123trouble

All works Kawita VATANAJYANKUR, 2015, video still courtesy, Stills Gallery. In order of appearance: The Squeezers,The Carrying Pole, The Lift, The Scale. Kawita Vatanajyankur: Work, Stills Gallery, 36 Gosbell Street Paddington (NSW) 6 May – 6 June 2015 - stillsgallery.com.au

http://federation.edu.au/faculties-and-schools/faculty-of-education-and-arts/post-office-gallery/guirguis-new-art-prize-gnap

For future bookings, general information, technical specifications and status updates please visit our website: www.ulumbarratheatre.com.au

Email ulumbarra@bendigo.vic.gov.au Phone 03 5434 6006

Key features include:• Largest dedicated auditorium in Central Victoria• 960 seat theatre• Professional team on site• Generous foyers linking to tranquil outdoor spaces• Suitable for performance, expos and conferences

Taking Centre Stage in BendigoLaunching 2015

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Issue 123 MAY 2015 trouble is an independent monthly mag for promotion of arts and culture Published by Trouble Magazine Pty Ltd. ISSN 1449-3926 CONTRIBUTORS Ive Sorocuk, Jim Kempner, Ben Laycock, Creative Cowboys Peter and Andrea Hylands, Joe Pirrett, Chloe Tanner, Angus Mordant, love.

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READER ADVICE: Trouble magazine contains artistic content that may include nudity, adult concepts, coarse language, and the names, images or artworks of deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. Treat Trouble intelligently, as you expect to be treated by others. Collect or dispose of thoughtfully.

CONTENTS

(02) KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR: WORK Stills Gallery

(11) COMICS FACE Ive Sorocuk

(12) THE MADNESS OF ART Jim Kempner

(18) HOMELANDS Creative Cowboys

(16) RITES OF PASSAGE Joe Pirrett & Chloe Tanner

(20) MAY SALON Make Mine May

(30) NEW AUSTRALIAN PAVILION IN THE HISTORIC VENICE BIENNALE GARDENS Angus Mordant

(38) GREETINGS FROM: BEYOND THE PALE Ben Laycock

COVER: Iseult de Mallet Burgess, Fiona McAndrew and Beatrice de Mallet Burgess in Médée performed by LOST & FOUND, taken from the final sections of the Ancient Greek tragedy Medea, Darius Milhaud’s (1892–1974) 1938 opera Médée explores a woman’s psychological state as it shifts from the contemplation of marital infidelity to exacting revenge and, in a chilling climax to the slowly wrought catharsis, the murder of her two children. Photo by Grant Taylor. Fremantle Arts Centre 1 Finnerty Street Fremantle (WA) 15 – 24 May 2015 - fac.org.au

http://www.troublemag.com/category/comics-face/

visit: themadnessofart.com/

Season 4, Episode 6: Dog DazeThe gallery goes to the dogs. Jasper Johns and Ruth Adler’s art is featured.

art comedy series

Peter Hylands

READ MORE at creativecowboyfilms.com/blog_posts/australian-homelands-are-forever

Rites ofPassage

MY FIRST VISIT TO THE ROYAL EXHIBITION BUILDING was in August 2014, for the launch of the Melbourne Art festival. Its enormous hall was then filled with typical bourgeois types eating canapés and sipping champagne; as overdressed and underwhelming as ever. It was an audience very far removed from that of Rites of Passage, Australia’s largest tattoo, music and arts festival, which Chloe and I attended on Saturday 25 April. As we strolled around the world heritage building, this time looking out upon a sea of black-clad bodies, shaved heads, stretched ears and inked skin, déjà vu wasn’t even a thing.

Tattoo events have become extremely popular in recent times, and there are hundreds of happenings happening worldwide each year. The Las Vegas Tattoo Show attracted more than 40,000 guests in 2014, and showcased more than 1,000 featured artists. Rites of Passage, although far smaller, embodies much the same spirit as its larger and more established counterparts. Now in its fourth year, it attracts people who work at the coalface of one of Melbourne’s most passionate alternative art scenes. Some walk out with fresh ink, some are looking for inspiration, while others, like myself, are simply taking in the atmosphere.

Rites of Passage was a refreshing sight for many people across different styles and cultures. Goths, Bikers, Skinheads, Moshers, Rockers, Emos and anyone else in black jeans who didn’t fit in at school. Our first impression was a beautifully ornate Harley Davidson glistening at the main entrance, conjuring up daydreams of roaring down some road so long and straight that it disappears at the horizon, a leather-wearing redhead sat behind you sporting a pair of Doc Martens and a nose ring.

Walking past stall after stall of evident masters of the craft, all the while listening to the incessant buzzing of a hundred needles, you can’t help but crave a new piece of ink. The tattooist’s work was spread out on the tables with a heap of portfolios to look at and have a nose through. Seeing all this definitely spurs some inspiration, and you leave wanting to book an appointment at the tattoo studio for your next piece. I could have spent $10k in that place, easy. A vaguely depressing day out, really, for a British backpacker with no dollar to spare. Nevertheless it was an awesome vibe in a beautiful building with a great mix of genres, styles and tattoo art.

Apparently the next convention in the Exhibition Building is a show for dog lovers ... I can’t help but think that the 40+ Maori bouncers at Rites of Passage may not be called in for that one.

words Joe Pirret pics Chloe Tanner 4

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Rites of Passage 2015 happened over Anzac Day weekend, 24 – 26 April at the Royal Exhibition Building 9 Nicholson Street Carlton Gardens Melbourne (VIC) - museumvictoria.com.au and ritesofpassagefestival.com

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may salon

1. Tiffany GARVIE, Peter (detail) 2015, digital photograph. Courtesy the artist. Tiffany Garvie: Connected, a series of landscapes shot along the length of the Yarra River and a selection of intimate portraits by photographer Tiffany Garvie, Manningham Gallery, Manningham City Square (MC²), 687 Doncaster Road, Doncaster (VIC), 20 May to 27 June 2015 - manningham.vic.gov.au/gallery 2. Emily FERRETTI, Long Road Through. PARKS Sophie Gannon Gallery, 2 Albert Street Richmond (VIC), opening Saturday 16 May 3-5pm. Show runs 12 May – 6 June 2015 - sophiegannongallery.com.au

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: Narelle AUTIO, Nipper II 2013, type C photograph, 110 x 160 cm, edition of 5. Courtesy the artist, Stills Gallery, Sydney; and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide. Basil Sellers Art Prize, Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, 55 North Terrace Adelaide (SA) 8 May – 3 July 2015 - unisa.edu.au/samstagmuseum

THIS SPREAD: John WOLSELEY, Natural history of a sphagnum bog, Lake Ina, Tasmania 2013, watercolour, pencil, pen and ink, and sphagnum on 8 sheets, (a–h) (155.6 x 407.6 cm) (overall). Collection of Sir Roderick Carnegie AC and Family © John Wolseley. National Gallery of Victoria, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square, Flinders St, Melbourne (VIC) - ngv.vic.gov.au

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may salon

Lou HUBBARD, Dead Still Standing 2014, latex, polystyrene, Coalbrookdale patio chair, table & bench seat, skate board and plastic dog. Courtesy the artist and Sarah Scout Presents, Melbourne. Winner of the Guirguis New Art Prize 2015, exhibited across two sites - Federation University Australia’s Post Office Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ballarat (VIC) until 31 May - federation.edu.au/gnap

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may salon

53. Jacky REDGATE, Light throw (mirrors) #4 2011 from the series Light throw (mirrors) 2009–11 (detail), chromogenic print, 126.5 x 159.0 cm, Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, MGA 2012.001, courtesy of the artist. Photographic Abstractions, Ararat Regional Art Gallery Town Hall, Vincent Street, Ararat (VIC) 21 May to 12 July 2015 - facebook.com/araratgallery 4. Mariko MORI, Transcircle 1.1 2004 (detail), Stones, Corian, LED, Real Time control system, 336 cm in diameter: each sculpture: 110 x 56 x 34 cm. The Mori Art Collection, Tokyo. Photo by Richard Learoyd. Mariko Mori: Rebirth, Art Gallery of Western Australia Perth Cultural Centre, Perth (WA) until 29 June 2015 - artgallerywa.gov.au 5. Howard BROWN (photographer) Untitled (Hitchcock Gallery with an exhibition of Paul Montford’s sculpture) 1924, black & white photograph. Geelong Gallery archives. The Iron Duke–soldier and statesman, Geelong Gallery Little Malop Street Geelong (VIC) 16 May to 16 August - geelonggallery.org.au

NEW AUSTRALIAN PAVILION IN THE HISTORIC VENICE BIENNALE GARDENS

At 4pm on Tuesday 5 May (Venice time), the new Denton Corker Marshall designed Australian Pavilion in Venice’s historic Biennale precinct was officially opened by Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, and welcomed by Paolo Baratta, President of the Venice Biennale.

Built with a $1 million contribution from the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, and a staggering $6.5m in donations from over 80 private Australian benefactors, the Minister said the pavilion project was a highly successful yet ambitious example of what public and private partnerships can achieve.

IMAGE CREDITS: In order of appearance Fiona Hall in the exhibition Wrong Way Time. Simon Mordant AM. Architect John Denton, Denton Corker Marshall at the Australia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Simon Mordant AM 2015 Commissioner for Australia (white shirt), Tony Grybowski, CEO, Australia Council (grey suit), Catriona Mordant and Rupert Myer AM, Chair of the Australia Council (black suit jacket).

Photographer Angus Mordant.

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GREETINGS FROM BEYOND THE PALE

Ben Laycock

PART 7 – BALGO: THE SECOND MOST DANGEROUS TOWN IN AUSTRALIA

AFTER CROSSING THE GREAT SANDY DESERT, we limp into Balgo belching black smoke. The funeral is in full swing. A string of fairy lights dangles from tree to tree. There is much wailing and moaning.

I make myself scarce. Balgonians are not so tolerant of itinerant interlopers. Balgo is a rough place, lawless even. Too much violence: murder, rape, that sort of thing. Not quite as infamous as Wadeye, where those in the service industries must live behind razor wire, but it does erupt into bouts of chaos and mayhem from time to time, enough to necessitate evacuation of all staff.

I try to stay ‘under the radar’, out of harms way. I make it clear l am just a random stray stranded on my way to somewhere else (the story of my life).Sunshine, the Council president, makes it clear he would prefer l was already somewhere else.

On a brighter note; Balgo is famous for its unique style of art: a beguiling mixture of traditional western desert motifs and chunks of the Old Testament.Babylon, Jericho, Jehovah, Jesus, Moses, rainbow serpents and animal totems all reign supreme. Even Ned Kelly gets a mention; as legend would have it, the tribe was lost in the desert (a likely story?) when Ned turns up and leads them to the Promised Land, where he delivers the ‘sermon on the mount’ then miraculously produces endless quantities of tea and damper. I am not making this up. This story has been told around the campfire for generations. I guess somewhere along the way the metaphors got a bit mixed.

Next morning l take a stroll to see the countryside. After wandering aimlessly amongst the spinifex l happen upon a ladder protruding from a hole in the ground. My natural curiosity impels me to descend into the unknown.

Greetings From / Ben Laycock 4

< BoreTrack by Kdliss - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Mabel Juli-Doo lalanggarrany doo darnal (the moon the crocodile and the turtle)

BACKGROUND IMAGE Balgo Hills © 2002 National Geographic Society. All Rights Reserved - nationalgeographic.com

Ben Laycock grew up in the country on the outskirts of Melbourne, surrounded by bush. He began drawing the natural world around him from a very early age. He has travelled extensively throughout Australia, seeking to capture the essence of this vast empty land. In between journeys he lives in a hand-made house in the bush at Barkers Creek in central Victoria - benlaycock.com.au

I find myself in a cave or grotto, furnished with a rustic alter made of rocks, adorned with a statuette of The Virgin Mary herself. Very Biblical. I feel transported to the Palestine of long ago. Quite a mystical experience for heathen such as I.

The cave is in the side of a cliff, facing out onto a vast open valley that is studded with rocky outcrops and crisscrossed with dry creeks and serpentine riverbeds. Just like the Garden of Eden after a long drought.

I emerge from the grotto dazed and disoriented by the blistering mid-day sun. I am thirsty. I have no water. Stories spring to mind of being lost in the desert. Stories that don’t have happy endings. I have a feeling that my absence would go unnoticed. My loss would not be mourned. I see my bones bleached by the sun and scoured by the four winds. I find scant shade under a large shrub and dwell upon my fate. I am soon disturbed in my revere by a posse of concerned citizens who had no trouble finding me. Concerned less for my safety than for sacred sites exposed to the eye of the uninitiated.

I am delivered up to the mercy of Sunshine, the seemingly omnipotent ruler of Balgo. Alas, he is not in a merciful mood and gives me my marching orders: “Piss off and don’t show your hairy white arse around here again” or words to that effect. Despite the aforementioned blistering heat, l am unceremoniously dumped on the outskirts of town.

NEXT STOP Hall’s Creek, where your intrepid wayfarer inadvertently attends a meeting of The Kimberley Land Council, no less.