Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2013,
Fringe, Episode 3
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| Shane with BIFB '13 map |
G’day possums,
We’ve done our third stint wandering around the streets of
Ballarat to look at another fifteen exhibitions.
Interestingly three of them
were using photography more as a convenient method to display a concept than
for the medium itself and there were three group shows, of which two, held very
good work. Also interesting are the conversations you have during the
wander: either about the venues, the works or the techniques and people seem
generally inspired by the variety of approaches and idiosyncratic manner of
display in this 2013 fringe exhibition.
James Niven’s “Observations in Abstract” at Venue 51,
Infocus Photography
Stark, bold and elegantly painterly
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| James Niven | | | |
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| Rob Clark, Infocus Photography |
Venue 22, Radmac
Office Choice was showing Mac Lawrence “SeeweeYoung” and Effie Vouyoukas
“Environmental Portraits”.
I liked E.V.’s device of linking the different settings with
the projector screen and its function of isolating the subjects from the
background.
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| Radmac BIFB'13 |
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| Effie Vouyoukas, bifb fringe13 |
A bit further up the road The Mallow Hotel, Venue 61 is
showing an extensive exhibition, extensively titled: “From Kryal Castle to
Bluesfest-a Musical Journey “ by Peter Barlow.
If you like your Rock and Roll, this one’s for you…. Plenty
of performance sweat, grimaces and the effusion of energy under strobes and
gels: you could almost hear it. Good venue for it, too. I thought the stuff
upstairs could have done with a bit of an edit but it did allow a narrative to
develop.
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| Peter Barlow, bifb fringe13 |
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| Venue 61, Mallow Hotel, bifb fringe13 |
Six minutes walk further south to Venue 62, Red Brick
Gallery and Kirsty Macafee’s “Playing the Hand”, a years worth of a weekly
diary where the photography is secondary to the idea but it’s a lot of fun to
view and puzzle over.
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| Kirsty Macafee, detail, bifb fringe13 |
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| Steph from red brick gallery bifb fringe13 |
Wendy Bolger’s “Pleasure Framed” was next at Creative
Framing, Venue 40: another conceptual exhibition where although the photography
is not prime, it’s use as an agent of perception, is.
I’m not at all sure I saw
all the ideas from the “Art-Wank” expressed in the program but the potency’s of
perspective and perception were well expressed and could have been formidable
with more considered photographic techniques.
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| Wendy Bolger |
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| Wendy Bolger, creative framing, bifb fringe13 |
Backspace, Venue 6, shows a curated collection from “Gallery
1140”… very good stuff.
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| 1140 gallery, bifb fringe13 |
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| Ric Wallis |
The Melbourne Silver Mine Group’s “Urban” was a lot more
colourful than their Fringe 2011 but just as appealing: look particularly for Leah Williams’ (Burke
Crossing), Tim James’ (Untitled) and
Malcolm G’s (Exit), at Sebastiaans, Venue 4.
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| Sebastiaans, bifb fringe13 |
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| Leah Williams, bifb fringe13 |
And in the same spot, Ken Myers’ “Rusty Cars”… a HDR
cornucopia of texture and colour.
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| Ken Myers, bifb fringe13 |
“What are your Tribes ?” is at Iron Flamingo. Allister
Crawford’s work at Venue 41 was a collection of people, places, packs, mobs,
well… tribes. Again, the photography is not paramount, the idea is…. And this
one got me in.
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| Venue 41,Iron Flamingo, bifb fringe13 |
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| Allister Crawford, bifb fringe13 | |
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Mitchell Harris Wine Bar, Venue 36 is showing Craig
Holloway’s “Abandoned Places”: images
expressing depths of loneliness and isolation of a particularly rural
nature.
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| Craig Holloway, bifb fringe13 |
I finished the amble by back-tracking South to Craigs Royal
Hotel and the Ansonia: Venues17and 16
respectively, were “Non Mi Piace Versace”, Tamaryn Goodyear and then Julie
Hough with “A Fair Trade”, Christine Sayer “Castlemaine Floods” and Senga Peckham and "A Room of my Own"
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| Tamaryn Goodyear, bifb fringe13 |
There is much good stuff to be seen in both venues,
particularly Julie Hough’s and her obvious empathy and engagement with her
subjects and their stories.
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| Chris Sayer BIFB '13 |
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Julie Hough BIFB '13
Senga Peckham's have a subtle intensity and some innovative mounting options
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| Senga Peckham BIFB '13 fringe, magnet mount |
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| Senga Peckham BIFB '13 fringe |
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| Cribbage Players, Mallow Hotel |
....and in passing,
Cribbage players at Mallow Hotel and
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Pamela and Vaughan
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Pamela and Vaughan at Sebastiaans...
and Rick Broadway in his new Gallery....
Wombat Droppings or politics in OZ
Next Saturday night, September 7 we will see the Apotheosis
of the Aspirational Bogan.
Preyed upon for their credulity, dis-interest in political
discourse, horror of anything ”thoughtful” and with a hip-pocket selfishness promoted by
a conservative press, politicians and the IPA, Bogan Australia will not notice in
their cheering of Labor being trounced in the election that what is going to
govern them is as much a rabble as they are and with as little plan for a genuine
future for all Australians as they have.
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| look at the date of publication... |
They will not have noticed “Rabbott’s Rabble” dis-agreeing
at every turn: with Joe ”Oh-What-a-Feeling” Hockey saying one thing and
Rabbott” another; the bitching between Warren "Squeaky” Truss and the WA Liarbrils,
the flips in policy “…oh, we don’t need to spend $1,500,000,00 on Drones any
more…” Scott “The Drone” Morrison will have to play another video game. “…
and we’ll keep the Collin’s Class Sub that I said I wouldn’t touch with a barge
pole…” “ I’m going to Jakarta in the first week… errrr.. no I’m not ..I’d
better wait for an invite”…
The complete inability to answer or discuss any
policy…” I don’t accept that…I don’t agree…no, no,no, I don’t believe that… I
just don’t accept that …..”
The misogynist comments that get a laugh down the pub …but
if “Rabbott” had’ve said to a 15 YO schoolgirl Netballer in Melton within her
father’s earshot in a sneering aside “… contact sports are good…” or some-such,
he may have copped a knuckle sandwich from the parent …but the parent didn’t
hear it as it wasn’t reported as it should have been.
And let’s not talk about buying Indonesian fishing Boats…
there are only 750,000 of them
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their REAL track record
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Joe “Oh-What-a-Feeling” Hockey telling reporters to “…get
over it” when asked why they will not release costing details on their
policies… and “… if people are that
interested, get a calculator and crunch the numbers yourself! “
Honesty or Arrogance?
Bullshit arrogance … and he’s to be next Treasurer!
So beware how he’ll talk and act with a mandate.
And the Bogan’s seem not to care that for the three years in
which to build a coherent policy the opposition has only released a grab-bag of “me-too-ism”,
middle-class-welfare, re-cycled thought bubbles from polling and the IPA,
revisionist history and plain lies from “Phone-Hacker” Murdoch’s minions that
are not costed validly and are fuelled by the most violent and hateful
commentary ever seen in this country.
The Bogan’s like being talked to like children …it comforts
them… “Another big, bad tax”, “we’ll stop the boats”, “we’re better than them”, On Syria: “… it’s baddies vs baddies”.
Now, that’s not going to interrupt the Bogan's thought processes too
much when they’re all sitting down to fast-finger-food dinners in their separate
rooms watching their separate pap.
The Bogans believe “Rabbott” when he says “… our government
will be more adult than the one we’ve got”.. but don’t understand how asinine
he was when he and Pyne “the Whyne” tried to run out of Parliament like
absconding school boys rather than vote on a motion… or favour quite Fascist
ideas like police reporting of asylum seeker lodgings and check-ups and denying
them legal assistance…because they’re “illegals”.
No, they’re not illegals... they are refugees!
Or the "Green Corps" which sounds suspiciously like The
“Service du Travail Obligatoire”.
Another of Abetz’s ideas? His family did have form in Vichy France.
Oh well let's wait and see on the 7th for a new chapter of national shame.
Cheers Petals,
Shane
The Australian Index
