puppets, rock bang, hazmats and cakes

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

commit no nusicance, opposition brings concord

skulls, fantasy and the city

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

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

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

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

space perspectives

through and up


light and angle

taking the air with panther, kittens and girls girls girls

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

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

dance-a-thon 6000

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

Monkey Magic

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

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

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

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

Tell you a secret...

Play Pins: PLAY ALONG

The air just starting to get warm.

Play Pins: PLAY AROUND

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

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

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

Nothing beats good old fashioned adrenaline.

Play Pins: PLAY BACK

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