a banana wrapped in tin foil

My favourite boots fell apart five minutes after I got to Russell, a small town in the Bay of Islands, a few weeks ago and I was left with just my ridiculously high bridesmaid shoes and a pair of jandals borrowed from han. I re-bought the same boots as soon as I got back to Melbourne so it's not as much as a disaster as it could have been, but at the time my only consolation was that I might get to fill the broken pair with plants. Not so, unwearable footwear is not something you want to lug around in a suitcase for three weeks, and they now rest in a bin somewhere in Auckland.

Anyway I'm kind of hung up on the work of Aurelian Arbet and Jeremie Egry (good names too), which features among other things my current favourite plant containers - clothing.

i like today

Things that are making me happy right at this moment are:

 This dress from Deyrolle pour Opening Ceremony

 The work of Diana Drake

Warpaint, who were better last night than I'd even hoped (and I had high hopes). I've been wanting to see them play ever since Natalie put Billie Holiday on a mix she made our friends for their engagement a year ago. They make beautiful music and look like girls I would like to be friends with.

Emma Stone. Han went on and on about Easy A whhile she was here and I was skeptical, but I finally watched it and I loved it and am quite comfortable saying she is the new LiLo and it is the new Mean Girls.

a small act

One of my favourite pieces from Art in the Dark  was Emilie Priest's Miniature Cities. There is a plastic mountain the size of Texas growing in the Pacific called the Pacific Gyre, which is having catastrophic effects on the natural world. Emilie's work responds to this, in the hope that a small act can affect a huge problem. She has made a series of beautiful miniature cities which can be found in four of central Auckland's waterways. Each site has a response code which allows you to activate the a small act website.  Emilie's works are truly captivating; see more on her tumblr, website, or better still, have a real-life look at her delicate, watery cityscapes around Auckland.  

Images of Minature Cities by Emilie Priest (2010) at Art in the Dark by Hans E Hammonds (top) and Elizabeth Clarkson (bottom).

keri keri

Tomorrow night, my dream of hitting the road will come true- we're going on a road trip. It might be warm enough to swim (!) but I'm going to pack woolly jerseys too. That's New Zealand for you. I'm especially looking forward to sea food, dancing on the grass and exploring the rocky shore...

Bulb Ornaments by Land Rich and Cascade by Noemie Goudal via I'm Revolting.

head on, 2006

Found on my new favourite blog, i'mrevolting.net, this is by Cai Guo Qiang, and is called Head On (2006). 

From the artists' website:

With few wolves scattered in the front gallery, all ninety-nine wolves run, gallop, and jump toward the far end of the exhibition hall, where a wall stands. The bravery of the wolves is met head on by the unyielding wall. As the leading wolves go down, many more follow with force and determination. As those in the front fall and pile up, those behind take up their positions. 

this is heavy

Marty McFly was one of my first ever crushes. I love this watery poster art! AND I LOVE BACK TO THE FUTURE!!!! These are all by Drew Struzan who is a gen-i-us.

bizarre members of a fabulous clan

Two of our friends are a part of an exhibition which opens today at No Vacancy in Melbourne. There is no opening party so don't go there tonight you will be disappointed. Do, however, go along sometime in October, except on Mondays, to see some of the collagey, multi-disciplinary goodness. There is a closing party on October 30th, so if you are the art party type, you could go to that.

No Vacancy is upstairs in the QV at 34-40 Jane Bell Lane, in the city.

Here's what they say about the show:

The 14 artists from Australia and New Zealand embrace an offbeat approach to art making. Exhibiting a mix of 1970’s influenced aesthetics, works in progress and a range of free events throughout the month of October.

The process of collage, or ‘cut and paste’ allows the artist to situate their interests and concerns into spatial and relational consideration combining mainstream and minority viewpoints, revelations of past and present with new and redundant technologies. The works will explore a range of ideas including interpretations and understandings of identity, kinship, community, spirituality, religion and personally transformative and psychedelic experiences.

No Vacancy gallery will act as a workspace for some, exercise and relaxation studio for others, and creative paradise for many. Audiences will be invited to align themselves with unusual activities, artistic processes, and work that is often humorous, intuitive, and evolving.

i want to go there

Cape Cod artists' retreat, photos by Andreas Feininger. From Life.

The words and images game, The misleading images game, and The classification game.

Immagini Della Realta' by Bruno Munari, Danese, Milan, 1977

From here. There's more information there, too.

Penny Davenport draws some eerie animals.

in the dark

Do you guys know that I'm helping to organise an art event called Art in the Dark?

Its an amazing thing. We've challenged artists to create works that touch on the themes of community, environment and utopias, and they're going to be presented in Ponsonby's Western Park over two nights in October. The artworks will explore those themes while addressing more practical considerations: light, mobility, night, and conservation.

western park

There are five of us on the Art in the Dark team and we're all relative novices at organising light-art festivals (surprise!)But that isn't really a problem; people are generally happy to help us when we ask for advice or an expert eye. The Art in the Dark team are all friends. We're also all girls, and we're all about the same age. We meet after work, have a glass of wine and some chips in a cafe with our laptops out, plotting our next move. Or else we'll go to one of our houses for a shared dinner or brunch and work while we eat. We surreptitiously work on it while at our "real jobs". 

our pre-launch

Somehow, we've managed to create things like sponsor-packs, budgets, websites, artist workshops, and pop-up events; we've even given  interviews to magazines, newspapers and radio, presentations at community centres and at council meetings. We have actors, sculptors, cyclists, designers, poets, dancers, installations artists, musicians and film makers creating works for Art in the Dark, and all for free. We even have a (tiny) presence at Semi-Permanent. Art in the Dark has grown beyond our expectations, and it is so exciting.

that's us

If you're in Auckland on the 15th and 16th of October, you should come to Western Park and wander through the trees with a lantern in hand. 

The entry to our launch. Pretty, no?

Photos by Hans E Hammonds.

needle and threads

I have a small collection of embroidery thread gifted to me by my mother earlier this year (she is an amazing crafty woman, and has recently completed embroidering a mind blowing topographical scale model of Antarctica, by the way). Anyway I'm far less accomplished with a needle than she or Han, who once cross-stitched a cushion cover of Mr Darcy's face for a friend, and so put the thread in a box for the day it might eventually come in handy.

Inspiration struck this afternoon when I came across these bright and delightful abstract works of Japanese artist Takashi Iwasaki.

you rock

Sometimes I wonder why people invite me to things, because you can count on me to always say the wrong thing. For example, if you bring me along to your group exhibition, I'll be the one who loudly says that everything in it is a bit shit apart from your piece. This is because I think that my friends are much more talented than people I do not know. This also goes for your play, and your band. I just think you're the best, better than all the rest.

Photo of École des Beaux-Arts, Paris from National Geographic

my dear it seems to me you're in a muddle

The last twenty four hours have been inspiring and incredibly moving. Now I feel (to quote Mr Emerson, my current hero from fiction) like I'm in a muddle. A very good one, though. The bottom image is from "Telematic Dreaming", a truly beautiful artwork and concept which has captivated me for years. The other is of the CAVE, a similarly fascinating art-invention. Furthermore, you should listen to Phoenix covering "Playground Love" on NPR's tiny desk concerts today. My word of the day is "winsome".

private dances

We found ourselves, along with about 60 others, in what seemed to be a dark clearing with a smokey haze hanging in the air. As our eyes adjusted, chairs became visible, clustered into groups of three, and low tables tables holding lanterns and tealights. To one side, a makeshift bar manned by a figure in a tuxedo filling a collection of glasses and jam jars. Across from the bar, a table piled high with shaved ice and oysters, floral linen napkins to accompany them. We ate three oysters and took a jar of gin, perched on one of the tables, we wondered when it would start, how would we know where to go, where to look, and then a stranger in a flannel shirt took my arm and asked us to follow her. She led us down a path marked with fairy lights and candles, past tents lit from within, and pulled back a curtain. We sat, just two of us, on chairs in this small space, while a beautiful girl with a big smile and false eyelashes performed a traditional Korean dance under a canopy of branches and twigs. She was done in only a few minutes, and we followed the sound of music and voices back to the clearing again, took another drink, and waited paitently for another flanneled guide.

I was led by myself to a van and asked to pick a number between one and four, three people danced in their seats beside me, staring straight ahead with blank faces, though they laughed at the end and thanked me for my solo applause. I was welcomed with a stranger into a large tent by two care bears, they danced and hugged and took off their clothes, the stranger and I laughed nervously and left quickly. I went alone into a small tent, I had to crawl to get in, and once comfortable I put on headphones and pressed play, and the screen in front of me lit up with a silly dance, in a park at night, ending with a soft serve ice cream.

Between each of these private shows, we were ushered back to the clearing, the sound from each tent and curtained space mingling with people's excited reviews. There's a gorilla, you have to see it. He dances with one of you while another watches in secret. A rocking horse, naked boobs, a red hood, and lots of short films. Hors d'oeurves were carried through the waiting crowd, spoons full of gnocchi in vanilla cream with truffle oil, quail eggs baked with green beans and 'african yoghurt cheese', while our jam jars were topped up with gin, fizz, and just a hint of passionfruit. On a cushion next to an older man a classical Indian dancer dabbed my forhead with red, her ankles weighed down with bells creating music with every movement. Bec and I were taken together to a red tent where a man with facial piercings and a naked torso bent and stretched, contorting himself until he was difficult to recognise as human. He sweated a lot.

Later, a little drunk, I sat with two women in the entry way of another large tent while behind the screen door a strobe flashed and a dancer shook against the walls, her movements swinging the light hanging from the ceiling and the smell of mint surrounding us.

Private Dances was a part of the Next Wave festival, it finished last night and all the shows were sold out. It was such an incredible experience, I would really strongly recommend keeping an eye out for anything else thought up by Natalie Cursio in the future. I'll also try to write more about Next Wave because there is so much happening that looks amazing, and a lot of it's free too.

Photo from Flickr

in private

From The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Berge. Imagine how amazing it would be to have impeccable taste and one of the largest private art collections in the world.

sketches

I love looking at sketches and working drawings. I was given an amazing book of Klimt's drawings and water colours a few years ago which is full of beautiful things. And saucy things, too, because the sketches weren't really for sale, so he could draw what he liked. The top ones are by Scheile and the bottom ones are Klimt's.