Current pressing questions.

1. Does the Nintendo DS suffer from screen burn?
2. Who in Sydney would one speak to about acquiring a full-body green screen suit?
3. Does Kylie Minogue's performance of "Dancing Queen" at the Closing Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games have less to do with Australia's fondness for ABBA tunes and more to do with Kylie Minogue positioning herself as an international pop star that cannot be defined by simple notions of geography?

Michel Gondry (possibly) posts image, excitement ensues.

The business of being an Artist.

This Tuesday at Serial Space in Chippendale I have a new performance / installation opening as part of The business of being an Artist, curated by Katherine Byrne. The exhibition is an investigation by several artists of the effects of one's day-job on their artistic practice. Surprisingly this isn't as doom and gloom as it sounds, but obviously the enjoyment factor of an artist's particular line of paid employment has a lot of bearing on such matters. Having spent much of my time since beginning university as member of the retail sector my work, Productive Time Off (don't tell me it's a means to an end) reflects the inherent joys that go with it. With cardboard.

The opening kicks off around 6 (as these things) go. The performance will start at some point soon after, and conclude after I run out of cardboard. This may take a while, so being punctual may not be neccessary in this instance.

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The Business of being an Artist

Featuring Artists: Ben Byrne, Rene Christen, Cameron Foster, Daniel Green,
Emily Morandini, William Noble, Beth Norling, Alex White

Curated by: Katherine Byrne

Opening: Tuesday 11th November, 2008 6-8pm
Exhibition: 12th-22nd November, 2008
Open: Wednesday - Saturday 12-6pm

Serial Space
33 Wellington St Chippendale

The portrait of the Artist, starving, frozen in his garret, suffering for his art is one of the more well known clichés but for all the dramatisations of the artist's plight, the reality is that the vast majority of practicing artists must balance their artistic life with a paid one. This often means electing to either live in relative comfort with full time paid work and struggle to find the time and energy to keep up their artistic practice. Or, to juggle various part time jobs to create the flexibility and time their art life demands leaving instead a struggle at times to make ends meet. The Business of being an Artist explores this dilemma and the different solutions artists adopt to manage these conflicting areas of their lives.

For this exhibition eight artists have been asked to create works which form the beginning of an exploration of the effects, both bad and good, that this daily balancing act has on their artistic practices. Each work is a self-reflexive exploration of the compromises these artists make each day to allow them to make the art they feel driven to create.

Victory and multiplicity.

There was running, hiding, occasional terse phone calls and many misunderstandings. But I found you, thai chilli jam, yes indeed. Many people [alright maybe a couple but many sounds better] had shared with me my concern over the lack of easily locatable thai chilli jam, but I had yet to find any leads as to where such a thing could be located [and before you say it, prospective commentor, I tried Chinatown, I really did. I know I probably didn't try the little obscure shop you can rattle off from the top of your head, but try in a superficial manner I did]. Fortune struck upon a visit to stupidly fancy restaurant Longrain in Surry Hills. So stupidly fancy are these people that they produce their own condiments. And what a joyous thing it is people. I mean sure, it does cost twelve dollars for a jar of this stuff but you really can't put a price on such a thing. You see the paper bag in the first image? That comes with it. Score!

You might think this is a slightly odd item to kick off the year with, and perhaps it is. But I think it's important to start the year off with a win. You can apply this to your own lives boys and girls. The chilli jam you seek is out there somewhere. You only need to have lunch to find it. A word to the wise though, when informing the masses about your new found spiritual experience, stick to the delivery methods you're aware of. An attempt to post something about this late last year via a feature on my new mobile phone lead to an entirely new blog being created, and the phone wouldn't tell me where that is. Or what it's called. Or how to delete it. If someone out there somehow comes across it, please let me know.

And in case you're wondering, I'm having doubts about the chilli-jam-as-metaphor-for-what-your-life-lacking thing too. Perhaps it would be best if you provide your own motivational metaphors from here on in.