If I were a REAL artist...

If I were a real artist...well, I always thought I'd be a painter. I love the idea of the mess, the paint, the brushes, the turps...

My friend is currently on residency at the Queen St Studios so I got a chance to have a look around at the amazing studio spaces. They'll only be in existence for a short while longer until they make way for more of the Central Park development on Broadway.

 You can check out an open day and exhibition on on Sunday July 31st. There are some amazing artists in residence at the moment, so go have a sticky beak. I'll most probably be hanging out with my newborn son who will hopefully have made his appearance by then! If not, I'll be there...the massive looking one...

It looks like...?

 I came across these incredible textures today...they reminded me of old leather books, stretched and warped with age.

 Or they could even be some sort of super-close up photo of skin...

We were actually at the World Press Photo exhibition at the State Library, and these were window panes in the gallery space. They were covered with some sort of textured paper covering the, what I assume to be, textured rippled glass beneath. It was a beautiful play of light and framing, amongst many other beautifully lit and framed photographs.

Expanded Architecture 2011

My next project...which I'm really excited about!

My old friend and artistic collaborator, Sarah Breen Lovett started "Expanded Architecture" in 2010. Looking at the intersection of Avant Garde Film, Expanded Cinema and Architecture it started out as a super-sell-out film festival at Performance Space last year. There were over 40 artists, architects and designers involved and I was lucky enough to have one of my films exhibited.

This year, I'm lucky enough to be helping Sarah out as a co-curator and collaborator, as Expanded Architecture makes the leap from traditional screen based viewing, to becoming a night of site specific projection installations at the amazing Carriageworks on Wednesday 26th October.

We're currently doing a call out for proposals from interested artists, architects, designers and students. So if you know anyone's who would be interested in being a part of this project, send them onto the website or our facebook page for more info. Proposals need to be in by 5pm Friday August 19th.

What Things Look Like

A few shots from the opening day of "What Things Look Like" - an exhibition curated by Alex Wisser at Index Gallery. Part of the "Head On Photo Festival" happening in Sydney at the moment.

A standout piece called "Drift" by Tina Fiveash. It was a lenticular photograph. You know like those funky rulers or bookmarks you'd have as a kid that would "animate".

And my own piece - "Blindspot".

Ephemeral Echo

CINECITY 2011_FINAL_Ephemeral Echo_Yvette Hamilton from Yvette Hamilton on Vimeo.

Here it is! A while in the making for a 60" film, but I'm happy with the results. 14 different tracks of audio and more vision layers and effects than you can poke a stick at! My poor rickety macbook almost had kittens trying to run the Avid editing software with all of the renders and effects that are ensconsed within.

This is my film for the Cinecity Workshop - part of the annual Australian Institute of Architect’s National Conference. The brief is to create a 60 second film exploring the brief of 'Natural Artiface' and communicating /questioning /exploring – an architectural idea about space and how we experience it.You can check out more of the films being made for Cinecity here.

"I'm not just trying to shit stir..."

I've posted before about my mind blowing experience visiting MONA just days after it opened, here and here. Now thanks to the abc iView player and Artscape, you can have your own visit from your desk/armchair....as well as an up close and candid (kind of) view of David Walsh, the owner of the collection. 

I kind of get the feeling he didn't really like the interviewer, but, you get the feeling he doesn't like the press in general either! I love his mix of eccentricity and contemporary-art appreciation, contrasted with his no-nonsense-Aussie-intolerance for bullshit. With all of the hyperbole surrounding the museum, he claims he's not just trying to shit stir, but I think secretly he realises the value in it!

Simone Douglas talk at Artereal

As posted here - Simone Douglas gave a talk as part of Art Month to accompany her solo show at Artereal Gallery this month. Here's a recording of the talk - she's just fascinating to listen to, and I've just started reading a Geoffrey Batchen book "Each Wild Idea", after first hearing about his writings from Simone during this talk.