While i'm at it...

http://www.thefaceofpanic.blogspot.co.nz/

Tao and Laura Wells have started doing podcasts/downloadable radio shows! Take a listen, they have guests from artists to politicians to well, Sue Bradford is a regular. They also have an array of crazy music to listen to between readings on contemporary art subjects and theories as well as political readings. It's a rather educational and at times buzzy experience, but none the less, give it a whirl!
They're already up to episode 5 and they're all available from the site above.

In this episode you'll hear Dick Whyte (Who also did the film The Happy Bene) and Sue Bradford as well as the readings;

-Franco "Bifo" Berardi. (2009). The Soul at Work, from alienation to autonomy (p.37). Los Angeles CA: Semiotext(e). 

-Peter Burger. (1989). Theory of the Avant-Garde (pp.44-46). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

-Malcolm X, with the assistance of Alex Haley. (1968). The Autobiography of Malcolm X (pp.143-147). England: Penguin Books.

Iron Lass vs. Happy Bene

Actually this is a super interesting thing to watch after i've just watched The Iron Lady, (starring the wonderous Meryl Streep) a film about the tough old broad herself, Margaret Thatcher.

Photo from here

Her policies are somewhat familiar to some in our own country, contributing to the gap between the rich and the poor growing larger. And I don't know everything! The movie,The Iron Lady, left me with a lot of questions as to who she was and what happened in that time, but when as I'm watching The Happy Bene - the film below- I'm feeling a strange natural juxtaposition.

People are forced into jobs where they sit stagnent and unhappy, so what do we do about it, as a society? Is being on the benefit a waste of tax payers money? (My opinion is one for later.) Where does that money go otherwise? Maggie T clearly had a mindset of get off your ass and get yourself a job and make something of your life, and that's an amazing outlook to have, but she also went so far as to try and impliment the same tax for everyone, regardless of whether you were employed or not. The issues and questions Tao Wells raises in The Happy Bene are legitimate concerns we can all question.

I'm rambling, so listen to this!

First Thursdays/Zinefest

Last week was First Thursday, clearly named by being the first Thursday of the month, where the galleries and spaces around Auckland bustle with exhibition openings and events. Some studio pals and I made our way around Auckland, up from Symonds Street to K Road to Ponsonby and down to Audio Foundation on Poynton Tce.

Ben Pyne had his solo exhibition, 'Axis' down at Audio Foundation;

"Ben Pyne is interested in forming work where the label ‘viewer’ becomes obsolete and is replaced by the term ‘participant’. The idea that one no longer simply views a work, but experiences it through multiple senses and modes of perception — from physical to conceptual, are activated in his immersive installation. His practice is concerned with the physicality of sound — the haptic qualities that sound and noise possess. Sound is created by physical contact between two surfaces — it is a synesthetic combination of radiance and contact. In his work, sound is amplified and abstracted, converted into unperceivable digital information and then re-converted into some other form of perceivable phenomena — how a sound feels rather that what it represents." - audiofoundation.org.nz

I may be a bit biased when it comes to Ben's work, but it's really is so engaging. At this exhibition he had small contraptions which rubbed two rods together, making a sound somewhat like chalk. He placed these contraptions in inconspicuous places in a stairwell. You hear them before you see them, therefore you're actively looking for the little things all the time, wondering whether there are more or less of them then you see or think, and where the hell they are. Inside the space, along with some videos works which I admittedly didn't spend much time with, was a massive circular, incredibly slow spinning rod that you could duck under and stand in the middle of. I want to talk to Ben more about this work as I wasn't sure exactly what was going on but it was fascinating just to watch people engage and engage myself with the contraction.

Here are some others we had a look at: (Click titles to visit the Gallery Sites)

BLACK ASTERISK

ART STATION

OBJECTSPACE



THE KEEP

I suppose a good way to break the ice is to play a song.

So ah, here's a song.

TryingTimesDEMO by Lessons.