sydney based artist: junky

Fabulous guerilla artist Junky tags around and about the city and the country-side with these little people. soooooo cute!!!!! I've seen a couple in the flesh... can't wait to discover some more. Great urban name too.... very apt!! HuzzaH!! x x x

a newbie

Exciting yes it is!!! Sydney is getting a brand new piece of permanent public artwork being opened tHIS WEEEEEEK!!!! The work Aspire is by professional light-based Australian artist Warren Langley. Here is a pre-visual of the piece to be opened:

It's trees. Lovely big golden trees propping up the Western Distrbutor. Here is the official word from the Lord Mayer who is opening the work tomorrow night:

The work, by eminent Australian artist Warren Langley, features a forest of golden trees which stretch upwards and appear to keep the vast bulk of the freeway at bay. Internal environmentally friendly lighting, which I will switch on at the launch, creates their golden
hue.

The finished work recalls the combined activism of local community members who helped save local housing from being totally obliterated by the freeway and inspires and reminds us that we can all aspire to creating a better environment.

Launch of Aspire by Warren Langley: Wednesday 19 May, 6.15pm, Under the Western Distributor, Corner of Bulwarra Road and Fig Street, Ultimo.


Now, you may remember Warren Langely from last years VIVID / Smartlight festival. He did the big ugly pot-vase full of 80's style flowers. It was a work that irked me to tears and I totally wrote him off as an ugly person.


HOWEVER, since I discovered he was repsonsible for this new work, which I actually really like, I was promted to look further into his past bits. Here are some pieces that I found that are, quite frankly, wonderful. And I am now reassured that even professional Public Artists have bad-hair days and put out complete doozeys. Ahhhhh, the humanity.































And lastly, a work by a different artist from last years VIVID / Smartlight Festival, who actually really nailed it and I felt compelled to include in this post because it is so so so so beautiful. Francesco Mariotti's work titled Fire Flies. The sculpture used low energy lighting and recycled materials such as PET bottles to create a poignant piece about the effects of urban lighting on the lifecycle of fireflies. MwaH! What a delicious use of medium to convey a message, and so perfectly captures the flitty, phosphuorescent light of a firefly.


FYI, VIVID is just about to launch its 2010 season minus the Smartlight component. I got an email which assured everyone that it will be back again next year. I hope so, it has so much growing to do and so much growing of artists in return.

here there everywhere

Hello..! So this week I am putting up some randoms. Mostly Sydney based and some permanent pieces, though with a few other delicious treats thrown in.

Interesting... Al (my Reef Knot cohort) and I gave a little talk last week at the &Company design exhibition at Gaffa Gallery ( a FABULOUS show might I add). Our talk was titled 'Making Art to Engage the Public' and something we touched on was the potential or need for more permanent Public Art-making opportunities for artists who are going through the temporary motions available, like Art and About, Sculpture by the Sea, Sydney Festival, Festivals in general etc... These opportunities are educational for people wanting to practise Public Art as their chosen field of art and the next logical step is to go on to permanent pieces. Hmm. So that's a bit of my 2 cents for the mo.... !!!!! Anyway, here are some permanent pieces that Sydney has to offer.

Above is The Sunflowers (or I think that's what they're called). I can't find the name of the artist who created this piece so please feel free to enlighten me!!

This is kinda cool.. I feel like its a bit hidden though... or not partioculary sensitive to where it is. It would be great with a bit more space around it, so that the sense of things being precariously piled on top of each other ,about to wobble or fall, could be exaggerated.

The piece pictured above here is the lovely sound sculpture installation Wireless House. A collaboration between City of Sydney Council, sonic artist Nigel Helyer and the NFSA. This piece draws on the local history of the area in Glebe and how this house used to actually a wireless house!!A unique place for the community to enjoy listening to daily radio programmes, it operated from 1934 until the early fifties.

A Rubik's Cube sculpture on Maroubra beach. This is a piece of guerilla public art.... YEEEEEAY!!!!! Read more about this piece here... it's fabulous! http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/01/rubiks-cube-by/

This was really clever. An advertisement for Ella Bache skin products, a play on 'peaches and cream' complexions I am supposing, it was down outside the MCA on the grass. I know, I know, its an ad, and its commercial and NO! NO! NO! a sell out! a sell out! But hey! Artists should be able to make a bit of moolla sometimes right? And its a good piece. Its engaging. It's a naked lady.

Ahhhh. Guerilla Gardners... my heros. This is (half of) the best peice I believe they have done to date. Its still there, on the median strip at Cleveland and South Dowling Sts. Viva la revolution!!

“Think Globally Act Locally” mural, 1984. (Geoff Klem courtesy Public Art Squad)

I don't exactly know what this is but it's in North Sydney. It's not the most amazing thing I've ever seen, but for some reason I feel compelled to include it. hmmm. Maybe its the ice-creamy vibe... it looks a bit like sundaes-with-sprinkles mock-towers and is slightly surreal. This is potentially an over-flattering photo, but who know's ay? Something to expand upon anyway, if anything!


This was a cardboard planetarium made by my beautiful friend Kirsten Bradley and was part of a series About Above in early 2008. She installed them in parks around the Sydney CBD and even put one near the Sydney Observatory!! You could stick your head inside, look up and observe a constellation from the Sydney night sky. mwah. It was so beautiful! And in her own words solar powered... BA HA HA HA!! get it? get it? the sun shone through the holes to make the starlights.

Jeff Koon's Puppy. Who didn't love it?? It was just so sad it had to come down. See what I mean? MORE PERMANENT PIECES!! Lets fall in love with stuff that can stay!

I found this while having a Google.... it was in the Customs House forecourt and I think its really beautiful. Kind of like a walkway-massive ribcage-treehouse.




Here she is....!!!!! The one permanent piece most Sydney-siders will go.... "I love it!" Brett Whitely's Matches outside the Art AGllery of NSW. And they bloody are lovely aren't they?

The best public art around. heh heh heh. ahhhhh.

Now here we have some things I have been sent by lovely folks. Below was sent over from New York by my wonderful friend Victoria (Hi Vic). She is passionate about Public works that effect social change.. wow. This is an example of just such a piece by Clark.

Here's some info she sent me Clark's stuff. If you would like to know more go to http://www.thevillager.com/villager_270/gettingthemessage.html.

"In April, Clark created “VOTE” stencils in Riverside Park near W. 135th St. MIDDLE: Posing as tourists, two months ago, Clark and a sidekick managed to quickly graffiti this “VOTE” stencil directly across from the Times Square police stationhouse."

Til next time Gadgets. xxx