art is dead long live art

2011-12-11T22:46:00.000+11:00

2011-09-22T09:51:00.001+10:00

http://www.yhchang.com/

Planing theatre

2011-03-21T22:39:00.000+11:00

Mr Andrew and I plot and plan theatre on a sunny Tuesday afternoon

Coffee at the arts centre

2011-03-15T23:23:00.000+11:00

Waiting for Matt at Curve Bar espresso

Sent from Samsung mobile

Theatrical Wish List

2011-03-09T10:26:00.003+11:00

BAB Aluminium Stand - $3000

MicroSet headset mic - $300 ea

2011-03-04T11:35:00.001+11:00

I’ve been reading fantasy books.

I’m re-read Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy and have started Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy. They are extremely addictive and I’m spending most of my free time reading, so much so that I’m taking the long PT route home just to read the book.

Things have started to settle down a bit at home, getting fired up about making theatre again. Working on Candle Ends 2011 and my HUGE Fringe Festival production of The American Astronaut

Yeah for Fantasy and making Theatre…

2011-02-22T21:52:00.000+11:00

When a rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and when it strikes or falls the universe is changed. - Le Guin, U. The Farthest Shore

2011-01-29T13:40:00.002+11:00

Moments after my last post my world was turned upside down

Thank you to all those who have been there for me and for Asha

Cheers to life

2011-01-18T16:42:00.004+11:00

2011-01-18T16:25:00.007+11:00

Hello organisational fairy, my old friend , how I have missed you.

Those who know me well know my love for all things organised, colour coded files, bookshelves arranged alphabetically and in accordance to subject, pencil holders and a place for everything. I've been lacking the organisational zing recently, what with mum staying with us I gave up my room and any dilution that I had any control over how things were organised in this house.

I have reworked my CV and work files in order to start the search for a new job to go with my new degree: Masters of Arts Management!

Still trying to decide if I am a Mater or a Mistress: Mistress has connotations that can lead to misunderstandings so I think I'll stick with Master. And then laugh melodramatically Bwahahahahaha!

Brain clicking back into place after Christmas holidays, getting ready for exciting work, performances and people…

getting picked up....

2011-01-17T21:27:00.004+11:00

by a stong man...

A few weeks ago the lovely Ali had a fund raiser to raise money to help her stay in the country. A night of Burlesque, circus, song and dance. And I got picked up by a strong man... so much fun
(I'm the one on the strong mans left)

2010-12-20T19:47:00.000+11:00

Experimenting with lomo on my phone

Sent from the 112 tram

2010-12-14T23:26:00.001+11:00

Experimenting with mobile posting. Pumpkin pie on the table at super fun happy day (our version of christmas since most of us are of different religious backgrounds)

2010-11-07T19:06:00.005+11:00

I love Melbourne! As I take an obscure wrong turn down an alleyway off Little Burke Street on my way to soak up some sun on the roof of Cookie (ah, Astroturf and deck chairs, how sweet life can be) I stumble across a series of signs bearing philosophical quotations:

NEW CAMERA!

2010-11-01T12:55:00.006+11:00

2010-10-26T21:34:00.001+11:00

An intense couple of weeks has scuttled by, barley escaping sand traps, hidden razor wire and halibut projectiles. Musical theatre, final presentations, hard goodbyes, gardening, morbid visual arts, coffee, the ever present too much work, staying up late, sleeping on the floor, chips fried in beef fat and dreams of mountains.

Springtime Melbourne photos

2010-10-13T21:44:00.003+11:00

2010-10-10T12:38:00.001+11:00

attempting to upload photos to my homepage on http://www.lomography.com/homes/erinvoth meeting with swirly colour wheel of death

Spring in Melbourne

2010-09-26T17:51:00.002+10:00

Sunshine, jasmine blooming on the neighbours fence, blue skies and the lack of stockings and thick scarves heralds the beginning of spring in Melbourne. Opening all the windows to let the warm breeze permeate through the house after too many months of winter. I am looking forward to summer in Melbourne, expressly after two winters in a row, warm nights riding my bike through the back streets of Brunswick and Fitzroy and that wonderful early morning smell that signals the heat approaching.

Travels to Cambodia -notes:

13th Aug - Sitting in Perth botanical gardens with Ru. Drinking strawberry tea watching the rain come in over the city. Sun, rain, sun, rain, sun.

14th Aug - Saigon, steam bun, mushroom and spices. Big city, noise, fumes from carn motorbikes making everything hot. There are no longer swarms of bicycles, the roads are covered with motorbikes. The country has become richer and people have traded their bikes for motorbikes. Our room is clean and cool. Almost on the top of a 6 story building. We climb up the narrow tiled stairs and turn to ascend the last few wobbly steal steps to our hidden room. The window opens, it is raining and the breeze is cool. The land lady told us a story about her love life, her boyfriend will not marry her. There are 14 hook on the wall. Banana chips.

15th Aug - Bread and coffee for breakfast. Temples. Ru and I talk non stop on the bus. Tunnels. Steam bun for dinner, washing hangs on the window to dry.

16th Aug - Bread, cheese, coffee. Watchign the large blocks of ice being hacked into smaller pieces with large dagger looking combs. They took our passports on the floating hotel.

17th Aug - Cambodian border waiting for visa. American couple taught us how to play hearts on top of the boat travelling up the Mekong Delta. A young American man was told her could not get a visa into Cambodia as he had run out of pages. $50US and a smile and he is on the boat to Cambodia

Sui S-dey - Hello

Aw Koon - Thank you

Ley Soon Hi - Good Bye

Aroon Suo S'dey - good morning

Re Trey Sou S-dey - good night

Two new books adorn my bedside table, travel guides to 'Nepal' and 'Bhutan.' Onwards to adventure!

2010-09-17T20:48:00.004+10:00

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. - Lao Tzu

Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong- sometimes it's letting go.

HOLGA 120 Cross Process Colour Slide Film

2010-09-04T16:52:00.003+10:00

Travel to Cambodia

2010-09-03T19:58:00.002+10:00

All photos taken with 120 Pro 800Z FujiColor Film with HOLGA

Travel to Cambodia (Angkor)

2010-09-03T19:54:00.002+10:00

Travel to Cambodia (Angkor)

2010-09-03T19:51:00.001+10:00

Travel to Cambodia

2010-09-03T19:48:00.001+10:00

2010-07-27T12:02:00.003+10:00

Blogs blogs eveywhere all of them to post on... I've another new blog that I'll be posting on, this time it's all about photography.

Dinner club started out being a time for good food, good wine and great friends and with the loss of two of its members to sunny Singapore the three remaining members have bannded together in their love of good coffee, food and photgraphy... And so Dinner Club has become dinner clubb

Edited on the 18.1.11 to add:

Unfortunately dinner clubb has not continued like I hoped. Two of the Three remaining members have also flown away to exotic destinations of their own and so there is no more happy snapping and dinner. Perhaps I will find others to join in the photo fun in the future

Cockatoo Island

2010-07-20T14:22:00.003+10:00

Cockatoo Island

2010-07-20T14:16:00.000+10:00

time to breath

2010-06-29T12:17:00.002+10:00

My drawing a day has taken a hit over the past few weeks due to totally devotion to Candle Ends Festival so I have a lot of catching up to do. The lack of drawing was worth it; Candle Ends was a wonderful success with a great turn out, even in the cold rain that haunted us in the last two nights. So great that I was actually able to pay the artists for performing, not a lot but it’s better than nothing. So many artists perform/exhibit their art for free or in many cases pay for the privilege of showing their work in galleries which I think is awful, so it was nice to be able to pay my artists something for all their hard work and dedication to Candle Ends. Thanks a whole bunch and an extra hand full guys

After recovering from a bout of food poisoning on Saturday night I am now back to my old self, more or less, and spent last night lying in bed trying to sleep and failing. It’s only been 2 days since Candle Ends finished and already my brain is battering me with ideas and plans for possible future projects:

Continuing with a Project Do Something!
Going Postal Mark II
Collaboration with Andrew, Salome
Collaboration with Julian and Andrew, The Importance of Being Ernest
Rebooting Hands project
Faces Project

Oh and I start my final semester of my Masters in 4 weeks so that’ll be fun and time consuming too.

I think I will spend the next few weeks drawing, reading, planning, keeping warm and being with friends.

…maybe do some much needed sleeping

Candle Ends!!!

2010-06-25T10:51:00.003+10:00

Candle Ends, Candle Ends, Candle Ends has taken over my world!!!!!!!

CANDLE ENDS mini festival

blind contour drawing

2010-06-18T14:04:00.002+10:00

Blind contour drawing

Brain Dump

2010-06-04T10:13:00.004+10:00

Twitter and da Law http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/law

Social media http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/social-media

Twitter http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/twitter

Bloggers legal guide http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal

Legal issues for blogs http://www.artslaw.com.au/legalinformation/LegalIssuesForBloggers.asp

More legal issues for blogs http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2009/05/more-on-legal-issues-related-to-twitter-and-other-social-media.html

Floating projects

2010-05-31T20:08:00.008+10:00

Projects keep swimming about in my brain. Simple, to the point and beautiful. Long lasting and travel worthy projects that consist of me walking the earth, meeting people and drawing.

5 months into 2010, the year of saying no, I have found myself floating in a serene ocean of time, and I have gorged on it. This glorious time has been used to read in the sun, walk through the park, draw anything I fancy, drink coffee on the sidewalk with friends in the middle of the day, cook long complicated meals and take afternoon naps.

This time has also allowed me to research my own interests, not that which are prescribed by a university syllabus, and has freed my mind from the shackles of academia. I believe that this liberation from the academic outlook has allowed these projects to float to the surface of my subconscious and dig their way into my daydreams and now onto the page at my drawing table.

Starting with Project Do Something, in which I make a drawing a day for at least a year, other projects along a similar vein have emerged of late. Projects with rules, documentation requirements and long time spans but wonderfully simple: these new ideas seem to be a stepping stone to the realisation of the dream of waking up in the morning, spending the day making things and being paid to do it.

We shall see…

"All that we are is the result of what we have throught. The mind is everything. What we think we become."

Wonky Wheel Monday

2010-05-18T08:19:00.005+10:00

Stoped off at the Workers Club for dinner/unwind/people watching/music, sat upon the counter looking out onto Gertrude Street and watched the street lights turn on. People travelling home from work, walking riding, tramming, driving. A few near misses involving bicycles and cars in which heated words were exchanged in the middle of the intersection. All from my vantage point inside, surrounded my patterned tiles, pot plants, soft light and calamari.

Talked with a gentleman from Kyneton as he waited for his tram, he missed it and took a taxi.

Watched a Bogan couple dance to the soft jazz that filled the room. Ugg boots, sheepskin jackets, mullet and beanie swaying to the double bass.

Discussed the Jonathan Harris's Universe with a gentleman who shared my perch looking out onto the street , he goes by the name Mr Sheridan.

In the dusk I drew a bicycle with a wonky wheel, this made me monumentally happy…It's the little things

Projects

2010-05-06T11:38:00.003+10:00

Been back in Melbourne for the nearly 4 weeks now and have happily pottered around organizing space, time, people, surgical hocky matches and my 2010 projects. Having made the decision that 2010 is to be a year of working for myself I have, somewhat surprisingly, being able to turn this into a reality. Spending the last 4 months saying 'no' to other peoples projects as nicely as I could, and in some cases digging the word out of my larynx as I pass up working for artists that I admire greatly.

One of the big hurdles I had to tackle in order to make this dream of a year of personal projects a reality was deciding which projects to work on. One of my biggest downfall is taking on too many projects at the same time and either not being able to complete them all or completing them without the attention to detail they deserve. Another big trap is working on other peoples projects and funnelling all my time and effort into their projects therefore leaving my own work sitting on the shelf gathering dust, insect carcass' and dust bunnies of contempt.

And so a precious few have been chosen to become a reality, 3 to be more specific. However I am only going to release 2 into the wilds of internet land at this stage…behold!

A drawing a day -

The lovely Mr Wray has been keeping a face journal for the past few months in which he is attempting to take a photograph of himself within 10 min of waking up every day for a year. His tool of choice is his Iphone which he holds at arms length and snaps an image of his face completely relaxed and devoid of emotion. In this way he is able to show the physical changes of his features over time. I was quite excited about this idea when he discussed it with me earlier in the year while taking his self portrait after a brutal assault had befallen him capturing bruises as they transformed from deep purple to sickening yellow over time.

I wanted to do something similar, a project that would happen over a predetermined period of time that forced me to make something everyday even if that something is as simple as a photograph. And so Project Do Something! was born, in which I am to create a drawing a day everyday for a year. The project is still in it's early stages, having started it on my birthday, it will track the subconscious, emotional and most likely irrational parts of my brain over my 27th year on earth. There are no rules about what I can or cannot draw, what ever is buzzing through my head at the time can be put onto paper. So far I have only used a 0.5 HB pencil but I'm not closing off opportunities to use ink or any other tool that happens to be in my hand at the time.

What I will do with Project Do Something! I do not know, but this is a project that is manageable, without a whole lotta stress and enjoyable…lets see what happens…

Here are a few works so far

Candle Ends - In 2008 I organized a small festival of performances in which each work was presented under 20 min to an audience that roamed free around the space. The whole process of getting the festival together was organic and in many ways insane, but it was a great hit and after a year working on other things I have been asked by the wonderful Mr Alister to organise another Candle Ends festival at Brunswick Arts Space.

So the race is on, Candle Ends mini festival kicks off on the 23rd June and runs til the 26th June.

Check out the fabtab website for more info CandleEndsWebsiteLinkThing

Project 3 - shhh it's a secret

When virus' strike retreat into Photoshop

2010-04-27T13:09:00.003+10:00

I sneezed during Dnd yesterday and almost instantly felt a scratch in my throat. I thought little of it and just had another cup of tea and wrapped a scarf around my neck. I wake up this morning and attempt to swallow only to find that during the night my oesophagus had been used by diseased ridden hamsters as a hocky pitch in which they obviously wore sharp studded boots and surgical scalpels as sticks to attack a puck made of fused sickles. I may be exaggerating slightly.

Anyway, after attempting to get my shit together for this poeticaholics unanimous meeting I gave up on the delusion that I could walk the 12 blocks to the auditorium and or speak without completely fucking up my voice for the rest of the week. (Working box office tonight will be very interesting) So I sat in my little 2x2 meter room and played on Photoshop.

I recently read an article by Paul Duffield about how he creates colour and overlays for FreakAngels and wanted to test it out for myself. So here is my very bad attempt at Paul Duffield's digital colouring, because I'm sick and no one is here to sing 'soft kitty'...

Weekend of Art, Friends and more Art

2010-04-26T11:42:00.010+10:00

This weekend I attended the Wheeler Centre's Spotlight on Graphic novels...errr weekend, or part of it. Friday night was Shaun Tan's keynote address, he talked about his affection for the voiceless in his work, something that is clearly visible in The Arrival, one of those wonderful text free books. I was surprised that Marvel's 'Nuff Said' line of books was not mentioned. It seemed that mainstream comics were something to be shunned in that "I'm an intellectual so I don't read Spiderman" Melbournian kind of way. Which was a shame, I bet any amount of money that most of the people who came to the conference began their love affair with comic books, graphic novels whatever you want to call them, with a mainstream line. For me it was Spiderman collector cards when I was a kid and the Spawn comics as a teenager before I was introduced to Garth Ennis' Preacher and Warren Ellis' Tranmetropolitan.

Due to unforseen circumstances I was unavoidably detained on Saturday and was unable to attend the lectures and panels yesImayhavehadafewdrinksShutup!but I did attend the Dylan Horrocks and Bernard Caleo's workshops on Sunday which were brilliant. Dylan reminded me that yes I can draw and should just keep drawing damit.

Proof I can draw... sketch I made during Dylans workshop

Bernard discussed the weird and wonderful world of editing comics, not for the faint of heart, and I come away with a reminder that I should sharpen my trusty editing blade and just cut the motherfucker out if need be.

An exercise in editing with Bernard yealed this development of sketches -

They are still not completely finished - more inking needs to be done and I need to get off my ass and buy a scanner so I can import these at the proper res not just taking crap photos on my camera.

Had a great weekend, filled with drawing, inspiration, good friends, a dark pub and large amounts of whiskey.

2010-04-21T15:10:00.000+10:00

spent the day staring at feed sites and concrete walls

the courts of hell

2010-04-18T21:10:00.005+10:00

The courts of hell at Tigerbalm gardens in Singapore. Fantastic! Bring your kids to this place and show them what will happen to them if they do the wrong thing. Good old fashion healthy fear, that's what we need for a healthy education system.

TigerBalm Gardens

2010-04-18T19:45:00.002+10:00

Walking into Tigerbalm Gardens in Singapore

The start of a new story

2010-04-14T23:41:00.001+10:00

It’s a Tuesday
I like these things to happen on a Tuesday
I’d been given the address by an acquaintance
You know the kind
They’re at the bar early
Too early for any real drinking to be going on
Shoulders hunched
The bones jutting out
Warping the sweat stained shirt that clung to his flesh
Peering into the thin brown liquid that kind of place calls liquor...
I was a regular...
He was a regular...
He never looked at me straight
Always through broken glasses and sideways glances
No one brings anything small into a bar around here
Looking back now it makes a whole lotta sense
The building he’d sent me to looked like the man
Broken
There was a sign saying ‘out of order’ over the buzzer
And the door was open
The sound of the traffic on the street began to die away as I climbed the white marble stairs
The passing of time and thousands of feet had worn away a groove
Making the marble slippery under stilettos

The first two floors are mouldy with decay
Rotten floor board and broken paster walls are resident only to rats
You can hear them of a night
The ancient oak beams alive with rats,
Scampering and milling
They scurry in the walls

Upstairs
One long, large room
Stretches the length of the building
Iron framed windows
Let in only grey dirty light
The silver floor boards show no signs of the decay and destruction
My neighbours are known for
In the dim light
An ornate brass bed is faintly visible
Thick velvet drapes fall from the high vaulted ceiling
Covering all the walls not taken up by windows

Not many people come to this part of town
Sailors who have lost their way
Businessmen in trench coats and dark glasses
Then odd broken hearted vagrant
Who come to stare into the black water
Under pier 17

Sound travels slowly through thick stone
And something in the fog strangles the human voice
And muffles voices from the streets
I like this place

things

2010-04-09T12:43:00.001+10:00

140 Characters: A style guide for the Short Form. How Twitter was born

MindMods: The latest on biofeedback, consciousness, neuroscience & neurotechnology.
Ambient Corporation's New Human-Computer Interface called Audeo Intercepts Words When 'Thought'

comicbook stroke

2010-04-08T18:49:00.003+10:00

I had a slight stroke in Kinokuniya as I realised the prices of graphic novels were a third cheaper than in Melbourne. I've spent the last 5 weeks in a town with no English books, over compensating now.

singapore

2010-04-08T11:27:00.007+10:00

I stepped out of the apartment into a haze of incense this morning. The air was thick with the smell of rain, spices, freshly cut earth, sweets and that heavenly sent of boiled rice. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath sucking in the memories that flooded around me as I walked along the covered streets of Commonwealth Singapore. I grew up in Borneo but Singapore has been like a home away from home ever since I can remember. I have been coming to this Island since I was small, for many different reasons and the mix of peoples and cultures draws be back time and time again.
The problem I always has when I come back to Singapore is that the island is constantly under construction with new buildings, roads and train stations being built year round. Things change around here just enough to make me stop in the middle of the footpath, contort my face into that confused and worried look which says ‘where the fuck am I, and where have they put Plaza Singapora!’ I do love walking around the inner suburbs, if you can call them suburbs each one is as large a a city and they all blend into one giant mega city. The high foliage to building ratio makes for some wonderful drawing subjects – I will upload sketch book once I get back to a scanner in Melbourne.

edited to add...

Have just learnt that here in Singapore I am considered a 3rd culture child. A new term coined by the expatriate community here to define children who grow up in a culture different to both their parents. I have always known this; clearly this blog rants about it all the time, but I like this new term.

Anyway, just thought it was a fun new term...

Last days

2010-04-01T10:59:00.005+11:00

Holding on for the next 12 days until I get back to Melbourne. I will miss the people here, that feeling of being a minority is strangely alluring, and the look of the place. But will not miss the heat, the giant mosquitoes or the insanely early mornings.

All in all this time away has been good. Allowed me to work out what it is I want to be doing, plan out some sort of attack strategy in order to get projects started and completed and made me realise that I really do love Melbourne, (even though there is a place on the other side of the world I would rather be, but that's another story).

Had a break through in my thesis yesterday and wrote like a crazy person for hours, amassing a sizable chuck of ideas and sources to be fleshed out in the future. Along with a rough storyboard for 'The Making of a Mark' graphic novelette the past 5 weeks have been quite productive.

In 5 days I will be in Singapore, eating wonderful food, strolling through my favourite parts of Chinatown and photographing all the new and old buildings on the island.

2010-03-21T21:20:00.005+11:00

Have been inspired by Ariana Osborne's blog rants about making things and am now all fired up about my new and old projects. Not that I wasn't fired up and excited about them before, reading about all the options and ideas that are out there for me to exploit with my writing and graphic work makes me feel a bit more positive about my own skills.

I have been working on my Noir script for over a year now, it has morphed many times and will probably morph many more before I’m completely happy with it. A few other short stories that I have been working on over the past few months look like they are growing into something tangible. These short writings have developed visuals as well. Most of them were conjured up during my recent travels to the UK and U.S.A so they are set amongst a backdrop of ice, fog and snow. The complete opposite to where I am right now and I have been struggling to write about ancient stone crypts, ice covered footpaths and fog rolling into valleys while being surrounded by blue skies and palm trees. Difficult but not impossible, cranking up the aircon, wrapped in my favourite kimono, a few hours of silence and it all comes pouring out.

Here's hoping it keeps on flowing

2010-03-18T19:58:00.003+11:00

Half dead cat I have been feeding. Have christened him Harvey for obvious reasons

Merdeka

2010-03-17T14:03:00.003+11:00

Freedom! Another statue in Balikpapan displaying the people fighting against imperialist oppressors. This one is in someone’s front yard. Just think what the world would be like if we all displayed our political beliefs in concrete statue form in our front yards.

Superman never had to deal with going back to Krypton.

2010-03-14T08:05:00.004+11:00

Born of two worlds, never feeling quite at home on Earth, but he never had to deal with going back to Krypton and dealing with the culture clash of America and his birth planet. Perhaps Krypton was a totalitarian dictatorship, or a sultanate that believed in the divinity of their rulers. Perhaps Krypton was the complete opposite to America and Superman’s devout Americana would come under question as he learned about his traditional cultural values.

All this 'he was trapped between two worlds' bullshit, he never had to deal with walking around his home planet and feeling like an alien. Having Kryponians ask where he's been all these years and when he says 'Earth' they just look at him blankly and say 'what the fuck is Earth?'

There is something to this whole idea of being trapped between two worlds but I don't think Superman ever really had to deal with the full extent of the cultural clash a person feels when they find themselves in the purgatory of having lived in two distinctly different places.

Here in Asia, my white skin is a symbol; depending on where I am it either symbolises wealth, education, decadence, sexual promiscuity or filth. Depending on where you are on Earth Superman either symbolises Hope, Freedom and the American
dream, America's violent power, intense immigration issues, or spandex pride. Back in Australia I am just another 'regular' person and most people I meet have no Idea about the places I have lived and the things I have experienced.

Yeah yeah, no one really understand what anyone else has experienced, stop whingeing. Superman never had to deal with his fellow Kryptonians dismissing his life on Earth as a romp in the outer reaches of space before he settles down with a
nice Kryptonian girl (or boy; is it just me who thinks gay Superman sex be totally hot...I digress).

I went to a Wurong the other day and ate at a local restaurant, fish and rice. I was asked afterwards, by a local, if I was worried about eating at a local restaurant and wouldn't I rather go to a western beachside cafe? No! This is the food I grew up with Ikan, Ayam, Tofu, Nasi and Mee, real food as far as I'm concerned. Did anyone ever ask Superman if he was worried about eating hamburgers and French Fries? and wouldn't he rather eat Kryptonian food.

Bollocks bollocks bollocks...no sleep makes me cranky

Found Chinatown Balikpapan Baru - Surreal hypercolours

2010-03-12T22:55:00.006+11:00

Meh

2010-03-10T18:16:00.004+11:00

I was walking along the beach yesterday morning under swaying palm trees, blue skies, and billowing clouds: surrounded by tropical plants and flowers. I stopped on the path and tried to feel...well, something, anything special about this land. You know, that relaxed blissed out calm feeling all those advertisements about tropical island holidays tell you, you will feel when you leave the cold, dank, damp city and sit in the sun to drink cocktails. But I just can't muster up any kind of feeling other than...meh, about this place. I spent my adolescence on this Island, amongst the jungle and the 'tropical paradise' of Borneo and even though I'm on the other side of the island, in a different country, and enjoying the sights and cultures East Kalimantan has to offer I just can't look around me and feel anything other than regular.

I spent the last few months trekking around the UK and had numerous 'wow' moments, many of them simply walking around cities, through twisting alleyways or subterranean crypts, churches or Neolithic burial mounds. I loved the long nights, the dark pubs in small towns, the sound cobblestones makes when your feet slap over them. Even coming back to Melbourne the old bluestone buildings and gothic architecture still stops me in my tracks and forces me to stare up at the enormity of the buildings. Causing me to look like a gawking tourist but what the fuck eh.

It's not Asia, after many years of travelling to Singapore (at least once a year) the city still holds its wonder for me. Whether it's in the backstreets of Chinatown to find temples crammed into small pockets of the sprawling city or the alleyways sprouting off Sarugong Rd in little India. This inability to find a sense of 'wow' seems to be confined to white sandy beaches, tropical palm trees and flowers. I've found many wonderful things here in Balikpapan that have made me stop and stare in awe, butchered chickens on a market stall, the mauled face of the cat my Mother and I feed daily, the fungus that sprawls over anything concrete and damp (everything), the weathered faces of the old men who sit outside by the river fishing and smoking double tar cigarettes. The brutal statues and the promise of bizarre things to come: I have been told about a beauty salon that specialises in fish manicures, where you place your hands in a tank of fish that eat the dead skin off your hands. I have plans to experience this intriguing concept as well as a visit to a local Indonesian church that specialises in devil worship. These things make me go 'wow' but I will never understand why people go on holiday to small islands in the middle of nowhere and do nothing by lie on the beach when they could be having flesh striped from them by hungry fish or be possessed by demons.

Anyway...just a thought

we love peace but more love freedom

2010-03-08T11:44:00.005+11:00

These statues are all over the place. This one is to remind the people that they need to fight Imperialism and keep Balikpapan free for...err... the people. I saw one yesterday in someone's yard of a man throwing what looks like grenade, must investigate further.

Balikpapan

2010-03-04T16:33:00.004+11:00

Balikpapan is a small city, colourful and bright like all the places I have travelled to on this island, they delight in painting their fences in primary colours and gold paint. Every detail in the twisted iron is carefully painted in different colours. Flags of yellow, red, green and white are posted along the roads. Every house proudly displays potted plants and ferns, bird cages hang under verandas and market stalls on the side of the road sell Lichie and Rumbutan. This place is isolated from the other big towns of Borneo which allows this furthest outpost of Indonesia to create their own identity, the biggest difference between here and the capital Jakarta is that the police seem to be actually doing their job, with a minimum of corruption. Surprising but true.

This place is less Chinese than I am used to. In Brunei and Singapore Chinese run the bulk of businesses and are a comforting sight for me. I tend to gravitate to the Chinese parts of any town I visit, or live in for that matter. Most people here are Indonesian, Malay, Indian or Diak, with only a small Chinese population. That didn't stop me from finding one of the only Chinese restaurants in town last night. Indo/China tofu and rice is the best I'm going to get here.

The markets here are great! When my mother and I walk into the lane ways a cry comes from somewhere within the throng of people "Bule! Bule!" signalling that white people have entered the market and everything suddenly becomes much more expensive. Bananas that are normally Rp1000 become Rp6000 jumping a massive 50 cents in price. Here I am a decadent white foreigner. While paying for eggs, counting out Rp1000 notes an old man walked past and peered into the wallet stuffed with a wad of colourful notes, shook his head and mumbled 'so much money' in disgust. As a result I find it hard to haggle here, I am the queen of bargaining in Asian markets but here I am haggling over 10 cents, a pittance to me and a fortune to the local people. I am inclined to pay the extra dollar they have over charged me in order to lessen my guilt at being the decedent Bule that I am.

My skin colour has always been an issue for me, growing up in Asia most of my classmates spent their time and money on skin lightening cream and western clothing while I refused to wear sun block and covered myself the silk skirts and pattered cloth of Indian and Chinese dress. I am white but I don't feel white, I have an affinity with Chinese culture and traditions but will never be completely Asian either, being back in Borneo the ever present feeling of 'not belonging' is not sitting in the back of my mind like it usually does but is hitting me over the head. I am an immigrant in all countries, especially the one I was born in. Australian culture is rough and sarcastic and in many ways scares me but technically I am an Australian. Where ever I go here locals ask me 'where you from?' and I answer dutifully 'Australia' and cringe as I do so.

Timeline

2010-02-24T16:16:00.002+11:00

4pm Tuesday 24th - Email from mum asking if I can work in Balikpapan for 4 weeks starting RIGHT NOW!
4.05pm Tuesday 24th - slight panic, wrote emails to work and paced around the house like a mad woman
5pm Tuesday 24th - organized time off from The Arts Centre, officially took the job and have tickets to fly out to Singapore being expressed posted from the travel agent.
25th Wednesday - running around town collecting things I might need in Indonesia and things mum wants me to buy for her and the school
Projected time line -
26th Thursday - Working at Arts Centre all day, get home and pack bags
27th Friday - fly out to Singapore

It's all happening and it's happening now!

2010-02-11T09:41:00.001+11:00

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”

2010-02-02T01:36:00.001+11:00

Pleasure is oft a visitant; but pain / Clings cruelly to us.
- Keats

2010-02-02T01:26:00.001+11:00

“Narcotics cannot still the tooth
That Nibbles at the soul”
- Emily Dickinson

2010-01-17T12:09:00.001+11:00

2010-01-10T00:02:00.001+11:00

Inside the Tower of London

2010-01-02T17:40:00.002+11:00

Tower of London

2010-01-02T17:36:00.002+11:00

2009-12-22T21:42:00.000+11:00

Made a drawing today. Did not photograph it before I sent it away…

2009-12-14T11:41:00.002+11:00

2009-12-14T11:39:00.001+11:00

minneapolis

2009-12-11T19:40:00.003+11:00

2009-11-04T19:42:00.001+11:00

Love is joy and grief,
And trembling doubt, and certain-sure belief,
And fear, and hope, and longing unexpressed,
In pain most human, and in rapture brief
Almost divine.

-Henry Van Dyke

2009-09-28T20:46:00.001+10:00

Fingers press deep into eye sockets, skin sloths from bone

2009-09-08T18:17:00.000+10:00

Onomatopoeia ZZZZZZOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!

2009-09-05T14:48:00.000+10:00

Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things.

Enviroment design for experimental theater 'Backwards'

2009-02-08T10:26:00.002+11:00

Opening night of 'Backwards'
DATES AND TIMES:
Opening Night: Tue 10 February, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Design Exhibition Hours: Wed 11-Fri 13 February & Mon 16 -Fri 20 February, 10am-2pm all days
Performance Nights: Week two: Wed 18-Sat 21 February, 8pm all shows
VENUE: First Site, RMIT Union Gallery, Storey Hall Basement, 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne
TICKET PRICES: Exhibition is free, Performance $5 all tickers
BOOKINGS: 0418 121 393 or theatreinbars@gmail.com

This is Brunswick Arts

2009-01-16T10:40:00.003+11:00

Exhibiting work at Bruswick Street Gallery. Opening night Friday the 16th Jan 6pm

B Grade Horror Exhibition @ Brunswick Arts

2008-11-18T09:36:00.004+11:00

Exhibiting a Plaster Sculpture version of the Hand Creatures... A collaboration with Alister Karl.

Plastikos

2008-11-10T14:44:00.005+11:00

Performing over 5 nights at Brunswick Arts Space, Candel Ends: a collection of performance based, sound and visual installations that worked to break down the traditional performance space of the forth wall.
Plastikos was Performance Art collaboration between Erin Voth and fellow performer and artist James Wray...
in which a plastic sculpture was created over three weeks by wrapping James in ClingFilm and stickytape, each night a different part of his anatomy was plasticized. Resulting in a full scale plastic replica of the man. Exploring, consumerism, petroleum, sex, fetishism, performance, sound and film.

2008-10-20T09:26:00.002+11:00

2008-10-18T11:35:00.001+11:00

2008-10-10T09:52:00.002+11:00

2008-10-10T09:50:00.001+11:00

Documentation of work exhibited at Trocadero Gallery

2008-10-06T11:08:00.003+11:00

2008-09-24T09:40:00.003+10:00

Trocadero and BSG exhibitions up up and away...
Many thinks to the Troc crew for a very fun night and much laughs
e

2008-09-08T10:36:00.000+10:00

"The sensibility of the individual to the world adjacent to his body by use of his body"

Gibson, J.J.

Upcomming exhibition

2008-09-03T09:45:00.003+10:00

PictureThis08 Photographic exhibition at Brunswick Street Gallery Fitzroy.
Opening night Friday the 12th Sept 6pm -9pm
@322 Brunswick St Fitzroy

I will be exhibiting new experimental prints
I hope to see you there
:)
e

2008-09-03T06:29:00.002+10:00

Hands are the chief organs for physically manipulating the environment. The fingertips contain some of the densest areas of nerve endings in the human body, creating the richest source of tactile feedback to the brain. The image of a human hand is automatically associated with the scene of touch. So what happens when an image of a human hand is manipulated, sliced up and rearranged?

The modified modifier invokes images of self mutilation, alteration and airbrushing. We are creatures who have mapped the human genome code and have successfully cloned species and yet we are still obsessed with the ‘perfect body’ just as the ancient Greeks and Romans were.

Throughout our history it has been our hands that have allowed us to create and destroy. I am experimenting with the tools of our creation and in so explored how the symbol of hands have allowed me to create my new creatures just as Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell created Dolly the sheep by artificial means.

ARTificial means, manipulating line and shape in order to create my own life forms. New and curious life forms emerged from line on paper, transforming through stages; spawn to eggs to larvae to chrysalis to emergence to adolesces to adulthood. Morphing from body to appendage to hands to finger tips my work has evolved into a series of works that explore the tools of our own manipulations through line and shape.

Touch -The somatosensory system is a widespread and diverse sensory system comprising of the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities touch, temperature, body position, and pain. The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal organs, and the cardiovascular system. While touch is considered one of the five traditional senses the impression of touch is formed from several modalities.

The system reacts to diverse stimuli using different receptors: temperature, mechanical and chemical. Transmission of information from the receptors passes via sensory nerves through tracts in the spinal cord and into the brain. Processing primarily occurs in the primary somatosensory area in the parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex.

At its simplest, the system works when a sensory neuron is triggered by a specific stimulus such as heat; this neurone passes to an area in the brain uniquely attributed to that area on the body - this allows the processed stimulus to be felt at the correct location. The mapping of the body surfaces in the brain is called a homunculus and is essential in the creation of a body image.

People can rapidly and accurately identify three-dimensional objects by touch. They do so through the use of exploratory procedures, such as moving the fingers over the outer surface of the object or holding the entire object in the hand^.

"The sensibility of the individual to the world adjacent to his body by use of his body"-
Gibson, J.J. (1966). The senses considered as perceptual systems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Gibson and others emphasized the close link between haptic perception and body movement: haptic perception is active exploration. The concept of haptic perception is related to the concept of extended physiological proprioception according to which, when using a tool such as a stick, perceptual experience is transparently transferred to the end of the tool.

2008-09-02T12:34:00.000+10:00

2008-08-29T14:12:00.001+10:00

2008-08-28T07:50:00.001+10:00

Upcoming exhibition

2008-08-26T09:25:00.003+10:00

Wallpaper 08
@Trocadero Arts Space
Level 1, 119 Hopkins St Footscray

I will be exhibiting new experimental drawings
in this exhibition.

Hope to see all you cats and kittens there on opening night,

e

2008-08-26T09:07:00.001+10:00

2008-08-25T14:34:00.003+10:00

Where O where will hands live? Where do these hands live? Do they live? Do they think? Can they think? ??? CLinkerbrick explorations to come

2008-08-25T10:12:00.004+10:00

Experimenting with animation

2008-08-20T14:50:00.001+10:00

2008-07-14T22:04:00.004+10:00

Black and White exhibition had a great opening, a good time had by all and some great works hung on the walls.

Pigment Gallery Exhibition

2008-06-23T17:37:00.005+10:00

9 - 19 July
Various Artists
Black + White (shades of grey) MARK II
Over 50 artists across ALL 2D media
affordable ART - $50 - $1000

Drinks with artists Thu 10 July 5.30-8pm

Level 2 Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street (cnr Flinders Lane)
(enter via Cathedral Arcade)
Melbourne
Victoria 3000

Exhibiting new drawings at Pigment gallery on the above dates

2008-06-18T08:32:00.005+10:00

Exhibited at Brunswick Street Gallery's Works on Paper exhibition 25th April til 8th May

322 Brunswick Stree Fitzroy

oooooo blog thingy

2008-06-18T08:15:00.001+10:00

Experimental drawings that will become somthing.....