ABC launches new arts website

The ABC was all over the arts this week as it launched a new arts website and held the "Revealing the Arts" conference in Sydney. The event included much fanfare about their new social media connectivity and partnership with the Australia Council. The website will a portal for both the arts programs on the ABC as well other arts content from all genres. This seems to be part of a larger push by the Federal Government and the Government 2.0 project to get government organisations to get filter their content through "younger" eyes. Let hope these programs increase creative production and build relationships rather than just present what we already have. That being said they are a lot prettier than previous government websites!

Phantom New York City comes alive.

This amazing new iphone application makes me 1. very happy and 2. at the same time very jealous. Why?

1. It is a remarkably clever idea considering New York must be one of the most redesigned (in theory that is) cities in the world and has had so many projects designed and exhibitions made about this great city just in the last couple of years. Rather than living in the past or the present the application shows user what might have been. Living under a dome or walking in the sky, the designs and projects will be presented as the user walks through the city streets.

2. Why now when I am not in New York?


The iPhone at work, detecting the Phantom City.
Images and research BLDG BLOG.


Museum of the Phantom City by Cheng+Snyder for the Van Alen Institute.
Images and research BLDG BLOG.

Check out http://phantomcity.org/for full project.

Stuff white people like - Bansky!

This is an absolutely hilarious article about Bansky and the complicated relationship "indie white people" have with street art. I was lucky enough to go to a talk with Christian Lander (and have a photo with) the creator of Stuff White People blog and now book. He talked about going to ivy league universities and experiencing a certain type of white person obsessed with coffee, indie music no one has ever heard of. This of course hit a chord with me with my personal favourites being Architecture, Liking Bob Marley and Taking a year off.


Also hope are checking out my current project and the behind the scenes photo:
2042artonthest.blogspot.com

2042: art on the street

I am so happy to let you guys know that a project I am working on is starting to ramp up. 2042: art on the street is a community artwork in Newtown where for one weekend (24-25 October) you will see the heart of Newtown turned into a giant 3-dimensional colouring book just waiting to be coloured by you and filled with your stories. Please visit the 2042 website for more information and I hope you will all join me on this adventure for the next couple of weeks. (I will also be cross-posting so you will be kept up to date on both blogs).

Sarah Scout Presents Andrea Tu

Check out images from Andrea Tu's current exhibition at one of Melbourne's newest galleries Sarah Scout Presents. Andrea Tu is graduate of Monash University and a recipient of both the Australia Council for the Visual Arts, Barcelona Studio Residency and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Studio Artist Residency. These beautiful folded sculptures play with the patterned 2D works also included in the exhibition and demonstrate an exciting technical skill that really caught my eye. Sarah Scout Presents is also a gallery to watch in the coming months.










Andrea Tu, Black Flux 2009, installation view at Sarah Scout, Melbourne care of artist and Sarah Scout Presents.

Olafur Eliasson's 'Take Your Time' to come to Sydney

Olafur Eliasson, One-way colour tunnel, 2007 (digital rendering of interior view); site-specific sculpture to be made at SFMOMA on the occasion of Take your time: Olafur Eliasson; stainless steel, color-effect acrylic, and acrylic mirrors; 100 3/4 x 70 7/8 x 413 3/8 in.; Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin; © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

This amazing retrospective of Olafur Eliasson's work 'Take Your Time' is coming to Sydney in December. A massive coop for the MCA the exhibition has been shown at the MOMA, NY and MOMA, San Francisco and an unlike the many times I have seen his work as one stand alone installation some of his most inspiring works will now be shown alongside each other. Below is a video that they showed at the media preview last night.

http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/15

Only in his 40's Eliasson has created some my favourite public works including the waterfalls he installed in NY last year through the New York Public Art Fund. This is possibly the MCA's biggest and most expensive exhibition to date and I am personally so excited that an installation of this quality is coming to Sydney. The exhibition is set to include some of his maquettes and models which should be an amazing insight in the way his team of 30-35 staff members work.

Take Your Time, MCA Sydney
10 December 2009 - 11 April 2010

James Angus wins WA's most expensive public art commission

Images (pdfs of proposal submission to situate prize 2009 by James Angus)

situate an international sculpture prize in Perth, Western Australia announced yesterday that James Angus' proposal has won a $1 million public art commission. To be located in Perth's CBD - it is the largest ever public art project in WA and will be produced by some of Australia's great public art and engineering talents. Although the principal artist and designer is James Angus, Douglas Knox (Principal Engineer), Peter Mclean (Lighting Engineer), Sebastian Adams, (Industrial Designer), Tony Oxley (from Oxley9 Gallery and Angus' representing gallery and project coordinator) and Jaime Marina, (Fabrication) will help the project to come to fruition and hopefully produce an artwork that the public really enjoy. Both a state and local council venture it is a glimmer of hope that often expendable public art funding is still available and open to new techniques and ideas. Check out the finalists online as the project has attracted some great proposals and concepts well beyond the typical promenade style city art.