tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205986562024-03-14T08:07:42.414+08:00The Ex ExpatThe thoughts of an expat who has come home.Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.comBlogger945125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-84989135461976844322020-06-13T12:21:00.000+08:002020-07-15T07:43:22.791+08:00A Shout Out to Save the Children About Their Age Discrimination<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><b>Countin' flowers
on the wall</b></i></div>
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<i><b>That don't bother
me at all</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Playin' solitaire
till dawn with a deck of fifty-one</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Smokin' cigarettes
and watchin' Captain Kangaroo</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Now don't tell me
I've nothin' to do</b></i></div>
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On the second of June just past, I celebrated reaching threescore and ten. And to misquote the throw-away line from Woody Allen's 1988 movie
Another Woman, "The one good thing about becoming 70 is you don't have to do it
again." For at this age, my doctorate in Risk and Reward management is
secure. To just have survived a biblical lifetime, conclusively demonstrates I
have a wealth of experience handling these two larrikins.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The day after reaching this milestone the management of the
Save the Children Op Shops told me I could no longer volunteer at their Morley
shop. I was banned entry as a worker to the store at which I had been a shift
supervisor four days a week for the last two years. Management said it was for
my own safety. </div>
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Due to the fact that people over the age of 70 were liable
to have a complicated reaction to the COVID 19 virus, Save the Children had
decided to cull their volunteers aged 70 and over. It was an edict proclaimed
by the organization's 'Head Office' without any consultation with those it
affected. And because of a loophole in The Age Discrimination Act of 2004, The Australian
Human Rights Commission is unable to prosecute this blatant example of age
discrimination. (Voluntary work and domestic duties in private households are
not covered under the law.)</div>
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Based on this rationale, Save the Children would, no doubt, like to see people over 70
banned from crossing the road. Should they be in an altercation with a motor
vehicle, their resultant injuries could possibly be greater than those experienced by a
person from a younger age group? Save the Children conveniently ignore the fact
that 70-year old's have a great deal more experience in reading traffic flows
than younger people and consequently have a reduced potential for such an
altercation.</div>
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Likewise, this banned cohort has the smarts to ensure their
own safety during a pandemic. It is the height of conceit that some wet behind
the ears 40-year old has the effrontery to dictate the behaviour of those who
taught them all that they know.</div>
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To say I am disappointed in Save the Children is an
understatement of massive proportions. They have cast themselves in the role of
the nemesis in the 1966 Grammy award-winning song 'Flowers on the Wall,' the
chorus of which opens this blog post. The full song can be seen below.</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media;
gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bg1di8sGxWc" width="560"></iframe></div>
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PS. Save the Children have deemed it is OK for those aged 70
and over to enter their Op Shops as customers.</div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-28498474762358747152020-04-19T06:06:00.000+08:002020-04-19T06:30:50.753+08:00You Clap for Me Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VuMU4ynStmc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VuMU4ynStmc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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It may be British, but applies equally here in the Land of Oz</div>
Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-91547486332994897312020-04-12T19:07:00.000+08:002020-04-12T19:07:56.994+08:00A Parable for this Time of Corona<i>Despite our
advanced individualistic civilisation, we are more connected and closer to
nature than we have hitherto liked to admit.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxh611TU8igDPIH_E0rzrt-RviJSI0b_l-pamvaYR4FSIrW7Iqca9POLI_Ru8K5nPZAezx5vLzkpwrPtGO5O_0uC9juDSpKQTTw0XWlu3RBwll3fgnR9I2Kko5HrbC1ZClsYHTSw/s1600/two-evil-animated-mouse-fighting-each-other-isolated-white-background-vector-illustration-two-evil-animated-mouse-fighting-121025778.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="800" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxh611TU8igDPIH_E0rzrt-RviJSI0b_l-pamvaYR4FSIrW7Iqca9POLI_Ru8K5nPZAezx5vLzkpwrPtGO5O_0uC9juDSpKQTTw0XWlu3RBwll3fgnR9I2Kko5HrbC1ZClsYHTSw/s320/two-evil-animated-mouse-fighting-each-other-isolated-white-background-vector-illustration-two-evil-animated-mouse-fighting-121025778.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">Yesterday, my
housemates finally caught the mouse who had been treating their room in Casa
Mangini as a personal food court. Being humane and from overseas, (he is from
France and she is from Austria) they are foreign to our ways. So, they decided
to relocate their prisoner in a land far away. They were planning to go
shopping in an adjacent suburb anyway and dropped the felon off close to their
destination. Lisa did it all the time with field mice on the family farm back
home. Little did they realise they had condemned the rascal to death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">Disregarding the
different skill sets of house and field mice along with our rodent housemate’s
ignorance of, or even interest in, frequent flier points they were happy to
relocate the miscreant to the other side of his world. They reasoned that mice
were mice and being feral all the great outdoors was a home away from home.
Mickey or Minnie would easily fit in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">Older hands at the
casa were not so sanguine. They reasoned there may be lions and/or tigers in
that land on the other side of the mouse world. Whilst for Mickey or Minnie, it
was a case of “here be dragons.” And then there were the locals. Walt's
alter-ego knew family safety was a paramount concern of their cousins, be they
agrarian or otherwise. And even though Mickey or Minnie looked similar, a grey
house mouse is a mouse of a very different colour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">Our EU backpackers
were dismayed by these revelations. Their embarrassment was complete when the
realisation dawned that Micky or Minnie’s cousins were Australian. For the
whole world knows how expendable Australians regard </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-10/visa-holders-in-tasmania-fear-being-forced-home-amid-coronavirus/12140780"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">foreigners</span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;"></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;"> in general
and </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/24/we-are-sitting-ducks-for-covid-19-asylum-seekers-write-to-pm-after-detainee-tested-in-immigration-detention"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">refugees</span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;"></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;"> in particular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">And as I
contemplated the coronavirus riots in supermarkets and our flirting with a </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-26/passengers-on-artania-cruise-ship-off-wa-test-positive-covid-19/12091884"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">M.S. St. Louis moment</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;"> off the coast of Western Australia it dawned
on me that we are starting to treat each other in the same manner. As we are
forced to endure this script read through our current crisis affords us, it is
with bated breath that we anticipate the full production. With its multitude of
bells and whistles preparing for the next crescendo, the climate crisis’ has
its advanced publicity well in hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">For while, as far as
we know, the Coronavirus is life threatening, the climate crisis is species
threatening. And how we react to the first is a pretty good indicator of how we
will react to the second when sharing becomes mandatory for survival. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">Despite the obvious negative
social and economic impacts separation is the best way to share at this time. So,
please, just stay the at home. Hell, even go play on Facebook if you must, and help
it morph into </span><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2020/03/coronavirus-tracking-outbreak-spying-people-200328080646752.html"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;">something more</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk36114540;"> than an electronic billboard.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-37463325297075498672020-03-25T10:57:00.000+08:002020-03-25T10:57:58.761+08:00Henry’s Spag<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq29pIh73Xf3x40u6mvg7c_gziTAmAHDeWW3w8ftlAwbYDDBePJWMrAZsAHb2E5WgrwyocADsM9vuVSAuKonBE4AR8iOlRYAfCnsAyaZk7kkAknhuy705fl5yMbeAMHFwZyjwMSQ/s1600/spag+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="596" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq29pIh73Xf3x40u6mvg7c_gziTAmAHDeWW3w8ftlAwbYDDBePJWMrAZsAHb2E5WgrwyocADsM9vuVSAuKonBE4AR8iOlRYAfCnsAyaZk7kkAknhuy705fl5yMbeAMHFwZyjwMSQ/s400/spag+pic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Or how to make cooking fun in this Time of Corona.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Sauce</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Open a bottle of your preferred red wine. For me that’s shiraz,
although cab sav or merlot work almost as well. If using merlot halve the
amount of sugar. While the wine is breathing (yes, it should be a half way decent
one, cheap wine does nobody any favours) dice the onions on the smallish side,
dice the salami into one cm or 7/16 of an inch squares and dice the olives into
six segments each. In a separate bowl mix the basil, oregano, paprika and
cayenne pepper (if using). Mince three cloves of garlic (if using fresh). If
you’re using fresh tomatoes, dice them into bite sized pieces and retain as
much of their juice that you can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Taste the wine, if its drinkable pour yourself a glass, you
deserve it. If you’re a smoker you no doubt deserve one of them as well, so sip
and puff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In a wok or a frying pan with high sides add the olive oil and
heat over a high flame. When warm add the diced onions and sauté for a couple
of minutes then add the garlic. Stir and mix with the onions, then add the
salami and sauté for a couple more minutes. Add the mixed herbs and spices and
mix. It should be starting to look pretty dry. Add the olives followed by the
tomatoes and their juice. Stir well then add the tomato paste and mix. Then add
1 ½ standard glasses of wine and mix well, then add 300ml of water and stir.
Add two heaped dessert spoons of raw sugar (one if using merlot) and mix.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Bring to the boil and have another weel deserved drink and a fag (about five
minutes). Then set to a brisk simmer and let it reduce by at least a third.
Have another drink and ciggie if so inclined. It’s going to take 15 to 20
minutes to reduce and should be stirred regularly. At the 10-minute mark spoon off any
excess oil sitting on top. Just before finishing taste for sweetness and add
sugar, if needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Once cooked let it rest for half <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">an</b> hour. Then you can serve with your favourite pasta (see below)
or put into containers and freeze. It should serve six average appetites and
when thawed can <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">be</span> heated in a
micro-wave in three minutes. Mix through a tablespoon of water for each serving when
micro-waving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Pasta</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Pasta is not porridge! Consequently, cooking pasta isn’t a set
and forget process. You cannot un-cook pasta but when <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">overcooked </span>it ends up with the same texture as porridge. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Porridge</span> with a sweetener and moo
juice is a fine breakfast, with a savoury sauce, mmm… not so fine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When selecting dry pasta, the colour of the packet doesn’t matter
as long as it’s made from Durum wheat<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">, </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">a </span>hard wheat that mills very fine.
Whilst you can make your own pasta from scratch is far too much of a fiddle for
this little black duck. Cooking should be fun, and making pasta is a chore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The first time I cooked this meal for the best beloved she
upbraided me for serving her raw pasta, now, some 20 years later, I get the
same tongue lashing when it is limp and soggy. She indulges the same rigour to
my pasta cooking as she applies to her rice cooking. It should be light with a
resistance to the bite which cooking shows say is “Al Dente.” This <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">is</span> easiest to achieve by following the
packet instructions up to a point. Boil in the recommended amount of water and
if they say for ten minutes start tasting at eight and turn off the heat when
it is almost done, the residual heat will take it the rest of the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If you have a pasta style that requires draining, count to 20
then pour into a colander, shake but don’t rinse. If you’re cooking spaghetti
use a server to lift it straight out of the pot, let it drain and then place it
in a bowl. Repeat until you have the desired amount. Mix a generous amount of
sauce through the pasta and serve. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, which for me
is lots, pasta is my excuse to eat Parmesan cheese. Enjoy with what’s left of
the wine or if a shared meal opening a second bottle is recommended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Ingredients</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1 Bottle of red wine (optional but fun)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">3 or 4 cigarettes (optional except for addicts)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">3 tablespoons of olive oil<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2 small onions (Diced)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">3 cloves of garlic or 3 teaspoons (heaped) of pre-minced garlic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">100gms of Hungarian salami (hot or mild according to taste)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">70gms of diced Greek Kalamata Olives<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2 heaped teaspoons of dried Basil<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1 heaped teaspoon of dried Oregano<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2 ½ heaped teaspoons of Hungarian paprika<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">¼ flat teaspoon of Cayenne pepper (optional)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>400gm tins of diced
tomatoes or 8 Roma tomatoes cored and diced<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">3 ½ heaped dessert spoons of triple concentrated tomato paste<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1 ½ glasses of red wine (from the bottle above is recommended but not mandatory)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">300ml of water<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">2 dessert spoons of raw sugar (halve if using white sugar or
merlot)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-16868398535271760812020-03-09T08:15:00.000+08:002020-03-31T10:46:13.966+08:00Trust in Wonderland<i>Also published at <a href="https://johnmenadue.com/?s=trust+in+wonderland" target="_blank">John Mendue's Pearls and Irritations</a></i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5sqPdhzB-31vTGiANG5_Jv94Q2UNnV89HHqIUM9dzY7fLMHGVH8RIe7BrmVrBj6UbBCGjXkEvRsLRWytpeQcrgBJmjz3cgNB-7ypCHAWuN5Q4hMCkYPW9geTXnyywOocWeZ8pQ/s1600/chess+mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="378" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5sqPdhzB-31vTGiANG5_Jv94Q2UNnV89HHqIUM9dzY7fLMHGVH8RIe7BrmVrBj6UbBCGjXkEvRsLRWytpeQcrgBJmjz3cgNB-7ypCHAWuN5Q4hMCkYPW9geTXnyywOocWeZ8pQ/s400/chess+mirror.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An Irishman, a Frenchman and two Aussies share a house. That
it sounds like the start of a bad joke is deliberate ploy to counter the ignominy
associated with this deliberate housing choice. For most people a share house
reeks of student days’ squalor or welfare desperation. But, as the housing
market tightens, homelessness increases and the climate devastation of habitat
impacts, share housing is an option gaining validity. And, not only as a stop
gap measure, this wonderland has lesson’s our governments could well heed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My share house sojourn, since returning from overseas a
couple of years ago, has privileged me with a range of interesting and
informative opportunities that have, amongst others, included: a Thai student
on a gap year to study English before completing her master’s; a trio of Indian
students whose desire for permanent residence was palpable; a young professional
Samoan footballer and his chaperone; a Dutch couple on secondment to UWA; a
Aussie couple starting out on their life of exclusivity; a Frenchman awaiting a
Canadian visa who avoids boredom by driving for Uber Eats; a Filipina trying
Australia on for size; an Irish backpacker on a working holiday; and a fellow Victorian.
The youngest was 19, the eldest would never see 64 again. All had tales to tell
and cultural differences to share.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The glue that holds this disparate, fluctuating group of
individuals together is trust. Not only the protection from the elements
offered by the landlord’s “Mi casa es su casa” policy, but also the lack of the
need to keep everything under lock and key. And when that trust is present
housing security is ensured especially when the tenants validate said trust
each fortnight. A trust that is currently enhanced in this multi-cultural house,
spent most clement evenings on the front veranda, by “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_tomorrow">never jam to-day</a>” games
of chess. In which more knowledge than the moves is required to combat the
Irishman’s wicked opening.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It can also be the glue that holds society together. It is the
major duty of all levels of government to foster this bond with and between the
people who live in this wonderful land of ours. From delivering on the promise
of rubbish removal each Tuesday by the town council to protection from existential
threats to health and safety by the institutions operated by our state and
federal governments. And the stronger that trust the more liveable is the
society in which they govern.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To foster the superglue needed by communities the size of a
country, this quality must exist across the board to counteract its inherent
ephemeral nature. Not only must the people trust their government, more
importantly, the government must trust their people. Whilst being ever vigilant
of the Jabberwock of vested interests that can reside on the other side of the
mirror to which we are often drawn to preen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As was the case with the privatisation of the electrical
grid on Australia’s east coast, which has slowed down its decentralisation
despite the climate crisis imperative. Sold as a potential cash cow the
investors are now loath to forego their return. Whereas in the government owned
Western Australian grid customers are already starting to enjoy the benefits of
this <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/west-australia-flags-end-of-centralised-energy-network-64911/">decentralisation</a>.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A similar state exists in that most central of human needs:
a roof over our heads. The transition from housing as home ownership to
investor ownership is excluding many from this basic commodity. And while the
Federal Government talks the Australian dream of a home of your own, its
actions encourage investors to become our share house landlords. This is not
necessarily a bad thing with our rapidly increasing population in which the
virtues of recycling and decluttering are being extolled.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although it does become a concern when the deeds and the
rhetoric become "<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Walrus_and_the_Carpenter">A pleasant
walk, a pleasant talk, Along the briny beach.</a>” Increasingly on the other
side of the looking glass, whatever it takes to win is considered a
prerequisite for participation. So, when it spills out into the wonderland it dries
up all the trust, as the independent senator from Tasmania recently discovered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With hand on heart and tear in eye she begged the country to
just bloody well trust her on National television. In defending the silence
about her reasoning, she admitted to sipping from the National Security cool
aid chalice. When pressed to say when she would trust the people with the said
reasoning, Ms Lambie went the full Sir Humphrey Appleby with her “in the
fullness of time” promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The disappointment of the studio audience was audible. For
National Security is a favoured trope that government politicians use to shut
down questions, especially about their secrets that make us vulnerable. In this
silence the dripping of trust upon the pavement resonates with those who care
to listen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The share house horror stories, beloved by tabloid
television, stand testament to this potential corrosion in the body politic. Or,
as my landlord so succinctly put it, “They keep going to the wrong house.” While
shonky landlords, like shonky politicians should be called out, the
demonisation of a legitimate housing option should be avoided. This, with the
recent destruction of over 1800 homes is increasingly becoming a necessity. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Added to that is a pandemic following on the heels of these
natural disasters of fires, floods and cyclones. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About which our elected leaders must be
forthcoming with validations for their decisions if they wish to maintain the
trust necessary to implement the required actions. And in this highly leveraged
society, as insurance premiums, for a significant number, become a luxury item,
just how many unsecured mortgages will our banks be prepared to carry?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As our house of cards weathers the “slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune” our wonderland needs to be decoupled from the antics on the
other side of the looking glass starting by dissuade them from squabbling over <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweedledum_and_Tweedledee">the rattle</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-39008509710540497142020-02-21T09:06:00.000+08:002020-03-31T10:48:49.638+08:00What Malnutrition Looks Like<i>Also published at <a href="https://johnmenadue.com/?s=what+malnutrition+looks+like" target="_blank">John Menadue's Pearls and Irritations</a></i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdG5owbb3iS2Zi7_ZolNyYqPNAy2tvwZHYOxLKO13wkI3dAYuk9vaduxG-tz-CRa0tEXyTsvG78jL0JERAmEnFqTb7daqgk0R-R9kJPJhM8Us4DBgT5q7vvpAC8V_Azk2_PTCsVQ/s1600/mal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdG5owbb3iS2Zi7_ZolNyYqPNAy2tvwZHYOxLKO13wkI3dAYuk9vaduxG-tz-CRa0tEXyTsvG78jL0JERAmEnFqTb7daqgk0R-R9kJPJhM8Us4DBgT5q7vvpAC8V_Azk2_PTCsVQ/s400/mal.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few days ago, the first Friday in February to be precise,
I was banged up in a building dedicated to my survival. The day had barely
begun, and I was already feeling the fickle fingers of boredom flit lightly
across my mind. The previous afternoon had been spent in painless slumber,
awaking long enough for a bite of dinner before dozing through the evening’s
entertainment. It was the bewitching hour, and much to the dismay of the night
nurse, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After having waded to page 166, my growing indifference with
the book I had brought with me to while away the hours reached a critical mass
that saw Mr Brand abandoned to the “who cares” pile. I’d had enough fairy
floss, I needed some meat and potatoes. That, and our three-ring circus of the
absurd was also back in town. Could Aunty, as she had done on past occasions, <span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: text1;">come</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span>riding to my rescue?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I ponied up my 13 bucks and got the telly turned on. The
Royal Perth is a venerable teaching hospital and patient internet is a mostly
un-needed luxury. With my phone reduced to on-board games, I ruefully
contemplated last century’s technology. I scrolled through the 1300
infomercials and product placements of early morning network scheduling in
search of the facts that can and often do trump fiction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was eventually rewarded with a reference to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAAB93cTEQo">put down of the week</a>, politics
is, after all, a blood sport. A rambunctious general turned politician had been
put in his box a couple of days before by a scientist who had had a gut full.
And as the repetition of the 24-hour news channel began to pall, ABC Breakfast,
from another stall in the informed Aunt’s stable, arrived with a little bit
more variety in her saddle bags.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not being a regular viewer, the comfort of a studio just ten
paces from a coffee machine voiced several times by the live cross reporter in
the wind and rain was an irony that almost matched General George Custer’s
speed fetish at Little Big Horn. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A running
jest that </span>only became apparent during the closing credits.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For, you see, the aforementioned coffee machine is located
in the foyer of our sometimes-cavalier Aunt’s Southbank home. The studio coach was
just those 10 referenced paces from the machine now basking in its 15
minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when the symphony of
reversing trucks and passing trams reached a crescendo, pre-recorded packages
were dispatched post-haste forcing mine hosts to play catch-up on live TV. A
game they had been playing for two months as they awaited a purpose-built
facility. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is to the presenters’ credit that their skills in dancing
to this improvised melody were such that they could serenely maintain a
professional façade.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For it is those who can perform under duress, be it a
bushfire, a dissembling politician or just turning over rocks, some of which often
require serious digging, that Aunty respects and nurtures. It is little wonder
that some of the industry’s most talented are joining the regiment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And those who have successfully ridden with her
for some time can easily find a ride at other stations, should they so
choose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is these skills that make Aunty not only a <a href="https://radioinfo.com.au/news/abc-national-treasure-says-stephen-conroy">national
treasure</a> but an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/04/australia-bushfire-coverage-abc-emergency-fire-broadcasts-praised-as-news-corp-goes-on-attack">essential
service</a>. Aunty is there when your phone is not. She can fight on foot as
well as on horseback, which she so ably displayed during the east coast’s
recent conflagration. When the environment punches back<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">,</b> it is good to know we have her in our corner. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That we allow our politicians to ignore this evidence, is at
our own peril. Be it through the blindness, the pettiness or the avarice of these
elected leaders, we will be the losers if we allow it to continue. It is the
ABC who should be gold plated not the poles and wires. Not only do we need our
best people in the saddle, we need the best horses to carry them into
battle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be it television, radio<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">,</b> or the internet, the infrastructure
they require must be given to them in a timely manner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This lack of resources became apparent at the close of that
Friday morning broadcast. A panoramic view of the make-shift studio was
followed by a shot of the six-member cast wandered down a corridor leading into
the bowels of the building, one hoped to their dressing rooms. Michael Rowland’s
wave goodbye underscored the poignancy of the moment. It was a powerful piece
of television that the old girl does so well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We cannot afford to repeat General Custer’s mistake and
leave the artillery in a field far away. Nor should we underestimate the
ruthless determination of our current foe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-40318758422036279612020-02-08T09:12:00.000+08:002020-02-08T09:12:45.280+08:00The Time to Act is Upon Us<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_zDJzJzBaqENXbi0gSApjv-BRyZyf_6n5fXCQzrF716ztR8rx3HpFn1hYlDfuyeV4x2q0CKMjJGsOpXgaq9NYwKoiniBhVhmQfNzjjS-yoWo_UmR6-bjaAS_Sx0MN-G23YY7XQ/s1600/summer-pool-barbeque-party-18717124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_zDJzJzBaqENXbi0gSApjv-BRyZyf_6n5fXCQzrF716ztR8rx3HpFn1hYlDfuyeV4x2q0CKMjJGsOpXgaq9NYwKoiniBhVhmQfNzjjS-yoWo_UmR6-bjaAS_Sx0MN-G23YY7XQ/s400/summer-pool-barbeque-party-18717124.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In amongst the sleaze and the glitter of his second memoir,
the self- obsessed jester, Russell Brand, drops the observation; “Do we humans
yet properly understand the notion of the future? It doesn’t seem that we
do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whilst written with a British tabloid audience in mind it is an equally pertinent character trait applicable to those
of us who qualify as Scott Morrison’s “Quiet Australians.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take my mate Joe’s eldest son, a millennial father of three,
all under 10, for example. Gifted a solar roof installation by an indulgent
parent instead of doubled down of his good fortune, Joe’s son has elected to
install a swimming pool in his postage stamp outer suburban backyard. This $30
thousand home improvement is justified by a) ensuring his offspring’s aquatic
enjoyment is enhanced at this early age and b) how it will increase the resale
value of his property. Consideration of the future advantages of electric power
security is relegated to an afterthought that vies with dreams of being a
contestant on a televised gymnastic game show. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This exhibit A in the Morrison catalogue holds its future
in their own hands. Not so much at the voting booth but in their willingness to
turn the ubiquitous they into a personal us. Like the pundits and the
government there seems to be a reluctance to embrace this level of
responsibility. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As the father of the Goons, Spike Milligan, wrote almost
50 years ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>They chop down 100ft trees<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>To make chairs<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>I bought one<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>I am six-foot one inch<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>When I sit in the chair<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>I'm four foot two.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>Did they really chop down a 100ft tree<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>To make me look shorter</i>?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes Spike, I’m afraid they did. So, sit back, relax, put
your feet up. Turn on the tennis. Oh, a politician has been caught with their
fingers in till. Or as Mr Eliot so eloquently wrote a hundred years ago “<i><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44213/portrait-of-a-lady-56d22338932de" target="_blank">another bank defaulter has confessed</a></i>.” That will give the pundits something to jaw
about. And a pandemic, well that’s not our fault. Fortunately, our world class medical
profession is up to the task, they’ve won that match before and for the most
part they’re steeped in integrity. So, “<i><a href="https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/qld-cabinet-papers-released-1985-gays-mabo-costs/2887756/" target="_blank">Don’t you worry about that</a></i>.” BTW, who is this week’s winner of Australian
Ninja Worrier? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Australia is a relaxed country, an indulgent country, we
take great pride in our comfortable, laid-back reputation. Even a lucky
country, if the success that’s been under pinned by the husbandry of our
indigenous forebears can be called luck. Very few countries can boast the
luxury of an honest low-level public servant bothering to contemplate the
merits of personal battery storage or an inground swimming pool. Let alone
purchase their considered preference secure in the knowledge that if they go with
the luxury item the they will provide an uninterrupted power supply. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Well that is all about to change courtesy of global warming.
And we must convince the they to adapt to climate friendly processes and
products.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our governments are struggling, they are not up to the job. For
the most part their indulgence is just ours writ large. So, with the situation
demanding we change our world, we must first change ourselves. Fortunately,
that is something of which we are personally capable, should we so choose. </div>
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Not only must we stand up, we must also dismantle the chair.
It is very close to its use by date. If we continue as we are, it will collapse
with us sitting in it and that is going to hurt big time. If the current
bushfires are any indication, we are even in grave danger of self-immolation.
But for the they, if there is a profit to be made, making these chairs will
continue to be their raison d’être. We need to tell them to stop.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And we must do it in a language they understand. From the homeless
dole bludger begging in the street to the chairman of the mob who run the
banks, our choices are either to forgo or become DIY experts. To move beyond fossil
fuels, we must stop using petrol and become energy independent. If we do that,
they will notice, and they will act.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The technology exists to do the latter, if not individually
then in concert with our local neighbours. The first is the big ask. We need a
transport system that matches our health system. A pedestrian lifestyle is
possible in 21<sup>st</sup> Century Australia, especially in urban Australia,
but it’s not all that easy. Although the more people who adopt walking as their
primary mode of transport the easier it will become. The joy ride is over, it’s
time to put away the toys and become serious.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Climate change has moved in and is here to stay. The future
is today on steroids. And like all drugs it has side effects, some of which are
deadly. And a tip for Joe’s son, when the time comes to upgrade your accommodation,
a house independent of the grid will trump a swimming pool by noticeable order
of magnitude. Don’t take my word for it, check out <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/malcolm-turnbulls-solar-battery-kit-fit-for-a-harbourside-mansion-20170213-gubxk8" target="_blank">the man with the leather jacket’s</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> response</span></span>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-47632546072312753802020-02-02T04:32:00.000+08:002020-02-02T04:32:59.437+08:00What are they Thinking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0NZeOBEU3hfIJrqFmVs9JtCjeRp2OhI1NCU2pyCazfFuaxI14T0mDIMjFJ0BYoo17vuZwzFXJFTP7wvWPKO187T1gTE343MlCMOzC1hOv_xyVJD7mN7MOPdK3jw56qOZM8i2NQ/s1600/image+SAPS+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="630" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0NZeOBEU3hfIJrqFmVs9JtCjeRp2OhI1NCU2pyCazfFuaxI14T0mDIMjFJ0BYoo17vuZwzFXJFTP7wvWPKO187T1gTE343MlCMOzC1hOv_xyVJD7mN7MOPdK3jw56qOZM8i2NQ/s400/image+SAPS+crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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To say that a problem is a challenge wearing a hi-vis vest
maybe glib, but it does contain an element of truth. One that our governments,
both state and federal, would be well advised to investigate as they
contemplate the infrastructure needs arising from our spate of climate fires.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At 19,000 and counting, bushfire damaged and destroyed power
poles are starting to litter the affected areas of NSW countryside. About which
the state government owned electric power distributor, Essential Energy has
said “it was looking at replacing destroyed power poles with composite poles,
which could withstand high temperatures, and employ other new technology to
improve its network.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there is the reputation these necklaces that stretch
from town to town are gaining for the part they play in generating bushfires.
As reported by the American <a href="https://www.ecmag.com/section/systems/link-between-power-lines-and-wildfires">Electrical
Contractor</a> magazine “During the summer of 2018, the Department (California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) reported at least 17 more major
wildfires that were triggered by power lines.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the West examples are emerging of these other new
technologies that should become the replacement for the poles and wires that
decorate our highways and byways. Utilising solar, batteries and generators,
Western Power, the Western Australian State Government owned electrical
distribution corporation has started creating micro electrical grids. A 2016
trial of six stand-alone power systems on remote farms in the state’s southwest
region has grown to 57 such installations today. And the corporation is currently
trialling community sized batteries in a metropolitan setting in Perth’s
southern suburb of Mandurah.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Meanwhile further up the coast, 10 hours’ drive from Perth,
is Denham, the tourist town and administrative centre for the Shire of Shark
Bay. Horizon Power, the State Governments regional electrical power enterprise,
is installing a 500w solar farm to power a hydrogen electrolyser to back up the
four wind turbines that currently supply 60% of the town’s electricity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is hoped that this micro power grid will
replace the town’s old diesel generators and supply all the town’s electrical
needs. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And in the last six years over three million solar-battery
storage systems, that have had a positive effect on 16 million people, have
been installed in rural Bangladesh. A pioneer in the micro finance movement,
micro solar systems are a natural fit. And the combination of these two systems
has seen the creation of nano and micro grids. Utilising peer-2-peer networks
Bangladeshis trade electricity, each according to their needs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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With these baby steps in the First world and toddling ones
in the Third, one cannot help but wonder what our Federal Government is
thinking. Encouraging investment in coal assets will see them become at best
stranded, as feared by the ANZ bank amongst others, or at worst a major
contributor in our impending suicide. And the high temperature resistant composite
power poles are just a continuation of the short sighted, business as usual mindset
that saw firefighting experts ignored by the Federal Government.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One can only hope that NSW will in its turn ignore their big
brother and embrace the adoption of the small-scale other technology that
improves its network rather than more of the same poles and wires technology fed
by fossil fuel behemoths. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-23502488832845343832020-01-24T04:21:00.000+08:002020-01-24T20:28:43.133+08:00Digging Holes After the Bushfires<br />
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It is a truism that the best advice when you find yourself
in a hole is to stop digging. The past four and a half months of bushfires
indicate that we are in carbon induced climate change hole. And nearly a
quarter of the world’s and a third of Australia’s carbon emissions are
generated by transport. But our shakers and movers, from the grassroots to Canberra’s
hallow halls of government, seem intent upon ignoring the application of this extractive
advice in their rush back to economic normality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For the third year running, with over 47 thousand sales last
year according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the
Toyota Hilux was Australia’s most popular motor vehicle. Another dual cab ute,
the Ford Ranger, came in at number two. Both these vehicles have carbon
emissions of around one kilogram for every four and a quarter kilometres driven.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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With this level of popularity, it is fair to surmise that a
goodly number of these tradies best friend were part of the climate change
induced bushfire exodus from Batemans Bay just a couple of weeks ago. Now that
the rain has come, and the Kings Highway is no longer a raging inferno and has
been reopened to the public, the good burgers of the Canberra beachside
playground are calling for their return. They have released a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-17/batemans-bay-canberra-come-back-video/11876482">video</a>
to push home their plea; a parody of the 1977 soft rock song “Baby Come Back.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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While one can appreciate their current economic pain, is
more of the same the best way to go? If as suggested by the boffins that carbon
in the atmosphere is a major causal factor of this recent existential holocaust
surely a rinse and repeat is a very short-sighted response. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The round trip for a Canberran to enjoy a day of surf and
sun with a take-a-way lunch is all but 300 kilometres. This equates to an
additional 70 odd kilograms of carbon being pushed into the firmament with each
trip. This equates to a tonne of carbon being emitted for little bit over 14
such trips. And with 43% of Australian cars being of this type the hopes of
Batemans Bay’s tourist orientated businesses will ensure the hole keeps getting
deeper.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Living up to his internet meme, our Prime Minister, Scotty
from marketing, has implicitly endorsed this activity. Within the Government's
national bushfire recovery fund is an allocation of $20 million to market
destinations for domestic travellers and $25 million for a global tourism
campaign. He wants us and the world to know that Australia is "safe and
open for business."<o:p></o:p></div>
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Announcing the package Mr Morrison said "This is about
getting more visitors to help keep local businesses alive and protect local
jobs right across the country and especially in those areas so directly
devastated such as Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills, the Blue Mountains
and right along the NSW Coast and East Gippsland in Victoria. "<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tourism Australia figures also show that visitors from the
United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and China are reluctant
to experience our fires and smoke ravaged cities. For the first fortnight of the
year international bookings were down by 20 to 30 per cent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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About which Margy Osmond from the Tourism and Transport
Forum stated, "People are believing everything they see on social media —
the country's on fire, top to bottom, coast to coast, don't go to Uluru because
it's on fire, Sydney airport's on fire — crazy stuff."<o:p></o:p></div>
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But not so crazy if our bushfires have shown our potential
visitors a deadly cost associated with international air travel. Which the New
York Times reported, back in September at the start of our bushfires, accounts
for about 2.5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. And at its current
growth rate, air travel has a bullet to become a quarter of the world’s carbon
budget by 2050 alone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Perhaps our international visitors, not being so blinkered
in their outlook, are prepared to take on board the axiom associated with holes
and digging. Whereas our government and those at the coal face seem to be
intent on doubling down on the short term, business as usual thinking that's driving the
Ardini mining adventure.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-40854239706708377802020-01-09T08:08:00.000+08:002020-01-09T08:08:04.806+08:00Our Survival Depends Upon Us<br />
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In this age were future growth is being replaced in the
popular lexicon by future survivability and leadership is conspicuous by its
abstinence it becomes a necessity to take matters into our own hands.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For the last 15 years I have, in successive stages, been
decreasing my carbon footprint. Over this journey I have found my pleasure in
life has increased and further forward movement has become easier.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The first was the toughest; abandoning of my beloved Alpha
for the inconvenience of a pedestrian lifestyle. When I gave up putting a
kilogram of carbon in the atmosphere for every five and a half kilometres
travelled my world became a much larger place. There were birds and trees,
flowers and shop windows to observe and enjoy in all their complexity rather
than them just being a blur on the periphery of my bubble. There was my
suburban neighbourhood to discover and it is a wonderous moment indeed to eventually
look a magpie in the eye and see the spark of recognition that says, “I know
you, you’re not an immediate threat.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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After a decade of living in urban Asia, share accommodation
in Australia has a ring of familiarity. After thoughtful consideration of
location, my current address affords me the same level of variety I enjoyed in
a city ten times the size. I have nine supermarkets within 5 minutes’ walk of
my front door. Two Asian, one Korean, two Indian, one West Australian, two
National, and one international/German. I also have a daily park vista to
entertain me, I can and often do watch dogs chase balls while breakfasting and
men doing the same as I sip a relaxing sundowner. The dogs are more elegant and
seem to derive greater pleasure from the pastime. Expectations anyone?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Since I started working in recycling with Save the Kids, I
have been able to extensively update my wardrobe and have change from a
hundred. I have also decorated the walls of the house with a selection of
artworks for less than $50, fortunately my eye is good enough to please both my
housemates and my landlord.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there is exhilaration of helping to bring the Perth CBD
to a standstill for a morning, nonviolent civil disobedience is fun. Shamed by
the school kids into joining Extinction Rebellion the opportunity to write a
play for the group and being encouraged to produce it has reawakened a
somnolent skillset.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And to look to the future without trepidation is to be fool
hardy in the extreme. Any fears I have are not for me but for those that
follow. When another 30 summers have blazed away it will be a very different
world and if we don’t mend our ways, perhaps being trapped on the beach by a
bushfire will have become common place? And Jonathan Watts’ bubbles of climate
anxiety will not be massing near the surface as he says they are today; they
will be exploding upon it with a monotonous regularity. Frogs legs anyone?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unfortunately, it is you and I, as individuals, who will
have to effect any change for it seems to be beyond the skill set of our
leaders. And the best way we can do that is by how we conduct our day to day
lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-75947859791340083882020-01-09T07:55:00.001+08:002020-01-24T20:22:13.309+08:00It's Been a While Since I Last Posted<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5a0b8FLKBryt-LURzQAjvtiotiz7M46bmDoWY8h0CJIQDHM75ZHX7JrWS1gDlmJXevxRYgsOddFR6HkhgB9Svn_NZQxY2SdhgGmapZeaPnDpi-xwE6qWAMf5oBWkCARYN4P5XQ/s1600/Spot+the+difference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="990" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi5a0b8FLKBryt-LURzQAjvtiotiz7M46bmDoWY8h0CJIQDHM75ZHX7JrWS1gDlmJXevxRYgsOddFR6HkhgB9Svn_NZQxY2SdhgGmapZeaPnDpi-xwE6qWAMf5oBWkCARYN4P5XQ/s640/Spot+the+difference.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-35927700825171632182017-07-23T08:28:00.001+08:002017-07-23T08:34:41.174+08:00The Archibald Finalists <div class="wrapper" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 972px;">
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<span style="border: 1pt none; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; padding: 0cm;">Came across this article on Friday 21st of July and it is one of the best reads about this famous Australian art prize</span><br />
<span style="border: 1pt none; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; padding: 0cm;">I have ever seen/read. Enjoy.</span><br />
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 27.0pt; padding: 0cm;">The Archibald finalists </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 27.0pt; padding: 0cm;">– and why Tony Albert deserves to win</span></b><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 27.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">Joanna Mendelssohn </span><span style="color: #727272; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">Honorary Associate Professor, Art & Design:
UNSW Australia.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #727272; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">Editor in Chief, Design</span><span style="color: #727272; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #727272; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">and Art of Australia Online, UNSW</span></div>
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<span style="color: #727272; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The formal announcement of the Packing Room Prize as a preview for the 2017 Archibald is a reminder of how the world has changed. For the last 26 years, Steve Peters and fellow workers in the packing room of the Art Gallery of New South Wales have chosen a favourite painting from the many hundreds of entries for the annual Archibald Prize. Without fail, the painting chosen is realistic in style, with paint applied in smooth layers. More often than not, the subject is either an attractive woman or a media celebrity. This year’s winner, Peter Smeeth’s portrait of <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29818/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Lisa Wilkinson</a> combines both attributes.</div>
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<figure class="align-left zoomable" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 18px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 237px;"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179109/area14mp/file-20170720-6436-1iahazc.jpg" style="color: #557585; display: block; max-width: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179109/width237/file-20170720-6436-1iahazc.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><div class="enlarge_hint" style="background: url("/assets/icons/16x16search-white-aefaa3f932ea4defc107dbef075eb26f6dcdca390c4b29927fcb0b7f2e117919.png") center center no-repeat rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: 0px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -999em; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;">
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Peter Smeeth, Lisa Wilkinson AM, oil on linen, 100x150cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Felicity Jenkins, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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The aesthetic concerns of those who received the 822 entries in the Archibald are not necessarily the same as those of the Trustees, who by the Will of J.F. Archibald are the only people entitled to judge. The Packing Room Prize came about from the cultural divide between the tastes of the decision makers and the workers who had to carry out their commands. For many years management made it clear that the Packing Room winner was not a finalist, and indeed it was hung just outside the main exhibition.</div>
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<figure class="align-right zoomable" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; clear: right; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 18px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 237px;"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179111/area14mp/file-20170721-942-v490wl.jpg" style="color: #557585; display: block; max-width: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179111/width237/file-20170721-942-v490wl.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><div class="enlarge_hint" style="background: url("/assets/icons/16x16search-white-aefaa3f932ea4defc107dbef075eb26f6dcdca390c4b29927fcb0b7f2e117919.png") center center no-repeat rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: 0px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -999em; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;">
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lucy Culliton, Finished packing, oil on canvas, 170x145cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Felicity Jenkins, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure>This year, not only is the Packing Room choice placed in the privileged space near the dais where announcements are made, but it hangs next to <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29830/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Finished packing</a>, Lucy Culliton’s portrait of Peters. This embrace of the values of the workers who run the prize was a long time coming, but it can now finally be seen for what it always was – an annual people’s art prize where anyone can enter (though the odds against winning are even worse than Lotto).<br />
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Edmund Capon, the previous director of the gallery, very cleverly turned what was seen by the curators as the worst exhibition of the year into a serious fundraiser and marketing exercise. Visitors are now charged a hefty fee to see the once free exhibition. There are extensive public programs, including celebrity talks and live music.</div>
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Then there is the art. This year’s curator, Anne Ryan, has integrated the Archibald with the accompanying Wynne and Sulman exhibitions so that they appear less disjointed. This has enabled her to create a dazzling display of Aboriginal works from the Wynne Prize in the central court, traditionally reserved for the Archibald, and to place the Archibald entries in the more intimate spaces around the court.</div>
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<figure class="align-left zoomable" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 18px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 237px;"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179105/area14mp/file-20170720-30332-1livmta.jpg" style="color: #557585; display: block; max-width: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179105/width237/file-20170720-30332-1livmta.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><div class="enlarge_hint" style="background: url("/assets/icons/16x16search-white-aefaa3f932ea4defc107dbef075eb26f6dcdca390c4b29927fcb0b7f2e117919.png") center center no-repeat rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: 0px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -999em; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;">
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yvette Coppersmith, Professor Gillian Triggs, oil on linen, 137.5 x 110 cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Jenni Carter, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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Perhaps it is a reflection of the times, but it is now rare to see a politician’s portrait. The best known public figure to make it through to the final 43 is <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29828/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Gillian Triggs</a>, painted by Yvette Coppersmith. The second portrait of a lawyer is Luke William’s study of <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29859/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Remy van de Wiel</a>, the QC who successfully defended those accused of forging work by Brett Whiteley. There is a sense of this lawyer’s flamboyance, not shown in his costume, but in his fly-away hair and prominent spectacles.</div>
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These legal portraits join staid studies of prominent men – Robert Hannaford’s portrait of the West Australian businessman <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29837/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Michael Chaney</a> and Paul Newton’s portrait of the philanthropist <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29849/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Rupert Myer</a>. The boys of Sydney Grammar’s Edgecliff Preparatory school have produced what has to be the first entry by school children – as well as the first entry by so many artists – with <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29823/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Goodbye Sir!</a>, a farewell to their headmaster.</div>
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Despite the communally created pixelated style, this is nevertheless conceived as a very conservative image. I doubt it will be in the final short-list, but the Archibald is very much an exhibition of social history and it is a great novelty work.</div>
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Another “novelty” painting, Sophia Hewson’s <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29840/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Untitled (Richard Bell)</a>places the artist provocateur as Mary Poppins’s chimney sweep in a Walt Disney landscape, complete with Bambi, bluebirds and the hills of the Sound of Music. It’s the kind of painting to bring a smile to even the most jaded visitor.</div>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179106/area14mp/file-20170720-15106-fcswds.jpg" style="color: #557585; display: block; max-width: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179106/width754/file-20170720-15106-fcswds.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;" /><div class="enlarge_hint" style="background: url("/assets/icons/16x16search-white-aefaa3f932ea4defc107dbef075eb26f6dcdca390c4b29927fcb0b7f2e117919.png") center center no-repeat rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: 0px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -999em; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;">
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sophia Hewson, Untitled (Richard Bell), oil on board, 200x200cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Mim Stirling, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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The space that holds the dais where speeches are made has Richard Lewer’s <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29844/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Liz Laverty</a>, paying tribute to one of the great patrons of art. The late Colin Laverty and his wife Liz were collectors in the true sense, buying work they admired. They got to know the Indigenous artists whose work they collected, helping remote communities, encouraging others to see what they saw.</div>
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Richard Lewer, Liz Laverty, oil on epoxy-coated steel 110 x 110 cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Felicity Jenkins, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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This is not a “posh” portrait, rather it is painted with a deliberate naivety: just a woman in a black polka dot shirt, looking with love.</div>
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Traditionally, Archibald entries (and winners) have been over-large, emphasising the importance of the sitter in the scheme of things. However last year’s winner, Louise Hearman’s intimate portrait, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2016/29709/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Barry</a>, as well as Sam Leach’s 2010 winner, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2010/29009/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Tim Minchin</a>, show that size is not necessary for success.</div>
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The more intimate spaces of the installation advantage some of the smaller works. Kate Beynon’s self portrait, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29821/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">With amulets and their shadows</a>, references her Chinese heritage with images of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, while her direct gaze quotes Frida Kahlo.</div>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179108/area14mp/file-20170720-15106-1ssyubc.jpg" style="color: #557585; display: block; max-width: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179108/width754/file-20170720-15106-1ssyubc.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;" /><div class="enlarge_hint" style="background: url("/assets/icons/16x16search-white-aefaa3f932ea4defc107dbef075eb26f6dcdca390c4b29927fcb0b7f2e117919.png") center center no-repeat rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: 0px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -999em; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;">
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kate Beynon, With amulets and their shadows, acrylic on wood, 25 x 20 cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Felicity Jenkins, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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Self portraits are always popular with artists and there are quite a few this year. Madeleine Winch’s <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29860/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Facing the canvas</a> incorporates the artist’s self-examination as a part of her study of her tools of trade. This is appropriate, as Winch often incorporates herself into her work.</div>
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My choice for winner</h2>
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The painting I would like to see win is Tony Albert’s <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/2017/29819/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Self-portrait (ash on me)</a>. Albert has a long history of re-appropriating kitsch depictions of Aboriginal people, what he calls Aboriginalia. In recent years he has painted studies of ashtrays of kitsch Aboriginal subject matter, complete with stubbed cigarettes. Some of these have been made in collaboration with artists at Hermannsburg, including descendents of Albert Namatjira, whose art was turned to kitsch by commercial exploitation.</div>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179107/area14mp/file-20170720-942-1tdfe5w.jpg" style="color: #557585; display: block; max-width: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/179107/width754/file-20170720-942-1tdfe5w.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;" /><div class="enlarge_hint" style="background: url("/assets/icons/16x16search-white-aefaa3f932ea4defc107dbef075eb26f6dcdca390c4b29927fcb0b7f2e117919.png") center center no-repeat rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); border-bottom-left-radius: 2px; border-top-right-radius: 2px; border: 0px; height: 26px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-indent: -999em; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.1s ease-in; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;">
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</a><figcaption style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #727272; cursor: default; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tony Albert Self-portrait (ash on me) acrylic on linen,102 x 102 cm.</span> <span class="attribution" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cccccc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© the artist Photo: Jenni Carter, AGNSW</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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The self-portrait is an arrangement of these ashtrays, with his portrait head painted at the top of the arrangement, complete with two stubbed cigarettes. As an extra twist, this ashtray is captioned “Archibald Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales”.</div>
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Albert’s work is deceptively innocent. Each ashtray holds a different aspect of Aboriginality – each is shown as being treated with contempt as a receptacle for dead cigarettes. Yet he manages to make an apparently light-hearted portrait. It is such a clever work.</div>
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In the next week, the Trustees will come to the gallery to consider which of these finalists will gain the prize. The voting will take place on Friday morning. If they disagree, the final vote might be taken only minutes before the announcement (in 1996, it was delayed by about 30 minutes as some trustees found it hard to vote for Wendy Sharpe’s <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1996/" style="color: #557585; outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Diana of Erskinville</a>). Then the circus will begin.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This
article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-65960449743293113692016-05-29T08:03:00.000+08:002017-03-12T12:30:45.093+08:00Crab Walking to the Future<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ve4U03MkR2JmdF4f2surFwIijFa-W-qMq-5zB0QWpyuBw4ZhxquaU2MXzr6M51sR0_sQO9_ehse7Z25rl_fjvIp0psZbJTqa5mZfU1unqWOiv0bLW2m4FrYr-AnWwgTaCcz7uw/s1600/BK-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ve4U03MkR2JmdF4f2surFwIijFa-W-qMq-5zB0QWpyuBw4ZhxquaU2MXzr6M51sR0_sQO9_ehse7Z25rl_fjvIp0psZbJTqa5mZfU1unqWOiv0bLW2m4FrYr-AnWwgTaCcz7uw/s640/BK-1.jpg" width="414" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“I wasn’t breaking
rules; I was actually making up my own.</span>”<br />
Barbara Kasten<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For most of her career the eighty-year-old, Chicago based
photographic artist <a href="http://barbarakasten.net/">Barbara Kasten</a> has
ignored the documentary aspects of her craft, instead the creation of non-representational stand-alone
images has been front of mind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As she told <a href="http://bombmagazine.org/article/330133/barbara-kasten">Bomb Magazine’s</a>
Leslie Hewitt “My introduction to photography was not an academic one. I took
one class to learn the basics; after that, it was more of a hands-on
relationship. To push the boundary of photography has never been my motivation;
I am interested in how it can be united with other disciplines... I had no
restrictions on how to approach photography. I felt free to incorporate any of
these concepts into my thinking.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, Kasten has turned the traditional concepts behind
photography on their head in the pursuit of her own vision.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">As
she explained to <a href="http://artforum.com/words/id=49975">ArtForum’s</a> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Andrianna Campbell “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Light is the essence of photography,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">but it is not
what I am after. The important thing about light, to me, is not how it falls on
an object, but how the shadow is created. I am photographing the shadow, and
not the object that is creating the shadow. I am after another form—one that
defines reality, but it is not reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is the principle that has driven
Kasten’s work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“In the 1980s and ’90s, when I
showed at the John Weber Gallery in New York, I wasn’t looking at photography
for inspiration. I wasn’t trying to break any of the “rules” of photography. I
was just looking for a way to combine my interests in sculpture and
photography—photography not as way of documenting sculpture but as a way to
make a new work. For me, these media function side by side, not as cause and
effect.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And today in the digital age the octogenarian
photographer is heartened that her baton is being picked up others as they
pursue their dreams of what the medium can be.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which she has said “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">My work
is being discovered by a group of people who are half my age and are looking at
photography in a much more open-minded manner. It doesn’t all have to be done
through the camera. I think the creative spirit of the day is more toward
individualism, and that fuels younger people to see how they can put their own
twist into this medium. We are looking at the essentials and not looking at
traditional prescriptions… The Internet and digital technologies are providing
fertile ground for artists today. Photography is now an even broader category,
and whether or not these practitioners are photographers is an open question.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">A major survey of Kasten’s work <i>Stages</i> is currently on show at Los Angeles' </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.moca.org/exhibition/barbara-kasten-stages">MOCA Pacific Design
Center</a> until the 14<sup>th</sup> of August.<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-89670427828179711992016-05-23T08:01:00.000+08:002016-05-23T19:05:43.120+08:00Painting as Haiku<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyCJW2n8AzZTMpFA2YLKncXqtFEiLhi81oVs-ezfgvtrtHbsQAMqz2h4oczniYNQFlIsR4xj83wU1PwIymQmWF6sH5Evuau01D2IdeBKs7W70yufuT2Zz0guiXW74d64FDHq4vIA/s1600/NTB-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyCJW2n8AzZTMpFA2YLKncXqtFEiLhi81oVs-ezfgvtrtHbsQAMqz2h4oczniYNQFlIsR4xj83wU1PwIymQmWF6sH5Evuau01D2IdeBKs7W70yufuT2Zz0guiXW74d64FDHq4vIA/s400/NTB-1.jpg" width="329" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Paintings can
convey an immense significance with few colors and details.”<br />
Nguyen Than Binh<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The frugal simplicity that is one of the hallmarks of much Asian art is
a predominant characteristic of the paintings of the Vietnamese artist </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.vietnamartist.com/nguyen-thanh-binh/">Nguyen Than Binh</a>.
Using Western materials, Nguyen employs a palette restricted to subdued hues of
creams, browns and whites punctuated occasionally with reds and blacks to create
his almost impressionistic works that evoke the strains of classical music and Japanese
Haiku poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As he told <a href="http://www.toriizakaart.com/Artists/NguyenThanhBinh/Available-Nguyen-Thanh-Binh/i-X9xvrT8">Toriizaka
Art</a> “I use oils and canvas originated in the west and combine them with my
easter eyes, hands and mind to create my paintings. My pieces may appear to be
simple but my mind is brimming with memories, feelings and passion and each of
them quietly resonates from my soul.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A point he elaborated upon at <a href="http://www.tanyabaxtercontemporary.com/index.php/nguyen-thanh-binh#!Nguyen_Thanh_Binh___Mother_and_Child_II__oil_on_canvas__80_x_95_cm">Tanya
Baxter Contemporary</a> stating “I like minimal subject and a maximum idea just
like Japanese Haiku or Tang dynasty poetry. I like Haiku very much because it
is very simple and contains many ideas. I have no difficulty with simplicity
but I need a lot of time for a painting. Sometimes I work on a painting for a
few days, a few weeks, or even years.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nguyen also gains inspiration for his work from western
ballet and classical music.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which he told the <a href="http://www.thavibu.com/vietnam/nguyen_thanh_binh/VIE502.htm">Thavibu Art
Advisory</a> “Fine Art is not about philosophy or literature, but about music”.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But overall it is the juxtaposition of the two ideas inherent
in the 5-7-5 syllable constructed Japanese poetic form that underpins Nguyen’s
work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As he told <a href="http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2011/05/nguyen-thanh-binh-hanoi-vietnam.html">Tutt’art</a>
“I’m not trying to follow any trends, I’m just searching for beauty as I see
it, a beauty for everyone. The structure in my paintings tells the viewer many
things beyond the surface. The aim in my work is to condense the narrative. I like
minimal subject and a maximum idea just like Japanese Hiaku.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Nguyen’s current exhibition Hometown is on show at </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Ho Chi Minh City</span>’s <a href="http://cthomasgallery.com/exhibition/hometown/">Craig Thomas Gallery </a><span class="apple-converted-space">from the 27<sup>th</sup> of May.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-PH;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-81061963680304624702016-05-21T08:00:00.000+08:002016-05-21T08:00:15.537+08:00The Art in Chess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“I have come to the
personal conclusion<br />
that while all artists are not chess players,<br />
all chess players are artists."</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Marcel Duchamp</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In his mid-thirties the French
born artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp">Marcel
Duchamp</a> gave up art to study chess. Considered to be, along with Pablo
Picasso and Henri Matisse, one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists,
Duchamp is arguably best known for his controversial found object art works. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Some thirty odd years later he
told Time Magazine in 1952 </span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">I am still a victim of chess. It has all the
beauty of art—and much more. It cannot be</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">commercialized.
Chess is much purer than art in its social position."</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Now almost half a century after
his death, Duchamp’s fascination with the strategic board game has been reinvigorated
through the work of British painter </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tomhackney.com/index.html">Tom Hackney</a>.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It
was whilst he was studying at London University’s Goldsmiths College for his Masters
in Fine Art that Hackney conflated Duchamp’s fascination with the game he had
played as a child.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">As
he told </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/interview-with-tom-hackney-shortlisted-artist-for-the-2012-summer-exhibition-at-the-royal-academy-of-arts-london/">Aesthetica
Magazine</a> “The idea for the chess paintings came out of my time at
Goldsmiths, partly as a reflection on the strategic language applied in art
discourse. I was also interested in Marcel Duchamp’s abandonment of art for
chess – a ‘move’ in itself and something viewed as a direct challenge to the
whole enterprise of painting. These elements combined, paradoxically, opened up
a space for painting. Both activities (chess & painting) share an
oscillation between the arenas of the eye and of the mind. The paintings are
based on transcriptions of games played by Duchamp, the path of each move
painted in sequence in white or black gesso.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a serious chess player Duchamp
kept a record of his moves in the games he played and Hackney’s study of the
games has resulted in the paintings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he explained to </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.axisweb.org/archive/news-and-views/in-focus/laf-tom-hackney/">Axis
Web </a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“T</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">he games
were all originally played by Duchamp. As a serious player, Duchamp recorded
many of his games by notation, as is common practice, to be studied later and
reviewed to see how the game took its course. These notations have since been
assimilated into various online databases,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">books</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;"> </span></b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">and articles which I have researched
and collected as source material for the paintings.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Whilst the paintings are built up using black and white the
colored versions relate to Duchamp’s design for a colored chess set.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As Hackney has said “</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Duchamp assigned colors to the
different pieces in relation to their movement and strategic power. The
resulting paintings locate themselves more emphatically within a tradition of
abstract painting but without taking a typical route to their form.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it is a tribute to Hackney’s skill as a painter that
these transcriptions of Duchamp’s games are so aesthetically pleasing to the
eye.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which Hackney says “I think the aesthetic of this work
resides in an overall form. We all have an awareness of chess to a lesser or
greater extent, and the same can be said for painting. Perhaps in this work
both elements can balance each other, without prioritizing painting over chess
or form over content</span>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Hackney’s exhibition of these works </span><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">Corresponding
Squares: Painting the Chess Games of Marcel Duchamp</span></i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;"> is currently on show at </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Saint Louis</span> <a href="http://www.worldchesshof.org/exhibitions/exhibit/corresponding-squares/">World
Chess Hall of Fame</a> until the 11<sup>th</sup> of September.</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-PH; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-PH;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-56873654192548355622016-05-18T08:00:00.000+08:002016-05-18T08:11:53.632+08:00The Art of Simplicity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“The frames choose
the photographs actually.</span>”<br />
<span style="line-height: 107%;">Jefferson Hayman<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In what he describes as “A
reverse way of creating the final product I guess,” the New York photographer <a href="http://www.jeffersonhayman.com/">Jefferson Hayman</a> uses his hand made antique
frames to determine their contents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As he told the <a href="https://sycamorereview.com/2006/07/01/the-frames-choose-the-photographs-an-interview-with-jefferson-hayman/">Sycamore
Review’s</a> Juliette Ludeker “My studio walls are filled with empty, antique
frames. The sizes and various elements of the frame dictate what photograph
will go inside.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">It was while he was studying
for his </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">Bachelor
of Arts degree from Kutztown University that Hayman learned his frame making
skills and appreciation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">As
he explained in 2015 to </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.siegelgale.com/simplifiers-jefferson-hayman/">Siegel+Gale’s Simplifiers blog</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"> “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">When I was back in art school, I needed a job, and I had two
options: a dishwasher, or picture framer. Those were the only two jobs
available and I had already been a dishwasher for longer than I care to say. So
I decided that I would take this job as a picture framer and learn a skill—and
also hopefully get free art supplies, which I needed at the time. After taking
the job, I realized the importance of the picture frame. It’s this DMZ between
the art and the world. It’s that last area, a border basically, between
reality, and the reality of what the artist is creating on the page.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">And within these borders Hayman places his nostalgic styled photographs
that strive for a </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">timelessness aesthetic of simplicity.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which he says “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">The more simple a composition, I have always thought, speaks
louder than a more complicated one. There’s a phrase out there: “A whisper is
more powerful than a shout,” that’s something that I think about when composing
work or when formalizing an idea. I think it evokes a sense of contemplation. A
lot of artwork these days doesn’t require that you stand in front of it for too
long. A lot of it is flash and pop-oriented images. But what I’d like to do,
what I hope to do, is to engage the viewer to contemplate my works in hopes
that it stays with them once they’ve moved beyond my artwork.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hayman’s current exhibition
<i>Limerence</i> is on show at New York’s <a href="http://robinricegallery.com/currentexhibition/index.shtml">Robin Rice
Gallery</a> until the 19<sup>th</sup> of June. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-55730081219935920232016-05-16T08:04:00.000+08:002016-05-16T08:04:04.553+08:00From Street to Studio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“My four days in county jail were
horrible,<br />
but disappointing my parents was a million times worse.”<br />
<span style="background: white;">Andrew Hem</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the figurative artist and illustrator <a href="http://www.andrewhem.com/">Andrew Hem</a> doing jail time for his
graffiti exploits was the turning point in life that saw him change from illicit
street art to fine art.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he told the <a href="http://www.erraticphenomena.com/2009/02/andrew-hems-interior-worlds.html">Erratic
Phenomena Blog’s</a> Amanda Erlanson “I think that a majority of graffiti
artists pursue the life of an artist or graphic designer after their graffiti
career is over – mainly because there aren’t that many jobs available for
felons. When they turn graffiti into a felony, you kind of have to be
self-employed after you get caught. A few of my friend can’t find any jobs
because of this, and turned to a life of drug dealing.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
son of Cambodian refugees who ended up in Los Angeles after fleeing the genocide
of the Khmer Rouge, Hem found his first friends as a teenager with the clandestine
outsiders of the street art world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
he has said “It was hard for me to make friends, but when I started graffiti, I
was finally labeled into a group, and that’s when I started having friends.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">But
Hem’s brush with the law saw him change tack and in 2006 he graduated from the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Art Center College of Art and Design</span> with a BFA in
illustration. From collaborating with brands like <span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Adidas, Lucky Brand Jeans and Sony Pictures</span> Hem’s career has
evolved into shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, New York, London and
Zurich.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Drawing on the urban sensibilities
of Los Angeles which he combines with the rural animistic society of his Khmer heritage,
Hem produces </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">dreamlike
memories inspired by personal experiences that vary from back packing in Europe
to returning to his roots in Asia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">As he
told the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/andrew-hem-unknown-terrai_b_8308992.html">Huffington
Post’s</a> John Seed “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">I’ve been fortunate to travel
to some amazing places. And from that I’ve met some amazing people and
experiences. Life experiences turns to stories which then turns into paintings.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">About which he has elaborated, telling <strong><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-weight: normal; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://hifructose.com/2016/05/10/andrew-hem-paints-haunting-leaping-figures-in-mountain-full/">Hi-Fructose magazine</a></span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> </span></strong><span style="background: white;">“I love creating worlds that do not exist. A world
where people don’t care about others’ appearance, and nobody has to worry about
fitting in or being an outcast. Where everyone is accepted. No necks, long
arms, no nose, blue faces are all normal. This is a world that doesn’t exist,
and that’s why I love creating it. I’ve experienced and witnessed too many
times where people are disgusted with what is different.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Hem’s first solo New York
exhibition </span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Mountain
Full</span></em><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;"> is on show at the </span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/exhibits/andrew-hem/">Jonathan LeVine
Gallery </a><span class="apple-converted-space">until the 11<sup>th</sup> of
June.</span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-72957885318351057542016-05-14T08:38:00.000+08:002016-05-14T08:38:55.123+08:00Photography as Advocacy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGj3oh8BKSaWlaOE9dFQlEKbWti83O9sWMnQBW8ZFRjO2QFFAiR1uBOOESCjgAN-GznFf0XyJPvTc0xeYgVh25MnmAo8VoUyFPXH798aXW-769yLCOBS_WLS15A3czjviW3bj6hA/s1600/DD-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGj3oh8BKSaWlaOE9dFQlEKbWti83O9sWMnQBW8ZFRjO2QFFAiR1uBOOESCjgAN-GznFf0XyJPvTc0xeYgVh25MnmAo8VoUyFPXH798aXW-769yLCOBS_WLS15A3czjviW3bj6hA/s400/DD-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">“The
stewardship of natural resources<br />
and the challenging complexity of human interaction with our world<br />
are of utmost importance to me.”<br />
</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">Dornith Doherty<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">The </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">University of North Texas</span>’ Research Professor
of Photography, <a href="http://dornithdoherty.com/wp/">Dornith Doherty’s</a>
interest in the environment is a driving force behind her photography.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As she said of her
turn of the century <i>Constructed
Landscapes</i> project “By combining the precise detailing of photographic
realism with the extravagant exaggeration of the still life, my photographs
navigate the border between nature and artifice in order to explore my interest
in the human presence in the environment.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">With projects that have included
the examination of US and Mexican cultures in her Rio Grande project and the resilience
of coyotes in her back yard, Doherty’s current preoccupation is the </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">exploration of “the role of seed banks and their preservation
efforts in the face of climate change</span>.”<span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;"> </span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Archiving Eden </span></em><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">has been an eight year and counting labor of
love for Doherty.<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">As she told <a href="http://hyperallergic.com/157465/archiving-eden-ahead-of-the-apocalypse/">Hyperallergic’s</a> </span></em><span class="author"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 107%;">Laura Mallonee</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span>“</span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Archiving
Eden</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">was
inspired by an article about the opening of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault near
the North Pole. When I read John Seabrook’s “</span><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/27/sowing-for-apocalypse">Sowing for Apocalypse</a>” in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);">The</em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);"> </span></span><em style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);">New Yorker</em><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);">, the simultaneously pessimistic and optimistic
aspects of a global seed vault built to save the word’s botanical life from
catastrophic events made a profound impression on me.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since 2008 Doherty has collaborated with biologists around
the world from the US to Australia, from Britain to the Arctic circle documenting
the vital role seed banks play in protecting the genetic diversity of both wild
and agricultural species.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Doherty has also explored the poetic beauty inherent in her
core subject matter through the use of x-ray photography.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which said in an exhibition press release “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">The amazing visual power
of magnified x-ray images, which springs from the technology’s ability to
record what is invisible to the human eye, illuminates my considerations not
only of the complex philosophical, anthropological, and ecological issues
surrounding the role of science and human agency in relation to gene banking,
but also of the poetic questions about life and time on a macro and micro scale.”
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To
which she has added “<span style="background: white;">And while they are an
incomplete and subjective response to this global effort, it is my hope that
these poetic visual artifacts may inspire conversation and awareness of this
important effort.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Doherty’s
current exhibition <i>Stow </i>is on show at
the <a href="http://www.hcponline.org/exhibits/exhibitions/view/107/dornith-doherty">Houston
Center for Photography</a> until the 10<sup>th</sup> of July.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-77917461160201987612016-05-12T08:01:00.000+08:002016-05-12T08:01:10.552+08:00Stories in the Abstract<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZVm6PRRU-xisCzWgLeEVCLq1uTsttfP1cIX_aQq4OVTeotL-_y40sk5LPdh8zMEgC1BBJtO5ZSxQqPIfuJBx4G0taCFAR8K8Vo_UnkMKk44QUD7RMij9h0rEASTLR8aou8UUuHg/s1600/NB-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZVm6PRRU-xisCzWgLeEVCLq1uTsttfP1cIX_aQq4OVTeotL-_y40sk5LPdh8zMEgC1BBJtO5ZSxQqPIfuJBx4G0taCFAR8K8Vo_UnkMKk44QUD7RMij9h0rEASTLR8aou8UUuHg/s640/NB-1.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’ve had this constant interest in
mythology and storytelling<br />
and its presence through time.”<br />
<span style="background: white;">Natasha<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Bowdoin<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the Houston based artist <a href="http://www.natashabowdoin.com/">Natasha Bowdoin</a> reading is an
integral part of her practice, from being the well spring for her inspiration
to her solace when the gods of creativity turn their backs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As Bowdoin told the <a href="http://www.angelafraleigh.com/blog/2014/7/24/5-questions-with-natasha-bowdoin">Angela
Fraleigh blog</a> “When I’m feeling confused about the thinking behind new work
I usually gravitate towards reading. Reading from my pool of source material
usually lets me refocus and find the crux of the work. I try to constantly
replenish the books I read – outside the realm of visual art – from poetry,
mythology, fiction, naturalist accounts, etc. That keeps things fresh, visually
and conceptually, in the studio.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For Bowdoin is an intuitive artist, her beginnings don’t know
their ends.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As she told <a href="http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/index.php/interview/index/163/93">…might
be good’s</a> Wendy Vogel “There is no plan for the final image. Usually what
happens is that I first have to accrue a pile of raw drawing material. Once I
have this material I can start to investigate how to organize, layer and
assemble it. I think of it like gardening. I have to grow the material that I’m
going to use first and then I can harvest it to use in the actual making. Sometimes
drawings that are intended to be discrete pictorial images get cut up and integrated
into something else. I find I can’t get anywhere compelling if I plan out the
process ahead of time. Things have to be allowed to accumulate and fall away in
an unpredictable fashion for the work to get interesting.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From
this process Bowdoin builds her abstract collaged drawings about which the Monya
Rowe Gallery has said “That play of pattern and disorder are at the core of
Bowdoin’s work. Each layer collapses into chaos only to return to some kind of
natural order. In Roberto Bolaño’s 1996 short novel, Distant Star, Bruno
Schulz’s writing is described by the protagonist: “I was reading, but the words
were passing by like incomprehensible beetles, busy in an enigmatic world”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bowdoin’s
current exhibition <i>Animal Print</i> is on
show at Florida’s <a href="http://www.monyarowegallery.com/exhibition-images.php?exnID=113">Monya
Rowe Gallery</a> until the 24<sup>th</sup> of July.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-28319690910116796492016-05-07T08:01:00.000+08:002016-05-07T08:01:15.655+08:00Fun in the Unknown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">The artist plays the
role of a strange kind of bridge between class structures.”<br />
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">The Taiwanese-American</span>
painter <a href="http://www.katherinemann.net/">Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann</a> had travelled
much of the world, the United States, Asia and the Middle East before
she started on her career as an artist. It was a life that saw her mostly as the
outsider looking in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As she told <a href="http://www.eastcityart.com/profiles/wade-carey-interviews-katherine-tzu-lan-mann-on-the-eve-of-her-show-slurry-at-studio-h/">East
City Art’s</a> Wade Carey “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">When I was a kid moving around, I was very
bad at making friends. I was not social, really, at all.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it is an aesthetic that has found its way into her work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which she says in a <a href="http://www.katherinemann.net/artiststatement.htm">statement</a> about
painting “</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">I</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"> think of my work as baroque
abstract: a celebration of the abundance of connections and clashes that can be
found in the disparate mess of matter in the world.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mann’s
abstract paintings start from a chance encounter of pigment and paper upon
which she builds a complex mixed-media expression of western abstraction
influenced by Chinese and Japanese traditional ink painting techniques.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
she explains “I begin each piece with a stain of color, the product of chance
evaporation of ink and water from the paper as it lies on the floor of the
studio. From this shape, I nourish the landscape of each painting, coaxing from
this organic foundation the development of diverse, decorative forms: braids of
hair, details from Beijing opera costuming, lattice-work, sequined patterns.
Although founded in adornment, these elements are repeated until they too
appear organic, even cancerous... and they at once highlight and suffocate the
underlying ink stained foundation.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">Mann
developed this process after receiving a critique from the Abstract Expressionist
artist<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Grace Hartigan whilst studying
for her Master of Fine Art at the </span><em><span style="font-style: normal;">Maryland Institute College of Art.</span></em><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
Mann recalls “She<span style="background: white;"> came into my studio and said,
“You’re not a painter, you’re a draftsman.” At the time, I thought of myself as
a painter but I was making these pieces that were very graphic and very
controlled. I was interested in the control. She was the person that I would
completely credit with the idea of the stain, the idea of bringing in the physicality
and the spontaneity of paint. It is all because of Grace Hartigan’s kind-of
mean crit to me during those first couple weeks of grad school.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mann
now revels in her process. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
she told the Carroll County Times “It’s fun to make something when you don’t
know how it will end.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">Mann’s
current exhibition Empire Builder is on show at New York’s </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://gallerynine5.com/exhibitions.php">Gallery
nine 5</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> until the 12<sup>th</sup> of
June.</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-68556443543197347512016-05-05T08:07:00.000+08:002016-05-05T08:07:47.431+08:00A Search for Simplicity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“Life is interesting
if you let it be.</span>”<br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal;">Carmen
Herrera<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></div>
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<em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Cuban artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Herrera">Carmen Herrera</a>, who has lived in
New York for last 62 years, sold her first painting at the age of 89. In
September of 2016 the 101-year-old artist will have a solo retrospective
exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art.<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">After attending a finishing school in Paris, Herrera returned to Havana
in 1935 to study architecture and four years later she was married to the
American teacher</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Jesse Loewenthal</span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">, had given up architecture and moved to New
York.<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">About her 70-year marriage Herrera told the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/nov/21/carmen-herrera-artist-interview">Guardian Newspaper’s</a> </span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Hermione Hoby</span> “<span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">I</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> always used to say:
my husband, he likes to teach and I like to learn.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In New York she took up painting which quickly turned into a vocation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%;">As she told the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/8207018/Carmen-Herrera-Is-it-a-dream.html">Telegraph Newspaper’s</a> </span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Helena de
Bertodano</span> “<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">It hit me in New York. I realized
one day, my God, I’m an artist, how horrible.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After the Second World War the
couple moved to Paris. And it was in Paris that Herrera discovered the hard
edge geometric abstraction that was to become the mainstay of her oeuvre.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">About which she explained “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">I was in
Paris at the time. I was walking around and I found something called Nouvelles
Réalités [a salon of artists focusing on abstract art]. And that was an
eye-opener. I thought this is what I want to do. I went to the studio and I
worked and worked and worked and worked. I was angry that I didn't know about
this before.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">And thus began her life long quest, about which she reminisced
in 2005 “I began a lifelong process of purification, a process of taking away
what isn’t essential.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the early 1950’s the couple
returned to New York and Herrera continued to paint in relative obscurity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As she says “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Things
happen in a funny way. I mean you have to be in the right place at the right
time, which I always managed not to be. But at the same time, people were not
ready to receive my work. Years ago somebody called Rose Fried had a very avant-garde
gallery in New York and said she was thinking of giving me a show. Then I went
back to the gallery and she said, you know, Carmen, you can paint circles
around the men artists that I have but I'm not going to give you a show because
you're a woman. I felt as if someone had slapped me on the face. I felt for the
first time what discrimination was. It's a terrible thing. I just walked out.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Undeterred Herrera continued with
her work and her quest which she says “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">is for the simplest
of pictorial resolutions.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>To
which she has added “</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">There is nothing
I love more than to make a straight line. How can I explain it? It’s the
beginning of all structures, really.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Herrera’s self-titled exhibition
of recent paintings is currently on show and New York’s <a href="http://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/carmen-herrera-recent-works">Lisson
Gallery</a> until the 11<sup>th</sup> of June.</span></span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-60053859238790844772016-04-30T08:59:00.000+08:002016-04-30T11:11:16.795+08:00With Lace in the Limelight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRsNzJ2zcmq6f-MDXmlG1xn2X8tBYX29EGojQv2e-1P1N9ZQ3O69SOGm_Jps9NX5fhCRcJDASrvfGpDMY2LotKO96tC5ravbtTtNcngHx-Z7vlPyqtaiwYegYCGQXh1JLguLQT9w/s1600/DF-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRsNzJ2zcmq6f-MDXmlG1xn2X8tBYX29EGojQv2e-1P1N9ZQ3O69SOGm_Jps9NX5fhCRcJDASrvfGpDMY2LotKO96tC5ravbtTtNcngHx-Z7vlPyqtaiwYegYCGQXh1JLguLQT9w/s640/DF-1.jpg" width="369" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I loved
being on stage.”<br />
Mark Flood<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Houston based artist/musician <a href="https://www.artsy.net/artist/mark-flood">Mark Flood</a> has been making
art and music for all his life but only found commercial success in his early
40’s. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During Flood’s high school years, he was obsessed with art “Making art
was just this way of processing my emotions or [that] tried to give my life
meaning,” he has said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whilst studying art in college Flood developed an interest in Punk rock
and performance by becoming the vocalist for the Industrial Punk band
Culturecide who played underground venues and espoused establishment angst.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As he told the <a href="http://www.zachfeuer.com/wp-content/uploads/MF_ANPQuarterly2.pdf">ANP
Quarterly’s</a> Brendan Fowler “I tell you, Brendan, the thing about me is that
I like to connect with an audience, I think the audience is a necessary part of
the equation, but for whatever reason I really don’t give a shit what the
audience thinks. As long as they’re not killing me; that’s my boundary. I feel
like you have to have an audience, I don’t want to do stuff in obscurity, but I’m
not living for the roar of the crowd. My main satisfaction is just making the
stuff.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To support his music making and his art during the 1980’s and early 90’s
Flood work at a variety of jobs that ranged from being a clerk for Texaco to an
assistant at the Menil Collection. And his art, like his music, was always
seeking the edge as a critique of the status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">About which he has said “All my attempts to be in commercial galleries
with my art were never very successful. It was always a bad fit… As every
struggling artist knows, it’s a bitch and it grinds your soul down to the nub.
And yet you have to do it, because otherwise you’re doing your art and just
sticking it in your attic. I never thought the lace paintings would be
commercial, I had never had any commercial success, but I’d come to see that to
keep doing new stuff you had to have a new technique. If you use old techniques,
you can only express old ideas.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Flood’s new technique was to use lace sourced from Thrift shops as part
of the process in making his paintings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As he told the <a href="http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/mark-flood-will-boone-the-future-is-ow#_">Interview
Magazine’s</a> Joseph Akel “I was entirely inspired by David Hickey’s 1993
book, <i>The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays
on Beauty</i>, how ugly art can exist when you have an art bureaucracy
providing an audience. But, for an artist wanting to give an audience otherwise,
beauty is one way to do that. That was news to me. And it begged the question, what
exactly is beauty? So I started studying, looking for technical means, and as
soon as I started looking for it, it kind of popped up in front of me.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Flood’s lace paintings, that some have called “spinster abstraction”
have been a commercial success beyond the artist’s imagining.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And as he told the <a href="http://www.zachfeuer.com/wp-content/uploads/MF_NYTimes_2012.pdf">New York
Times’</a> Randy Kennedy “I didn’t know they would be popular, though people
sometimes assume that it was some calculated sellout on my part. Because if I
could calculate how to sell out, I wanted to wait until 2000. My life changed
dramatically. I no longer need some art professional Standing there saying, “This
is good because of Jasper Johns, because of Duchamp,” because someone was
coming up to me saying: “That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Here’s
$5000.” And then I quit my job.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The survey exhibition of his works </span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">Mark Flood:</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;"> </span></i></span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">Gratest</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;"> </span></i></span><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;">Hits</span></em><em><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-style: normal; line-height: 107%; padding: 0cm;"> is currently on show at the <a href="http://camh.org/exhibitions/mark-flood-gratest-hits#.VyP_QTB97IW">Contemporary Arts Museum Houston</a>
until the 7<sup>th</sup> of August.</span></em></span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-PH;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-29924119886442530682016-04-27T08:04:00.000+08:002016-04-27T08:04:22.459+08:00Avoiding the Political<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVwLNO0aB0WW3bgaElmgxxJntyImFrMVDLMa-NfabGbUCsHfk-AtLygG2hdGyPBfeLL2zvHRbuAfIdYOwo5RT8ZTLgO3cKVUDBIdBoojhX0YNfG9nlNhyoGV7sntzKXAITrC5VQ/s1600/RS-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLVwLNO0aB0WW3bgaElmgxxJntyImFrMVDLMa-NfabGbUCsHfk-AtLygG2hdGyPBfeLL2zvHRbuAfIdYOwo5RT8ZTLgO3cKVUDBIdBoojhX0YNfG9nlNhyoGV7sntzKXAITrC5VQ/s640/RS-1.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“I’m too old to have
faith in politics, but I do have faith in art.</span>”<br />
Ray Smith<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With works that incorporate magic realism, Surrealism and
Modernism the bi-cultural artist <a href="http://www.raysmithstudio.com/art/">Ray
Smith</a> has two birth certificates; one American the other Mexican.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he explained to <a href="http://www.expatica.com/es/insider-views/American-artist-Ray-Smith-on-his-work-faith-and-passion-for-Spain_102912.html">Expatica’s</a>
Kirstin Bernardi “I’ve always had two names – Mexican and American. The day
after I was born in the US, my father went across the border and paid someone
and got me a second birth certificate in Mexico. My birth certificate in US
says Ray Smith, and on the Mexican one, Raymundo Smithe Iturría. I lived in
México for 25 years, until 1985 when an earthquake damaged our house. My wife
is Mexican and we still have a house in Cuernavaca.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">During his time in Mexico Smith studied mural painting and
was exposed to the politicization of the Mexican Mural Renaissance</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“I studied muralism in Mexico when I was growing up. I worked
with another expat who came to Mexico after WWII who had been an apprentice to
the muralists. He knew all of the muralists: [José Clemente]</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> Orozco</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">, [Diego</span>]
Rivera, [Frida] Kahlo,” Smith recalled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is also drawn to the work of Spanish artists with Picasso
and Dali having had direct influences in his work to date.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he says “It is about Spanish painting, but it’s not trying
to chase after Spanish paintings. Picasso is the master of metaphysics– he’s
sort of all over the place, this big icon. If I were going to take anyone else
on, it would be Goya or Velazquez.</span> The complete, absolute magic of
Velazquez’s<span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Las Meninas</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">and some of his religious paintings – the Christ,
the bird with a piece of bread in his mouth… this man has made unbelievable paintings.
I come to Spain about five times per year, and it never gets old.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The contorted and morphed figures that populate his work are
reflections about his view of the human condition; the absurdities of society,
family, culture and war, but not the political.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he says “I think one looks more towards the humanity of
things rather than the political. By the simple fact of mentioning politics,
there’s an inhumanity already. Art should be wordless, and politics is full of
words… The only way I can address the humanity of man is not through politics,
it’s through art... maybe.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Smith’s current exhibition <i>UNguernice Drawings & Paintings</i> is on show at New York’s <a href="http://www.stuxgallery.com/exhibitions/ray-smith">Stux & Haller</a>
Gallery until the 28<sup>th</sup> of May.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-30718182454255040292016-04-25T08:01:00.000+08:002016-04-25T08:01:23.896+08:00Painting as Conversation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">“Color is more
important to me than anything else.</span>”<br />
David Reed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the American abstract painter <a href="http://www.davidreedstudio.com/">David Reed</a> painting is a two-way
conversation that both links the past and the present and the artist with their
audience and for the latter color is an integral introduction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he explained to <a href="http://blog.oregonlive.com/visualarts/2008/10/web_exclusive_an_interview_wit.html">The
Oregonian’s</a> DK Row “In the world today, we see a lot of wild and strange
color -- commercially made color, the color of cars, plastics, combined with
the natural colors of the world, combined with the media colors on television
and movies and computer screens and strange lights from all of those sources.
All of this is affecting us all of the time. But we don't have emotional
connotations for those colors. Painting is a way to deal with those emotional
connections and integrate them into this wonderful history that painting is.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the history that Reed is interested in is not the history
found in academic tombs but that which can be found on the street between like-minded
people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he told the <a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2010/03/art/in-conversation-david-reed-with-john-yau">Brooklyn
Rail’s</a> John Yau “I love that about painting. I can find my own way. The street
history is a conversation, a long conversation. Dave Hickey says it started
when two guys sat down over cappuccinos at an outdoor café in Rome about 1620.
One said he liked the Farnese ceiling by the Carracci and the other said he
liked Michelangelo’s Sistine better. They argued. Dave says that conversation
is still going on and if you want to join in, you can.</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It
is the rational that in part drives Reed’s work. “<span style="background: white;">One
of the reasons I love Baroque paintings so much is that they have all those
religious themes, but the paintings are not about that religious subject
matter. There’s a second meaning underneath. The painters used the religious
themes as metaphors to get at other subjects…<span class="apple-converted-space">
</span>What interests me about paintings are the connections to life. Paintings
are very subtle, true to emotions and feelings, which are very hard to
describe. These emotions and feelings are especially hard for me to understand
and describe verbally. Somehow through painting I can get to them,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it is through abstraction that Reed endeavors to entice
his audience to join this conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As he says “I want viewers to choose to participate and have
their own thoughts. I don’t want to control their thoughts at all. What’s
important is the connection and collaboration with the viewer, rather than
control. It’s easier to do this with abstraction, rather than figuration.</span>’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reed’s current exhibition of New Paintings is on show at New
York’s <a href="http://www.peterblumgallery.com/exhibitions/David-Reed">Peter
Blum Gallery</a> until the 25<sup>th</sup> of June.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20598656.post-31370400113385285732016-04-23T08:05:00.000+08:002016-04-23T08:05:17.356+08:00Photographic Abuse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgexwR4K5-DBgh9mxocM5jxUQOVXDws6H3j3eP8BXcEQnxWmvYWCcofB54j-NYEL9K3kY-KKPPjm0pcnV68HaTsU0fTwdTsRu48tk1QfTGhDUNP546NzJtUn_L9jQW1pBkT-C8PtA/s1600/SS-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgexwR4K5-DBgh9mxocM5jxUQOVXDws6H3j3eP8BXcEQnxWmvYWCcofB54j-NYEL9K3kY-KKPPjm0pcnV68HaTsU0fTwdTsRu48tk1QfTGhDUNP546NzJtUn_L9jQW1pBkT-C8PtA/s640/SS-1.jpg" width="402" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">"</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">I used Photoshop to create images<br />
but I used it in a way that people who do image correction would not like:<br />
I used it in an amateurish way.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">"</span><br />
Setareh Shahbazi<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the Iranian born digital
artist <a href="http://gypsumgallery.com/bio-setarehshahbazi/">Setareh Shahbazi</a>
the free association of ideas is integral to her work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">As she told the Middle East’s
English language newspaper, <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/pixel-rainbow-sequences-iranian-artist-setareh-shahbazi#page1">The
National’s</a> Kaelen Wilson-Goldie "I
really abuse photography. I even take pictures but I never show them as
photographs. For me it's a way of seeing and extracting things, and putting
them together in a different or theatrical way."</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the age of seven, Shahbazi and
her family fled Iran for Germany, her father was on the losing side of the 1979
revolution. Over the next 25 years Shahbazi studied Scenography<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"> and Media Arts at the State Academy for Art and
Design in Karlsruhe</span></strong><b> </b>and
pursued a career in the visual arts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">About which <a href="http://www.frieze.com/article/setareh-shahbazi">Frieze.com’s</a> Negar
Azimi has said “[Shahbazi] <span style="letter-spacing: .1pt;">is best known for
her precise, computer-generated images in Marvel Comics-inflected pastel shades
that sit somewhere between the aesthetic of Pop art that of a child’s coloring
book. Those works, often inspired by archival images, evoke the frame as a
stage – a place of hugely unlikely encounters. And so, a lush jungle might
mingle with a Corbusian housing complex, or a lion might roam around the Giza
pyramids alongside an oversized naked baby. That particular image universe is a
sea of moving parts, each infinitely interchangeable with the click of a mouse.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; line-height: 107%;">Shahbazi now
spends her time between Berlin and Beirut and travels regularly to Iran. On a
trip to the country of her birth in 2009 she obtained a collection of family
photographs from her early childhood in 70’s and 80’s which precipitated the
creation of her </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Spectral Days</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; line-height: 107%;"> exhibition and book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; line-height: 107%;">About which
she told <a href="https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/features/a_heap_of_broken_images">Now.com</a>
“</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">It was a long, long procedure of choosing which ones to work with,
scanning them and working out how to work with them… I went through different
phases until I found a discourse. I think the end result has really matched the
aesthetic of how I do remember things... It’s not a narrative with a beginning
and an end, it’s a bit trippy, it’s got flashbacks. Psychedelic bits appear and
then disappear again.”</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">Shahbazi’s latest works <i>Binary is a False Idol</i> is currently on
show at Cairo</span>’s <a href="http://gypsumgallery.com/upcoming-2/">Gypsum
Gallery</a> until the 24<sup>th</sup> of May.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Henry Batemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00319037905857916188noreply@blogger.com0