Blog — Page 231 of 275

Adman: Warhol before Pop

Art Galley of NSW

Sydney, AU

Feb 25-May 28, 2017

Soon after graduating having earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Pictorial Design, a young chap who still went under his original name Andrew Warhola, moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist with the goal to become an illustrator.

His work debuted via an illustration as part of an article about what was back in the day perceived to be the phenomenon of “career women” in Glamour magazine in September 1949, tagged with the headline “Success is a job in New York,” which in essence could have also be used for his arrival and work in the Big Apple: Warhol became one of the most successful illustrators of the 1950s, winning numerous awards and went on to produce hundreds of illustrations for print advertisements and elaborate window displays.   

The Art Gallery of NSW’s exhibition Adman: Warhol before Pop has the aforementioned era of Warhol as subject and shows that Warhol expertly understood and grasped the concept of branding and what is needed to go past the mere advertising of a product and go with how the product is meant to make the recipient feel instead.

After having hosted an elaborate Popart exhibition in 2015 and with Ai Weiwei vs Andy Warhol having been made subject of an exhibition of the National Gallery of Victoria, this exhibition documents how Warhol evolved to become the artist that many somehow think suddenly emerged fully formed out of the blue in the 1960s and sheds light on a widely unexamined era long before Warhol felt comfortable in the limelight and learned how to project himself and make its mechanism work in his favour.

The exhibition includes prints highlighting the “blotted line” staccato technique he pioneered, naïve yet charming fluid line drawings (of ladies’ accessories and also early intimate portraits of young men), shop window display installations, record cover artworks and examples of Warhol’s art intended for gallery shows.

What is interesting to see is that Warhol seems to have always been driven by the dualism between his hands-on DIY approach with unique personal touch versus soulless mechanical reproductions – a dualism that would eventually lead to a democratization of what art was supposed to be at large, challenging the status quo and conventions while reinforcing their core values.

A dualism that he ultimately took to the logical next level, which resulted in him becoming a commodity of sorts and a product himself.

Adman: Warhol before Pop is about the becoming of what the accomplished artist Warhol came to be.

What pervades even his earliest emissions is the confidence, which is also mirrored in the fact that contrary to a lot of his artistic contemporaries, he was firmly in touch with himself and did not feel the need to use an alter ego or deny that he derived from the path trodden by the high horse of art and dabbled in the dark side of commercial art instead.

The Adman exhibition with more than 300 objects on display, many of which have never been publically displayed, sheds light on the formative years of Warhol, which became the foundation and fertile ground that would eventually spawn the Campbell Soup Cans and depictions of his beloved celebrities, before he became a trademarked name himself which impacted on American popular culture In a manner that can still be seen and felt today.

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Photos by KAVV

Hang Massive

Max Watts

Melbourne, AU

March 22, 2017

Shaped much like a spaceship, the Hang’s ( a musical instrument of the idiophone class)  equally ethereal sounds created by Danny Cudd (UK) and Markus Offbeat (Sweden) delighted the audience at Melbourne’s Max Watts, where the due was promoting their latest studio release, Distant Light. Given the sounds the two seasoned travelers produce with their hangs, it is not surprising to learn that their paths first crossed in Goa, India.

While one hang does not produce sufficient notes for a full scale, it works in well in unison with a second one as collectively chords and varying tones can be created, i.e. one hang providing the beat while the other one is in charge of the actual melody.

Cudd and Offbeat, the due comprising Hang Massive, have mastered the art of work the hang from various angles and thereby eliciting an impressively deep and rich sound spectrum reminiscent of a mélange of an array of xylophones, psychedelic electronic sounds and bell sounds and percussion instruments.

With vocals added here and there, courtesy of  Victoria Grebezs, it gives the performance the aura of a “regular show” with the enhanced vibe of with outer- and otherworldly sounds.

Violent Femmes

Factory Theatre

Sydney, AU

March 20, 2017

In its heyday, the Folk rock band, or shall we go with “Midwestern acoustic punk gateway drug to experimental music,” Violent Femmes have captured the zeitgeist and existential dilemmas coming with the burden of the need to be – not only speaking the angst ridden, existentialist language of an adolescent independent scene, but with their triumvirate of albums Why Do Birds Sing?, the more somber Gothic Hallowed Ground, and 3, which have become classics and having withstood the test of time over and over again, becoming spokesmen for a generation that lacked definition and one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the 1980s.

Over the last decade, with VF’s bassist Brian Ritchie moving to Hobart, Tasmania where among other projects he is curating the Mona Foma Festivals and thereby transforming the cultural and economic life of the whole of Tasmania as a result, Australia has become a second home for the band and it was not further wondrous that their Sydney show was sold out almost immediately.

The demographic of the evening ranged from old folks coming out of the woodworks via families introducing their offspring to “real music”, to the hipster bloc and even younger hopefuls exploring the roots of many of their favourite contemporary artists’ favourite band.

One might argue that the essence of Violent Femmes’ music is trapped in amber, but tonight’s performance proved that it is more than a stale re-enactment of their youth.

The show included both the band’s highlights along with new(er) material and despite the trio’s deliberate minimalist and stripped down presentation, did not fail to enthuse the sold out crowd and eliciting more than ethereal swaying: Gordon Gano’s nasal, nuanceful, twangy and defeatist vocal delivery had the songs echoing in the genuinely excited audience not just for the gems of their back catalogue.

A solid mix of the tested and tried, infused with the musical aptitude they have acquired over the years was the foundation for a vibrant performance. Newer material was well represented with its more robust sound backed by Ritchie’s sophisticated bass arrangements and Brian Viglione sandwiched in between the two founding fathers, manning the Spartan, trademarked Violent Femmes drum set-up and framing the songs with his at times jazzy arrangements.

With this energized performance and newer material having become a fundamental and well-received component of the show, Violent Femmes have proved again that they are far from becoming a nostalgia act.

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Photos by T

MDLSX by MOTUS

Carriageworks

Sydney AU

March 16, 2017

Interdisciplinary entity MOTUS was founded by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò and over the last twenty-five years has established itself firmly on the firmament of performance arts with boundary pushing productions, theatre shows, installations, seminars and workshops focusing on the contradictions of this brave new world, wielding impact that registers on both the physical and emotional Richter scales.

Sounds and proves to be a great match for Carriageworks, the large contemporary multi-arts centre in Sydney with its reputation for taking risks and showing unrelenting support when it comes to the artists they host and its immersive programs reflecting social and cultural diversity.

MDLSX is based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel Middlesex and the first solo performance of Silvia Calderoni, who carries the hymn to the freedom of becoming and androgyny on her shoulders and sustains it through eighty minutes.

Utilizing the artistic device of blurring reality and fiction by incorporating footage from her own family gatherings and seemingly personal monologues into the performance, it is perfectly accentuated and blended with a carefully selected soundtrack comprised of music by The Smiths, R.E.M., Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dresden Dolls, Rodriguez et al.

Calderoni presents the story in Italian, which is translated into English via subtitles. While this can be irritating with some performances, it works well with MDLSX as it is a very physical performance with Calderoni using her own body to tell the story and physically exercises the journey the main protagonist goes through.

With this performance the subtitles also help to amplify an effect that performances in the native tongue of the audience would normally not have: While the audience is following the thread of the story via subtitles, the performer has the opportunity to watch the audience, which becomes apparent when performance space is illuminated for brief moments.

The performance maintains a physically intense and experimental level throughout, relying on Calderoni’s charisma, agility, velocity and restless energy – there is hardly a moment when there is no physical element and it is a spectacle to behold as he/she dances, simultaneously operating numerous camera devices and DJing at the same time.

A singular performer consisting of multitudes, both literally and figuratively.

While at first glance MDLSX might have a very specific focus, the performance raises deeper questions outside the confines of LBGT related issues as far as labeling and the quest for identify is concerned and how it depends on societal, imposed norms and conventions the individual is forced to adhere to rather than choice: The struggle of existence transgressing borders of body, skin, colour, sex, et cetera, which is reflected in the performance’s electrical tension, which is again accentuated by MOTUS’ light and video installations, courtesy of Alessio Spirli, including black light, a laser simulating a surgical procedure in the neither regions and spacey triangular fabric that serves a variety of purposes throughout the performance, which results in quite a trippy, lysergic experience at times.

The switch in perspective towards the end of the performance – no spoilers here – enhances the mindfuck even further and challenging the audience.

A transgressive performance that defies division both in terms of presentation as well as content.

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Photo from Carriageworks website

Spiderbait

Enmore Theatre

Sydney, AU

March 18,2017

In case you are burdened with the mercy of late birth and hence unfamiliar, Spiderbait are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Finley, a small rural town in New South Wales. What made them special and made them the face of Australian rock in the late 1990s was their own brand of heaviness mixing in with experimental and weirder off the beaten track moments, while not lacking the knack for writing a good pop tune.

The show tonight was In celebration of their20th anniversary of their third and most celebrated album, Ivy and the Big Apples, which in 1997 was combining an eclectic mix of sounds and subsequently won the “Best Alternative Release” ARIA Music Award”.

Spiderbait held court in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Sydney's Enmore Theatre, with an audience ready to go on a nostalgia trip to relive their youth and the rite of passage the album represents for them. It can be argued if their oeuvre is comprised of any nuances, yet the crowd lapped it up with gusto, with sing-alongs galore and smiles all around.

Bassist Janet English, Damian Whitty on guitar and the bearded backbone and rudder Kram (aka Mark Maher) blasted through their seminal album and got everyone moving in the process, culminating with their most well known songs –“Calypso” from Heath Ledger’s cult classic flic 10 Things I Hate About You invaded.

All sixteen tracks of the album were renditioned from start to finish including songs that were performed in a live environment for the first time. It was interesting to see the extensive instrumentals of the album performed for the first time, some of which became epic battles of bass vs. guitar vs. drums. Plus a few off their other classics thrown in for good measure.

Spiderbait proved that they are in league with the greats of Australian rock music generation such as Silverchair, Grinspoon, Regurgitator, and Powderfinger, an accomplishment emphasized by the fact that despite hiatuses and side projects, the band has always retained its original line-up.

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Photos by KAVV