Joanna Mortreux’s oil painting
Melbourne artist Joanna Mortreux’s oil painting, Looking Back Undoes Everything, is peopled with otherworldly anthropomorphic creatures in various states of flight. Inspired by illustrated encyclopedias of animals, these strange life forms possess a dynamic duality that captures the tension between evolution and de-evolution.
As Mortreux sees it, there is a separational gap in knowledge between confrontation and recognition of the unfamiliar. When you’re looking at the work, it reflects who you are. You’re in a space where you can’t gauge the identity of the creature and that puts you offside. The result is an expansive awareness of our connection to the animal kingdom.
Second nature runs at Bus Gallery Melbourne between 7 April and 24 April.
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Also by ANNA SUTTON
I get a lot of junk sent to me by email, but every once in a while I get a real beauty, something that makes me laugh out loud at how funny and absurd life can be. The phenomenon of creative canine grooming shows has its home in, you guessed it, the USA. Poodle owners dye, shave, clip and accessorise their pets so they resemble chickens, fairies, underwater sea themes, even American football players. As photographer Ren Netherland has discovered, the extremities of canine grooming have attained cult-like status. Read more
All you photographers out there, a word up on one of the most prodigious emerging photographers in Australia. And if you’re nursing an inadequacy complex, seeing Nirrimi Hakanson’s folio might propel you to briefly flee your aspirations and think about getting a job at the local supermarket. Hopefully, it will inspire you. The self-taught sixteen-year-old Hakanson has been taking photos on a digital SLR since the age of thirteen, after starting out on a disposable camera. Her distinctive style is ethereal and reminiscent of photo albums filled with enchanted childhood memories. Read more
Piet Parra at Milan’s Galleria Patricia Armocida
Piet Parra’s vividly coloured and voluptuous lemming-people get down to Italo Disco in the Amsterdam-based artist’s latest exhibition in Milan. Parra’s new works feature sensual and surreal figures busting raunchy poses to soundscapes from the electronic dance music movement that began in Italy and Europe in the late 1970s. Read more
YOU'RE SAYING (3)
eliane said | 23 April, 2009
I love this artistic creation. To actually be in front of it, you can feel it affect you. I have seen other pieces by this artist and love the use of oil on metal, but this most recent painting is big in scale and hovers energetically… I like it!
Birute said | 27 April, 2009
enlightening
HAVE YOUR SAY
Yoko Furusho’s work leaves me absolutely speechless. There are so many lines in all of her drawings that I really wonder how she can do it all with one single hand. Just take a look at her Galliano and Fantasy drawings, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Not to mention her magical characters, her endless parade of patterns and her remarkable use of colour, which makes you feel like you’re swimming inside of a whipped cream and strawberry pie! Read more
The mining and refining that provides the world with precious metals is also extremely damaging to the environment – each ounce of gold mined generates 30 tons of waste, much of which is toxic. Philadelphia-based Rust Belt make unique, finely crafted earrings, necklaces, and bracelets entirely from re-purposed and recycled materials. The processes they use to make their pieces are also environmentally sound, and they are shipped in beautiful, re-purposed glass bottles.
It’s a fact, people who don’t like clutter don’t collect plush and vinyl toys. The myriad of sizes, shapes, colours and textures in any collector’s display would put any minimal loving layman into a tizzy. Read more
Dear nerds, you may be disappointed that this Darth Vader clock radio is out of stock for now, but it’s a blessing in disguise — until this geektastic item is in your possession, there might still be hope that you’ll get laid.
The Deal sisters have dropped off the indie-rock radar of late, but this clip of them covering Hank Williams’ I Can’t Help It reminds us why we all loved them so much back in the day. Incidentally, the Breeders are set to release their new album, Mountain Battles, in April.
Instead of demolishing the old Paddington Reservoir, architects TZG have incorporated into the design a new outdoor public garden in Paddington, Sydney. The results are stunning, with the nineteenth century structures providing an amazing starting point. Looking less like a garden and more like an overgrown ancient city, with the remnants of historic walls and vaults, this new public space is well worth frequent visits.
Not all dark, epic music has to be harsh. British songstress Rose Kemp builds operatic folk tunes that crescendo from acoustic, string-infused atmospherics into menacing, down-tuned heaviness, drawing as much from Neurosis as she does from PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, and even Massive Attack. Read more
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.
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The clever folk at Code Organ made a sythesizer that turns webpages into music. Just enter a URL and listen to the sweet, sweet sounds your site produces.
Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.
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Diane Koss’ recycled bottle monsters
Check out Diane Koss’ amazing handmade stuffed monsters if you’re looking for a last-minute gift. Her mostly cycloptic creatures are fashioned from felt made from one hundred percent recycled plastic bottles. Read more
The new Runaways movie looks at the formation of the seminal girls’ group which spawned Joan Jett’s career. We have a Runaways prize pack to give away, including Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits CD, the film’s soundtrack, and Joan Jett’s photobook with Todd Oldham. To enter, just leave the name of the city you live in! Read more
Wearing this print will not only geek the fashionistas at their own game, but also guarantee inner peace at the bitter end. Or maybe not. But it will strike fear into the hearts of psychiatrists around the world, and you just never know when that might come in dead handy. Read more
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Matt said | 23 April, 2009
Genius!!