Eastern Suburbs Art Group

It was a decent turn out. For me it was supporting a colleague from Tree Veneration Society. But behind the nice words, the careful epithets, the studied agreement with ideas artworks always try to embody, there was a stubborn fact in that some of Watanabe's works have perishable components. Other aspects of Watanabe's work struggle in this sort of environment, but the backlit items are simply going to fail one day. I wonder what is the point. Maybe late last year I discussed this aspect of some contemporary work with another practitioner. At that time the solution didn't present itself. With Watanabe's work it's a sort of category error that fights against the lightness of the design, the execution. But of course not all the works contain electric lights, which the gallery had carefully wired up in straight lines and with polity 90-degree curves. The framed works (see above) are also carefully finished, These frames being specially constructed again with curves. Th...

We hear a lot of stories about laneways in Melbourne. Some are covered (like this one). Some are nice, some are dirty. In Sydney laneways like these wre digested by the amalgamation of titles after WWII when the vast number of skyscrapers went up. An era of cheap oil, huge capitall influxes, and a burgeoning professional class trained in increasing number of tertiary education institutions. Of course this is not art with a capital "A" approved by the culture industry, it is commerical. But it is very strange and so I took a series of photos. The TV screen in the back diplaying I think fashion promotion images were especially intriguing. Not possible to say if the display is still there, these photos were taken some months ago. Maybe if someone goes to the city centre they can report back with news. Very strange sort of weitd cartoon character. Possibly frightening for some, even adults.

 In Melbourne recently I saw this social media ad and considered the idea too strange, especially for Sydney, where I live. In the end the experience was a bit disappointing but just the train trip was worthwhile. The displays were often interesting but not really what was promised. The museum is in a small street off a main drag. What impressed me about Collingwood is the lack of eateries. The suburb is relatively close to the city centre but I didn't even see a hamburger shop, though there was a kind of pub or hotel. Perhaps it was a bar. In contrast the city centre in Melbourne is crowded with restaurants and places to buy food, ice cream parlours and the like. What this means is anyone's guess, however it is clear that if you live in Collingwood and you want a kebab you have to go into town.

 When I waas down in Melbourne in January I saw this show, which sort of bookends the 'Dangerously Modern' show in Sydney at the same time. One show specifically about women photographers, but with a global perspective. The other show about women in Europe in the 1st Half of last century.  Writing about the Sydney show I said it was comprehensive, actually it was enormous. The guard knew how many works were on the walls. Aat the NGV I tried the same trick but the guard was not able to tell me. At the NGV there were many different subjects, as they were in the Sydney show. The photographs were sometimes portraits, urban landscapes, photos of children. A range of different things. The diversity of subjects was proof of the intensity with which the artists worked. And they were aware they were making art. The NGV show is still running if you want to see the works. When I was there it was sunny and warm and I stopped at a food van outside to get lunch. There was a fashion show on ...

These wall sculptures are evocative of space, they sort of create space but of course they are just sitting on a wall so they also do not. But the intent is there I think. At least this is what seemed to me to be going on. At one point in our discussion the artist referred furthermore (Ihadn't mentioned anything rleated at the time) to negative space. Mainly when I think of this phrase I think of a particular Romantic poet whose intent has never been fully understood even by most of the Elites. Also in this regard I think of Chinese painting, and because Pollard's work is mainly black (and since the gallery walls - most interior walls actually, these days - are white) my mind raced to pictures in ink of, say, carp or perhaps a wren on a slung branch. One day I will be in a position to revisit this misunderstood phrase alongside the artist, we both belong to the Tree Veneration Society. In the gallery I stayed talking for a while, probably most of an hour. THis is a good way to ...

 These luminous organic abstract works play with colour and texture. Colleen says the impasto ground goes on first, making shapes of texture suggestive of geological formations. Bright red or vivid green the canvases string colour along a wall. They are like Christmas decorations, unchallenging and intuitively interesting. I haven't worked out what it is about colour, but it is central to who we are. Humans live in a wold of colour, we use colour to communicate, to survive. Frances uses colour to entertain and this is perhaps the most rewarding use of colour there is.

Organised or at least publicised through a community art society I belong to, this show was only up for a few days. I dropped off the work on Thursday and the main event was the Friday, then I picked up the work on the Saturday. There was a talk in the church about Van Gogh's religiosity (his father was a Protestant pastor) which was very interesting because most of contemporary commentary on such painters is rigidly secular. The truth is that Van Gogh was alive 150 years ago. It's so amusing how we can easily give credence to the outdated ideas of Marx and Engels but willfully ignore the completely comprehensible ideas of people living even later than them. It only takes a few seconds to see the reason in this view. Marx was publishing in the 1850s and Van Gogh was painting in the 1880s but somehow Marx is more contemporary than Van Gogh. The absurdity is astonishing. But unfortunately this is the commonplace we worship these days. I was incredibly lucky to bump into two frien...