If you haven’t made plans for next Humpday (10th of March) head down to ma. gallery! If you do have plans, cancel them and we will see you there anyway for Blind Spot, a group show featuring the works of Angela Jones, Laura McClintock, Isobel Philip and Irit Pollak.

“… something slips, passes, is transmitted, from stage to stage, and is always to some degree eluded in it- that is what we call the gaze”
- Jacques Lacan

Here, attention is directed to the images – tangible or other – that silently slip out of the eye’s reach. Images that lie unobserved are placed under the microscope, as each artist uncovers and explores ways of seeing the invisible.

Blind Spot
10th March 2010
ma. gallery from 7pm
27 Dick St Chippendale

Laura McClintock

Irit Pollak

Angela Jones
Isobel Philip

You may know of Nic Warnock if you’ve happened to catch Onani, Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, Circle Pit, or Family Jewels over the last few years. We’ve also wrote him up a bit in our last issue (”Little Labels, Big Sounds”). On top of being in 9345987234 bands Nic runs R.I.P SOCIETY, a record label which specialises in “Australian music of the NON Fitzroy cafe, late 20’s dinner party, chin-scratchin’-thick-rimmed-glasses-gimme-arts-funding and Nick Cave/Lou Reed worship variety.”

Keep an eye out for the following new releases from R.I.P SOCIETY coming out February 25th:

RIP006: Royal Headache 7″
Four tracks a heap of you are probably already familiar with: Splash, Surprise, Eloise & Girls. Embraced by young punks sceptical of all things garage, as well as those annoying old dudes that spend all their money on rare Easybeats records. Royal Headache’s music will warm the heart of even the crustiest old scrooge.

RIP007: Kitchen’s Floor – Regrets 7″
Three new tracks: Orbit, Regrets & Still Night. The third track Still Night is a real winner and one of the most down of their downer hits. This EP won’t disappoint those into Kitchen’s Floor’s album “Loneliness Is A Dirty Mattress” from last year. A bit of a different sound, more raw and tattered which suits the hopeless atmosphere of these songs.

RIP008: Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys – Worst Band In Sydney / Best Band In Sydney 7″
Think indie rock before indie rock meant you were a sweater wearing nerd (aka Replacements, Meat Puppets) with a heavy dose of suburban punk, overdriven guitars and a rowdy Australian quality about it. Not the most hip or liked band around probably because they get way too drunk and talk too much shit in between songs. Anyway this 7″ delivers and it shows that they can actually write good tunes.

The month of May kinda seems a long way off, but that’s not stopping us getting excited about the launch of the gorgeous (and nicely typography-heavy!) 17th Biennale of Sydney website.

Get in on the ground up: hurry and apply for the last of the volunteer positions, or register online for the first week festivities by 28 February.

This time, the Biennale is based on the curatorial theme “THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age”, and will once again take over Sydney’s public spaces with a showcase of new and recent works from local and international artists.

Internationally-acclaimed artistic director David Elliot curated the biennale specifically for Sydney as an iconic modern world city, and to explore the nexus between visual and other art forms.  Presenting highlights on the website, Elliot says: “I’m very excited to be presenting the 17th Biennale of Sydney. The aim of this Biennale is to bring together work from diverse cultures, at the same time, on the equal playing field of contemporary art, where no culture can assume superiority over any other.”

And that sounds pretty damn alright to us!

The Bieannale of Sydney runs from 12 May until 1 August 2010 across a number of venues and in a number of different forms.  Check out the website for more details.

Looking for Gaffa Gallery? Don’t worry they weren’t a casualty of the whole financial crisis…

You may remember Gaffa as a quaint little artist run gallery tucked away in the streets near Central Station. Well with their Inaugural Relaunch Exhibition taking place this Thursday night, you’ll see just how busy they’ve been over the last few months to come back bigger and better than ever. Expanding into a multi-level gallery with 3 separate floors as well as a cafe and shop thrown into the mix, this is going to be one of Sydney’s finest new art spaces.

Gaffa Gallery still remains as dedicated as ever to nuturing cross-platform collaboration, collectivity and cohesion within the contemporary arts community. Pop on down this Thursday night to check out the future of arts in Sydney.

Inaugural Relaunch Exhibition
11 February – 23 March 2010
281 Clarence Street, Sydney CBD, NSW 2000
artists // Ella Barclay, Vernon Bowden, Zoe Brand, Benjamin Backhouse, Kath Fries, Mark Gerada, Andrew Lavery, Sean O’Connell, Marcelle Robbins, Sumugan Sivanesan, Mike Turner, Geoffrey Farquhar-Stil, Rohan Wilson, Melinda Young

Whether it be your iPhone calendar, your moleskine diary, or if you prefer the good ol’ fashioned writing on your hand, mark it down: This Wednesday night our friends at MAgallery connect four emerging artists from Sydney and Melbourne at the exhibition opening of BLUE MOONS. Featuring the works of Leon Hawker, William-Guillaume Saussay and Persistently Plastic (Phil Soliman and A. West). MA’s doors will be open from 7pm.

A. WEST // ARTIST STATEMENT:

My art is a creature. I love it, yet I abuse it and I am cruel.

My art is always a rebellion. Although morbid and cynical, I occasionally rejoice in a tiny scrap of carnal empathy.

I bathe myself in contrast and paradox.

Oil and blood splatters mirror the way we cover the natural with the manufactured. We use oil to destroy environments, societies, cultures and even our own skin.

I encourage viewers to touch the works.

PHIL SOLIMAN // ARTIST STATEMENT:

The works in this show reflect my interest in how photographs of humans are looked at and interpreted.

Millions of photographs of people are taken every day, and distributed all over the world. On social networking sites, on thumb drives, in pornographic magazines, in newspapers, on billboards. They evoke the whole spectrum of emotions, from love, desire and nostalgia, to hate, anger and intense adulation.

Photography is also a scientific tool, capturing images for research, engineering and other uses. Our understanding of ourselves and the Universe has been advanced immeasurably by photographs of horses in motion, milk droplets, distant galaxies, the surface of the earth, and the interior and exterior workings of human beings.

Our skin is such a wonderfully useful organ, incredibly complex and durable, yet we only think of it in terms of its appearance. Its colour, for most of us, is of utmost importance, appealing to our deepest political and aesthetic ideas. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to look at the surface of a human without thinking about the physical and emotional activity happening underneath. I wanted to examine this idea by capturing the surface of a man in a highly objective, scientific way, while imbuing the work with a sense of subjective beauty and sensuality.

BLUE MOONS opens THIS Wednesday, February 10 from 7pm – 9pm, MAgallery Sydney: 27 Dick St, Chippendale. (Also viewable from today through to Feb 15 by appointment only)

Some pretty great illustration work from Sydney local Seamus Heidenreich.
Especially loving the choice of colour palettes.

We can’t seem to escape James Patradoon lately. He’s moved out of his bedroom and taken residency in our studio (some of you may remember his Bedroom Safari article from our first issue). When he’s not drinking all our beer and making fashion statements with his Saucony sneakers he’s been knuckling down to get work together for his new show, Yours The Demon. Head on down to Kinokuniya on the 7th of January to check out all new works by James.

YOURS THE DEMON is an exhibition of experimental work by screenprinter/illustrator James Jirat Patradoon. A departure from his usual hypercoloured palette and superhero subject matter, this series of large scale black and white drawings take inspiration from the gothic sublime of secret societies and the occult.

James’ intense comic book noir-style images have appeared in magazines such as Nylon, Complex, Acclaim, and Empty. As well as in collaborations with Adidas, Diesel, MTV, Pepsi, Mambo and The Deftones. See more of James’ work at www.jiratpatradoon.com.

Opening Night Thursday 7th of January
Running till 19th of January

Kinokuniya Gallery
Books Kinokuniya
Level 2, The Galleries Victoria
500 George St, Sydney

Opening night drinks provided by Cascade Green.

Nothing signals the start of summer more than a bustling market on a balmy night.  And what’s a better way to ring in the glorious weather and celebrate the extended hours of daylight than by supporting local creatives, bagging a bargain, and seeing some neat artwork?  Nothing, that’s what!

Happenstance magazine is proud & excited about joining forces with the Finders Keepers to present some of Sydney’s most exciting emerging artists in a fun, market-style atmosphere. We call it the Art Mill.

The Finders Keepers is an independent art & design initiative supporting new & emerging creatives (just like Happenstance!), and their second annual markets hit Sydney this Friday 2 December.  With items on sale ranging from fashion & accessories, books & zines, textiles & homewares to arts & crafts (amongst a whole host more), it’ll be a great opportunity to bag a one-off find while supporting talented creative folk from your own ‘hood.

Pop by the two gallery areas of the Art Mill and say hello to us, while ogling some great artwork from artists like Ben Ali Ong, Lang Leav, Matt Huynh, Rebecca Murphy, Renee Anne and a whole heap more.  (See the full list of lovely featured artists here!)

The Finders Keepers Sydney markets open Friday 2 December from 6pm to 8pm, and will run from 10am to 8pm on Saturday 3 December at The Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh.  Click here for more details and a nifty map, & come along with your friends!

hap·pen·stance

(hāp’ən-stāns’)
n. A chance circumstance.