Chain Reaction

A music video from OK Go that bears resemblance to Der Lauf der Dinge with more added frills than your average. Speaking of which, the abundant RMIT library had Der Lauf der Dinge
for borrowing, which allowed me to show the piece to my flatmate for the first time. On some levels, he prefers the slickness and apparent ending of the Honda advert. What blasphemy.

Have been holed up in studio for past few weeks. Nothing exciting to report other than my new obsession with 'Mono-ha'.

- Agnes

Couldn't Help Myself

In the grips of GaGa fever this weekend, the Lady herself debuted the new Telephone video last Friday and let me tell you what, I cannot stop watching this video. I really can't. It has been viewed over 13 million times by now and I'm pretty sure a good chunk of that amount was from me alone!

But what's even more awesome is that literary and artistic analysis of said video has already begun. What with it being so steeped in pop culture references and what not, it was only a matter of (short) time. An example is this link posted on GaGa's twitter, where people have a discussion around themes that this video addresses:

- Prison Identity!
- The role of the Cyborg in our current contemporary climate (this one is for you Simon!)
- Masculine and Feminine roles!
- Product Placement issues!
- Modern Mass Media!
- Technology! (the role of the Telephone as an object of support, annoyance, performance...)
- Americana!

The list goes on and on. But my point is, that as much as I like subtlety and not hitting ye viewer over the head, Lady GaGa does the exact opposite (direct Tarantino, Madonna, Michael Jackson references, excessive product placement and high density colour and image) and yet it still works itself into becoming an interesting catalyst for dialogue amongst people who may or may not care much about contemporary art. GaGa reaches the masses. But what do the masses get out of her? Evidence of above shows that not all her fans are silly followers of media nowadays. After all, GaGa has always been very clear about her parody-ness of the spoon fed media culture. It is all intentional no? Bottom line: This girl is smart! (my opinion, of course)

This post also has too many exclamation marks! I will leave you with the video itself, the best nine minutes and thirty two seconds you'll spend today! I'm too excited for you!



- Agnes

p.s. Claudia: On further research, it IS GaGa's sister in the prison!! All intentional again of course! We knew it!

Lonely...

in the studio. Am currently battling large headache and gathering motivation to get into the studio where I predict it will once again be empty. However, as a recap, at the end of last week i had:


- seen two faces in studio
- had one advisoral meeting
- attended one post-graduate talk
- Made zero artworks


I spend my studio hours trawling facebook, reading in the library and dreaming of the other side of the tasman. GAAAAAh I must get more productive.


- Agnes

IP

Whipped by the Ian Potter in the weekend for the last day of the Ricky Swallow exhibition (no photos allowed). Favourite part was the entire back room where they showed a small selection of works in a slightly darkened environment including the skeletal watercolours he painted from postcards in conjunction with the large still life table and an ambiguous wrapped skull sculpture on a plinth.

In other Ian Potter goodness, I stumbled across three things of interest to me. First picture above is a collection of photos shown with an audio of the Bonita Ely performance of Murray River Punch which seemed more funny given the whole Julie/Julia craze that happened recently.

Also picked out a painting that might be of interest to Claud (second photo down) and last but not least, THE Jeffrey Smart painting (third picture) which, if I were to trace the trajectory of my practice to date, would probably be placed around the beginning, if not, at the very start. Oh the hours I spent pastiching this painting and staring at it through the window of books. I did briefly see it when I last came to Melbourne, but it seems so much more relevant now with a bit of distance and having just started my new course...

In other news, forgot my camera at the Ron Mueck, major failage. Have also planned a gallery hop on Thursday where I'm hoping to blitz out a few o' the artist run spaces.

- Agnes

Studio Blues

Alone in a new studio which is very similar in size to that of Claudia's Pittsburgh one. It even has a privacy curtain. And will be shared with another person.

Oh the joys of making art in confined spaces! AUT I miss thee.

- Agnes

p.s Ron Mueck at the NGV!! Excitement factor to the max.

Hello Goodbye

An awkward photograph of the Paper Noticeboard by Nick Spratt, available for FREEEEEEEE if you visit the Sculpture Season at St Paul Street Gallery Three, which I highly recommend you do. It has been lasercut with crescent/fingernail shapes which are fun to pick out and leave around places pretending that they are actually fingernails...William Hsu is showing right now and there will be a new show opening every two weeks charting contemporary sculpture practice from a dematerialisation of sorts to a material production (of sorts).

Onto other news, you may have noticed that the blog has undergone a change! I (Agnes) am no longer lone wolf and instead, am one half of a two part unit that is Claudia and myself. Reasons for this include a shift in circumstances which has rendered us living vastly different lives than that of the last two/three years at AUT. A crossroads of sorts which left me unable to blog regularly for a while now...so it kind of made sense to change the way in which this blog is run in order for it to essentially keep running(and after much thought and prompting from others, I came to the conclusion that I would like to keep it running).

Having communicated this with Claudia, we came up with a new plan (as she has outlined below). I, Agnes, am moving to Melbourne, Australia to higher educate myself in the Arts of the Fine variety, while Claudia, is staying put in Auckland to look for a Job in the Arts category. In a way, we thought it would be nice to document what happens after Art School (what does happen after art school exactly?) and do a compare/contrast scenario. It's the fork in the journey that everyone wondered about upon graduating and this is an experiment that might lend some insight into those who may have to make a similar decision in the future. It's also an experiment that I hope we will both win at. And more importantly, have fun with.

This experiment is commencing around about now. Wish us luck.

- Agnes

Team Time

So Agnes is abandoning our fair shores for the bright lights of Melbourne (some may call this preference of Australia over NZ an almost traitorous act humph).

Anywho a plan was hatched where I would as a now free agent from the institution take up the role of New Zealand represent-or while Agnes covers the Oz side of things. This is also by proxy a way of keeping in contact, as I am a notoriously bad implementer of this and a way of keeping dibs on Agnes.

Thus a glass is raised to Agnes' travels and further education, along with a new joint blog attack.

I will miss you Jignes don't forget us down here in Godzone.
Over and out.

- Claudia