Totems and Tags

Daydream believers

21 April — 9 June

Francis Upritchard, David Noonan, Jason Greig,John Spiteri 

Institute of Modern Art 

&

25 May to 23 June

Tetsuya Umeda<>Ross Manning

KickArts

Sutee Kunavichayanont

Social Networking

3 March to 1 July 

Gallery of Modern Art

Horse course

TOOTOOOpoti

Flight path

Mr 24HrArt

Charles..................


Hanging with master print maker Theo Tremblay at his studio with Talitha Kennedy and Bek Misic exchanging Top End adventures.


Theo was the very first artist in residence at 24 HR Art in Darwin over twenty years ago, when it started up in a disused service station. One of the more interesting elements of the the service station-gallery was that the service bay-pit were cars would drive over was converted into swimming pool.

Rainbow beaver

Taxis in the void

Charles............


Awhile ago now I spotted a work by Melbourne artist David Jolly who's clever realist painting intrigue me rather than annoy. Jolly makes paintings on the reverse side of glass and what we see is the photographic process squashed into the face of the glass.
I am largely tired of the big tradition of photographic realism as it currently appears and dominates galleries, its a  lazy illustrative technique of surface investigation that says yes 'I am' art because I am a illusion, a copy of 'life'.
Jolly's work does more than report to realist sensibilities. By hyping up the realist project, by inverting the image we see not the front of the picture, but its rear, yes in Jolly works realism is our behind, yes we are looking at the pictures behind. Jolly also knows realism is filmic, he knows life is filmic, he knows behind the process of painting is an abstract condition, the void fomenting forms.......messy......get behind a Jolly painting and you can see the mess............the hidden front, the messy abstract juice of creating , the void that creates and supports the illusion of the real.
The painting I remember landed in my memory again, as it often does, a highly active meme in my imagination as I am fascinated with all things aeroplane, while waiting for a plane.
Similar to the image above, Jolly's meme is a rear view picture of the traffic lines that guide planes round the aprons of air ports. These lines are the kin of the yantric mediation diagrams that allow the mind to meditate, to taxi to the void, to observe the mystery behind all forms, to fly.

iiiiii

Hans Bellmer

Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

The Diamond Cutter of Perfect Wisdom is a short and well-known Mahāyāna sūtra from the Prajñāpāramitā, or "Perfection of Wisdom" genre. The Sutra emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment. 

These four line suggest the impermanence of all things

All conditioned phenomena

Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, or shadows;

Like drops of dew, or flashes of lightning;

Thusly should they be contemplated.

Chooreechillum

To Dante and Rumi's mother, a goddess.......happy mothers day Bek

Warp it, bend it

Trickstar

Charles.................

There I am walking through the bush......dissolving into the skin of nature...........egoless and magical and then.......Maaaaaaaaaark.

I hear it again..........Marrrrrrrrrk.

I stop.......listen and look .......focusing my big blues at the world around, looking for the waving hand gesturing a familiarity of place and memory.

My god someone has found me in the middle of nowhere and is calling out to me........I stop , spin and panic .......looking around.......an invisible haunting ......MMMMMMMMMaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrk........

But there is no hand.

MMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrKKKKKKKKKK.

I remain frozen.

I listen

Nothing........no hand.

Again......AAAAAARRRRRRRRRk

The sound echoes off my ego.........the bush is teasing me.........I am alone..

Then........the ego.......reaches out touches it mirage of sound.

MMMMMMMMMaaaaaa rrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkk.

It not my name being called.

ITs AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRK

The sound is the mocking mate of my ego hinged to a branch.........rolling his RRRRRRRRRs.

Its a CROW.

The Crow haunts me.

It been so long....... this game.....this trickery..........illusion...........delusion.

There is no cure, it happens every time and has been going between me and the crow since I was just out of my own egg state........

..................the crow is me.............MMMMMMAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR..........K

Purring blue

Wish bone day

Joseph Beuys

Delight

Answering Hark

Holy Mountain