Talking in real life.

I participate in a reading group, where we read theory and discuss it fortnightly. The group isn't about having a perfect knowledge of philosophy, just an interest and opinion. And we drink.

readinground.blogspot.com.au

Come along.

My image for Westspace's fundraiser invite. Opening Tuesday 11th, June.

Gaps in everything.

While driving in the rain, I've often noticed how windscreen wipers tend to leave a gap in the centre of the windscreen, where the blades can't reach / wipe.



While driving to Sydney last week I noticed it again and it reminded me; this shape has persisted as an image since I was a kid.

Friends

I've just added in an extra page (on the left) with some links to friends and blogs that I visit often. I know that social media has taken a real foothold, with rapid fire changes etc. But I still think blogging and artist websites are good, especially as they can focus on action, content and creative output.

News

 

Finally got around to printing my single issue newsletter (cover image of Andrea Zittel's Homestead Unit), documenting my time in the unit at the NGA. Much thanks to Dan Bourke for designing it.

Wi - Fi

Here are 5 images from a recent series of 30. I took photos of sites and combined them with their local Wi-Fi network names, which I identified using my phone. Most of the sites are in Northcote, Collingwood, Brunswick and Coburg.

 

Regimes of Value, curated by Elizabeth Gower at Margaret Lawrence Gallery : VCA

 

 

33 Objects that can fit through the hole in my pocket, 2013, Digital Video, Duration: 1.30mins

9 Objects (arranged by Helen Grogan), 2013
partially used 2012 Diary, wire sculpture prototype, corrugated iron, rock with drilled hole, un-exposed 30mm film, mini camera tripod, lino, cotton tape, flatscreen TV monitor with video (above).

Dedication

Here are my last 5 metcards, which became defunct in Melbourne on the last day of 2012. Metcards have been replaced by a dysfunctional smart-card system called Myki.

A-Z

During 10 days this month I'm inhabiting a work by Andrea Zittel at National Gallery of Australia. This is the blog:

LENS CAP

 
This image is taken with the lens cap on.

 
In this image, Brennan is holding the lens cap very close to the lens.

 
In this image, he is holding it slightly away from the lens.

 
In this image, he is holding it a bit further away.

 
In this image, he is holding it even further away.

 
In this image, Brennan is holding the lens cap very far away. 

Index

Some works or collections begin to bank up, and they never find a place in a show. Here are some audio recordings of local dogs. I've coupled them with their locations, which makes me think of specific suburban territories (fence lines etc).

Two things that have nowhere else to go.

The first is my belt, which I've had for about 4 years now and have worn pretty frequently. There are two extra holes that I punched myself. I realise that over the past four years my waist has oscillated between all five holes framed in this photograph.



The second photo is two objects, a rock and a candle, both which I collected for artworks but never ended up using. After a week of hot days on my window sill, the rock melted into the candle.



Lastly, recently I noticed that some graffiti on my bedroom lamp (which I found on the street two years ago) is actually a picture of a dick.

One last quote from Chroma

"I caught myself looking at shoes in a shop window. I thought of going in and buying a pair, but stopped myself. The shoes I am wearing at the moment should be sufficient to walk me out of life."

3

Colours

As I'm writing this there are many bush fires burning around Australia. Apparently the beginning of 2013 has also broken temperature records.

I just got back from a hiking trip. I left my book on the beach over night (we watched a red moon rise in the horizon, hazy from fires in tasmania) and woke up to find it completely full of sand. Each page was jammed slightly open.

 

"There are many colours now, but only four colours were used by the great greek painters. Everything was superior when there were fewer resources... What people are really interested in now are the lifelike portraits of gladiators. Everything is but a shadow of a golden past. The colours will fade in the twilight of history"

Derek Jarman - Chroma

Relation & Being & Whatever.

In 2007, I remember I was making an artwork that required a drop of my own blood. It was daunting for me, I found it impossible to bring myself to draw my own blood. And then, as I was making the other bits of the work I accidentally cut my finger. And so I got my drop of blood anyway.

"Desire Lines" curated by Juliana Engberg, ACCA, 15 December 2012 - 3 March 2013

 
Fields and Gardens (2013), 4 video components, text, map and material collections. 

My MFA show

Smears etc.

Recently and not so recently, I was thinking about those recipes and pages in cookbooks that end up smeared with the residue of food. They form an intersection of instructions and results. This morning I was reading an interview between Heizer, Oppenheim and Smithson, all of who are/were land artists. The pages appeared to be smeared with mud. I feel like the pages had a similar feel to those recipes. Here are a few from my collection.

Today

One pocket on my jumper (left side) and one pocket on my tracksuit pants (right side).

One singular trace.

Discarded cigarette.

A still from a new vid.

This morning

Speaking of use, I came across these toilet rolls this morning. My friend, Isadora, told me that they're seedling protectors. (Update: Another friend, Nathan, thought these looked a bit useless). Either way, I'm interested.

Update: Trish, just sent me this photo of her seedlings (above).

One or two things.

When I use the shower I often, if not always, write a few things with my finger on the misty glass door.

A slideshow:

Found coffee cups, mostly from melbourne.

Who's driving this thing.

"He says that Duchamp is involved in exchange value, not use value. Let's say a readymade is a compensation. It doesn't offer any engagement. Once again, it's the alienated relic for our modern post-industrial society. So he's just using manufactured goods and mystifying them, or transforming them into gold, you might say. That's where the alchemy would come in... That strikes me as a kind of escapism, or it's a way of relieving the dissatisfaction one might feel with bourgeois society, all its crassness and all that sort of thing. It would seem that Duchamp was always involved with luxuriating in that."

- Robert Smithson.

I love Smithson's critique of Duchamp. It's very difficult to work with mass produced objects and not work under the sign of the readymade. Which makes me wonder how we can come to terms with the great trash pile of consumer society, without glorifying it or worse, trying to transcend it? This is an open question.  Perhaps a clue might lie somewhere in the idea and practicalities of use. 

Jessie Bullivant has kindly sent me an image which relates to an earlier post. This is a roll-less toilet roll:

corn chip, mobile phone, finger print, incense stick at Craft Victoria, 2012

A few works from a recent show at Craft Victoria. 

2 Stills from Coffee dream wave (40 images)

Paper wrappers (from individually wrapped toilet rolls)

Faded items purchased new

Coat hanger

I just found this coat hanger on the road. It's a pretty good one.

This coat hanger is by Ai Wei Wei

And this one by Paul Bai.

Toilet roll plinth

Here I've used a toilet roll as an adjustable pedestal for a series of cylindrical objects.  The objects just slipped in from around the place, seamlessly (the lube included).