Yes indeedy, nice arvo for a fire

My first large print from my first solo show called Shiver at First Draft Gallery plus assorted half written attempts at a thesis plus Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre which has been by my side for longer than some of you have been alive -o.

First Memory of Sydney from Mark

After being back I seem to have a clearer view on my first memory of sydney.

AIR
The first memory would be the view from the plane. Clear distinction between water and land which seemed to be the way nature designed it.

GROUND
Walking through PItt Street and George Street with Ash, Trying to find typical australian fastfood.

Meghans Project

So this is Meghan´s Project:

you project is about the way you relate to the city. Its just the two of you, no other human beings involved. (It can also be the way the city views meghan!) What is special about this relationship? You can use any medium you like, but there should be a combination of at least two. Have fun.

carlys project

Carly.

So you call Sydney home? and it is "waaaaaay better than NYC". OK so what is home? Take 6 images of home that are NOT of your family, your family home/ relative or any of their home/s , your friends or their home/s. In fact no residential building should be in your work in any way. The 6 images should all be of very different aspects of 'home'. NO series.
THEN....
make a corpse of each image. These must be in colour medium format and not NOT of what you see... not the location itself. Interpret but no photoshop. Colour should be used evocatively and not a real life translation.
THEN>
Make /find an object for each of the 6 corpses.
THEN+
a word for each object.
post the 6 x four translations
xs

To Amy from Jacquelyn.

Dearest Amy,

I would like you to make a video of yourself. You must be in full frame. ( Must see Amy face and Amy mouth and Amy Eyes) I would like you talk for a minimum of 5 minutes (there is to be no planned monologue, this must all be improvisational.) And in this video you must tell a minimum of two jokes/funny anecdotes pertaining to Sydney and New York or go on the length of the video about something that you find REALLY funny about both Syd and NY. Also you must enjoy this assignment.

Love,

Jax

Walking The Gap

I realized while I was doing this yesterday that it's pretty much a corpse of Caitlin's walking in sync with heartbeats idea. But instead I'm retracing steps so many have taken, calling to attention the altered perspective and significance of each step on the climb to the top. (After doing some research I discovered that over 50 people each year commit suicide by throwing themselves off The Gap.)

Eva shot video and Ash did these stills with me yesterday. Feedback would be great, and I'll try to get the video up soon.

First Memory of Sydney (as requested by simone)

Jessie and Icarus had just retrieved me and my enormous pink duffel bag from the airport. We had to return an hour to pick up Chris so rather than drive to Bondi she took me to a small river inlet by an industrial park and a grassy hill cut into by a crumbling sidewalk. The river is protected by a linked fence and the air is surprisingly chilling; a wet damp bite, but the sun is high and warm on my face.

I don't know why we are laughing but the three of us are. Jessie is saying she thought I must need to breathe fresh air and see even the smallest bit of water, to feel the sereated blades of grass after the hours I had just spent packed into the airplane. she is right. I am feeling too turned around to actualize that the landscape that I'm looking at isn't an American one.

To Simone Douglas from Mr C

Your instructions:

Talk about Sydney and New York using appropriated pictures and/or words. Be graphic.

its time...

to change our user photograph! no more cold winter ferry ride! i don't know how to do that, but i think we need a sydney update

to the dark lord from pinky

darling chris

make a PERSONAL work that reflects your EMOTIONAL responses to being back in New York. Make your emotions visible to the viewer. It should be about present feelings, so no history lessons! it can be photographic, video, writing, sculpture, whatever.

good luck! can't wait to see.

simone the suspense is killing me.

(!!!)

To Eva from Jim

Step I
Collect the following:
1. Your favorite image. (One that you have made.)
2. A book written by your most significant influence – preferably theory, criticism, or psychology.
3. The latest copy of your dissertation.

Step II
Build firebox.

Step III
Place items from Step I in fire box.

Step IV
Apply liberal amounts of charcoal lighter fluid and light with match. Please observe proper safety precautions and local laws or request assistance from professional arsonist.

Step V
Watch burn. This step is best enjoyed with your favorite beverage. Avoid smoke as it maybe toxic.

Step VI
Let cool.

Step VII
Collect ashes.

Step VIII
Create minor masterwork form the remains, inspired by the release of energy you have just witnessed.

To Jim from Eva tee hee

Hi Jim, your task is to think about an obscure river in eastern europe, determine how that influences your identity and write fifty thousand words by next week..oh wait....thats me...

OK your task is to make a short series of self portrait performative pieces of yourself as an Australian and record them on video. You must appear in the piece in interaction with other people. You can only use your body, dress, manner and voice to convey Australianness - no props!
Have fun!

Jac, Jac, Jacquie....

How you doin'? (Imagine the creepy voice for effect, please)

My project for you is as follows:
I want you to create a work that captures the feelings you have of Sydney. These can be emotions you are feeling right now, emotions you have felt throughout the trip, or emotions you think you will feel once you leave Sydney.
I want you to capture this emotion or emotionS, BUT, you cannot take a photo. The only time you may use a camera for this piece is to document it for the blog if necessary. Otherwise, no camera for you!!
I want to be able to physically touch this piece, and I want it to be made using a medium you are not completely natural with so scultpure, painting, drawing....whatever you feel like!

Enjoy!!

Much love,
Ashington, D.C.

Good Luck @ Crits!!

-The E.C., a.d.

for ash, from meghan

I want you to pick a way you feel connected to Sydney, but not near your home. You can explore this with any medium in any way, but I'd like you to avoid 35mm if possible. So once you respond in the medium you choose, I want you to literally live with that item for at least two days. If it's an image, hang it somewhere you'll see it a lot...audio, listen to it for an hour a night...ect. Think about steps to take it further and re-do the original piece. Repeat the same process again, living with both steps for a few more days. I realize this may take longer than a week and a half, especially since you're at the end of the term so maybe just post as far as you've gotten by next friday. HOWEVER...I want you to go one step further and re-do the piece another time, pushing it even further.

much love.

A Short Film from Team Jimone

Instructions for Caitlin from Jessie

my pinky darling, I want you to extract the core concepts from the video "Spit Ballet" and resolve them in a new and entirely two dimensional way.

No video stills.
No performance.
No performance in photography.

A series of five to six images in a 2d form. They must be bigger than 11" x 14" in their final incarnation for hanging.
cacaw!

out of your comfort zone (i hope) jessie.

concept - go to a place in Sydney you've never been before, whether its as close as an apartment in your building or as far as a 3 hour drive away, and liken it to an experience you had in New York. breathe new life into an otherwise inanimate space.

weather the space is small or large, others should be able to recognise a sense of New York city, or at the least, a detatchment from Sydney.

documentation of the process can not be performative, if you choose to use images they can not be fragmented in any way; physically, during the process of taking the image, or making the image.
strictly no text.

=)
much love!

creative instructions for mark, from amy

okay mark, you knew this was coming :)

i want you to think about this period of transition between sydney and new york and make a work based on your reflections about that transition.  here are the stipulations:

1. you are not to use a camera of any sort to make this work.  no film, no digital, no video, nothing.

2. to document the work, you must find someone else to do it for you.  you can not give any suggestions or instructions to the person documenting the work.  you are not allowed to look through a camera of any sort during this entire project.  it can be documented however you see fit, whether the other person uses stills or video, or if you can document the work and post to the blog without using a camera you get bonus points.

that's all.  i don't care if it is visual, auditory, tactile, performance, text based or whatever else, just no cameras :)

When I saw Watsons Bay I thought about this...

He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In that palace in the sun.

On the shore lay montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wondered
With the secrets of the worlds.

And his subjects gathered round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.

And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.

Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.

They carried them to the flatlands
And they died along the way
But they built up with their bare hands
What we still cant do today.

And I know shes living there
And she loves me to this day
I still cant remember when
Or how I lost my way.

He came dancing across the water
Cortez, cortez
What a killer.

Responding to Sydney

so, yesterday was the trip around the rocks and then the ferry ride to watson's bay to see the gap and the heads of sydney harbor.  there is a strange mingling between history and nature and urban.  the rocks are right there in the heart of the city, right on the harbor and are very much a part of the urban landscape.  yet there was this transposition between the modern landscape and the fragments of the history of the place.  i seemed to be very aware of the layers and layers of what came before all day yesterday.  history of the land, history of the people interacting with the land, the stories that make up a location.

there was a poignancy that was palpable with each of the spaces.  not even really knowing any of the specific stories, there was a heavy sense of something having come before, people interacting with the space that i found interesting.  i was thinking how similar australia and the us are in that sense, that the history of the place adds so much to experience since there are such varied and unusual pasts for both countries being settled by outsiders, colonized and developing into something different.

Response to today...

As requested by Simone...

While waiting for the ferry to head to Watson's Bay, Simone mentioned the Gap and that it's a popular place for suicides. I remembered stories I just read in the Peter Carey book I read the first week here, and how he described the history of this spot. While approaching and walking up the long, narrow, windy path I couldn't help but think about the significance this walk has held for so many. I imagined if I were going there to end my life that each of those steps would be so significant as I neared the top. I can imagine that each shrub and flower and patterns in the sand stone would hold an importance never meant to be placed upon them. The pathways almost force you to slow down and recognize the surrounding area and that only made each of my own steps hold a greater importance in my own journey to the peak.

The view from the top literally pulled a "wow" out of everyone, one by one as we caught our first glimpse of the gap. The drama of the waves crashing and water flying up before being pulled back out into the endless ocean was more than enough to understand the appeal of making this your last memory. (aaaaand I also just finished the Bell Jar and her descriptions of possible suicide strategies are still fresh and swimming around)