13 Rooms

Kaldor Public Art Projects has brought this exhibition to Sydney after coming from Manchester as '11 Rooms', then '12 Rooms' in Essen, Germany. It 'brings together 13 famous artists and more than 100 performers to present an innovative group exhibition of ‘living sculpture’ within 13 purpose-built rooms. This groundbreaking event will run for 11 days and has been curated by renowned museum directors and curators Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of London’s Serpentine Gallery, and Klaus Biesenbach, Director of MoMA PS1 in New York.'

I have two close friends of mine performing in the John Baldessari's 'Thirteen Colorful Inside Jobs'. I visited the show on Saturday and it was mind-blowing. Absolutely incredible. My favourite works would have to have been Laura Lima's Man=flesh/Woman=flesh - FLAT, 1997 as well as Santiago Sierra's Veterans of the Wars of Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Iraq and Vietnam Facing the Corner, 2013.

This is the video we were shown at uni by John Kaldor himself in introducing the concept of 13 Rooms. 

All time favourites

One of my all time favourite songs, it's absolutely incredible and gets me every time! However I have been searching for the actual name of the song for what feels like forever and an age now. Worried that I will wear it out but for now I am loving being able to listen to it whenever I feel.

Tonight by myself

Having a night in by myself while Mum babysits my young cousin.
Listening to the scores from the Lord of the Rings Triology and The Hobbit. Catching up on the latest episodes of Doctor Who and Miranda on ABC iview.
I made my first stir fry all on my lonesome and ate way too much chocolate and peanut butter icecream. To be honest I love looking through recipes and cookbooks but I very rarely cook myself. I have done a fair bit of baking in my time, particularly the last few years. But I really do need to learn to make savory meals and practice techniques more often. I'll have to survive on it one day!

Hong Kong

Took my first overseas trip just last week. Can't say that I enjoy sitting on a plane for ten plus hours but I did enjoy the change of culture and atmosphere! I loved spending the time with my Mum and our close family friend. The shopping, natural landscape and culture was amazing.

After Afghanistan

Art Month Sydney 2013 is coming to a close, it has been a really amazing experience for me this year going to some of the art talks and exhibitions around Sydney, to see what is generating more interest and popularity in our artist sphere. The most pivotal for me was an art talk at National Art School that addressed the topic of Australian War Artists and their experiences and resulting works. Two of which were present and involved in the discussion, Wendy Sharpe and Ben Quilty.  Ben Quilty is one of my favourite artists, both nationally and internationally, I think he is incredible at expressing through visual means as well as verbal. The talk really helped me get back onto the path of discovering what it is that I actually want to create myself, and ultimately what sort of person I would like to continue developing into. The talk was a really fantastic way to bring into light global and local current affairs, with the question of the role of an artist in contemporary society and what we as a general public can put into such debates.

Quilty currrently has his exhibition 'After Afghanistan' on at National Art School in Darlinghurst, sadly it's last day is tomorrow. Unfortunately when I went to go and see the works the gallery was just closing for the night. However it is doing a tour around Australia over the next two years with the first stop being Queensland's Cairns.  

'Ben Quilty: After Afghanistan'