Oxley9 & Factory 49 - Words Colour & Fashion

Youth and style were out in force for the Newell Harry, TV Moore shows at Roslyn Oxely9 Gallery last night. While waiting for my friends to show up I had time to look over the two shows and meditate (if thats the right term) on Newell's text work 'Untitled (More Mumbo Jumbo: Crackpots ‘n’ Poems for Ishmael Reed)' shown below. What did it all mean, those strange lines of broken words? Although I am sure my interpretation is completely wrong I decided it all had something to do with mining magnates and (mistresses/wives) in Australia; some sort of political statement... of course Newell's two page essay in the gallery notes on his stay at the 'Blue Pango' Hotel which lent its name in part to the title of the show, shed next to no light on the situation at all though it was certainly a very entertaining read.

And I have no-idea why there were so many well styled individuals at the show but there they were in droves! I could have gathered material for quite a number of 'Street Fashion' posts; but as it was, I confined my selection four lovely people who kept catching my eye, and leopard print is clearly in with the art student set; watch out its probably about to go large!




The scene was somewhat different for Paul Raguenes show at Factory 49 on Wednesday night, blocks of strong colour in aluminium and glass minimalism at its minimal best including the interactive piece 'Colorific Game table, 2012' wood, steel, glass, plastic car paint... All beautifully, seamlessly rendered. I recognised the vintage 6x6 glass slide mounts immediately from my days of shooting the 6x6 film format! And as chance would have it I got to spend time talking with Paul at the Oxley9 show above, which was all very good and well as he jets back to France tonight; thanks for the art and conversation Paul.


Minimalism or is it Non Objective art is doing very very well in Marrickville - so well that it seems Cityrail are angling for their own piece of the action with what looks like a very large scale 'work in progress' at Sydenham station. I only wish I could find a great position to get a better shot off; mind you at Cityrail's speed of work this installation piece is likely to remain 'in progress' for some time yet to come.


http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/
http://factory49.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.cityrail.info/

Leopard Print and Golden Boots - Gallery 9

I love going to art show openings and contrary to the belief of some of my more cynical friends, I am not just there for the free drinkie poos; I am there for the art, honest I am. But its not just fresh new art that you get to see at art openings you get to check out the crowd too and; that crowd differs oh-so-greatly depending on a raft of variables from; gallery status, style of art, the medium itself.. You know, painting, printmaking, photography, design, installations; the many permutations of the aforementioned really do create an infinity of variables in the art and the art crowd and I just love it all. On Wednesday evening it was Gallery 9 in Darlinghurst for 'non objective project one' with a posse of artists I know well from SNO; Lynne Eastaway, Adrian McDonald, Giles Ryder and Kyle Jenkins. No artists portraits this time though; I just went along to enjoy the show.

Of course one just can't ignore a Street Fashion opportunity at Gallery 9 like our man in leopard print skinny pants and shirt with gold boots, blue complimentary scarf and long black coat. Only in Darlinghurst? Well maybe, the detail of the Eiffel Tower and star charms against the leopard print shirt make for a 'nearly' abstract art statement of their own. Great stuff and not something everyone can carry off - that's certainly my idea of real Street Style!

After Gallery 9 the art loving continued at King Street Gallery for Joanna Logue's highly abstracted Australian landscape paintings; actually in some ways not so different from the detail of the shirt above...

Two fabulous shows well worth getting along to.

Gallery 9
non objective project one: 18 July – 11 August 2012

King Street Gallery on William

Joanna Logue

17 July - 11 August 2012

Non Objective Conversations, SNO 84

Another fine show at SNO this time but four artists from Victoria. Magda Cebokli, Louise Blyton, Gordon Monro & Wendy Kelly - curated by Wendy. Beautifully designed and executed works in a restricted grey scale pallete by Magda.  Louise's shaped linen canvases play with shape and form.  Wendy is working a "reductivist abstraction". And Gordon with whom I had quite an animated conversation with is working with his self programmed "Difference Engine" - DNA -"Evolutionary Process"... you just have to get along and take a look for yourself. The code is printed out in beautiful colour on a 100 x 150 cm print on one wall, on the other is the colour pattern produced by the code. There is also 32 minute  video 'Difference Engine: Genetic Crossfades' which is  thoroughly engaging. SNO really seems to be on a role at the moment; not that they have ever not been! The shows on untill the 29th of July.

http://www.sno.org.au/

http://louiseblyton.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.magdacebokli.com.au/

http://www.wendykelly.com.au/

http://www.gordonmonro.com/

Nylon Japan - Street Snap Sydney & You!

Way way back in February of this year, back when it was still lovely and warm and the days of summer were oh-so-long I received an email from Japan...  Nylon Mag Japan was contacting me to see if I would like to shoot the next Street Snap series for them right here in Sydney - Hell Yeah! Of course I would, I would LOVE TOO. Mind you; the requirements for the story where quite a bit more demanding and daunting than what I usually get up to for a story here on Street Fashion Sydney. Nylon was after a large selection of street shots to choose from, fifty different people to be precise. That was going to be a big call right there as stalking fashion style in Sydney can be quite a tricky task - and then there was the deadline - the details - it was certainly going to be full on.

And full-on it certainly was and before too long I knew I was not going to be able to deliver all the shots working by myself. I emailed Akiko at Nylon to see if she was OK with me bringing in Street Fashion colleague Xiaohan Shen to help with delivering the shots; all good. Between the two of us we were able to deliver enough looks for the 6 page spread though we both had more than our fair share of "no thanks" along the way. So many... So many that I missed deadline for the first time in my career as a photographer! Well we did have it extended so perhaps not missed...
Come on Sydney, the camera does not bite and bad pictures are no good to anyone; FEAR NOT only the best are for print and blogging!

That said, Xiaohan and I did meet a lot lovely Sydney girls & lovely girls in Sydney who were nice enough to pose for our cameras and let us jot down the extra info Nylon was looking for. So here are a couple of pages from Nylon and some of my shots that made it 'in' and some that did not! Here they are, too many for a single post so keep an eye out for Nylon Sydney Snap Part 2,and keep an eye on XSSAT for Xiaohan's shots; I'm sure she's gonna post her selection too!

Mouse over the pictures to get all the fashion details.

LOVE YOU SYDNEY!

Dexter Fletcher - Careers in Retail - A Case Study

Talk about stepping back in time - this show put me way back when, or as North American Hipsters would have it, 'back in the day'... And what day would that be? Well the 80's of course. I may not always be the sharpest tool in the shed but; even then; how sharp do you need to be to get something. Something... This is what I got; kind of.

On a dark and chilly night in I found myself at an exhibition entitled "Careers in Retail" by a 'consortium' of artists, "Dexter Fletcher". Was this a realist show of some sort? Well I had trouble finding it at first as the poster on the door really did look like a career training poster from back-in-the-day and it did not help that the gallery shares space with commercial business. Eventually I worked it out and made my way upstairs to the intimate art space that is 55 Sydenham Rd for the first time, entering a room of large format, graphic illustrations/art - heavy with texts and quotations - and a Manifesto, something all artists have dreamed of having at some point in time; here it was and for all the crowded text on image of the art, the Manifesto had just two words in bold-all-caps that sized up the Zeitgeist of 80's art school thought on conventional employment, NEVER WORK! After all how can you make art and change the world if you have a full time job. An Old (art) Skool sentiment if ever there was one and the second time I have seen it in as many weeks. Something is coming back at us from the past.

You know, Street Fashion Sydney has of late been privately bemoaning the lack of political point-of-view in the world of 'fashion blogging' in-particular and art in general - but here it was - a show taking on the desire that drives creativity and the desire for change. Change not driven by the corporate sponsorship of creativity that seems to have been all the rage for the last 20 or so years and now going LARGE with so-called independent bloggers... this show seemed to be taking on the life conflicts of creativity at a grass roots level. Did I like the show? It really doesn't matter; it made me a little uncomfortable and for the past couple of days it has made me think and kept me thinking. Now that's something you don't get at every art show...

Careers in Retail,  Dexter Fletcher - 55 Sydenham Rd Marrickville 6 - 22 July 2012.

http://www.55sydenhamrd.com/