half men, half horses (centaurs), half man, half bull (the Minotaur was captured with Picasso), and Horus Falcon head up King Kong in our modern mythology.

The meeting between animal and human
Illustration: Nicolas Guilbert Prix d’Amérique, Hippodrome de Vincennes, 2007

Also, the different animals there between countries and often characterizes them. The cow is sacred and untouchable in India, it provides good steaks elsewhere.The same goes for the dog, the subject of attention hovering ridicule care and psychological care, beauty, accessories out of prices and services are regularly incongruous menu emissions sensational. In fact, dogs are also on the menu of some Asian restaurants. What is unbearable for some delicious becomes for others: a question of latitude, history, need also … latitudes, Nicolas Guilbert has traveled more than one. Its purpose is primarily to observe the moment of the encounter between animality and humanity: the man with the animal when the animal with human achievement.

Birds against a background of architecture
Monuments define new areas of development which animals adapt.They are also the structures of the image of the photographer who knows exploit their lines of force.Observe the city is often looked up and often watch the Waltz of volatile agility which contrasts with the architectural hieratic. Nicolas Guilbert shows how the animal is rooted in each of us is part of our daily lives, sharpen our curiosity and feeds our fascination.It also shows the black and white, how humanity can transcribe through each animal and gives this simple fact, new colors to our eyes.

The brilliant work of Nicolas Guilbert.

Covering the Mirrors, roadside memorials project

Covering the Mirrors documents a resistance, a reversal; where each ‘roadside memorial’ undermines the (non-) nature of the motorway space.

The proliferation of non-space seems perversely natural; airports, freeways, shopping centres, stations and hubs appear at each turn and beyond every turn off. These vast areas designed for functionality, supposed progress, in fact programmatically efface ‘the local’ with its community interests and historical presence; this leaves empty meaningless space in abundance.

Contrary to intent the ‘universal network’ actually isolates the individual by atomizing the community. It does this through an expanding ‘grid’ of interstitial non-spaces that affects all aspects of daily life – from our environment through to our emotions. No longer are these in-between zones mere links; they are fast-forming generic centres, places in and of themselves – that control and re-order the social experience.

Yet the presence of roadside memorials somehow resists this deterritorialization. As the visual markers carry with them a sacred significance and a small piece of history, which once situated in monotonous space they activate a subversion of the spatial homogenization. Suddenly these non-spaces are filled with meaning. These shrines with their folk rituals and cult following hint at a growing social dissent – as an emergent material culture they tap into an underlying collective impulse to reclaim lost space.

Taking the roadside memorial as his starting point, Neuman uses a variety of lens-based media, and techniques that span from appropriation to documentary to the staged, to critically respond to physical and cultural changes in the Australian landscape.

Host:
Don’t Look Experimental New Media Gallery
From – Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 6:00pm til  Saturday, July 25, 2009
Location:  Don’t Look Experimental New Media Gallery
Street:  419 New Canterbury Rd, Dulwich Hill, Sydney, NSW (426/428/445 bus)
Phone:  0401152434
Web: http://www.myspace.com/dontlookgallery
Email:  dontlookgallery@gmail.com

Fallen Princesses

Dina Goldstein aka Honey is developing a substantial portfolio of artwork that places Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios.

“In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘…happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

The project was inspired by my observation of three-year-old girls, who were developing an interest in Disney’s Fairy tales. As a new mother I have been able to get a close up look at the phenomenon of young girls fascinated with Princesses and their desire to dress up like them. The Disney versions almost always have sad beginning, with an overbearing female villain, and the end is predictably a happy one. The Prince usually saves the day and makes the victimized young beauty into a Princess”.

Source: http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/11918

Neda Agha Soltan and the Ethics of Imagery

Excerpt from an article by Fred Ritchin…

Video of the death of Neda Agha Soltan, who was shot in the chest as she stood near a peaceful protest in Tehran this Saturday, has become a powerful symbol as it has spread worldwide through social websites and news media alike. But for news organizations, this video also poses hard questions: When, how and in what context should we use graphic, violent, deeply upsetting images and video?

In the first in a series of guest posts, author and NYU photography professor Fred Ritchin addresses what journalists need to know.

The 1972 photograph by Nick Ut of children being napalmed in Vietnam, an iconic image that did much to focus the world on the war’s horror, was almost not published because it showed a traumatized, naked Vietnamese girl from the front.

Source Dart Center

Desktop Create Awards

The call for entries in the 2009 create:awards is now open so get cracking and submit your entry before 3pm on July 15th (deadline extended) to share in up to $50,000 in cash and prizes. Now in it’s fifth year the Desktop create:awards have not only spent the past half decade showcasing the best in Australian design from a broad range of industry fields including illustration, photography, website design, animation, print, multimedia, packaging and emerging talent. In 2009 Desktop are looking to take create: to a whole new level by introducing the first ever Desktop design expo to be held in conjunction with the awards event, transforming create: into a huge industry celebration designed to bring together everyone from designers and creatives through to freelance design warriors and advertising agencies, printers and paper merchants, marketing managers and software and hardware developers.

More info from Desktop mag -Create Awards.

Melbourne City Wiki

Tell Melbourne what you hope for it’s future. Write a message or add a drawing; be its voice and imagination. Help craft a future for Melbourne’s next generations.

City Wiki is based on the concept that the future of design for cities will be strongly centered on human interaction supported by multimedia and technology. The interactive installation is a means of recording collective ideas and personal responses. Photos, video footage and comments of City Wiki are posted online daily, promoting ongoing discourse and further involvement in creating a future for our city.

17 – 24 July, 24 hours
Location: Higson Lane, Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 9654 3644
Cost: Free

Source: State of Design

Changing Landscapes – 10 years of images from Lake Cowal

Changing Landscapes is a photographic exhibition documenting the story of Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, and their operations in the culturally and ecologically significant area of Lake Cowal. Lake Cowal is an ephemeral lake experiencing periods of flooding and drying in 20-year cycles. The Lake is not only a Nationally significant wetland but is known as the Sacred Heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation.

Covering a 10 year period the exhibition explores the beauty of Lake Cowal and the stark changes on the landscape through gold mining. Exploring the natural changes through drought and the changes created by human intervention Changing Landscapes aims to inform the community and wider public about the environmental impacts of Barrick’s gold mine at Lake Cowal. The photographs tell a dramatic story of struggle and beauty in the face of the resource boom.

Tortuga Studios
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
6:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: 31 Princess Highway, opp BP garage in Sydney Park, NSW, Australia
Phone: 0415380808