surveillance or EOI (expression of interest)

This sign kind of looks like a poker-faced invitation to express a free-for-all remedial therapy on the way to work, school , city, home, footy, movies etc,.., if it is then a big thanks to Queensland Rail for cleaning & maintaining this canvas and also for documenting the many performances on a 24hr file, an energetic patron of the arty flair.

winter time and the spirits start flowing

Well it's not actually that cold up here in Bris.. BUT , still, it's all relative
The forms above were moulded from a china nip glass & then three action legs were attached.
They kind of look TOO still for my own taste. A bit like the kindly, sometimes difficult fellas leaning up against the bar , some chop-kung action would be good , difficult to catch these days, need to broaden the outlook probably

show stuff

I'm a bit behind the opening gates but this is at least a squiz at invites to a couple of shows swimming amongst the great ocean of june art stuff about at the moment.

Manly Art Gallery & Museum in Sydney has its WHite Heat on as part of the ceramics triennale happening in July . It's likely a fancy (my own) but there seems to be a ceramic phenomenon flapping about Aus for the next couple of months .

The second invite is to a show at Fusions gallery in Fortitude Valley Bris . It has work by past & present students who studied over at Southbank.. south of the Brisbane River near the bank. It's curated by one of my old 'master' teachers Ronelle Clarke.

I learnt all the first clay stuff at Southbank, saw a kiln for the first time learnt about glaze , clay bodies , digging for clay-geezus..,pottery politics, etc etc.

HOWEVER I have a favourite memory. It was a performance piece with my good mate mel aka feffakookan and two other great artists (in forming) . I dont have a memory as to why we did it or for what subject or the conceptual significance except our teacher was Ronelle Clarke.

Mel was kind of naked except for bandages we'd wrapped about her boobs etc and Marga was freely slapping fist-fulls of terraccota slip all over her while making improvised voice sounds, kind of like whale calls, meanwhile timo was dressed in his leather gear dancing about the bedlam with a demented kind of punk demeanour, doing a bit of voice impro too. It went on until mel was completly covered - a teracotta statue .Meanwhile I was hidden in waiting in a plynth with a little rectangle port which the spectators were eventually lead to at the end for a psuedo lucky dip. When they put their hand into the void it was kissed or licked & pressed like applying a postage stamp or had a used teabag placed in it. Yes, totally weird , but its a honoured memory.

I found this book on kiln construction at the local market. It was published in 1968, Pennsylvania. Back then it cost $7.50 (American) for this cloth version, or $3.50 for the paper back. All of the drawings and photographs were made by the author Dan Rhodes and there's a lot illustrating blokes stoking kilns. The one above is a personal favourite, he's leaning into the stoking groove and looking cheerful about his technique. Oddly all of the illustrations depict the men without clothes, something to do with form ? heat, clay? or Dan?

talking of constipation

This image was taken by Sydney photographer Paul Symons (courtesy Janette Loughrey).
Think I made it around 2003 looks wheelthrown with a pulled handle and a rolled spout.
The toilet hypothesis seems to be a recurring theme.

constipation

These gates and doors are at Adelaide Gaol, its kind of a gruesome place, but its a tourist destination.They seem a bit like the blocks in my pea-brain when my ideas for clay and my actual technical ability are miles apart. Small problems, at least I'm free-(ish) although a little technically constipated.

Ker Plunk

Some pics of a piece of work I'm slowly building up. The head-cups have been made using three molds : a cup, a lid , and a doll-head. The head when cast was a basic form without detail , the ears and mouth have been carved in when leatherhard. Its a bit of a slow process with a second small pour of slip added to the front of the head and ear area to allow for mouth and ear detail.

The thought behind it so far is of an army of opinionated pacifists clinging to the philosophy of peacable coexistance. Their only weapon is a cup of tea which they employ to annihilate, or at least numb, with endless hours of meaningless talk. The thermoses are like the huge wooden hollow figures left outside of Troy by the Greeks when they feined retreat only to be dragged inside to reveal the army concealed inside and the final asault . Trojans.

There's a secondary thinking behind it all ( a bit long winded) which could and likely will conclude all this brain fluff within another context . With roots though I hope.

Flipbook

New works on paper by artists Caitlin Sheedy and Jonathan McBurnie opens tomorrow night 17th April 7pm at Flipbookgallery, 8 Greet St West End. It shows until the 2nd of May.

These are some product pics taken using a new 2nd hand photog light.

It's made the chore of recording work efficient, almost enjoyable.

It has four daylight fluro globes that radiate a dome of such glowing soft light it looks like the second coming or an alien abduction is about to occur in the lounge room.

Now there'll be no more lurking around in the shadows of buildings looking for some soft light without wind gusts. The set-up still needs work.

Today I finally popped this form . I've been trying to make it happen on and off since Christmas.The first attempt was a failure and was trashed, piece of crap. Half -way through this 2nd attempt it lost me so it sat breathing heavily behind my back . Anyway, now it pours and releases as it should. It's an old thermos from the '60's, a plastic family heirloom.

This evening brushed on 'brush-on' glaze , goes on eeasy, ready for 2nd fire t'morrow.

Today

More jugs, spoons & boxes ,up at a sparrows fart to load a little bisque fire. There's some Marys over on the left of the image above too, they're always around and keep multiplying like rabbits.

A five hr 30 minute firing which is okay for a single phase I guess. A two hour burn would be finer though, it'd free up some time for the real world .

oh willow

When I see ceramic willow-ware I think of my willow esky. Until ceramic school it was the only 'willow' in my life.

The history of the willow esky starts in 1887 when two sons of pom immigrants began building metal working machinery at the back of their house in Flemington Victoria using a lathe, chisel, hammer and file... crafty. With a 70 pound loan from their father this turned into a business partnership , new premises in Wilsons Lane North Melb and the manufacture of tin plated tea and buscuit canisters. In the '20's the brothers moved premises again to Buncle St , modernised a bit and had success with a range of printed metal kitchen ware decorated with the traditional Willow Pattern design and the trademark WILLOW was registered and applied to the whole kitchenware range -whether decorated or not.

There were 18 hour days, land booms , bank failures, the great depression , two world wars .. it goes on. The strengthening of the Aus$ caused a massive increase in competition in the '80's from Choina and Thailand. They survived the market with bakeware, microwave cooking gear, and food storage plastic ware.I think the company is still manufacturing at an automated plant out at Tullamarine.

unlikely

If I had an orange coloured arse would it be as competively popular as continental silver metalic and steel grey 'metalic' coloured cars.

questionable

If I had outward facing genitalia would I paint it red white and blue and salute it oftenly.

cream rises

Ginny Jones exhibition in progress is on at Metro - 109 Edward St Bris, Q.

These images don't do it justice.It's in a huge space with 'seductive' natural light from big old warehouse type windows.It's massive really. The best thing is it evolves throughout the entire showing time , 7 days ( J'sus) and then ends in a cellebration. If I had a trumpet I'd be blowing it.

Ode to my car

Just moved in to this work plce which is divided/ shared with five others. It's bacically a shed which is attached to a small gallery space with more work spaces upstairs inhabited by 'fine' ( & clean) artspeople....situated close to the kitchen & toilet. They mostly dress darkly & smoke a lot.. outlaws without laws?, does that mean anything?
Anyway the main motivation for taking this space was the skylight. No idea I even desired such a thing until I saw it. Like seeing the olympics on a plasma I suppose
But it's kind of 'lovely' which is a weird situation to be in.
Still, my car's a piece of shit and there's peak hour traffic

Limerickly sensitive xxx xxx xxxxx xxxxxx/or speaking in tongues

An enormously round girl ,Regina

Employed a young water diviner,

To play a slick trick

With his prick as a stick

To help her locate her Vagina

Like much of what it celebrates, the limerick can easily become addictive.
My name's bumcrane and I'm an addict.

Universal impact

This is a detail of an installation piece titled Keep Calm And Carry On by Mel Robson.
I'm often drawn to the cross in an artwork and with all the media coverage of the Pope-y business my 'o-ne' eye seems even more groomed to focused this way ( not terminal ). This panoramic piece starts out firstly with a silouette of a German looking Tommy-gun , then a faithful looking homing pidgeon , then this group of crosses..,then our Australian emblem with Kangaroo, Emu, Southern Cross and little Tassy underneath, then a bread knife ,and finally the I.D dog tags soldiers wear and which, in the event of their death, are placed in the mouth for identification.
This is one of six other installation pieces all made with slipcast pocelain for Mels show opening this Saturday night at Jan Manton Gallery, 59 Melbourne St South Bris. So 'Do yourself a favour' b-cause it'll be a ripper. There's also some luminary pieces by Susan Lincoln opening in the adjoining Gallery. Its on until August 16th.

collaboration,

ryhms with anticipation which reminds me of the Carly Simon song A-N-t-i-S--I-pa-TION,..
and the other one , Your so Vein etc etc...clouds in my coffee ra ra.
Above is a pic of a Margaret Dodd Monaro. Its been slip cast from a six piece mold with paper clay using Alison Arnolds spec recipe..porcelain low fired clay with toilet paper and some dispex.
Its sweet to use and together with Margaret , Alison has made some fine transluscent pieces.
There's an opening t'morow night at the J Factory in Adelaide along with some other great work
So have a squiz if your around , its on for about a month or more.

Gordon Bennett

Notes To Basquiat: Perfect Teeth 2000

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

182.5 x 182.5

The Gordon Bennett show is on in town at Goma, Gallery 3. If you're about have a look its on until 3rd August.

..'the teeth they were all around'

False teeth often have a certain odour

it hangs around unconcerned like a tart in the left/right, or both, nostril/s.

But 'Me' IS off to S.A next week for some clay surface work on Monaros and Comadores ,I'm almost swaying.

lampas pampas,hippocampus

Its a symposium.

or it could be a drinking party with conversation

i

Its got legs

The fleshy-est port ever to walk earth

Hamada Tells Stories

Above some pics of forms in waiting for a firing in a kiln named Shoji Hamada in Adelaide. Hamadas name is printed in black texta on the front of the door of the kiln.. so ..?..well it could be lucky?. A kind of anointed quirky finger crossing ? Sounds hopeful on my part anyway.

Shoji was a leading potter of Japan in the early to mid 20th C.He founded the Japanese folkcraft movement with a mate/mentor Soetsu Yanagi and another fellow Kawai.

Perhaps Shoji and Soetsu might prefer us to fire in another kiln to their left but as that wasn't an option I've looked out a book on the guys. In a scroll Soetsu presented to the Folkcraft Museum of Tokyo they described the people they would serve tea to and the ones whom they would not-"Yanagi Soetsu, in serving tea from the heart, would serve one cup to an ascetic priest, a pilgrim coming to the temple for meditation, a clear-hearted priest, a Buddhist layman seeking for truth, a destitute fellow traveler, a beautiful woman grown old, a naive youth, a kind-hearted girl, a man who doesn't use flattery, and a frugal man from the country". A romantic and fuzzy sentiment I know. But theres more. "Yanagi would serve no tea to a man proud of his money, a sham master, a pallid tea server, a neophyte at tea who boasts of his skill, a tea ceremony addict, a person crazy about things with no eye for them, a snobbish scholar, an extravagant wife, a greedy merchant, or a flatterer".

Sure this would rule out all my neighbours, plus more.

Still great to have a conviction and all that, gives ideas although maybe to an opposite direction or sentiment completely.

The first picture above is of the Shoji Kiln packed with Fj holdens.

Second pic is of Margaret Dodd in front of Shoji.

Third, fourth and fifth pics are forms of Holdens with scratched, coloured, and painted etc surfaces before bisque.

funk

During the 1960's & 70's the use of clay was becoming separated/split from the philosophical and aesthetic lifestyle of the lechian influence which had dominated western ceramics for 40 years (a biblical climax?). Clay was beginning to be used as a medium for social commentry conveying political, moral and personal issues.
A movement labeled 'Funk Art' emerged from Davis (University of California) in a building called TB-9 :- Temporary building 9, a metal building with insulation sprayed on the inside..sounds characteristically familiar.
Perhaps one of the better known ceramic sculptural artists to become known beyond the art and craft world from this environment is South Australian, Margaret Dodd. During the 1970's & 80's Margaret produced clay sculptures of FJ Holdens as metaphors for Australian identity. The Bridal Holden above is her vision of a virginal innocent bride with rosebuds, veil and satin underpants. 'It is the ultimate absurdity of unity displayed between a masculine Australian icon and feminine spectacle achieved fully in the ritual of marriage'.
Margaret is working towards a show at the Jam Factory in July titled 'Chosen Vessel -Australias own car' and as part of a collaboration team , the other two artists being Alison Arnold and Ian Mowbray, I'll be winging off to Adelaide for a bit of clay play. What a buzz.

toot

meanwhile..as thomas goes around and around, the kilns fire on and on

Hoy

A local collective of elderly people gather to play Hoy ( like Bingo but 'HOY' ). Here, you are where you sit, "power seating". A strategically placed table indicates to the community your prominent and important position. It's so important that major players assign a PR type nazi to make sure their seat is bagged ages before the game so as not to play second fiddle to anyone. Wrongly placed seating can ruin images. Etiquette lives on and on

hang baby then weep

Found this rant-ly titled work tucked away in the back of a doc file stacked full of nasty obscene works with dramatic dialogues of perpetual melodrama, this ones artsy safe. ( I think).

Looking at some of it has been like visiting the reverse of a gallery full of white canvases titled untitled.

A garbage dump.

Also a scanned letter , "I wont be at your show because your 'art' baffles and leaves me queasy"etc. A year 5 art show (11yrs old) and I had accused her brother of sniffing carpet glue, so there you go.

The above piece was looking at kids of families being held in Baxter detention centre for up to 5 years while their refugee status was looked into by the Federal Government of the time.

They were imprisoned behind two tall electric barbed fences 10 kilometres out of Port Augusta in South Australia which was built at a cost of 44 million dollars, but hey the sunsets were beautiful..according to the then immigration minister Kevin (fukwit) Andrews. It was closed down in August 2007 and the remaining refugees were farmed out to other centres.

A Postage stamp

Isn't she a beaut. Dressed to advantage in their best bib and tucker.

Renal Man

Reincarnation or time travel could it be possible?., ? . I met a man today in a Dr 's surgery, thought I'd seen him in a publication or newspaper , or something . I've just found him in the Thames and Hudsons 'A History Of Art'. Weird he's an Alaskan war helmet from the 1800's. Oddly contemporary, but reeal inspiring.

Style

Is your hair style like your art style?
Have a look in the mirror, it's a thought.
Think modern ironed semi bob, perm (natural counts), stump fringe, dark roots ,blond flick, pony tail, shaved, wind blown , untouched, cricketers flick ,tight wrap, long urban fringe etc.etc. Or is your art reflecting your other ( prefered ) hair style?
Or is the hair style reflecting you and therefore it all adds up to your style.
Or am I thinking more about arts workers here?
Everything overlaps.
Personally I dont think my hair says anything about my art.
I've been to Andy Warhol 3 times and a lot of his art seems visible in his hair and subsequent wig work. Its a hindsight thought which is likely irrelavant, and biased by knowledge,without
any kind of science. Still it's something to look out for.

The xmas wheel mould

Where there's a wheel there's a way. Happy holidays.

Dead pigs have no friends,

this was originally an early French saying , recorded by pom english in the mid 19th century. The context was often of political and revolutionary violence.

I thought about this today standing in woolies for the big Leg 'o ' Ham chrissy special .

I felt an urge to start an overthhrow of the capitalist consumer and cram all the pink air wrapped porkers in my trolly and make a roll for the exit, past the 8 items or less checkout la la 'lady' in a revolutionary gesture to all piggies. Possibly the violence could be in the car park with the security gentleman, ( dreaming )

The "mindful moral" here: Send a fool to the market and a fool she will return.. we have lamb

This is saying something

about...reverse osmosis technology? not sure but its unwell, if it was breathing i might give it a hug but i could also push it out of the way on a bad day if I was rushing, home or something.

pig city,

a Queensland paranoid masterpiece written by Tony Kneipp, performed by the parameters( first).
Do you reakon they'll fit in the kiln mel, thats my toe on the left

Breugs ( pronounced broygs)

I've just perved on Gerry Wedds weddwould posts of work fresh out . The cups and saucers are like scenes from a Bruegal flemish, especially the 2nd illustrating a peasant type character rowing a boat with his house on board in an act that looks like a humble folk custom. The form and image holds together with a strange kind of gravity.
In the work underneath there's a sculptural bloke cornered by wolves, but I suppose they could just be dogs, excited dogs, pets even...but say they're wolves..then this too is like a Bruegal who illustrated proverbs like 'The blind leading the blind' .
Suppose these wolves circling were a demonstration of a few proverbs ..
' The wolf may lose his teeth but never his nature ' or
' The wolf knows what the ill beast thinks'..
even ' Who keeps company with the wolf , will learn to howl' etc .

But all this is what I read which makes the work enjoyable for me viewer. I like it/them very much

Striving

Okay, so I've now come to a little ( possibly significant?) realisation.
It's important to strive for failure. By aiming so damn high so as to fail, something finally squeezes out sideways. Sounds like hurtful constipation but thousands of artists have likely been here and done that. Which only makes me a delayed developer I suppose..or maybe kind of predictable at least.
It's like being on a diving board in mid air after the second bounce ready to cut cleanly through the water ( in an effortless
manner, hmm) head first ...that or a big f-cking belly flop. Either way ..? there's movement.
I.E, take a laxative (symbolic), say no to control ..let it flow , embrace all bad smells and flatulance, it could be satisfying

scooter..

..a clay town bike

Ma and Da

This is the second post card I've received featuring john and janette.Why?
Anyway I hate it. Everything is in focus , there is no depth
in any detail and it's all surface..a bit like the subject matter I suppose. Has the painter done this on purpose with the intent of an astute phsyco-anal observation-ist?, or..voyeur.., perv?
I'm not sure but it's disturbing ..(not in an exciting way either).
It was commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC AMC. Painted in 2000 by Josonia Palaitis and hangs in the National Portrait Gallery Canberra... how sad.