Here Comes The Neighbourhood

It's getting closer....
Here's a lovely article about There Goes The Neighbourhood by Amelia Groom:

http://www.altmedia.net.au/there-goes-the-neighbourhood

Gentrification has never been so fashionable!

The fashion parade was amazing- who would have thought there was so much talent right on our doorstep?! Huge thanks to everyone who made this event so fierce!

Here's some pictures from the fashion spectacular including our subculture stereotypes, incredible makeovers and a derelique worm! [photos by kat n texta]

Posing model team:



Yuppie:




Derelique:






Home boy n girl:






Wog chic:



Emo:



Cutting edge make over booth! -




Solarium Lizard Queen:



Coked up CEO and pedophile on holiday makeovers!

Gentrification Has Never Been So Fashionable!

So my obsession with a certain ridiculous series has been taken to the next level!
Dressing my friends up and parading them down the runway as part of the next fundraising event for there goes the neighbourhood.
Yep- there's even a catwalk and a walk off- Zoolander style!

This is going to be hilarious!

Terra Nullius, Squatspace in Weimar

To coincide with “Australia Day” 26 January 2009, an exhibition called “Terra Nullius” was launched in Weimar, Germany. It’s a show of Aussie artists curated by Frank Motz and Deborah Kelly.

Squatspace's piece for the show encompasses contributions from the German students who came on our most recent Redfern Waterloo Tour of Beauty in August 2008.

Here’s a roundup of what the show is all about:

The double exhibition with the name “TERRA NULLIUS - Contemporary Art from Australia” will be seen at ACC in Weimar (Germany) from January 26 (Australia Day) til March 22, 2009 and from May 1 til July 26, 2009, at Halle 14 in Leipzig (Germany) - co-curated by the Australian artist Deborah Kelly. The latter space is located at the Leipzig Cotton Spinning Mill, the new epicentre of contemporary art in East Germany (with 13 galleries and our non-for-profit Halle 14).

Approximately 45 works of art (installations, photographs, mixed media works, paintings, moving images, and other forms of presentation) from approximately 20 artists and artists groups will be shown on an exhibition area of about 300 square metres
(Weimar) and 1,500 square metres (Leipzig).

The artist include
Tony Albert, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Jon Campbell, Destiny Deacon, Merran Sierakowski, Squatspace, Richard Bell, Brook Andrew, boatpeople.org, George Gittoes, Dianne Jones (see flyer above for complete list)

The exhibition might become a process-based project, developing further from station one to station two of the exhibition, from Weimar to Leipzig, or might even change a bit on each of the specific locations. Here are some more information about the show:

TERRA NULLIUS
Exhibition rationale

The 17th century British Crown considered Australia to be an empty, uncultivated land which could be claimed without impediment.

Indigenous peoples were denied rights to their land, using “terra nullius,” a legal principal only finally overturned in 1992. The ensuing conflicts between settler and indigenous peoples remain unresolved to this day.

When former diplomat Kevin Rudd defeated long-time conservative prime minister John Howard, an era came to an end – and with the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and the Australian government’s formal apology to the “stolen generation” a period of change began. Perhaps, even hope. Nevertheless, terms like the “stolen generations,” “the intervention,” and “mutual obligation” persist as political realities.

Art is a civilising force that negates physical and psychological boundaries, undercuts the idyllic construction of the multicultural nation, calls into question political complexities and incongruities in Australian society, interrogates social exclusion, representation of Aboriginal people and interests, historical and current immigration and refugee politics.

The exhibition “TERRA NULLIUS,” with diverse contributions from contemporary Australian artists across media, is co-curated by Galerie ACC founder Frank Motz with artist Deborah Kelly from Sydney. It opens on
the 221st anniversary of the European invasion of Australia, Australia Day: 26 January 2009.

There Goes The Neighbourhood Fundraiser

Come on Friday!!

This gig is a fundraiser to bring some of the international artists out to Sydney for There Goes The Neighbourhood.

Are you yet another person who has had the rent jacked up and been outpriced and outed of your own space?...

Inspired by this global phenomenon of gentrification, There Goes The Neighbourhood is an exhibition, film festival, workshops and publication about the politics of space happening in May at the Performance Space.

The project brings together a group of local and international artists who have worked on various projects that have explored the relationship between community and space and we’re inviting them to develop these issues further in the contested local environment of Redfern.

The artists involved are: Daniel Boyd, Brenda Croft, Lisa Kelly, SquatSpace, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Ned Sevil and friends (Australia), Temporary Services (USA), Jakob Jakobsen (Denmark), 16beaver (USA), Miklos Erhardt and Little Warsaw (Hungary), Michael Rakowitz (USA) and Bijari (Brazil). We will also be doing a re-enactment of Allan Kaprow's Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann (with thanks to the Allan Kaprow Estate) and hosting a Gordon Matta-Clark film screening.

For more information on There Goes The Neighbourhood:
www.theregoestheneighbourhood.org

We know January is super hectic but please come down and support us- this gig is going to be awesome!

Featuring:

SUZANNE GRAE & THE KATIES (MELB)
Inspired by their namesake fashion icons responsible for bringing shoulder padded style and geometric glamour to the suburbs of eighties Australia, Suzanne Grae and the Katies are a 6 piece all gal sleaze rock band based in Melbourne, Australia.

It was just this spring season of 2008 that Suzanne Grae met the Katies at a discount outlet over the 50% off rack. The Katies all had their nails into the one peach power suit, and things were getting hairier than a Poison after party. However Suzanne stepped in to suggest the divvying up of the garment between the ladies, shoulder pad by pleat by precious polka dot, and the Katies could not help but come to their fashion senses. They offered to Suzanne both the peach power suit and a promise - To together form a band that would let no obstacle, not broken heels nor lack of musical ability, stand in the way.

Suzanne Grae and the Katies are…
TextaQueen as Suzanne Grae: ‘singer’, tamborinist, stylist
Lou as Katie Tutti Frutti Pan Flutti: keys, back up vocals
Anna as Katie Ramone Bomb: guitar, back up vocals
Marian as Katie G: saxophone, drums, guitar, back up vocals
Bec as Katie Kaos: bass, trianglist, back up vocals
Alex as Katie uber Alles: drums, bass

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=37836002939

JUSTICE YELDHAM
Fresh back from 3 months eating dumplings and making noise in China, catch Justice Yeldham’s first gig back in Sydney. This guy is never sticks around for long before he’s off again- so don’t miss ‘the glass guy’ himself, even if he is a pane.

“What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is in fact the unique audio work of Justice Yeldham, a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with sheets of broken glass. By pressing his face and lips against the glass whist employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, he turns disguarded household windows into crude musical instruments. Resulting in a wide variety of cacophonous noises that are strangely controlled and oddly musical.

Justice Yeldham is the latest alter-ego of Australian sound performer Lucas Abela, whose past sonic experiments were conducted under monikers like A Kombi, Dj Smallcock & Peeled Hearts Paste. Initially classed as an experimental turntablist, although his early work rarely resembled anything in the field. Early feats, saw him stab vinyl with Kruger style stylus gloves, bound on electro acoustic trampolines, drag race the popemobile across Sydney Harbour Bridge, perform deaf defying duet duels with amplified samurai swords, hospitalised by high powered turntables constructed from sewing machine motors, record chance John Peel sessions with the Flaming Lips, & be Otomo Yoshihides' favourite entry into his Ground Zero remix competition; 'Consummation' even though instead of sampling the CD he destroyed it using amplified skewers!”

http://www.myspace.com/justiceyeldham

HOLY BALM

If you like dancing under a blanket to Black Sabbath shoeless in the grass then you will love Holy Balm.

(Don’t forget the honey-ed mushrooms)

http://www.myspace.com/holybalm

EMCEE PASH

Freshly back from shows in Vietnam we are proud to have this incredible female emcee up in Sydney for one show only!!! - and look out for her debut album which is about to be released!

“ she’s the femcee that’s gonna make you wanna smile – she got you foot tappin, lip smackin, rappin pash stylez!” emcee pash is a Sydney born, Perth raised hip hop emcee who now has her roots firmly planted in Melbourne (Aus). Her love of music and poetry formed a symbiosis when pash was nineteen, and since then she has performed at many clubs and community events in and around Sydney, Byron Bay and Melbourne. Her lyrics are deeply personal, yet relate to the every day experiences that speak to many. Pash does not shy away from the political or the controversial. Her unique vocal delivery sets her apart from the rest, as do her dj sets with live emceeing- not to be missed! This year Pash is recording her debut album, to be released in Feb/March 09. Other projects include a PBS radio show focusing on female, indigenous, local artists as well as all things fresh and cool from around the globe, and of course pash intends on spreading her own music across the seas."

http://www.myspace.com/emceepash

Big, huge, massive thanks to all the performers and Serial Space.

Friday January 16
7pm
Serial Space
33 Wellington Street
Chippendale
$8

Cities with maps [the size of phonebooks!]

[Image taken of Bijari collective's studio]

Through my interest in cities, more specifically in the politics of space, gentrification and urban change I have found myself in one of the world’s great metropolises, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For me one of the most striking things I found out about when researching a bit about Sao Paulo was the Prestes Maia occupation. This building was an old textiles factory, 22 storeys high squatted from 2003- 2007 by around 2000 people, the largest occupation in Latin America. 468 families made this unused downtown building their home. Although the occupation ended last year, there are many strong relationships formed and much thought that was drawn from here. A squat of this size is something I could not have dreamed ever existed.

Almost out of necessity, due to the size of the population and the squeeze of the city, many Sao Paulo art collectives are making work responding to gentrification or issues surrounding space. I feel I have landed in a huge web of people thinking about similar issues to myself, on the opposite side of the world. Many people here are working using collective practices and are very interested in hearing about SquatSpace and our work in Sydney.

Sao Paulo, a city with its population close to that of the entire country of Australia, with a city map the size of a phone book, I have decided to create a cartography as a case study of the Prestes Maia occupation and all the collectives involved. In some ways this is almost necessary to understand how everyone fits into the network.

In the tradition of process art, where the end product of art and craft, the objet d’art, is not the principal focus my project in Brazil is a visual map of my process of gathering, meeting, collating and associating people and relationships between the numerous active art collectives in Sao Paulo. Process art is concerned with the actual doing; art as a rite, ritual, and performance. Process art often entails an inherent motivation, rationale, and intentionality. Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as a deliverable or end product.

In this case I do have an end product, though it serves more as a a visual map of my process of meeting and trying to understand the relationships of this complex and intertwined network of the collectives and the artist community I am meeting in my time in Sao Paulo and their relationship to each other and also the Prestes Maia occupation. This mapping is not because I need to produce an ‘outcome’, but more due to the fact that I need to produce this map to understand my process.


(This project is funded through a Run_Way grant administered through the Australia Council for the Arts)

Schmigloo at Performance Space

Next Week the inflatable Schmigloo will be at Performance Space as part of Liveworks.

www.whereisesky.com

I will also be speaking at a panel at Performance Space on Tuesday the 2nd September at 6:30pm.

"Performing Social Architectures"
With:
Keg de Souza (curator and artist)
Alicia Talbot (Director of Urban Theatre Projects)
pvi collective (bringing their project Reform to LiveWorks)
Marley Dawson & Chris Hanrahan (ECR speedway artists - current installation commission at PSpace)
Duncan Speakman (sound artist, working with us for Live Works, doing a walking tour)
Ruark Lewis (installation artist, works in public spaces)

"From architectural interventions, sonic displacements to site-based performance projects, a forum of diverse contemporary artists discuss modes of practice within public and social spaces. Performing Social Architectures looks at the political, social and spatial intersections of art with daily life."