RENO

The first wednesday of every month is opening night at Felt Space on Compton street in the city. I've been going to Felt since it opened, it is a brilliant little ARI and never fails to impress. Tomorrow night is the opening of new exhibition Reno. Come along, it will be fun!

Reno is a collaborative exhibition project between Laura Wills and William Cheesman. Continuing their shelter series, 2006 - ongoing, the artists will be premiering a stop motion animation from the making of The Coconut House, the forth in the shelter series. This work was recently developed on an Asialink residency to Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarka, Indonesia, in late 2009. Interest in shelters and bivouacking and the subsequent awareness of our place in Australia has led to further works that explore the idea of the feral animal as "pest or resource". Showcasing in Reno are new installation, drawing and cardboard works exploring this theme.

Opening on Wednesday the 1st of September at 6:00PM 

Exhibition runs from the 2-18th of September

Find out more here and check out Laura Wills blog. 

green

Everybody who knows me well knows how much I ADORE Zucchini. It is most definitely my favourite food. Some people don't care for it, others simply hate it but I love it. And even though I don't need an excuse to eat it at every available opportunity, when I saw this recipe I couldn't resist! The best thing is that it looks really simple and easy- I can't wait to give it a go. 

Zucchini-Almond Veggie Burgers

4 small zucchini and/or yellow squash (14-15 ounces total), ends trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup almonds, toasted and finely chopped
3 tablespoon minced basil
1 tablespoon flour
1 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon oil

Preheat the oven (or toaster oven) to 350° F.

Grate the zucchini on the bias so as to create larger strands, using the large holes of a box grater. Toss with the salt and then leave in a strainer for 15 minutes. Using your hands or by wrapping the zucchini in cheesecloth, squeeze out any excess liquid.

Combine the zucchini with the almonds, basil, flour, egg, and black pepper. Add the bread crumbs, adding more if the mixture hasn’t become pliable. (It will be a very wet mixture, though.)  Shape into 4 patties.

Heat the oil in an oven-safe sauté pan over a medium flame. Cook the burgers, 2 to 4 minutes per side, until golden brown. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 12 to 15 minutes more, until firm.

from Veggie burger madness via 

Spectrum/spectre

While flicking through South African blogger M Dash's rss I came across these amazing photos by Richard Mosse. The Irish born Photographer travelled to the war torn Congo and produced a series of photographs using Aerochrome film. The film has been designed to create a false-colour reversal  and is used on vegetation surveys and camouflage detection. The result is a stunning and surreal image which aligns ideas of conflict with colour theory, atmosphere and other associations. The landscapes remind me of so much of images of the womb-lining in BBC doco the Human Body. Check out Mosse's Website here.

“It’s not always easy to enter the zone as an artist, but I was turned on by everything I looked at in Congo,” Mosse wrote. “Goma is situated on one of the world’s only limnically active lakes. Junked, vintage aircraft litter the airport, which is coated in lava from the recent eruption. Kisangani is deep in the jungle; the only cars on the streets are United Nations vehicles flown in on cargo planes. In Kinshasa, Belgian monoliths loom over dusty boulevards.”

“There’s a violation being made by the photographer that is thrown back with great intensity. You ask yourself, who’s really the subject here? That’s a very important thing to stress if you’re a white male photographing in Congo.”

“Aerochrome is notoriously unstable and difficult to work with. Kodak delivers the film on dry ice, and it must be stored in a freezer at all times,” Mosse wrote. “As you can imagine, it’s hard to find a functioning refrigerator in the Congo. Because of the dramatic shifts in temperature and humidity, and the exposure to other variables, the colors shift greatly from negative to negative. I try to embrace that instability in my picture-making process.

“For all the difficulties of working in Congo,” Mosse said, “I was surprised to find that everything is open for negotiation. Virtually anything is possible if you have the time, will, and resources to make it happen.”

Words by Richard Mosse via The New Yorker. 

Images by Richard Mosse via google images 

1. You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart, North Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2010

2. General Janvier, North Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2010

3. Tutsi Town, North Kivu, Eastern Congo, 2010

Oh BOY!

One of the best things about being back in Australia is the ABC, and one of the best things on the ABC is At the Movies (also good is everything else on a Wednesday night, including the Chaser guys doing an election special on the at the movies set). I love love love Film and I definitely don't spend enough time paying attention to it. When I have a stable income this is something that will have to change!

BOY, I really want to see the new film by NZ director Taika Waititi. It has taken the NZ box office by storm and also been nominated for the grand jury's prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Next week I might have to go to Palace Nova for a bit of Cinema good times. 

DAVID: I really enjoyed it and it manages to do something that you don't often get in films. It manages to be very funny and also very poignant too and sometimes in the same scene and so it fills that balance. It balances that really well, I think. All the performances are very naturalistic and beautiful. I love this depiction of this Maori community and, as you say, the ideals that this boy has of his father, who he sees like some sort of knight in shining armour...

Read the rest of Margaret and Davids review here.

Portrait of a lady

Now that the lilacs are in bloom
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room
And twists in her fingers while she talks.
'ah my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who hold it in your hands';
(slowly twisting the lilac stalks)
'you let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see.'
I smile of course, and go on drinking tea.

Knockout writing

I wrote this in Paris. It's rather juvenile but I decided to post it. Let me know what you think!

H was staring out the window.

‘We’re a worthless bunch of lowlife’s’

‘you sound like a b-grade crime noir detective’

‘you sound like my dad’

We were sitting in H’s livingroom, unsure of what to do. The sofa was uncomfortable, each of us was a little uneasy. We all new we wanted to do something, that burning desire to make something of our youth rather than let it waste away. If only we could pur our finger on what we wanted. I shifted my position.

Lucy stood up, accidentally knocking the light with her head. Lucy is tall and she always underestimates herself. It’s as if she is unaware of her own body and isn’t in the habit checking to see how she relates to the space that she occupies.

‘well, we should at least do something’

Nobody replied.

First Lines

While I was in NYC I came across a small publication called  The First Line. Its a quarterly short fiction publication that provides the first line of a story and then asks writers (well, the general public) to fill in the rest. The result is a series of short pieces, which although start off in the exact same place, end up telling diverse and interesting stories. I thought I would give it a go. I've been getting in to short fiction and I have never submitted anything before. After a greuling afternoon sitting in a coffee shop in Hoboken banging out a story and making my friends and family read through the result, I actually submitted the work. It was hard, mostly because I knew I would never be accepted. I had to face up to the fact that I am absolutely NOT a genius. But it was an important step towards being a real writer. Two weeks later I received the "we regret to inform you" email. Bummer. But thats ok, cos now I can publish it here!

Three thousand habitable planets in the known universe and I’m stuck on the

only one without an ocean. In fact, with no water at all. Essentially a dead

planet- unable, incapable, of supporting life. The stillness is unbearable.

The whim of nature is lost. I had always equated the ocean with some kind

of romanticism. Standing at the end of the pier with nothing between me

and Antarctica. Here there is just nothing. In a way, this is romantic too.