2016 Lights! Canberra! Action!
So, following on from the success of being shortlisted for our entry in the 2015 Lights! Canberra! Action! Marina and I set about making an entry for this year's short film festival. The film is titled '237' (after the hotel key that must appear as one of specified objects).
The format of the festival stipulates that entrants have 10 days to shoot and submit a film. The film must contain 10 specified objects or places and be somehow linked to a nominated theme ... this year's theme was 'Chance'. The ten objects or places for this year's film were:
- A deck of cards
- PJ O'Reilly's - either southside or the city
- Weather Report 'Chance of rain' - this item can be audio
- Weetangera Cemetery - MAP
- A question mark
- The National Film and Sound Archive
- Dice
- The Police Box on Red Hill by Geoff Filmer - MAP
- A raffle ticket
- The key to room 237, Avenue Hotel
We managed to include all ten ... see if you can spot them!
Our movie is largely a meditation on the nature of freedom, it's a kind of love story and it's narrated beautifully in Italian by Marina.
And since we were shortlisted and made the Final Twelve we got to attend the public screening of all twelve shortlisted film at the Rose Gardens, Old Parliament House.
Here's a picture of Marina and I accepting our finalist certificates from Chris Bourke MLA
Please let us know what you think of the movie in the comments below :-)
Back & Forth
'In Sequence'| PhotoAccess members' exhibition - Back & Forth
I have a new piece in the first Member's Show of 2016. Entitled Back & Forth, the work comprises a sequence of 7 images looped and presented in a digital frame. It looks mesmerisingly cool. The opening is next Thursday (28 January) at 6pm at the Huw Davies Gallery.
Some gallery blurb about the show
The first PhotoAccess members’ exhibition for 2016, 'In Sequence' presents works creatively addressing the notion of sequence and narrative in photography. For many artists, photography is not only about single images, but relationships between multiple images. A sequence of images can tell a particular story or narrative, create a sense of visual poetry, or suggest movement and time passing. 'In Sequence' aims to showcase a variety of approaches to the notion of the photographic sequence, using traditional, experimental and digital photographic techniques.
• Opening: 6pm 28 January 2016
• Where: PhotoAccess - Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre
• When: 28 January – 21 February 2016
New Show: Barriers - Break or Breakthrough
I'm very pleased to announce my next show Barriers: Break or Breakthrough opens next Wednesday at the Belconnen Community Center. A collaboration between myself and Marina T, the show explores our different reactions to change. Our working proposal:
Change is a fundamental part of the human experience. Often our difficulty in accepting change can stem from our inability to understand it. Barriers explores the the transitional processes involved in interpreting change.
The exhibition revolves around the centerpiece of a glass-encased clay sculpture of a human skull, which acts as both metaphor and motif of change. Meditations upon the centerpiece take the form of sculptures, and poetry.
The skull, which we have nicknamed Eno was made by Marina, features in each of the photographs. Each of the photos explores a different emotional response to change ... these comprise Anger, Fear, Denial, Delirium, Mourning and Acceptance. Here is a selection of the photographs from our shortlist for the show.
The show also features several poems written especially for the show and a number of new clay sculptures from Marina.
We made a flyer advertising the show too ;-)
Along the way we have also established domain for our working collaborative artistic endeavours 2 Tens & A Tomato under which we exhibit and also produced a short film (shortlisted at the 2015 Lights! Canberra! Action! short film festival. The site is a little lean at the moment as we concentrate on getting things together for the show and really only shows a copy of the flyer for the show but please stay tuned on that front.
Links
- About 2 Tens & A Tomato
- 2 Tens & A Tomato
- Sexy monochrome flyer version
If you're in Canberra next Wednesday evening (18th November) at 5:30pm ... please come along and say hello to us :-)
If Canberra is simply too far to come ... please wish us well :-)
#gdphoto #2tensandatomato
Masked
So we made this little movie ... an arthouse piece in a world that plainly isn't. In the movie, we're wearing masks ... well, in the latter stages we're wearing masks plural seeing as we had only one mask when we began filming and had to share it. It wasn't until I came across a supply of masks in Chapel Street in Melbourne over the final weekend that we were able to appear together both wearing masks. But that's an aside.
It's a strange feeling to be wearing masks in public, on the street, in coffee shops and shopping malls. Noone seemed to think it particularly odd, we didn't get asked to leave anywhere and anywhere people did look a little alarmed we just assured them we were "making a movie" and everything was fine! One thing I did notice though was that when I was masked, people I was flashing a reassuring smile to as they walked past or lingered couldn't actually see said reassuring smile; just some nodding weirdo in a mask.
I did take the opportunity to take some stills as we were shooting but likely nowhere near as many as I perhaps should have :-)
Here's a few.
You can watch the movie here
Lights, Canberra, Action!
Well, we didn't win any prizes at our inaugural LCA film festival ... but ... we did get our art piece This Too Shall Pass shown to a rather large crowd and people were coming up to us after the event and saying how much they enjoyed it and how good it was to see an Arthouse film make it into the finals ... so it went pretty well really. We're now planning our next film project and that's kinda exciting too :-)
This Too Shall Pass
UPDATE: Our film has been shortlisted! It will be screened this Friday Night at the Senate Rose Gardens as part of the Enlighten Festival! Woo-hoo!
Last year, about this time, my artistic collaborator Marina and I attended the screening of the 12 finalists in the Lights, Canberra, Action! short film festival. We thought that next year we'll make a film and enter*. Well 'next year' is now 'this year' and the film festival is on again.
Essentially filmmakers have the better part of a week to write, direct and produce a film of no more than 7 minutes duration. All shooting and production must occur within that time. There's a theme (this year's was 'Swings & Roundabouts'). Another twist is the inclusion in the film of items or places provided, scavenger hunt style ... I've included this list below.
So, true to our intentions ... we made a little film together under our arty-collaborative umbrella 2 Tens & A Tomato. The film is titled "This Too Shall Pass" and runs for 6m44s. It's presented in black and white and is a boy meets girl story about passing through a dreamy world of isolation and longing to find intimacy and hope in a roundabout way. Music was produced and performed by the wonderful Charles Sage (Hessien and The Rothko Chapel) solo project y0t0. His moody atmospherics work so beautifully with the film.
Anyways ... here it is. Would love to hear what you think about it. We're kinda a little proud of it and reckon it turned out alright considering we had next to no idea what we were doing.
*We also thought "how hard can it be?" ... the answer as it turns out is "quite hard really" ;-)
List of Items (see if you can spot them all in our film)
- A swing in a park
- A road roundabout
- A set of scales (for weighing)
- 'On the Road Again' sculpture by Ann Ross at Lyons Shops
- A ferris wheel
- The Mandalay Bus (in Braddon)
- The gold tiles outside the ACT Legislative Assembly
- An underpass
- The Chess Pit (Garema Place)
- The High Court (exterior)
An eclectic set of items and sites as you can see.
Lights, Camera, Action! is part of the Canberra 2015 Enlighten Festival and sponsored by artsACT.
Links
- Lights, Canberra, Action!
- Enlighten
- y0t0 (or Year of the Ox)
In An Attic of Her Soul
In an attic of her soul
retreated
walls growing close with encroaching gloom
outside clouds blacken low with late twilight hue
shadowed eyes of a mother gaze outward
left behind
inside
while life outside marched on
with passions external
cradling with a stiff arm
the child looking upon with hungry gaze
while she searches and searches and searches
forever waiting
with mannequin's gaze
for signs and signals
of where her love has gone
In An Attic of Her Soul ... a work intended for the 2 Tens & A Tomato show with Marina but didn't make the shortlist ... for this show anyways ... the next one definitely :-)
In Your Eyes
In your eyes
I see the world anew
feel an unconditional love
see the joy in life
and the small things that matter
the beauty
of mud between my toes
of creating something new
the tears
at the injustice of the world
of frustration when it just didn't work out
When you look at me I see myself in you
see the love returned
I feel you there
feel you working me out
you see the mixed emotions in my eyes
the love for you
In your eyes
I see your life stretch out to horizons I cannot imagine
things I will never see
... I see my own mortality then
as I felt when you were born
I knew then my days were numbered by you
Acutely
Aware
My life is yours
forever
(22 January 2014)
A poem I wrote for my children and featured in Two Tens & A Tomato
Postcards from a Show
For someone who hasn't exhibited work publicly for a couple of years I'm really quite in the thick of it now. I find myself in the position of having not one but two shows running concurrently and they both represent different aspects of my artistic endeavours.
The first show, Zoologica, is running at the Kaori Gallery until 2nd August and the second show, 2 Tens & A Tomato, a collaborative joint exhibition with visual artist and poet Marina, is at the Front Gallery until 28th July.
When approached by the Front Gallery in June about a sudden vacancy in their gallery calendar I was at first hesitant ... I was in the thick of organising Zoologica and didn't want two photographic exhibitions running concurrently ... but when Marina and I spoke about the potential of a joint show combining our poetry, writings, imagery and imaginations we decided to pitch our ideas to The Front ... and they said 'yes'. That was about three weeks before the show was due to to open and at that stage we had no completed ideas not to mention any completed collaborative works to put on show.
The show contains 20 works including clay sulpture, images and words, installations, mirror-books and photography. One thing we both realised as we brought the work into being for this show is that we had far too much and indeed have enough material for another two thematic shows at least! We have been busy!
The installation Carousel, featuring suspended words bent into fencing wire so that their shadows play against the wall and surrounded by photos of those very wiry words draped around the necks of the City's antique (and still operating!) carousel and blue velvet with blue lighting forming a small stage ... it turned out beautifully ... the words, by Marina, run as follows;
A broken carousel
My life
A dead Burst
of sound and colour
Staring blankly
at one another
We ask
With rusting words
why the ride
never begun
We are deeply indebted to my good friend Alex (and his son Tristan) for assisting us with the installation of Carousel along with a number of the other works through his unique solutions to our hanging requirements (and above-all by remaining calm!). I'm including a number of pictures I snapped with my phone (when I remembered to) whilst setting up the show.
In addition, Marina and I are guests at this month's Canberra Poetry Slam where we will be reading works from the exhibition. This is happening on Friday night at The Front in the bar adjacent to the gallery space.
It's all go! I'll be in to document the show later this week and will post about that separately :-)
2 Tens & A Tomato
Hi, just a quick note to let you know about a new collaborative show of fresh art and words from myself and visual artist and poet Marina. We have mixed poetry, photography, sculpture and installation into works exploring the written word and visualisations of poetic elements. The show will opened by PS Cottier, renowned poet and local.
The show is titled '2 Tens & A Tomato' and opens this Thursday evening at 7pm at the Front Gallery in Wattle Street, Lyneham ... be great to see you there and show off the works personally ... plus the gallery's attached to a pub and there's a band on too ... art, alcohol, live music and interesting people ... sounds like fun.
In addition, Marina and I will be guests of the July Canberra Poetry Slam the following Friday 25th July where we'll be reading works featured in the show.
The details in point form...
- What: 2 Tens & A Tomato - Fresh art and words from Geoffrey Dunn & Marina
- Where: The Front Gallery - Wattle Street, Lyneham - 17th-28th July 2014
- Opening: 7pm Thursday 17th July by PS Cottier ... that's like this Thursday ... yeah we know :-)
- Poetry Slam Readings: Friday 25th July - 8pm
ps ... my solo show Zoologica is still running at the Kaori Gallery until 2nd August ... it's all go at the moment! G :-)