Tony Curran

Art Decks

I love it! With the CD now being eclipsed by the MP3, I find myself feeling even more nostalgic for the simple charm of the cassette. Australian artists Andrew Smart and Jared Schmidt create ‘large scale hand-made wooden cassette tapes, routed, sanded, bogged, primed, and painted with a high quality paint finish’. Aha! The perfect way to memorialize my old mix tapes. Read more

Justin Williams’ Between a Ghost and a God exhibition

Having just finished up two solo shows, one in Melbourne at Lee Gallery, and the other at Palmer Projects in Sydney, Justin Williams’ solo show, Between a Ghost and a God, is now heading to Brisbane’s Nine Lives Gallery, with the opening night on August 21. Read more

Siobhan Punshon’s Mesmerising Maps

Maps represent a landscape, but they can also mean much more. Victorian artist Siobhan Punshon has recently been working with all sorts of maps and charts, using them as source material then fictionalising the landscape with colour and patterns to create new interpretations of the technical documents. The results then push the viewer in several different directions, as familiar names and symbols are rendered confusing and nonsensical, taking on compelling and dreamlike qualities. Siobhan Punshon has held solo shows in both Melbourne and Sydney, been an artist-in-residence at the Melbourne Aquarium and a finalist in several major art prizes, including the Mosman, Paddington, the ANL Maritime Art Prize, the Fleurieu Peninsula Water Prize and most recently the Albany Art Prize.

Three Minute Sydney

Last week, a bunch of young Sydney creatives were asked to describe their vision for the city in the time it usually takes to run to the bus stop, boil an egg, or listen to a decent pop song. Three Minute Sydney launched the two week Creative Sydney festival, the city’s first winter festival to celebrate and promote local creative industries. Sydney’s acclaimed but extremely humble comic artist Matt Huynh stole the show with a three minute time lapse video presentation, a speedy sequence of comics created one frantic Sunday afternoon. From the iconic Eternity message chalked on the city sidewalks to scenes from the city’s late night meat-market bars, indie gigs and packed trains, Huynh explored the places and stories of Sydney in black and white. Read more

Bababa International: curries, manicures, pooch shows

Somewhere in a Sydney park, exact location undisclosed, sits a custom built wooden house fit for one. And if you happen to stumble across it, you simply lift it up, climb into the hole dug underneath it and make yourself at home. The makeshift shelter, which loosely resembles a human-sized kennel, is the latest work of Sydney art collective the Bababa International. The trio, consisting of Stephen Russell, Ivan Ruhle and Tom Melick (fourth member Giles Thackway has temporarily absconded to Mexico and is probably wearing a protective swine flu mask at present), say there are plans to install a radio at some point to make the shelter more homely and install similar constructions in parks across Sydney. And they reluctantly offer some hints of this particular houses’ location, saying it’s located in a park in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs, past a hedge and close to a tennis court. Read more

Sarah-Jane Cook is thoroughly stitched up

Some things are better said in thread, which probably doesn’t make sense unless you’ve seen the extensive stitched work of Sarah-Jane Cook, an Australian visual artist who works primarily with needle, thread and lace trimmed hankerchiefs. Sweet from afar, a brief admiration of Cook’s handiwork gives way to an inspection of the messages embroidered. Ranging from a thank you for the easter eggs note from child to parent, to pro and con lists, scribbled shopping lists, recipes and abusive notes left for housemates, the collection is diverse and reveals much about the unknown characters who probably penned them in haste. Read more