The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon
skip to page linksThe Alice Prize
Friday 30, September
As my mum is heading back from her sojourn into the center of Australia the need to follow her path becomes a persistent itch.
I have been there once, about 16 years ago, and going back would be a totally new experience
considering that life has a way of making old look new with eyes that have shifted focus.
Perhaps The Alice Prize is the answer! (If I could be so lucky...) Its an aquisitive prize offering $15,000 plus a 4-week residency in Alice Springs with airfares and accommodation and is open to any artist working in Australia. What a great prize! Guess I better put an entry in...
Amy's Blog
Thursday 29, September
My drama student daughter has been active with her blog lately spilling all sorts of stories out across the web! I'm looking forward to Christmas when she will be visiting us all here in the southern most state of Australia (thats Tasmania). Happy blogging Amy!
Trials, Failures And The Aboutness
Wednesday 28, September
Its weird how sometimes everything that looks like it is cruising along at a great pace with an inevitable end point of being 'right' suddenly does a backflip and turns into a monumental failure. Funny too, how things that were so easily pushed aside as irrelevant or not important suddenly shout with swollen potential.
Back to the grindng bench, back to the theme, back to the solitude of conceptual planning and dreaming - finding the aboutness.
Finding Feet And Plates
Sunday 25, September
Ross surfaced this morning to ring and let me know all the goss about his few days with the Realise Your Dream team and events. Sounds like he will need a few more quiet days to really let the changes and options drift into his conscious thought! Triple J have an interview running a few times over the next week (correction it is only the promo that is replaying... ooops) with Ross speaking to Adam Spencer (correction it was Mel apparently), so tune in and hear all about it from the source! Maybe they will add it to their interview list on the website too.
Also finding its way back to me is my crate of plates from the PICA exhibition. Apparently it was an admin bungle at this end, and they have been tucked away in storage in the bowels of the art school the whole time... Surprise....noooo...
Milan Milojevic
Saturday 24, September
The printmaking department is a buzz with anticipation as Milan prepares for his upcoming exhibition, "Imaginary Worlds". His "...exhibition will include a series of woodcut/digital prints and etching/digital prints combining traditional printmaking techniques with new technology. His work explores the notions of self-portraiture and cultural identity, depicting hybrid creatures or beasts based on those described by poet Jorges Luis Borges in his book 'Book of Imaginary Beings'." (Imprint magazine, Spring 2005). The exhibition is being held at the Port Jackson Press Gallery in Armadale from the 8th of October to the 5th of November and as a bonus it will be online as well. So I will blog the exhibition again when it appears on the website! Milan is the Head of Printmaking at the University of Tasmania and his extensive experience, expertise and creative spirit are the binding for the department as well as being superbly united in his work. Well worth looking at in real time if your in the area.
And Milan is also my supervisor...:)
CBBOSS And 96 Miles Exhibition Closing
Friday 23, September
The 96 Miles exhibtion at CBBOSS had its official closing tonight, although the work will be up for a few more days. I have my lithograph, 'The Tank: Category A' on the back wall, and Steven is doing an impersonation of a pidgeon (or is it a great white shark?) underneath it! It was a good night, with plenty of yummy snacks and everyone there enjoyed meeting up, and thats what its all about!
Hunter Island Press Blog
Friday 23, September
I put my hand up to be a content writer for Hunter Island Press. This is a temporary role as the sole writer, until the site gets its feet and a few more poeple get involved in the website administration. The website has been undergoing some major changes, with a portal page and weblog which will feature regular interviews with the members of HIP and also highlighting the artists work. We are also in the process of getting the artist information pages together, so it will be a good site to keep an eye on! It looks like the committee has a studio site almost sorted out, so the aim of having an public access studio is one step closer to becoming a reality. John Ingleton has volunteered to be the first interview, and Iona Johnson is the first featured artist. Steven has been doing a fantastic job of getting the site organised and teaching me (and others) how to run the software he has installed for operation by a group of people. We artists are such fun to work with! Thanks nortypig.
Oh and it is a 'work in progress' - so excuse the pages that aren't full yet!
Tek - Ex
Friday 23, September
The technical staff at uni have decided to get together
and let everyone know that they are a talented bunch of folks in the artistic sense as well as the knowledgable one.
The exhibition participants are Phillip Blacklow, Gerrard Dixon, Jonathon Hodgkin, Aaron Horsley, Stuart Houghton, Ian Munday and Christine Scott. Taking up the foyer space at the School of Art in Hunter Street,
Hobart, the exhibition is up until the 31st of September.
Fat And Flat
Friday 23, September
Uni is busy at this time of year with people gearing
up for their final assessment exhibitions and uni societies having their end of year do's. The Sculpture and Painting societies have got together for an
collaborative exhibition of work at the Long agllery in Salamanca Palce, Hobart. It should make for a great show, filling all the spaces no doubt! It runs from the 21st of September to the 2nd of October.
Ross Langdon - Wins!
Thursday 22, September
I guess I will be waving goodbye to yet another of my once were chidren as Ross is heading off to England to Realise His Dream! Check out the What You Get section of this information page to see just how lucky he is! He has worked extremely hard to be where he is now, and deserves every little bit of this award. Congratulations Ross, time for some European experiences!
Riversleigh
Tuesday 20, September
Riversleigh is a cattle station in Queensland,
but its fame doesn't come from the produce of its labour, it comes from the rich fossil history it holds in the limestone. The amazing thing is that there is a range of animals, insects, fish and who knows what over a huge period of time
stretching back over millions of years. Riversleigh offers insight into the evolution of the Australian mammals. The Pleistocene Marsupial Lion (photo from "Riversleigh, The story of Animals in Ancient Rainforests of Inland Australia" by Archer, M., Hand, S., Godthelp, H.)
was a leopard - sized, flesh eating relative of the wombat - mmm wouldn't like to meet one of those in the dark!
Ross Langdon And Realise Your Dream
Monday 19, September
Ross is a finalist in the Realise Your Dream competition and is going through the rigours of interviews and presentations this week to choose the five creative industry winners and the one visual arts winner. The winners are treated to a fabulous opportunity of travel and project realisation in England. Best of luck Ross! I'm voting for you (even though it means you would be going overseas)...
I Love Ginger
Sunday 18, September
I really LOVE ginger, in the same obsessive way I love the other main ingredients of my childhood goodies diet - bananas, peanut butter and malt. The bananas we used to buy from the local farmer, a box of reject fruit for 20 cents, turning them into anything from a cake to dessert and sandwhich material. Malt was a special treat secretly sucked from a teaspoon when the kitchen gaurd was snoozing or otherwise occupied. Ginger I crave though, anticipating a trip to Queensland to pick up a fresh tub from the ginger factory with my Dad. My daughter brought home the best surprise she could for me after her recent holiday in the far north, a packet of crystallised ginger and and tub of ginger in syrup! Yum! (Thanks Paul) Anyway, it made me start thinking of all the ways I love to eat ginger, so here's a few.
breakfast: stir some syrupy ginger chunks through the fruit and yoghurt on top of muesli
icing: chopped up finely and stirred into icing mix for between biscuits or on top of cakes
marinade: fresh ginger grated and mixed with soy sauce, olive oil, chopped garlic and lemon juice to marinade meat
tasty sauce: fresh ginger grated and mixed with tomato puree, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and brown sugar (recipe)
yoghurt: chopped syrup or chrystallised ginger stirred through natural yoghurt makes a great dessert
This is Mums ginger bread recipe - I haven't made it for years!
- Mums Ginger Bread
- 250g butter
- 250g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp bi-carbonate soda
- 275 ml milk
- 500g golden syrup (this sounds like a lot - maybe no more than a cup)
- 4 cups flour
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 dessertspoons ground ginger
Sift flour and ginger, mix in sugar and b-carb. Melt butter and add with syrup, stir in milk, then eggs and spices. Pour into two bread tins and bake in a slow oven for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. If you leave it a day or so it gets a nice soft top. Yummy with butter!
Oh and I still crave peanut butter, and I still sneak into the kitchen and dig out a teaspoon freshly ground crunchy peanut butter to quietly savour...
Triple J Arts Reporter
Saturday 17, September
Aparently I'm a bit long in the tooth for this job, and yes yet another offer for the 25 and under age group, but this must be a great opportunity for someone with a drive to get amongst the art work thats offered in Tasmania and write it up for The Program. Looks like a good deal.
Huon Art Exhibition Group
Saturday 17, September
The Huon area is teeming with creative people who seem to have a strong sense of community and cooperate to bring together events and highlights for the Southern part of the state. The Huon Art Ehibition Group are very active and have an exhibition coming up in November. Running from Friday the 18th till December 4th in Cygnet, the group, as well as participating artists, will be exhibiting a wide variety of mediums including paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, photography, woodworks, printmaking and weaving. If you are interested in being a featured artist, they are also seeking aplications and details are available on the Program website.
To Cut Or Not
Thursday 15, September
About ten years ago I bought these two whole agates from a local market. The man selling them was a gentle elderly man who said that he had no one to pass his little treasures on to, and so he was hoping they would go to a good home. We have a bit of an obession with rocks in our home (except for my partner who says a rock is a rock) so they have been stored, displayed and rolled about in our hands many times over the last ten years. But of course the question is always there - to cut or not to cut. It was a question posed by the seller of the rocks on the day I bought them, as he had found it impossible to resolve. Its the irritating curiousity about what lies inside - the colour, do they have crystals, are they banded, and of course do they lose their integrity by the destruction of the cut? I don't have an answer after all these years, so I guess I will just ponder the schemes of slicing bits here and there and exposing the glory of the interior and, yes, just ponder.
Reminders And Thomas Bachler
Wednesday 14, September
My daughter came home from a holiday in Queensland today, and brought with her some memories of living there and of course of my family who still live there. In some wierd twist I started looking through my prints from last year, (making room for guests in the guest plus art room) and came across this etching. It was an sea object from the strectch of beach at Kawana, where my brother took me for a stroll with his dogs. It was a bit of a surprise to find it as I had printed this etching FOR my brother! Yet here it is still buried in a stack of prints and stored in a plastic bag! Sorry bro, it will have to find its way to you yet!
It also reignited my interest in black and white photography and so I'm off to join up with the uni photo society again. They have a fabulous darkroom with all the space and equipment you need for basic photo developing. This is coupled with a recent forum meeting with Thomas Bachler, a German photographer who has experimented extensively with pinhole photography. His work was both awesome and innovative, definately inspiring me to get back into the darkroom!
Chunky Ink
Tuesday 13, September
Today I scrapped the bottom of my lithograph ink tin and came up with some chunks that I had to work for ages before it resembled anything like the silky ink I needed! Printing went smoothly, (testing paper again) but either the ink was too resistant or my hands are too soft after the break, and tonight I am sporting a triplet of callous like blisters on each hand. Reminds me of getting the cane in primary school. Beasts!
Missing Crate
Sunday 11, September
Now here's a funny thing... Following the PICA exhibition which finished in July, our work was crated up as it had been when it arrived in Perth, and transported back to Hobart. Well, in theory really. I have resisted mentioning the absence of my crate until now, allowing plenty of time for the cartage company and people in charge to reappear the missing box. It seems at this point though, that it has simply vansihed into the mysterious vortex of miscellaneous missing goods. This is no mean feat we're talking about here. Each steel plate, of which there are eight, weighs a considerable amount, maybe about four or five kilos and then they are contained in a very solid timber crate making a fairly difficult item to move easily. So whats happened to my crate? No one seems to have an answer, so here's a few thoughts - did they ever make it into the crate? did someone like them THAT much? are they sitting lost and lonely in the back of a loading bay somewhere between Hobart and Perth? and if they don't resurface.... well what about my years work? (she says with a plaintive wail). So if anyone has seen one or eight of the steel, sugar lift etched plates as seen above, please drop me a line and maybe we can solve this bizzare mystery!
Paper Testing
Saturday 10, September
Today was finally an opportunity to test my litho stone out and also to make a decision about which paper I'm going to be using for print runs. This is a big question, as anyone who works in printmaking knows. The cost of sheets of paper is large, and the qualities can make or break the image you print on it. It is therefore practical to do a test and work out what works best for your images and then buy a bulk pack of paper. It is expensive up front, but in the long run it certainly saves cash. Today I used Fabriano for the first time, and fell in love with it! Next is to try it out with etching, and hopefully it will get the thumbs up! It is a lovely warm white, but for a whiter white I also tried Aquerello, which was also a thumbs up.
Jamin Art
Saturday 10, September
As a postscript to yesterdays post about Jamin, I came across his work at Ad Art in Elizabeth Street, Hobart. I don't know how long its going to be there, but at least you can get an idea of the scale of this piece.
Jamin
Friday 9, September
Jamin has been in the news a bit lately, and so I finally had a look at what all the talk is about! He has approached the subjects of war and political comment with quite powerful and uninhibited images. Of course there is nothing like a bit of controversy to stir up interest, but he deserves the attention he is getting as he is quite a broadly skilled and talented man. He has his own website, features in The Program and is also involved with the Die Laughing inbred Tasmanian street art group. I guess all thats left is to check out his music!
On The Track
Thursday 8, September
Today I rode my bike into uni. I have been wanting to do this ever since my partner bought me the bike for Christmas - the one before last that is - so it was with a big smile on my face that the moment finally came that I could sneak out of the house with my helmet strapped on (as the law insists, and not the fashion industry) and drink bottle full. I say sneak because I have been the butt of many jokes about my apparent lack of action - so there - its done! And it was just the thing I needed to set my masters plan rolling, and summon up images from the depths and crevices of my mind! Riding to uni is now an integral part of developing my art.
Michael Schlitz
Wednesday 7, September
Another exhibition I had the chance to have a look about
today was at the Mawson Place Pavillion. This is group exhibition with people conconcerned with the future of the Weld Valley Forest. Organised by the
Huon Valley Environment Center, the message of beauty and ethical choice is loud for the people who view these magnificent forests as purely cash cows. Surely the facts of environmental degradation leading to
climate change are so undeniable and public now that the continued destruction of old growth forests is nothing short of absurd. Anyway, Michael Schlitz
has a fabulous print in the exhibition reminding me what a fabulous artist he is! And doesn't his woodcut say it all?
Letitia Street Studio Exhibition
Wednesday 7, September
The Letitia Street Studio operated form 1998 to 2004 and as a recognition of the history there is an exibition currently on at the Plimsoll Gallery at the School of Art in Hunter Street. There is a wide range of mediums on show, from video to sculpture, so it makes an interesting view.
My Great Grandfather
Wednesday 7, September
Walking home from uni today I passed a man smoking a cigar. As a non-smoker I usually feel a bit overwhelmed by a sudden rush of secondhand smoke, but the cigar smell is something different. I found myself savouring the aroma and remembering my Great Grandfather who used to sit on his verandah smoking a pipe, gently tapping it out on the verandah railing. He was always an old man, and became a very old man as we visited and grew. He had a fabulous house perched on the tip of land which overlooked the wonderful Currumbin Beach. He used to give us gardening jobs to do - my brothers having the huge task of tackling the lawn which had always turned into a jungle of grass and weeds that reached up to their eye level. My sister and I weeded and planted flowers along the pathways. We called him Dad, perhaps beacause Great Grandad was too much, or perhaps because my Mum spent most of her formative years being raised by her grandparents. But by far my strongest memory is the old pipe and Dad sucking hard to liven up the glowing tobacco, or softly cursing as it failed to spark.
Sang Mi Wang
Tuesday 6, September
Also currently showing at the Entrepot gallery at the University
of Tasmania School of Art is Korean born artist Sang Mi Wang. Her work is in response to her "...identity in relation to the unique influence
that living in Tasmania has had on her personally." The small backspace of the gallery where she has her exhibition offers a soft mood for the work. The pieces have a strong feeling of integration of the Korean and Tasmanian culture,
with reference to the eucalypt forests and bamboo. The exhibition, 'Paper Cut', is on show until September 16th.
Typotastic
Monday 5, September
The graphic design students have got together and launched a new magazine. Typotastic is a great innovation, and they are celebrating the step with an official launch. This is the blurb on their invitation...
"The first issue of typotastic is here. Come and celebrate Tasmania's first typography magazine, at the launch of issue one: Fakes and Fanatics. 5.30pm Wednesday 7th September 2005 Entrepot Gallery, Hunter Street, Hobart The exhibition space will be open between Tuesday 6th - Friday 9th September Drinks generously supplied by J Boag & Son."
They were setting up the space today, and it was great to see some graphic design work in there. Good luck with your new venture - a plus for Tasmania for sure!
Last Day
Sunday 4, September
Today is officially the last day of the Tasmanian Living Artist Week, but there will be some work still up in various places with extended exhibitions. Also finished is the Claiming Ground Conference which would have been great to attend if I had been wealthy enough! Discussng public art, the conference had some high profile artists and people interested in the development of cultural identity through public art as speakers. The Arts@Work site had this to say about the conference "... held in Hobart was a great success. With 174 delegates the discussion and debate on the current issues in public art was lively and interactive. Delegates went away feeling inspired and keen to continue the discussion beyond the conference." and also point to a page that has ten public works featured. Nice to get a little look inside the door anyway!.
The Ferral Australia
Friday 2, September
Australia has its fair share of ferral wildlife that has been introduced over the last couple of hundred years and inevitably has altered the environment to some degree. The hard hooves of animals such as donkeys, goats, sheep and cattle are brutal on the vulnerable soil of Australia, long beaten down by the elements. Camels too. The extra competition for habitat and altering of the species through depletion are factors in the reduction of native species, and possible extinction. The threatened species lists are long, as they are no doubt all over the world, and the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Water and Environment has just launched a threatened species awareness week (Sept 5 - 11), and if you drill down from the plants and animals page you can find some photos and information of some of Tassies species. Meanwhile, my Mum is back out in the desert challenging the donkeys with a camera lens - and aren't they lovely?
Another TUU Folio Society
Thursday 1, September
Covering most of the wall in the Fine Art Gallery in the union building of the Sandy Bay campus (University of Tasmania) is another collaborative work by the TUU Folio Society. A collection of fold out books brightly decorated and very eye catching. The label says it is in collaboration with children as well, though details are scarce anywhere. The collection has a wonderful sense of summer fun and light hearted feeling. Nice! The exhibition runs until September sixth.
