Photographs of A - MTC NEON 2014

Photographs of A is released through Melbourne Theatre Companies NEON Festival of 2014.

The play follows the dynamism of a 19th century Parisian hysteric - Louise Augustine Gleizes.  She was a case study of Jean Martin Charcort and subsequently paraded before the public as an objectified "lunatic".  Helen Morse delivers "Augustine"/"A" with constant turns of character and paranoiac episodes.  Her delivery of the coy and clever dialogue of Brian Lipson is treated with a believable realism and captivating stage-presence.  With a minimal set design and antique colour scheme the overall atmosphere is not suffocating but more an excluded voyeurism of the photographer; free in their space with the lens distinguishing subject from spectator.

Photographs of A is a capsule into our not so distant history where the science of the human condition was in its relative infancy and understanding of the individuals was often overlooked in the quest for knowledge.

Director & Designer
Brian Lipson
Writer
Daniel Keene
Cast
Helen Morse
with Ben Grant and Anouk Gleeson-Mead
Stage Manager
Meg Richardson
Producer
Samantha Potts

Becalmed On The Ocean Of Modern Reason

It is interesting for a pedestrian bystander to witness the evolution of an art movement before their very eyes.  The different schools all see different things, the established class witness less as the more as the movement breaks from the gigantic commercial beast, self destructing and returning into the dark recesses from whence it came and from where it will one day emerge from again.  And for the masses the culture continues, writhing with its newfound mantle and all the weight this entails.  If one were a Buddhist we could liken this to the eternal cycles of death and rebirth, the rhythmic return to harmony.  If you were a minimalist you could probably get away with just writing "again", if you were a Christian you might forgive the street artists for their sins.  First it was Graffiti, then it was street art now its urban art.  What is next.  This is in direct response to two seemingly contrasting posts by Black Mark and Fitzroy Flasher on the subject of the scenes' present.  In Buddhism there is a part of the teaching in which the student is told to kill the teacher, to illiminate the idol, remove the blinding obstacle.  Perhaps this is what street art requires, it is not a physical or even metaphysical killing, more of an acceptance of the limitations of that which came before, its natural limitations, relative to its conception, and the coming into being of its offspring, the torchbearers of the new.

Image above thanks to Banksy, not a steal - just an appreciation, a cover song so to speak, not for fame but for the debts that must be payed.  if you try to sue me i'm just letting you know i'm broke.



Black Mark
http://melbourneartcritic.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/street-art-notes-june-14/

Fitzroy Flasher
http://thefitzroyflasher.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/the-core.html

Toolangi State Forest

Snow at 1300 means winter has finally arrived, the winds turn south wester and the days seem incredibly short, our eyes adjust to the darkness, our feet to the cold pavement and on come the layers.  Toolangi is one of the places close to Melbourne ( 45 mins on a good day) where you can forget city life and slip into a world amongst the giants.  Mostly cloud covered and misty in the winter it is a constantly changing place that never seems to have a dull moment.  

It is a unique forest for southern australia where the altitude allows for a micro system to have developed and it appears to be unaffected by fire, possibly due to the high rainfall and almost tropical forest like undergrowth.  

The trees are monstrous Eucaplypts mostly and in places the forest has only a top story and a lower, where only weak and spindly understory trees struggle amongst the giants. 

I read recently about the logging that continues to push into Toolangi, it is impossible not to notice the logging which continues along the roadways and the areas many tracks.  Some areas however should be preserved, there are streams with old groves of myrtle beech, one of the most attractive highland trees, seemingly endemic to this region and southern high country areas.  There are also forests of tree fern and moss gardens with year round fungi growths and other micro flora.  It is a popular area for a huge range of activities such as shotgun practice, motorbike tracks, mountain bike tracks, walking tracks and just driving and appreciating.  There was a protest along one of the roads but I noticed on my last visit that it is no longer in place.  I hope this is because they have succeeded in stopping the paper giants consumption of this wondrous natural resource and let us enjoy it in its entirety.