december 2012

walking the sticks

‘There were projects which were not possible because of economic, time, space and technical problems. Some forgotten project will come back to mind when it is needed. I contain my projects in my body, which I find as my studio, and I don’t try to remember or describe them all.

My working process is intuitive and I believe its own logic. Being nothing/nothingness and making nothing/nothingness is my goal. It is a long process.’

– Kimsooja

from:

The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists
edited by Mary Anne Jacob & Michelle Grabner
University of Chicago Press, 2010.

* * *
Needless to say, Studiononstop has stopped. In 2010 my studio building in Surry Hills was renovated and the rent tripled. I could no longer afford a studio in Sydney. That year I took a year off art anyway, and these days I do other things.

I post occasionally at In the life world and currently on Cutting Edge Permaculture.

growing
studio practice
walking

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july 2011

back to the ground
novelty art disposal
Packing before moving, getting rid of stuff and art. Returning unfired clay casts made for The__Hall back to the ground.

the soil i'll leave behind
After five years of no-dig bed making and soil building – the soil I’ll leave behind…

Preparing the garden for seeds
I vow with all beings
to nurture the soil to be fertile
each spring for the next thousand years

– Robert Aitken

growing
ongoing

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june 2011

Train travelling to Brisbane for some winter warmth.

Inversions workshop with Jessica Stickler
Handstand, forearm balance, headstand & shoulderstand.
Jivamukti Yoga, Newtown

Winter Mushroom Workshop
with Will Borowski
Alexandria Park Community Centre
Milkwood Permaculture

learning
looking
travel

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april 2011 (continued)

7/4/11-24/4/11

ANNA JOHN
IAKOVOS AMPERIDIS
LISA KELLY
SACH CATTS

55 Sydenham Rd
Marrickville NSW 2204 AU

Life Signs

1. Throughway for a lizard

On the 2nd of March I made a first visit to 55 Sydenham Rd. We sat in the space and had a long chat about the effort that went into renovating and constructing the studios and gallery, what kind of work we were doing when we were both in the M.H Franks Upholstery building studios in Camperdown back in the Nineties and the increasing drift of artist-run spaces out to Marrickville. We reflected on the disquieting role of artist-run initiatives in the gentrification of neighbourhoods – triggering the urban change that ultimately displaces artists and other poorer locals.

Looking around the room for points of interest, I found a small hole passing right through the concrete floor to the level below. It was described how during the months of building work a lizard was seen coming up through this hole, crossing the room and under the wall to another part of the building.

A hole in the new gallery wall temporarily restores the potential passage of a lizard across the upper floor of an industrial warehouse building in Marrickville.


Continue Reading »

exhibition
group projects
individual projects
looking
sculpture

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may 2011


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Walking in the back streets of Enmore and noticing a mature macadamia tree in a front yard. A nice man coming out of his house says “Want some nuts?” Sharing them with Michelle Margolis when I get to her house for a garden tour as part of National Permaculture Day, May 1st 2011.



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Taking a self-sown mulberry tree for a walk along Parramatta Rd and planting it alongside the Hawthorne Canal bike path for future fruit foraging. May 1st 2011.


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Admiring the many mushrooms up after all the autumn rain.

Reading:

Mycelium Running:
How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

by
Paul Stamets
Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California 2005

‘Year-round, fungi decompose and recycle plant debris, filter microbes and sediments from runoff, and restore soil. In the end, life-sustaining soil is created from debris, particularly dead wood. We are now entering a time when mycofilters of select mushroom species can be constructed to destroy toxic waste and prevent disease…’ p.10

growing
learning
looking
reading
walking

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april 2011




photo: Lucas Ihlein

Moving the steel tree guards made for The Lively Plane (continued) over to the Tending garden for a second life as supports for climbers.


photo: Lucas Ihlein

Positioning the frames around the three palm trees in the SCA courtyard and noticing surprisingly old initials and dates carved into two of the trunks – W.L. 19-1-44, W.L. 11-10-46, D.M. 1-12-44, among others.

growing
sculpture

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january – december 2010

gone fishing_merimbula_summer 2010

One year off.

Field left Fallow

Some notes on a year off art practice.
January – December 2010

growing
learning
looking
ongoing
resting

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october 2009 | week four

THE LAB

THE LAB_symbol

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK FOUR

week four_outside view 
week four_inside view

NOTES.

IMG_1485 IMG_1488
IMG_1519 IMG_1493
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Adding the post-dinner loo bucket full of wet sawdust and wee to the growing heap. Seeing my regular route through the weeds now visible as a pathway at the compost site. Replacing the toilet bucket, topping up sawdust and cleaning the loo.

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growing
individual projects
installation
looking
reading
residency
sculpture
studio practice
travel

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october 2009 | week three

THE LAB

THE LAB_symbol

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK THREE

THE LAB_week three_outside view
THE LAB_week three_inside view

NOTES.

week two_honey wagon week two_bucket contents
week two_weedings week two_compost making
week two_bucket on compost week two_weeds on compost
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Riding week two’s collected toilet and organic material back to the compost site on Thea’s bike as honey-wagon. Weeding the overgrown house garden and feeding it to the heap, enjoying time in the sun and air outside in this grassy meadow.

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exhibition
growing
individual projects
installation
looking
reading
residency
sculpture
studio practice
travel
writing

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october 2009 | week two

THE LAB

THE LAB_symbol

Open residency project
Ocular Lab
West Brunswick

WEEK TWO

THE LAB_week two_outside
THE LAB_week two_inside

NOTES.

week two_clover sprouting week two_clover sprouting inside
week two_clover after rain week two_clover growth
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Clover seeds pushing up through soil and sprouting.

week two_red rose week two_red rose opening
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The red rose Bianca brought on my first day, opening and changing.

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dialogue
group projects
growing
individual projects
installation
looking
reading
residency
sculpture
studio practice
travel

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