DARIAN ZAM

COALFACES PREVIEW NOW AT IPAC

2012-01-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Seven portraits from the Coalfaces project were at Mount Kembla Hotel for some months. In the meantime the project has been a recipient of one of the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage's awards for 2011, in the research and archive category. These are annual awards in two or more genres of heritage work that are presented by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the government department. The exhibition has now moved to IPAC in Burelli Street, Wollongong until the end of February 2012. I hope to add another seven by the end of July and launch the book in addition.

SCUTTLE BUTT

2011-12-18T01:58:00.001-08:00

Does anyone know exactly who this lame twat Oscar is that writes "The Social Scuttle" as I call it? One thing I am sure of is that he wants everyone to know who he is. He goes by "Oscar Jones" on Facebook... I have my suspicions who he is, and I am pretty sure I have met him more than once at parties in the past. It goes unsaid that he's not interesting enough to be that memorable (unless he can somehow attach himself to the famed).

Anyway, Here we have one of many, many obits as tribute to the late great Carmen Rupe who departed this mortal coil on Friday.

http://www.thesocialshuttle.com/2011/12/legendary-carmen-passes-away.html

Except this one is a little different to me, because the hack that tapped it out is familiar from not so long ago.

But before we get to that - he also has some blog about Sylvia & The Synthetics - an infamous, revolutionary performance troupe of the early 1970s starring the amazing Doris Fish, who were over a period of time trailed and eventually arrested by the Sydney Vice Squad for "obscenity". Anyway his endeavors never went beyond posting one photo. Which can only be a good thing - given that his utterly vapid scribblings (I am being generous) are wildly inaccurate as it is and the publish button is hit with a devil-may-care-less, not-a-fig-give-I attitude. He should try for a job at the Daily Telegraph cadet pool that has replaced all the real journalists, he'd fit right in. Possibly because...he's worked there before perhaps.

For those who don't know (very few at this point in time), I am working on an art book about Sydney performance over a thirty year period. Yes, that over to your right. Up the top there. That's it. License to Thrill, which now has over 630 members. I've been researching on and off for more than three years, so while no expert (and there probably never will be one on the subject no matter how hard they try) I actually do pay attention when someone pulls me aside and lets me know "you got that a little bit wrong..." I don't have a problem with that because when it comes to history, being as accurate as possible is so important if you want it to be worth anything at the end of the day.A little bit of humility can go a long way.

2011 minus 1935...equals...oh darn it! Yes, really. That is probably enough said on its own and I'd close this category except I'm not finished yet.

Just a sample (from a good friend who knows what she is talking about since she was a long term star of Les Girls): "He got who owned what, and who worked where and when, completely wrong". I suppose he could reveal his sources, ie. the other articles he lifted most of the text from, and make an excuse that it's everyone else's fault. Maybe he learned that from my little friend Excusie. Speaking of which -

This thing on Carmen is practically a masterpiece of facts compared to the guff he wrote on my book a few weeks back, and that's saying something.

http://www.thesocialshuttle.com/2011/11/in-houses-of-muses.html

Well, I wrote to him and listed all the things he got wrong including leaving me out completely as co-author ("not that I am at all surprised by that" I sniped) and I had no response and no corrections were made. Not that I demanded or even expected them. It's lucky I have low expectations. Thankfully this fraud won't be elaborating on Sydney history further by the looks of it. I doubt he even knows anyone that ever performed in Sylvia & The Synthetics anyway. A couple of years ago when I first saw it appear I assumed he must be old school crowd, perhaps someone I knew using a moniker - but he's clearly just some exploitative, half-arsed never-will-be who has to live his life vicariously through celebrities he hardly knows.

Now, I may technically be an amateur historian, since I am not officially qualified in the field - however I have won some grants and awards, a few actually. But the big difference between me and "Oscar Jones" of Bourke Street, Darlinghurst is that I give enough of a fuck to read something back at least once after it's finished. Perhaps he could change the title of his on-line rag to "So-Called Shut Hole". It has a ring to it - a ring of much longed-for silence from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about and has WAY too much airtime to express it.

The picture above of Carmen working as a snake dancer and stripper in Kings Cross, 1960 (photographer unknown) is of course a pun on the famous "I'll be a stripper" meme. http://imagemacros.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/stripper-lrg.jpg

AWARD OF THE STATE

2011-11-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce (a month after the official ceremony ) that I am the recipient of one of the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage's awards for 2011, in the research and archive category. These are annual awards in two or more genres of heritage work that are presented by the Royal Australian Historical Society on behalf of the government.
I was awarded for my portrait exhibition and book "Coalfaces". This is the fourth grant/award I have won in two years for a project that isn't even finished! Amazing really. To me it's important as far as it sort of "cements" my new career path into heritage-based work that started in late 2008 (it also essentially got me my job at local council in Cultural Services in 2009).
Anyway, whatever I am doing seems to be working. The fact that I was up against academics - and as a result the focus was likely on text based studies by people I cannot compete with as far as legitimate qualification - is a pretty big thing to me, as it definitely signals I am moving in the right direction with my career.
Sometimes I feel like I am in a kind of limbo and wonder what I am now, for am I a "real" artist? Or am I a historian and researcher? To be both is fine it seems - and that is exactly the appeal to my audience.
I was supposed to go to the ceremony in Maitland to have the certificate presented to me by the Minister of Heritage. Unfortunately I had spent months organising a survey into the Cordeaux Valley to locate lost historic sites of the community that used to be present there for about 100 years and hasn't existed for the most part since the mid 1940s. So although this was a big moment for me, I was unable to attend which is disappointing.
Between that and the book launch I don't even get the little shreds of glory.

The portrait is of Flo McNamara who was born in Cordeaux Valley into one of the earliest pioneer orchardist families and lived there until around five years ago. The text reads as following:

"Cordeaux was an enchanting place. Nature shone in all it's glory around our homestead, which was built by our pioneer family in 1874.I was the teacher at the school for around 15 years. It was bulldozed in 1954. By then the numbers had dropped to just a few pupils. It's an era and a community that's been and gone. I was 83 when I finally left. It became lonely after the old folk died off. You miss people. Every passer-by used to take time to call in on their neighbours, to alight from their horse and enjoy a leisurely cup of tea and perhaps a scone. The doors were never locked to our home".

UNCOMMON THREADS

2011-11-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

Perfection, 2011. Cotton, fabric acrylic paint, and cotton thread on canvas, 250 mm H x 250 mm W

These two art works were created for a show I am currently in at Gatakers Artspace in Maryborough, QLD.
About a year ago I started doing stitched work just for something different; to keep myself entertained and motivated.

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2010/08/bit-of-swap-and-fickle.html

I've decided to continue on this theme of random square print advertising cuttings stitched in thread, as part of the annual art swap that is part of the forum I belong to.
The curator proclaimed them "...very ZAM." which I take to be a good thing because it means I have developed some kind of individual style that people can attach to my name. I always think from observing others that one has to be careful not to get stuck on that though. There's a tipping point between having a known style and suddenly being old news.
Anyway, back to the pictures. At first I really didn't think too much about the images, I keep a folder of potential stock so that I don't have to go through my entire database of tens of thousands every time I need to make a decision on something to make for a project.

Superficiality, 2011. Cotton sateen fabric, acrylic paint, and cotton thread on canvas, 250 mm H x 250 mm W

So I was just seeing them as two I picked out randomly from dozens - the only prerequisite was they were ones I'm currently most obsessed with and find the most appealing. There wasn't much more to it than that. I was more focussed on just getting it done during a very busy period where I had several things going on at once.
However once I had finished that I realised that there was actually a connection between the two - and that is they both stem from the work I have been doing on my longwhitekid project over the last 12 months - which is researching and recreating artwork from vintage NZ advertising brands from scratch. As it turns out this is where both the images came to me from - trawling through old newspaper archives.
The first one in blue and white is from an old Hallenstein Brothers ad of the mid-late 1920s. It was a men's clothing if company that was quite popular - even when I was a child. I named it "Perfection" because for some reason I thought I had cut a piece from the packaging of an old New Zealand ice cream brand named as such. As it turns out this is incorrect but it kind of fitted with the text on this piece so all is good with it.

The second piece was originally an advertisement for Wolfe's Schnapps which I found in an old Bay of Plenty Times from 1897. I remove the original text and added my own slogan in.
I always think it's interesting how, whatever else is going on in one's life at the time - separate as it may seem - somehow insidiously sneaks its way into other things we are passionate about, whether it's cooking or landscape gardening, or art.
After it was all done I stood back and realised it seemed so obvious. So this is how my grocery anthropology has come out in my work quite unexpectedly!
I can't say whether I'm happy with them or not. I suppose I am, reason being that they had turned out looking exactly how I imagined and how they were supposed to. Really, so expected I didn't really give them a second look in the end and of course there went straight up to Queensland, probably never to be seen again.
I'm one of those creatives that just doesn't have a problem with saying goodbye to something once I'm finished with it. I always have a whole list of ideas that need to be done and that's what I am focused on, thinking about what's coming next while I am in the middle of whatever I am currently doing.

IN THE HOUSE OF PAIN

2011-11-11T05:10:00.000-08:00

Imagine a project you don't want to do.

At all.

And you state so with intended imperviousness.

Imagine also, that you're older and wiser and you're adamant you're not going to make the same mistakes again that you've made in the past with other projects - and go to great lengths to ensure that all these things don't happen. It's a very conscious thought.

There's going to be a contract, it's going to be watertight, and you're going to get exactly what you want! After all you have an artistic vision, and you have integrity. Your art is the altar at which you worship. Nobody touches it, and it's the one thing that remains completely pure!

So those things are just not going to happen this time ! AT ALL! Right?

This was (another) one of those projects. I really didn't want to do it, and I said no. Yet I let myself somehow be talked around and into it.

There were provisos of course - and very clear ones (after the initial suggestion that I should design the whole thing, for free, myself was rejected with snorts of derision from yours truly). I was to oversee the art direction, liaise with the graphic designers, see a proof prior to production and see the proof of any changes before production. That's all I asked for - not much really in exchange for lending your work for free to raise thousands of dollars for (supposed) charity.

However it's the same old story when you give a little control over to someone else...you get railroaded, someone just takes it all and runs the minute your back is turned. And in this case I was in another country, on the other side of the world, dealing with people for whom English is a second language.

However I don't blame *them* so much as my cohorts - the book project was hijacked by two of the participants and it's not much of an exaggeration to say that as soon as my name was signed on the contract I was as good as frozen out. The ink was hardly dry. I was not notified of, or invited to the launch in Egypt last year and when I confronted them about the situation I was fobbed off with some excuse that it was a *mock* (definition: draft copy, but "mock" is pretty apt) of the book and not the real deal. Really guys? As if that's a good enough reason for the appalling behaviour. It's well known around town that Screamin' Soozehound is very good at turning on the genetic princess charm and getting other people to do everything for her and if she doesn't get her way she cries; and failing that she has a massive tantrum. Classic "poor little bitch girl" material. All you have to know about Prince Foolio Courtesytitle you can get from looking up any article on his "runaway groom" debacle in the 1980s to get a very clear idea that royalty and loyalty do not go hand in hand. A couple of decades down the track that hasn't changed. You can add little man syndrome into the mix and between the two that's what you're dealing with - a potent stew of 100% pure unbridled FUCKERY.

Anyway, apparently it was all at the printers when Egypt exploded into turmoil last year. And as the Mubaraks were the patrons of the Library of Alexandria - who were publishing the tome - I assumed that the factory had been burned down or something and the whole uncunning stunt was cancelled. I was secretly, no actually publicly gloating thinking that this timely turn of political events had neatly put paid to the problem and the book was never to see fright of day. Yippee!

Well, wishful thinking on my behalf I'm afraid. I was sure all this was behind me for good and I was never going to have to deal with it again. Yet against my best efforts to protect myself, this whole project was an absolute sandstorm of drama from the get go, and all I tried to do was avoid being involved in any of it. Yet I was literally ambushed , hog-tied and dragged through the dirty mud puddle of my own NOs. This is how I am repaid for my work and generosity. I was unhappy with the way the whole process was conducted, as well as the way I was treated, from beginning to end.

So it was nice to be invited to the Australian launch; I suppose I should be *grateful* that I was told about it, by receiving an invitation a week before to an old email address I haven't used for at least two years (curious how that could happen, bad luck I guess). And that has been pretty much all the consultation has apparently been required from me on the publication and launch of my own book, since some time two years ago when I looked at the first proof which was horrendous, rejected by me, and sent back with a hefty list of corrections and additions (including the question "why has my introduction been credited to Susie?"). Not a word and no response to many emails and calls. Well at least I got to see a first draft, if that's what you can call the piece of garbage that I clapped my peepers on.

So if you are around Paddington this weekend feel free to pop into Wagner Art Gallery, have a glass of Lisa McGuigan's delicious designery wine, and hobnob with the devastatingly vapid , utterly rich and socially ambitious that make up the crowd who will be in attendance congratulating Hagon and only Hagon, like they did at our Sydney exhibition. I may as well have not been there, even though I did most of the work. In fact her only comment was to complain about "why the press only wanted to talk to me" (answer: because I have a modicum more charm than a spoilt raptor). I even washed 400 glasses by hand the next morning and her contribution was to scream and storm out causing every member of the Consulate to come out of their offices and gawp slack-jawed in horror at seeing someone in their late forties have an unfettered bitch fit like a fourteen year old in a government building.

For obvious reasons as outlined above I will not be supporting this endeavour at all and that includes going to the opening night party. If you still don't understand those reasons after reading of the above -let me put it plainly: I have been royally fucked over and dumped in the desert somewhere. And there ain't no oasis, continuing with the theme.

Yes on the upside I can now officially say I am internationally published. Was it worth it? I'd rather have sarcophagus splinters pushed under me fingernails.

Oh and do me a favour - DON'T buy the book. While I live in abject poverty money has been going into other people's pockets who don't need it as much as I do, and for work they didn't do. Always glad to fund jaunts to Europe and the Middle East for others, I dream to some day have a vacuum cleaner that's not held together with electrical tape and falls apart three times in the process of using it - oh and sometimes I think plumbing wouldn't go astray instead of having to empty the shitter myself. But hey, be thankful for what little you've got I guess. Hope you enjoyed your all expenses paid holidays, guys!

So I'd like a copy of the book myself, but I haven't even been offered one yet. I probably won't get one either.

On second thoughts, maybe I don't wanna see what they've done to my work after all.

AFTER A FASHION

2011-11-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

I did this interview with Billy Gibney, artist Trecia Gibney's son, in early October for a school project he was doing. He wanted me to answer some questions about my textile design career and how I was robbed of so many years of my life...oops I mean, ended up there. I spent 12 or so years mainly working in licensing and merchandise. Seriously, people get way less for committing a serious crime. It goes unsaid I don't miss it and after I was "paroled" I never looked back! Here goes.

Bag design for Dunedin Art Gallery to accompany Shoichi Aoki's "FRUiTS" exhibition which travelled internationally.

How long have you been working for?

Well I started working in the fashion industry (which is a term that is used very loosely in Australia), probably in around 1995. I stayed in the industry for 12 years and I have occasionally gone back to do jobs but only if they interest me - not very often. Up until that point I had been in fine art but probably around 1993 people started to ask me to do things for them after seeing my work around. I suppose my work lends itself to commercial use because it's always been quite influenced by a popular culture. A lot of retro cartoon, and manga-style stuff. I did a couple of murals that were in the city and seen by lots of people, and then people started asking me to do more of them, and then they started asking me to do little things like logos for businesses and such. Since I had a few friends in the fashion industry, a few of the jobs were fashion related for little labels and businesses. illustrations for bags, teeshirts, swingtags and stuff like that. When I say fashion is a term used loosely in Australia, I'm talking about the commercial industry. It's really apparel, and everything that is done in Australia is pretty much a knockoff of what's made overseas, copied from samples. There's very little original stuff. You always get "...copy this but change things 10%..." this is the instruction often used which basically translates to - it has to look exactly the same but slightly different to avoid copyright infringement, and if you don't know how to do that without thinking about it too hard, well you are already stuck!

That famous poster that sort of launched my career, although I am loathe to give away the credit for all my hard work leading up to it.

Much earlier when I was a teenager I had a crack at a little fashion label that was called PSY-CO and I hand-painted tee-shirts and badges and sold them out of the boot of my grandmother's station wagon at the markets! This was in the mid 1980s. An old friend of mine still had one and she sent it to me a few months ago, which was quite funny to see what I was doing then and similarities between what I'm doing now -some things just don't change! Anyway probably about 1995 I got asked to do illustrations for a campaign that also spun off a range of merchandise. This was for the Mardi Gras that year and they decided to do their first big merchandise and licensing program. The imagery went around the world, and keep in mind this is in the days before the Internet was widely used so it was a lot harder to publicise things. It was quite successful and people started to know my work, and put a face to the name - or a name to the look I suppose - is a way of putting it. Then I heard about a job going at a fashion business running the art department, so I went for the interview - and because the person recognised the work I had just done on this campaign I got the job immediately - within 15 minutes I was hired so it was really a big lucky break that gave me a foot in the door of a design career . It all happened very quickly, although I had always been interested in graphics right from a young child, and I had been jonesing for some kind of break that I felt was long overdue. People sort of always expected me to end up doing some type of design but I had never considered it has a career, and was literally just doing things on the side for a little bit of extra money and pretending it was still "art". So it was a pleasant surprise to me that I had just walked into an industry without any official experience to say the least. And I stayed in the industry for 12 years, five or maybe six of those running my own business as a freelance textile designer for different companies. In 2004 I was approached by the Sydney Museum Of Contemporary Art to design a range of tee-shirts and badges and stuff to go with an exhibition they had no merchandise for , and it sort of went from there to designing merchandise, for museums - I also worked for Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Powerhouse Museum. They were really fun jobs where I had carte blanche. By the end of 2007 I was really bored and felt like I had done everything I wanted to do; I had done everything from socks to book covers. I was really done with the whole industry. I wanted to go back to fine art and doing my own thing, I had just absolutely had enough after all that time of people telling me everything was wrong with what I was doing, and how to be creative. You know when you are sitting in a meeting and you start to fantasise about stabbing a moron through the hand with a pen it's time to go! There's a time when it's actually a challenge, and then eventually it just sort of wears you down. So I don't really work anymore in any commercial capacity - I'm just not interested. Really the fashion industry is all about number crunching - it's like glorified accounting. There's nothing about it that interests me anymore because there's nothing really creative about it at the end of the day.

Where my commercial career basically began: handpainted teeshirt from my "PSY-CO" label circa 1985.

What Does your job role entitle?

Well, at the time that I was actually working in the industry as a designer, it could entail be anything from picture research to checking samples to actual graphic design, a lot of paperwork because I spent a number of years in licensing designing products from The Simpsons to Star Wars. In fact in the early days on The Simpsons I used to deal directly with Matt Groening, I used to get faxed approvals from him with comments on what I'd done and what he wanted changed... in fact he was pretty easy going. Of course later when they got really successful I was dealing with people who were hired mouthpieces with no idea of the relationship you'd built up and they would just be intolerable to deal with and wreck everything. Basically commercial design is all about having marketable ideas and lots of them, I mean constantly churning things out with no breaks, to strict budget and strict deadlines. You are constantly under pressure to have things into stores and to come up with new ideas all the time, in particular new ideas on the same theme, which can be really hard if you're not the person whose mind is constantly buzzing. I'm one of those people that always has a zillion ideas and not enough time to do anything with most of it, so it's not a problem for me. It was in fact a way to get it out and in huge volume, like a creative exorcism.

Some of the badges that were produced for the Powerhouse Museum's "The 80s Are Back" exhibition.

What decisions would you make?

Well, design decisions mainly. Whether to pursue or drop something in the "too hard basket". Usually it's dealing with difficult changes that someone above you has made which you don't want to do because it's going to compromise your good design work or concept. Or they have no idea about the market - what is saleable. Or it's just boring because you're doing something over again from scratch. To be honest design work is basically doing the same thing over and over again so after the initial idea you have, ( if indeed you had the luxury to creatively brainstorm in the first place), it's really not that interesting to be creative in a commercial sense. It mainly involves other people who are not actually qualified or experienced telling you what they think is wrong with something when they usually have no idea, but they want to sound like they do. It can be very frustrating and you have to develop a thick skin pretty quickly if you don't already have one. You have to be pretty stoic about maintaining your sense of self worth, because you're constantly having your work criticised. You need to be able to have a clear division in your head between art and design, play and pay. In my opinion it's a good idea to keep your commercial work separated out from other things are you doing in your life that you are really passionate about. Fashion is not art, its clothing - and that's the mistake that most people make, they get the two mixed up all the time. Fashion is someone else's idea of someone else's style repackaged and sold to the highest bidder.
You have to work from a brief quite often so you have to make sense of that first before you start any work and that can be a real stumbling block for a lot of creative people straight off if they are not logical thinkers, not very objective (a lot of creative people just aren't), and just don't "get it". You have to be able to interpret the client's needs and sometimes they can just be intuition because you will find that they say to you "I don't know what I want, but I'll know when I see it..." which is no help to anyone really. So also being forceful about your ideas or what you want to do and driving project otherwise it just goes all over the place and becomes a waste of everyone's time.

Cover design for coffee table book. My work in publishing was short-lived more or less due to discovering that it was no better than the apparel industry - especially when it came to getting invoices paid.

What are your qualifications?

I don't actually have any besides experience. I undertook my BVA in 1993 but I just hated being under thumb of an institution. I don't like being told what to do and university just wasn't for me. I was expecting to be treated like an adult and I felt like we were back in high school and I really didn't like it. Everyone was younger than me - straight from graduating so they had an easier time segueing in. I think I probably should have gone to university straight after high school instead of waiting. Anyway I hated it so I left after no more than a few months. I just had experience and I was good at working out what people wanted and have a good sense of three dimensional forms naturally, and a good sense of the commercial - so I was just able to go into the industry without much training. I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone to undertake a career in the way I have, it's been pretty backwards, actually it has weaved, ducked and wandered! I think the best thing you can do is go and at least do a bachelor of something or other. It's just makes it too hard otherwise. It's not that I hated doing commercial design; I just never started off passionate and driven about it and having a career in it because it was never a plan of mine. I never actually made a strategy and nobody ever said to me "well you should really think about what you want to do... ". neither of my parents had that sit-down talk with me. I have just sort of fluked my way through life until now when I discovered that I actually really want to be in heritage and research. So it's taken until 40 years old to really find my direction.

Probably the epitome of my "selling out" for commercial work in apparel - underwear and sleepwear for women was my bread and butter. And it doesn't get lower than panties.

What IT/programs do you use?

Photoshop, and a bit of illustrator, and hand drawing when necessary, sometimes it is just applicable to doing the work and quicker than a digital application, or a matter of trying to get the right look. Because I do a lot of writing and research I use all the standard office programs, internet, stuff like that. These days I rarely touch a pen or pencil. There is a skill to research on the Internet and knowing what search engines will pick up and what they won't pick up and where you need to go to find it when it's not turning up. You need to be able to work very quickly - fast is not fast enough and more is still not enough.

What has been a major change in technology since you have been involved?

The Internet of course. When I started in the fashion industry a lot of stuff was still done by hand, we used to do designs by cutting out photocopies, stick them together with tape, and hand painting the colours with gouache, doing text with Letraset - all that was just finishing up for good and everything was going digital. Of course computers had been around for quite a while by then but I think the guy that was running the design department, who was an excellent artist, very talented - but he was a bit behind the times when I started my first job. I started coming in on the weekend to use a computer that was sitting there to be used for colouring fabrics in, but was unused and collecting dust. Can you believe that the cost something like $30,000! Ridiculous compared to today's prices for a computer... anyway so I basically taught myself everything on my own time because I wanted to learn, and I was really interested in technology. It seemed to me that was just the way that things were going. Try to imagine a world where there is no online shopping or Google for research or e-mail or anything like that - you had source books and photocopies and a fax! That was about it. If you couldn't find the material you needed then you drew it by hand! If you needed to send something in colour, to another country - well...it went snail mail. There's no way I could do the calibre of work I do now without the computer and Internet - no way!

Postcard for Danielle Wallace's menswear label. It apparently ended up on Hamish Bowles's office pinboard at Vogue so you can't ask for more than that as seal of approval.

Where do you see the technology progressing to in 10-20 years?

Massive changes obviously . But what you've seen in the music industry is artists bypassing corporations and deals being offered to start up their own thing online. No sitting around waiting for somebody to tell you you're good enough, or somebody else to get things going for you. Build up an audience without having someone hovering over you telling you what to do - you can do things on your own terms. Then it started to happen in publishing and now lots of people losing their jobs; editors are being dispensed with as "unnecessary". Like the music industry whining about not making as many record sales , and conveniently ignoring digital sales - the publishing industry are also conveniently ignoring digital sales while they can still pull the wool over, and complaining their profits are down. However now in publishing e-books are surpassing sales of hard copies for the first time and sales overall are increasing. In actual fact all of these things are fostering people to spend more money because there's so much more available, and advertising is so far-reaching. Creatives from all fields are now able to bypass the corporates and start a career without outside support, or trying to get your foot in the door at a low level. I've been saying for a long time that the next thing to have this happen will be art and design. It is logical and inevitable that the same thing will happen - it's just a matter of the technology arriving - accessible, affordable technology. How do you get three dimensional objects online, or how you transfer them in a non-physical way from one place to another? That's the only block. Now that they have actually invented a 3D printer which can print out small three dimensional objects, it's really just a matter of a few years before you will be able to select an item of art or furniture at home from an online catalogue, download the template, load it into your 3D printer and print out a designer Mies van Der Rohe chair, or whatever, in a few hours and stick it in your living room. All without leaving the house. Or a sculpture, or a vase. This is actually a reality, as opposed to being the stuff of sci fi fiction! I bet IKEA will be the first to market it and they will start with small homewares; cups and plates and picture frames. Of course at first the larger objects will be done by a bureau with a large indusrtrial facility. Then as homes get one the larger things will be printed in pieces and assembled. Already these machines can actually reproduce themselves. Incredible! Let's look back to this in a few years and see if I was right! Anyway, for people like me who rely on their creative talents, it's amazing. If you're not technologically-minded it sounds a bit scary but in actual fact it should mean a lot more personal control over how your work is distributed and royalties are collected -as opposed to having little control now in comparison.

Paper doll book that was commissioned by the Sydney MCA to accompany the Leigh Bowery retrospective.

How did you deal with clients? And when do you meet them?

Generally when I was in the industry on a salary I didn't really have to deal with clients, but I would deal with representatives in licensing which could be difficult because they wanted what they wanted, and we wanted what we wanted, and there had to be for a meeting point and resolution to keep everything on track. A lot of the people were quite painful to deal with, "You didn't listen to what I wanted" or "I never said that!" or "Change it to green!". But green won't sell. "I don't care!" Then you'd get "Well we tried it in green and it didn't sell, so we won't order from you again!" So frustrating. Later on when I had my own business I would just cold call companies and go see them. You either quickly built a rapport or not. Yes it takes a lot of guts but I'd just go to the phone book and do it. It's interesting what you can talk yourself into doing when your livelihood depends on it. I met a lot of unscrupulous people that's for sure! How did I deal with them? Not very well when they wouldn't pay their bills! Which was many of them! You'd be amazed how many times an invoice can get "lost". Design is never really easy, ever. Freelancing is even worse. People are happy to employ you, they just don't want to pay you.

What professional practitioners do you use, if any?

Generally I have been very hands on with my own work. Even when out-sourcing to manufacturers I hang over them like a hawk at every step otherwise you inevitably don't get what you asked for and certainly not what you want. I learned the hard way pretty quickly. Specifically I've used printers of paper and fabric, badge makers, weavers, embroiderers. We're not talking about artisans here. Of course when I was running design departments I constantly managed production which is mind-blowingly stressful, with the problems that come at every stage of making a design reality. When I started everything was still made domestically but very quickly things went off shore, and by the end of the 90s almost without exception all product was being made in China. It was a nightmare...I have one story I like to tell called "The White Suit Story" which I won't recount here, just to say that it went on for months and ended with a shipment being burned at a loading dock in a random fire as it was about to finally be dispatched. The level of incompetence was mind-boggling. I still can't believe it, looking back. I quit that company after that!

SHOW AND TELL

2011-09-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

The Viva la Gong Festival is upon us again. This is an annual cultural festival - that leads up to a main all-day event held in the Wollongong CBD.

http://www.vivalagongfestival.org

Last year they created an "Artist's Week" crammed with events, and as part of that they held the now globally ubiquitous "Pecha Kucha" for people to present their ideas. The brief is strict; twenty slides, twenty seconds each. That's it. The general concept is you're supposed to discuss your idea in front of the audience but instead of choosing to ramble about something that did not particularly need to be elaborated on - I was interested in the challenge of telling someone's life story in six minutes, forty seconds. Quite a task, but I managed it and did a good job I think. Well, the reaction was good anyway. Last year I showed a bio of miner and activist Fred Moore.

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2010/11/still-battlin.html

This year it wasn't held in the city art gallery ( in 2010 it was in my favourite room, The Bluescope - the very retro ex council chambers replete with mayoral chair). However regardless of my venue and/or interior decoration preferences - I had long ago committed to being part of it again and I showed another bio - this time of well-known Australian playwright Wendy Richardson.

DOING IT BY THE BOOK

2011-09-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

Pearl Girl, Salon of Curiosities, 2000

Gosh, I have completely neglected to mention that I now have a fan page on Facebook. Well, for want of a better expression; I hate the term "fan", I'd prefer "enthusiast". Anyway go over and join if you have an account. I'll be posting old stuff from the archives as well as new things.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darian-Zam/236591199706724

PARALLEL MINES

2011-08-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have been finishing writing the introduction to my next book, "Coalfaces", which is set in an area where the biggest industrial disaster in Australian history occurred.

Brunner Mine Disaster Memorial, © Olwyn Crutchley, 2006 , courtesy of New Zealand History Online

I ask other people a lot of questions; I see it as my job. I generally do lots of research on other's lives; but never really on my own family. This is not about being secretive - of course my subjects take a front seat. I stay out of it; I'm pretty much irrelevant to the story - just a medium really.

Brunner Mine site, © Otago Images, 2011 , courtesy of Otago Daily Times

People occasionally remember to turn it around and ask me what my connection to the area is - why I came to live here? Why I am so interested in local history and what happened?- Why exactly, if I am not from here?

Local playwright and poet Wendy Richardson, whom I think I can now count as a friend, said this of Mount Kembla:

Windy Gully Memorial with Wendy Richardson's famous poem , © Darian Zam, 2010

“There are three ways in which you can be a local and if it’s more than one of those then the better. Firstly you’re pioneer stock. Two, and most importantly - you had a relative that was involved in the explosion. Lastly, You were born local, even if you’ve mostly lived away, it still counts”.

Coincidentally, Wendy's poem etched in granite on a monument was more or less the first thing I saw when I came up here. It completely resonated; I didn't know why but on the spot I knew I had come here for good. I made the decision, without any concrete basis on which to know that I could, or would, stay.

hand-made bricks at Brunner Mine site, © Karen Aynsley , courtesy of Karen Aynsley

From there my interest in heritage blossomed rapidly. I've always been interested in history, that's no question. But it sparked something in me, and a totally new direction in my life. It went from hobby to more of a profession very quickly.

The mass grave for the Brunner Disaster victims, at Stillwater Cemetery, Grey District, 1896. Courtesy of Christchurch City Libraries Images Collection. John Teward's body is the coffin five back from the ladder.

Anyway for a couple of years I really thought nothing more of it and then I remembered my grandmother telling me a story about a mine explosion and an ancestor. I started looking into it armed with a surname and quickly found information - including this morbid and mesmerising photo on-line.

One of these bodies is my great grandfather John Teward. He died in the Brunner Disaster, New Zealand's biggest industrial accident to date. They buried 33 of the 65 dead in this mass grave, and I have been going in circles trying to find out if he was actually interred here or somewhere else.

"A pathetic scene." The report funeral for the Brunner Disaster victims, Wanganui Chronicle, 30 March 1896. Courtesy of Papers Past.

Fortuitously as I was typing this an email from weeks ago I had forgotten I had randomly sent to another descendant of a victim was returned, with this information:

John Teward is buried on the west side of the grave. The 33 are numbered and he is number 29 in the grave. Looking at the photo where you see the ladder, and then the coffins, he is five back from the ladder".

The funeral crowd around the mass grave for the Brunner Disaster victims, 30 March 1896. John Teward's body is the coffin that the man with his hands on his hips is standing against. Courtesy of Christchurch City Libraries Images Collection.

It's quite strange because, here I am living in a town that is chiefly famous for Australia's biggest mining disaster to date, and I live about thirty metres from the mass grave. I really didn't think much of it at the time but from where I am now it seems rather extraordinary there are these parallels.

John Teward's estate: public trustee notice from the Grey River Argus, Volume LVII, Issue 9431, 2 May 1896, Page 3, Courtesy of Papers Past

My great-grandmother married John Teward and when he died, she re-married, and became a Barnett and had more children, including my paternal grandmother. But she did not re-marry soon after, or if so, there was a huge age difference between the siblings: it was nearly twenty years before more kids came along.

Brunner Mine site, © Virginia McMillan, 2009 , courtesy of virginia.mcmillan on Flickr

I can only imagine the devastation and grief she would have felt and then the hardship of supporting three children with the primary bread winner suddenly gone. I only know that my mother remembers being told that she "took in washing" to make ends meet. I hope to find out more information in regards to how the situation played out. I have some idea from what I have read of how people coped in the aftermath here. There were not just the victims of the initial accident; the after-effects were deep and far reaching.

Brunner Mine site, © Olwyn Crutchley, 2006 , courtesy of New Zealand History Online

So, technically he is my step-Great Grandfather, but that's sort of picking bones because the undeniable fact is this; if John Teward had not died in the Brunner disaster - I never would have been born. It's always amazing to me to think how one second can irrevocably change the course of history completely.

I must make an effort to go there one day, it's on the aptly named Grey River, it looks stunning from the photographs.

Much thanks to Karen Aynsley for assistance with research on John Teward. Her web page on the Brunner Disaster and the four relatives she lost in it it is here. https://sites.google.com/site/kiwikea/brunnerminedisaster

ROOM WITH A (PRE)VIEW

2011-08-03T02:04:00.000-07:00

A small show opened on Sunday night (actually it had been up since Thursday) at the old Mount Kembla Village Hotel. the building its self is old; dating back to 1898 and is a landmark of the main village. But it's actually beautifully renovated inside and out.

Jean white, the oldest person left who was born in the village, and her portrait with a story about washing day.

I displayed seven portraits in the dining room from my series "Coalfaces", which is focussed on local identities who are not necessarily born and bred in the area - but are somehow an important part of the larger story.

Clare Curtis, historian and genealogist, told her story about growing up in the old candy shop and card games room in Windy Gully.

Quite a few popped in throughout the day and night; at least five subjects came in to see my interpretation of them and generally the reception was very good.

Fred Moore, well-known retired miner, long term workers and equal rights activist

People headed back for canapes and mulled wine after 7.30 pm compliments of the management, after the annual "96 Candles Ceremony" which is a memorial held in Windy Gully in the memory of victims of the mining disaster.

Jack Miller, who was the first and last apprentice they ever hired in Kembla Colliery

It was a busy day with pretty much all the events crammed into the space of a few hours. But fun, and very social. It's like having a Christmas in July. Even the weather was pretty much perfect.

Noel Murray, an amateur historian who is descended from one of Kembla's oldest pioneer families, the Benjamins.

BIRTHS AND DEATHS AND (ELECTRONIC) CARRIAGES

2011-07-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

Now I'm on Facebook proper instead of just having an account to admin the License to Thrill fan page (look to the box over on right of this post) I've started an artist page for myself, something I said I'd never do. Why not go the whole way? It seems these days that you easily get way more action on there than any blog. I mean, are people really that lazy now that they can't be bothered going outside of Zuckerberg's baby for anything? 24 hours and I have as many followers on there as I've gathered in three whole years with this blog. I'm sorry I am such a bore. Anyway please join and I'll do my best to keep it lively:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darian-Zam/236591199706724

It will be interesting to see how Google+ is working for people and then if I'm getting positive reviews I'll give it a try, when they are finished their Beta period and allowing more people to join. They've hung out a "no vacancy" sign for the time being.

In other news I was looking back over some older work this week and I was drawn to a halt by "My Burden, 2008", Now freakishly prophetic, you'd have to agree. I did this piece using a childhood photograph of Amy Winehouse that was published in something like News Of The World or some other tawdry British rag. I showed it in a couple of exhibitions as part of a series called "I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost like You're Here". It was meant to be a commentary on the connection between creativity and madness. Now that she has died, and it's all come to pass, it seems even sadder and more disturbing than it was in the first place. That said there hasn't been any evidence provided that she died of an overdose yet; it's been all anyone's been talking about, so much so - they have forgotten it's all based on assumption.

TAKE YOUR PICK

2011-07-23T05:06:00.000-07:00

I've been busy prepping for an event here, the "Mount Kembla Heritage Weekend". So take your pick, and pack a picnic!

It's an annual event that has been going for nearly ten years and used to be quite something; a festival celebrating mining history that attracted between six and eight thousand people from all over the South Coast - and included the NSW Coal Shovelling and Roof Bolting Championships (I kid you not).

These days it's a smaller affair but still well attended. It consists of a poet's breakfast, a genealogical display of local families, a themed heritage picnic on the old school ground (people dress up in old fashioned garb and bring a spread), a church service to commemorate the moment the mine exploded in 1902 (Mount Kembla is the site of Australia's biggest industrial disaster in history), and a charming yet somewhat spooky (not to mention almost always without exception cold and windy) candle ceremony at the old cemetery where the mass grave is situated.

So now that all the work's away, I s'pose it's official - a preview of seven portraits from the "Coalfaces" project will be on display at the local hotel, a relic from 1898 - and far smarter than it looks from the outside. I thought I would capitalise on the ready-made crowd to showcase in the dining room what I have been doing for more or less the last three years building up to the release of the book, around the end of the year. Just about everything is organised and I just have to fanoodle around making plaques and whatnot for the works.

Here's one of local identity Noel Murray who is descended from one of the area's oldest families, the Benjamins, going back to 1844 - in fact the property in the main village is still occupied by descendants . He is an amateur historian whose family had a farm near the summit and he's a lovely guy; quite a character with many, many stories to tell about pioneer life in the area - often chock with what he terms his "bush bunny" colloquialisms. Here's the story that is written on the portrait:

"Grandfather John Benjamin was a shrewd, clever man who discovered many coal seams in Mount Kembla. He was one of the genuine founding fathers of the area. I owe my mining and agriculture knowledge to him. Until 1964 the Ring Track around the summit was known as Benjamin Farm, where my pioneer family lived for 50 years. These days, you wouldn't know there was an orchard there. Hard work, but a beautiful mountain atmosphere to be raised in. During WWII they made the tank trap through our land on the mountain top. Suddenly we were at war in our own back yard! As an eight year old, that ditch gave me the greatest playground ever! There is a lot of history here, but some people in Wollongong have never been here and that exasperates me somethin’ terrible!".

LOSING THE PLOT

2011-07-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

I was intrigued when I first arrived here and heard that there was perhaps this early, forgotten pioneer cemetery right on the waterfront. Really - right on the city's main beach? I'd never seen it. They'd dug up some things they weren't expecting, it was said. Was the story true? The common lore is that headstones were found during construction of the Wollongong Entertainment Centre. As it turns out this story is nothing more than Chinese whispers.

You will find Andrew Lysaght Rest Park tucked around the back of the WIN stadium on the road that travels along the sea front, the cafe looks out over it to the horizon on the water. Named for a well-known and respected family of the local area, the artefacts of the rest park were actually held in storage for around thirty years by local council depot. I was under the impression, and thought I had recalled reading at the park's memorial wall, that the graves were exhumed in the 1970s and moved to Wollongong Cemetery, so there was no "discovery" to speak of, let alone any gruesome ones.

That said, I uncovered an act of 1969 regarding this issue of which part 10 clearly states:

" Remains not to be disturbed. The Council or the showground trustees or any person or body of persons shall take due care not to unearth or disturb the remains of any person who is buried in the lands described".

And section 7 states: "... remove from the lands described all headstones, grave enclosures and similar surface structures that are, in the opinion of the Council, not reasonably capable of being preserved and dispose of them at the discretion of the Council, and remove and re-erect in new positions on the land described in the First Schedule to this Act.The representatives of any person who is buried may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Council, remove the headstone, grave enclosure or similar surface structure, and may, at their own expense, and with the permission of the Director-General of Public Health, remove the remains of that person to another cemetery for burial".

How many people did that? One family, who re-interred two or three members. It was a poor working class town that could probably barely scrape together enough for the shebang the first time around. Clearly the council did not see fit the "discretion" to replace anything at the time. A poem published in The Illawarra Mercury of June 17th, 1879 was already bemoaning the loss of and disrespect towards the site:

Headstones uprooted and prone.

Coffins exposed to the light.

Neglected, forsaken, forlorn.

A fearful and wonderful sight...

...The Dead on the beach disinterred.

I don't know if the muse carried the author away on potent romance, but it is true by then that it was already "old". It is the site of the first Roman Catholic cemetery in the area and burials date back to 1805. In 1914 the cemetery discontinued interments with, coincidentally - and somewhat ironically - the fourth and final member of the Lysaght family, after which the park is named.

The memorial wall in the Rest Park contains the names of 314 people known or believed to be buried on site. Among the names are some of the first residents of Wollongong including Jane Rose, who arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, and Andrew Lysaght, the parliamentarian of which the park now bears moniker.

They're sort of considered one of the "founding families" here. Andrew Lysaght Sr. became a local sporting and hotel identity as well as parliamentarian. He was the son of Patrick Lysaght, a convict who was transported to the colony arriving onboard "Mangles 2" in 1822.

Andrew's son Andrew Augustus (1873-1933), after which the Rest Park has been named since 1998, is the more "famous" one involved in politics and also had a very successful career as a barrister, specializing in industrial law and representing major worker's accident compensation cases. I keep running across his name during research on the book I am writing, in connection to the Mount Kembla disaster, in which he represented the miners before the royal commission in 1902-1903.

The common misconception is that the park is associated with the Lysaghts who were also a very well-known, and wealthy metal manufacturing family. The Lysaght family had brought the business with them from Britain in the 1850's. Post the gold rush they had already made their fortune here. Corrugated iron, wire, copper, structural, and roofing were some of their well-known products. The company eventually became BlueScope, which today is one of Australia's largest. There's also hotel, respite (Peoplecare) and credit arms of the company that are still going.

The photograph above of what is known as the "Orb" logo, I took in what is a disused core sample shed for the old Nebo Mine. It is on private BHP Billiton land but I had permission from the Mount Kembla Heritage Society to be there and look around inside. Amazingly most of the workaday ephemera is intact with trays of stone cores all labelled and neatly stacked in custom-made wooden trays where they were left nearly 70 years ago.

The Lysaght markings were all turned inside during construction so had survived from that period. the family left the area for Campbelltown at some point but to this day when people hear the name they immediately assume they are one for "success must breed success", and that the revamped "park" is to do with them. Let's put that to rest for good, excuse the pun.

There's not that many graveyards I know of that have been "recycled" in Australia. Thomas Rest Park in Crow's Nest is one I can think of, with a small museum and what headstones that could be salvaged grouped amongst the landscaping or moved to the sides to clear most of the area. There's Camperdown Memorial Park, taking the significant area around the drastically carved down remains of St. Stephen's Anglican graveyard. The Victoria Markets in Melbourne still has about ten thousand individuals beneath it. Both Town Hall and Central stations in Sydney are former cemeteries. I guess we're just not "old enough" or "crowded enough" to need to reclaim land most of the time.

The area has been reconfigured into a series of slick, modern courtyards with raised garden beds, in juxtaposition to the fusty artefacts from the original cemetery. It is quite strange to see the remaining headstones have been placed into a wall. The Lysaght memorial has been re-erected and the flagstones interpret the plots numbers with carved digits dotted about, while the rustic steel wall is decorated with surnames of the long-term "tenants".

People don't believe me when I tell them about it - but once they have seen it, it makes sense. Already somewhat illegible, I have to wonder how long those ancient markers are going to last in the salty sea air though.

Thanks to Carol Herben , historian, from the Illawarra Historical Society and Convenor of Friends of Andrew Lysaght Park; Clare Curtis, genealogist, from Mount Kembla Heritage Committee for their assistance with research. Also Phaedra Nunn-Smith for her childhood memories of visiting the Lysaght family.

All photographs © Darian Zam, 2010-2011, excepting vintage photograph of original cemetery, which is courtesy of Australian Cemeteries Index http://austcemindex.com/

NET WORK CATALOGUE ONLINE

2011-05-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

I think I either missed this at the time, or didn't realise you could read the whole catalogue online. I am sure last I checked there was just a handful of pages for perusal. Maybe that's when it had just been released. I believe there are one or two copies of this publication still available for purchase, but that's all - it's more or less sold out.

Net Work exhibition catalogue

View more documents from AvanGils

http://www.slideshare.net/AvanGils/net-work-exhibition-catalogue

THEN FINALLY, I'LL SHUT UP

2011-04-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

Last three dates for history talks are: 2/5, 10/5, and 23/5. You can download the Town Hall Teasers program here:

http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/council/news/Pages/ComealongtoTownHallTeasers.aspx

I think I've done well; good crowds and a few respected historians and academics have attended. I've given one with no sleep after an all-nighter, one with bad flu, and one where the laptop busted and the cable died a few minutes before commencing. I survived.

CROSS CRUSADE

2011-04-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month of March I created a series of postcard size advertisements to spruik the Art Windows Project/Sydney Art Month project and used them on Facebook. It was just a fun thing to do to lighten up all the hard work and I created them more or less on the spur of the moment without putting too much planning into them. Creating without thinking anything out is the absolute definition of pleasure to me. Before I knew it I had a series of ten resulting from my constant campaign. Here they all are collected together.

CARMEN GEDDIT

2011-04-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Finally Sydney Art Month is over so I am posting the work here. This is by far the largest scale digital work I have done to date, which was scary knowing all the things that could have gone wrong, but actually - it looked fine. The details of what the work is about, and the subject of the portrait are on the image file with the map (the numbers correspond to the objects hanging on the wall, and there is a list explaining everything at the bottom). You can click on any for an enlargement.

She Who Sees Everything, Digital print on Lustre archival paper by Kodak Endura, 1500 mm H x 1500 mm W

Apparently it all went well with a couple of curators of note viewing the work. However I am going to keep working on the blog at http://redglobelightliquorgreen.blogspot.com/ , perhaps indefinitely because I don't feel it's done yet - there's still at least three interviews to go up, including Bob Bertles (musician), Marion Oulton Dreyer (writer), and Larry Stellar (vocalist) as well as more people I'd like to interview, particularly artists.

I had a month backing an forthing from here to Sydney and a s a result I am now really ill and trying to recover as quickly as possible - I've lost a whole week. I am back on the Coalfaces project - exhibition and book - from the beginning of next week as I have hard the hard word put on to get that project wrapped before August is out.

NEVER IN VAIN, IN THAT VEIN

2011-03-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

Second and third interviews are now up at RED GLOBE LIGHT LIQUOR GREEN. This blog is part of my Art Windows Project for Sydney Art Month, which recounts the memories of people who remember Kings Cross between 1939-1975. I am hoping to have ten done by the close of march when the exhibition finishes. Then perhaps put it together into a book. I seem to be at the computer writing and drawing 18 hours a day, 7 days a week lately, and looks like it will continue in that vein until the end of July. Onwards!

http://redglobelightliquorgreen.blogspot.com/2011/03/clem-gorman-writer-and-musician.html

RED GLOBE LIGHT, LIQUOR GREEN

2011-03-02T08:12:00.001-08:00

The blog which accompanies my installation for "The Art Windows Project" for Sydney Art Month 2011 is now up and running...I am hoping to publish about ten stories this month. first upI've just published an interview I did with legendary Australian artist John Olsen, who I was privileged to talk with in January (corrected from "WHOM" by Paul Dinning WHO declares: "Ending a clause with a prepostion is just fine. To say otherwise is a silly French hangover from 1066").

http://redglobelightliquorgreen.blogspot.com/2011/03/john-olsen-artist.html

A LITTLE CROSS PROMOTION

2011-02-25T16:11:00.000-08:00

Finally, after spending ages researching - and then battling with a huge, tedious digital file the work has gone to the printers. It's by far the biggest and most complex digital image I've done. 1.6 metres square, over 300 layers. It just seemed to take forever to get it right and finish off, and I cannot say I slacked off on pouring pretty much all my spare time (and money) into it. I'll need a generous helping of good luck with all the things that could yet go wrong in the process of having the work finished and up. I don't know if this artist lark is worth it a lot of the time...but nevertheless exciting and I am looking forward to having it installed.

This is a digital ad I have created to promote the project via social media. I have this idea to do a few and keep changing it. I'm doing a little campaign to get the word out there as there's minimal coverage from official Art Month material, which is a little disappointing. I do get a passing mention on the website and am listed in the Art In Windows 2011 program catalogue.

The project is comprised of two parts:

1/ The installation of a large digital print in The Cross Art + Books in Roslyn Street, Sydney from March 02-31, 2011.

2/ A blog showcasing the stories of those who lived or hung out in the Kings Cross locale. http://redglobelightliquorgreen.blogspot.com/ This will be updated throughout.

As far as the actual artwork - all will not be revealed on-line until after the launch happens on the 18th. That will really be for people who can't make it to see what I have done, otherwise it is obviously preferable to encourage people to go and see it in person. but there will be the blog with tales, interviews and images from people who lived in the Kings Cross precinct between 1939-1975 such as John Olsen and Carmen Rupe. That should be up and going at the beginning of the coming week.

The precinct 3 (Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Potts Point) component that I am a component of is on page 4-5 of the catalogue which you can download as a .pdf booklet here on the mid-left of the page: http://artmonthsydney.com/2011/precinct-3

the cover which I have posted here, is a somewhat abstract version of the map, but I find the bright colours and shapes very appealing, and I have tried to keep my work in keeping with that theme, or at least inspired by it as it reflects the vividness of Kings Cross still today.

THE BLAHBLAH CHRONICLES

2011-02-07T07:02:00.001-08:00

I can announce I have agreed to give a series of social history talks at the Wollongong Town Hall from early March through end of June 2011. I was approached by the Community Cultural & Library Services division, at the local city council, whom I have worked for in the past, and whom have also been generous supporters of creative projects I've undertaken. Since I was a significant part of research, development and design on the Memories and Memorabilia project, I was a natural choice.

The town hall, which I have written about previously in a couple of posts, was saved from demolition by the community, and with some significant assistance from celebrated violinist Richard Tognetti and family - who were instrumental in campaigning to save the building. It is re-opening at the end of February after having had a few million dollars worth of refurbishment executed (I'm not exactly sure what they have had done to it) and I am supposed to deliver some kind of potted account of doings. First Sydney Art Month and then I will cobble something together, So, yeah, I don't know what I am doing exactly. But there's plenty of material of course!

For more information on the WTH history and other stories you can check out my earlier posts in 2009 and 2010,

on the postcard series I produced:

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html

and Dame Ethel Hoskins Hayton:

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2009/08/there-aint-nothin-spooky-like-dame.html

and my favourite images from the database we compiled:

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2010/05/memories-and-memorabilia-staff-pick.html

CROSS ONE OFF, START ANOTHER

2011-02-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

So I am back from my wanderings through Victoria. While it was great to have a change of scene it's no easy transition, it's straight back to it.

I can announce that I am to be part of Sydney Art Month in 2011. I have been invited to create an art installation at well-known Roslyn Street bookshop The Cross Art + Books for display between the 1st and 31st of March.

It is a beautiful space with a lot of rare and fabulous tomes for sale and they are staunch supporters of the arts, providing a meeting place for various groups as well as a dedicated space with an on-going exhibition programme.

The project will be about past cultural events of the area and the people that were involved in them in the period between 1939-1975 when the area was far more a Bohemian environment than it is these days (and kind of ties in with my License to Thrill project, over to the top right corner there).

The Art Windows Project 2011 is being facilitated by The Potts Point Partnership who have invited me to be part of Precinct 3 http://artmonthsydney.com/2011/precinct-3 . The project was developed specifically for Art Month Sydney 2011 and has been supported by The City Of Sydney.

James Dorahy, of James Dorahy Project Space, saw my work on my blog and contacted me from there, so to naysayers who denigrate the, what they see as excessive online promotion of one's career, to that all I can say is "piffle". Yay for social media and lots of it.

The Potts Point Partnership

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Potts-Point-Partnership/182215998484807

James Dorahy Project Space

http://www.jamesdorahy.com.au/about.php

The Cross Art + Books

http://www.crossbooks.com.au/

NET WORK OPENS THIS SATURDAY AT AGOB

2010-12-08T16:35:00.001-08:00

So, it's the big day on Saturday. Shoes are being polished and all. I pledge to not look like a slob. In fact I am being carried in on a gigantic Peking Duck Pancake with a Spring Onion and North-Asian Scuppernong Aoili supported by Stuart Purves, Rex Irwin, Ros Oxley, Tim Olsen, Sarah Cottier and Vasili Kaliman. Iain Dawson will be running along behind with a little pan cleaning up the crumbs and drips.

OK, not really, but it would be a pretty amazing entrance, worthy of a Busby Berkeley musical, you have to admit.
It looks like a beautiful gallery, but personally I am not that excited about my work. I would have liked to do something amazing that really demonstrated some skill, but unfortunately it was more or less a choice between helping organise and fundraise, or focus on the work. Well, someone has to make the sacrifice. Everyone else will have to more than make up for my shortcomings, and I can honestly say there are some pretty amazing artists in the show. It hasn't even opened and it's already getting rave reviews!

The team issued some postcards as part of the rewards package for our generous donors, including three of my images. I always love seeing my work reproduced as merchandise, although there has been a mighty amount of it over the years, I still get a bit of a thrill.

I'm out for 10 days or so, and will be back hopefully with photos and more news on what's coming up for NEXT year, which already includes one or two solo shows, and groups in Queensland and Sydney. When can I retire?

LAND OF THE LONG WHITE KID

2010-11-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

I've started a new blog to showcase my collection of Antipodean ephemera.

New Zealand seemed to be a very old-fashioned country that never really moved on much post World War Two. Being right down the bottom of the earth so far away from everything probably didn’t help; and even while Australia was being invaded by the whizz bang and razzle dazzle of American popular culture, The land of the long white shroud remained very much tied to Mother England’s apron strings.

As a result, the way of life, as well as the charming designs and graphics of product, remained a quaint lacuna of the remarkably unchanged over the decades.

Although my original and large collection has long been jettisoned, I continued collecting images for years of those items and anything from my childhood in New Zealand that brings back a memory.

I was excited by the idea of moving to Wordpress but so far I think it kind of sucks. I thought it would have so many more up-to-date and user-friendly features but it's pretty clunky. You can't even really edit your template easily and nothing is pretty straightforward and obvious. Sure they have a little over a hundred to choose from, but who wants one the same as everyone else's? C'est la vie.

REVAMP, REDUX

2010-11-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

Chinoisserie Bleu, Oil on Canvas, 2000, from "Salon of Curiosities".

Saatchi Online have had a long overdue revamp of their look recently (somehow I STILL have little faith in their by-line slogan "Get Discovered!") so here's my profile with portraits including William Yang, from the 2008-2009 shows " House of The Muses" and some older work in oils from "Salon of Curiosites".

http://www.saatchionline.com/art/view/artist/70752/art/300226

UNSUNG NO MORE

2010-11-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

John Leo McNamara photo collage created from images
used with kind permission of Clare Curtis, the McNamara
family collection, and Bruce Rees.

Strangely, many of the subjects I am focussing on for the "Coalfaces" project, are almost completely unknown, partly because they are unsung personalities, and partly because they were fascinating, yet very modest and humble individuals who didn't crave attention for their talents and achievements. One of the very reasons why I have chosen them is so I can bring focus to them, and their work. Recently I created - I may add long overdue - Wikipedia entries for two of them - Fred Moore, whom I have posted on a couple of times (see previous post), and JL McNamara OAM, a well known personality and author of the local area. See links to Wiki pages below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leo_McNamara#Writings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Moore,_Miner_and_Activist

STILL BATTLIN'

2010-11-03T05:04:00.000-07:00

This is the slide show I created for last night's Pecha Kutcha at Wollongong City Gallery. It just occurred to me that my presentation was the only one that was completely silent (and the only one that stuck to the strict brief that was prescribed I may add). Perhaps reflective of my growing love of space and silence over the last couple of years. Not so much optional, as a necessity these days I find. What was once a mere frustration has become a physical manifestation. It did in fact team with the Japanese roots of the idea of "Pecha Kutcha" I think, although completely unintentional ( it is a Japanese concept and translates as the ‘sound of conversation’). Still, it was kind of weird to have this sort of vacuum amongst a lot of jabbering. Why do people find it so necessary to have an explanation for everything, to fill the air with sounds? Shouldn't art often speak for it's self without being dressed up with added extras, cluttering things up?

Click on any image for a enlarged view.

PECHA KUCHA

2010-11-02T03:11:00.000-07:00

I am doing a presentation at the Wollongong City Art Gallery tomorrow night for an event called Pecha Kutcha, as part of the Viva La Gong Festival.

Pecha Kutcha (Japanese for the ‘sound of conversation’) is a fun fast way to ‘pitch’ interesting ideas in a format of 20 slides / 20 seconds per slide. Presentations are short, concise and inspirational. It is an informal event to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations and connections.

"Creative people" such as yours truly (ahem) are invited to show slides or footage for 6 minutes and 40 seconds each - relating to the festival's theme "stories of land and sea."

I have put together an autobiography style slide show on miner, activist and author Fred Moore using some photos from a session Fran Poulton and I did at his house, and using excerpts from Fred's chapter in my book "Coalfaces".

So that's at the Wollongong City Gallery, from 7-9 pm on Wednesday the 3rd.

As there are 13 presenters I should be on about 8.40 p.m. This is a great opportunity for any of my stalkers...I mean fans... to accost me in public, and you are welcome to come along to this free event.

NAVA SAY NEVAH

2010-10-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

Darian Zam, You're On You're Own Now, Digital Print, 92x65cm From the series

"I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like You're Here".

Last week it was announced that, with Simon Collins, I have won the NSW Marketing grant from the National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA). The funds were applied for on behalf of the Net Work show that we are in at the Art Gallery of Ballarat with 36 other artists, including the curator, Amanda van Gils - and will be going towards some of the high costs of staging it.

Of course I am very pleased; It's been a good year with three grants now under my belt for 2010, making a total of seven I've won between April 2008 and now.
Pretty good going to say the least.

It's weird that I waited so long to start asking for money for art. I didn't think I was actually good enough that anyone would want to give me any so I never considered bothering to apply. People will probably read this statement and laugh that I would think such a thing of myself. Yes, I know - a bit ridiculous really.
I don't think of all the wasted years and could haves...really it's a lot of work, to make sure you are punchy and articulate enough, to beat out dozens or hundreds of other entries by really talented people and often organisations with a lot more push.

A lot of energy does go into articulating exactly what you're doing or more often what you're going to do, and how you're going to do it exactly even though you actually don't know, that by the time you're ready to start it seems a bit tired. these days I seem to do more paperwork than art, and sometimes you just get sick of it and think "what happened to the actual creative part?".

That said, this paperwork was a win-win and in addition I learned all about writing a marketing strategy and the Ogilvy & Mather Values Statistics, by which the country is divided up into really interesting demographics of beliefs, interests, income, etc...I'm kind of obsessed with it right now.

Anyway, thanks to NAVA general manager Samantha Wild and the rest of the NAVA team!

Simon Collins, BFUD1 Oil on board, 2010, 60x60cm

Simon, who was "in on it" with me, is a Sydney painter who is represented by Iain Dawson Gallery, Sydney and Anthea Polson Art, Qld and has been a finalist in many art prizes. This is one of the paintings that will be in the Net Work show. You can see his work on his blog here.

http://www.simoncollins.com.au/

NET WORK WEBSITE LAUNCH

2010-10-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

Engaging, 2009. Digital Print. From the series

"I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like You're Here".

So, the opening date for the Net Work exhibition is rapidly approaching.

This is the first Museum show I have been invited to participate in after 23 years of exhibiting. Well, the first museum show in Australia, because I think that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina could be classed as a museum I guess, but that was overseas. And for some reason I don't count the Powerhouse Museum in 1996 because it wasn't specifically about me and my work alone. It is I suppose, odd - that after working with a few institutions over the years on various design based projects, I have never been invited to actually exhibit by any of them yet, especially given that I am primarily an artist, not a designer (and never had any intention to be a designer).

I guess what I am getting at is that this is the first museum show that I have been invited to be in as a solo artist, purely on the merit of my own work, and that alone. Making sense? Anyway, here's the link to the profile page.

http://www.networkexhibition.com/page45.htm

I'll be doing some of my own coverage to try and drum up some support for this endeavour. We need to raise a chunk of funding for shipping and I would appreciate as much support as I can get from everyone I know, to assist all the artists participating in getting their work to the venue and back, one of our biggest costs.

http://www.networkexhibition.com/index.htm

WHITE PLACE, WHITE TIME

2010-09-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Jean White, Coalfaces Project, 2010

I am very pleased to announce my next (definite) exhibition has been supported by Wollongong Council with a Cultural Grant. This is the second year running I have won this grant.
There will be a showcase in early-mid November at the IPAC (Illawarra Performing Arts Centre) Building in Wollongong of the project I have been working on for over two years, "Coalfaces".

This is a project of 15 or so portraits of local identities with a strong connection to the fascinating Mount Kembla area. Each portrait has a brief oral history story written on the work. I'm also hoping to have the book out with the art and stories for the opening date. It has obviously turned into a much bigger workload than I anticipated, and thus it is unlikely it will be done within another 6-7 weeks and there will be a simpler draft version on display.

Jean White is one of the last three "oldies" (as she calls them), living in The small village of Kembla Heights.

It is part of the Mount Kembla area to the north-east. The Mount Kembla Colliery was opened in 1883, and the purpose-built township was constructed by the company to house the employees. A strong community thrived until late 1970 when the mine closed and the town went into decline, losing it's general store, post office, Presbyterian church, tennis courts and public phones over the following years. Today this sleepy area is considered a place that "time has forgotten" and a good example of a community atrophying in the face of losing most of it's mainstay industry.

At 88 years old, she is the oldest person left; and certainly the only one that has lived there her entire life. As such Jean is like a living time capsule,the only individual to remain who has seen the town from a working, thriving mining village to what it is today - still very pretty, but stripped back and somewhat comatose.

I had a really hard time choosing between her story about the old-time dance hall, and this one, they were both great. The selected story on the image reads as follows:

"My husband was a miner and when the week was over you’d have all these dirty clothes to wash – oh, my! They would get all black. I don’t know how, but we got that coal dust out somehow! And we didn’t have washing machines – no! We had to do it all with tubs, scrubbing boards and the copper. It wasn’t easy work, when you look back. It took all of Monday. Then Tuesday they’d get ironed with stove-heated flat-irons. Many times the men had to come out on strike to gain benefits, but everyone pulled together and survived. We had hard work to get by with eight children in those times. We had the simpler things, and appreciated it, These days they’ve got to have this, that, and something else".

Please click picture for bigger view.

JUST BECAUSE

2010-08-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

Computer animation was created in 1968 in Russia. Look at what kind of massive industry it is today...and you realise why everyone was frightened of the "Reds". They had good reason! With N. Konstantinov a the head of the team, a group of Soviet physicists and mathematicians realized the program for a computer they named "BESM-4" and on it they created a mathematic model of a moving cat. the computer printed hundreds of frames on paper using alphabet and symbols and then they were converted into cinefilm. To me it's a thing of great aesthetic pleasure and kind of embodies my sense of vintage-inspired style.

A BIT OF SWAP AND FICKLE

2010-08-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

I belong to TLF, a forum for contemporary, and may I add very good artists, as opposed to more general forums for more…amateur types who specialize in flowers, landscapes and children playing on beaches. Every year on the Forum we do an art swap. How this works is that when everyone who wants to participate elects themselves to join, the names are collected, doubled into two lists, and then they are matched up randomly into pairs. Person one sends to person two. The other person, who is receiving the work, has been matched with someone else, that they send a piece of work to and so on. I’s a fun way to start a collection of same size pieces (hopefully). Here's what I've sent to fellow member SaraMae Belle Page today:

Moment, 2010.

It's based on a clipping from a 1920's-30's newspaper that has been enlarged until you can see the dots that make up the printing. I have always been obsessed with getting cuttings of things and blowing them up until they look really unrefined.I can't remember where I found this one. It could be from a newspaper I found under the deco lino of an apartment I had in Crown Street, Sydney and rennovated about twenty years ago, there were papers, coins and hairpins galore.

I keep bits I tear out of magazines and newspapers, books and food wrappers, and throw them in what I call my "inspiration box". It has literally tens of thousands of bits and pieces in it and is one of my "go-to's" for ideas (this has pretty much turned entirely digital over the last few years in a natural process).

I hand stitched this in pure silk on cotton on canvas. It's the first time I have sewn a piece of art and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it...(ed note: translates to "his internet was down so he had nothing better to do") except for the part where the darning needle flew out of my hand and cut my chin open, and um, yeah... it was really hard to get all the criss-crossing parallel lines looking decent. But, I'm thinking of doing some more...

PATCHY AND SCRATCHY

2010-08-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, not unlike my mood and postings basically.

I've been under a lot of pressure and that's never fun. I've been feeling overwhelmed by everything that has been going on and as a result I've had a pretty crabby attitude. Dealing with multitudes of people, and their accompanying follies and foibles is always very hard and frustrating. It piles a lot of extra stuff on top of these public-orientated projects I work on - which are already a massive workload as it is. I am trying to shake it off and move along.

It's hard not to take it personally when you're in a position of constant critique. It can eventually get to you...but there has to be a threshold to break through. It's just having the realisation of it which means that rapidly waning objectivity is necessary (and supplies of that are pretty low right now).

In the meantime, I occasionally try to keep myself inspired by doing little fun things in between the loathsome and frustrating task of editing, and tedious re-writes. Here's a digital mosaic I've made from some antique china sherds that I've found over the last two years.

I've always collected it, as everywhere I seem to go I find bits and pieces, as well as medals, coins, buttons, you name it. I seem to have a weird talent for it, possibly because I'm always looking at the ground when I walk instead of where I'm going.

It never fails to amaze others that every time they go for a walk with me I end up with something interesting I've collected off the ground in front of me... people say that this stuff seems to be attracted to me, not the other way around!

IN THE PAST

2010-07-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

Bruce Rees, Coalfaces Project, 2010

The Rees family founded their famous Apple Orchard in 1880 and opened their doors for business 6 years later. It has been passed down through generations to Bruce Rees, the last surviving member of the family since his mother passed away 1980.

He’s a person who has spent his entire life in isolation on the land, working tirelessly and never leaving until now.

He stoically continued the family tradition through disasters and tragedies, somehow surviving on his own until 2007; when he finally sold out to the Sydney Water Catchment Authority, the very last part of a resumption program to claim back the land for dams, that began in 1901. He is definitely the “end of an era” for an important part of the area’s history.

This made him the very last person to live in Cordeaux Valley; a once prominent fruit and vegetable district west of Mount Kembla, that shipped produce as far away as London.

At one time it was a thriving community of hundreds with it’s own school, cricket club and dance hall, driving through this lush sub-tropical wilderness now you wouldn’t know that there was ever anything there.

If the true definition of a “ghost town”, is not tumbleweeds rolling past a collapsing pioneer saloon, but actually the place where there was once a town and now no sign of it whatsoever – then that’s what Cordeaux Valley is. I think if there was anything to see, I wouldn’t be as fascinated with it as I am; it’s the mystery, you see.

“I was the last person at Cordeaux. Outsiders love it, say it's God's own country; but I never knew anythin' else. All I did was work, and never left. We’d been in the business for 121 years when I finished. By luck we were saved from the Water Board resumptions. We were noted for having old varieties; Lord Nelsons, Maiden’s Blush, Luxembourgs. It was always a struggle. The Willy-Willy came in 1959, big trees chopped over like matchwood! We had no fruit for ten years, it nearly broke us. I gave up because in the end, I was on the farm alone. I was getting old and, who’s gonna look after ya? It was a seven day a week job me whole life. Yeah. I don’t miss it, it’s in the past now.”

That is the text of the story written on the portrait. You can click through the picture for a detailed view.

On a side-note about the Coalfaces project, I am suffering a delay in having it complete and it's probably going to be out towards the beginning of November when I exhibit an installation based on the work at Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC) in Wollongong. I decided not to participate in this years heritage festival, for various reasons, which was fitting - since they're not having it after talking about it for longer than I care to think I had to sit in meetings listening to stuff.

SLASH THIS

2010-07-08T04:09:00.000-07:00

Are you a Slashie? Or do you just wanna take your Palette knife and slash a mofo? I can't decide myself. Here's why:

So this week (for the third time) I have been on the receiving end of thinly veiled, snarky public remarks for hundreds of people to see, this time from a well-known and successful art dealer about town, familiar of moniker, whom shall remain un-named but has several artists I adore in his stable. I was going to make a pun on Vaseline, but Let's call him "Mr. Cool" instead. I like what he has created and he's done it well (Mr. Cool's School), but I am really not sure I like his attitude.

I find his blinkered and opinionated views about everything from social issues to art just a touch scary because – well, quite frankly, it speaks volumes about someone who deals with highly creative people each and every day and should know better really. Would you want to be working with someone who thinks like that, when their role is to nurture your career? *shudders*

He doesn't seem to approve that I consider myself more than an "artist". My bio describes me as "Artist, Designer, Writer." The recent Powerhouse interview described me as "artist, designer, illustrator, social historian, writer". That's just not on as far as he is concerned, and I paraphrase his remark regarding "trying too hard to be all things to all people. What the FUCK is that?"

I answered “What the fuck (I put my pinkie in the air like a refined gentleman and held up my smelling salts after using the word back) it means is, they have a good sense of objectivity, instead of just having their head stuck up the arse of their own practice”.

To me, that’s the sign of a highly intelligent and perceptive individual. I know quite a few people who started out as artists who have risen to dizzying heights as curators, writers, and designers. Do they consider art any less a part of their life? Nope. Do they consider themselves less an artist for their success? No. No, they don’t.

I'm actually not "trying to be all things to all people", because if I cared what everyone thought and wanted to appeal to a common denominator I'd become Britney Spears (I won't go into how ironic it is that that all musical entertainment acts are described as "artists", when there's no artistry involved - another time.)

He thinks this because his belief is obviously that only painting, drawing and sculpture (and maybe photography) is art. Doom! Anyway I am adamant I am all of those things listed above (but I'm happier to describe myself as no more than three so as not to confuse laymen). However I may just officially change it to "Slashie".

I already describe myself as such. For those that aren't aware, a ‘Slashie’ is someone who sees themselves as a complete hybrid discipline. Slashies are fluid creatives, their self identity is being built around the fact that they lead multi-dimensional and quite spontaneous practice and are more than capable of changing from one genre or discipline to another, or even more pointedly creating new gradations in between. And most importantly being good at MORE THAN ONE THING. That's what makes it serious.

It was kind of like being a secret cross-dresser for years and not really sure what I was then finally having an epiphany that I need to be on stage as a performing drag queen (not really. OK maybe. Not really. OK YES).
However when I finally heard the term I was all like “Eureka! THAT is what I am. It fits me like a perfect Remo tshirt and I am totally comfortable being described, or describing myself as such. ”

So, he obviously doesn’t have his finger on the pulse as much as he likes to think because he missed the Creative Sydney: Generation Slashie event last year which got quite a bit of publicity in our world. Or maybe he only sees and hears what he wants. Ya think?

Anyway, I tried to explain to this art VIP slowly and carefully, that not everyone is interested in fitting in to only his idea of what things are and how they should be. A clinical psychologist would have plenty to say about the classic inflexible outlook on his little universe only bringing a field day of frustration and misery because almost nothing fits in with his beliefs....

You can argue “well, they’ve been successful. So it obviously worked for them”… but for how long will it last, is the question. Unfortunately art dealers aren't as susceptible to the whims of art world fashion as us mere mortal creatives are, since they don't actually make the work they get wealthy off. And they can just flick us when we no longer serve a purpose. However life is an ever-changing entity across the board, and no matter who you are, you sure as hell better learn to roll with it or take the other option which is jump off.

The Widensteins may be powerful enough to rewrite art history, but methinks Mr. Cool has a long way to go yet before he is able to rewrite the definition of art practice for everyone.

In this case, it's an oldie but a goodie - the situation smacks of someone who deep down feels like their career mght be getting in the way of what they really want to do. Just sayin'.

Narrow-minded and ignorant, somewhat ruthless, immature stances on many other topics. It seems to be a unifying trope of many male art dealers drunk on their power and success, seeing the world only from their point of view in some form of narcissistic tunnel vision. Someone should definitely remind them from time to time that, well done mate, good on you, but it’s not exactly a cure for Cancer, is it?

ON CREATIVITY, PART TRES (I THINK).

2010-05-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

“Thank god he is creative... he isn’t very good at anything else…”.

No…people don’t really say that to me, but if someone actually did say that in my presence in all seriousness, I’d probably punch them in the face.

When I step back I see someone who gets up every morning (OK, not every morning) and goes through the motions of my day doing exactly all the same things that regular ( for want, more worryingly insane than they like to think) people have to do to get through every day. Except, I have an “extra job”. That is, being creative. So yes, I have to keep two balls in the air, to do and think twice as much as the next, because I’m still expected to be a part of society and play by all those rules, which – whether I like it or not – I still have to to some degree cooperate with - simply to make my life less hellish than it already is.

Am I a little jealous of people who don’t do much except go to their one corporate job, clock off at the dot of five, back to their glasshouse and dinner by 7, mindless TV programs and bed WAY before midnight? Why yes – yes I am. By the same token I don’t judge those people for their lifestyle of choice the way they do me, even though I suspect their lifestle to be empty, blinkered and soul-less, from where my view is.

People also often say "oh...you're *creative*...", like it's some kind of elaborate strategy in which you've invaded and taken over a foreign country against it's will. I get it all the time. It’s like saying you’re stupid so all can you do is play at life. Yes, people always say it in a slightly condescending tone as if they are praising a small dog on a little satin pillow. What they mean is "very cute...but you don't really serve a purpose, do you...?" I actually take offence to people objectifying me and my profession by baby-talking to me like I'm some kind of simpleton with common sense as a second language.

People literally DON'T think you can be good at anything else. The assumptions people make are incredible. Part of this is the harsh reality is that most people are almost completely defined by their job. Because, you see - anything perceived as creative is apparently "just fun", therefore cannot possibly qualify as a "real job".

What non-creative people don't realise is that they're usually not as smart, in general so perhaps they should hold their tongue (and then they’ll also be able to stop mouth-breathing).

Unfortunately my suspicion was eventually confirmed in this stunning turn of events. Once I worked at a company named Montgomery Textiles as a production coordinator. Apart from the fact that they hired me knowing that I would be working for a sociopath and failure was inevitable (but what the hell they, needed the material), It’s a very complicated and demanding job. My hair started falling out so you get the idea. I was supposed to receive training for my position, got none and taught myself in double quick time, simply because I had to. I had the managing director say to me. "Sorry you're leaving. But I knew it would never work out, because you're a CREATIVE person."

What THE FUCK?

Ok, let’s back up a little:

Apart from the fact that it showed how amazingly little he knew about the inner workings of a company that he had been employed at his whole career,

a) How is that a disadvantage over regular people of average intelligence and skill? Or are you insinuating I’m mentally deficient / unstable and admitting you had the poor judgement to employ me?

b) really...REALLY??? So it had nothing to do with the fact I was working for a micro-managing control freak whose main achievement was not spectacular sales for their division, but to make the last four staff members in a row you employed resign?

I guess I forgot to tell him to his face that he is a delusional dumbfuck, so better late than never - here it is now.

Really, I should have become used to it after years of running my own business where clients knew they could regularly insult you and then make you jump through hoops on top of it just because, well…simply they just COULD, and there wasn’t much you could do about it if you wanted to keep their business (this occasionally worked out for them, but never for long).

It's a very interesting and quite involved discussion as to how creatives are perceived, I think. There were thousands of years where creatives were not only extremely valued, but revered in society. And if you screwed up, you always had the excuse of being able to blame your lax muse, because creativity was seen as an entirely separate, visiting entity. Not the case in contemporary civilisation, in fact the opposite. We are discriminated against every day in every way, but most people don't want to face that aspect of it because, of course - dwelling on that would be far too “negative” and basically destroy the perception of artist as happy go lucky spinner prancing joyfully through a minefield of life unawares of their freakish stroke of good luck.

Many would say that they haven’t encountered the adversity, but the reality is, you just don’t notice it. Or choose not to. Keep your heads in the sand, everyone. This whole thing with the Artists Resale Royalty Scheme for instance, feels not so much being granted a favour as a little bit like “OK, you can come down from the back of the bus now. You can thank us later.” That's right, you SHOULD be worshipping my talent, even if it's under the guise of creating more rules that govern my life and make more money for your coffers off me and my career.

One thing us creatives CAN do is turn what often qualifies more as "extremely stupid and annoying mess" into a "brilliant creative money-spinning strategy". I always try to aim for the latter in whatever I do.

However for this, People always will freely tell you how wonderful you are...that is until they get your invoice.

REMEMBER

2010-05-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

This is new work I have just made with a vintage photograph from the Mount Kembla area. The quote is taken from a poem by Conal Fitzpatrick, his book "Kembla: The Book of Voices" which was a volume of work intended to "give voice" to each of the ninety-six miners that died in Kembla Colliery Disaster of 1902. Until Victoria's "Black Saturday" it was the biggest disaster in Australian History, in terms of loss of life, and certainly the biggest industrial disaster ever - when gas ignited in a coal working and blew up the mountainside, devastating the community. Since I am doing a chapter on Conal and his work, I'll probably include this piece as a work in the upcoming "Coalfaces" book.

WHEN THINGS TURN OUT RIGHT

2010-05-04T04:34:00.000-07:00

Jack Miller, Coalfaces Project, 2010

I’m happy to announce that the “Coalfaces” exhibition and book I have been working on for so long now, has been sponsored by the Dendrobium Enhancement Program Trust.

I’ve been wanting for a while to reveal it but I’ve been waiting for the final, final, FINAL go-ahead to be able to do so.

I’ve got more than one reason to be pleased with myself. Not only is it a fair whack, but the odds were really stacked against me, as with the many of the corporate-controlled community grant programs (almost every big company has one), it’s very much geared towards community groups and charitable organizations – of which I’m neither…and in particular this one is kind of designed for public works rather than art/lit type projects.

A lot of them just won’t fund any art/heritage projects because it’s not their agenda (ie how much publicity they can get from orphans and immigrants). Yet they will let you waste your time applying anyway. IMB is one such organization that do this – they received 266 applications this year and NOT ONE that was heritage/art orientated was even considered for the shortlist. I asked.

So I was very surprised actually that I was successful in this instance but I guess the trust are widening their net on what’s suitable for consideration, and why not? For quite a while everything ground to a halt, I believe in connection to the ICAC investigation of Wollongong Council.

Although Dendrobium’s company or committee was not implicated (please don’t think I’m suggesting such a thing), I believe anyone and everyone who was connected to the council in some way, under jurisdiction, was “re-assessed”. So many people were affected and the trickle-down effect to the community of Illawarra has had an enormous impact because of a few greedy people.

In this case I think it was to my benefit as the Dendrobium Trust were rearing to get going again, and have some projects up and running immediately as soon as things were in the all-clear once more.

So I don’t know whether to resent corrupt councilors or in a way thank them …because I’m not sure I would have been successful if everything hadn’t backed up for a while caused by all the frenetic palm-greasing and shagging that was going on, and then the subsequent enquiry.

Whatever the reason was, it was meant to be, and to the nay-sayer who wouldn’t support me I say NYAH I win. Literally.

MEMORIES AND MEMORABILIA: STAFF PICK

2010-05-01T06:32:00.001-07:00

I'm doing a big clean-up of my archives and a lot of shit has to go to make room for other projects I’m working on, including this little collection I put together for my own pleasure. These are my favorite images pulled from about 1500 items we collected on the Wollongong Town Hall project I worked on for 6 months for the local council last year. Maybe not best…but favorites.
I’ve chosen these ones simply because they appeal to some kind of personal sensibility – they’re funny, cute, evocative, and bizarre or.. just have great graphics.

Others I have chosen for one of those things and then…, another layer, a double meaning, a sinister undercurrent - in particular “Frankie’s In a Fix” in which, the lord mayor Frank Arkell, is threatened with weapons by hit-men. Make believe of course, and all for a good cause – publicity for a theatrical run…but it ironically foretells events of twenty years later, in 1998 when he really was “fixed”, for good, by Mark Valera aka “The Butcher of Wollongong” – an internationally notorious case.

Many pictures have come from local groups and productions such as The Arcadians, Illawarra Music Society and local Eisteddfods – but so many different things happened in the building’s various incarnations over the years - as it was a cemetery, council, art gallery, police barracks, school, movie theatre, CWA headquarters, junior library, and of course contains the massive precursor to the Sydney Opera House organ built by Ron Sharp. Very, very interesting history, and let’s not even get into the ghost reports.

That poor beleaguered woman who can’t “wash that man out of her hair” in one of the clippings, is Lynne Williams in her local career beginnings. She is now the appointed Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIDA, one among others now celebrated who got their start in the amateur theatre troupes and competitions of the local town hall such as Anthony Warlow, Sonia Krueger and Richard Tognetti to name just some.

The beautiful hand-tinted pictures were taken in The Civic Theatre and donated by Margaret Gooden whose parents owned a couple of businesses such as the famous “Pringle’s Pies” in lower Crown Street. If you go into the arcade there that comes out on Burrelli Street opposite the council buildings, there is a heritage plaque with some of the family’s history and photos (of which some with unique provenance are also in the Powerhouse Museum Collection). Enjoy!

For more information on the WTH history and other stories you can check out my earlier posts in 2009, on the postcard series I produced:

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html

and Dame Ethel Hoskins Hayton:

http://darianzam.blogspot.com/2009/08/there-aint-nothin-spooky-like-dame.html

ROAD TRIP

2010-04-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's all about grit, glamour and Chiko Rolls right now.

I'm in this group show at St. Peter's Tortuga Studios which opens tonight. I actually made a pact with myself I was NOT going to make any more digital print work, mostly based on pitiful sales. People just won't buy it. It's a weird thing that people with no idea about the process (ie. most people) have about visible craftsmanship. The reality is that just as much work goes into digital stuff, but people don't seem to be able to accept that. They still won't respect anything that doesn't have a "hand-made" element to it, even though it's not viable financially or time-wise without somehow employing slave labour. Anyway, paint it - and it gets snapped up. However I hardly have time to scratch my arse at the moment with everything going on so it's either that or not do any group shows whatsoever , and that doesn't look good on the CV. Blurb below.

Steeped with promise, danger and diesel, the open road snakes into the distance, a strap of liquorice writhing in the sun. It holds the allure of a destination unknown, punctuated by the roar of the road train, strings of redneck towns like gaudy necklaces, and the steady beat of the motor as you head outback...

Over 35 emerging and established visual artists, photographers, sculptors, installation artists, multi-media, projection and film artists let loose in an inner city warehouse to explore
a destination unknown. Featuring the following:

Garth Knight, Jesse Cox, Jess Cook, Sam Ash, Johnny Bell, Elise Vaughn, Mini Graff, Will Coles, Shabnam Hameed and Madeleine Hetherton, Valentina Schulte, Perran Costi, Peter Strong,Jacq Sherry, Rachael Lafferty, Anthony Sawrey, Brian Paisley, Dillon MacEwan,Sergio Abugattas Tenaud, Pierre Cavalan, Jo Shand, Terry Archer, Alien Proof Construction,Marty Jay, Claire Conroy, Jess Pickford, Nicole Goldspink, Mark Swarz, Brent Reid, Ganbold Lundaa,Darian Zam, Azelia Maynard, Sarah Harvie, Andrea Davies, Kassandra Bossell, Justin Maynard, Alasdair Nicol, Michelle McCosker, Hiske Weijers, EARS and more.

Opening night: 23rd April 2010 6pm - 10pm

Live music from La Mancha Negra and Glitch Jukebox

Exhibition runs: 24th April - 2nd May 2010 By Appointment

Tortuga Studios

31 Princes Highway

St Peters

Click on the image below for a larger view to see my effort to team with the theme, which has been pulled from my series "I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like You're Here":

Tortuga Studios is a not-for-profit artist-run warehouse space and gallery located in an old brick factory in the shadow of the brick kilns of Sydney Park. It is a collaborative venture between 15 emerging and established designers with a stable of hundreds of artists from all over Australia.

We believe that the inner city warehouse space has a place, providing space and opportunity for emergent and established artists to develop and grow, drawing inspiration from a distinctly industrial urban environment.

FRED MOORE

2010-04-03T23:46:00.000-07:00

Fred Moore worked as a miner from the age of fourteen, and spent 30 years in the Nebo Colliery at Mount Kembla.

He retired in 1982 and later published two books on oral history of the Australian mining industry, with Ray Harrison and Paddy Gorman - “At the Coalface”(1998) “Back at the Coalface”(2007).

He was the first person to be made a life member of the Miner’s Federation, where he served as a rank and file union leader up to international level. His awards and life memberships are too numerous to mention here, but some highlights are his pioneering work with Aboriginal people which has led him to be initiated as a tribal elder in the Illawarra. He is the only male honorary member of the Miner’s Women’s Auxiliary. It is believed that he rejected his awarded OAM.

People may not be aware of this important point about the Mining Industry - the workers fought tooth and nail for decades, to achieve the rights that we all take for granted in all industries today - better pay, a 35 hour week, accident compensation, superannuation, safety regulations, and sick pay.

Before they started working on these issues through activism, these benefits just didn’t exist for anyone. Apart from working in slave labour conditions, they were vilified, harassed, jailed and even in some instances killed for trying to action their demands. They laid down their lives in more ways than just an extremely dangerous job.

It’s important that we don’t forget who we have to thank for our quality of life today. Fred was a big part of what we all take for granted.

He’s now 88 years old and still full of beans, still helping people out, and the nicest person you could care to meet. He lives with his wife May in a Dapto cottage festooned with relics from his career in mining, and a mad backyard with a recycled hand-built aviary from his second career as a bird breeder, now filled with gewgaws and surrounded by a plethora of garden sculptures.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

2010-03-25T04:51:00.000-07:00

Dairy and blossoms

“There won’t be anything of interest to you in this”, he said as he cricked open the lid of a dusty old tin trunk painted with flowers and butterflies.

I opened one packet – THE COST OF AN ENLARGEMENT IS TRIFLING COMPARED TO THE PLEASURE YOU WILL RECEIVE. I love that word, trifling. It was full of negatives. Really old ones. I hold them up to the light, curious.

calf with bloomers

So I’m working on them and it’s exciting, in that moment I hit INVERSE to see what is going to be revealed, like a magic lantern show.

Model T workhorse

I reversed out the first one and it's a calf standing under some apple trees. Then I look a little harder and there's a bunch of frilly bloomers hanging amongst the blossoms, drying in the sunshine.

Lettuce crop

I am really happy with the results, and with a couple of original printed photos I'm able to compare to, they're not as good but nearly – with a bit of work.

itinerant Apple picking

It's the best you're gonna get when negatives have been sittiing around unprocessed for seventy odd years collecting dust, dirt, mould, moisture and scratches. But I actually like those effects.

Fruit trees in flower

Now I know this guy has a box full of them I am ready to get my hands on the rest, who knows what else will be in there!

STONEWALLED

2010-03-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

I found this slide (very damaged by smoke and rain) - and I have been struggling to find out what the building is that is featured in it. I have researched and researched for hours, and am no closer to any information. I mean, I LOVE the mystery of old images, but seriously - my research skills are pretty sharp and this is just getting frustrating and tiresome.

At first I thought that it may be sandstone, something Georgian era or somesuch, but I am sure that it’s more watered down deco from 20’s or 30’s so probably concrete and brick. It’s pretty big whatever it is, and some kind of official building, which is confirmed by the flag fluttering from the roof (click on image for a closer view).

What do I know about it? It’s two tall storeys, large and grand. It appears to be set on fairly extensive grounds . I know who took it. I know that this person was an expert in forms of wildlife and very interested in botany – as you can see the photo was taken focused on the trees and flowerbeds rather than the building it’s self. Almost like it was a reference picture.

I know that by the manufacture date of the slide frames it was found with it was probably taken between 1949 and 1956, but something is telling me post 1956 by a few years in this case. I know it was taken in Australia and that there is recorded evidence that the individual took trips to the following places to photograph wildlife, some funded by the Australian Museum, and it was obviously taken on one of these:

The Kimberleys , Nth WA

Cape York, Nth Qld

Mount Isa, Nth West QLD

Alice Springs in NT from Port Augusta SA, north via Coober Pedy I presume

Williams River (near Dungog )and Barrington Tops , North Coast NSW

Cairns, QLD and Mosman, just beyond it to the North.

Barren Grounds, edge of Budderoo National Park, South Coast NSW.

Mildura, far West NSW, via Batlow, Sth NSW

Plateau Comboyne, North Coast NSW via Dorrigo (West of Coff’s Harbour), North NSW

Tibooburra (Nth West corner NSW)and the Channel Country, South Queensland

Murray River, far West NSW, via Murrumbidgee, Sth NSW

Murray River sand country, Sth West NSW ( there are dunes in the middle of a red gum forest)

Mornington Peninsula, Sth of Melbourne, Vic

South-west Western Australia ( can we be less specific? I’m thinking Kalgoorlie-ish)

Howes Valley East NSW, near Cessnock

Nullabor Plain , West SA

Cobar and Carinda, Nth NSW

Central Queensland (again, no more exact location)

Northern South Australia (Uh, thanks. Simpson Desert, I guess.)

…And many more smaller ones that were unrecorded. At first I thought - a museum perhaps – EUREKA! The Australian Museum! Of course! But it’s not…dammit.

Certainly it has a similar layout to the museum, a low, large, square layout comprising of central taller gabled main building with flat-roofed wings either side.

It looks a little like the Cairns City Library but nope. Could it be the Brimbank Council Building in Melbourne? I can’t find any good pictures of it to compare.. I thought it may be from the back of a building such as the Art Gallery of NSW but it’s not that either, as you can see the flagpole is to the side of the photo which would be frontal.

It also reminds me a bit of the Marrickville Council Chambers and Library which were built in 1922.

It suddenly occurred to me it may have been demolished by now but wouldn’t there still some images around? Seriously, it’s pretty hard to hide a building of this size unless it’s been razed! And even then…clues anyone? I’ve almost given up.

UPDATE: Thanks to help from quite a few readers and lots of discussion we were able to narrow it down to around three buildings (all in ACT) and we have a winner folks: It's undoubtedly The Canberra Patent Office. Lots of matches down to the weird pointy bush under one of the windows. Photo on the left was done in 1941 from left hand side and my one has been done further away and more frontal at least ten years later. It's amazing how much can be seen once you know what something is... (click in on image for close-up).