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An unexpected invitation to join an expedition to Cape York turned out to be the genesis of this exhibition of landscape paintings. As the trip’s photographer, James Yuncken accumulated an abundance of material.

“Creating a genuine sense of place demands more than just careful handling of all the details in the source material. I wanted to create as near as possible a sensual experience, to enable the viewer to enter that space, that landscape, experience its atmosphere, physical conditions and the sensations that shaped my experience of that location at that time.” James Yuncken

See the works from the exhibition on James’ website.

Image: ‘Safe Fill Level’ by James Yuncken 117 x 79 cm, Acrylic on Wood Panel, 2010.

The works in Subtractions explore the possibility of tension and space within a three dimensional surface; although Torikov is trained as a painter, her current work replaces traditional subject matter and colour with an abstract composition of white shapes. Foamcore has replaced linen and brushes have been exchanged for a sharp knife.

Subtractions are works experimenting with surfaces to build city-like constructions and slices of landscapes based on memory and the impact the immediate environment has on us.

fortyfivedownstairs is pleased to announce the premiere of another outstanding new Australian play,  Bare Witness, in a first time presentation with La Mama Theatre.

Set in the Balkans, East Timor and Iraq, against the complex terrain of contemporary photojournalism, Bare Witness scrutinises the way we view our humanity – through the fragmenting lens of the media. Searching for the pieces of herself lost to years in the field, a young Australian woman is at a point when thrusting the camera between herself and her subjects ceases to protect her. Photographs, memories and dreams collide in a physical multi-media performance that follows a pack of complicated, flawed characters who share the unbreakable bond of war journalists.

Drawing on the actual experiences of photojournalists and foreign correspondents, Bare Witness has attracted a stellar cast including Isaac Drandic, Daniela Farinacci, Todd MacDonald, Adam McConvell and Maria Theodorakis.

If you’re a student, media worker, photographer, activist, aid worker, or just someone who loves original, thought provoking theatre SEE THIS PLAY! BUT BOOK EARLY.

Image by Jeremy Angerson and Rusty Stewart

Jean McBride dies unexpectedly. Her husband Bill, a legendary trade union leader, has late-stage Dementia. Her daughters, Rachel and Anne, are left to wade through the remains of their mother’s life and deal with their unpredictable father.

Rachel has just returned from overseas and will do anything to evade guilt or responsibility while Anne cracks at the seams as the past returns to haunt her – a past that their father believes is the present. Tensions surface and sparks fly between the sisters but the real secret remains buried.

Directed by award-winning director, Tom Healey, and recipient of the 2010 Malcolm Robertson New Playwright Grant, Buried is a dark comedy about family, death and our greatest fear: becoming our parents.

According to the well known proverb, ‘A fish always stinks from the head down’, a sentiment not lost on Philip Faulks’ in his new exhibition ‘Stink’; a series of intricate ink drawings largely made up of multiple representations of the human head.

Teaming with a multitude of images Faulks’ malodorous concoctions transport us into the complex and secretive world of imagination, memory and experience.

Image: Gloaming Head, 130×90cm, Ink on paper, 2010

Alana Kennedy, artist, cook & gastronome reopens her 2009 project (Marsilio Ficino Temporary Diningroom Project – tormentati i sensi) as Orpheus Diningroom ProjectMMX, a doubling and continuing homage to the Florentine philosopher and mystic Marsilio Ficino.

The dining room concept evolved out of a search for a context in which to present a cycle of paintings informed by the lavish flower field foreground in Botticelli’s Primavera.

Kennedy visited Florence two years prior to make sketches directly from the original work. MFTDPMMIX – tormentati i sensi, evolved into a lavishly decorated living, functioning diningroom serving Hesperidean inspired delicacies for an entire lunar cycle (28 days).

An unbroken innocent wonder leads into an underworld where the muse – as a muse might – reverses the process that formed MFTDPMMIX – tormentati i sensi ODPMMX – an underworld diningroom – wherein to dine is not merely to eat.

Bridge Between Press is a new venture in Australian publishing, created to celebrate the intersection between songs and music and the page-based literary traditions of the poem and the short story.

James Griffin is a songwriter, singer, poet, spoken word performer and broadcaster who has shared concert stages with Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello, co-written hit songs with Joe Camilleri and Lee Kernaghan and hosted literary television and radio programs.

Songs for a Season at Ghost Town Bridge is a combined CD and book of songs and prose poems. The songs and poems in the book are also presented as a CD album of sung and spoken word performances. All the tracks are one-take recordings of James singing / reciting and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar or mandolin.

James is a current recipient of a Creative Research Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria where he is researching Victorian country towns to complete a trilogy of Ghost Town Bridge song, poem and story collections.

www.jamesgriffin.com.au

The initial inspiration for the majority of these drawings is from Melanesian paddles used for propelling outrigger craft and canoes through water.  The streamline shapes are reminiscent of elliptical forms used in water, air and snow craft.  These forms are in transition; they move through tonal gradation, surfaces, fleeting light and created scapes,  Not unlike a quiver of arrowheads, each form has its unique shape but collectively they are all part of the same set. These forms present a motif for my objects of navigation.

Navigation is at the centre of humanity.  It has encouraged displacement and exchange between individuals, communities and cultures. Navigation can facilitate exchanges of master skills where the objects for trade are necessary for social life and artistic expression.  Navigators are enterprising in their long voyages in search of new directions.  Constructing their objects for navigation can be a cathartic act and messages of hope are often embellished into their forms.

Run away to the Carnival, where circus stars and sideshow queens, poets and daredevils, painters, playwrights, aerialists and food artistes concoct a heady mix of unforgettable entertainment under a handmade starry sky

From Finucane & Smith, the world’s pre-eminent purveyors of provocative variety and intimate spectacle, including the award-winning The Burlesque Hour, comes the surreal indoor Carnival of Mysteries. Inspired by some of life’s most profound mysteries, this complex, multilayered, seductive and wild artistic experience will leave Festival audiences begging for more!

Overhead, underfoot and throughout four extraordinary intricate sites, the Carnival of Mysteries seduces audiences with the work of 30 unique artists commissioned to respond to the Mysteries of Innocence, Passion, Mercy, Forgiveness and Love.

Behind the intricate hoardings of ‘Sideshow Alley’ intimate pleasure halls offer entertainments for one to ten people; in the gorgeous ‘Pleasure Gardens’ tables, chairs and refreshments curve around the walls and spectacles surprise throughout the night; in the hidden ‘Shrine’ the grand piano plays for those in a reflective mood; and in the jewel of the Carnival crown, the hand decorated ‘Tent Of Miracles’, a new show can be seen every ten minutes. This Festival experience will linger on in your dreams long after the Carnival is over.

See attached schedule for performance times.

The ceramic swan among other objects are collected and represented through direct observation. These objects are placed upon envisaged landscapes inspired by the strangeness of natural phenomenon. Theses visual arrangements operate like ceremonial memorial sites where the evocation of lost memories is shaped by present anxieties and future uncertainties.

Jo D’Hagé is currently a practicing artist and art educator teaching as a sessional staff member at the Queensland College of art, Griffith University, and as a permanent P/T teacher at the Brisbane North Institute of TAFE.