This is a preview of The Grimstones – Mortimer Revealed , the second show in Asphyxia’s magical gothic fairytale about the Grimstone family, following on from The Grimstones – Hatched. I love the look of these marionettes, and hope to catch a performance sometime when they tour up this way. Their touring itinerary is here.
Flotsam and Jetsam
Earlier this year I made the set and props for Flotsam and Jetsam, a production for children which tells stories about living on Australian lighthouse islands in the past. The script was written by Greg Lissaman, from recollections gathered by Chrissie Shaw, the actor. Catherine Roach is the director.
The set is an island, panels painted in a pointalist style, which can concertina into different shapes and be dismantle for touring. The lighthouse is modelled on the historic lighthouse at Cape Otway in Victoria, and Tasman Island in Tasmania was among other sources of stories and images, such as the flying fox access to the island. There were numerous props – seaweed, wooden chests, a porcelain doll, an albatross, and a sea buoy. There are more photos of these in my Flotsam and Jetsam photoset.
Touring dates and booking details for Flotsam and Jetsam are listed at Chrissie’s site. On 19 – 21 August it has a short season at the Maritime Museum in Sydney, and then it will tour coastal community venues in NSW. Chrissie also performs The Keeper, an adult play also based on lighthouse stories.
I feel fine
(My teenage drawing of George)
Freecycle is pretty cool, isn’t it? A freecycler just called at my door to take my box of Beatles newspaper and magazine clippings. It feels good to have given them to someone who really wants them, as I’m not interested in the clippings anymore.
The collection included some Beatles Monthly magazines, a few posters, some ghastly half-photo half-drawing portraits that Mobil service stations must have been giving away in 1964 and other amusingly dodgy promotional material, and accounts of their notable visit to Adelaide. Their biggest crowd ever, at 300,000 people about a third of Adelaide’s population at the time, lined the route from Adelaide Airport to the city. Unfortunately I wasn’t there, as I was just a bit young. I remember looking at the ticket queue with curiosity and maybe a little longing though – it must have been important to me if I cut articles out of the newspaper.
The shape of oil dependence: unfortunate but maybe not too far-fetched?
Vocational guidance circa 1973
I’ve had a lull in my work, and instead of powering ahead with my ideas of an exhibition to do with stuff, I’ve been clearing out stuff from our cupboards. I’m sure the two are linked in some fairly powerful way, so I’ve just been going with it.
One of the interesting things I found was a vocational guidance test that I thought I did when I was about 14, but is dated 1973 when I was 20! My parents must have been worried about me… I certainly had little idea at that time about what I wanted to do. This is how the test profiled my interests:
1. mechanical
2. artistic
3. literary
4. outdoor – natural world
5. computational
6. social service
7. scientific
8. musical
9. persuasive
10. clerical
The first 2 were way above average, the last 3 far below average. The mechanical interest surprised everyone. Looking back it amazes me now how accurate and consistent these results were, and how muddling along eventually brought me to making for the theatre and sculpture, which dovetail so neatly. The persuasive and clerical ratings are funny. I still have hardly a persuasive bone in my body when it comes to manipulation and telling people how and who they should be. And what little record keeping and book keeping I have to do is always a bind.
The occupational recommendations are typed by hand on a typewriter, pre-computer, of course. I think the asterisks are for careers that accommodate multiple areas of interest.
I did enjoy volunteer work as a public radio announcer at one time, and love radio, so it’s surprising to see radio announcer considered only in it’s commercial role. No mention of librarian, which is strange. A beautician under artistic is a stretch. The female forms actress, tailoress and authoress look quaint, we just don’t use those terms anymore, do we? I did try editing and teaching, and never had any aspirations to be a chorus girl!
Spurious colour association
It’s always a bit disturbing to have brand loyalty for spurious reasons, especially when you know it’s exactly what the corporation intended. It’s idiotic, but give me a row of petrol stations and I scan for BP’s greenwashing green and yellow because they makes me feel optimistic in comparison to yellow and red, or black, blue and red.
Boycotting BP is not a particularly rational response to their disastrous handling of the oil rig disaster either. There are plenty of other oil corporations probably operating under equally dodgy regulations, and it doesn’t touch the key issue that we are hitting our limits. But there is a bit of satisfaction in abandoning them.
I must have pretty strong colour association. I found myself reaching for my purple tape measure the other day and half expecting chocolate.
Mind Games and Paper Planes at BSG
I had a brief trip to Melbourne last week for the opening of my daughter Anna Madeleine‘s new exhibition Mind Games and Paper Planes at the Brunswick Street Gallery. It was a good night, with heaps of people tramping up the stairs to the various rooms and exhibitions. Do check it out if you happen to be in Melbourne in the next few weeks, it’s on until 20 May.
Puppet Warp in PhotoShop
A new feature in PhotoShop called Puppet Warp will enable manipulation of an object, or parts of an image, by using an overlayed mesh and control pins.
Scare Isle Knit Monster
Sibling’s knitwear range for guys is fun. Their zany Scare Isle Knit Monster appears to be just for show. (via KRISATOMIC)
