[ hold :: this space ]

so many things i’ve been meaning to write about…

it’s finished now, but Ecstatic City at the ngv was simply superb. Due to the water crisis in melbourne the fountains in the moat at the front of the gallery have been switched off, so Chris Doyle made a fountain by projecting images of melbourne people jumping onto the front of the gallery. It was beautiful.

21:100:100 is still on… it’s a sound installation in at Gertrude art gallery, 100 works by 100 sound artists… everything ambient, electronica, drone. i was a little underwhelmed when i walked in - i wanted images, or darkness, some way of getting lost in it - but after a while i felt like a kid in a candy store. It’s an overwhelming collection of works, best consumed in medium sized doses over repeat visits. we were there for a couple of hours the other day. i’d really like to do more with sound in the stuff we do. it’s always the thing we think of last, the accompanying soundtrack rather than the central piece…

i kept meaning to blog about man on wire when i first saw it, but couldn’t ever find the words. It’s an extraordinary film, one i still think about. a couple of friends have said they won’t see it because they’re terrified of heights. i’m not good with heights [i'm not scared i'll fall, i'm scared i'll jump], and it didn’t bother me at all when i was seeing the film. oddly though, later that night i was lying in bed, and i felt almost paralysed with fear as i thought about what Philippe Petit had done. he was walking - dancing - on a tight rope, a quarter of a mile above the earth. it’s a film about passion and courage and the pursuit of dreams, but more than that, it’s about wonder and awe and defying the hypothetical and real laws of gravity that would keep us pinned to earth. i loved it.

tonight we’re having a between the spaces dinner to plan a christmas ‘moment’… and then i’m off and away for a week. see you when i’m back.

‘The dichotomy between beauty and necessity has always been a false tension. Yet as a distraction, it has been extremely effective at crippling our power to bring full-bodied, earth-rending change. And those of us who are most intent on justice, those of us who are activists, and those of us who stand in the barrage of steady societal critique perhaps need to drink in more art than anyone else. In our line of work, the task of stoking our vision and constantly imagining possibilities is absolutely essential.

We can be so harsh and ascetic as we fling ourselves against the needs of the world. Art is accused of being bourgeois because much of the creation of art takes time and solitude and staring out the window. And how can we give ourselves permission to do that when people are starving and there is work to be done?

I think of Judas bemoaning the fragrant ointment that could have been sold to feed hundreds of hungry people but instead is poured in that single lavish, revolutionary gesture onto the head of Jesus. He views the profligate gesture as sin, and feeding the poor as the only good.

I know that voice. it comes from my own lips. But if we always see only those who are starving, we will continually wander the desert of the frantically working and overwhelmed. What we need - desperately - is to not be overwhelmed. And the single thing that keeps us from being overwhelmed is imagination…’

- taken from ‘How one justice-seeker was redeemed by beauty’, Dee Dee Risher, in Geez Magazine Spring ‘08 edition.

i’ve heard the rumour twice now… that i applied to be a candidate for ordination and was knocked back. just wanted to say that i haven’t applied [and won't be], but the church would indeed have been right to knock me back if i had.

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i’m ordering these for christmas presents [no-one i buy them for reads this so i'm safe to put this here]…. i think i just had the beginnings of an idea, something to do with pictures of jesus on the cross, chocolate and easter worship… i might need to add to the order…

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loving this also :

There are hundreds more on the website, with the following explanation:

Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 13 years. Rotterdam’s heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in cities abroad.

They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

I was out at Brunswick UCA yesterday and Ray showed me the art / meditations that have been slowly building as part of the church’s engagement with Lent. It’s based around an idea that he took from Cityside’s Desert Files and reworked for the local situation - each week of Lent is given a theme [taken from the lectionary reading from that week], and people contribute artwork based around that image. The artwork is then integrated into worship each week.

The collection is open to the public this Sunday as part of the Sydney Road Street Party.

It’s lovely stuff, well worth going [and the Sydney Road Street Party normally isn't bad either!]. The church is on the corner of Sydney road and Merri St in Brunswick.

Being Human is a new book curated by Stuart Davey of Solace community. it’s a collection of works from different artists in Melbourne, based around the themes of humanity and fragility. The artwork is fabulous - rich and evocative - and the book is beautifully produced.

I was invited to write the foreword for it, which was an honour. It feels lovely to have my name associated such a beautiful collection of artworks.

It’s on a limited print run, and can be most easily bought through Searching for Oscar. It can also be bought as part of a bundle with a study book, written by Stu, to use a reflection base for Easter.