Park Wars

be happy: stop stressing about the Archibald Prize

Stop stressing about the Archibald Prize!

                                                                      hugo (detail) image: heraldsun.com.au

Another year of Archibald Prize anticipation has come and gone in the last seven days after now-sophomore winner Del Kathryn Barton took the title with 'hugo' a suitably large-sized Archibald entry executed in watercolour, gouache and acrylic (image above) of Australian actor Hugo Weaving. In the hours following the winner's announcement at the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) late last week, l noticed ripples of protest firstly on social media sites and then later televised with attention being drawn to Victorian artist Jeffrey Kelson's 'one man' demonstration on the front steps of the gallery. ABC's coverage of Kelson's opinions drew attention to the prize's exclusive and un-representational performance as a showcase for common artists attempting to be hung on the balance of their talent rather than their art world-standing and own notoriety and of their subjects (often the same thing). Otherwise on the social media front, blunter inquiries (from a generally younger audience) were stirring as to why the precious money and title needed to be handed to a name of already existing high-stature.        

I think some significant factors about the modern-day Archibald Prize are being overlooked, which i'd like to point out for those artists feeling sore over rejection yet again. To it's credit, in it's singularly promenant position, the Archibald Prize is forced to be a premium showcase (for l dare say) those currently hot and upcoming in the local art world, as well as being a platform to pay respect to celebrated senior Australian artists (Olsen, Storrier in recent years). The fact is for many Australians who are only going to visit AGNSW once or few more times a year, due to it's exciting and common controversies, stellar career-pumping and lucrative giveaways, good chance is they're going to see the Archibald Prize, and what they see in that hour or more of visitation needs to itself portray who and what is making up the current Australian art world. Otherwise what other high-profile showcase does the industry have? 

For better or worse, it is imperative that the exhibition succeeds as an overblown showcase to indicate the annual direction and new stars of an otherwise largely shadowed community in the mind of the common Australian. I'm sure the AGNSW trustees would love room for you and your precious talents, but there's little space. In truth, the reality of the show is actually very different to the sensitive considered delicacy of your work that you're so driven to have exhibited. Quietly and respectively tottering through the exhibition halls during high season, you'll overhear all the sickening giveaways; 'my five year old son could have painted that' in response to a vision too minimal or expressionistic, next an admirable 'that's a real portrait' from the burly characteristically-Australian father nodding to the technical class of an entry suitable during the winning-streak of William Dargie, and lastly my very favourite and crowning ironic jewel; 'what an amazing painting, it looks just like a photograph!'. 

Pondering the space overlooked by great undeniable stares and enormous heads (squint and it commonly looks like Easter Island on a misty day) what l think is imperative for unsuccessful Archibald entrants to remember is that they're not necessarily dealing with a talent contest so much as a highly condensed and yes agreeably tall and exclusive temporary show for the public. Fundamentally if you're work is not needed in order to complete the composition of an Australian art world snapshot as it stands in the year of that running, then (as l'm sure you know deep down) you have a minuscule chance of being selected so don't bother and quit complaining. Naturally the trustees allow newcomers into the wolfden on an almost yearly basis in the crucial display that anyone can be exhibited, but with perhaps only one slot available versus eight hundred entries, it's going to be important for many not to become bitter about rejection.    

Firstly for those wishing to be exhibited, try your luck first sweeping under the wing of a gallery of some stature and follow the advice given. Based on your success as an artist, if your gallery or those surrounding your practice that sit in a comfortable cultural position suggest you enter a prize, perhaps even the Archibald prize then that's a good reason to enter, and l would say only in such similar scenarios should you enter. If there hasn't been much whispering in your studio this year, save your $50 (or current Archibald entry fee) and pour it back into your practice or should you feel so inclined, add it to your savings for a good night out after an opening in Paddington or Woollahra, and get those contacts going to assist your ambitions :)

Advertised in bus shelters across the Sydney CBD, the tagline for the Archibald Prize states 'The Face That Stops The Nation' . While it is obvious the AGNSW trustees do relish a little in the hype and sadistic curating enjoyment of handing the prize (sometimes repeatedly) to artists not exactly in dire need of it's rewards, if you have a major problem try other options than handing out flyers on the gallery steps. Immediately l would recommend entering in the Doug Moran prize, or if your mission extends beyond the easel, perhaps guide your efforts towards setting up other art prizes and help ease the exclusive pressures of what exists nationally as almost the only major Australian art prize gaining major attention.  

Jim Shirlaw.    

Why MBV are an unbelievably overrated pile of crap: an earwitness account

                                                   photo by me (18.02.13 Enmore Theatre, Sydney)

LOVELESS OR LIFELESS?

Entering through the doors of the Enmore Theatre on Monday night, l was very mindful to leave my negative thinking about My Bloody Valentine (MBV) at that doorway. Seemingly never finding an end to their praises, l was prepared to confront the beast, open to the prospect of maybe enjoying the performance, in fact that was my hope 'to finally get it' perhaps; l had paid $80 to see a band l didn't like (never have done this before) purely clinging on the blind faith that we might at last click. Having grown up heavily embraced by the Sydney live music community's fanatical interest in the band, what l've found progressively tiring was how so many bands l've known personally here in my home city have adopted their sound and championed them as an influence only to use the walls of static white wash to basically mask the fact no one has any great idea what they're playing or singing, or how to sing. This cop out has reached epidemic proportions and it was repeated on Monday night with perfect precision by the idol pieces of this lazy disease in music, however while l won't go so far as to say they didn't know what they were doing, it just seemed they didn't really care.

The theatre was packed of course, and having fought through the MBV legions l found an excellent position in the centre of the audience that also allowed me to clearly see the musicianship that was soon to follow.  As soon as the show started and until the end some serious problems persisted; firstly, during a whole chunk of their material off Loveless, including 'When You Sleep' and 'Only Shallow' the two guitarists won't actually even playing the music!! Aside from samples or backing track that must have been doing all the work I noticed about two chord changes making up both those songs (l would say about three changes through out the entire concert) as well as the fact it was synth bars doing a lot of the melody and there were no synths on stage. 

Now l know at this stage fans are going to tell me it's all about the pedals making the songs so hence they don't actually need to play but as a pedal fanatic myself (and fan of actual constructive and good use of noise) completely aware and understanding of what ground-level hardware the band use, this was not was guiding the songs to what we as an audience were hearing. Naturally the band used a lot of pedals yes but all this was used for from start to finish was to put up a largely monotonous wall of bland white noise that resembled little more than scraping metal, three chord changes over and over was the technical climax here. Admittedly at times when the sheets of turbulance were dismantled between songs there were a few nice moments of tremolo work on Shield's part but that was the interest tide point. 

An uncomfortable thing about MBV on record, mainly on Loveless is the blandness and non-identity of the drum work. Without ever seeming to push beyond the skill set of a drummer's first week of lessons it always seemed to stick out horribly in the mix against the walls and walls of guitar work. it's as though the band had put so much time into crafting the guitars that they forgot to add in drums entirelly and at the last minute turned on a primitive drum preset, set it to tempo and seemingly thought 'Oh shit, the recordings are due tomorrow let's just slap this on' or the like. The live experience was no exception! Undoubtedly the musician behind the kit is surely a talented man to be sitting in on gigs of that notoriety but the poor guy must have the most boring nights of his life for at least 50% of the material played. The drummer was allowed a little more length on his leash as time passed and more free-flowing noise moments occured which l was personally grateful for as well as for the drummer's sake.

As i've heard over and over again from many a MBV zealot, each of the band's concerts also come with a titanic 10-15 minute avalanche of noise generally at some later stage in the production. We weren't deprived of this as a Sydney audience on Monday night, as one of the later tracks in the set speared off into their famous noise dive. This apparently spectacular display that l've been told by seasoned musicians even brings them to tears, was the blandest display of the night; one chord held and strummed, a mountain of effects naturally providing a wall of sound at extreme high volume, but that was it, that's actually all it was; in actual fact one chord strummed at a casual speed for as long as was needed until when? My wrist is sore, let's finish up? Which is what happened in the minutes afterward, the drummer got a bit of a work out though; good for him.

MBV had no rapport on stage with one another and aside from a single staunch 'Hi' to the audience from Shields at the beginning nothing else was said or gestured until the audience was again addressed with a courteous message that the last song they played would be the last for the evening. Having the venue lights brightened and the house music introduced the moment they laid their last dribble of noise to rest was a good way of keeping down any expectations of an encore, fans who had calmly waited twenty years since their last visit touring Loveless must have felt especially treasured. 

Watching the audience during this cascade sequence, trying to simulate some kind of ecstatic state with their mouths hanging open, eyes closed and arms wobbling about made me feel especially disappointed for them. l couldn't help but scoff at their stupidity and their obvious willingness to believe the hype and identify with the antics of a lazy band as though it were the hand of God.

If l had seen the same band at a local pub playing their first show, l would have praised their interest in noise but would have equally bought up the same points, and if l saw them relying on samples to do the work despite their set up and technical capabilities on offer as a four-piece band, l would have doused them in what l was drinking even at their grass-roots level. An appalling, uninteresting performance by an unbelievably overrated band.

Yours truely,

Jim S   

   

Shirlaw: Philistine Havas: Intellectual

Next Friday (19.10.12) my best friend Daniel Havas and l will be endevouring on our first collaborative performance as part of Peloton Gallery's Performance Month 2012, 'Shirlaw: Philistine Havas: Intellectual' a celebration of friendship. The Shirlaw/Havas kinship presents highs and lows, silences and successes and a mutual interest in the adaption of cinema into daily life. The performance details a nine year span which will be documented and presented to the evening's audience, who literally have the opportunity to consume these events and memories.

Peloton Gallery
78A Campbell St Surry Hills NSW 2010
performance time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
  
Jim S

Cocksucker Bruise zine launch (Syd) w/ Sex Tape & De'von Sue

 On Thursday night (04.10.12) the usual Sex Tape bedroom show was expanded to a kitchen sized event with the arrival of Jack Mannix and an armful of his 'Cocksucker Bruise' zines, both fresh from Melbourne. The live music element of the evening pictured above was joined in by myself (Sex Tape) on the Moogs and my housemate and local music talent De'von Sue on the Jaguar. It was great to hear Jack spilling out some Circle Pit numbers as well as a Clean cover, he seemed to enjoy himself and the crowd took it in nicely, just in case they were put off or confused by watching the show in such an oddly intimate space. Copies of the zine were available (best you check out the content yourself at the link below) and naturally the event broke down into a good house party after the set. 

 http://cocksuckerbruise.tumblr.com/

Love,

Jim S

Sex Tape - The Musical - Sydney

SEX TAPE - The Musical - Sydney

12:00pm August 21 - 12:00pm August 22

Situated on ground level, Kings Cross car park (Level 5) Sex Tape - The Musical is a fiery new twenty-four hour drama about powerful union, devastating betrayal and the terrible truth about the quality of it's subjects. Jim Shirlaw plays Character 1, 3 and their mutual and ultimately ill-fated friend Character 2, collectively composing a wall of opinionated savagery weaved into the sonic wail of self-made synthesizers and modified Fender Telecasters. Truths intimate and personal as well as grandiose and universal will be leaked hour after hour with no sympathy to the art in question..

Alaska Projects
http://home.alaskaprojects.com/
Kings Cross Car Park, Level 5 (ground floor, on the right)

UTS Ku-ring-gai

My last eighteen months have been tied up completing post-grad studies at the UTS Ku-ring-gai Campus' in Sydney's North Shore. The campus is housing it's final intake of students before the university apparently sells it on to the military next year and all classes are moved to the city campus at Ultimo. The campus and at times the journey through the North Shore is an eerie experience. Below are a series of photos took in between classes and in transit to and fro, mainly during April this year. The UTS Ku-ring-gai campus itself is a an incredible modernist monolith, reminiscent of the minimalist architecture of the 1960's and 70s that you get the feeling was celebrated as visionary in it's day while seeming much the opposite now; though l think contemporary architecture still takes plenty of its cues from this perioud, there is largely the feeling in the campus halls that this enormous castle conceived with the greatest expectations has now been utterly forgotten; hiding these days in a bed of eucalyptus trees, camouflaged already for the military occupation next year..

Jim S

Domeyko/Gonzalez; Diana F+ on the road from Melbourne to Sydney

It seems the Diana F+ is a great summer camera in the way it enhances light conditions; despite it's crappy plastic lens and design they're able to always brings out really vivid colour with good strong direct sunlight applied. Below are a whole bunch of shots l took on an unflattering afternoon in the car driving Domeyko/Gonzalez home after their EP launch; these shots charter the drive from central Melbourne and off on the way to Sydney as the natural light fades. In the past overcast light in shots on the camera aren't generally too interesting but l feel some of these created great abstract atmospheric feeling; suppose being the combination of overcast conditions as well as disappearing sunlight. A gallery for analogue watermarks and my new found tendency to go for double-exposure :)

Not going to take any more 120 film roles till l decide how l really want to use this camera; it's capabilities aren't great but it would be good to devote a specific series to this format instead of just buying one or two roles every few weeks then using them all up in a couple of hours wherever l happen to be.. but l guess they're suppose to be treated this way?

- Jim S