The Playground of Mischief

under

2011-10-07T13:33:00.000+11:00

rather wicked

2011-09-19T14:48:00.003+10:00

it's really rather wicked, de clieu, to have a solid chocolate log with which to stir my hot chocolate. but oh heavens, rather good

blown wide open

2011-09-19T14:43:00.003+10:00

the inimitable DAMN MORODER (and small blonde sidekick) post gig - they really killed it at the Wide Open Spaces Festival just out of Alice Springs

finding jellyfish

2011-09-19T10:02:00.002+10:00

some jellyfish inspired experiments for the design of the launch of VOID LOVE at the Speigletent.

The event was quite the pink bollywood bonanza, featuring video, live links, the Bombay Royale, Jess Cornelius and the one and only Kamahl. And suitably sold out!

folding pages

2011-09-19T09:48:00.002+10:00

we commissioned this work for my mum by the wonderful book sculptor Nicholas Jones. So nice to honour books as pieces in themselves - the endpages on this old tale were too hard to go past.

Joseph Kosuth at ACCA

2011-09-19T09:42:00.003+10:00

beautiful exhibition by Joseph Kosuth at ACCA
this huge black space, spiced by words of neon light in the hard to reach borders of the ceiling

x ma s

2011-09-19T09:39:00.000+10:00

play it again

2010-09-12T19:56:00.000+10:00

unlikely superheros

2010-09-12T16:22:00.002+10:00

the condom king found at Condoms and Cabbages Restaurant, Bangkok

he wore it for a month solid. fly boi fly.

the outside side

2010-09-06T21:53:00.000+10:00

the outside side

2010-09-06T21:46:00.001+10:00

the outside side

2010-09-06T21:40:00.001+10:00

how to smash a pink car good and proper

2009-05-31T15:33:00.010+10:00

things on walls and things

2009-05-31T15:30:00.001+10:00

A host of recent exhibitions and shows...

Void Love

2009-05-06T16:08:00.003+10:00

There is an exciting new art being made by Willoh S Weiland and Nicky Forster called Void Love. They've been in residency working with the Astrophysics department at Swinburne University and the product will be an amazing soap opera dealing with the big bang, dark matter and all things cosmology-like. It stars the one and only Kamahl, some pale people and body parts. Very Fun!

photos c/o willoh & nicky

True Live "Something To Be"

2009-05-06T15:58:00.004+10:00

I did the art direction and location scouting for this clip recently, directed by Dan Koerner and produced by Virginia Kay. It was filmed at an old textile factory and we had a tonne of recycled water brought in for the big splash scene.
Check it out here.

Some missing images of old work..

2009-04-17T16:19:00.003+10:00

A picture I took of Strange Fruit performing in Spain. I did duplicate costumes for this show, Field in 2007.

Still from the 2006 TZU video clip, In Front, directed by Anto Skene. I did the production design.

Still from the 2006 Tex'n'Tim video clip, Everybody Hates You When You're Popular, directed by Anto Skene. I worked on art department.

Photo of one of the bedrooms on set of the 2005 TV series Forget The Rules, where I ran the art and wardrobe departments.

Still from the 2004 production of Treibgut by Titanick Theatre Company in Germany, where I worked in the costume department.

Still from the 2002 feature film, "The Sticks", directed by Marcus Shutenko. I worked in the wardrobe department.

Still from the 2002 "The Half Light" theatre production by Forgets To Blink. I did costumes, set design and performed in the piece.

city spaces

2009-04-17T14:36:00.001+10:00

Some interesting spaces I looked at while location scouting for an upcoming clip.

Pentouse Mouse 09

2009-04-17T14:01:00.002+10:00

Penthouse Mouse delivered a new program of fashion/art events during the fashion festival. Set in the old roller-skating rink, now derelict, that I, incidently, had my 7th birthday party at...

Some great art pieces amongst the fashionista's, including a ride-on drawing machine, and these great cut objects by Robbie Rowlands.

On-the-side fashion-in-black at the mid mouse runway show, featuring some great designers. Must say, watching those watching was just as interesting to me. It's a weird thing, runway shows, with everyone pulling their pout and waiting to be snapped up, nonchalantly, as the next big thing. It does permeate though, even I felt the every-second oscillation from feeling fabulous to awkward and spent. ha ha

waiting on high

2009-04-15T15:38:00.000+10:00

the curious cat

2009-04-15T15:35:00.000+10:00

BDO 09

2009-04-15T15:30:00.001+10:00

Nat Thomas goes to hell

2009-04-15T15:16:00.003+10:00

Nat's exploding exhibition at Hell Gallery, with the sounds of Slocombes Pussy and a packed courtyard of boozed up bodies in bunny ears.

for young and old

2009-04-03T20:27:00.003+11:00

home made bike powered spit delights...

cardboard cars..

and champagne smiles.

Grow Wild

2009-04-03T19:14:00.002+11:00

A wonderful exhibition at Utopian Slumps, curated by Adam Cruickshank and Dell Stewart.

the boys are back in town, shot through the heart and slightly fuzzy

2009-04-03T19:11:00.001+11:00

a few days at the beach between the sweltering and downright apocalyptic heat

2009-04-03T19:07:00.000+11:00

a night round the docks

2009-04-03T18:54:00.006+11:00

nose

2009-02-23T14:04:00.002+11:00

eat well, play hard, pass out

2009-02-23T13:57:00.002+11:00

ladies at play

2009-02-23T13:46:00.000+11:00

puppets, rock bang, hazmats and cakes

2008-12-19T12:13:00.003+11:00

some recent projects I've been working on:

making fake cakes... Art Director on Daniel Koerner's upcoming film 'If I Dance will it Keep me Warm'

dancin the go go... Dancer in the 'Rock Bang' video clip for Die Roten Punkte, choreography by the lovely Anna

making Hazmat suits... Production designer for TZU 'Mondays' video clip, directed by Anto Skene

making puppets with the kids... A creative arts program I just completed at a primary school for The Song Room

play collage

2008-12-18T12:03:00.009+11:00

commit no nusicance, opposition brings concord

2008-12-17T17:43:00.005+11:00

skulls, fantasy and the city

2008-11-19T14:46:00.006+11:00

Some great art around town...

Adam Cruikshank's latest exhibition 'Don't Even Write' at TBC is a wonderful cityscape of minute pleasures. The detail of the discarded is fantastic and the letters are re-arranged in various anagrams over the course of its showing.

This beautiful exhibition at Platform at the moment, by the obviously talented Contextual Villians, is a great mix of fantasy, object and image.

This exhibition of 100 decorated skulls at the Michael Koro Gallery opened on the Day of the Dead in celebrations of the Mexican Film Festival.

cloud wheel

2008-11-18T10:55:00.002+11:00

This was a little test I made thinking about how I might redesign old-school games for adults. Jigsaw puzzles, those rotating cards to match different faces etc coupled with adult play images. The cloud I had left over from the exhibition, so just seeing how it might work...

brazilnut trivia

2008-11-13T15:53:00.002+11:00

did you know that you can light brazilnuts like candles. I didn't. So I did. Worked well too.
FYI on the survival tips, orange peel and cheezles make great fire lighters.

billy cart bonanza

2008-11-13T15:46:00.002+11:00

The back streets. A tournament. Scraped elbows and beer breath. Wonderful.

space perspectives

2008-11-13T15:34:00.003+11:00

through and up

light and angle

taking the air with panther, kittens and girls girls girls

2008-11-03T17:04:00.004+11:00

A few great exhibitions and shows I've seen recently:
Inside Out, a beautiful photography exhibition by Fiona Wood Upstairs@TheNapierHotel.
Taking the Air with Master Basho and Maestro Ravel, an exhibition of jewellery by Jennifer Martin at EgEtal on Flinders Lane - stunning pieces with story and soul.
Girls Girls Girls, a collaborative show at the Carlton Bar & Studios - great ladies, great work - the 70's sex collages and the enormous scale pencil case were standouts.

2 shows as part of the Melbourne Festival:
Kitten by Jenny Kemp at The Malthouse - incredibly acted, polar bear suits and silver balloon fish, fascinating writing and great lighting.
Exercises in Happiness by Panther at a warehouse in Carlton - a series of interactive tasks to measure your happiness, as rated by the audience/participants.

Panther did a fantastic job putting on this show. Staged as a social experiment, with results of the participant's happiness published by Crawl online daily, it allowed individual exploration of the concept of happiness, in an space that necessitated a comfortable level of interaction with others. 'Exercises in Happiness' is of great interest to me in relation to The Playground Project as it looks to define, or question, a pursuit of something that makes our daily lives a better place.
Activities included playing an electric guitar, indoor gardening, watching porn, listening to Beethoven, eating cake over conversation, hitting a pinata and reading in bed.

brunswick free ride

2008-11-03T16:14:00.001+11:00

80 people on bikes riding around the big block for no reason in particular other than having the whole road for a change...

banana sausage

2008-10-22T15:42:00.000+11:00

dance-a-thon 6000

2008-10-22T15:21:00.004+11:00

There were 52 of us from Anna's Go Go Academy dancing The Madison at Dance-a-thon 6000. An incredible mix of dance troupes - a veritable adult rock eisteddfod! Hosted by the ever wonderful Town Bikes. My favorite was the record breaking effort by the audience - 300 people rocking the ribbons, interpretive dancing to Fleetwood Mac. Enough said.

playing on the arts

2008-10-22T15:10:00.000+11:00

Monkey Magic

2008-10-02T10:57:00.009+10:00

Initially I made some costumes for this wonderfully tacky production of Monkey Magic, part of the 2008 Fringe Festival. Then got pulled in to play Yellow Demon's wife. It's been heaps of fun actually - definitely a while since I've had to learn lines though! The live band do a great score to the staged episode and Yellow Demon is especially hilarious. Read the review from The Age here.

Davina Adamson

2008-10-02T10:42:00.006+10:00

I recently bought this fantastic piece by Melbourne artist Davina Adamson. It was part of the System Crystal exhibition at LUPA ART, a wonderful space that provides artists with residencies to develop work across many artforms. Can't wait to get this roaring flower head onto my wall!

Subway

2008-10-01T09:48:00.004+10:00

The Platform subway for my Play Pins exhibition on a Wednesday evening in September. A really interesting and public space to work with. And kind of large! So many boxes to fill - must say I freaked out a little...

Play Pins: Title box

2008-10-01T09:40:00.001+10:00

The next installment from one half of The Playground Project, this exhibition takes a look at moments of adult play through design.

Over the past few years I’ve been keeping a record of moments of play in my life, in everyday situations I see and from stories I hear from others. The more I’ve thought about the ways that adults play, the more infinite these ways seem. Childhood, games, sport, sex, laughter, fantasy, ingenuity, creativity, risk, syncopation, repetition, rehearsal…the list goes on. My aim then, has become more about igniting the imagination of individual play.

For this exhibition I chose a number of images that signify the different ways I have observed adults play. An experiment in how clothing, textiles, image and object can sit playfully. It is not just a public display of playfulness, it is a reminder to notice and enjoy those bliss bits in your day.

How do you play? Is it sensation or scenario? Solitary or surrounded? The silver lining or the lining of a jacket? Play up. Play on. Play ball.

Play Pins: Photo wall

2008-10-01T09:37:00.000+10:00

Tell you a secret...

Play Pins: PLAY ALONG

2008-10-01T09:33:00.000+10:00

The air just starting to get warm.

Play Pins: PLAY AROUND

2008-10-01T09:29:00.001+10:00

Queuing out front
you can hear the music,
feel your stomach,
hips start moving.
Can feel the pull
to get lost in rhythm.

Play Pins: PLAY OUT

2008-10-01T09:24:00.001+10:00

The washing line hangs over the balcony. When the wind blows things off we fish them back with a fishing rod. It works surprisingly well.

Play Pins: PLAY OFF

2008-10-01T09:15:00.002+10:00

Once there was a man at a conference. A very important man. Very important conference. But there was this hill. So green was the grass that he was compelled to roll down to the bottom. Brushing his knees off, he greeted his colleague.

Play Pins: PLAY FAST

2008-10-01T09:09:00.000+10:00

Nothing beats good old fashioned adrenaline.

Play Pins: PLAY BACK

2008-09-30T18:24:00.001+10:00

This girl I know really knows how to whistle.
I mean really. Every note. Plus the warbles.

Play Pins: PLAY DOWN

2008-09-30T18:19:00.000+10:00

So I got in the bath with my clothes on to join you.

Play Pins: PLAY UP

2008-09-30T18:15:00.001+10:00

I’ll tease you.
You’ll say no when you mean
yes.
I’ll please you.
You’ll be misty,
but alive.
I’ll see you.
Your eyes and mine.
The reaching.

Play Pins: PLAY WITH

2008-09-30T18:11:00.001+10:00

That smile in the eyes. Come dance with me.

Play Pins: PLAY ON

2008-09-30T18:06:00.002+10:00

We stopped on the stairs and sang the whole song together.

Play Pins: PLAY AT

2008-09-30T17:57:00.003+10:00

Greeted, you enter a shallow room with a ceiling 2 levels high, on the walls are pictures of people playing, some obscured behind tiny sliding doors. Through a doorway, the next room is a 360 projection of an outside space (the sky, the grass, the beach) with a single chair in the centre. Another doorway and the room is getting smaller, a white space with many pens hanging, waiting for you to add your writing to the walls. As the spaces get smaller along the ramp, you pass through a sensory melange – textures and sounds – to ready you for play. The rooms end and you find yourself overlooking a large space in the round. The ramp you are on winds its way around the edge till it reaches a top centre stage where a band is playing. Along the ramp, people are climbing up and down poles/nets. Further on someone is being winched up by three people on stationary bikes. Under the centre platform are two long swings. To the side is a spiral staircase and a slide to the bottom level. There are four rooms underneath the spiral ramp, inhabited by performers – the dancing room (empty with a dress up box), the boudoire (a four-poster bed), the cardboard box (a card table and chairs) and the walk-in wardrobe (a single light globe with polaroids of people all over the walls). The centre area on the bottom level has a mound in one corner and a chequered dancing floor. There are hammocks and beanbags and old-fashioned chairs around the edges. From below you can see new people enter the space and winding around the ramp above you. You stay a while, a short performance happens in the central space. To exit you are led past the side of the swings and out into the night…

sightings

2008-09-10T16:32:00.003+10:00

This image is from an exhibition on at ACMI at the moment - 'correspondences' - huge black and white snow landscapes. Beautiful.

kit confusion

2008-09-10T16:29:00.002+10:00

just re-organised my art department kit...looks like so much all spread out

ECCPA

2008-09-10T16:16:00.004+10:00

I recently presented two workshops at ECCPA 2008 (The 12th Annual Early Childhood Conference of Performing Arts). Many of the presenters were amazing. The main guest was Ciro Paduano, from Italy, who had us doing incredible body percussion pieces in minutes. We also had the pleasure of seeing and playing some of Jon Madin's home-made instruments (pictured), including the six player, bike propelled keyboard.

country road

2008-09-10T16:15:00.000+10:00

details

2008-09-10T16:11:00.001+10:00

some detail of the clothing in the exhibition. This is a relatively new printing process where the dye sits within the fabric, as opposed to sitting on top of it. Some of the textures created are really interesting.

Platform Exhibition Opening

2008-09-04T16:39:00.005+10:00

PLAY PINS - How do you play?

The next instalment from one half of The Playground Project, this exhibition takes a look at moments of adult play through design.

Over the past few years I’ve been keeping a record of moments of play in my life, in everyday situations I see and from stories I hear from others. The more I’ve thought about the ways that adults play, the more infinite these ways seem. Childhood, games, sport, sex, laughter, fantasy, ingenuity, creativity, risk, syncopation, repetition, rehearsal…the list goes on. My aim then, has become more about igniting the imagination of individual play.

For this exhibition I chose a number of images that signify the different ways I have observed adults play. An experiment in how clothing, textiles, image and object can sit playfully. It is not just a public display of playfulness, it is a reminder to notice and enjoy those bliss bits in your day.

How do you play? Is it sensation or scenario? Solitary or surrounded? The silver lining or the lining of a jacket? Play up. Play on. Play ball.

muph n plutonic

2008-08-15T15:33:00.010+10:00

Just finished production design for the new Muph n Plutonic video clip "Beautiful Ugly", directed by Anto Skene. Fantastic location to shoot in - an abandoned hospital. Brought in a heap of ancient medical equipment for a dark and dingy look. Watch it here on YouTube.

finding faces

2008-08-15T15:32:00.000+10:00

rotating guardians

2008-08-15T15:30:00.001+10:00

festival flava

2008-08-15T15:28:00.001+10:00

Summer in Europe = Playtime at Festivals
Music was everywhere but I was particularly stocked to find Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the Rise Festival in London. I also got to see Radiohead for free at Westerpark in Amsterdam which was a nice surprise.
The Gion festival in Kyoto was a totally different type of festival, a religious ode to those who avoided the plague back in the day.

free hugs

2008-08-15T15:27:00.000+10:00

people places play spaces

2008-08-15T15:23:00.001+10:00

Beer-crate stack climbing, public painting, low-lit serenity and Dr Pong, the table tennis bar.

natural history

2008-08-15T15:20:00.001+10:00

The Natural History Museum in London is pretty incredible. You'd need a few visits to see everything but I was especially taken by the almost architectural textures and shapes in the geology section.

london scenes

2008-08-15T15:15:00.000+10:00

back stages

2008-08-15T15:13:00.001+10:00

A back shed at the superb Combe House Hotel in Devon, England. This place is an exquisite English manor house. Rolling green hills and Devonshire tea to boot.

overseas art

2008-08-15T15:12:00.002+10:00

Families in action under one of the huge wall pieces outside the Tate Modern. They're about 7 stories high!
What a great gallery the Tate is. Again and again. One of the special exhibitions on was Street & Studio, which looks at the history of street photography and studio photography.

Another great gallery was in Kyoto, Japan. Imura Art Gallery, showing at the time the beautiful work of Chihiro Nagashima. A fantastic escape from the insane summer heat!

overseas art

2008-08-15T15:08:00.002+10:00

A window in Berlin...

There are so many art spaces in Berlin. This is an abandoned building transformed into a working studio/gallery. Awesome.
Also checked out an amazing series photography exhibitions at the CO in Berlin.

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the Hayward Gallery London.

One incredible work in The Tunnel (the London Cans Festival) featuring the world's best street artists.

My favorite exhibition overseas,'Pyscho Buildings' at the Hayward Gallery in London. Amazing, huge playful installations that the audience can walk through, sit on, row around and climb.

overseas art

2008-08-15T15:03:00.001+10:00

Walls in Berlin - always a treat. The Rotterdamse Kunst had a bunch of fantastic shows, as well as being an amazing building in its own right. Also saw a great groups show in Rotterdam about food - marshmellow rooms, baking on ikea lights, salami sculptures...

winter beach

2008-08-15T15:02:00.000+10:00

Attack of the Evil Chi and Other Recent Events

2008-06-13T09:48:00.006+10:00

A stunning chest-pulling, smile-giving evening at the Myer Music Bowl for the Yelling At Stars show (congratulations to all involved), surrounded by fog and concrete cold, we pumped our hams down to the Corner Hotel to see the Eddy Current Suppression Ring album launch, hard and loud and pulse-filled play. A warehouse of friends and fire-side burning. Misty-eyed morning.
And it is baby-blessings and engagement parties, such ADULT play, rinked with tea-lights in graters and patches for quilts.
And it is out for food, in a small well-lit delicacy that sits on your tongue.
And it is sewing and preparing and letting patterns play their own way out.
A drive in the country. Winery.Gallery.Lookout. Bathing in sparkling mineral water as the knots are kneaded out of the back.
And back. Blasted by the wind.
THERE'S NO FUN IN THIS. So ill. Poison in every muscle. Bedridden as the waking-dead. Fever dreams of soap-opera dramatic dying. Too many episodes of Arrested Development. The Bluth company will tear my head open.
Attack of the evil chi. Boo.

head in the hole

2008-05-21T15:26:00.002+10:00

I made a lady head in the hole for a friend's birthday out of fabric on canvas and some well positioned shoulder pads out front.
He He. An old idea that continues to promote play.

oh the river

2008-05-21T15:18:00.001+10:00

i'm missing those sunny relaxed days by the river, swimming upstream with a beer, mud through the toes and silt on the skin...

up and up

2008-05-21T15:16:00.001+10:00

a night time ferris wheel over the city scape. A change of levels = a change of perspective?

The Key

2008-04-30T11:46:00.005+10:00

I am in the process of developing a creative arts teaching resource for The Song Room. Here is an example of one activity featured:

THE KEY

In a small bag or box, bring a key (I use an old over-sized metal key) in to the session. Begin by asking the children to guess what is in the bag to get their imaginations going.
Bring out the key and pass it around for them to feel, while asking the question ‘what do you think this key opens?’ Tease out their answers if necessary. For example, if they answer ‘a door’, ask ‘what colour is it?’, ‘is it a big door or a tiny door?’ etc.
Once the children have given a few ideas, a group story begins. The story is led by the facilitator but uses ideas that the kids have put forward so far. At each interval in the story, the facilitator can ask the children to name a character, or suggest what happens next. For example, if a child thought the key opened a large castle door, we might begin the story with:
‘Once upon a time there was a boy in a castle (what shall we call him?) who found a large key next to a very small door (what colour was the door?). He put the key into the lock and slowly opened the door to find… (what did he see?).
In this way, the story is being led but also incorporates the groups’ ideas. Finish the story with a definite ending. I usually do three claps, saying ‘and that was the end of that’.

This story can be expanded in three ways:

1. Assign sound effects (vocal or with instruments) to elements in the story. Ask them ‘what sound would the door make?’, ‘what sound could be used for a castle?’ etc. Groups or individuals are then designated the sound effect to a particular part of the story. Retell the story, adding the sounds for each part, as it is told.

2. Take the children on a dramatic re-enactment of the story. Standing in a group and led by the facilitator, move around the room acting out finding the key, opening the door etc. At points in the story, the facilitator may ask the children ‘then what happens?’ to see if they remembered the story, and make it as interactive as possible. If the story deviates from the first telling, go with the new ideas, bringing it back to the original storyline if their ideas falter.

3. Ask the children to then draw a picture from the story to solidify their recollection and understanding of the story. They can draw any part they like: the key, a character or a place. Stress that the picture is to remind them of the story and is not about how well they can draw. Once they have finished, place all pictures on the ground and have the group look at them together, commenting on the varied responses shown.

kite man

2008-04-30T11:45:00.000+10:00

collections in the underground 2

2008-04-30T11:33:00.003+10:00

three wonderful local designers put on a fantastic fashion show in the Platform underground space. Check out Bird Girl for beautiful fashion, couture and costume pieces.

wombat park

2008-04-30T11:23:00.003+10:00

I recently went to the opening of a new playground, Wombat Park in Templestowe, designed by the fantastic Ric McConaghy, with interactive sound design by Nicky Forster. The project is a great example of community input into design elements that are stimulting, imaginative and fun. This image is of a boy checking out the bell bridge - foot bells ding as you stamp on them.

garnish the grey

2008-04-28T17:33:00.000+10:00

pink flamingo drinky poos.

lady lady

2008-04-28T17:27:00.002+10:00

a photo of an old seventies poster...the lady. the lady.
powder play.
pinch dat.

in stereo

2008-03-06T16:14:00.001+11:00

boxing sport

2008-02-29T21:36:00.000+11:00

animation imagintation

2008-02-29T21:27:00.002+11:00

found this beautiful animation on youtube also:

"Replay"

youtubing

2008-02-29T21:00:00.007+11:00

some links to different takes on adult play found on youtube:

vegas
playground
golf
toys1
toys2

fridge play 2

2008-02-22T18:39:00.000+11:00

fridge play 1

2008-02-22T18:37:00.003+11:00

i am in love with my new bikini bum bottle opener

closing the gap

2008-02-22T18:33:00.002+11:00

garden fossicking. watching it swell. or wilt. the minutia. under fingernails.

slide ride

2008-02-16T12:33:00.001+11:00

it's the speed, the adrenaline, the height, the surreal colour, the odd shapes, the incongruous, the screams, the breath, the competition, the wind, the water, the heat, the surrender, the simulation, the safety, the abandon, the scale, the diversity, the quick-fix. Pure sugar for the senses.

hyper-colour

2008-02-16T12:29:00.002+11:00

the fastest, the tallest, the biggest bucket. Upside down.

cloud9

2008-02-14T18:17:00.002+11:00

lightning v ukelele

2008-02-08T12:59:00.000+11:00