Only now does it seem there is time to update this blog and to make sense of it all I'll send it through in chronological order. There's a host of photos to accompany the adventure that has been and much to share.
To pick up from the last post, I was asked to shoot some promotional photos for Circus Amorphus crew, and mid October saw the fruition of my Exhibition. As well there were screenings for the Dorrigo Youth Services premiere of their Digital Storytelling Project and another Bass Camp Party [with the photos to prove it!]
Circus Amorphus photo shoot
This talented performance troupe features stilts, poi, flags, firetwirling and fluoro shows. Although they only got together a short time ago, they've performed all over northern NSW and have a varied range of costumes and routines. Email me if you'd like to get in touch with them.
Here's a few sample shots from their portfolio:
Enlightened Exhibition notes and background:October 14 saw the opening of the Enlightened Exhibition, a joint venture between myself and my kin brother Paul from Kyogle. Without his long distance support and artistic contributions this would never have happened. In between teaching at Port Macquarie TAFE in the lead up [2 hours from home], I managed to pull together 49 digital prints - sort of themed in seven categories but with the emphasis on light and nature - how and what we see and the beauty that surrounds us in our ever fragile environment.
Fortunately school holidays fell 2 weeks leading into the exhibition, in which deciding from some tens of thousands of photos the final selection was made. Then sizings and titles and paper types and invitations and a host of other tasks. Paul is mostly responsible for the mandala nature series and has been a collaboration for a few years now...
We decided to donate a portion of the print sales to Rainforest Rescue - www.rainforestrescue.org.au - you can save a portion of rainforest in perpetuity for very little money....
Heartfelt thanks to Ray & Ann at digital fotofx coffs harbour for their technical advice, support and quick turnarounds. [ fotofx@bigpond.com ] We printed on Epson ecography chemical free papers and the results were no less than astounding.
Then there were 6 orbital lanterns, made from recycled automobile wheel trims suspended within bicycle wheels stripped of their spokes and adorned with various other kitchen implements and found objects. Suspend from ceiling and add a candle and voila - you have an orbital lantern.
Add 6 more hanging lanterns - this time perspex tubes wrapped in nature images printed on backlit film, lit from within by 1 metre lengths of tubelight - nice, warm, even light. The technical and physical design and construction was done a few days before we installed. [To add to the deadlines, it had been raining for weeks and the property I live on is exclusively solar powered - so any prolonged use of computers/internet/lights, was completely out of the question!]
The Bunker Gallery curator, and volunteers were amazing. I entrusted the framing to the volunteers and only needed to advise on a couple of minor issues. Collectively we decided upon placement, groups and spacings for the overall plan and this was executed in the space of a day. My time was spent assembling the orbital lanterns and rigging the electrics and making sure everything stayed in the roof. Paul arrived by train at lunchtime and assisted with the rest of the install, ready for Saturdays opening.
Once the physical objects were in place, we rigged an LCD projector and spaceframe with screen to project all of the images in the exhibition plus the ones that didn't make it into print form but were part of the same series or sequences. This DVD runs for about 40 minutes and has a nice ambient chill soundtrack as accompaniment. The crossfades and dissolves between shots are slow and gentle - it makes for a nice organic background or meditative assistant!
Lastly, we introduced some potted palms, dracenias, and shrubbery to reduce the size of the entrance into the space - like entering into the forest...I wanted to make it intimate and interactive, and it turned out to be exactly that.
Paul in the foreground [and background]
15second exposure - playing around at the end of the day
Heres a shot of the gallery before we opened
and a few of the exhibition shots
Since this was my first public exhibition and my name doesn't appear on the invite, I was curious to see who would be curious enough to show up.....I'd sent out a bunch of emails to friends and others and figured all would be revealed on the night.
A crowd of about 60 people propelled and bumped and manoeuvred through the space as it was quite busy with all the hanging implements! There was a large contingent from the community on which I live, a few travellers from afar and some new folk venturing into the unknown.
The whole idea was for people to engage with the elements within the space, and pretty much everything was designed to be "industrial" strength - tested with kids and survived! It was a very social night and the feedback was positive on all levels...
and once all the pleasantries were done, it was time for the drive to......
Bass Camp Mystery Doof www.basscamp.info
This party was held on the same night as my exhibition - we drove the 90 minutes to the remote site to join in the festivities. This crew have been operating for the past few years and have put on some nice events, quite inclusive and usually well organised....its always nice to have some installations well lit to document the night activities - here are some of the results:
