Sydney Festival is synonymous with the crackle of summer – a new year, an expanse of possibility, and a rediscovery of this here great city, drink in hand and easy grins all round. The Festival has again delivered with the ultimate soundtrack to those sweltering nights, with musical must-sees, artistic experiences and theatrical wonders all on the cards for Sydney Festival 2012. And there are few better annual parties than the Sydney Festival First Night, a celebration that brings our city together in a spirit of fun and comradeship. Roads will be closed and made available to pedestrian traffic, parks will be occupied and stocked with food and drinks, and various musical acts will seek out ears to enter. The artistic side of the Festival is in the mix from the beginning, with the Art Gallery of NSW staying open late to play with the Festival First Night crowd offering Picasso-friendly Spanish goodness in the form of film, performance and live music. Brook Andrew also brings his black and white aesthetic to Macquarie Street, peppering us with full-size caravans containing stories within for attendees to investigate in Travelling Colony. On the main stage in The Domain, world music's main man, Manu Chao, will headline at 9.30pm, supported by Washington, Gurrumul and a special Welcome To The Country. Elsewhere in the city, you can catch a reprise of last year's wildly popular Trocadero Dance Palace, performances from The Jolly Boys, Holly Throsby and Norman Jay MBE. Download the schedule and a map
One photograph of Bondi's iconic Icebergs Pool is all it takes to spark manic pangs of homesickness in the heart of the most seasoned Sydney expat living abroad. Its ethereal beauty in the dawn sun is forever the subject of the hugely popular Aquabumps email newsletter, inspiring 40,000 daily readers with its architectural grace and spritely regulars. In fact, there's little not to love about a spot where you can have a sauna by the sea immediately prior to a long lunch at the quintessential Icebergs Dining Room. This week, however, the pool's swimming lanes will be closed for the evening to allow the Australian mens water polo team to host their American counterparts in an exhibition match set to showcase this rugged sport to a new generation of fans. Visitors will be treated to an Olympic standard match backed by DJ sets from Bambalam and Jonny Pow on the pool deck from 6pm. More info can be found on the Facebook page.
Whether you think of them as a bunch of clever rap satirists or a jokey crew of clowns, one thing about Das Racist remains unambiguous — their music is fun and catchy as hell. Since exploding into the public consciousness in 2008 with the unavoidable 'Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell', the New-York-based trio have gone from strength to strength over the last few years. And while each subsequent release has garnered further critical praise and commercial success, the question has remained the same: do we take them seriously or not? Perhaps the real question is: who cares? Das Racist will be arriving in Sydney in a matter of days to play this year’s Big Day Out, but their first Sydney show will be the night before at the Oxford Art Factory. Having released their full-length debut Relax in September, their sideshow might be your only chance to catch their new tunes as well as their crazy live antics. With support from True Vibenation and Simo Soo, this promises to be a mighty fun night. Image By Nayeli Rodriguez
It’s hard to tell what’s longer — the list of musical genres than San Francisco five-piece Thee Oh Sees could potentially fit in to, or the list of bands that their front man John Dwyer has belonged to. The Oh Sees are heading to Australia to rock the hell out of Melbourne’s Sugar Mountain Festival, but are also playing a run of side shows across the country. What started as an outlet for Dwyer to release his instrumental, experimental home recordings has blossomed (or, rather, exploded) in to a full band complete with vocals, keyboards, guitar and drums. Their latest album Carrion Crawler/The Dream showcases the band at their at their most powerful, and though it’s a hard one to describe using traditional genre tags the words “cacophonous”, “manic” and even “harmonious” are all equally apt. Thee Oh Sees’ energy is more than evident when listening to their recordings, but what they’re really famous for are their passionate live shows. So if you’re not afraid of losing your personal belongings in a sea of frenetic bodies or being kicked in the face by a crowd surfer, this is a show you won’t want to miss.
William Yang is a storyteller like no other, documenting his life through poignant, personal photos and theatre throughout his long and illustrious career. Moving to Australia in 1969, he has dealt with themes of belonging, Chinese-Australian identity, travel and sexuality and connected with audiences all over the world with his raw, honest style. For his play I Am A Camera, he invites the audience in one step further. Yang is intrigued by Facebook and the voyeurism it invites, where users view intimate photos of people they barely know to get an idea of who they are. His photography has always been highly personal, but this time he incorporates the idea of flicking through photos as a source of visual information, informing one of a person's identity. He will be showing photos from the last five years, with his typical sense of humour and emotion clearly visible in this fascinating display of his work. He has collaborated for the first time with celebrated composer Elena Kats-Chernin, who wrote a score inspired by Yang's work to be performed live, complementing and engaging with Yang's remarkable images. I Am A Camera will be showing at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta from January 13-15 before coming to the Seymour Centre, Chippendale.
If there’s anything that the people behind all these refurbished pubs popping up everywhere want you to know, it’s that they’re not trying to do anything fancy-schmancy. The Flinders Hotel is the latest super-dive to launch a weekly party, and this one’s called BANANAS. It probably will be quite bananas, because this is a pub where you go to do bananas things like chase your whiskey with shots of pickle juice and carve naughty pictures into the woodwork. If you’ve been spending all your hard-earned cash on actual bananas, which are really expensive right now, then you can find comfort in the news that BANANAS is totally free. And with a music policy ranging from Ace of Bass to the Zombies, regular DJs including Jono Ma and Jack Shit plus their very own Autopop DJs curating the sound system, it will sound quite bananas indeed. Drinks were only free for the launch so you’ll have to pay for those, but it’s not unheard of for The Flinders’ bartenders to get up on the floor and start pouring Jameson down people’s throats. Bananas, right?
Restless is the latest film by Gus Van Sant, director of Milk and Good Will Hunting. It follows the journey of teenage outsiders, Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) and Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper). Annabel is a pixie-faced terminal cancer patient with a quirky and deep-felt love of the natural world. Enoch is an awkward misfit unable to deal with the untimely death of his parents and takes comfort in attending strangers' funerals. Annabel and Enoch meet each other for the first time at a memorial service, and quickly become inseparable while devouring each others' idiosyncrasies. The uplifting soundtrack and vintage-inspired setting make this teen romance playful, raw and unique. The characters seem mature beyond their years as they are thrown toward the inevitable end and face their fears about life and death. One intrusion in the film is Enoch’s imaginary best friend Hiroshi, the ghost of a former Japanese Kamikaze fighter pilot. He acts as a confidant and protector to Enoch but also brings a twee element to the film and lessens its authenticity. Powerfully, however, Restless reminds us that death is no match for the challenge of finding true love. Restless screens from December 1. Pack a hankie.
It was Michelle Pfeiffer who taught us that poetry is important. And not just about the rhyme. She taught us (and a group of lost homeboys) that poetry is inspiring. She taught us that poetry is everywhere. Poetry isn't just about bells tolling, and daffodils on a hill. Poetry is about expression. It's about letting loose. It's not just a random jumble of words but a spectacular outpouring of feeling. Rhymes optional. This year's Australian Poetry Slam will exhibit the best two poets from every state and territory. With only two minutes on stage to impress a panel of judges chosen from the audience, this evening will truly show poetry in motion. And the prize is well worth fighting for. This year's winner will be representing Australia on a writer's tour of Asia, including the Bookworm International Literary Festival tour of China and will feature as part of the Ubud International Writers and Readers Festival in Bali. Sydney Theatre is about to get slammed with some serious poet talent. So leave your rhyming dictionaries at home, open your ears and be ready to blow Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Thomas out of your minds.
The fact that GoodGod Small Club is located in Chinatown only adds to the wonderful irony of their "trailer trash" themed New Year's Eve party. They promise to transform the club into a "pig huntin', tobacco chewin', knee slappin' resort." Tunes will be provided by garage-punk outfit Royal Headache, who are fresh from an American tour and will play just this one show over the holiday season. Other performers include DJ King Opp and Shantan Wantan Ichiban. Tickets to this event are only $18, which means you can spend more money on rounds of straight Kentucky bourbon for your caravan neighbours. Grab your oldest, dirtiest flannelette shirt and start styling that mullet for what is set to be a rowdy and rambunctious night.
Grab your own 4x4 metre slice of paradise with the opportunity to camp on Cockatoo Island this New Year's Eve. This family-friendly event gives you the best possible view of the world-famous fireworks, and all without the hassle of the intense hordes that crowd the CBD. Catch an early ferry to grab yourself a good spot, and pitch your own perfect tent to make yourself feel right at home. You can grab tickets for just one night on New Year's Eve, or if you fancy a longer stay you can head in on December 30th. Check-out takes place at midday on New Year's Day, when you'll hop on a ferry back to the mainland. This camping experience gives you an escape without the need to travel outside the city. Babies under 1 year of age score with free entry, so they're the real winners here.
Melbourne trio Teeth and Tongue bring their dreamy, haunting, electronic pop to the GoodGod Small Club this Friday, where they are appearing in a double headline show with Sydney dreamers Songs. Jess Cornelius is the driving force behind Teeth and Tongue, a moniker which she originally developed as a vehicle for her own solo projects. However, it has now evolved into a fully-fledged collaborative effort for the release of Tambourine, the band’s second album, which came out earlier this year. The permanent members are Marc Regueiro-Mckelvie on guitar, Damian Sullivan on bass on vocals and, of course, Jess on vocals, along with her beloved 505 drum machine. After a successful debut with Monobasic in 2008, and then being named a triple j next crop artist in 2009, the last couple of years have seen the band tour extensively across Australia, including performances at the Falls and Laneway festivals, as well as travelling to Europe. Undoubtedly it is Jess’ her obsession with her drum machine that lends the band’s sound a quite precise edge, which is fused with elements of elegiac early 90s grungy pop, to create something quite new and up to date.
House, which is a collaboration between Robyn Stacey and The Historic Houses Trust, is an interesting kind of a show in that it has a foot firmly in the fine art camp and another in the museum exhibit territory. A sequence of ornate still-lives painstakingly composed of objects selected from the collections of Vaucluse House, Elizabeth Bay House, Rouse Hill House and Farm, the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection and period-appropriate fruit and vegetables and flowers sourced from HHT and other heritage gardens, Stacey's photos work both as symbolic aesthetic creations in their own right and as evocations of the time and place from which they are drawn. There is something in the meticulous labelling of exhibits at a good museum that speaks to my soul — the orderly means by which the same kinds and amount of information is provided for each item on display is immensely comforting. The Museum of Sydney always does particularly well at this, and there is a lushness of detail in House. The video account of the project, narrated by Stacey, the accounts of the houses, the captioning of the objects and the enumerations of the contents of each photograph all speak the of the historicity of the project as much as the works and objects within it.
Only in Sydney could a comedy night be called 'Laugh Your Tits Off'. And the name is perfectly apt for this new event, showcasing the best in local comedy at one our favourite locations, the FBi Social. It's only days until Christmas, which means you're probably tearing out your hair with stress trying to finish off work and brave Westfield to buy last-minute presents, or you're already kicking back and getting boozy. Either way, let some hilarious people tickle your funny bone this Wednesday night. Featuring Rove regular Dave Williams, David Smiedt (who has opened for Joan Rivers), Sam Bowring from The Sideshow, Ray Badran from The Footy Show and Genevieve Fricker, a finalist in the Triple J Raw Comedy Competition, as well as bunch of rising comedy stars. You may need all the laughs you can get before you have to face cooking the Christmas ham and dealing with annoying Aunty Bertha who still pinches your cheeks hard enough to bring tears to your eyes.
In 19th Century Ireland a woman was usually destined for the poor house unless she either married a man or tricked everyone into thinking she was one. Albert Nobbs is a witty period drama set in one of Dublin’s most luxurious hotels during this time of abject poverty, with the title character played by an exceptionally convincing Glenn Close. Albert Nobbs has been working in disguise at the hotel since the age of 14, and besides some basic interaction with the other hotel staff at the breakfast table spends her time meticulously counting her wages and stashing them under her bedroom floorboards. But against a melancholy backdrop of typhoid fever, Nobbs’ plans for the future begin to change. The character of Nobbs has been a three-decade labour of love for Close, who won an Obie for her performance in Simone Benmussa’s theatrical interpretation of the short story back in 1982. Besides the fact that Close is a fantastic actress in general and that it’s been far too long since she’s had her prowess tested in a major motion picture — The Stepford Wives hardly counts — this is probably why she’s so convincing in her portrayal of the quiet and endearingly quirky man. The rest of the cast deserve full credit for their ability to avoid being left in the shadows of Close’s performance. Janet McTeer is almost laughably unconvincing as a man physically — one of the most memorable scenes is where she bares her impressive chest to Nobbs as evidence that she, too, has resorted to disguise in order to dodge the poorhouse — but she makes a heartrending impression as the hired painter Hubert Page. And proving yet again that she’s more than just a pretty face is Mia Wasikowska as young girl desperate to escape poverty-stricken Dublin. The fantastic acting is primarily what holds this film together, however. The ending comes across as just a little strange and awkward, though undeniably high on emotional power. Will Albert Nobbs win an Oscar for Best Picture? Probably not, but a Best Actress nomination for Close would be entirely deserved.
Art and About hits the Sydney streets this week, as its annual accretion of outdoor art takes over the CBD. The festival kicks off September 20 with Friday Night Live, featuring a live-soundtracked version of Shaun Tan's haunting The Arrival on Martin Place's big screen, followed up by some sounds from all-star surf band the Break. A lot of the titular public art opens to the public the same day. Not least, Snailovation, which gifts Sydney with giant snails sans giant salt or giant TV snailhouses (map), while interactive Central Station play set I Think I Can lets you get in amongst some trains. Guerilla parkour dance performance Spill takes over three parks across the city, following up each free performance with free dance lessons, while the winner of the commission to create data-based art at June's Sensing Sydney City Data Slam, artist Keith Deverell, pits five city buildings against each other in Building Run 2013. Hang out on the east side on Wednesday nights with the evening activities on offer at Escape Early on Wednesdays (program) or check out the maze of mirrors run amok in Hyde Park with FIELD. The annual Sydney photo competition Sydney Lives returns, as will the outdoor show by kid photographers that annually upstages it, Little Sydney Lives. Most intriguing of all is the prospect of a dive into the history and family of real, living, local characters from locales like the Hollywood Hotel, Elizabeth St's Oceanic Cafe and Perkal Brothers shoemakers in Bread and Butter. Bespoke Fussball tables from the 2012 Venice Biennale land in the Paddington Reservoir Gardens for Arena Calcetto Sydney and if you fancy yourself a maker, you can try making a player yourself. Check out the art by bike with the Common Wheel, mash some art and science at the Climate Innovate Symposium 2013 or pick a winner from the best ideas for our city at The Shared City - Pitch-a-This.
Kicking off this year is the new UR{BNE} festival. Organized by the crème de la crème of the river cities’ creative types, its aim is to bring something different, culturally unique, and exciting to Brisbane’s public spaces. As part of the festival's initiative, a weekly film screening will be held at the State Library. Showing this Sunday is the documentary entitled NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell. Chances are, if you're a fan of content such as rock, punk, hip hop, street art, politics or suburban crime, this film will surely not disappoint. It documents the year the New York underground reached the mainstream, the year the forgotten and downtrodden became the people of importance, the year New York showcased its renaissance. Set during a period when the city was at one of its lowest ebbs financially, politically and socially, NY77 narrates how a a new cultural zeitgeist emerged from the ashes of a crumbling metropolis. Featuring interviews with luminaries and icons of their field, coupled with ground-breaking animation and never before seen footage of its time, this movie will leave you yearning to have been there, to have been a part of something special, wishing you could've been a New Yorker in the '70s.
In a world where design is pushed to new limits every day, how much do the things we’re surrounded by make us smile? Does fresh, innovative architecture enrich our cultural belonging? An Australia design collective is pointing a microscope on the value of design, delivering three days worth of discussions as part of the forthcoming designEx convention. And the talking heads bear some pretty serious street cred. Staged over three days, seven discussions will be led by keynote lecturers including the International Herald Tribune's design critic Alice Rawsthorn, designer Stefan Sagmeister, who founded the New York-based design firm Sagmeister Inc and has worked on projects for the Guggenheim and HBO in the past, and British Elle Decoration magazine founder Ilse Crawford. They'll be chatting about how the material world affects our emotional wellbeing and how happiness may be the key to creating so much more sustainable design. Each seminar is held within the 'Happy Place', an area created specifically for this seminar series and constructed entirely of doonas. Sagmeister will even premiere The Happy Film, a film that explores the concept right down to how we can try to be more happy every day. True design buffs will get a kick out of Trent Jansen's talk on the Tuesday, which will delve into the history of Australian design and discuss what needs to be done to improve the future of local design. Guaranteed to turn even the most downturned frown upside down. Want to win tickets to 7 Kinds of Happiness? Enter here.
Every night during Vivid Sydney, the city's most iconic landmark is transformed into a psychedelic spectacle of light. From 6pm until midnight, German light projectionists URBANSCREEN will be lighting the sails of Sydney Opera House. As the sun sets, head to Walsh Bay, The Rocks and Circular Quay to take in the handpicked collection of 50 interactive and immersive light art sculptures, as well as projections on the buildings of the MCA and Customs House. Artworks have been selected from artists around the globe, including Europe, Asia, the USA, South America and Australasia. Get the map and check out the complete programme at the Vivid Sydney website. See our picks for Vivid LIVE and Vivid Ideas.
The French have a saying: le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point (the heart has its reasons which reason can't explain). Since infidelity is basically a national sport in France, you could be forgiven for thinking the adage was more of an excuse than profound romantic sentiment; however, in David Foenkinos’s new film Delicacy (La Delicatesse) it's that illogicality of love that underscores his entire story. Audrey Tautou stars as Nathalie, a career-driven woman for whom work has become the simplest means of filling the void left by her husband's death three years earlier. Unmoved by her boss's advances and unresponsive to her friends' pleas for her to start dating, Nathalie fully believes herself incapable of loving again until — quite without warning or reason — she throws herself at her ungainly and unremarkable coworker Markus (Francois Damiens). While Nathalie quickly dismisses the incident as an anomaly, poor Markus becomes besotted, and the remainder of the film chronicles his self-conscious (if also delightful) attempts to win her over. It's so typically French to find romance in what any other society would deem manifest sexual harassment, but somehow the quirky premise works here. Neither Nathalie nor Markus nor the audience have any idea why that first kiss occurred or how an attraction slowly develops, but develop it does, and satisfying it most certainly is. Markus's self-deprecating demeanour and understated tenderness champion the 'love conquers all' ideal, while Tautou's charm carries the film when otherwise it might easily have fallen down. Ever since her turn in 2001's Amelie — a film that just made you want to reach out and hug somebody, anybody, even just a large tub of popcorn — Tautou has reigned supreme as France’s rom-com queen, and while Delicacy slightly misses the mark by presenting her as the irresistible siren, it's by no means a fatal mistake. Delicacyis unquestionably light fare, but its occasional moments of poignancy are handled with such unexpected warmth as to drive the story forward and repeatedly bring tears to the eyes — most notably in its final scene. Admittedly the scenes are often exaggerated and the story doesn’t always make sense, but then again, neither does love, right?
Take an uncommon peek into the massed cultural holdings of national art-loan service ArtBank. One of the biggest buyers of art in Australia, Art Bank rents it back to offices around the country and some private homes. Their vaults are buoyed by up-and-comers, and more established artists around the country. It's not a collection whose spaces are often open to a general public, but for one day in March they're letting regular punters into what's otherwise a more mercantile environment. With a staff on hand to help you get a better look at their massed cultural holdings, this Art Month offering is a slice into a hidden art world, its own micro Sydney Open. 10 March, 2pm - 4pm Artbank. (Free) Bookings: enquiries@artbank.gov.au For more info on Art Month 2012, check out our Ten Best Things to See and at Art Month 2012.
You know John Kaldor's stuff. Commissioning public art like Jeff Koons' puppy at the MCA, domestic wrappers on public sculpture and luring Christo and Jeanne-Claude to cover australian shores, his impressive and extensive collection of modern art now graces the Art Gallery of NSW. During Art Month, Kaldor Public Projects is preparing to launch its twenty-fifth project, The Dailies by Thomas Demand. Demand is printing his art on the Commercial Travelers' Association in Martin Place, even bringing a faint suggestion of scratch-and-sniff to the proceedings. Sitting down in tune with this new endeavour, John Kaldor takes to the stage at Customs House to discuss his collecting proclivities and his love for art, interviewed by ABC art maven Fenella Kernebone. RSVP (free) here. For more info on Art Month 2012, check out our Ten Best Things to See and at Art Month 2012.
ARIs (Artist Run Initiatives — galleries run by artists, for artists) are, on the whole, a good thing. They encourage their artistic operators to get au fait with the business side of the creative arts, while they offer their exhibiting artists the chance to get their work shown by in a sympathetic space at (hopefully) sympathetic prices. The only problem for the outsider can be getting your head around where they are and what they do. While those in the know can do worse than checking out an online how-to, those seeking a more personal touch might look to get themselves shown around by someone who knows the traps. Match Box Projects are those someones, offering a series of four ARI Tours around inner Sydney to get you in the know. The tours are in Newtown on March 10 at 2pm, the Rocks March 11 at 1pm, Chippendale March 17 at 1pm, Surry Hills March 18 at 1pm. Tours are free, but you need to book. For more info on Art Month 2012, check out our Ten Best Things to See and at Art Month 2012.
Why do films make us cry? Usually, and most obviously, it's because they move us in some way, tugging on our emotional heartstrings through subjects like love, death, family and horses. Sometimes, too, it's because they manage to surprise us. Just as occasionally it's because they're so craptastically awful that crying is the only way to feel something real again (I'm looking at you, Jack and Jill). The key thing, though, and this really can't be stressed enough, is that a movie should never set out to make its audiences cry. That's when things become cynical. That's when people leave the band shouting, "You used to be all about the music, man." That’s when LeBron chooses Miami over New York. Bottom line: it's just not cool. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) is a movie that's just not cool. It's drama by numbers and quite possibly the most contrived grab for an Oscar since Crash. Based on the bestselling book by Jonathan Safran Foer, it tells the story of 11-year-old Oskar Schell (in an impressive debut by Thomas Horn) and his agonising attempts to make sense of the loss of his father following the devastating attacks of September 11. When Oksar discovers a key hidden in his late father’s wardrobe with nothing but the surname 'Black' affixed to it, he embarks upon an uncompromising search of the five boroughs of New York to track down its owner by identifying and then interviewing every single 'Black' in the phone book. It doesn't take Oskar long to realise, however, that "everybody lost somebody or something" that day, and so begins this supposed tale of redemption in what the producers insist is not a 9/11 movie but rather a movie about "every day since". Bollocks. Daldry's two-hour indulgence uses 9/11 as a constant emotional trigger, peppering the story with regular (and repeated) answering machine messages left by Oskar's father as the building blazed, buckled and finally crumbled around him. When that's not enough, we're shown photos of some of the hapless souls who chose to jump rather than burn. It's an incomprehensible attempt to remind us about something we're quite clearly never going to forget, and seen through a child's eyes it becomes so reductionist we're not even afforded the possibility of understanding or context. On the positive side, Horn proves incredibly accomplished for someone of his age and his portrayal of the hyperintelligent, borderline Asperger's-afflicted character is as impressive as the character is unlikeable. Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock play Oskar's parents, but neither receives enough screen time to make any sort of meaningful impact, just as Max von Sydow's performance is rendered mute, quite literally, courtesy of a character trait that's entirely dispensable. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an emotionally charged movie that will absolutely make audiences cry, but the calculated nature of it renders those tears more bitter than sweet.
As the City of Sydney pioneered filling empty spaces with arts at a peppercorn rent, the Paper Mill pioneered filling that space, dealing with the City as landlord, as well as the business of exhibitions and art workshops. It all seemed to go quite well. Its former directors have been ruminating on the months since its closure, resulting in their exhibition Ex Post Facto ("after the acheivement"), sharing space with Justin Balmain's In Case We Never Meet. Ex Post Facto is a collection of oddments. Stephanie Peters' Junk Drawer has a model railway apartment jut out of the hollow of a drawer, greenery and garden included. An inevitable closing threatens to wipe out its domesticity. Christopher Hodge's Painting to Indicate physicality i,ii,iii collects three canvases, two abstract, one ruminating on the "hip new" versus a "new hip," while Kate Campbell's video work, Bifurcation Home, follows two halves of a house down a freeway, moving on trailers theat seem briefly parted and barely separate. Siân McIntyre's "...if you keep on walking" slides sylvester Stallone's face under wallpaper-like patterns. Stuck onto mirrors, they line up along a shelf in readiness to Stallonify a kitchen. Star of the show is Laura Pike's Map Study. Four maps: Hurstville, Canterbury, North Head and the CBD are cut into coloured projections, the paper fringes cut clean away, leaving only a spider web of streets behind. In the holes formerly filled by these urban blocks, dark abstract shapes loom through the paper. Justin Balmain's In Case We Never Meet sets dual cameras following the images of two running lovers. Looping through George Street and the Galeries, they look for one other, push deftly around people and fail to meet. Their running is absorbing, dragging you over their shoulders to follow across shiny night streets and through indifferent crowds. Image: Still from In Case We Never Meet by Justin Balmain. © the artist.
In Broken Eloise Laurence plays Skunk, a girl on summer holiday on the verge of her first year of high school. She lives with her lawyer father, Archie (Tim Roth), brother Jed (Bill Milner), au pair Kasia (Zana Marjanovic) and Kasia's much-admired boyfriend Mike (Cillian Murphy). Their neighbours are arrayed around the circle of their dead-end street: another single father, Bob (Rory Kinnear), raises three raucous girls, and an older couple try to nurture their mentally ill son Rick (Robert Emms). We watch adult problems through Skunk's eyes, a familiar trick that works well here. It's a trick Broken has carried through from Daniel Clay's original novel of the same name, which in turn has borrowed it from To Kill a Mockingbird. The film follows that same lead, also adding a stylistic touch of Terrence Malick's Tree of Life into its hospital-bound framing sequence. Broken successfully draws out much of the emotional richness of its earlier counterpart. Also, most of the plot. There's the decent father, rude neighbours, false accusations of assault and enigmatic neighbour — all building into a surprising, climactic confrontation. And while Roth's Archie is a decent man, Broken never gives him the same moral depth at the centre of Harper Lee's version of this story. Powerfully acted all the way through, the film observes suffering and love through a child's eyes, but it throws away its own beauty and carefully built tone to opt for a snack of needless drama at the end. It's a final melodrama that seems to come from Clay's book much more than screenwriter Mark O'Rowe's script. Some of the fun definitely lies in drawing out the parallels to Lee's book, but nothing is as much fun as simply watching these actors act. In the end, the fidelity to Lee's plot structure competes here with the story's fidelity to the characters' inner lives. Especially for Rick, whose ending seems to show a deep misunderstanding of mental illness, as well. Most of this film is fantastic. By no means avoid it. The acting alone makes it rewarding viewing. But maybe it shouldn't sit at the top of your cinematic list this weekend, either.
Long the butt of jokes about its obscurity, contemporary dance responds to its accusers with a successful dose of humour in Sydney Dance Company's first season for 2013, De Novo. De Novo is organised into two halves. The first is Rafael Bonachela's own new work, Emergence, which is as coldly attractive as a catwalk model. In contrast, the second half features two smaller pieces, Fanatic by Larissa McGowan and Cacti by Alexander Ekman, that are like the wildly fun eccentrics to be found hanging around a Fashion Week afterparty. The instigating thought for Bonachela in Emergence is the revelation of something previously concealed out of a moment of collision. To prime this process, Bonachela collaborated with composers Nick Wales and Sarah Blasko, fashion designer Dion Lee and lighting designer Benjamin Cisterne, and it is clear that their individual talents have all been shaped in Emergence through the principles of collision, contrast, revelation and shifting structures. The resulting work is stark and architectural. The dancers are bodies-as-architecture, they move in tension with sculptural light fixtures, overlocking layers of score and sound, and are costumed in Lee's hard-lined silhouettes - it is very clear that Bonachela and his team are in thematic unison. This unity comes at a price however, and of the three pieces in De Novo, Emergence may be too aloof for audiences not accustomed to high concept contemporary dance. Bonachela's programming seems to acknowledge this, as he warms his audience in the second half with McGowan and Ekman's more accessible pieces. Larissa McGowan's Fanatic first appeared in 2012's Spring Dance event, Contemporary Women, and it is well-deserving of a longer appearance on a Sydney stage. The premise is straightforward and timely: an alternating cast (on opening night this featured dancers Natalie Allen, Thomas Bradley and Chris Aubrey) channel a YouTube feed full of fans commenting on the Alien and Predator films. Fanatic combines three choreographic strands: dancers lip synch the words of fans who are disappointed with the latest Alien vs Predator flop; dancers jolt in abstract sequences that rhythmically match the machine-gun opinions of online complaints; and, most enjoyably, there are moments where McGowan recreates action sequences and horrific aliens that could easily have spurted straight out of a Blu-Ray feature, and yet are very much still an act of dance. Natalie Allen especially leaves no doubt that she shares some DNA with Lieutenant Ellen Ripley. Concluding De Novo's mixed bill is Cacti, the Australian premiere of Swedish-born choreographer Alexander Ekman. Mercurial in form, Cacti is a hilarious essay that pushes the white elephant straight into the spotlight: modern art doesn't have to mean anything in particular, and you're not stupid if you respond in a different way to the cultural elite. To address this, Ekman guides the Company dancers through a series of absurd, beautifully executed sequences involving an orchestra of bodies and stringed instruments, domineering lights, a duet of immensely cute inner monologues and, as labelled on the box, a chorus of cacti. De Novo is a smart programme, and would make for a well-measured degustation with which to introduce friends to contemporary dance – but be prepared for a couple of debates after the show. https://youtube.com/watch?v=AYSNYHk1hDU Image by Peter Greig.
Maybe names like Nicolas Jaar and Lindstrøm make you go all fangirl, or maybe you'd rather party on after a show instead of ruminate on it, or maybe you just want to experience what exactly a Hot Dub Time Machine is. If any of the above sound enticing, Paradiso is where you'll be spending a lot of time during the tail end of January. The pop-up takes its name from the iconic Amsterdam rock venue, and it sits in the 125ish-year-old Town Hall. But aside from one detour in a time machine, the vibes are geared towards Sydney circa now. An expertly curated selection of DJs host post-headliner dance parties until 2am, and if it's a school night, the free-entry Paradiso Bar on the terrace is a prime spot for an after-work/pre-show drink. Light hot meals are available there, too. It all kicks off on January 18 at 8pm with special event Dance from Rokia Traore, who's sold out her Spiegeltent and City Recital Hall shows. Entry is always free after 11.30pm, so check the program to see which post-show acts are worth scheduling in a hangover for. Image: Osaka Monaurail
Biopic Hitchcock joins the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock when he is already well established as the 'Master of Suspense'. It's 1959, though, and that title doesn't yet cover the movie genre we'd perhaps consider most suspenseful — horror — which is widely thought crass. This is the year he'll start making Psycho. Hitchcock is a portrait of this changing time, an analysis of why we humans are so interested in horror stories, and a fantasy explaining the romantic relationship between Hitchcock and his wife, screenwriter/editor/assistant director Alma Reville. It's fair to say the film is pale and uneven at times, but it also does a number of things well. Foremost are the formidable performances of Anthony Hopkins as 'Hitch' and Helen Mirren as Alma. Hopkins is transformed into a man both rotund and orotund. His idiosyncratic sway of speaking is completely charming. Mirren, meanwhile, has our favour the moment she walks into any film these days, which suits perfectly here, because Hitch's wife has to put up with a lot of ego, and as a woman in the 1950s, her own professional work is routinely disregarded. A lot of Hitchcock is about Alma accepting her place in the world, and the world around her reciprocating with some recognition in return. Like the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady, Hitchcock uses the interesting technique of externalising its subject's thought processes through their interaction with another person, one of their own fantasy — like an imaginary friend. Hitch has many conversations with Ed Gein, the serial killer whose case inspired the book Psycho. In this way, the film is able to explore how physical anxieties are linked to emotional anxieties, which is really what is exorcised when we watch a horror movie. For some people, this 'imaginary friend' technique is a debasement too far in a study of a real person's life, but, as a clearly fictionalised element of the story, I think it can be both legitimate and useful. Hitchcock uses it far better than The Iron Lady, although after a while, the hallucinations become more tiring than illuminating. One of the real successes of Hitchcock, though, may be that it avoids hagiography. In it, Hitchock is just another mortal among mortals, who with drive, vision, good fortune, and the input of other talented individuals makes truly great films. It's a good, meaty alternative for anyone tired of watching historical figures turned into saints on screen.
Abbe May's 2011 album Design Desire is all distorted riffs, heavy drums and a disarmingly angelic voice that softens the noise just enough to make it attractive to people who decide on the soundtracks for commercial television. Her new single is a bit different. "Karmageddon" is gloomy (duh) and no less visceral than last year's stuff, but by toning down the loud guitars it makes mass destruction sound mysterious and seductive. With its cyclonic winds and hazy smoke clouds shrouding her sultry vocals, the video for "Karmageddon" gives you a good idea of Abbe May's new direction even if you've got the sound switched off. Even more alluring though will be her performance in Goodgod's Danceteria, which features smoke machines aplenty. https://youtube.com/watch?v=bDJx-yLk3d0
Is Love Story the first crowd-written film? Indie filmmakers have been financing their projects directly from fans for a while, but this pseudo-documentary rom com credits “the people of New York City” as screenwriters. Affable, skinny-jeaned Kiwi, Florian Habicht, sees a beautiful young woman, Masha, on the streets of New York. He misses his chance to get her number, but can’t forget her. Armed with a steadycam and a gutload of courage, he asks regular New Yorkers what he should do. The suggestions of strangers prompt his next moves and the development of the romance. What emerges is less of a love story and more of a testimony to the fact that Americans will truly say and do anything on camera. But this film’s directive isn’t realism or even true love. It's cleverness and kitsch, of the stripey socks and frosted cupcake variety. It’s all pretty meta: in these post-everything times, Love Story takes the idea of a film within a film, and rewrites it on the fly. It doesn’t work like Hollywood and it doesn’t work all the time. But it’s so sweet and silly and earnest, and goofy Florian is such an entertaining host, that the film’s foibles are forgivable — just. Love Story is a fun and admirable cinematic experiment - the trick is not to think too much.
Be warned: the Dobell Prize for Drawing is a decidedly 3D, video, live art and soundscape free zone. There are no lasers, no mechanical drawing machines, no Frankenstein music/art installations. No way: this is Australia’s top shelf prize for drawing, and there’s some serious, old school, two dimensional technique on show here. Drawing is no longer the scaffolding upon which the rest of an artist’s practice hangs. And perhaps it’s natural that audiences will be drawn to labour intensive works, as if the dedication of time leads to deeper integrity and intelligence in a work. Of course it doesn't, but it’s comforting to know that in an art world of immersive installations, large scale video works and YouTube mashups, hand drawn images can still captivate. This year’s Dobell is a reminder of what an honest and direct form of communication drawing can be. It’s an art show for those who want to go back to basics. The artist bringing home the $30,000 bling this year is 73-year-old Gareth Sansom. His work, Made in Wadeye, comprises twenty A3-sized, expressive, colourful drawings on paper, and with its collage-like approach, it’s one of the more contemporary works in the show. Materially, it’s got a bit of everything: ink, graphite, coloured pencil, felt-tipped pen, ballpoint pen and even earth. Perhaps Sansom’s win is an indication that this comfortable drawing prize is trying to get off the track it’s beaten for the last twenty years. Along with this year's winner, it was announced at the prize’s launch (at the stubbornly unhip time of 11am on a Friday morning) that 2012 will be the Dobell’s last year. It's to be replaced by an overhauled biennial prize aimed at refreshing drawing in a contemporary format (aka, getting with the program). We’re keeping our eyes peeled for a new, improved prize that expands the boundaries of what drawing can do and be in a digital, 21st Century age of art. Image: Dobell Prize for Drawing 2012 winner: Gareth Sansom,"Made in Wadeye", 2012
Initiated by Sydney Institute students and presented by A Series of Fortunate Events, Bizarre Bazaar has a cult following of style-conscious Sydneysiders. The twilight fashion market reclaims a Sydney laneway (or, on colder occasions, an indoor space) on odd Thursday eves to showcase the quirky garments and new collections of numerous local designers. The next Bizarre Bazaar will be held in Angel Place, with Eat Art Truck providing the sustenance and Festival Couch providing the tunes. New labels on show include Ann & Albert, Lauren Cass and Maple and Ray. Lusting after an item you saw but failed to snap up? Try the newly opened Bizarre Bazaar permanent flagship store, #crosssection, at 62 Glebe Point Road, Glebe.
The UTS Design, Architecture and Building school is going above and beyond for their end of year show. Not content with your usual cheap-wine/crumbly-cheese/dried-fruit opening night combo, they're taking over Building 6 of the uni with food trucks, bars, music and installations, and billing it as a vertical street party. As well as projects from the next generation of local creative thinkers and doers, the exhibition includes international contributors, Francois Roche (R&Sie(n)), Philippe Bloch (ETH Zurich), Adam Russell (DRAW), Thierry Lacoste (Lacoste+Stevenson), Matthew Bennett (Bennett and Trimble), Damien Butler (Assemblage), curated across all levels of Building Six. Who'd expect anything less from a show billed as exploring "the future of architecture"? After the big night, Index 2012 continues from November 28-30.
Let’s get this out of the way early: As pretty much every article ever written of The Tallest Man on Earth will tell you, no, folk troubadour Kristian Matsson is not particularly tall, and no, he doesn't make any secret out of channeling his hero, Dylan. But you wouldn’t call Mattson derivative. As anyone who has ever seen this not-so-tall man live will tell you, Matsson has become known for coming on stage alone with just an acoustic guitar, and blowing everyone away with his charisma and stage presence. Two years after he last played in Sydney to sold out audiences at the Factory Theatre, Mattson returns to play the Opera House. It’s a great chance to get a taste of songs off the back of his latest offering, There’s No Leaving Now, a home recorded album which explores different territory to his last two releases. To his intricate guitar work he’s added layers of woodwinds, drums and songs that explore more grounded, relaxed territory. The stage might be bigger, and the arrangements more complex, but Mattson’s reputation as a performer will remain. If you’re a seasoned fan, chances are you’re already salivating over the chance to see Mattson again. If you’re not, chances are he’ll win you over with his honest, humble performance that has charmed audiences the world over.
The inaugural Paddington Pub Fest looks set to light up the city with kick-ass events, discounted beer and grub, and a veritable smorgasbord of local sporting legends — all in celebration of the humble Aussie watering hole. Nine Paddington pubs are getting in on the act, hosting an awesome range of events for pub-dwellers of any and all social propensities. For the rugby-lovers, Phil Waugh and some of his Waratahs teammates will be ditching the usual Valentine's Day schmaltz at a meet and greet at the Imperial Hotel on the 14th. Or if perhaps you prefer your footballers in considerably tighter shorts, then the Light Brigade Hotel will be reliving the Sydney Swans 2012 premiership with Adam Goodes and his teammates on the 15th. Then again, if sport isn't your forte, then maybe check out the Bondi Hipsters at the Fringe or beer and whiskey tastings at the Paddington Arms or Bellevue Hotel, or simply tuck into the all-Sunday-long pub feast cooked by two MasterChef finalists and taking place at each of the participating pubs. To get your tickets to any of these events and more check out each venue's website or else simply set up camp in the Paddington area from February 14-18 as this year's Pub Fest looks set to showcase all the things we love about pub-crawling in Sydney.
The number of galleries on show at Art Month’s precinct nights in Chippendale and Surry Hills in March suggested an idea that’s slowly becoming obvious: Sydney’s art world is shifting westwards. So it’s a good thing for Surry Hills that a new art spot is popping up. 10x8 Gallery is setting up shop there, boosting the numbers of the suburb’s artistic hangouts. To help usher in their digs, 10x8 has whipped together an impressive lineup for their inaugural group show. Star players in this debut line-up of photography include Andrew Quilty (not to be confused with cousin Ben), Raul Canibano and narrative image-maker William Yang. 10x8 is open Wednesday to Saturday 11–6. The public opening for the show is at 2pm, Saturday April 13. Image Vinales from Tierra Guajra Series by Raul Canibano,
Raphael Morgan’s documentary photos Wild Mongolia are the star of the current three exhibitions at Gaffa. They take us across modern Mongolia itself — the most sparsely populated in the world — introducing us to herders, their families, flocks and lives. Within China's borders, an autonomous region called Mongolia strikes tensions of city versus nomad kind. Morgan's subject is the neighbouring, independent country of the same name. This Mongolia also also has a city/country divide, as minerals draw many of its citizens from a nomadic life to a growing slum around the capital Ulaanbaatar. Morgan’s photo work bridges both worlds, though this exhibition focuses more on the nomad life than that of the slum. It's Mongolian, it’s dusty and it’s in black and white. But this is a cowboy story. Morgan’s lens tracks lone riders lopes by dirt plains and rolling dry hills, settles on a stallion whose manes stoops to its knees and focuses on babysitting and babysat children, watching the world with wide jaws or stone-mouthed seriousness. Another child toddles in with the sheep. Mongolian tents are a big feature. While a Tsaatan teepee (and owner) gets a mention, most of these pictures are of low, circular gers (aka tents). One photo makes its ger look like nothing so much as a hobbit house let loose on a plain. Round, low-ceilinged, a small chimney and a squat (square) door at front.A bike and a motorbike lean against the side. Another photo of the same ger shows a solar panel on the roof and a satellite dish. Low, dusty hills roll away. More tents flock at a slum outside Ulaanbaatar. This slum looks something between a camping ground, a field of back sheds and a low-rise favela. Houses crawl up the hills in the background and spiny, wooden fences are everywhere. Though made of entirely familiar elements, this vista is unlike other places. What does it mean when nomadic people build a temporary slum? Is it easier for them to move on? Or, leaving their herds behind, are they as trapped as anyone else? Meanwhile, Susan Severino’s landscapes are the macro made micro. Here she studies mainly the tips mountains and ravines, taking one close-up snippet of her subject per canvas, like God’s collage-maker. Her mountain tops run like spines across the middle of her best canvases. Her colours are rich, impressionistic and at their best shine brilliantly. But some of the softer, less defined picture are less successful. And Hayden Youlley’s Paper Series sets out a small selection of porcelain cups and bowls, crumpled like paper at the base. It’s not a new trick, but it’s a good one. His work has the obligatory and appealing contrast between what the eye sees and what the hand expects. Photo: Mongolia 10 by Raphael Morgan.
Oblivion is like a 'Best of' album for sci-fi movies. It's got the isolation and planetary caretaking of Moon or WALL-E, the post-alien-invasion devastation of Independence Day, the memory wipes and insurgency of Total Recall, the sentient and menacingly red-eyed robots of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 'You maniacs!...You BLEW IT UP-edness' of Planet of the Apes. In fact, with so many classic hits, it's like the I Am Sam soundtrack, but where one of the tracks is I Am Legend. So if it's not terrifically original — if what we're talking about here is essentially a 'covers' film — is it worth seeing? Well, yes, thankfully, because like any good covers album, the tributes are done lovingly, respectfully and with a just enough reinterpretation to keep you interested. Oblivion is directed by Tron: Legacy's Joseph Kosinski, whose touch is immediately obvious both cinematically and aurally (although this time the pulsing soundtrack is provided by M83 rather than Daft Punk). Set in a fantastically bleak 2077, humanity has abandoned Earth save for two individuals, Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), whose job is to monitor and repair a small fleet of aggressive security drones that hunt down any remaining alien invaders. Like every old cop in an action movie, Jack and Victoria are just two weeks away from retirement when the unexpected crash landing of another human, Julia (Olga Kurylenko), throws a spanner into the works. Jack wants to know who she is, whilst Victoria doesn't want anything to threaten their plans to rejoin the rest of Earth's survivors on an off-planet sanctuary. Performance wise, Cruise is dependably solid, though its Riseborough who steals every one of their scenes. Her Stepford Wife-esque emotional repression more than makes up for their lacklustre sexual chemistry and becomes especially compelling once Kurylenko is introduced into the mix. Morgan Freeman also makes a cameo in a Morpheus-type role; however, his performance is both fleeting and unremarkable. The true star of Oblivion is in fact the production design, brought to life in astounding detail via Claudio Miranda's (Life of Pi) engaging cinematography. Jack and Victoria's exquisite airborne apartment sits atop Earth's expansive wastelands, and the scenes in both are equally sumptuous. Coupled with Oblivion's many sci-fi tributes, Kosinski and Miranda's vision offers an enjoyable and fast-paced film that should appeal to a broad audience.
Three new exhibitions at Artspace cast a searching light on the ties between artist and machine, civil life and technology. In the wake of Anish Kapoor’s giant automatic artworks, this show has removed the artist’s hand from the construction of the work. Contemporary art has gone Blade Runner, the future is here and the artists are absent. Kiwi art lecturer Simon Ingram has Frankensteined together three 21st Century painting machines. A paintbrush —daily replenished by the gallery staff who also choose the paint colour — is propelled across a massive canvass in random circles and stripes, easy as a machine. The ground here isn’t new, but to really look at these works is to realise that even in automation there is variation. The works are neither as uniform, nor as gridded as they first appear, and they are created during the show itself rather than in the studio. Meanwhile, Mari Velonaki has created and videoed a humanoid robot in a glacial landscape, accompanied by a soundtrack automatically generated by a swirling kinetic machine. Petra Gemeinboeck and Rob Saunders have installed a mystery motorised machine that lurks behind the gallery walls, hammering and perforating its way across them. Despite the coldness of this concept, it weirdly enlivens the gallery space, leaving a trail of white paint dust on the floor as it goes. Together, the artists have transformed the gallery into a dark, machine-spurred cavern of clicks, whirs and zips. As with much conceptual art, this is not a show for browsing and glancing - speak to the friendly Artspace staff and get amongst the shows’ written statements. The ideas are all there. Just delve in.
When I hear the words, "a tale of a boy and his horse", my thoughts stray to the heartfelt moments of The NeverEnding Story where Atreyu bids farewell to poor Artax in the Swamp of Sadness. In Atreyu's screams and Artax's wild eyes, my childhood self felt a shiver of understanding about the bond between humans and animals. There are definitely a few of these damp-eye moments in the National Theatre of Great Britain's production of War Horse, but they are overshadowed by what this show is really about: fantastic puppetry and some tight choreography. Based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name, War Horse was adapted for the stage by British playwright Nick Stafford and directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris way back in 2007. Opening shortly before the start of the First World War, War Horse is the love story of a Devonshire lad, Albert (Cody Fern), and a young foal, Joey, who, once it's come of age, is sold into service for the British Army. Seeing the injustice in this, our boy hero fights against age restrictions and cartwheels to Calais to save Joey, at which point his youthful bravado is tear-gassed into the harsh reality of early modern warfare. The play proved to be such a tremendous success that it relocated to the West End, then to Broadway and has now manifested in the antipodes at the Lyric Theatre. War Horse owes its longevity to South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, which has created a stable of horses, some soon-to-die cavalry, crows, swallows and a very animated goose. Though surrounded by puppeteers and, in parts, constructed out of obviously mechanical pieces, these puppets realistically breath and quickly pop out as the most genuine players in the show. Apparently Morpurgo was surprised to hear that his novel was being adapted for the stage. This is with good reason — the length that a novel has with which to enter the lives of its many characters is far longer than the 135 minutes allowed by a theatre audience's patience. The result is that War Horse limps through several overly sentimental, surface-level episodes that were probably very satisfying on the page. A twee relationship between a German deserter and a rural French family is particularly shallow. It is in the archetypal that War Horse's narrative works, in the dramatic sequences of puppets and choreographed soldiers clashing on field of cruel warfare. A strong creative team featuring set and costume designer Rae Smith, sound designers Christopher Shutt and John Owens, lighting designer Karen Spann and choreographer Toby Sedgwick produce several powerful moments on the Lyric stage, with a doomed cavalry charge and Joey's gallop for freedom amongst tanks and barbed wire especially moving. War Horse has marked thousands of audiences by now, and it is certainly worth watching as a celebration of theatre craftsmanship. However, it would excel with a tighter script and less reliance on puppets to sell the story. https://youtube.com/watch?v=9a9-zLDqx5g
Art plus bar. This almost universal gallery opening deal is a pretty tasty mix already. But the MCA adds extras to this time-honoured tradition with its now SMAC-winning series ARTBAR. They're evenings of strange and interesting things at play among the art, recurring monthly and curated by a rotating cast of local artists. This month's art interventionist is Emma Price of the Starbuck-buzzing Kingpins. Her Artbar occupation runs along the theme of love, with performance promised, a kissing booth and some lecturing on amore.
Ever since Urthboy's pioneering hip-hop crew The Herd welcomed the political demise of John Howard with"finally the king is dead we cried off with his head", it was clear this was one rapper who didn't fit hip hop's chest-beating conventions. And now the man born Tim Levinson is bringing his unique brand of Aussie hip-hop to the Annandale. Since the chart-topping success of Macklemore's marriage equality anthem 'Same Love', hip hop with a conscience has been back in a big way. Yet while Macklemore trades in gimmickry and overt sentimentality, Urthboy offers his fans a heady mix of brains and the lefty protestor, with songs that tackle that most unsexy of topics: politics. With everything from Australia's refugee policy ('77%') to the national flag ('Empire Tags') to Rudd's infamous 'Sorry speech' (in a GetUp!-sponsored reworking of the Paul Kelly classic 'From Little Things Big Things Grow'), Urthboy has become an unintentional and unlikely voice of a generation. He's now showing off a host of fresh new tunes from his hit album Smokey Haunts, so there has never been a better time to don your favourite Che Guevara T-shirt and jump on the Urthboy train. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xc_V6qqx70I
Daniel Lopatin's 2011 album Replica won him Best New Music, but he was steering analogue synths through unchartered territory long before the tastemakers caught on. Not to suggest Pitchfork was slow on the uptake or anything — Lopatin's first few albums were released on cassette only, making them significantly less RTable than SoundCloud uploads. It's the retro equipment though that makes Oneohtrix (pronounced "one-oh-trix) Point Never's progressive sound so immediate and so immediately recognisable. Droning synths (made on an old Roland Juno-60) are scraped through astral echoes and across jittery chord progressions, giving them an intimacy that's heightened further by the hiss of black thread. He's managed to keep that sound while incorporating both noise and accessible melodies in 2010's Returnal, and venturing into 2011 with an album recorded on studio software. Which is great because, you know, Spotify and stuff. https://youtube.com/watch?v=hiwi7d0f91Y
After recent exploits in the US and Europe, PVT are becoming old hands at the whole ‘touring’ thing. They’ve supported high profile acts such as Bloc Party, Menomena and Gotye and, over the course of their career to date, have toured Australia several times in support of their creative efforts. The latest of these efforts is Homosapien, a thrilling example of PVT’s instrumental prowess and creative capabilities. This album is their fourth, and it brings together all of the great elements of their previous releases dating back to 2005 (released under the name Pivot). They have wasted no time in inserting themselves into the Australian music consciousness. Indeed, the trio have had taken the country by storm with their brand of electro-laden music that blends ethereal elements with grounded, contemporary hooks. Homosapien sees the band place more emphasis on vocals, adding an intimate element to their experimental soundscapes. Joining PVT on their tour is the up and coming electro-RNB duo, Collarbones, who have been making waves since releasing Die Young last year. They are being hailed as a great genre-bending talent, much like their tour buddies, PVT. Get in quick and secure a ticket. Trust me, you’ll be blown away.
Since selling out two Oxford Art Factories in less than ten 10 minutes back in January, Foals have relased their third studio album, Holy Fire — a sweeping follow up to their sophomore effort Total Life Forever. Holy Fire is an uninhibited mix of emotion and instrument, and should give Yannis Philippakis and the crew plenty of juice with which to fuel their notoriously savage live sets. But while it doesn't stray far from Foals' addictive sound, a blend of riffy math rock and danceable electronics, the album does sound more cohesive than anything the band has released previously. Tickets for Foals Enmore Theatre show go on sale Monday, 18 March at 9am. https://youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_PMvjmC6M
It seems pretty safe to say that us Sydneysiders are absolutely, undeniably food obsessed. And not just in an instagramming our food way. Just check out how many food festivals we have. Yup, it's a lot. Taste of Sydney is the next one on the food calendar, running from March 14-17, and if you've never been before, just picture Centennial Park covered in food, alcohol, and chefs under white tents. It's kinda like the food and cocktail circus is in town. You might also want to drop by one of the 20 restaurant stands, like 4Fourteen, The Woods, or Efendy. Here are our picks of the best stuff on. Read our guide to grazing your way through Taste of Sydney here.
Noel McKenna takes centre stage in the MCA's South of no North. The exhibition matches up McKenna with overseas artists Laurence Aberhart (New Zealand) and William Eggleston (USA), whose photography has been selected by McKenna to accompany his paintings. The three artists' plaintive urban landscapes are a perfect match for one another: McKenna's blue-tinted world, Eggleton's quiet streetscapes and Aberhart's visions of New Zealand and the USA. McKenna's Priest in Room feels like it escaped from Picasso's blue period with its optimism intact. Picasso's harder realism from the period doesn't make the leap, but the cool bleakness of scene does. At its centre, the priest sits behind a candle and religious toy blocks. Amid the grey malaise, he's a ray of diligence, reassurance and optimism. His eyes radiate warmth much more than his candle. Eggleton's Untitled from Troubled Waters and Untitled (Greenwood Mississippi) move this same sense of urban drift outside. The warmth of McKenna's images of animals and people are the highlight of the show, especially Boy Dressed as Batman's mix of adult savvy and child's instinct, as well as Boy's room, Brisbane 1967 where a watchful cat stands in for a missing owner. He also paints three of Australia's oversize roadside attractions, including the Big Rocking Horse, Gumeracha. They match nicely with Eggleton's Untitled, Memphis, a striking photo of a child's tricycle framed as though gargantuan. The composition and subjects of Aberhart and Eggleton's photography are beautiful. It's hard to deny their technical skill. But the distance in these images is relentless. They are not new images, many coming from in or before the 1970s. They show big American urban sprawl, where the pop culture of the roadside attraction mixes with the realities of everyday life. It's a combination of cool and decay. A decade ago there would have been easily enough fun in that to hold up an exhibition. But since 2000, pop culture has given us more nuanced explorations of rural and urban wastelands, like Ghost World or No Country for Old Men. The American cultural overflow we receive by proxy on our screens these days have moved on to weightier themes and to different locales, the occasional Breaking Bad notwithstanding. It's hard for a contemporary Australian viewer to connect with these empty spaces without a stronger sense of who should be filling them. There's no fault in the photos themselves. They are simply orphaned here in 2013. Their emptiness doesn't move you. And they don't bring the past into the present. Noel McKenna, Big Rocking Horse, Gumeracha, South Australia © the artist
Is the Biennale of Sydney (BOS) the Australian art world's Hollywood blockbuster? It’s an institution. It is big budgets, celebrity artists and dazzling settings. But if it is art’s equivalent of the blockbuster, it’s not just disposable entertainment and pure spectacle. The BOS is also not just a three-month exhibition and program of artist talks, performances, forums and film screenings (all free, might I add). It’s also a link to the global art world, which can often feel far away from Australia. There are dozens of international artists exhibiting at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cockatoo Island, Walsh Bay, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Carriageworks. The joy of the Biennale is that it disproves that much beloved myth: that contemporary art is inaccessible, irritating and elitist. The BoS, now coming of age with its eighteenth birthday, has thoroughly wound itself into Sydney, no, Australia’s, arts calendar. Thousands of pilgrims will ferry over to Cockatoo Island, once an industrial graveyard and now a premier entertainment and tourist precinct, and a work of art in and of itself. It is at once a portal into Sydney’s industrial past and a glimpse of contemporary art’s future. The big question is: will the Island overbear the curated artworks, as it has in earlier years? Let’s do the impossible and pinpoint a couple of highlights. The 18th Biennale of Sydney, themed "all our relations", kicks off with a special ARTbar night at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Friday June 29. This is a new range of events for the MCA, and it’s exciting to see more Sydney institutions dip into the realm of late night programming with a focus on culture and community rather than clubbing and drunkenness. This ARTbar installment is all about the mechanics and bipolar excellence/strangeness of cinema. There’ll be pianos with pinballs, inflatable delusions, 1960’s 3D cinema and the opportunity to view the Biennale exhibition spaces on levels 1 and 3. Lastly, Art Lounges at Cockatoo Island and Pier 2/3 will provide more free, public spaces to engage with the ideas of the Biennale. FBi Radio is coming on board to run the Biennale Bar from 6.30–9.30 pm every Friday throughout August (3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 August) at Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay. Image by Ann Veronica Janssens "Blue Red and Yellow" (detail) 2001
As digital accessibility continues to erode traditional methods for the communal experience of artistic events, more and more creatives are coming up with new ways to keep old-school activities relevant. Underground Cinema is one of the champions. No more checking schedule times, reading reviews to determine the pick-of-the-programme, queuing for tickets or choosing between popcorn and choc tops. Underground Cinema (or UGC for short) doesn't involve merely seeing a film; it's an immersive experience. Participants purchase tickets online knowing only the theme, date and time of the event. They're clueless as regards to where they're going to meet, what they're going to see or who's behind the programme. Upon receiving notice of a top-secret location (anywhere from a parking lot to a disused ballroom to an abandoned warehouse), they turn up to enter not a cinema but an alternate universe, arranged according to the ethos of the movie they're about to see. That means live performances, music, costumes and who knows what else. The next UGC event intends to transport attendees to 1950s Hollywood. "It's swinging, saucy and sexy," reads the site. "We've got big bands, colour TV and stars in our eyes. It's a world of glitz and glamour, allure and attraction, but beware — all that glitters is not gold." Tickets for the Sydney event go on sale on Tuesday, August 27, at 1pm from the Underground Cinema website. https://youtube.com/watch?v=3UMG2fXsyAU
This article is sponsored by our partner The City of Sydney. The tail end of 2013 is heating up for Sydney's fashion set, as Vogue brings Fashion's Night Out back to the CBD on 5 September, hot on the heels of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival (21-24 August). It's your annual chance to taste the VIP experience as our premier shopping precinct is transformed into a playground of style from 5pm. Shoppers can expect exclusive deals from select participating retailers, including a Christian Louboutin shoe style that will only be available on the night through their Westfield store, along with live entertainment and celebrity appearances. Enjoy champagne and 10 percent off the Spring/Summer 13/14 collection at Manning Cartell, canapes and artisanal leather embossing at MIMCO, and fashion blogger styling and 15 percent off your favourite designers at The Corner Store. Runways are set to litter the city, while beauty consultants and manicurists attend to your grooming needs. There is no word yet on specific musicians and DJs performing this year, but if 2012's celebration of the songstress (headlined by Megan Washington) is any indication, we can vouch for the entertainment value. For full details on participating retailers and events head to the event website. Image by Nicole Bentley.
