Came across this amazing building in Cairns recently. So many possibilities for creating images of the mirrored surfaces reflecting the surrounding trees, sky and clouds. I no doubt will be drawn to it on my next few trips to Cairns. Not surprisingly it won the "Building of the Year" - in the 2012 North QLD awards for Charles Wright Architects.
I have the honour of creating a library of images for the Catholic Education Office in Townsville. I'll visit all 32 schools in the Townsville Diocese to capture images of the kids and all aspects of the various Catholic Schools in Townsville and regional QLD. Over the next several weeks I'll shoot about 35,000 images and deliver approximately 6,000 to the Office. I'll do a blog post soon of some of my favourite school images but for now here are some images from my road trip to the schools in Western QLD - Charters Towers, Hughenden and Winton. It's my 4th time out there and a drive that I absolutely love. It's also the first time I've seen grass near Winton. Problem been that following the rain all the fly's hatch out and they were a total nightmare - my tropical strength roll on Aeroguard was completely useless. Within seconds after stepping out of the car you were attacked by dozens of them wanting to get into your nose, mouth and ears.At one stage while doing bit of a "psychogeography" walk around Winton a gentleman drove up in his 4x4 and asked if I wanted to look at the racecourse. In true psychogeography fashion I thought well why not as there could be some good photographic possibilities out there. He showed me his race winning ponies, the local dam and so forth. As we neared the stables I noticed a massive cattle prod next to where I was sitting. I suddenly thought that this is way too "Wolf Creek" for my liking and kindly asked if he could return me back to town. He of course obliged and I was safely delivered back to the corner he picked me up from - "thanks mate that was interesting"
All these images were processed with the recently released VSCO film pack 5 which is dedicated to create the look of archetypal colour negative emulsions from days gone by.
I felt honoured to be asked by Gallery Services in Townsville to photograph Dadang Christanto's amazing performance art work "Survivor". It was an incredible experience watching the volunteers stand virtually motionless for two hours. My images were then printed and displayed on the walls of Pinnacles Gallery.
Survivor is a major performance piece by Dadang Christanto, which had its Australian premier in Sydney at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (4A). The work illustrates the impact of human disaster, with particular reference to the tragic man-made mud catastrophe in the Sidoarjo region of East Java. Volunteers silently occupy the gallery space, covered in mud from the neck down whilst holding photographic portraits of individuals who disappeared as a result of the disaster.
In 2006, hot volcanic mud started erupting from the site of a gas exploration well. To date, 11 villages in East Java have been effectively wiped out. Christanto's interest in this disaster relates to his previous work about his father's disappearance during the Suharto regime in the mid-1960s. In the context of the mud disaster, the unrelenting build up of mud in the region is slowly consuming surrounding villages. As 4A's Director, Aaron Seeto, explains, "The entire history of a village - its livelihood and future is being buried under the mud. While Christanto's work is politically confronting, it is also a poetic experience that reminds us of human fragility and erasure in the face of disaster."
Dadang Christanto was born in 1957 in Tegal, Central Java and studied painting in Yogyakarta. Over the past decade his work has gained recognition across Australia with solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Sherman Galleries in Sydney, and at the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory. Christanto has been included in two Asia-Pacific Triennials at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and exhibited in key contemporary Asian art museums in the Asian region in Fukuoka Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Kwangju Biennale (2000), and the Venice Biennale (2003). In 1997, in recognition of his long-term artistic achievement, he was a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
The hugely popular Townsville Triathlon Festival was held this weekend along The Strand. Due to other commitments I could only compete in the team event on the Sunday so "Team Awesome" had its third crack at the event in as many years. Amelia swam, Stephen on bike and I brought us home in the run leg. We came 15th in the mix non-corporate group. Next year I'd like to have another go at the individual event - all I need to do is to learn to love swimming or at the very least tolerate it. I love the atmosphere of events like this and seeing so many people having a go and enjoying the beautiful environment that we are blessed with here in Townsville.
