AVANTWHATEVER

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.

Semaphore is an evening of live creative collaborations collaboratively co-curated by jessica tyrrell + Kathryn Gray. The title refers to the flag-signalling system as a metaphor for the capacity of live performance to communicate in a secret language.

Semaphore combines improvised performances by emerging practitioners with critical discourse on the nature of creative collaborative processes. Aimed at interrogating the methods and motivations for building creative collaborations, as well as brokering and enabling new avenues of collaboration.

What: Semaphore - critical discussion & performance
Featuring: astrid lorange + nick keys, ben byrne + jes tyrrell, delirium tremens (peter newman + jon hunter), lucas ihlein and norie neumark + maria miranda.
When: Friday, 20 June 2008 from 7pm - 10pm
Where: PACT Theatre, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville, NSW 2043
Admission: $5

Supported and sponsored by Quarterbred

Tracts is a group show of sound installations at Melbourne’s Blindside Gallery that examines the role of sound in the world. The exhibition explores how sound can shape our understandings of our surroundings and ourselves, bringing into question the nature of space within a gallery and the role of the subject in experience. Assembled by several of Australia’s premier emerging sound artists, the exhibition invites the audience to enter, surround, and interact with the installations.

Inspired by German architect Friedrich Kiesler’s interest in the interrelationships between people culture and space, with a particular focus on the role of sound in this regard, the exhibition presents four individual installation works, all of which create singular spaces in the gallery while at the same time intermingling with one another, their environment and their subjects. In encountering each work, the line between audience, artwork and gallery blurs, challenging us to confront the continuity that exists between all three as well as, more broadly, art and life itself.

Tracts is curated by Ben Byrne. Former director of the Electrofringe and Liquid Architecture festivals Ben is an electronic musician, improvisor and artist currently undertaking a PhD on the nature of sound. The show also features the work of Adam Costenoble (Sydney), Matt Chaumont (Sydney) and Thembi Soddell (Melbourne). Musicians and gallery artists, Adam Costenoble and Matt Chaumont have both received Helen Lempriere Art Prize Awards, alongside Thembi Soddell who has released several albums and most recently performed at the Melbourne International Biennale of Exploratory Music.

This show is a part of the 2008 NEXT WAVE Festival 15th – 31st May www.nextwave.org.au

Venue: Blindside Gallery, Level 7, Room 14, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston St, Melbourne
Enter via lifts in Cathedral Arcade Cnr Flinders Lane
Opening: Thu 22nd May, 6 PM – 9 PM
Dates: 22nd May –7th June (Not Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays)
Times: 12 PM – 6 PM