AVANTWHATEVER

Curated by Tom Hall (Brisbane)

WHEN:

26th Nov. - 7pm
Bum Creek
Tom Hall (Brisbane)
Mark Reid
Marco Cher-Gibard

3rd Dec. - 7pm
Robin Fox
Bonnie Mercer
Ben Byrne

10th Dec - 7pm
Make Up Sex (Sophie Brous & Tarquin Manek)
Daniel Jenatsch
Christina Tester
Scot Cotterell (Hobart)

Doors open 6.30pm
Performance 7-9pm

WHERE:
Guildford Lane Gallery
20 – 24 Guildford Lane
Melbourne

ADMISSION IS FREE

Commencing with a spectacular evening on November 26th, Guildford Lane Gallery is
launching its newest program The Wednesday Project. The inaugural Project, titled
INTWINED, is curated by Brisbane media artist Tom Hall. The series is programmed to span
three consecutive Wednesdays and features a huge line-up of visual, media, sound and
performance artists.

The Wednesday Project is a dynamic new program aiming to promote marginal, peripheral and/or
ephemeral art forms. It also intends to encourage critical forums including but not limited to:
lectures, talks, music, theatre, performance and dance.

Artists will include: Robin Fox (Yokohama Triennale, Melbourne Festival and Sounds Outback
festival in WA.), Bonnie Mercer of the Grey Daturas and Tom Hall himself (Nasic Square Gallery,
Open Frame Festival, Otherfilm Festival, Perth International Arts Festival) amongst many others.
These artists are extreme adventurers who combine themes of improvisation, experimentation,
collaboration, science contemporary theatre and other visceral elements drawn from everyday
music, life, culture and art. Placing an importance on new discoveries which will challenge you to
see hear and exist within art in an entirely different way.

Featuring Artists: Ben Byrne, Rene Christen, Cameron Foster, Daniel Green,
Emily Morandini, William Noble, Beth Norling, Alex White

Curated by: Katherine Byrne

Opening: Tuesday 11th November, 2008 6-8pm
Exhibition: 12th-22nd November, 2008
Open: Wednesday - Saturday 12-6pm

Serial Space
33 Wellington St Chippendale (see pdf for map)
The portrait of the Artist, starving, frozen in his garret, suffering for his art is one of the more well known clichés but for all the dramatisations of the artist’s plight, the reality is that the vast majority of practicing artists must balance their artistic life with a paid one. This often means electing to either live in relative comfort with full time paid work and struggle to find the time and energy to keep up their artistic practice. Or, to juggle various part time jobs to create the flexibility and time their art life demands leaving instead a struggle at times to make ends meet. The Business of being an Artist explores this dilemma and the different solutions artists adopt to manage these conflicting areas of their lives.

For this exhibition eight artists have been asked to create works which form the beginning of an exploration of the effects, both bad and good, that this daily balancing act has on their artistic practices. Each work is a self-reflexive exploration of the compromises these artists make each day to allow them to make the art they feel driven to create.

It’s that time of year again, the time when the annual This Is Not Art and Electrofringe festival roll around in Newcastle. This year the festivals run from October 2 to 6 in Newcastle, Australia and though for the first time in quite a while I won’t be involved in running the show I will be there as an artist, performing on the Saturday night as well as appearing with The Splinter Orchestra and getting my hands dirty with some panels, workshops and presentations (for full details head over to the live section). Ignoring my own involvement I urge you all to come along as the program looks rather exciting, particularly with performances from KK Null, Domenico Sciajno, Birchville Cat Motel, Maruosa and Mount Eerie scheduled as part of this year’s gigs. For all the information head to www.thisisnotart.org and check out the program page.

Alright, so this coming Wednesday, August 6th I have a work in a show Daniel Green has curated opening at firstdraft in Surry Hills. The show’s called It’s all been done before and my work is called Necessary Protection. All the details are as follows:

The opening runs from 6 – 8pm, and the exhibition runs from August the 6th to the 16th. There are even artist talks on August the 16th at 4:30pm if you feel that way inclined. If you are otherwise unaware firstdraft itself is located at 116 - 118 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills.

And by way of explanation, here’s some further information from the curator himself:

Curation is an everyday activity that when put on display can be considered one of the greater forms of vanity available to us as both artists and people. Through the act of curation, Daniel Green is displaying a collection of works by people who have influenced and inspired him. These works are in turn, covers of earlier works which have inspired the people who have inspired Green.

In a way, It’s all been done before is a grand scale exercise in honouring our source material. It is about doing more than just playing favourites; rather, asking why they are favourites in the first place and finding ways of re-presenting them to encourage others to consider what inspires them, what their ‘favourites’ are and explore the impact it has had in their lives.

It’s all been done before explores this challenging subject through a wide variety of mediums and artists, both those taking part in creating the covers and those being covered in the hope that you can consider what your sources are.