to see the Ballarat International Foto Biennale: Fringe
G’day Possums,
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| Shane Wombat reporting... |
I and later, we ( Mrs Wombat), had a 5 hour amble though
some of the “Fringe” exhibitions t’other day.
Works, mostly of good quality and fair ‘eye’ though I’ll
only give some general comments at the end of this list. I hope that readers
find this informative re: the works and venues and that it stimulates you to
visit Ballarat for this big show.
Starting at the Bridge Mall, (East end): venue 48, Boah Organic and Shae
Rooke’s Double Landscapes
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| Shae Rooke |
To venue 49, Open Pantry and Heather Griffiths “Through my Lens -Then
and Now”
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| Heather Griffiths |
Venue 50, Wilson Yeung “Flower
Piece” at Cake Bakeshop
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| Wilson Yeung |
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| 2 poppets |
Susan Nicol "Brolga" at Wen and Ware Living Venue 45
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| Susan Nicol |
Then back to
Venue 47, “Milkshakes and Mixed
Lollies” by Alison Spence at Savoy
Coffee.
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| Alison Spence |
Venue 44, Hudsons Coffee Shop, Fiona Brookes, Syria
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| Fiona Brookes |
Don’t ignore the shipping containers in the Mall itself ….
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| Bridge Mall |
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| bastards abound |
Heading further West to the Mechanics Institute (South side of Sturt St)
and Venue “E” to see
John Tozer, “Favourite Places”
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| John Tozer |
Don’t miss JT’s stuff in the wall niches in the entrance vestibule.
And ..Adelaide Photographic Artists, “Dark”… through the glass doors and to
your right
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| Adelaide Photo Arts... |
Also
Jeff Moorfoot, “Elephant Stamp”, up the stairs toward the Minerva Hall
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| Jeff Moorfoot |
Venue 19, Café Bibo and Damon Hunter’s “A Wall of Colour”
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| Damon Hunter, Bibo |
And a step or two to
Venue 20, Nibble and Natter for the Ballarat Secondary College East
Campus’s “Captured”
(No Pic, they’re on the window …. and …great, old fashioned, genuine,
ridgy-dij sandwiches)
Another two steps to the Bean Barn, Venue 21 for my
stuff, “Meditations on RD” (Best coffee in B’rat IMHO)
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| Lawrence Winder, Bean Barn |
Still travelling West on the South side of Sturt St we
continued on to L’ Espresso, Venue 24 and
Darren James, “Soliloquies”
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| Add caption |
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| L'Espresso |
Eric Algra ( Richmond by Night), Gillian Turner ( Transfigured
Places) and Patricia Gabb (Reflections) and Simon Peterswald (Lindifarne) are
at Venue 25, Gallery on Sturt.
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| Eric Algra |
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| Patricia Gabb |
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| Simon Peterswald |
Crossing Sturt St to its North side you can find Emma
Stoneman’s “Architectonic” at Morton
Dunn Architects
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| Emma Stoneman |
And not far away to the East is Clare Lapworth at Azeno
with her “Vintage Expressions”. Venue32
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| Clare Lapworth |
At Sweet Decadence @ Locantro is Venue 37 and Lucia
Andrusova’s “Ego and I”
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| Lucia Ondrusova, Sweet Decadence@ locantro |
And finishing off the perambulations for the day we
arrived at Venue 43 The George Hotel.
Upstairs are Paul Stoney and Trudy Shuringa: “Stark
Contrasts”, whilst down in the Laneway of the hotel (just off the lydiard St or
through the gaming area is Kristin Diemer’s “Views from Paradise” (which is not
as noted in the program an adult concept show)
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| Paul Stoney |
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| Trudy Shuringa |
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| Kristen Diemer |
What to say about all this? Generally all were worth
viewing but I suppose my main loss of words is with some of the language used
as description that does not seem to dovetail with the works: What the owner of
MONA delightfully calls “Artwank”.
For example “…. the process of capturing that image was
almost meditative.” Which looks very
odd with extremely strident, viciously over-processed imagery that was
presented. What is said is not what the viewer sees.
And what is “… the tension between will and
representation.” (?)…. and what is the value of an artwork pinned together when
it is not an amalgam but just the one work chopped into bits and re-assembled
the same way? I kept thinking, Butterflies are pinned as specimens…and why was
the program illo different from the works presented?
There were some nice “takes” in the images on the
environment exhibited in which could well become a future theme in itself.
Most print quality was OK, though I’m not a fan of the
over-processed HDR-lets-scream-at-you-image, but that’s a personal bias and it
is again, the venues that can really clutter the viewing experience by
background, visual busy-ness or difficulty in just moving around that you
really miss seeing the work and in one
case, I missed it altogether.
Most presentations were good although the “Flying Duck”
arrangement seems to be making a comeback and one show was so spaced out as to be
a not very readable narrative.
There were some good ideas not fully explored or exploited (including my own stuff) as well.
At the Town Hall
(next to my show plug, plug, shameless self promotion) was the “Head-Up” portrait show from Sydney;
it’s really worth a look but at one stage when visiting I had this overwhelming
feeling of viewing a plethora of clichés. Good, solid, professional clichés and
I’m including all that I had seen prior to the “Head-Up”, clichés ...and very little in
genuine “ridgy-dij”, enquiring imagination.
Best in show at this early stage….
Eric Algra’s “Richmond by Night”, beautiful, solid
evocations of nocturnal, people-less places.
Jeff Moorfoot’s “Elephant Stamp”, seriously elegant and
innovative.
And “Dark” The Adelaide Photographers, particularly Danica
McLean’s Rothko-esque, “Flood-Light.
Wombat Droppings or politics in Oz
Chagrined at being gazumped in the
cruelty-to-refugees competition by Kev 07 +6, “The Mad Monk”, Tony “Rabbott”
and his loyal lieutenant Scott “Drone” Morrison have decided to make
retrospective laws that will force refugees to re-apply for a temporary
residents visa every three years. They have also accepted Eric
“I’m-not-really-a-Fascist” Abetz’s idea of refugees living in the community
having their addresses given to the police so they can “check up on them” when
required. Furthering theirsurreal notions of nationalism the "Mad Monk" has just announced a You-Beaut-Boat-Buy-Back Scheme. I can see the Indonesian fishermen lining up now with inflated prices..they also intend to help the Indonesians get more patrol boats ....I would have thought that as they have 3 times as many as we do that they don't really need more
Is this rabble who want to lead us Sane?
John Birmingham has reported that
400 students at “Rabbott’s old Alma Mater, St Ignatius College have sent him a
missive querying his mis-application of Catholic ethics over this matter.
They can’t send one to Kev 07 +6:
he’s a Protestant.
“Rabbott’s” reliance on quoting
“Little Johnny” Howard is disturbing as it would seem to indicate that “The Mad
Monk” not only lives in a fantasy past but also has no concrete idea about a
future that he cares to extrapolate on….. somewhat similar to his reticence to
discuss overall policy and costings and a National direction, apart from it
having 5 legs that are better turned than theirs.
His “Me-too-ism” got another
outing a few days ago when he announced in a café in upper-middle-class Malvern
(where large fruit cakes only cost $70.00 each) that his Paid Parental
Maternity Leave scheme will be bigger, better, more munificent and glorious
than Kev 07 +6’s offering of a basic wage.
TAAAA…DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…..
and without letting a “suppository” slip…he exuberantly announces.. Full
salary, including superannuation, for six months, capped at
$150,000.00…price-tag: $5.5 Billions per annum…. although according to “The Mad
Monk”, as the economy is in crisis as he couldn’t give them more.
One young mum opined that it
would “let her continue her lifestyle”. Just like the one who claims the Child
Care Allowance whilst her kid is in Ski-School!
Welfare for lifestyle … now
there’s a new concept.
Sorry Petals, that’s the
politics of class and envy sneaking in!
At least the insanity of this
“policy” clouded the announcement of yet another conservative candidate biting
the dust by yet another self-inflicted wound.
Liarbril, Kevin Baker’s
website used to espouse; “Talk about anything you want - no censorship, no
stress!" It contained sexist titty-humour and racist boyo rubbish. Just
the sort of thing you need in a candidate for public office. That no-one in the
Liarbril party seemed to notice during pre-selection might indicate: they
didn’t know, didn’t care, were OK with it or thought he wouldn’t win anyway.
“The Mad Monk” in ruling out
taking money-puffs from the tobacco industry (Kev07 +6’s mob did that 10 years
ago), has not said if his thought-bubble team, “the Coots with Queer Ideas from
a Parallel Universe”, The Institute of Public Affairs, would do the same. IPA
Spokes-person Tim “How dare-you-criticize-me-you-bitch” Wilson said they
will take donations from any legal entity…. Polish Land-mine manufacturers,
Diabetes inducing fast food purveyors and genetically modified seed salesmen would
all be welcome to their version of a Limited News democracy.
Here in the State of Tardis
“Where-all-goes-Backward” mis-planning Minister Matty “What’s-a-Green-Wedge”
Guy has driven another nail into the “We-are-the-most
responsible-economic-managers” coffin by costing the taxpayer, what has been
estimated by some to be $3,000,000.00, for his re-zoning frolic two years ago
on Phillip Island. The day before proceedings hit the court, settlement was
reached so that all could be kept secret from the people footing the bill.
Another own-goal by an
acolyte of Jeff ”Bully-Boy” Kennett, The “Dorian Gray” of Tardis State
politics.
Still no news on the police
investigation into Geoff
“What’s–a-Car-Allowance” Shaw…ZZZ…ZZZZZZ.
Pretend Premier, Dennis
“Inutilus Rusticus” Napthine has ruled out lack of funding and staff in the
corrections and parole services as being the likely cause of the murders of six
women by under-supervised early release parolees in recent years. He says he
will speak very firmly to them and that we must all be good, tighten our belts
and save hard to be able to pay for the $8 Billion concrete renovation of Royal
Park so that he can have a vote winner in the Eastern suburbs…
paraphrasing “The Mad Monk”…. You
Ambo’s, Nurses, Firies, Teachers, Legal Aid workers, Conservation Officers and
Emergency Dept Doctors can all shut-up, too.
Cheers
Possums,
Shane
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