ellen jaye benson artist blog

http://ellenjayebensonart.blogspot.com

above is the link to my peronal art blog

ARTIST ELLEN JAYE BENSON

graff baff

darn tried to post these facebook graffs but they have been cropped will have to save and reload - but will leave the cropped ones up as tempters - you might just have to add me on facebook to see what love i leave on fb friends walls!

Arbitary Observations Involving a Pen and a Pot of Tea

ellejayerose wants to come visit you! (If your local) ...
She begs you to let her observe and record you in the comfort of your abode, where you are most likely to be most human and most you (unless you have a freaky house mate that tinkers with your things so you are always on edge)...
I really NEED to get back into observing and recording, getting lost in conversation, forgetting about the past and future getting lost in the present temporal. This year I wish to be extremely disciplined in my use of time and energy and wish to find people who would be honoured to become part of my work and part of my creative mania.
please email me for more info if you are interested. Put the kettle on and invite me round :)

ellejayerose wants you! i wanna scrutinisingly observe and record an essense of your face the temporal, the twitches, the telling... please offer to pose for me!

Hats off Two Goats Brewery!

This week Elle Jaye Rose aka 'zzzpirate' hangs in the Gong at the newly built home of 'Cheers Brew', formaly known as Ricky Ward, to inspect his new homebrew setup... oh... and to say G'day cobber!

****.5 for the beer and ***** for the setup

I strongly recommend his NZ Stout... I like to wet me mouth with the odd brunette!

Hats off!
Bang up Job!

check his band online:

www.myspace.com/theconvenienceband

you and Donna have done a marvellous job on the colleseum meets the thunderbox!

Rosecam Ram

rosecam#2/'Noi...

By

Book Preview

rosecam#1/'pla...

By

Book Preview

Click on the BLURB book preview badges above to preview my artbooks of autoportraits now available for sale online...

$35 US

82 pages in total

rosecam#1: 'Play...Corpus'

rosecam#2: 'Noir Still'

check my new books!
tell ya friends!

Comic Relief: Perillo Finally Publishes Slaved Over Graphic Novel

"Perillo's "Homeward Angel: Violent Awakening" is an insightful and personal verisimilute of late-teen rites of passage...with every painstaking itch, graze, bump and growth spurt accounted for. Moments of escape are playfully glorified in a technicolour hyperealism that even 'The Mighty Boosh' would envy...and quite probably pastiche.."

--- elle jaye rose @--{--<

So proud to bump noggin toboggins with the remarkably gifted flawless draftsman and conceptual playground that is emerging artist 'Marcus Perillo'

If you have a heart and a brain preview and buy his self-published graphic novel!

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/359565

* go find the Wizard of Oz if lacking the above corporeal matter...

Quietly... I... drop my weight in... to... your... sea...

postcards from where the mighty mountains meet the mighty sea...

more can be found in my facebook album 'Lullaby...Drift...'


http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53510&l=2e70a&id=730997202

Diamond Sea

Cheers Steve for generously dropping me off at the airport at an unGodly hour - What a Gem!

check out his shoe-gazin band 'Hope Diamond' on my space:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=324959797


'Hope Diamond'- upcoming gig - 5 Oct - Residency at the Marquis of Lorne - 5 pee em
Cnr George & Kerr Sts Fitzroy, Melbourne

ps. 'Hope Diamond' are working with their friends from Ladykillers (an Adelaide based theatre company) on a project called 'based on a true story': http://basedonatruestory.com.au/?page_id=5 contribute...I did!

"Lullaby...Drift..."

not resolved yet.... but impatient as i am.... i had to upload...feedback wanted...

from the series "lullaby...drift..."

unfortunately not a good photo representation - can't get a good enough impression of the shellac based ink sheen contrasting the silk dye vivid colour saturation

hope to exhibit with leif nash.... when resolved!

Islands in the Cream

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44 Rowena Parade, Richmond VIC 3121


*****

When working in Richmond, I retreat to my isle sanctuary 'Rowena Parade Deli' to overdose on Latte, listen to Sinatra and write tedious spreadsheets. Every nook and cranny is riddled with old school euro nicknacks and there is a feature wall of the Greek Isles....all pretty blue and white that you can get lost in....

You could come in to simply buy a paper and groceries..........but you find yourself groaning and moaning over one of their delicious mushroom and fetta omeletes and working of campus on their web!

The signage is old school delio.... there is a strange lucky chinese bell with a sign positioned in front saying '....under no circumstances ring this bell'........how zen!

This cosy pad is soooooo quaint and colourful you will find yourself not wanting to leave...ever.........paradoxically feeling chill and buzzy - soooo much coffee.....sooooo much comfort!

aaaaaaaaaahhhhh......sigh......jitter......smile!

oh and the staff are delightful! Just watch your head when sitting under the chalk board....hahaha......as you will get drunk enough soaking up the atmosphere of lil Rowena...

My latest lady friend x

Yard Raid Ikenbana Expedition

On a swaying stroll home from a big night celebrating Ginny Grayson's win of the Dobell, In our infinite drunken wisdom. Fellow artist and zen enthusiast Elyss Mcleary and I went on a urban wild-flower collecting stealth mission. We were very respectful, in that we only stole one branch/flower or folliage from each yard on our traversing between high st and the far end of Roberts st in Westgarth. My housemates were astonished at our arrangement abilities, given our debilitated state, we thought we owed it to them to beautify the house whilst paradoxically trashing it! I love u fellow house occupants x

Crown Julio's

Julio, 171 Miller Street, Fitzroy North, Tel +61 3 9489 7814

**** and a half

The aesthetic of day-time cafe 'Julio's' in North Fitzroy is sooooooo charming! It is a georgeous juxtaposition of slick clean design contrasted with homely, kitsche, nostalgic deco. If you eat here you simply MUST MUST MUST order their baked organic eggs with chorizo, corriander and peas! Their handstamped cups are endearing and the staff are all warm and fuzzy and are so nurturing if you have a hangover! I would have given the place ***** if they had some powerpoints - it is great that they have wireless - so remember to charge your laptop before you go!

Down and Dirty York...

Drawings of Melbourne-based Band 'Dirty York' - hopefully to be released as their next album cover

by me... elle jaye rose @--{--< check em out on myspazz

Set 1.













set 2.

set 3.

Slave in the magic mirror, come from the farthest space, through wind and darkness I summon thee.

"The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love. "

Margaret Atwood

Leif Nash, dandy shape-shifting romantic artisan extraordinaire's new 'Snow Wild Wood' Series is so intruiging - and will edit this post with more insight....more words.......more love....more envy later! Look him up on facebook .....

there are soooooooo many parallels between our worlds, minds, wardrobes, art....

here are some related images from my rosecam series: snowrose








www.redbubble.com/people/ellejayerose

i intend to exhibit another body of my work, which uses sea as a metaphor for the erotic titled 'Lullaby Drifting' with him.....sometime when further resolved...if he will let me x

rosebubble

Check me n' ma work on Red Bubble - an amazing online art community

www.redbubble.com/people/ellejayerose

A Heart as BIG as the Collingwood Townhall - with a splash of decadence

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123 Queens Pde, Clifton Hill, VIC 3068

*****
This place has spirit! bring your dogs but not your babies - plenty a cafe pads for that crew in Clif already... This place is a haven, a retreat for misfit artists, business people, tradies, musicians, writers, designers etc. all is needed is ya wit and ya whimsy. Pop art urban aesthetic - wireless so you can hide from the office, resident musicians on fridays aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...........den gold mine - but do not tell the champagne socialists - unless they also have a plumbers crack and a bleeding heart!

come down on a Fri eve & ask to have a drink with miss elle-jaye-rose @--{--<

fill-this-face-space......More facebook graff of elle jaye rose

mind-pamphlet-stencil (the facebook graff of Elle jaye Rose)

Slave to the Cave: Myspazz has won me over to the dark space

Blogspotters, please forgive me! I have sold my soul and extended my networks by joining both facebook and myspazz!!! If you are not a puritan, like I thought I would be, search for me on facebook under Ellen Rose and check out my myspazz page (I need friends hahaha) http://www.myspace.com/ellejayerose/

This blog will be my more arthouse/intellectual discourse page - myspazz and facebook more for social networking, portfolio highlights and events...


Am considering changing my surname to rose which is a derivative of my surname - am open to comments on this!

Seen From Afar: Current Reflections on my Artist Persona

I have been sponsored by the City of Melbourne as the Travellers Aid Artist-in-Community Residence. You can find my Artist-In Community Residence Web Log, 'Traverse' online at:
http://trav-erse.blogspot.com

Those of you familiar with much of my recent work may find this residency project a little lukewarm in comparison with my sexed-up work from last year, but I'm excited! The good news followers is that I am still making cheeky work on the side, my current personal body of work is titled 'Most Handsome Seen From Afar', my current summary statement reads:

‘Most Handsome Seen From Afar’ presents an exploded view of a Waratah. Abstracting individual Waratah stamen with its’supporting bract to heighten the awkward sexy aesthetic of a ‘large man in a boat'. This ‘large man in a boat' both celebrates and parodies our bourgeois and curious ‘men’ of science, specifically Carolus Linnaeus and Joseph Banks, our prime patriarchs responsible for the most common system of plant classification, observation and documentation.

Love and Hardship!

Another Upcoming Cordelle Gig for those dumb enough to have missed the last one

Bands start from 2pm this Sat 26 May at the Afterdark 565 High St in Northcote. If I don't see you there hopefully I will catch you at Bec Delange's 'Tropical' party!

Upcoming Gig of Note

If you can go see this gig! Cor'delle (formerly veil) rocks it!
Currently Cor'delle are recording an album - Stay tuned for more news!

Be sure to listen to their soundclips on their myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=29251880

Playful Peepshow: Through the eyes of Photo-Journo Alison Church

Women's Circus Update (for Erik)

Apologies for the lack of posts of late - have jam-packed every second of my existence with activity and become a tragic comic life-juggler. Women's Circus has been my only refuge from the mundane day-to-day making ends meet stuff!

Checkout this audio-visual slide-show documented, sequenced and compiled by American Photo-Journalist Alison Church. It is a pastiche of Women's Circus interviews set to a series of black and white stills

http://www.alisonchurch.com/AS_Circus/Circus.html

Your Hip Bones Connected to Your...Couch?: Paleo Anthropological Possibilities: Art of Tom Edwards

(image courtesy of seventh gallery web page)

"The human process of classifying all materials as waste after a single use has a finite life span. How will our time be perceived, if the human race survives it?"

-----------------------------------Tom Edwards Artist Statement

Melbourne-based contemporary sculptor, Tom Edwards, has playfully installed an interactive piece titled 'Paleo Anthropological Possibilities' at Seventh Gallery. He has lovingly seen the potential in an unwanted couch, using its bones to carve out some of his very own. The archaic looking structure is monumental in proportion and is held up by a wonderful pulley system.

Differing from museum culture, Edwards wants you to be moved and touched, he beckons you to interact with his mythical friend...and really, you don't get a choice, for as soon as you open the gallery door the skeletal beast starts to dance with you. The wonderer within looks to the ceiling and observes that our little friend is in fact bound by pulley wires to the gallery door.

The use of the gallery space is extraordinary, you really do take note of the space you and the beast take up in the room, noting where at any given time the beast's limbs are likely to move. One uses not only their eyes to engage, but also their ears and heart as the creature clunks and sways like a wind-chime.

The work is also supported by a methodical series of likeness-based materials anthropologically sorted and housed in vitrines. Despite the industrial nature of the gathered and pickled matter, i.e. broken palm pilots and generic red velvet jewellery pouches; one is fooled into a corporeal reading with the talisman's appearing as revered mummified limbs due to their fleshy hues, forms and display. Probably my only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen more of these vessels - and spread out beyond their contained window display.

I hope to talk to Tom more about his intriguing body of work and hope to post some decent documentation of the work. I would like to talk more about Tom's wonderment for the potential and re-interpretation of the ordinary and intend on grilling him about his work over a coffee. If you can, go see this work:

'Paleo Anthropological Possibilities'
Tom Edwards
13 Feb - 24 Feb
Seventh Gallery
155 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

Ladies and Gentlemen...children of all ages!

(Publicity shots courtesy of the Women's Circus webpage - top two images from 2005 show 'Daddy')


"Damn everything but the circus."
------------------------------------Corita Kent

Yes, the rumours are true, I have officially became a carnie! I have been accepted into the Women's Circus's New Women's Program for 2007. Last night was my first training evening - it involved lots of daggy (yet essential) trust games as well initiating an awareness of my body and the bodies of others in space through various stretching and balancing exercises. It was beautiful to see the different range of body shapes and experiences coming together in a non-threatening and non-competitive environment.

Check out the Women's Circus Webpage:

http://www.womenscircus.org.au/

Licking Wounds and Mending Fences

(from top to bottom: 'Rachael loves L7', 'Bridge St Phoebe', Adam's Room')

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." -----------------------------------Anais Nin

An amazing Humanitarian/Artist/Cosmopolitan Trashbag friend of mine known as Sian Whalley, generously invited me to see 'Midsummer Nights Dream' at the Botanical Gardens - buying a half-price ticket in advance. Due to being tired and emotional, I did a terrible thing - missed my bus - n' stood her up, though I have offered to catch up soon to pay her for the ticket, I still feel awful.

Sian has asked me to do a commission image for her and I am offering this commission for free - as a token of friendship and to apologise n' suckup for not being my gregarious socialite, fun and dependable self that I normally am. Above are examples of some of my ink drawings from 2005 (haven't photographed recent work, which are compositionally stronger, and the mark-making is more refined but these give a general indication of the style/concept). Let me know when we can catch up and get this commission of the ground! xxx ooo

If any of you have been at all selfish lately and have neglected those you hold dear - take a time out from your own melodramas to catch up and remind yourself why you love your mates by giving them a call, a text, a hug, an email or a letter!

Artist Formerly Known As

Those of you following the work of Melbourne Artist 'Phoebe Ross'would be interested to known that she is know to be now known by the name 'Phebe Parisia'. I have made amendments to the 'Plastitration' post and encourage those reviewing the work to make the same amendments.

In other news Paul Compton's 'Drowning Boy' Animation is currently being screened in a loop of media arts flicks at the open-air screen at Federation square.

Apologies for the lack of posts at the moment - life stuff to sort out - will post more frequently soon!

Genius Digestives for Placating the Young and the Foolish!

This is insane!

Modernist/ Post-modernist Anxiety Certainly Lends itself to Psychotic and Cynical, yet Paradoxically Optimistic Formats

Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle Trailer is just a taster of his world that defies boundary. It is a delicious, horrific, post-modernist push n' pull. The colour harmonies and costuming are striking and is complemented by the frenzied, yet quiet pace of the Epic's choreography. If you ever get the opportunity to see this do or you may kick yourself - I have only got to see Cycle 3 and regret not seeing the cycle in its totality - Barney's sequence travels the globe - I just hope it is screened again in Australia!

If you enjoyed this trailer - visit the official site:
http://www.cremaster.net/


Just as intruiging/bizzare, yet more of a German Expressionist approach to surrealist theatre is Guy Maddin's 'Tales from the Gimli Hospital'.



If your head isn't quite done in by all artsy and airbrushed psychoasis, why don't you try watching David Lynch's 'Eraserhead', Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil', or 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', Quentin Tarantino's 'From Dusk till Dawn', Ray Lawrence's 'Bliss', or anything by Jan Svankmajer.

If this is all a bit too much perhaps you could try Tim Burton's 'Edward Scissorhands'

Or if you are not one for visual phantasmagoria but can stomach a literary format try reading any of Spike Milligan's war series, or Joseph Heller's 'Catch 22', or Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange'

Seeking a Rhinestone Cowboy: The Art of Andrew Atchison at Midsumma

(Image from Andrew Atchison's Space Cowboy's from 2006 - image courtesy of Seventh Gallery)

Andrew Atchison Exhibition Plug:

Urban lifestyles, violence and romance are central to both Andrew Atchison and Daniel Dorall's practises. The interaction of these works carry a sense of humour and sensitivity in the way they convey their subtexts.

-------------midsumma festival blurb for current show at State Library


Tue 23 Jan - Sun 11 Feb
City Library 253 Flinders Lane, Melb
hours: 8-8 Mon - Thurs, 8-6 Fri, 10-1 Sat

If you enjoyed this post - you may also enjoy viewing Willie Nelson's filmclip "Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other" on Erik's Truth and Beauty blog:
http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/2006/12/from-blue-dot-in-red-state.html

zzzpirate: a slight exposure

Recently I was asked by sex art/object blogger Anne Lolotte
(check her awesome blog: Annelolotte et ses sex toys http://softparis.typepad.com/ )
to be part of a blog chain - I was asked to jot down five things my readers might not know about me - so here it is:

1.

If I was a female wrestler I would call my self 'Calamity Pain'!

2.

Once when procrastinating I considered what object I would be
if I was an inanimate object - I concluded that I would be a
chandelier - for they possess a precarious film-noir quality,
they are ridiculously decadant and border on tacky!

3.

My staple beverage is Gin n' Tonic

4.

I was once photographed on a slippery dip with Australian
crass comedian Rodney Rude (I was a kid and he was
doing a charity event for my sister's school)

5.

I have a morbid fear I am going to be found dead wearing
tacky underpants (you know the type - faded, oversized
cottontails with frayed elastic that you only wear when your
down to your last pair of jocks!)

Tarty Tots - the sexualised child/woman/doll motif

Does anyone else find this eroticised child/woman/doll motif a bit disturbing? Snapshots I took of mannequins in a children's clothing store window. These mannequins sparked a personal investigation into the eroticised child/woman/doll motif - below is an annotated bibliography of some of my source material (note: the link to Stoney's article is obsolete now - but I think it has been published somewhere and you may be able to track it down! Also the Bourdin image which was part of a mosaic is no longer on the website - description sums it up though - many books published on Bourdin I am sure it is in atleast one of these).

I am Doll Parts: The Idealised Kinky Child/Woman/Doll Motif in the Still - An Annotated Bibliography.


Stoney, Elisabeth (2001, 7 October – last update), “Alice Does: The Erotic Child of
Photography” Available:
http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/screenscape/alice.htm
(Accessed: 2004, August 1)

“Alice Does: The Erotic Child of Photography” examines the photographic history of the desirable child nude by exploring the photographic works of Sally Mann and the Lewis Carroll. Under the title ‘family of Mann’, a word pun derived from the title of an Edward Steichen’s exhibit, Stoney describes Mann as an art photographer mutating the idea of the family ‘Kodak moment’ by using her own children’s exposed bodies as the subject of her sexually rich and formal compositions. By doing so, Mann’s intimate relation with her child playing out Mann’s ideas about her child’s sexual identity becomes the subject of public scrutiny. In these maternally idealised visions the sexual awareness of her young subjects appears adult and heightened, much more so than documentary snapshots of her playful little nudies. Stoney suggests that Carroll’s subjects are also playful ‘little adults’, contradicting the idealised notion of the time that a child is not functionally developed at an adult level. Carroll’s stills appear heavily staged and involved patriarchal eroticised role-play as a retaliation to the confusing changes to the age of sexual consent at the time.

Public retaliation over the subject of the ‘eroticised child’ focuses predominantly on the still image. Stoney suggests that in the still tensions about children’s sexual understanding and naivety are often left unresolved whereas on film the adolescent female, who is more overtly eroticised, finds her sexual identity in heavily resolved sex crime narratives.



Whamond, Ashley (2000-2004 – compiled), “SEEING BETTINA – analysis of a Jock Sturges photograph” Available:
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/fine-art/arttheoryessaywritingguide/bettina.html
(Accessed: 2004, August 9)

In “SEEING BETTINA – analysis of a Jock Sturges photograph” Waymond, highlights a Sturges quote (Ginsberg, A and Richey, J “The Right to Depict Children in the Nude”, Aperture, No.121, Fall 1990, 42-45) that justifies his heterosexual male gaze and portrayal of pre-pubescent girls; in his own words, “I aim for a subjective truth in my work – an understanding of who the individuals I photograph are as well as an aesthetically successful image that reveals my particular sensibilities…There is no harm in my work – just innocence. When innocence is judged obscene, the obscenity is in the eye of the beholder – is in the eye of the beholder.” Waymond agrees the possibility for any depictions of adolescent nudity to be eroticised in the eyes of the viewer can exist despite the context of its depiction, though context is the only way we can determine if it is right for these images to exist in the public domain. Sturges wants his images to be read as representing the ‘pure identity’ of his pre-adolescent models, Waymond argues the bare torso focal point with the girls private parts intensely on display, coupled with the contrapposto positioning of the figures are more iconic in depicting desire and female sexuality. Waymond also debunks Sturges ‘innocent’ argument by contrasting his detached gaze with the maternal eyes of Sally Man whose work is valid socio-culturally, as it arouses the viewer by expressing the instinctual and obsessive gaze of the concerned parent. Grabbing our attention through visually shocking imagery then relieving our concern with playful titles that indicate no harm has come to the child.



Thumbnail # 26 across from the left - date of creation unknown, Guy Bourdin Gallery (online image), Guy Bourdin (fashion photographer infamously known for his vogue work from the mid 1950’s until the mid 80’s). Available:
http://guybourdin.org/gallery/
(Accessed: 2004, July 15)

The composition appears to be a cross-section of a glamorous hotel room. A quilted dusty pink bedspread occupies two thirds of the image, underneath lies a plush hot pink carpet creating a monochromatic harmony with the quilt. A strong light source illuminates the silhouette of the mattress abstractly dividing the image into three horizontal bars of pink. This light leads your eyes slightly to the right of the central vertical axis to a baby-pink stuffed elephant peeping over the bed and down at to the lower half of an infantile doll-like body lying face down and dressed in seductive black thigh high stockings. These stockinged legs are coming out from under the bed and are spread like a pair of open scissors. The quilt crops the body at the waistline drawing attention to the figures exposed buttocks and is reminiscent of the sever-line in Barbie dolls that creates the twisting motion of their torsos. The forensic and grotesque severed doll aesthetic coupled with the delicious highly saturated colour appears to pay homage to the eroticised dada/surrealist dolls of Hans Bellmer. Guy Bourdin’s work, as a fashion photographer, is mass-produced and receives a high level of public exposure.



Stratton, Jon, (1996, Sept – last update), “Man-Made Women” – Extracted from his book ‘The Desirable Body: Cultural fetishism and the erotics of consumption’, Manchester University Press.
Available:
http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-Sept-1996/stratton.html
(Accessed: 2004, July 30)

Stratton is a Cultural Studies lecturer at Curtin University, this extract; “Man-Made Women” provides an insight into the use of the gynoidal aesthetic as an artistic substitute for the real female during the twentieth century; particularly after World War I, when technologies became more advanced and able to produce ‘life-like’ representations of female beauty. Stratton briefly investigates the Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka, the Dadaist Hans Bellmer and Surrealist Andre Masson to demonstrate how avant-garde movements created an idealised child/woman/doll icon. Sutton Links the three artists via the notion they all have repressed erotic desires to control and manipulate the actions of the female as well as her form. Unfortunately, Stratton does not discuss the class and racial attributes of the idealised child/woman/doll motif. He does however provide interesting examples of English and American pop lyrics that mention the longing for a child/woman/doll; such as the line “I’d rather have a paper doll to call my own rather than have a fickle-minded real live girl” from the song, Paper Doll, 1943, by the Mills brothers.

Armed with a Scab Hook: Utilising the Ubiquitous, the Found and the Freely Available

(Photos above are source photos for/from my 'Mapsway' Body of work made in 2005 - after writing about Julie Sheils blog in my last post I couldn't help but draw some parallels)

“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.”

------------------------------------Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Would love to post more source material from the street - if you have been inspired by the organic or the produced happenings around you please email me your pics! Would be an interesting visual dialogue. Below are pics from a 'Mapsway' installation. Would like to come back, review and work more on this body of work some time in the future. (Of course, I was rather obviously inspired by Kurt Schwitters mixed-media 'Merzbau' installation as well as the combines of Robert Rauschenburg)


"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order."

-----------------------------------Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Fire Walk with Me: Erik Kuykendall the Pyro-magus Extraordinaire

(photos courtesy of Truth & Beauty)


"Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. "

--------------------------------The Bible, James: ch. III, v. 5-6


Pwhaar! Gotta be impressed by a man who can control the elements! Some very magical and calligraphic pictures taken of Fire-artist Erik Kuykendall by his friend Selene.

check out more pics on his blog:

Truth and Beauty (Fire-related posts)
http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/search/label/Fire

Truth and Beauty (Home)
http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/

Weapons of Mass-Distraction: Installation work of Liz Walker

(Recent Installation work of contemporary Melbourne Artist Liz Walker.)

"My Current work has been inspired by the political climate both here and overseas. I am attempting to draw attention to the voice of determined minorities illegally expressing their fears and opinions through graffiti and political sloganism on walls, fences, and other unguarded surfaces of the inner city. I am concerned with the issues of censorship, sedition and the other ways our methods of communicating ideas are evolving and changing as technology overruns our lives"

------------------------Artist Statement (Liz Walker)

Liz Walker's Recent 'Weapons of Mass-Distraction' installation as part of 'Verisimilitude' show presented an army of stencilled canvas sandbags featuring individual posterised people wearing political T-shirts. This collective mass of sandbags was an extension of her previous work - a series of individual sloganed t-shirts, accompanied by documentational photographs and a survey as to why individuals chose to brand their body/identified with a particular shirt.

Walker's current body of work has been exhibited in First Site Gallery (Melbourne CBD) and Trocadero Art Space (Footscray) - placing street art in a fine-art context can often be puzzling and frivillous, even debasing of it's intent - but not in Walker's work - it places the public's passive aggressive and quietened desperation in a serious context - Walker means business! An up-yours to our current political state of hegemony.

These new/found media combines, I would argue are a contemporary of Dada works such as Duchamp's faux-signed 'Fountain', remembering that it was Dada's prime intent to voice an anti-war sentiment through disregarding, dismantling and pastiching bougeouis values/aesthetics of the period!

Liz Walker is about to commence a Masters by Coursework at RMIT majoring in Drawing.

If you enjoyed reading about this work you may enjoy this link to artist Julie Shiels work - for they draw some similar parallels.

Julie Shiels 'City Traces' Blog Link:
http://citytraces.julieshiels.com.au/

Orphan Ornaments: Artists Still Wanted!!!

Thanks to Art Moco for posting a little upcoming plug for Orphan Ornaments Artisan Bazaar's 'Chapter 1:Fractions' - the bazaar uses a converted warehouse as a shell to house installation/design/performance/music etc.

May have to push the late January date back a bit - is requiring a little more organisation than first thought.

All melbourne artists, writers, designers, craftsfolk, musicians, performers are encouraged to apply to be part of the action!

Art Moco - Modern Contemporary Design and Architecture is a happening hub well worth a look - I check out there feature artists weekly!
Link: http://mocoloco.com/art/

email me for more info about 'Orphan Ornaments Artisan Bazaar': zzzpirate@gmail.com

I want Bettie Page under my christmas tree this year!

All I want for x'mas this year is Bettie Page preferably draped in strategically placed tinsel and a good bottle of red oh and some good tunes oh and maybe some marscapone figs thrown in for good measure! (oh actually make that a bottle of white...will go better with the figs!)

Hounds, Headstones n' Hearts

Continuing a focus on bones, the above images are of my costume which I constructed for a collaborative piece titled 'Hounds, Headstones n' Hearts' which was performed at 'Spin-cycle 2' (which was part of Fringe/High Vibes festival in 2005). 'Headstones, Hounds n' Hearts' was put together by Artist Ellen Benson, Artist Paul Compton (See post on 'Dead Dog Project') and Artist Kimberly Moukas. The performance was also accompanied by an exhibition of hand-crafted mongrel momenta-mori accessories including Paul's 'My Heart as a Pin Cushion' brooches, Kim's 'Remember-Me Relics' brooches and my 'Heads or Tails' cufflinks.

Artist Statement:

"Destructive, resisting and transformative responses to the grieving process using universal and personal symbolism and imagery - Based around a mythical narrative of a Dearly Deceased Dog"

The eclectic piece was kind of a 3 part Kabuki/Cabaret. My character was 'Chaos', a Kali like death bringer, with birth/life/death connotations. A Shaman-like dance piece influenced by Japanese, Middle-eastern veil-work and contemporary movement. The costume was constucted of a found and altered dress - utilising chicken bones (left from a friends stock -they stunk - particularly to me - as I don't eat meat, luckily the dye killed the pong!), dye, ink, sealing wax, beads, chiffon.

Singing Over the Bones - Pics from Sedlec Ossuary

When someone you hold dear goes overseas you know what you do - you harrass them to go to where YOU want to visit - and demand they take lots of photos - which is exactly what Ben Hutchison did for me! He braved a long, long train ride to the Sedlec Ossuary just to take some photos for me! Thanks Hutcho! Edited and posted your images for you in return. xxx
(unfortunately due to poor lighting - and these being stills from a video cam - they are pretty grainy...I did my best!) Best to view as is - enlarged view is embarrassing!

Sedlec Ossuary is a Christian Chapel embellished (Baroque style) by 40,000 sets of human bones. Sedlec, is a suburb in the outskirts of the Czech town Kutna Hora.

To read about/view more images from Sedlec Ossuary check out this link:

http://www.ludd.luth.se/~silver_p/kutna.html

Surrealist Film-maker Jan Svankmajer - made a short film of the Ossuary see a quicktime excerpt of the video here:

http://www.awn.com/heaven_and_hell/svank/svank9.htm

Plastic-sealed for your Protection?... Phebe Parisia: Plastritration: 'Synthetic Desire Machines'

MACHINE DESIRE
OBJECT DESIRE
BODY DESIRE
[DESIRE DESIRE]

DESIRE MACHINE
OBJECT MACHINE
BODY MACHINE
[MACHINE MACHINE]

DESIRE OBJECT
MACHINE OBJECT
BODY OBJECT
[OBJECT OBJECT]

DESIRE BODY
MACHINE BODY
OBJECT BODY
[BODY BODY]

-----------------------------Phoebe Ross, Artist Statement

“Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace... but we would be hollow... Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we'd be truly dead.”

---------------------------------------------------Joss Whedon

Phebe Parisia's (Formerly known as Phoebe Ross) neon perspex panels provoke a thumping, panging, longing response; this response is desire. Desire, a puncturing response, is a feeling at the fore as Parisia physically penetrates perspex panels by etching intimate depictions of herself in a moment of ecstacy using the permanancy of a tattoo gun. This private ecstacy come public, becomes a form of knowing for the voyeur through a process of wantful self-association. We want to know the artist and she appears to invite us in through her exhibitionism. We then ask is Parisia teasing or protecting us as she snatches this intimacy from our grasp via a preservative/prohibitive layer of plastic packaging? This barrier, like a medical vitrine or a layer of protective film over a photo, painfully reminds us this is a mere simulation of a moment captured, we are but distant vouyers speculating the artist's engagement.

Parisia positions barbie pink with toxic yellow to formulate a captivating colour play that is only a slight deviation from McDonalds convient red n' yella branding, it screams 'get in, then get out!' Red and yellow are also danger colours in nature, what danger could Parisia possibly be alarming us to? Parisia could be seen to be glossing over a detailed storyline in these panels, yet, the very act of tattooing her own 'Little Deaths' is a conviction as each one reads a fleeting rite of passage. Much like Paul Compton's 'Dead Dog Project', Ross playfully renders our human quest to immortalise moments past. The panels eat at us just as a tattoo of a former lover's name would.

Parisia beautifully juxtaposes the personal with the public, these binaries at odds yet co-existing make for an intruiging frottage in individual and as a collective of panels. Parisia, like myself has learned how to use the ubiquitous smoke and mirror tools of pop consumerist design to lull the audience in with a false sense of security as any successful advertising does. However, her work, like much contemporary fine-art, is highly critical of the very systems it seems dependant on. This paradox becomes epidemic for the voyeur, the work stains you. One is left wondering, does she give us the juicy bits or are we to formulate them? Why does she reveal only her face, is it her face that contains the vital information? Or is she toying with us? Does she want us, as voyeur, to play with her, to fill in the gaps so to speak? Or does she want for us to depart from a predictable narrative? Or perhaps Parisia just wants to drive us mad with desire by leaving the popular information out?

Phoebe Ross's 'Plastitration' was part of this years 'RMIT Siemens Prize' exhibition, her work was also part of 'Verisimilitude' at Jackman Gallery and is rumoured to be going to 'PICCA' in Perth.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy this link to a music video clip made up of headshots courtesy of Beautiful Agony, Thanks for this link Erik!:

http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/2006/12/morning-music_07.html

Global Cunnilingus - Corpus Couture gets a lick!

'Fore-lock-lan' Pulainie Punani Pins'

My work 'Corpus Couture - Hounen Pudendum' has finally got tongues wagging - some are sexy foreign ones!

'Anne Lolotte et ses sextoys' drew attention to my current obsessive iconography.
Link: http://softparis.typepad.com/annelolotte/2006/10/exhib_provoc_ou.html#comments
(if anyone wants to translate this to me over a coffee - let me know! She has currated a blog of really interesting range of sexart imagery - wish I could read French!)

Patratelu Rosu's blog 'Addressing your left brain' also posted a link:
http://www.patratelurosu.ro/2006/10/09/genital-art/

Also, Just edited the photographs from the verisimilitude show + added some more. I just downloaded Google's 'Picasa 2' a fantastic program - which makes storing/editing images for web a breeze! (much quicker than using photoshop - brightens images without losing colour saturation!)
Picasa Link:
http://picasa.google.com/#utm_source=en-us-more&utm_campaign=en-pic&utm_medium=et

Re-visit 'Corpus Couture - Verisimilitude Show Post to see updated images:
http://sleepingpirate.blogspot.com/2006/12/corpus-couture-at-verisimilitude-show.html

or see all posts relevant to 'Corpus Couture' body of work by clicking link below:
http://sleepingpirate.blogspot.com/search/label/corpus%20couture

Secret Squirrel

You have to check out the blog 'Post Secret': http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
people air their dirty laundry in the creative form of a postcard....check it out! wonder if it will reach the cult status of zines like 'Found' or 'Vice'? Thanks whitey for this one! whitey also has his own shock-jockey blog called 'The Great White Hype': http://thegwh.blogspot.com/

Dedicating this post to Australian Contemporary Artist Adam Honeyman as I think he will like this one. Adam Honeyman's show 'Collected Works' at Seventh Gallery back in July was killer!
Adam, I Hope you don't get killed by poachers or molested by a Gibbon - Paul Compton has kept me posted on your travels!

This was his artist statement:
Exploring the concept of memory and the role it plays in shaping an individual’s identity, Collected Works; Looking back in retrospect 1982-2006, presents an often humorous, sometimes disturbing, alternative to the autobiography.

I am wondering when I am going to have such a significant impact on Adam that I make one of his memoir Letraset on Tile pieces (I think inventing a twist on guesswho rules - 'obscure guesswho' is of note - the idea is to ask obscure questions like: 'Is your person a potential member of the IRA? Adam, please inform your beloved Kirsty I agree with her, we're soulmates, for she guessed my person!). Oh and Adam would love it if I mentioned that YBA artist Tracey Emin owns some of his work.

Orphan Ornaments Artisan Bazaar opportunity/call for Artists

Installation segment of Bec Delange

Installation segment 'Domestic Fractions' by Ellen Benson

Thank you to the people who have so far to my call for artists, musicians, writers, performers, designers etc.

Confirmed so far are:

Bec Delange (Installation)
Tamara Tamowicz (Installation)
Paul Compton (Zine Launch)
Sian Whalley (Singing/Jewellery/Burlesque?)
Lisa Frankland (Installation)
Ellen Benson (Installation/Drag King Debut 'Roland Smokes'/maybe Burlesque)

Have only just put the call out - so there is plenty of space left at this stage! would be really keen for some spoken word performances n' some craft/design goods...contact me a.s.a.p for more information. Run your idea by me via email and I promise to get back to you a.s.a.p.Will be a huuuuuuuuuge event am planning to start around midday n' run through till about 10pm on Sunday, January 21, 2007

Won't dob in the people who are pencilled in just yet - really exciting line up though! I am going to photography talent Tasha Hassapis's b'day bash this weekend (am hoping to convince her to set up one of her photo-booths) and am planning to whore the idea to her n' her bohemian crew so expect news of more recruits.

For international artists wanting to be involved - I can except DVD pieces, Audio CD's of spoken word/soundscapes/music, craft, zines, books etc. will need to arrange with me soon though.

<3 and Hardship!

email: zzzpirate@gmail.com

Candids...a selfish in-joke of a post!

An intimate moment I caught in the RMIT Drawing storage area

Sian contemplates the idea of marriage and I share her sentiment!

Dave (veil) must be listening to another retelling of one of my trashbag adventures!

must have been telling Irit (veil) the same story!

Whoever said I had a drinking problem didn't see how easily they slid down!

Cow-Pat (Rogue Blood is in our veins - me a pirate, me bro a cowboy)!

Modern art makes me n' Hutcho want to rock out!

Now yoooooooou lizzzzzzzzzzen to me awrigh?

Don't even ask me what I vowed to do for Paul and Emma in exchange for their services in homebrew bottling!

Chapter 1: 'Fractions'

"Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions"

-----------------------------------------------------------Charles Dickens


Yes, I am finally getting 'Orphan Ornament Artisan Bazaar' off the ground! Orphan Ornament Artisan Bazaar utilises a warehouse as a collective shell to house eclectic works by artists, craftspersons, writers, designers, musicians, performers etc. These works are intended to be relatively site-specific as to buzz and bounce off other artworks/energy. The first chapter of Orphan Ornament Artisan Bazaar is titled 'Fractions', If you want to get involved email me at zzzpirate@gmail.com for more information.

To get the ball rolling I have began installing the first 'Fraction' titled 'Domestic Fractions' which is constructed of the found n' dusty staircase, plastic doily material, masking tape, talc and a dust mask (see developing images above). If you want to come and check out the space n' claim some territory let me know a.s.a.p as am planning to have the opening in mid-January. We have massive floor-space for performers (including a stage - accoustic or small amp only sorry as have to be mindful of residents!) We have features including an antique firesprinkler system, three stairwells, a dank cellar n' more.

Our object housing (see pics below) needs two more shelves containing the box rows. These two shelves will be on the adjacent blank wall next to the ladder... and we also plan to get a bean bag for the floor - oh and yes, I gave Letraset another chance!:


Check out the empty shell that is our 'Orphan Ornament Artisan Bazaar' Blog:
http://orphanornaments.blogspot.com/

(we promise to give the blog a facelift as soon as me and Paul settle on suitable aesthetic branding - those of you who know us will be aware of our individual perfectionist tendencies let alone our colloborative perfectionism!)

'Corpus Couture' at Verisimilitude Show

(Images of my 'Corpus Couture - Hounen Pudendum' installations for 'Verisimilitude' RMIT Drawing Graduate/Honours Exhibition on at Jackman Gallery)


‘Corpus Couture - Hounen Pudendum’ playfully fashions genitalia as wearable adornment. The intimate ‘pubic’ becomes ’public’ spectacle to scrutinise proposed physical and metaphoric boundaries of the body in relation to dress, visual culture and physical space. My idea of the body is the imagined, the metaphoric, the other, the disciplined, the transgressive, the expected body manifesting and mutating as worn physical accessory. My awareness also extends to how the individual wearer transforms the bodily adornments and plays a part in a much larger body, ‘the Communal Body’.

contact me for a catalogue of the show - $10.00

email: zzzpirate@gmail.com

Hey Hey Ho Ho Howards IR Laws Got to Go!

My inner pinko couldn't resist posting some pics I snapped at the Fill the 'G' rally today, which started with entertainment/speeches at the MCG and marched all the way down to Flinders St in the CBD. Hope you were all there. Unfortunately we didn't fill the MCG to its capacity - I suspect this is because three of the major train lines were down (funny enough these train lines Cranbourne, Frankston, Dandenong are all working class regions...hmmm can I smell a conspiracy?)Also, many workers were sent out threatening letters by employers prohibiting them to attend the rally, many workers could not afford to jeopardise their employment.

For more info see: the ACTU your rights at work webpage.

Link: http://www.rightsatwork.com.au/thefacts/

Pluggin' Away at a Slow and Calculated Pace

'Lilac Wine-lip' poulainie-punani pins, yet to be resolved by glueing in hand-filed/fired Sterling Silver pins - probably the last time I will use new silver in my work - found out there is twenty tonnes of toxic bi-product for an amount of silver to make an average ring....sheesk! google ethical metalsmithing for more info.

Managed to squirrel myself away to work for a couple a hours in my studio (actually truth be known I worked in my loungeroom - still haven't got the studio up to scratch - need to buy lighting - feels like a big, dank cave in there - and I isolate myself enough when I hermit away to work).

Confession to make, I was being overambitious and delusional when I implied a couple a hours labour would resolve my work for the show next Tues...and please don't point out that I am procrastinating by writing this post, I am painfully aware of this...I promise to work when I get off this vapid, yet alluring piece of technology that is my laptop.

Stooooopid me, never one to take the rational approach, thought, I won't just tighten pieces I have already constucted over the year, I will challenge myself to pull a whole new series outa my arse(Warning: inspiration is a dangerous thing...and should only be taken in miniscule amounts)! Thinking, my concept is well thought out, surely it won't take long to produce, I started some new work. How wrong I was! Letraset has become the bane of my existence! It is impossible stuff!



‘In Heat…Blowing one’s Hungry Horn’, pictured above is my latest progression, wearable scarves constructed of electric cable, condoms, Letraset, found lace/yoghurt cup/plastic.

I know you are thinking why? huh? What is the segue?

Ok.....deep breath....another confession, I hoard stuff...lots of stuff, and I feel much guilt about it. Always, in the back of my mind was my ever expanding collection of empty yoghurt containers, like rabbits, they just kept breeding, and soon I wouldn't have a kitchen bench to utilise! I Thought, I gotta do something about this n' quick...then...as if by magic, I was having a naughty conversation with a chum about sneaking one away - then the phrase 'Like a yoghurt truck hittin' a brick wall' was used - HERE WAS THE TRIGGER I HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR! I began logging more and more colloquial terms linking intimacy with food. As such slang is generally verbalised, I needed a dialogue symbol that best implied speech... I was fortunate enought to force a childhood flashback to a time where I strung ole' cups n' tins together with string to make a phone - and the rest is history!

ok, better go make more work!

Cheerio.

Perpetuating the Myth: Corpus Couture Publicity

Much gratitude to Vasili K. (contributer to 'Sex and Blogs') and Erik Kuykendall (Author of 'Truth and Beauty)for plugging my current body of work!

Links below:
Truth & Beauty/International Artist/The Sleeping Pirate Speil (much laughs were had at the comments left *blush*)
http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/2006/10/international-artist.html

Sex n' Blogs/Flavour/Fashion/Feature Image and link to'Corpus Couture post'
http://www.sexblo.gs/archives/004204.php

Several people have emailed/phoned me to ask when I will be showing this work and how it is coming along - and depending on when they ask they have all got different answers :)

Upcoming Show:

'Verisimilitude'
RMIT Drawing Graduate Show

Opening: 5 Dec, 6:30 pm
Jackman Gallery
60 Inkerman St, St Kilda

have also put in proposals for Solo shows at 'Seventh' and 'First Site' Galleries - have to wait and see what happens....

Hoping to get around to putting work into 'The Linden Postcard Show' and 'Women's Salon' also.

As yet, I haven't taken any photo's of the resolved installation - will do so over the next week - but you can see some pics of my work in the process of being set up in my RMIT studio. Fish tanks contain 'Pulled aaaaaaah mussell' necklaces (fimo, found mussell shells, encaustic, cotton). Later, blue/pink (boy/girl) frosted sheets of plastic and flurescent lighting was placed behind the glass tanks suggesting the smoke n' mirrors used by the cosmetic industy to make produce look more enticing/delicious.

The floor works are called 'Take-out Box' (paper punani party hats, phosphorus paint, tissue paper, asian takeout box, text) text on individual take-out boxes uses aliteration to emphasis/connect women's first names with food related terms for women's genitalia e.g. Beverly Bearded-clam. Party string in neon colours was a metaphoric reference added at a later stage - several connections here - the unmentionable and the sublime obvious, on-this-note am also referencing the use of woman's bodies in Japan as human platters, also parodying the vain attempt to eat gushing take-out noodles in a civil manner and the plastic aesthetic of the party string is hinting at my bewildered response to excess packaging of convenient consumer goods.........but I am saying way too much! I am sure u are all capable of bringing your own baggage/subjective visual vocab to the work!

If anyone knows any male references to yoghurt and Giz would be grateful if you could post them in the comments box - after sitting on a tram behind some school kids I heard about 3! have collected about 10 all up! why on earth am I collecting this information? You will just have to come to the Grad show to find out (that is if I can bring the work to fruition in time...fingers crossed xxx!)

If you would like me to email you a copy of my full proposal please email me:
zzzpirate@gmail.com

(note- a proposal is a 'WORKING' document and as such, it is subject to constant scrutiny, modification etc.)

Dead Dog Walking - Paul Compton's Dead Dog Project

Do not pass by my epitaph, traveler.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
No caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
Have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
Lest even while dead I seem loquacious to you.

---------- Epitaph found on a roman tombstone












Melbourne-based contemporary artist Paul Compton has taxidermined and sculpted colourful puppy plushies as a performative memento mori. 'Dead Dog Project' is a Zen-like contemplation of Death. At once God-like and innocent, Paul's physical manifestations of death are a kind of personal wondering, sensing and toying the idea of Death and its associated motifs. Compton's installations at First Site, Synergy Gallery and in his studio presented well observed dip-pen studies of puppy stills floated in murky, mute inkwash voids paradoxically next to celebratory hand-crafted/altered and colourful mutt milagros.

'Dead Dog Project' reminds us it is precarious, yet universally human to attempt resurrection through preservative practise, stressed particularly in Paul's animation 'Let Sleeping Dogs Lie'. This animation will hopefully be screened as a youtube video on this blog sometime in the future - I am currently awaiting the artist's permission to do so. An offshoot of this project is currently underdevelopment, one of Compton's experimental animations will be screened this Thursday at RMIT Capital Theatre.

If the conceptual basis of Paul Compton's 'Dead Dog Project' is of interest to you, the links below may also interest you.

Paul Compton interview with Triple J's Jennifer Hopper:
http://www.theprogram.net.au/featuresSub.asp?id=3563&state=3

Wallace and Gromit: An Animating Love (essay author unknown)
http://www.militantesthetix.co.uk/opticsyn/wallace&gromit.htm/

For more info contact Paul Compton via email: s3016500@student.rmit.edu.au

Some Burlesque Fun!

Burgundy Brixx in Take It Off!


Storyville Starlettes


The Pinup Girls


fire tassels - red sarah


Fat Bottom Girls pillow fight

Forbidden Fruit: Dildo Law in Texas

yes, my obsession with genital appendages continues into a further posting!



An excerpt from 'The Dildo Diaries' which can be bought on DVD at: http://www.dildodiaries.net/ The RoadTrip Productions DVD is Produced and Directed by Laura Barton and Judy Wilder. Showcasing outlandish characters such as Molly Ivins, Carol Queen, Anton Michael, Annie Sprinkle and introducing as 'the ignorant, honkie bad-guys', the members of the State of Texas Legislature.

The Dildo Diaries, edit

Dildo/Sodomy Law in Texas

Thankyou so much to buckineer, Erik Kuykendall, for this one! Erik is a very nordic looking seaman living outa sorts in Austin, Texas. May he be soon a swimmin in mapple leaves as his heart so desires, in the meantime, stop wasting your time in this cesspool of a blog and go visit Erik's 'Truth & Beauty' Blog at: http://search4beauty.blogspot.com/index.html - IT IS AN ABSOLUTE GEM!

In honour of startin new mateships and discovering new waters (Erik's Blog), ere is an off-the-topa-me-noggin-taboggin, totally spontaneous and easily challenged Top 5 list of Truth and Beauty Masterpieces:

#5.

Sam Mendes directed,'American Beauty',written by Alan Ball and Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch and Wes Bentley, Dreamworks, 1999

#4.

The Anatomical Drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

#3.

'Romantisicm' as an Art Movement

#2.

Surrealist Jean Cocteau directed 'La Belle et la Bete' (Beauty and The Beast), starring Jean Marais and Josette Day, U.S. Theatrical Re-release, 1946

#1.

Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', first published in 1891

Corpus Couture - Hounen Pudendum

'Corpus Couture - Hounen Pudendum’ playfully fashions genitalia as wearable adornment. The intimate ‘pubic’ becomes ’public’ spectacle to scrutinise proposed physical and metaphoric boundaries of the body in relation to dress, visual culture and physical space.

My idea of the body is the imagined, the metaphoric, the other, the disciplined, the transgressive, the expected body manifesting and mutating as worn physical accessory. My awareness also extends to how the individual wearer transforms the bodily adornments and plays a part in a much larger body, ‘the Communal Body’.



This body of work addresses the precarious nature of defining a concrete boundary for the body. I am highlighting how the viewing of artificial appendages, such as clothing as purely supplementary is problematic. The supplement, though not obligatory, is essential in addressing the body as a complete composite.



‘Corpus Couture’ is a body of work made up of individually crafted adornment pieces. Adornment is tactile, wearable as well as visually intoxicating, not only serving to create a contemplative relationship between the art object and its’ possessor, but also a physical one. ‘Corpus Couture’ adornments precariously juxtapose ‘heavily loaded’ motifs to intellectually penetrate their possessors.



The danger and allure of the ‘Corpus Couture’ adornments lie mostly in the marital system of their consumption:


Step 1 Window-shopping in the object of desires house (pursuit/hunt)
Step 2 Discovering the object of desire (meeting eyes across the room)
Step 3 Flirtatious contemplation of the object of desire (courting/calculating)
Step 4 Exchanging goods as to possess the object of desire (dowry payment)
Step 5 Possession of the object of desire (ownership/control)



The owner of an art adornment piece is arguably more involved with and accountable for their possessed artwork, than say an owner of a painting. When worn, the owner physically occupies space with the artwork; it becomes a part of their physical identity, part of their complete body presentation.



The adornment pieces are made and presented in limited editions. This allows an intimate reading whilst still alluding to ideas about consumption/desire and mass-production.




‘Hounen Pudendum - Part iii’

Folded, formed, scrunched, glued, stitched and illuminated new and found materials form the male and female cod-pieces that make up ‘Hounen Pudendum‘. Consciously, I aim to reduce my dependence on heading straight for prescribed art store-bought materials in my work, due to personal reservations about environmental impact/convenience/mass-production/art hegemony etc. Found objects are attractive, both for their narrative history as well as their temporal/weathered Zen-like quality. ‘Hounen Pudendum’ cod-pieces are difficult to place, appearing as both refined art-object and as crass novelty-item. Brutally manipulated recycled tea-bag papers make up delicate forms echoing the light-weight and transparent nature of Japanese rice paper as well as the enamel staining of Zen ceramics.



The paradoxical nature of teabag paper, is also inline with Zen, despite its humble, domestic appearance and application, teabag paper is constructed from abaca hemp, known to be the toughest of papermaking fibres. The domestic nature of using teabag paper to construct the male/female genital sheathes is also heightened by macramé knotting over wire armatures using new and found DMC cotton, synonymous with ‘lesser‘ female dominated textile arts. These genitals as formal outer-garments are further displaced when illuminated using club culture glow-sticks, appearing at once numinous and fetishistic. The body parts as clothing acts as both a separate supplement when viewed individually and part of a whole body composite when attached using a dress tie belt, a dress tie being neutral as both a contemporary male/female accessory.

Illuminated cod-pieces were made specifically for the loosely choreographed 'peek-a-boo' performance as part of 'Spincycle 3'(High Vibes Festival, Northcote), an eclectic fashion parade co-ordinated by the innovative melbourne artist/designer, Jo Porter. Performers included Kim Moukas, Mariam Jenehy, Grace Wong along with the artist initiator, Ellen Benson. In retrospect, the choreography could have been slicker and the lighting folk need a heads up to dim the lights!







"A part of this strangeness of dress is that it links the biological body to the social being, and public to the private."

- Elizabeth Wilson


"Our clothes are too much a part of us for most of us ever to be entirely indifferent to their condition: it is as though the fabric were indeed a natural extension of the body, or even of the soul"

-Quentin Bell (1910-1996)



"The art of procreation and the members employed therein are so repulsive that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, nature would lose the human species."

- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)





Artist: Ellen Benson
email: ellen_b80@yahoo.com.au

Please contact the artist for permission to reproduce images/exhibiting information.

Please feel free to leave a responding comment for the artist about the work.

waters (niche) tooo small?

bein parted from land for so long that me tinkin may be a weeee bit clouded in terms of the narrow objectives of this blog. Have hesitated wid me postin for a bit to take some time to sail into other blogging ports. Thinkin I be procrastinatin a little too much trying to come up with some fancy pants agenda. Me tinks that I should save some of my pirate talk for international talk like a pirate day which is comin up next Tuesday!

Avin said this I do have to mention a must buy CD for sealovers that I ave been gettin in to of late titled 'Rogue's Gallery - Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanties' current favourites off the album include Nick Cave's 'Fire Down Below' (a term used to describe suffering from a VD), Bryan Ferry with Antony's beautiful harmonies 'Lowlands Low' (lowlands an old-timey word for the netherlands), Sting's version of the sea-ditty 'Blood Red Roses', John C. Reilly singing a good ole' song about gettin plonked 'Fathom the Bowl'.......oh and I do have sooo many more favourites...this may seem like an overkill of a listing BUT THERE ARE 43 TRACKS ON THE ALBUM!

My last enty musta sounded like a scratch on a record - perhaps I was a little hard on art folk? I think for the most part creative folk have good intention! However I still think it is essential for artisans to be conscientious of the history of the materials they intend using aswell as being mindful of materials suitable to their concept!

From here on in - this blog will feature less ranting and more culture spruking! beginning with a little shameless self promotion (my next entry will selfishly house my current investigation/body of work titled 'Corpus Couture - Hounen Pudendum' in lamen's terms 'the individualised body - rich harvest of collective human genitalia')

<3 and Hard ship

btw. I insist that u go see Hedwig and the Angry Inch in Musical format currently touring Aus Starring Iotta as Hedwig....it is a must - I have a confession to make here...usually I refrain from partaking in Logo/branding culture....but....I became a merch-whore after seeing Hedwig! I bought a Program, a Button and a Coffee Mug......oh the shame of it...yet I feel so whole some how :)

artist's sustain an individual idea/need? designer's sustain a communal need?

now ya bunch a spine-less sea monkeys....i have a task for ya (dose a u not suffering from scurvy that is) a little brainstorming exerise!

jot down as many words as you can associate wid da word 'fine-art'
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....................(insert wheel of fortune music here).............
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Stop ya groanin already! and get on wid it, there is a point to this!
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now how many of you came up with words like:
'painting, 'sculpture', 'life-drawing', 'beauty', 'artist', 'representational', 'abstract', 'gallery','quest', 'expression', 'subjective' etc.

pat ya self on de back for all your labour and we will move on...

now jot down as many words as you can associate wid da word 'design'

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did you come out wid words like:
'graphic', 'concept', 'idea','patent', 'manufacture','trend', 'invention', 'mass-produce', 'improve', 'fashion', 'drafting', 'copyright', 'graph-paper', 'CAD' etc.

now, I will be very grateful if some of ya drones came up wid de word 'sustainability' as it will prove a point of mine later on!

De Fine-artist often brings to mind a heroic image of a moody individual locking demself in a confined space passionately throwing da paint at da blank canvas by candle-light. One brave enough to forgo lavish comforts such as bread and water to make sense of the world by becoming a magus who transforms mundane minerals into a landscape of wonder.

De Designer, as an archetype is sadly, not nearly as romantic! Even dough He/She gets ta add an extra vowel to their name n' gets to wear novelty ties or carry a trendy lap-top bag sporting a big f*@# off mac logo . Most t'ink of de designer as a repressed artist working for a large conglomerate with a fat-cat boss who never listens to them, responding by passive aggressively writin' but never publishin' angsty comic strips where dey change dere work collegues into domestic animals!

I would like to attempt to rectify dese stereotypes!

'Fine-artist's', have a big 'dark' secret. Largely, we are incredibly self-indulgent creatures dat make a lot of mistakes! we don't want ya to see how much money we waste on luxurious materials (why we are poor!) and we t'ink cadmium as a paint name sounds dreamy! we don't like it when buckineers point out dat cadmium is a crudely mined mineral dat is bad for our health- we like making art dat appears witty and personal because we don't like to fink about larger problems such as the environment! Fine-art, is for most, not an altruistic path! What is altruistic about the microcosm's of neurosis in which we create dat hide or emphasise our undiagnosed anxiety issues!

When not ummin' and arrrrin' bout makin' work we spend our time drinking copious amounts a moonshine at galleries attempting to look informed - but cooooooly interested (as tall-poppy syndrome is rife in the arts). We enjoy dat we look awkward as it fits with de aesthetic plugged by YBA (being post-colonial and all - oh by the way -I am focusing on Australian waters 'ere!) I would also like to point out dat much of our arts education is now directed at PROFFESSIONAL ARTS PRACTISE which arms us with resources of how we can attempt to MAKE it by learnin' de lingo of the COMMERCIAL gallery world. Great, so large conglomerates or yuppy private collecters can house your secret neurosis on de wall (or more likely in storage waiting for ye to die! as to make a bigger profit!)

..........i t'ink dese observations may see me walkin' de plank................
bah..........i just exposin' de green bones of de art world.........................

Independant Designers, however, appear to be doin very altrusitic t'ings wid dere time! and more and more design magazines and big companies are impressed wid dese clever kiddies are now concentrating on de concept of 'sustainability' (for dose a you fine-artists out dere scratchin ya heads, pretendin' to know what I am talkin' about, 'sustainability' is all about being mindful about our impacts on the environment and creating/modifying structures to minimise dis impact!)

now I wanna point out that it seems dat Education Systems are largely to blame for the pitfalls of 'fine-artists'. Too much focusing on perpetuating an idea in the form of a proposal (blah...blah justification of a self-indulgent idea!) Encouraging artists to be 'individual' and 'articulate' seems only to perpetuate this head-in-de-sand attitude! Fine-artists in training are told to find their own calling, find your own way of using materials - we are not held accountable for our choice of material!

In design training, ironically, dere is more focus on ethics and de environment and because design is about bringing a concept into material fruition for a purpose - materials are painstakingly considered!

Thankfully, many artisans don't consider themselves individual designers or artists anymore - we collaborate more and are opting more towards artist-run spaces, public art and hand-made shops as opposed to being interested in becoming professional whores for commercial galleries - lets hope our Education Providers can catch up wid us!

<3> and 'ardship


zzzpirate....

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oh aurghh! I guess I can utilise some of my treaured REM travel'n to disclose a glossary definin' de terminology of said title 'Nonchalant Natter of the Sleeping Pirate'.

to be nonchalant is to be seamen-ly a cold-fish or in fancy-folk terms is one who gives de appearance of being apathetic or indifferent, one who wants you to believe they couldn't give a sea-dookie. Dose a you out dere who do a lot a tradin' may have in your travels came across a human specimen known as an 'emo' who epitomises said behaviour. 'Emo's' spend exhausting amounts of dere time practising to be featureless human statues. You can distinguish an 'emo' from a mime by dere asymmetrical hairdo's dat deceptively make em appear as if dere appearance is effortless (warning don't be fooled!- 'emo' hairstyles are often doned by de extremely narcissistic who put alot of effort and expense into assimillating via a coded and identifying dress ethic) and unlike mimes they occassionally will utter words such as 'like', 'yeah' and 'care' as in dey don't.

now dose a you wiv a grannie will instantaneously roll ya eyes when i utter t'e word natter, for no doubt you'd a just about walked the length for commitin' this crime - to natter is to chitter-chatter, to babble, to dribble. Often natter (when remotely interesting) is malicious and unfounded; (when not) it is irrelevant, monotenous or just plain incoherant communication.

sleeping, seemingly straight foward is used 'ere not to describe mere shut-eye, but is used to emphasise something that lies dormant, lies deep, repressed n' seething under the surface, if you like.

pirate tanks to dat handsome Depp fella many of you will be vaguely familiar with this aforementioned archetype. To clarify where I am comin' from I will contextualise it for ya. A fool, a rebel or outsider who either actively choses to ignore or helplessly can't abide by civil codes and conventions. One who challenges the confines of mainstream thought, ownership and ideology.


I hope that has clarified the title of this blog, setting the scene for this a space of unashamedely subjective airing of my head-dribble and the head-dribbles of friends and followers who find their way to this vapid blog. Please feel free to comment on the concept behind 'Nonchalant natter of the sleeping pirate' and make it an alternative community not-whole-heartedly (in the spirit of so called pc 'post-modernism') challenging the confines of mainstream thought, ownership and ideology.

<3>