COVER ARTIST:JACK CROSBY

Editor: Bec Fary. Writers: Bec Fary, Mari Maao Nilsson, Anna Kosmanovski,Ji-Han Loong, Zoe Blair-Holt, Mitch Cunningham, Emily Williams, Laura McNulty. Artists: Naara Holleman, Jack Crosby, Riley Mcdonald, Emma Armstrong, Rachel Burke.

Thanks: Darcy Johnson, Karen Mayo, Tom & Tarah (Polly Put the Kettle On), Joel & Rachel (Frank & Dolly’s).

www.sub-ari.com

All SUBpress material is copyright. Reproduction in whole or part is not permitted without written permission of the editor. Published online. June 2011.

STATEOF THEARTSIn a recent opinion piece, Darryn Lyons labelled Little Malop St “Tumbleweed Cen-tral” and lamented the apparent lack of an arts and cultural precinct in Geelong. Bec Fary asks: how devoid is this city?

It looks to many as if the cultural life of Gee-long is dead, but there are groups of artists and eager patrons scattered across the region who are refusing to let the city live up to the expecta-tion of creative inactivity. Earlier this year, former foreign minister Alexander Downer described Geelong as “mediocre and provincial”, hitting regional centres Geelong and Newcastle with a blow to their struggling cultural egos. What Mr Downer failed to acknowledge, though, was the creative facelift being received across regional Victoria. One group facilitating this regeneration is Renew Newcastle, which endeavours to inject life into the abandoned or disused retail spaces in the city. By allowing them to be used as temporary spaces for local artists to work, exhibit and promote their work, these spaces become vibrant, creative features

Inspired by this, Made in Geelong was estab-lished in 2010 to breathe some creative life back into Geelong’s CBD. Made in Geelong’s vice president Danni Cowdery, who also hosts ‘Art & Soul’ on the Pulse, is excited to be seeing the arts and culture of Geelong grow and develop. Danni has experienced first hand the strength of Geelong’s artistic life, and says she has seen a number of artist’s communities spring up. “Local artists seem to know other artists,” she says. “There’s so much talent around.”

But this talent is struggling.

According to Danni, local artists are in need of more exposure and support. “Local artists are reluctant to take the risk, and if they do want to get themselves out there, they’re not sure how to do it.” Rachel Burke, a local artist who moved to Geelong about a year ago, says she loves the healthy, creative environment in Geelong, but also wishes local artists had more support. While Rachel was pleased with the scale of February’s Alleyway Arts Festival in Lt Malop St, and saw the attraction of the music, she says it was disappointing that the visual arts side of the day was let down.

She says expansion of Geelong’s art and culture is starting to happen, but is waiting for the day when “local powers that be can really get behind the arts scene.” “Art’s not always going to tick all the boxes or fit inside a designated space,” she says, and hopes council support for the arts will be more accepting and lenient in the future. Overall, though, Rachel says Geelong is “a pretty positive place” and has a “really good mix” of creative talent. Having previously worked in both Melbourne and Sydney, she says bigger cities can often have a blasé attitude towards the arts.

Despite this, Danni from Made in Geelong has seen a significant number of artists drift to Melbourne to establish themselves. She says these artists feel they can earn more money working in a bigger city. According to her, “People expect to have to go to the big smoke.” There are dedicated local creatives, though, who see this as the ‘lazy way out’ and are keen to support the growth of the arts in Geelong.Rachel says people are naturally drawn to Melbourne because they know something will always be happening there, with regular exhibi-tions, performances and creative endeavours. She hopes that in the future people will be drawn to Geelong in the same way.

Cr Barbara Abley, who holds thecouncil portfo-lio for Arts & Culture, says she is “Continuously amazed at the diversity and talent of artists of all ages,” but acknowledges the limitations of Geelong’s creative life.According to Ms Abley, facilities in the Arts & Cultural precinct have been experiencing great difficulty developing and sustaining audiences due to the physical limitations of outdated, small or inefficient spaces. Money is the greatest obstacle to improvement, she says. Investments in infra-structure are not meeting the demand of Geelong’s inadequate performance and cultural spaces. Ms Abley does, however, cite the refurbishment of the precinct, including an integrated library and heritage centre, as one of the key developments that will bring new life to regional arts. “The development of the precinct means a healthy and vibrant arts and cultural scene.” Rachel, Danni and Ms Abley agree that locals can help Geelong become a destination on the artistic map simply through being supportive patrons. The people of Geelong need to get serious and recognise the enormous talent on offer by supporting exhibitions, stage shows and other events, says Ms Abley. What, then, is the key to a successful arts scene? “Getting involved.”

“The development of the precinct means a

healthy and vibrant arts and cultural scene.”

BY BEC FARY

I saw a man performing in the street the other week. He was there for a good time. He played his music like the beat didn’t matter, the beaten were believing in it and the coins that filled his open guitar case were the currency of a world he did not want to understand. A man in the street in Geelong breathes like a performance dazzling lights and crowds in the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, like a quiet exhibition inspiring true creativity in Westfield or Market Square. A man in the street means expression is still alive, and it is ours. There are things that I must wonder and things that you must wonder, and things that the world must wonder alongside us, and yet, when did we forget this? When did we forget that we are all a part of the human race, and that the beauty and fragility of expressionism and art is ours? Are we so afraid of being seen amongst the hungry crowd that we choose instead to hide within it, the rising and falling it exclaims forth? There is something that we all need to tell the world, something that is raw and honest and unconsciously held in by your heart. That renowned artists like Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp chose to push the boundaries of paint and portraits and pretty smiles and shapes and objects, the human figure and the status quo, we have witnessed true expressionism in a believable form. And yet, Geelong seems to be lost on crazed and crazy art and limitless boundaries. The art is there, and it is alive. Yet, we are not all attuned to it, as so many dreams and passions and fantasies tell us we should be. We need to wake up, and tell the world what you cannot with a straight face. That is for a good time. I saw a man performing in the street the other week. He was there for a good time. Are you here? Are you here for a good time?

IN THE STREET

BY LAURA McNULTY

Above: Illustration by Riley McDonald

Left:Photo by Karen Mayo

BRINGING BACK PEOPLE INTO THE CITY CENTRE

Mari Nilssen from Stories of Geelong talks to public artist Karen Mayo about her plans for Geelongʼs CBD.

BY MARI MAAØ NILSSEN

It is sad walking down Ryrie street. Every third shop or so is empty. Photographer Karen Mayo thinks the city is losing its vibe. She knows what the city once was, and she wants to bring people back into the city centre. Like me, Karen thinks it is all about the people. I first meet Karen at Arthur Reed Photos, where she is shooting her new project. Between 50 and 70 portraits are going to be spread around different locations in town to bring identities back into the city centre, some as 3 meter high, hard copies hanging from the ceiling, some as part of a projection. Karen wants people to be able to walk around the work. ‘It is not just something on the wall.’ I meet Karen because I am model-ling for the project. I realise soon that I want to write about it. When Karen is telling me about the project and her ideas, I smile, I smile like every journalist does when she knows she has stumbled across a story. Shooting portraits is hard, or at least I find it hard. It is so static, people don’t feel comfortable with me. I cannot make them come to life. In front of Karen I feel comfortable, I swing, I smile, I look to the right, I look to the left. I feel alive. I wonder how she does it. For the project Karen is hoping for multicultural variety, and she plans to shoot as many portraits as possible. Karen believes that in the process of taking the portraits she is re-establishing people’s identity. They become individuals and not just a mass. ‘We lose our identity when we enter the city. We become consumers. This project is about reinvesting in the pedestrian, about rein-vesting in the people as the lifeblood of the city.’ Karen thinks the key to bringing people back in the city is to create spaces where they can relax and be themselves. Spaces that are not about buying or selling.

‘People don’t want to feel like they need to buy something.’ It all started when Karen got back from Turkey in September last year. She and a group of other artists had taken over a whole city and created a walking exhibition. Karen’s proj-ect was a whole house. She lit up the house and ran a projection of a weaving lady on the wall. It was viewed from the outside. When Karen tells me about Turkey, I get lost. I put down my pen and stop being a journalist. I become I child listening to a story. Karen tells me about the two women who used to live in the house and how they happened to walk by on that particular day. How they cried in the living room when they saw the film of the weaving lady; the mother in the house had been a weaver. Karen’s project takes on a new mean-ing for me. After Turkey, Karen came back to Geelong and saw what was happening.‘Why isn’t someone doing something?’ In Turkey Karen had seen what big collaborative projects can do for a community and she started developing her concept, since then it has grown into a large collaboration. ‘I want to pull in as many artists as possible. This is the power of public art, it just builds and extends the work. Geelong needs a project like this.’ Karen is not a detached photogra-pher, she draws heavily on social theory for her work, especially the work of Michel de Certeau. The exhibition in Geelong is part of her Master’s degree on the photographic image. An exhibi-tion in Melbourne, her web page and a book form the rest of it. Karen’s portraits will be showing for a week around the city in August. Exactly where is still unknown. Karen hopes they get as many buildings as possible. So do I.

storiesofgeelong.wordpress.com

BY ANNA KOSMANOVSKI

When’re smiling. Oh when you’re smiling. The whooooooole world smiles with you. (Sing it Louie!) Oh but when you’re … tired, you bring on the yawns. You bring on the yawns. Did you just sing those words in your head to Louis Armstrong’s famous song, ‘When you’re smiling?’ It would be cool if you did because I just did, and that’s the cool thing about writing – it’s a way of communicating but it’s like this secret way. Secret because the author and reader have an explicit relationship (it’s definitive. Like clockwork.) One writes, the other reads. Or vice versa. It’s just like two people who have stepped into a café to have a conversation but one person arrived there a day before the other person … and they don’t each see other anyway because the café is so crowded. Or sometimes (this is the cool thing about writing – and reading!) one person has got there (there being the place of writing, the place you go when you read) hundreds of years before. Even thousands of years, when you consider the Bible and the Dead Sea scrolls and the ancient time it was written to the modern time in which we read it. It’s like … (simile overload! ‘It’s like … a clear blue sky’ – remember that from school, when you were learning about similies?! Fun, wasn’t it. Remember school?! Fun, wasn’t it. But that’s another story) … it’s like … Shake-speare.

Shakespeare went and sat in a café (a 16th century Starbucks – if you call Starbucks a cafe) and starts having this conversation. He’s telling you – and anyone who will listen: past, present and future – about this crazy young couple called Romeo and Juliet. And he’ll stay and wait in this café forever, or until his works stop being printed (*fellow literary lover, don’t panic. This may never happen unless you count Armageddon!) And whoeverinto the café and wants to hear Shakespeare and have this conversation can do so, even if the conversation is indirect and more one-way than two-way, that sort of thing.And that’s the brilliant thing about writing: it transcends time. Even when (though I’m-not-an-existentialist-black-is-the-best-colour-person-with-an-unnatural-obbsession-with-Dostevsky) the writeror becomes disgruntled with the conversation, the works still continue. The conversation – this wonderful thing we have called writing – still goes on. Speaking of writing, I began this post with a reason. Remember we sang that sweet Louis Armstrong song, and I wreckedwith a post-modern, awful verse – “When you’re tired, ohyou’re tired, the whoooooole world yawns with you.” Or something like that. Well, this is true. It really is. If there’s anything you want to take from this blog post, don’t take the whole “writing is transcendent” thing. Take instead this very valid and accurate point: when you yawn, other people yawn too. It’s true. Infact, maybe even thinking about yawning – hearing the word ‘yawn’, imagining some person indulging in a long yawn, reminds us of this. But what about smiling? Louis seems to think it’s true and he definitely has a point!

Below: Artwork “City Study” by Naara Holleman

The city is different after the rain, drawing you with the sheen of a once dull tarmac to a cramped Italian café drowned in slow jazz. The murmur of other patrons floats on the haze of cigarette smoke, stirring the otherwise crippled air that hangs stale, cut by the clink of coffee and cake. Dusty red velvet curtains, creaking wooden chairs. Spotty Victorian light fixtures spouting dirty light onto the green floor tiles, where black leather shoes find company under a landscape of white cloth.

Breadcrumbs on the table cloth, red wine, over-priced sparkling water. Streetlights, car lights falling in and out of focus through the lenses raindrops on the window; they pulsate. Folding and bending, blending together,into a hurried blur. Motion smeared like a single long exposure in your mind. The collision of glass signals the beginning of your night. And end.

Outside, past rain still on the nose. Hot car engines rustling, crackling as they cool. Shut off. And as you turn onto your lonely street begin to feel the tired in your feet. Find your keys somewhere. Too tired to brush your teeth, leave the lights off. You walk over to shut the blinds, a streetlamp watches over you, a guardian of the remaining night. The last you hear, a final breath of a passing car. Pillows crush behind your ears. White sheets. Sleep.

UNTITLED

BY JI-HAN LOONG

FRANK & DOLLY’S/POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON

BY ZOE BLAIR-HOLT

Frank & Dollyʼsʼ 1st birthday celebrations in April proved the perfect time for the official opening of Geelongʼs newest tea house, Polly Put the Kettle On, writes Zoe Blair-Holt.Rachel and Joel Cooper, owners of Frank and Dolly’s, occupy such a tiny shop on Moorabool St, but have formed a great friendship with Tarah Dower and Tom Smith to add another layer to the space. Rachel and Joel uphold that everything sold in Frank & Dolly’s must be handmade or fair trade, so you know that anything you buy there is a rare gem. Joel says this is just what locals are looking for: “Geelong is really craving something unique.” And that is exactly what we’ve been given! From clothing to water bottle covers to magnets, there is some-thing for everyone and Frank & Dolly’s has certainly brought some freshness to Geelong. The French wool dresses are wearable works of art created by Rachel, alongside imports from around the world and locally-sourced knick knacks. This beautiful collection is a must see, but if you’re feeling overworked from all the beauty upstairs, now you can pop down to the spacious base-ment to put your feet up. An ideal space for lounging around and enjoying a cuppa, Polly Put the Kettle On also sells adorable neck-laces and quirky clothing for the little ones. Through a collection of self-described “bits and bobs” and eclectic, comfortable furnishings, Tom and Tarah have created a delightful atmosphere. The coffee is fantastic, but the aromas of an expansive range of teas and the vintage décor filling Polly Put the Kettle On is perfectly suited to an old-school tea party (complete with delicious cakes!) I lost almost half a day exploring these delightfully quirky spots, but I easily could have stayed longer. My only complaint is that Polly Put the Kettle On wasn’t set up in my own basement…

VICE|VERSA

Darcy Johnson talks to SUBpress about his clothing revolution, the Vice Versa Project.

What is the Vice Versa project, exactly? Where did the idea come from?The Vice Versa Project is an environmentally friendly clothing label and artistic community.the shirts are 100% organic, alter-native fibres (70% bamboo 30% cotton) and are manufactured in 3rd party, externally audited, certified ethical conditions, meaning no sweatshops. The designs are submitted by independent artists all walks of life and then printed on the shirts with water-based inks, to again reduce environmental impact.average printed t-shirt in your wardrobe creates 7kg of carbon to produce, ours create 0.5kg.

How does it work?It works kind of like a cross between an art gallery and a clothing label. I act as like the curator or the creative director and set a theme for each collection, and based on that theme artists submit their designs and I decide which ones to buy from the artists to use for the cloth-ing label.

What are your objectives? The aim of the Vice Versa Project is a clothing revolution.people’s attitudes from disposable, mass produced fashion that is cheaply made and damaging to the environment,our prod-ucts which not only look and feel great, but are quality made, support the environment and human rights, and hidden artistic talent from all areas of the community.

What's the future of the Project?Hopefully a physical store in a few cities around Australia and manufacturing facilities so I can say it’s 100% Australian made, but that's a fair way off yet!

Who do you see wearing the t-shirts?It's targeted at guys and girls aged between 16 and 26. But each print is individually num-bered and limited to only 200 shirts, so if you see one you like you better get in quick because there will be no re-prints.

How much does a t-shirt cost and where can I get one?Unfortunately having the products in fair con-ditions and using organic materials tends to push the cost up. However, the average shirt created in unfair conditions currently retails between $50 and $90 in stores, so we put ourselves in the lower part of the middle and settled on $60 rrp.

More info here: www.viceversaclothing.com.auwww.facebook.com/viceversaproject

Weaving With Secrets

They share an intimate moment with the discussion of a secret. It will be honored and treasured as a token. The passing of it ensures a permanency of friendship between them. Something flutters in the humid air above. They think it is love Not romantic love but something larger that is reflected between the two. They recognize one another in it. It is rare and beautiful, and glows like an orb. There they sit, trading stories, while one works on his ancient craft. The other watches and tries to learn from him. His hands and fingers hold the memory of what should be. His fingers search for the rhythm and he knows what is right by what is wrong. His hands find the pattern eventually. With this comes delight. The knowledge, imprinted there from childhood, hasn’t ever left. Once it has been excavated, he can’t stop. He weaves and begins another, strips more palm leaves. He creates again and again until his fingers are sure of the rhythm. He remem-bers from watching his Mother. His eyes fill with tears as he thinks of this long ago time. In his body it feels just like yesterday. The two of them sit and weave together. Vibrant green, bright blue-pink, polished brown, pale pink-brown flesh. Between two figures, a merging of soft apricot and the palest, most delicate pink. Luminosity ignites the composition.

BY EMILY WILLIAMS

“Geelong is full of so many talented, creative individuals and enterprises... But some-how the art scene compared to the size and diversity of the city seems rather small and homo-geneous. As an emerging artist looking to exhibit you can count your options on one hand. What we have is so far removed from the vast cultural infrastructure that exists in Mel-bourne and the opportunities this provides for creatives, so it is hard for them to find incen-tive to stay.

We need to support those already actively promoting the arts whilst encouraging others to follow suit. In my opinion, if there were more platforms for artists and a higher quality of arts information available to the broader community, there would be an increase in activity and participation. The profile of arts and culture in Geelong is on the up and will only con-tinue to rise; it will be interest-ing to see the dramatic change that this will make in five to ten years’ time.”

Stephanie Tribe, Founder of SUB

"Geelong seems to be a con-tent working class town where people ask for very little, but this doesn't mean that they still don't wish that there was more. In fact when this has become the topic of several public discussions the honest opinions begin to fly and strongly sup-port that change is desired more than ever. This lack of action and life within the town looks to have lead to a sup-pressed creative culture due to a shortage of 'do-ers' and an excess of people saying 'gonna' without any follow up... I just hope people start to open their eyes and realize that the creative people are the ones who push boundaries for those who sit comfortably and watch society unfold and progress before their eyes."

Ben Neoh, Please Welcome Gallery

If you want your voice to be heard, send any thoughts, comments or letters to: bec@sub-ari.com

“I’m continuously amazed at the diversity and talent of artists of all ages...I fully concur with the comments made by Minis-ter for the Arts, The Hon Simon Crean MP who said “we are a nation of readers, theatregoers and movie lovers. Audiences around the country are sup-porting new artists – not least the many creative arts students and researchers emerging from our universities and TAFEs. Geelong citizens should be celebrating the abundance of talent we have locally including the internationally renowned Back To Back The-atre Company and providing support to these and other local Theatre and music groups.

Getting involved is the key to a successful Arts Scene! We need to get serious in recognising that the creative arts have become integral to Australians’ exploration of their own values, their own self-expression and their own confidence in the world around us.”

Cr Barbara Abley, Arts & Culture