EVENT

HA HA - BOOMDubbo /  by JoFF Rae

Over two days in Dubbo, Ha Ha completed a series of sports portraits for Walkom Bros., generous supporters of BOOMDubbo. The identities include Ian Drake (cricket/tennis), Don Parish (rugby league), Andrew Ryan (rugby league), Megan Dunn (cycling), Brian Tink (boxing), Phillip Dutton (equestrian), Melinda Gainsford-Taylor (athletics), Glenn McGrath (cricket), Ernie Toshack (cricket), Greg Ryan (racing), Jon White (rugby union). For more on BOOMDubbo check out Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @BOOMDubbo. Website coming soon.

BOOMDubbo is about adding value & vibrancy to the city of Dubbo & the region through art. Stakeholders in BOOMDubbo projects include not only local businesses and residents, but the artists themselves and visitors to the city and region. We're about doing things that make people happy. BOOM!

review - James Cabaret: sold out gigs & a new era of events... /  by JoFF Rae

The James Cabaret reopened it's doors 30th March 2013 - closing the doors on 31st March 2015 after exactly 2 years of the best gigs Wellington has experienced in some time...

An experiment in an event & venue model the venture demonstrated that Wellington City was capable of sustaining a venue - in fact needs a venue of the calibre & size.  The New Zealand Festival of the arts made the James Cabaret its home for the contemporary music program & several prominent promoters based tours of international acts around the ease & quality of production provided.  The venue quickly became renown for it's high level of production values (international standard & the largest house system in New Zealand) & sold out shows!  Nominated Venue of the Year the James Cabaret ended on an high note!

So why close the doors?  Our source tells us it was 3 issues:

  1. THE LANDLORDS... a committee with the reputation of being difficult to work with (a statement from a past tenant was "they're a pack of arseholes") having driven the doors closed on every other proprietor over the years.  The lease holder from the 90's when the James Cabaret earned it's reputation as a concert venue is not surprised that the Landlord was "impossible to work with - again".
  2. LICENSE ISSUES - sound & crowd issues from disgruntled neighbours with some complaints from a new neighbour (they provided photographs of rubbish including cans of beer - a brand not sold at the James Cabaret).  Sound was an ongoing issue.  "The issues are like mice... " our source says, "when you have one there's going to be more."
  3. END ON A HIGH NOTE!  The source says "we didn't want to end on a low or be forced out by the Council so we took an option provided by the Landlords with their unreasonable demands & walked" he says with no malice, "we felt better about leaving the building with a reputation of producing the best concert events in Wellington!"

The features of the 2 years?

  1. Neneh Cherry.  An icon & the best lady!  Amazing yet simple performance & show (especially the request for no front light until the very end leaving dramatic silhouettes through the performance).
  2. NAS.  EPIC event by Robin Fernando - an amazing effort!  HUGE!
  3. New Zealand Festival Of The Arts.  Best performance from Charles Bradley & Brel: The Words & Music of Jacques Brel featuring Jon Toogood - great to have him in the home of Shihad.
  4. School Boy Q... & the encore!  So huge they had to come back & another epic event from Robin Fernando!
  5. Sticky Fingers.  What an awesome show!  Wellington will wait a while to top this one that was held at 10 days notice & sold out!  Thanks to Rhythm Group!
  6. Run The Jewels, Danny Brown & Earl Sweatshirt.  Probably the closest we will get to Odd Future - let's hope Robin Fernando work that one out!
  7. Aloe Blacc - all style & a great band!
  8. 6 local/domestic acts feature: Brownhill - "resident band"; Devilskin - awesome band & a great bunch to host; Tunes Of I - on their way up & best support; Shapeshifter & Upbeats - a great duo; Phoenix Foundation at their best are the best local; Katchafire - every time!
  9. The better promoters - Robin Fernando, Rhythm Group, 40 Days, Plus1, Mystery Girl & the others who kept bringing great acts; Brotha D for taking the  first risk & bringing the first act to the reopening.
  10. THE AUDIENCE!  The promoters & the venue pay big respect to the people who came to the shows!

& What now?

Watch this space - more to follow...

Melbourne FRINGE '13 /  by JoFF Rae

2013 MELBOURNE FRINGE FESTIVAL   18 SEPT - 6 OCT 

Melbourne Fringe is a not-for-profit organisation that presents the annual Melbourne Fringe Festival. They provide artists with the tools to develop, present and promote their work, creating a community of audiences and artists that together represent a National arts network.

The Melbourne Fringe Festival is an open-access event. Each year artists from a wide scope of art-form and experience join the Independent Arts Program to develop and present their work as part of the Festival. Through the Independent Arts Program they run the Festival Hub, a curated space that offers a cross-section of arts experiences throughout the Festival period including the Fringe Club.

Central to each year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival is our Creative Program, Melbourne Fringe produced projects which bring emerging and established artists together to explore new ways to engage audiences with free works in public spaces. In 2012, our Creative Program delivered Double Take and Fringe Furniture.

The Melbourne Fringe Artist Development Program supports Festival participants and the broader independent arts community. Year-round they deliver a range of programs across all aspects of building a successful and sustainable career in the arts.  The Artist Development Programs include mentorships, forums, training and awards.

To present the Festival and support year-round activities, Melbourne Fringe works with a range of committed and valued partners.

VISION


Melbourne Fringe will play a leading role in the support and presentation of the independent arts by facilitating the development of innovative and diverse arts practices that engage with both artists and audiences.

VALUES


Participation
As an open-access, multi-arts Festival, Melbourne Fringe actively encourages a diversity of artists and audiences to participate in the arts.

Collaboration
Melbourne Fringe is committed to providing opportunities for collaboration between artists and arts facilitators on a local and National level.

Creativity
Melbourne Fringe supports the creativity of our artists and audiences and continually strives to reflect and respond to this creativity in their own work.

Integrity
Melbourne Fringe values the trust that artists and audiences place in them and understand their responsibility to engage with our community with openness and integrity.

HISTORY

In 2012, Melbourne Fringe celebrated 30 years. For more information on the history, click here.

 

Weston Frizzell - the BLOCKBUSTERS series /  by JoFF Rae

Blurb

Nama Malarky

Couched

Us and Them

Thonglines

Blockbusters by Weston Frizzell

Edition of 50, archival pigment print on Hahnemulle 308 gsm Cotton Rag. Signed by Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell (Weston Frizzell)

Weston Frizzell first conceived the Blockbusters design as an illustration of the title in abstract block typography. A digital mock-up was divided into six equal segments. The six segments are collage style mashup of famous art and brand details. The segments (from left to right) are titled "Blurb", "Nama Malarky", "Couched", "Us and Them", "Thonglines" and "Grocer with Moko Erased". The names of the segments are further clues to the identity of artists being remixed by Weston Frizzell in this piece! Intriguingly the six individual Blockbuster paintings exhibited at the Blockbusters show were simply byproducts of the printmaking process, described by Weston Frizzell as "ancillary artifacts" remaining after the digital artwork was completed. In the vocabulary of street art the term Blockbuster refers to a piece where one word occupies the entire wall. The outlined text is predominantly defined by the blacking out of the gaps and negative space. Parasitic of the underlying work, a BLOCKBUSTER envelopes and consumes the surface. A Blockbuster is also the biggest thing of the summer, the thing everyone has to see.

Blockbusters screenprinted poster

Print size in millimetres: Full A1 Sheet

Edition of 100 large A1 screenprints on Hibrite art stock. Numbered, then signed by all three artists who exhibited - Dick Frizzell, Otis Frizzell and Mike Weston below image.

Unique edition of 100 screenprints to promote the recent Blockbusters exhibition at Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery. Featured new work from Frizzell & Son (Dick Frizzell and Otis Frizzell) and Weston Frizzell (Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell collaboration). This is a screen printed version of the exhibition poster. 

available at th'ink arts = www.think.net.nz