The Outsiders

Revealing both my age and my sad determination to never leave THAT decade, my invite to Outsiders: an unauthorised exhibition, immediately got me thinking about the Brat Pack. The best bunch of actors ever lined up in the worst possible films in history. They were GOLD: Emilio's lovelorn face, Rob's jawline, Demi's huskiness, Molly's teeth. Ahhhh those were the days.

Just as an aside, does anyone else wish it was Ralph not Tom that catapulted to Hollywood royalty?  Imagine the zeitgeist of our times hung off the cheekbones of Ralph Macchio.  Wax on. Wax Off. 

But back to The Outsiders. It was the Greasers versus the Socs (i.e. the high society).  Stay Gold, or rather, Nothing Gold can Stay.

And so I come to Outsiders 2014. This was Gold being given away. It was an absolutely professional group show with perfectly executed teasers and promo video's. The turn out speaks volumes: Reka, Dean, Alison Young (The Prof of Street Art), Toby of Just Another Agency, All Those Shapes, Street Art Melbourne, Marian Machismo. And it wasn't just the free beer. It wasn't even the free Art. Invurt says it. PROPS. HUGE.
                                                     
This show was the most heart felt, heart warming, unified-whilst-disparate, sentiment expressing, open, honest, raw, gutsy demonstration of the Artists stripped bare that I have ever seen in a group show - by the Greasers or the Socs. I loved it. I love them.
           
 The Zine reflects all of this.  It showcases 10 fine artists: Akemi, Astrotwitch, Be Free, Crib, Dexter, Fox, Hollie M Kelley, Minou, Ryan McGenniskan and Suki. What I love is their honesty.

The best thing Akemi's parents passed on was how to believe in the impossible.  And thanks I will have an eclair please. Astro(t)witch hopes for at least one other person to feel slightly better. Be Free would like a trolley full of glitter. Crib is concerned with the illusion of capitalism and wants the viewer to think.

Dexter, a little bit of an art crush of mine, has been on a brave journey back to self as many of you will know and has brought five months of solitary reflection to life in a spectacular way, Fox's parents were instrumental, Hollie's taught her not to live a boring mainstream life. Minou is claustrophobic lol, and solidly believes in people standing up for each other. Suki hopes to inspire.

   

And most of all it is Ryan who struck a huge cord with me, bearing his soul and disclosing that "in the grand scheme of things I am extremely lost at where I am physically and emotionally - I am not at all 'together'". How refreshing. Toby was all over Ryan's work and one of the first to nab one. He is surely someone to watch.....                                                    

The Conga And The Whale

 

A child played in the second bedroom, perhaps writing in a diary or colouring in, being careful to keep between the lines. She was perched on top of a pile of old receipts and ledgers. Old like the dot matrix printers that spat out the future with every laboured grunt, as we gazed in amazement. She wore socks but no shoes.

 The kitchen had at some stage been converted to the master bedroom. The morning paper was open and the white sheet was casually strewn upon the bed.  Empty tins of sardines, the remnants of breakfast and as I looked out of the window I gazed upon a handsome woman, perhaps someone that had been loved right in this spot. Idyllic yet I thought the antichrist had been. At least, the right side up.  The wine had been drunk, good times and the light fell, just so, across the walls adorned with art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And then I saw the sky and I could have been anywhere. In my childhood home, colouring between the lines. In my first flat drinking five buck plonk by scented candlelight and sparking up to a backdrop of good friends and eighties house before it was retro. Waking up in a strangers bed, the smell of nightclub on the clothes entwined beside me. Reading the paper on a Sunday, with the sound of someone in the shower and the smell of sex and coffee.

 

And as I stared at the sky that is above all of us I almost forgot I was a voyeur in a squatters world.  There but for the Grace of...

Thank you, props and shout outs at Tom Civil; Ryan McGennisken; Doctor; Be Free;
Suki; and Bon.

Sleep & Wake @ Egg Gallery

I missed Ryan's If It's Between Death and Magic so I was thrilled that Ryan and Hollie's Sleep and Wake fell into Fitzroy's lap.   I am a HUGE McGennisken fan.  I've been to the Rambler Collective gallery and know he associates with a very talented cohort so I eagerly anticipated Hollie Kelley.  The snap below does not do justice.  Hollie's work is truly magical, a strong compliment to the whimsical yet somber detail Ryan brings.   Her paintings draw you in.  It's the eyes that do it.

Ryan of course displays the intricate skill he is known for. You need to spend some time in front of his pieces because there is a serious dimension under the surface that has a lot to say.  Below are snippets, best viewed as a whole, beneath the ethereal installation.

I implore you to check this exhibition out.  A chilly day, a dialogue between two talented souls and an authenticity that makes you feel like they have laid it bare and hope that you like it.

I love it.

 

Egg Gallery 66a Johnson St