...to the Fringe Once More and Other Journeys.

G’day Petals,

 we’ve been around the “Fringe” shows  of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale again. 

Things begin to blur into one another with so much to see but thankfully the venue at Boah Organic, (100 Bridge Mall, Bakery Hill) has refurbished its upstairs as "Vox Populi" Art and was hosting a number of people so we saw a lot in this single venue. 

(check them out on Facebook or email them for particulars of renting the gallery space, 

E: voxpopuliart@yahoo.com.au )

Mark Hoffman, Boah Organic

On the ground floor were these  fascinating amalgams titled "360x180" jewel-like representations of landscape in ultra fisheye focal length.

Michelle Winsor, Boah Organic

then on the stairs a  veritable curiosity shop of memories and their evocation through time..

Richard White, Boah Organic

to the first room with these very traditional Film and Darkroom produced landscapes

Denise Martin, Boah Organic.

followed by these large portraits and their attendant series of shots in a small booklet below

Kerry Pryor, Boah Organic

These works gave me problems. As a recording for a aid organization, fine...but placing them in an personal exhibition context... hmmm... ?

Mira Krulik, Boah Organic

Some very cool Rothko-esque minimalism ....but lacking what painting excels in, touch! Even when the Field and Minimalists sought to depersonalise their works of gesture, the human touch still made live play to the senses. 
Perhaps photography has achieved their goal instead?

Marcus Thomson, Boah Organic

Making noise in a stark space and arid plane...

Daniel Kneebone, Boah Organic

One of  photography's wonderful attributes is that is makes you see things so much better....and sometimes that is very much NOT what you need to make mystery and fantasy allure work.

So we wandered up to the Bean Barn for a Coffee and to check my works... there have been nice positive noises

Lawrence Winder, Bean Barn

 ...and then across to the George Lane way to see..

Raquel Betiz  - George Hotel laneway

Four mellifluous works ... really worth a look....
 and then further up the road to ...

Craig Wetjen,   Fairbanks Eye Gallery 


Where the primacy detail and depth of field is fully understood and  utilised in beautifully lit narratives.

Effie Vouyoukas, Such n Such

nice works cluttered to oblivion..... more next week... there are still two more weeks of the  Biennale to run...

Wombat Droppings 

or the chronicle of Australia's slide from egalitarianism to Fascism.

Remember when this ruling rabble "celebrated" their first 50 days?

They must have been aware then that all the muck they'd thrown at Labor was coming back to bite them... all those phrases like, incompetence, dysfunctional, disunity, economic vandalism, lack of infrastructure, unemployment, great big taxes. To which at their two year mark they have added shadow boxing, police state, corruption and extensive crony-ism.

What a mess they are leaving.

OK, we have the concentration camps, the only independent media source under severe attack, unions are under judicial attack, freedom of speech is being curtailed, we have a new black-shirt Para-Military with extraordinary powers to question and detain, laws are being promulgated to deprive, at the minister's whim, a person of their citizenship, lawful protest is being legislated against.

When are the infirm, aged, handicapped and mentally deficient going to be euthanized for the sake of the budget emergency?

“Abbott's decision not to have a deposits tax on banks undermines his own Treasurer, who privately agrees with the idea of pricing free public insurance and eliminating moral hazards.

This only reinforces the impression the Liberals are a divisive, clueless bunch of amateurs that struggle with rational action.”

 financialreview on Facebook

The Abbott Government is moving to replace the board of the National Disability Insurance Scheme by placing an ad for the board's jobs in The Australian Financial Review without informing the current directors.
The government has been trying for some time to persuade some NDIS board members to leave early, arguing this will allow a gradual transition of board members, rather than a complete changeover.

Another method in their arsenal of tricks to destroy anything that looks like social policy.

Why is it that every time Billy Short-stuff makes a quip/ riposte about Rabid-the-Hun’s mongrel lot, I wince?

The ruling rabble are making so many gaffes in their desperation to A/ look like there is some governance happening and B/ that they are relevant and C/ as a distraction from the growing national shambles, that it’s easy to send them up. Except, Short-stuff never seems to nail these mongrels to the wall…every time…every single time he misses the point, every-single –bloody-time!

I wonder whether: !/ it is hubris or: 2/ just a manifestation of their awful realisation that they're in such a policy vacuum hole and lack any talent to deal with what's ailing the nation that all that is left to them is to act like recalcitrant schoolchildren disrupting a class to "cover" for their abysmal stupidity, or :3/ They really are as thick as two short planks?

Just watched Leigh "Hissy-Fit" Sales allow Rabid-the-Hun to dismember what was left of his mortally wounded ruling rabble. If he had been cogent in his right-wing and fascist views one may have been hateful, but this interview showed him as a bumbling, incoherent dissembler who is, like the rest of the rabble he leads totally clueless about running this nation and where, in this interview, all you could feel watching this pathetic thug was sorrow for the nation and its future.

Prior to a presser, Dodo Dutton cracks an inappropriate “aside” about Nations having water lapping at their doorsteps at Rabid-the-Hun, who (having just returned from a Pacific Islands Meeting on Climate change) laughs! 

Oi, “The Adults are in Charge” are they… ?

As DodoDutton says:

“It’s hard to get a good story up in Fairfax at the moment.”

In an uncharacteristic show of humanity and an eye to the Canning bye-election, Rabid-the-Hun has decided that it would be a good idea to let a few thousand Syrian refugees into the country. But true to form…..with caveats!

They must be Xtian.

They must have been on boats and paid people smugglers that he doesn’t know about, ‘cause allowing the mostly Muslim refugees in the Concentration Camps on both Nauru and Manus Islands will only reward “People-Smugglers” so these souls will be left to fester as the casualties of “On-Water-Operational-Matters.” 

And Bombing Syria will not lead to more refugees fleeing the carnage?

Sadly, Labor agrees, as it is too terrified of the Bogan voter to show leadership with anything ethically different.

Loopy Leyonhjelm, Libertarian fruitcake in the Senate and IPA (coots-with-queer-ideas-from-a-parallel-universe) soul-mate wants to abolish the Nanny-State and allow children to smoke, not wear bicycle helmets, use dirty needles, wear unwashed underpants, pick their noses with rusty nails, unbuckle their seat-belts and have whatever guns they like.

I would like to add a truly Libertarian amendment to his list of “freedoms.”

When you shoot yourself in the foot, smash your skull falling off your bike, start coughing your lungs up from your cigarettes and suffer multiple injuries after being thrown from your car in an accident; you will have the “Freedom” not to expect that State to provide medical assistance to either you or your family, you will have the “Freedom” to fully fund not only your own rehabilitation and care but those others unfortunate enough to have assisted you in any way….

Do you think Loopy, that will be an ideal society?

Hoo-roo Petals,

Shane

PS

Some flower shots with a pun for Joe “Eleventy-Toyota-Killer” Hockey… whom it seems, is about to be dumped as treasurer along with some other “Walking Dead” of the ruling rabble. Hmmm… will there be any rabble left to rule?

A wreath for Joe Eleventy!