NUMBER ONE HUNDRED & THIRTY TWO.
March14
Sydney based designer James Kape is going places, namely The Big Apple. In the hopes of landing a junior position at a reputable agency, he’s created these pretty great portfolios - they’re hand-crafted by an artisan book binder using brown box cover and a strip of yellow buckram on the binding. The cover title was letterpressed and the interior pages were printed digitally. Running with that typically Australian sense of informality, Jame’s casual ‘designer most days’ title belies his obvious talent. It doesn’t hurt that he has a particularly nice body of work to present (this kid hasn’t even graduated yet?! FML.)
NUMBER ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY ONE.
October22
I love the direction a lot of advertising seems to be heading. Rather than taking an explicit ‘here’s our product, go on you know you want it’ approach, companies are hiring talented individuals to build a narrative into which the products play a secondary role.
One such example is this new video When Boy Meets Girl by über talented Sydney lad Luke Farquhar (you pronounce that Fuckwa, clearly), for General Pants Co’s 10/11 summer collection. In short, its fucking hot.
NUMBER ONE HUNDRED & FIVE.
September16
I’m so glad Leonie, Chris and I got our ayes into gee a couple of Fridays ago and headed down to the opening night of the exhibition of Kevin Tran’s new body of work Strobe at China Heights. Previously unfamiliar with Tran’s work, I was hugely impressed by his bold, geometric infused images of animal, mineral, vegetable… well not so much the vegetable, but you get the point.
Tran applied a combination of chalk pastel, acrylic, gouache, water colour, Indian ink and pencil onto plywood panels to create this series, which he indicates was birthed out of that particular energy and rhythm found within the crowds of people, places and memories that define the balmy nights of a hot Summer.
If you didn’t already get to it, the exhibition is unfortunately over. But keep an eye on Tran’s blog for future shows. This is definitely one kid to watch.
More images after the break.
NUMBER NINETY EIGHT.
June29
Anna-Wili Highfield is a Sydney based sculptor, whose amazing pieces are created working with archival cotton paper, that is painted, then torn and sewn together, to form the figures of animals.
NUMBER EIGHTY EIGHT.
May21
For your sonic pleasure, I’d like to introduce to you a little (well, that’s an objective term, seeing as there’s seven of them) band from Sydney’s North-West: sleepyhands.
If you’re an FBi listener you’ll have already heard a track or two, them’s the perks of having one of your band members work at the station, however, these kids are my pick as the latest indie darlings to come out of Australia. (I might be slightly biased seeing as how I adore pretty much every member, but I dare you to head to their myspace and not fall in love!)
With an ep freshly pressed (produced with the help of Jonathan Boulet) and a few gigs up their sleeves, I’d say this is the band to follow this year. Watch this space!
NUMBER TWENTY TWO.
September23
For those of us who woke in Sydney this morning, dawn was like no other I’ve ever witnessed. A dust storm had settled over our city, casting ordinary scenes in an other-worldly light.
Here are a few of my favourite images from this morning.
NUMBER TEN.
May12
FBi are the alternative station in the Sydney radio landscape. A voice for the unsigned, the up-and-coming, the next big things: over half the independent broadcaster’s content is from local or Australian talent, with programing beefed up by international alternative and indie staples. Nick Cave has even called the station “crucial to the cultural fabric of the city”. And I mean, come on, he’d be the sort of man to trust on these things.
Thing is, with the recession bearing down on Sydney: corporate advertising budget cuts and the average listener-come-supporter tightening the old purse strings, the not-for-profit, community licensed station are facing a massive revenue downturn. Seems without some sort of financial turn around or a hand of God style intervention, the station’s ability to stay on the air looks none too bleak.
Cue askrichard.com.au, FBi’s cheeky concept for raising a million cool ones. They’re hoping that Virgin CEO, the philanthropist and publicity-stunt loving Richard Branson, might come to the table with the kind of cash that would set the station up for a brighter future. And the way we at New Exhibition see it, its just the kind of hare-brained scheme that might actually work. Fingers crossed, because we’d hate to lose our favourite ninety-four point five fm. We’re sticking our hands up to ask Richard and we reckon you should too.
Plus, should Sir Dick fork out the measly three-hundred-odd-thousand quid, and proceed to earmark your ‘ask’ as the thing that grabbed his attention, you get a five percent cut. As if saving FBi wasn’t enough motivation, there’s no way you don’t want in now.
NUMBER NINE.
May04
I finally made it along to the MCA’s current feature exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years; an immense collection of the much acclaimed Japanese artist’s work, spanning over four decades of her artistic practice.
A self described ‘obsessive artist’, Kusama’s work is consumed with the exploration of themes of the finite and infinite, the way that we view ourselves and our own psychological dialogue. Working across a variety of mediums, her work included in this exhibition ranges from sculpture, to large-scale paintings, to film and several of her immersive environmental installations; Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli’s Field (1965), the other-worldy Fireflies on the Water (2000) and Clouds (2008).
Kusama is an artist of great creative energy and her career has been nothing short of extraordinary, from her early years in New York, to re-establishing herself in Asia to her work in Europe, including her gate-crashing of the Venice Biennale and subsequent invitation to exhibit.
Curated by Jaap Guldemond (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Franck Gautherot and Seungduk Kim (Le Consortium in Dijon, France), this is an exhibition that highlights the viewer with the interminable nature of our world, and of one’s own mortality.
Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Until June 8, 2009
Infinity Mirror Room Panorama
http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/
NUMBER EIGHT.
May04
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend Beat Poët’s launch of their new collection Zero Form, as a part of RAWF. The boy’s S/S 2010 menswear collection is a nice follow on from this year’s Sand & Fog, continuing the tradition of well tailored morning and evening wear with a silhouette based on simple geometry and clothes that fit the form.
Ed Von Bertouch and James St. Johnson, the design team behind the burgeoning Sydney label, describe their look as being future focused whilst drawing on ‘the romance and decadence of the past, especially history and the evolution of subculture’. This, their seventh season, is particularly focused on ‘a study of reduction, proportion and the relationship between the straight line and the curve’, seeking to communicate more through what is absent than through what is present.
Once again the boys have chosen a simple colour palette, presenting a fantastic range of ready-to-wear pieces accented by a fine collection of jewelry and accessories.
http://www.beatpoet.net
NUMBER FIVE.
April24
Yesterday I picked up a journal from the news-agent, published by Billy Blue College of Design; BBetween. This particular issue, ‘Sydney the best address on Earth.’, gathers twenty six designers and creatives currently based in Sydney, including the likes of David Mackay, Louise Eastwood, Vince Frost, John Spatchurst and Peter Windrim, asking them each to consider a short sentence and a verb: Sydney Design Now. Discuss.
The contributing writers are a veritable who’s who of the current Sydney Design industry, as well as a few of the old guard, and the resulting publication is an eye-opening discourse on the current state of the industry in our harbour city, as well as offering clues to the directions design is heading in the future and the ways we as designers must grow in order to meet the need ahead.
A central spread identifies seven recurring thoughts and opinions that exist throughout the journal: Sydney’s designers need to communicate more with each other, The quality of design in Melbourne is better than that in Sydney, The design community in Sydney needs more promotion, Sydney is primarily focused on business and money, There is an evolution or change occurring; there is a potential to grow a stronger design community, The beauty and physical distractions of Sydney’s natural environment affects its design, and Sydney’s designers bend too much for the client; our design industry is not a confident one.
I’m slowly digesting my way through the annual, and I’m sure thoughts from it will crop up here and there on this blog in the coming weeks, but even from flicking through it I feel a sense of excitement about where our industry is heading and that a conversation like this one has begun. If you work in design in Sydney, go out and get hold of a copy of this! And lets start talking…
BBetween 09
RRP AU $10.00
Published by Billy Blue College of Design & Think: Education Group
