The Rant

One of the most inpiration text animation on the net
AND one of the Funkyest - enjoy

Figures in an Exhibition - Mc Clelland Gallery

The Figures in an Exhibition… exhibition draws together sculptures, paintings and photography from Australian art, ranging from the Colonial era, through early Modernism to the inspiring examples of the present. These various representations of the human figure reflect a variety of concepts of beauty and style as well as portraying various ideas of personal and national identity.

Within the exhibition, amongst others, the poetic feminine figures of the sculptors such as Bertram Mackennal and C.D. Richardson stand in elegant contrast to the masculine hyper-real detail of Ron Mueck and Sam Jinks figures. Figures in an Exhibition encapsulates the changing ethos of Australian art.

If found the hyper realism of Ron Mueck quite striking, not only in tis size but in its amazing detail! If someone asked me to define this style or genré of art I would show them the wild man of Ron Mueck. In The Wild Man a giant clutches at his seat. In his nakedness, unarmed he shies away from our gaze. This is a real circus strongman, caught naked and unable to defend himself from our presence and our gaze. His eyes wide open fend us off and there is an expression of "whoa – what are you doing here?

The other art piece that engaged my attention simply because of its rarity and weightiness in terms of how profound Edgar Degas’s work was and is in the stream of time. I like the idea of is cheekiness and how Edgar Degas’s art works/poses always seem hold a very private or intimate pose, as if the viewer was not suppose to be look at the portrayed model – like a “peeping tom”, or as I like to call him a “dirty old man” (which in this case I use as a term of endearment).

Edgar Degas’s Dancer Looking at the Sole of Her Right Foot (fourth state), The figure is one of four in a series of surviving figures—each in a slightly different position but all doing the same thing—that exemplify Degas' fascination with subtle changes in the dynamics of movement. This one was long thought to be the final one in the series owing to its relatively finished surface, but one of Degas' models asserted that in 1910 she was asked by the artist to assume the difficult pose of the plaster cast while he modeled another small figure. So it seems that, in fact, the less finished versions are likely to be the later ones.




As for the rest of the sculptures I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and this time there was no question as to what was and what is art, there was in almost all case’s a cense of awe with the sculptures. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Robbie Rowlands's - The Offering

The Offering is a contemporary art installation in a century old church and community hall in Dandenong
earmarked for demolition, created by Robbie Rowlands in a single story weatherboard church and community hall. The Church was officially opened in August 1904. In this same month – 105 years later – Rowlands’ arts intervention took place. The artwork is produced using only the materials contained within its walls to create a visually powerful site specific installation. It reveals the history of the site through exposed layers and sculptural forms that peel and bend the inner surfaces of the building.

The Offering is open for two weeks prior to the site being demolished, to enable construction of the George Street Bridge. The Offering provides the community the opportunity to experience for the final time a church and community hall that has housed local meetings and prayer for some 105 years.

The Offering builds a bridge between removing structures from the landscape and building them back up again. It provides an opportunity for the community to witness change in their community, and to share their own personal memories of times in important and historic spaces. This project is a marriage between the practice of an artist who seeks rare opportunities to work with pre-demolition sites, and organisations who recognise that within the context of urban renewal, there is an obligation to honour, reflect, discuss and record the things that are being lost in the process of change.

Rowlands work is made all the more poignant as the timber floors had already been removed in anticipation of the demolition, leaving only the supporting stumps and bare earth. “The bare earth presented an ideal opportunity for this work and the community to consider the raw landscape. With the buildings removed we are invited to consider if the land alone can retain a kind of memory or is it just defined by the structures we build,”

Rowland also made the comment about his photographing the piece he has constructed as saying “the church is celebrated through his images”. Rowland’s was and is celebrating the church’s “good innings” in terms of its life span as a church. Not only this but his aim was also the encourage the inner child we all have within us the be enchanted by the this (the offering’s) space. He likened it to exploring a hunted house or exploring something new like an abounded house.

“I am hoping my work allows the community a chance to reflect on their own connection to the land and to be part of its transition.” - Robbie Rowlands, artist.

The question was asked of Robbie “Do you call this art??”, his reply was most interesting. Whilst calm and controlled he gave a witty and most artistic answer to the question. He said “art is constantly moving,” and that what he’s done is like pottery, except “I’ve moved from the pottery wheel to a house or in this case church”.What I pulled from this exhibition in particular was that art is a perception not so much an understanding, I find that Robbie is an artist with a vision, and he is willing to push past that “tall popie syndrome” and push is art to the next level witch is out side the realms of most people’s understanding and hopefully will find its way into there perception.



Some other pics I took
In remeberance of the Offering





and my fovorite the baptism bath

ACCA Visit "The Dwelling"

To begin with I wasn’t looking forward to going into the city having to deal with the weather etc, however after trudging though the acca door and into the art space and inspecting this exhibition called the dwelling which was a collaboration of International artists exploring the ghostly inhabitations of the ‘home’.
In an all new group show at ACCA, presented as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Curated by ACCA’s Artistic Director Juliana Engberg and organised by Hannah Mathews,The Dwelling brings together a series of spooky works from leading contemporary artists, each exploring the surreal, the haunted and the very strange.

Artists included are Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Chantal Akerman, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, David Haines & Joyce Hinterding, Michaela Melián, Callum Morton, David Noonan & Simon Tevaks, Sofia Hultén and Calum Stirling.

The idea behind this exhibition was to look at the “home” in an eary spooky light, a spooky creepy psychical way of perceiving the home or.....(more creepily put).... “The Dwelling”
Apart from the whole creepy spooky theme, that had going on the art pieces that stood out to me where:

Callum Morton
International Style (1999)
Morton reconstructs Mies van der Rohe’s infamous Farnsworth House (built in Illinois, 1945-1950) with the laughing, chattering and glass-tinkling of a cocktail party culminating in the sound of gunshots and desperate screams. Not only the way it was set up but the story behind it I found very interesting and eccentric.

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
Opera for small room (2005)
Cardiff and Miller’s Opera for small room is a tour de force of sound and effects. Their absent protagonist is evoked by lights, a gravelly voice, and the mechanistic theatre of record turntables, and shadow plays. The viewer is privy to the private world of some sinister hermit. He lives in the woods or plains: somewhere remote for sure. A wolf howls around the hut. This pieces was just awesome, the way it was put togeather, the way everything work with each other was very impressive.


and another one i took when no one was watching....

Herbie at his finest



Would have loved to have been there and seen it live in 1975
Very cool stuff

how cool are these!!

by the artist know as EELUS





^^^ I so want one of those to walk round the block with



Cool huh?

Kareem Rizk's Talk

Kareem Rizk is a Melbourne based Australian artist who graduated from Monash University in 2004 with a Bachelor in Graphic Design. This course encouraged the exploration of a rich and diverse array of mixed media techniques which has always been evident in his work. During the course, Rizk developed a great appreciation for collage and it became a regularly explored medium.

Rizk’s initial ambition was to forge a career as a Graphic Designer. Previous work includes a position as a Graphic Designer for Melbourne’s No.1 selling newspaper, The Herald Sun, as well as freelance design for various large and small clients.
However, it was a short time after the completion of the university course that Rizk’s creative interests began to turn to fine art, particularly mixed media collage. While working as a Graphic Designer, the interest in collage continued to develop and eventually became the focus of Rizk’s endeavours.


Rizk started making collages in 2005. But it wasn’t until sometime later when an emphasis on exposing the work began. After leaving the Herald Sun newspaper in March 2006 Rizk started work on a large body of collage work. In June 2006 Rizk starting promoting his work. After only a few months of promoting his work Rizk was offered several opportunities for printed publication and exposure in Australia, USA and the UK. Shortly after this came offers to exhibit his artwork in galleries.

Often what you’ll find in his work is that the faces/eyes have cut out and alot of the images apprear to be aged and stained - vintage. This is because he uses image from particular magazines from 50’s & 60’ sometimes 70’s. He uses these image because they are largely out of copyright and he appreciates the aged vintage look. However to be extra carefully, he scratches or erodes around the person in the photo’s eyes and face, so as to be absolutely safe from infringing copyright.

He will use this effect, and that of staining the paper to give a real period “patina” to his work, this will involve mixing coffee and water to get the desire staining. He will also tear and scratch up paper scan them in and layer them to give the right texture and feel.

Rizk would have to be one of my favourite artist that I have seen “in this course” so far, however once Rizk show us his influence’s (those being various pop & op artist among those was Peter Blake) and after seeing this it became apparent to me how similar his work was to this influence’s & inspiration so much so that you could get the two mixed up! Which is unfortunate, because one of the thing most I value in art & artist is originally it can be similar but, this is a big but, not too similar that you could get the two mixed up..

All in all I enjoyed his talk and his artwork, however similar to other artist, he may have my adoration but not my respect.

Some of his work:







My favorite