Sunday

15 seconds of fame x2

AH & I did that "Your Name in Lights"  by John Baldessari in Sydney (for the festival earlier this year) & at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam - so we've had 30 seconds of fame and we did it global - so there, Mr Warhol!  I forgot about when it was happening but AH waited with her laptop and took this photo with her phone camera as my name came up live-streamed all the way from Amsterdam:

thanks honey!

telling the truth

Balcony, Cactus, Outdoor Lighting

says it all really...

Enmore, Sydney NSW Australia

© 2011 Anne Bentley

Road Trip Yaye!

we went on a mini road trip just before the June long weekend; out to Bathurst, Millthorpe & Orange - mainly to visit the grave of a friend who died almost a year ago.

it was really really cold outside but the little car hired (by friend who drives, who I will call MG) was a little greenhouse

pretty from the car window (a bit bumpy for photography though)

is that pash rash?
Orange cemetery - religion, gum trees and flies & a great-great grandmother & g-g-grandfather buried over yonder.

above - Millthorpe cemetery - top of the hill with my back to our friend's grave is a bunch of flags for people too lazy to pray.

we stayed overnight in Bathurst where it dropped to 0 degrees Celsius.

I burnt a bunch of CDs for the trip - all sorts of music and lots of fun - Nancy's boots were walking and Cher told us all about being gypsies, tramps and theives, Dusty - let us know that You Dont Own Me and got very sophisticated Take Another Little Piece of My Heart (way cooler and more convincing than Janis - to me - there was a minor dispute of who sings the best version but made better with some Patti, Laurie (Anderson) and Nina Hagen).  Top of the chart for me was Hush by Deep Purple, Melting Pot by Blue Mink and Love Grows where my Rosemary goes by Edison Lighthouse but the winner of the trip with the best melodrama and hilarious lyrics was:

A huge hit in Australia - Susan Raye singing LA International Airport - cause you know, in America, it doesn't matter how sad you are, there is always a pilot ready to tell you that you're flying friendly skies!

Leonora Carrington April 6 1917-25 May 2011

It's people like Leonora Carrington that make a case for immortality valid.

A wonderful, inspiring and insightful artist.

Coincidentally, I am reading her novel, The Hearing Trumpet at the moment - it's a small book and I am trying to stretch out the pleasure of being in her story even though it would be easy to read it in one sitting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/may/26/leonora-carrington-obituary

there's a good documentary including an interview with Leonora Carringotn, aged 84 at this vimeo link: http://vimeo.com/10760131
 

back in blogland

was away

but now home - sigh - home and  back in  the machines (& computer)

Off

- like a bucket of prawns in the sun

- back in blogland in about 2 weeks

footpaths after the weekend

After such a long weekend, I wonder what remnants from the nights before I'll see on the Parramatta Road footpath on my way to work.
Sometimes it's simply a couple of beer bottles but last week it looks like margaritas were had:

to find out when the chewing gum landed would need carbon dating

© 2011 Anne Bentley

One for Collectors - an auction item too tempting

yes, that's right, at an opening bid of US$200 - with the Australian $ at parity, take a deep breath and best you sit down because you can be the proud owner of Marlene Dietrich's Valium bottle - empty, I assume - kind of odd, kind of grubby... but, if it had been Garbo's...
Having said that, Julien's Auctions of entertainment industry stuff is great fun; they have up for sale costumes from Planet of the Apes and previously a pedal car from one of those Omen movies along with rock stuff and movie costume design sketches...
Rather than a used jar and for an opening bid of just $100, I'd rather a Japanese Kimono once owned by Gloria Swanson - it's not even the ownership but the bargain price.  If you are not aware of it, kimonos have become more popular and collectable over the last year or so and they are estimating a top price of $300, which is bargain city and, as most kimonos are way too long for me and only being about an inch taller than GS was... hmmm  Here it is:

BUT! having a tad more around the waist than Ms G Swanson, I would be silly to buy it and it would only have me wishing to have been born with other genes (or a dislike of chocolate & pizza) but I do hope someone buys it and loves wearing it because that's what clothes are for.

I am also giving a bidding miss to hair clippings taken from John F Kennedy by his barber - that's just silly!  Oh, unless you want to extract DNA, create a clone cell, grow some babies and make your fortune...

I looked up some previous sales and there are bargains to be had especially if you like dressing up:

http://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/sales/

Oh no - black cats in the kitchen

time to be totally silly & spooky... spooky in the kitchen

© 2010 Anne Bentley

Sunday night - already!

I feel like I'm walking through knee-high mud - it's Sunday evening and I'm off, out to dinner and then it's the day job on Monday... AGAIN - and nothing productive to show for 3 days except some notes and enjoyable head-space ideas that began to fruit but need that lovely space of hours & tranquility to form in the real, material way.  
Then again, I've read up on some interesting artists this weekend and probably bought too many books.  And I've done a heap of laundry that is sodden on the clothes line and hung through the house - no flash flooding this time but the rain has been bucketing down all weekend.

A collage I put together a few months ago comes to mind when frustration sets in, kick some bugs!

© 2010 Anne Bentley

of course there's probably something deeper here but today, it's just kicking things - ahh, that's better.
wonder what we'll have for dinner...

wrote a bit of a poem last year

I wrote "Choice  - how to vote in Australia" after reading that poet Peter Porter died April 2010 and was inspired by Antoinette Kennedy, the retiring chief judge of the WA District Court speaking on the law report – ABC radio national 20 April 2010 (I listened when it was repeated Sat 24th on news radio).


Antoinette Kennedy: It's becoming an increasing problem. The community has become more frightened of disorder than of tyranny, and the history of the law, and the history of Australia, shows us that in reality there's no reason to be more frightened of disorder than tyranny, and when you frighten people so that they are more frightened of disorder than of tyranny, they're likely to give up the rights that have been fought for since the 13th century, and they're likely to let politicians do whatever they please.



Choice - how to vote in Australia

Disorder or Tyranny

Are there only two choices?

You can

drive your car

They can

pull you over

Lock you up

Don’t argue

You may be shot

It’s in the National Interest

Not tyranny

No, not tyranny

Who said that?

We are keeping you safe

But what is dis

And when does it straddle order

Demanding its fuck

In and out

Out then

Out of order

What is out or order?

The dis-miss-kiss (order) must be put in order

Under the law

Overseen by your tyranny

Only then is our safety absolute

Is it?


24 April 2010 ©Anne Bentley

Joe Morello 1928-2011

I can't think of a more favourite drummer

a good flick & give it the flick

AH bought her & I a treat the other week; a 5 ticket deal the The Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival - it was fun to sit down & choose our sessions from a big line up.  We chose only to go to films screening near home (there were a number of venues) and saw a couple of ok films - enjoyable enough to sit through & be in France & Spain for a while (Gigola & Eloise) , 2 of the worst films I think we may have ever seen (The Owls - dreadful & Room in Rome - dreadful - both were cringe worthy & it's hard to really say which film was the worst).
Film festivals are fun to attend - a bit of  a lucky dip - with the final film we chose being, Howl, we hit the jackpot - an excellent film.
How do you make a feature film out of a poem?
Choose Alan Ginsberg's Howl, cast James Franco & end it with the song Ginsberg wrote after the death of his Father:



I could chat futher about the film, the poem, death of the father, seeking passion, empty, unfullfilling jobs that sap one's creative fire but I'm going to sign off & listen to Ginsberg once more instead.

Busking

band:  Hauschka



http://bandstandbusking.com/

I can see this starting up down the road in Sydney - as good at these people - well, there's the challenge but in Newtown on Thursday night I saw 3 men, all aged about 18 years busking with a slow Jimi Hendrix feel - lounge Hendrix? they were so good I stopped for sometime.  One of the problems I have with people busking is I never know if I'll see them again and there is usually no other way of listening to their music.
Then again, it's like looking at an art show; there for the time I can see it.

Das Alles wär nie passiert - Annett Louisan

All of this would have never happened (without Prosecco*)

she asked a friend about the whereabouts of her bra he replied that he'd seen her bra for sale on Ebay

You don't need to know German to get the gist of this song story (but it helps - thank you AH for taking me through all the lyrics)  - and isn't Annett a treat!

(*Prosecco is a sweet champagne)

http://www.myspace.com/annettlouisan

When your honey is away for a week - there's substitutes to fill in the time

Like:

and:

and maybe a bit of:

Then some:

or happily a bit of (just keeping in practice):

but then it's time to come home cause I'm done playing and it's time to play with you

(photos of chocolate dipped strawberries & books © 2010 Anne Bentley)

It's the weekend - time for fun

and what a good time they had

image: (Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953)

on a roll

©  2004-2011 Anne Bentley (1/4 of a super-sampler Lomo photo, Hong Kong 2004, Xerox copy scanned)

been procrastinating but productive in my distraction - cleaning walls, saving art from evil city grit/neighbour renovation dust/Sydney mildew etc etc.  They look all shiny & sparkly now.  There were also a bunch of pictures tacked up in the hallway & looking pretty crap after 5 or 6 years so I took them all down, along with some plaster - whoops - including a Xerox copy of some mini photos used in a bicycle-themed show back in 2004.  Got a sore thumb from getting the Blu-tac off - handy that Blu-tac is the best thing to get Blu-tac off.

bubbly time

Not me, I'm just too superficial realise the time of year - I'm leaving that to the real people:

Window shopping, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney Australia

©  Anne Bentley

Still Life in the afternoon

It's all happening in the kitchen

© 2010 Anne Bentley

Group Show - Brunswick Street Gallery opening Friday 10 December

I've put a couple of small works into the small works show being staged by the Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, The World.

My works are of a couple of flowers I photographed years ago & cut out to make a collage but only thought to pick up again and actually put together in the last couple of months.

Called Celebrity Eyes & Celebrity Smile, they feature flowers, a bit of writing & in the middle of each flower there is an anus.  

Originally I had written a note with a small drawing of cats bums in the middle of each flower for that sour taste look that snobs who look down on people take on but didn't want to use cat anatomy in such a crude way because I like cats.

 I don’t think I need to write an essay on the images on show or the notion of “celebrity”.

The works are in an edition of 10 printed on 300gsm matte cotton rag, nicely framed with their own magnifying glass attached (found some good bug spyglasses at the Australian Museum of course!).

middle of flower in detail as one would see using the magnifying glass attached to the lovely framed pieces at the gallery:

I've had a fine old giggle putting these together interspersed by slight nauseousness researching images - the anuses (ani?? hah hah) are all in the public domain and do not breach copyright. 

Imagine being contacted by someone saying, "that's my arsehole, you arsehole!"

too fun

Along with over 500 other artists and 1787 works (wow!), the show opens this Friday 10th December 6-9pm and continues until 16th January 2011

BSG: 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 3065 Hours 10am-10pm 7 Days a Week

Should be a lively exhibition - so much to see, wish I was there.  So, get on over to Fitzroy you Melbourney people - I've had a look through the list and all the art is very affordable and there are some excellent bargains to be had.

© 2010 Anne Bentley

The Grand Parade 2

image © Anne Bentley

The Grand Parade

image © Anne Bentley

Niamh Sharkey wins Irish Children's Book of the Year

Congratulations to the very hard working, lovely, talented and always generous Niamh Sharkey on her win for:

Edwina Wrobel - Artist in Group Show

Opening this coming Friday

From the Balmain Watch House Site:

Seven artists are ‘doing time’ this weekend. These ‘prisoners of artmaking’, 3 female and 4 male, however, are hoping for clemency by presenting a very colourful array of their artworks. The inmates are all from Sydney but each with a different cultural background. Brought together by a passion for art and ‘crime’ this is their first collective initiative.

Opening Fri, 29, 6-8.30pm  - runs: Sat 30, Sun 31 October 2010 10am - 5pm 179 Darling Street Balmain NSW

I first came by Edwina Wrobel's (1) work in September 2004 via Irene Schroder who ran Mura Clay Gallery in King Street Newtown for almost 20 years.
The invite card for an exhibition featuring Edwina's work that arrived in the post had a picture of Joy's Birth: for Joy Hester (2), which I liked a lot & kept on display so as not to miss the show.  During the afternoon before the exhibition opening, I chanced by the gallery for what was becoming a regular chat with Irene - we would save the world, change politics or talk about artists & this time was no different except there was an opening that night so we talked about the art - I couldn't talk about much else and Irene agreed the work was wonderful and, with a wink said that they take layby.  I kept coming back to the invitation card work and it was settled.  Laybying "Joy's Birth" cost me more than the rent and more than my weekly wage but I was totally seduced and it hasn't stopped since. 

Five years and one month later, I was sitting in Edwina's home listening to her story about really wanting to own a piece of art by a particular artist held in the stockroom of an upmarket gallery and talking them into letting her layby it.

I see Edwina's work as being personal thought that turns a corner only to hit a wall being the intrusion of a sometimes nasty world.  Using her own symbols along with an illustrative attraction to Día de los Muertos after spending time in Mexico as well as the Heide Circle of Australian artists - the later most obvious in Joy's Birth: for Joy Hester. The daughter of avid Australian art collectors, Edwina grew up around Woolloomooloo and was one of The Gunnery group; a squat & artists community that began around 1985 until 1991when they were all booted out so the State Government could refurbish it to become an arts administration building & gallery. 

Objects and art Edwina collects are as interesting as the art she creates including the remains of the famous Kings Cross sign (3) questioning the (suspected) murder of Juanita Nielsen rescued from questionable storage in an outhouse.
It was a treat to visit her & see some of her other works I hadn't seen (image #4).

Edwina often has me in stitches with her anecdotes about people in the workplace, family, past & present adventures and this mixing bowl of feeling: humour, frustration and irony can be seen in her work and for me, Being in the Office (5) says it all.
In her previous group show at the Balmain Watch House her works included disturbing paintings depicting scenes from Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith along with contrasting &, I think, stronger paintings to do with travelling to Broken Hill and relationships (image #6) - needless to say, all the paintings sold out that weekend.

Art makes me happy and feeds my mind - the original Wrobel's in our house delight both me and my partner (AH) daily.

I haven't seen any of Edwina's new work for this coming weekend's group show but I've held off on completely paying AH back my half of electricity bill, just in case I need a layby deposit...

Images as numbered:

1. Ed & Ted (4th October 2009 - photograph © Anne Bentley)
2. Joy's Birth: for Joy Hester 2004 Edwina Wrobel
(oil on tin © the artist - collection of Anne Bentley)
3. Whatever Happened to... Juanita Nielsen (circa late 1970s artist unknown - paint on chipboard - custodial collection of Edwina Wrobel - photograph Anne Bentley)
4. titleTBA - Edwina Wrobel
(oilpaint on canvas © the artist- collection of the artist)
5. Being in the Office 2008 - Edwina Wrobel (Gouache © the artist - collection of Anne Bentley)
6. I Don't Want a Boy Who Won't Hoe Corn 2008 - Edwina Wrobel

(Gouache © the artist - collection of Anne Bentley)

7. Scarred - Edwina Wrobel

(© the artist- collection unknown - I found it on the net)

All photography except image#7 by Anne Bentley.

Rebecca Clarke: Belongings

In June, AH and I were asked to attend a reading of playwright and actor Rebecca Clarke’s new work Belongings. I felt both honoured and flattered to participate and so, on the wintery Wednesday evening of June 23rd, we and umbrellas battled tiny footpaths full of trees and home-time workers to get to the rehearsal rooms in Surry Hills.
I asked the lovely Rebecca if I could write some notes about her work for my blog & got the ‘go for it’ reply. It was a bit tricky to write about, I didn’t want to give away any secrets but I don’t think there’s any need for a “spoilers warning” so read on:
==

In Belongings Rebecca layers themes of family, loss, belonging, sexual tension and desire against a backdrop of rural Queensland.The first protagonist we meet is a young woman preparing for the funeral of her grandfather who is also the man who raised her.  Seemingly world weary and cynical but also naive and uncertain, she’s been shaped by her upbringing, by the land, loneliness and the need to want to belong somewhere – preferably somewhere else.

Enter young jaded city male, wound tight & also lonely, he wants to think he knows the girl;  feeling a connection and the need to protect mostly due to his connection with dead granddad and the big company that wants the land.   To me, he seeks out where he belongs not to place but to people.  He is not a grunting cocky, nor is he a slick big business exploiter.  He is out of place in his job and out of place way out nowhere. He’s a bit of an ordinary, modern man with heart and some well scripted vices.

We then meet middle-aged (& wonderfully played by a guest actor), woman who runs the bar and… has secrets – well, she may have some answers.

There are 3 featured humans but another protagonist is an abandoned house on the property belonging to the young woman’s family.  It’s ghostly but the interior has life and material belongings from an era only just past.  Humans did live here but they are so obviously absent that the possessions scattered through it belong to the house itself rather than humans.
Without any theatrical extras, we sat through the whole reading totally involved the story and walked out of the building with an enthusiasm to see the full production.  Belongings has grit, drama and some very nice humour.  Rebecca’s writing is instinctive and intelligent.  She won awards and critical acclaim for her 2005 play Unspoken, which was also adapted and broadcast on ABC Radio National.   It is my good fortune to have met Rebecca Clarke and call her a friend and it is Australia’s luck to have her in its creative realm.  Onya Bec!
==

Shortly after that evening her work was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award along with Marcel Dorney & Philip Dean.

Thanks to this, all three artists have the opportunity to focus completely on fine-tuning their work with expert advice and one of the three will have their work produced by the Queensland Theatre Company as part of the 2011 season.

- Gosh, how exciting!

The Queensland site tells us this about Rebecca’s play:

Belongings is a poetic three-hander play set on a remote Australian rural property, and also at the Hotel at the nearest small township. It's inspired by the land around Many Peaks and Kalpower, outside of Gladstone, combined with an old family property near Banana in the Callide Valley. The story explores isolation, heritage, community, and the change that results from the death of a powerful patriarch and an 'old way'; the rising up of ghosts and secrets. How does a person find themselves again when all that has been seemingly 'known' and solid has shifted irrevocably? To what do we 'belong' to when so much has been stripped away?
=

Cool synopsis & I hope she does well. I haven’t named any of the protagonists as now Belongings is a work in progress, things can change and I really, really hope it ends up on stage for you, dear reader to come along with us one evening.

the photo that broke my lomo camera

creepy big entrance to Luna Park Sydney from a couple of years ago - film ripped up in my little camera & this is the shot that did it as you can see through the top 3rd of the image. The camera has been untrustworthy ever since; often only exposing half a roll.  It's expensive and frustrating so I've put it in the bulk lot to sell.

And I've been a slacker blogger - doing a new day job that ate into art feeding time but I've settled a bit now and will be blog happy once more.

to come: art notes on Rebecca Clarke's new play shortlisted for the Qld Premier's Award / Edwina Wrobel & her art / Love on the Left Bank by Ed Van Der Elsken: thoughts on a classic.

image © Anne Bentley 

Hey - you and me - drive away for just 3mil

Bargain! sold this weekend -  1949 Delahaye Type 175 S Roadster by Saoutchik for US $3,300,000 that once belonged to Diana Dors (when she was 17yrs old) - baby!

Way more fun than Lady Penelope's ride:

but! was Lady Penelope more fun than Diana Dors?

I may never know

Dragonfly

from 2001 negative - scanned 2010

© Anne Bentley

post script: to answer a couple of questions - the dragonfly has landed on mangrove roots - the photo was taken in Sydney NSW Australia

oh those dolly girls

looking down at you

they're probably on drugs

© 2005-2010 Anne Bentley 

No surprises are the best birthday presents

Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to buy art - for the pleasure it gives you - first by seeing, then choosing, then buying, and when you bring it home, the pleasure begins again...
if your loved one doesn't know what to get you for your birthday - the usual at our place - suggest something, buy it & get reimbursed.  For one of my gifts, I chose Hosang Park's image of a park in Seoul from the friendly people at 20x200 - a one stop online gallery where art is cleverly priced and the only way we were going to afford one of his photographs.  The one pictured below we purchased in early June but because it was a birthday present, I had to wait until Tuesday this week to make it mine.

Howon (© Hosang Park)

There's more to see with the real thing (heh heh) than the online view.  The print quality is stunning - heavy cotton paper with sharp & crisp definition.

Hosang Park is a Korean artist who has made a series of bird's-eye view park shots -his website has the set (click on "A Square") - totally cool.

THEN!, in the mail a money note from my parents... gosh...and how excellent that 20x200 also has some Beth Dow work available - not quite sold out yet but I got a move on just in case I miss out as I did for a previous edition of hers. 

Check out her website too - she has a large series of formal English & Italian gardens -  including Sissinghurst where the people in the picture could be mistaken for Vita & Harold themselves, taking a morning stroll.

Passage - Levens Hall (© Beth Dow)

This image originates from a platinum-palladium print - hence the excellent tones but it's the way Beth has framed her shot that is also outstanding for me. 

I'm not going to write a film vs digital rave - each has it's place and Beth Dow's work, along with Gordon Undy, Lauren E Simonutti & Filip Przewozny, to name a few diverse artists on my want list, proves that traditional photographic film & hand printing is alive and well (and being drooled over).

As an initiative, the Jen Bekman project; 20x200 is inspired - it makes art accessible and really good fun to be a part of & art lasts a lot longer than chocolate & flowers.

Images here are reproduced with permission - copyright remains with each artist.

Sundays

semi-industrial Alexandria, Sydney Australia

© 2010 Anne Bentley