waiting for now

i find it amazing how music can transport you straight to another time
listening to hatful of hollow on vinyl, i was 15 again
johnny marr's edgy guitar, morrissey's smooth melancholic vocals playing out all my teenage angst and bewilderment and that feeling that you've already waited too long
if you haven't listened or watched the video in a while, how soon is now?
a staircase leading to a shelf, apropos of nothing
trying to find an image for this blog, i came across an exhibition called how soon is now? in vancouver (march 2009) - the blurb goes, “The work is really bold and unapologetic in presentation,” says VAG curator Kathleen Ritter, who visited about 120 artist studios to assemble How Soon Is Now. According to Ritter, these artists are aware of but not overly preoccupied with their predecessors — they’re more interested in creating something new.
i liked this piece by sonny assu, 1884/1952
from the review,
In 1884/1961, sonny assu, an aboriginal artist of Laich-kwil-tach descent, has constructed 67 “disposable” grande-sized coffee cups made out of copper, which was a significant material in the potlatch tradition of Pacific Northwest native people.
The 67 cups also represent the number of years that the potlatch — a ceremony that involved feasting and elaborate gift giving and was deemed “wasteful” and “heathen” by Christian missionaries — was banned in the province. Assu neatly parallels the consumer culture of the present with the tradition (and flaunting of wealth) of the native people.

the dark side

i was flipping through the latest tate etc magazine and found a wonderful article about italian artist carol rama, the cruel snare of memory

i'd never heard of her

her work explores the darker, seamier side of love, and family

though it's strange that sexuality is thought of in dark shades...

hot dog!

i am a fan of dachshunds

which is funny for me because i don't usually like little dogs
i am certainly not a fan of their short legs, or the fact that breeders have willfully created chronic health conditions by their inordinately long backs
i do love their special jauntiness, and crucially

i love that they can be held under your arm like a fendi clutch purse

there are lots of things to do with dachshunds!

you can draw one!

sausage

sausage

sausage

ausage sausage

and read about them

or use them to hold up your books,

you can blog about them, the long and the short of it

(very amusing and lots of wonderful pictures)

satirise them

(poor old sausage)

sausage
sausage

sausage sausage sausage
sausage sausage sau

and wear them (not really, of course)

finally, of course, you can be utterly devoted to them, which brings me to my favourite dachsund story - picasso & lump years ago, i read an article (i believe it was in reader's digest!) about picasso and a dachshund he came to love, called lump there were lots of photostaken by photographer david douglas duncan. in fact, lump was duncan's dog until picasso fell in love with lump.

a book based on all these photos has been published recently

sausage

sausage

sausage

you can all read about picasso and lump in this nytimes article, or this nicely put together blog)

my favourite photo was picasso presenting a plate he had painted especially for lump ("pour lump") to lump. lump seemed to like it.

one more thing to do with dachshunds, which happens to be what started me remembering my soft spot for dachs, dachshund u.n. an installation in the melbourne museum, put together by perth artist bennett miller

writing your own history

saw this today
it accompanied an art piece. i think the bio is more successful.
BORN BELGRADE 3 AM ON A WINTER NIGHT IN THE MID SIXTIES. NOT TOO PLEASED BY THE EVENT APPARENTLY. IT GOT BETTER LATER. AQUARIUS. PIGEONS ON THE ROOF TERRACE IN BELGRADE. FATHER GREATEST YUGOSLAV ARTIST OF THE 20 TH CENTURY. AND ONE OF THE BEST DRAUGHTSMAN IN THE CENTURY. MOVED TO PARIS END OF THE SIXTIES. FAVOURITE OCCUPATION IS LAYING IN THE GRASS SEARCHING FOR SHAPES IN THE CLOUDS. WATCHING DAD PAINT. LEARNS TO READ AND WRITE BY HIMSELF. FEAR OF THE END OF THE WORLD. NIGHTMARES ABOUT IT. THE VOID AND THE WASTE. DREAMS OF POLAR BEARS FALLING AND ROARING CELLS MOVING FAST THROUGH ENDLESS VESSELS. THINKS ALL ADULTS ARE ARTISTS OR SHOULD BE. ACQUIRES VAST POP AND GENERAL CULTURE BY READING A LOT OF BOOKS, LISTENING TO A LOT OF RECORDS AND WATCHING A LOT OF TELEVISION. BECOMING SHORTSIGHTED AS A RESULT OF IT. WANTING TO BE ROGER MOORE AND TONY CURTIS. LONG TUNNEL OF SCHOOL YEARS. BEING TAKEN TO ALL THE OPENINGS AND MUSEUMS THAT EVER HAPPENED IN THE LAST THIRTY YEARS IN PARIS. DRAWING SUPERHEROES. SEEING EUROPE. WANTING TO BE DAVID BOWIE. OR BRYAN FERRY. OR BOTH. GIRLS. PIANO AND TENNIS. SEEING AMERICA. DOING COLLAGES AND DRAWINGS. NEW WAVE. LONG SUMMERS IN YUGOSLAVIA. ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES. WINNING PAINTING PRICE AT 21. TENDS TO THINK THAT ARTISTS LIVE THE MOST INTERESTING LIVES AND PISS A LOT OF PEOPLE OFF. STARTS DRAWING IN OCHRE AND BROWN INK. SHAPES COME TO LIFE. CHAMPAGNE WITH FRANCIS BACON. WOMEN. DOING FIRST RELEVANT PAINTING OVER ONE OF HIS FATHER’S REJECTS. BAD. GRADUATING IN ARCHITECTURE WITH PROJECT BASED ON ITALO CALVINO’S “INVISIBLE CITIES”. EXHIBITIONS IN PARIS AND BELGRADE. TRYING TO MEET EVERYBODY. SEEING BASQUIAT LOST IN PARIS. HOLLOW EYES. JULIAN SCHNABEL PLAYING TANGO MUSIC IN WHITE LINEN SUIT AT HIS OPENING. GIVING HIM A PHOTOGRAPH IN A CLUB FEW YEARS LATER.CHANGING LAST NAME. MAKING A LOT OF INK DRAWINGS. STARTING TO MAKE BIG PAINTINGS AFTER THEM. END OF YUGOSLAVIA. END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. HAVING A SON. GOING BACK TO BELGRADE A LOT. ALL EXTREMES IN ONE PLACE. MAKING MUSIC VIDEOS AND TV DESIGN. SPITTING OUT WHAT HAS BEEN DIGESTED FOR YEARS. FRIENDS START TO DIE. DOOMED GENERATION. UPS AND DOWNS. SEVERAL SHOWS. NATO BOMBS BELGRADE. IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS THEY KNOW IT. I’M STILL ALIVE. THE 21 ST CENTURY WILL BE THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. AND EVIL IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK.
SIGNING OFF
VUK VIDOR 1999

i want to change the colours in the text but that would alter the content.

visionary

for a while now i've been meaning to put together pictures about treehouses

but i can't seem to find them - perhaps they'll come to me in a vision,

like this treehouse apparently did...

a canadian
"free-spirit sphere"...

looking very much

like a friendly death-star

images again, courtesy of inhabitat (except for the death star)

something like it, but more like a zeppelin (or coccoon), is available for holiday hire in wye river, on the great ocean road

snuggle in your inner zeppelin

a sublime treehouse,

drawing from ecocubby

not a treehouse,

but an image from the moleskine diary set,

addendum

the other day i listened to a radionational podcast from all in the mind (transcript). it was an interview with richard louv, founder of the children & nature network, author of last child in the woods: saving our children from nature deficit disorder. he was talking about how essential it is for people to interact with nature, be among it and learn from it, and that this should really happen when we're kids. he told a lovely story about growing on the outskirts of town, hopping his back fence and going through the corn fields to the forest, and building tree-houses there

a wonderful interview, because of what he says and how he says it - he has a great earthy voice

also interviewed was deb moore, an early childhood educator, who spoke of children and their "secret places". she says,

There has been research on an innate intrinsic need to be secret. Yes, okay, it's universal that children want to make those secret places and they need to be in their own places, as I was told by one of the children in my research, that only children can make secret places. She was very clear. Actually a number of children said something similar but she was incredibly clear that adults can grow the plants and provide the loose materials, but the children have to make their own secret places.

further addendum, Oct 2010

treehouse hotel in sweden (via inhabitat) lots of pretty pictures

treehotel website

philosophies inspired by contretemps with people in shops, cars, restaurants ... life!

i used to think i was fairly optimistic

not that i'm gloomy
not that i'm gloomy
'm gloomy
not that i'm gloomy

cross and intolerantcross and intolerantcross and intolerant

just really cross and intolerant

burning at both ends

i saw these wonderful totem-like sugargum landscape while flipping through a magazine recently - and then again in the design files

the design is by greg hattan

it reminded me of brett whiteley's almost once

matchsticks in woolloomoolloo

apparently the burnt match is popular with local cockies who've taken up residence [smh article] - fair enough too, developers etc having wiped the area clear of old gums with natural nesting holes)

turning japanese

when i was 9 years old i read this book

it was on my grade 3 bookshelf
i think i loved it













something else a little bit japanese

of course, neither of these are 'turning japanese' in the sense of the 80s song.
obviously.