Post Opening Come Down

The past few weeks I've been hoping in the aftermath of the exhibition opening that there would be some sort of a lull or an ability to relax, but, unable to escape myself as usual, I've been busy setting up the exhibition for online viewing and getting to know my brand new tablet. I'm generally in favour of arting it up old school, but I'm seriously rethinking my stance -- it's a surprisingly sensitive and intuitive tool! Here are a couple of first attempts:

Excerpt Art Exhibition Goes Online

For all of the world not in Perth, there's now an online version of the exhibition.

www.excerptartexhibition.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Nausea

When you get that vomity feeling ... sometimes it's bad seafood and sometimes it's because something important to you is going on and you don't want to fail.

The exhibition is important to me. The logic of my brain runs a little like this:

1. You made the art and wrote the accompanying text
2. You have organised the event
3. You have done all the administration
4. You have promoted the event
5. You have overseen production of merchandise in addition to art works
6. You have prepared the gallery space and displayed the work
7. All that is left is for people to show up
8. You don't control the actions or opinions of other people
9a. The value of all art is subjective to some degree
9b. Photo of Jesus in Urine guy, case in point
10. Therefore worrying is an unnecessary feeling of bad feelings

And yet still the worry persists. I've invested a lot of time, effort and money into this little project and I'm not exactly sure on what basis I'm judging success or failure, but I desperately don't want to fail or to regret having done this.

Omniscience would be great right about now, and for the next 2 or so weeks, to see if my work is savoured by any strangers. Alternatively, if some art aficionado came to the show, loved it and bought all my art, that would also be acceptable.

Excerpt Newspaper Article

Excerpt - Promotion

Avenues I've used for promoting the exhibition:

- inviting family, friends and colleagues
- notifying art forums and associations
- printing promotional postcards
- leaving postcards at the cafe and local art centres for the public
- a mail drop of postcards in the cafe local area
- an article in the local newspaper
- details of the exhibition published in the "What's On Northbridge" newsletter

The opening night is looming ... and we shall see what is to be ...

Excerpt - Installation (3M Hooks, I love you!)

Spent most of the day in the cafe today setting up the exhibition. Because Village Cafe don't really have a proper set up for displaying art works, I'm using 3M adhesive hooks, which can be applied and removed without any damage to the walls. Sounds like a dream come true? The down side is that first you have to wash the walls down so that the adhesive can stick correctly to the surface, and then after applying them you must wait an hour before you can put any weight on them -- ie I spent an hour washing walls, then an hour and a half fastidiously measuring how and where the works should go, then applying the hooks and then ... waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting ... before spending another half hour or so hanging the works and then positioning each accompanying piece of text.

By the time that was all done, it was bang in the middle of lunch rush for the cafe, so I had to occupy myself for an hour or so (visited Tristans Art Gallery to check out their newest show) until it was quiet enough at the cafe for me to be able to clear away the tables and chairs that they normally keep in that room and then organise some things with the cafe manager for the opening night.

So it's been a bit of an intermittent day as far as work goes and I've got a list of things to do over the next couple of days, but the bulk of the work for installing the exhibition is mostly done now, and lo and behold, the erstwhile back dining room has been transformed into a miniature art gallery! Hooray!!

Perspective Play

O tiny being! Gaze up in awe at the majesty of stone carved by sea, walk softly in the sandy paths left by the ocean, past crystal salts strewn carelessly as the water fled its embrace and wonder as you wander. What more can an small and insignificant speck in a cold and indifferent universe do?


As a small person in a land of relative giants, playing with perspective is always lots of fun for me. I first discovered how fun one night at Clancy's Fish Pub, where, armed with mobile phone camera, I constructed a set made of Jenga blocks and shot a series of short films starring various chess pieces. [They were so appalling that I simply had to delete them]. The two photos above were taken whilst in Coral Bay -- the rocks and gorge are actually just parts of the limestone sea bed that have been exposed at low tide and in actuality are only about 10cm tall -- if that! But at first glance, without anything else in frame to put things in perspective, they look positively enormous and very imposing indeed. As for the text ... well, that's just me waxing lyrically -- everyone needs to have a verbal wank now and again!

Musing on Blogging

As an avid reader and tv watcher during childhood, I've become used to the random happenings in a person's [characher's] life being strung together into a narrative, and expect my life to follow the same pattern, to the extent where, even if there isn't an omniscient third person narrating for me, I create my own narrative. I don't think this behaviour is unique to me, I think we all narrate our own life to some extent, whether it's through religion, myth, fairy tales or simply in a conversation with another person.

The thing about blogging is that it is setting something down in written text, that suddenly authorship is conferred upon the writer and that creation of the story becomes formalised and explicit rather than casual and implied. What does that mean for the narrative? Given the broader audience that they may be reaching, a blogger has to decide how much to reveal or veil in their writing and choose their vocabularly carefully -- the blog is as much a public relations tool for the individual as it is a monologue of their thoughts and cataglogue of their daily activities.

I'm sure someone has made this point somewhere, probably more saliently than I, but the whole concept of blogging raises some really interesting issues, not just about the narratorship of our existence, but about perception and construction of self to others too. If only I had the time, patience, research facilities or publishing house backing to write a book about this fascinating subject!

Monkey Mia

So we've by now left the Cape Range National Park, passed through Exmouth and Coral Bay and have made our way to Monkey Mia which is home to some carefully looked after dolphins and a quite tastefully done resort. It's small, tidy, pretty touristy, but for us it was a little bit of heaven. After gradually becoming more and more feral during the week (by the time we reached Monkey Mia, we were particularly proud that we were wearing the same clothes that we'd left in, had slept in all manner of uncomfortable places and hadn't brushed our hair, applied deodorant or showered for several days) it was bliss to arrive in the resort and

a) take a shower that
b) wasn't with salty water and
c) buy some food that wasn't dried fruit, nuts, or beef jerky from
d) a store that carried things like cheese, tuna in a can or yoghurt!



I know there's a limited number of times I can use the phrase "crystal blue ocean waters" in description before it becomes somewhat hackneyed, but somehow, anything less effusive would be an insult to the beautiful north west coastline of Australia. We were particularly lucky on our final morning in that the dolphins and their calves decided to come in for their three feedings in rapid succession and that the crowds weren't too bad. They swam quite close up to the shore line whilst waiting for their fish and Sarah even got to feed one! The little baby dolphins were, needless to say, indescribably cute and frolicked cheekily in the waters whilst their mums waited patiently for the dolphin volunteers to finish their spiel for the audience before feeding time.


The dolphins aren't the only animals to be seen at Monkey Mia. Check out this fella -- one of two emus who frequent the resort, totally unafraid of humans. As I was sitting on the grass, preparing for a bread and butter festival, along comes the emu, looming above me, looking to be fed. I struck a defensive pose over my bread roll and prayed that I wouldn't be kicked in the head, but, undeterred, the damn bird ate the butter right off my knife! I escaped, bread roll and head intact, but it was a dicey few moments. They look so cute and fluffy from a distance, but when you are a small girl sitting on the ground, they are fucking huge and those legs look pretty lethal. Boo to all those tourists before me who have fed this guy and given him the idea that humans are food dispensers!

So after unwinding at Monkey Mia, we bundled ourselves back in our car for the long drive home. It was one hell of a road trip!

Exmouth and the Cape Range National Park

After leaving Coral Bay in search of better snorkelling conditions, we drove up to Exmouth and the Cape Range National Park. Saw some pretty amazing stuff in Turquoise Bay, but the water, despite being the most beautiful shade of turqoise ever, was still not the greatest for visibility.

The park just also happens to be home to a pretty spectacular multicoloured gorge, so we decided to give that a go. Unfortuately, we couldn't get a very good look at the damn thing because we arrived after 11am, which is the only time the guided boat tours are scheduled and the walking trail was blocked off in order to keep hikers from inadvertantly being mistaken for a wild goat and shot. Apparently they are quite rampant and pestilent in this part of the country [the goats, not the hikers] and there's a whole eradication program going on. In any case, we pouted and scuffed our shoes along the track as we turned back. This was pretty much all we got to see:



That is, until we spotted a lone row boat slowly making its way up the creek. What do you do when some stranger has a set of paddles and is heading precisely the direction you want to go? Why, yell out a hello to them, ask what they're doing and if you can come with, then nearly break your neck [and regret your choice of clothing for the day, a tshirt and miniskirt] climbing down the gorge to hop into their boat.

Turns out our lone boatman was an off duty park ranger doing a spot of camping for a few days who didn't mind at all taking us for a paddle in the creek and was able to tell us all sorts of cool and interesting stuff about the wildlife whilst we cruised along. Well, cruisy for us and a lot of work for him, seeing as he was the one rowing -- but I did help with the rowing on the way back. Admittedly, I was rather useless and had to put my whole being into rowing with one of the oars, as opposed to Hughie, who effortlessly used the other oar, single handed... but I'm sure it's the thought that counts. Or something.

Once we were in the boat, the view was far more spectacular:

Ended up stopping here for a bit to swim in the creek ... I really enjoyed cooling off from the hot sun in the water, but it was marred a bit by how the tranquil setting and kind, helpful stranger seemed altogether a bit too much like the setting for some B-grade horror flick. However, our guide didn't turn out to be a serial killer at all, just a really nice guy (disappointing on a narrative level, but very comforting on a personal one). Thanks for a really lovely day Hughie!

Coral Bay

Coral Bay is all about the beach. You can literally walk out from the backpackers hostel, down the street and onto the sand and then into the water. If you swim out a small distance, the Ningaloo reef is right there beneath you in the water!

Even with some pretty unideal snorkelling conditions, (wind, current, murky water) we still saw heaps of stuff in the two days we spent there. The boat trip we did on the second day was brilliant -- I fully recommend the Pedro and the Dominator (that's the name of the vessel) Ningaloo Experience!

We didn't see any manta rays unfortunately, but a stack of fish and reef sharks just kinda swimming around. Got caught up with a school of fish a couple of times, it's just magic when they're gliding around you in the water as if you're part of the group.

And as the sun sets, turning the sky along the horizon into gold, you drag yourself out of the water, brown as a nut (hopefully not sunburnt ... though my cousin managed to get two identical sunburn spots on the backs of her knees and her elbows!) and ravenous. Which is when that seafood platter I was talking about, or even just a gigantic serve of hot, salty chips really hits the spot!! So much for my hopes of detoxing on this trip!

On The Road Again ... And Again ...

My cousin and I have been driving due north for the last two days and finally reached our destination: Coral Bay!! We celebrated our first night in Coral Bay with a sumptuous sea food platter -- possibly the best sea food platter I've ever had (best in a field of two). I'm justifying this extremely expensive meal with the fact that we totally deserved a reward after various traumas including:

1. Getting our original car on the road (or not) and renting one

2. Finally setting off at midday from Perth and braving the intense heat of the day

3. Getting really hungry and eating dinner on the first night sitting in the red dirt by the road side just out of Kalbarri with the wind blowing our picnic blanket and food in our faces

4. Arriving in Kalbarri just ten minutes too late to check into the backpackers hostel and

5. Spending the night sleeping in the car instead

But we're here now and all is well as we are flanked by crystal waters and golden sands! Did some snorkelling and wild life spotting today and sporting a most uncool wetsuit tan line ... I'm a happy traveller!

Photoshopping Bari

Messing around one day with Photoshop to see how many different looks I could get out of a single shot without trying stuff that was too hard or complicated. The top left photo is the original shot -- taken from the ferry as we were crossing the Adriatic Sea from Bari, Italy to Patras, Greece. Moving from left to right, the effects I used were: sepia overlay, hue/saturation adjustment, stylised wind filter, greyscale, stylised edge find, extruding edges and solarising. Given that I don't really know much about Photoshop, it really makes you think about how infinite the possibilities are when you actually know how to use this program !!

Excerpt - Venue Part II

118A Aberdeen St Northbridge

08 9228 8823

What do you do when the management of your original venue changes, rendering all previous agreements to host your exhibition null and void?? Why, find an alternative venue of course!!

I've really been sweating it out over the management change of the tea house because they'd been a bit cagey about the affair and very difficult to get a hold of to discuss what was going to happen with the exhibition. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and approach another venue.

What a difference!! The manager of Village Cafe straight away arranged an appointment time with me to discuss things, was full of great ideas for promotion and just generally had a knowledgable and professional demeanour. It's such a relief to have a date finalised for the exhibition and to be able to start organising the thing in detail!!