Play Me I’m Yours, A Piano Happening In Sydney

Sydney’s Laneways: By George! project

The Laneways: By George! project runs in Sydney until January and has seen eight laneways along inner-city George Street transformed with ‘creative, innovative and inspiring high quality temporary artworks, encouraging people to explore these forgotten spaces in the heart of the City. Some of the lanes include a canopy of birdcages and forgotten birdsongs, a prosthetic skin with heartbeat, a pop up kitchen and nightclub, a seven metre bar highlighting climate change and a magical infinite’ forest’ [above]. Sounds like a very clever use of an otherwise indistinct strip of Sydney.

Shona Wilson’s Macroscopic Vision

Sydney’s King Street Gallery is currently home to Macroscope, a collection of exquisitely crafted mixed media sculptures by Australian artist Shona Wilson. Her artworks are intricate weavings of found elements such as twigs, leaves, seeds, fish scales, insect body parts, feathers, crab claws, and seaweed. Read more

Girls Against Gold at Sydney’s Blank Space Gallery

With the price of gold hitting an all time high, it was only a matter of time before designers took a hard look at what this metal represents. But just because gold has never been more unattainable, doesn’t mean our jewellery box has to suffer. That’s where Sydney design group Ten More Girls come in. Standing true to this philosophy, their latest exhibition Girls Against Gold kicks off this Saturday at the Blank Space Gallery in Sydney’s Surry Hills. They believe that preciousness lies not in the materials used, but in the piece’s emotional value. Crafting silver, brass, wood and bone, they’ll have you lusting after a whole new array of materials. Read more

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