LAST MINUTE OPENING RECCOMENDATION OF THE WEEKEND

panning for gold

Pan Gallery's first exhibition is a group show that promises a vertiable who's who of Melbourne ceramicists... including works by Alistair Whyte, Andrew Widdis, Anne-Marie Plevier, Barbara Van Oost, Chris Plumridge, Judith Roberts, Lene Jakobsen, Kevin Boyd, Katie Jacobs, Phil Elson, Sandra Bowkett and Wendy Reeve this will be a great opportunity to check out Northcote Pottery's new digs and what looks to be a great new exhibition space.

Judith Roberts

Barbara Van Oost

Katie Jacobs

Ever the last minute attendees we've just realised that the opening is tonight! between 6-8pm with guest speaker Chris Sanders, so we'll be dropping everything to get there.

Pan Gallery @ Northcote Pottery 142-144 Weston St Brunswick East.

STATEMENT OF THE WEEK

We don't normally use our beloved blog to make political statements but this week we feel compelled. The ladies of HML would like to come out in public support of Australian artist Bill Henson. Yes we do find his work confronting, sometimes distasteful and always challenging. We don't find his work pornographic or exploitative. Adolescence is a troubling and sinister time even more so now when female role models are train wrecks and Australia's Next Top Model is on in prime time. We've reached a very dark point in our cultural history when it is acceptable for police officers to go marching through art galleries. Once these images hit Today Tonight they were so out of context we were almost defenseless in the face of uneducated public scrutiny. This is why we've chosen not to put one of the contentious images on the blog - it's not the right context for viewing the work.We encourage you to write, as we have, to our lame Arts Minister who has been completely silent on the subject. 'Beds are Burning' indeed....

CRAFT FIND OF THE WEEK

go nuts!

We LOVE Jonathan Adler and long for the day he opens his first signature retail outlet in Melbourne because we're sick to death of the slim pickings on offer here when we can clearly see from his online store (which does NOT post to Australia by the way) that there are hundreds of items we could be filling our homes with... One of his latest works is this fabulous squirrel ring box which combines not only our favourite natty tailed woodland creature but also its favourite food - the acorn. We salute you Jonathan, yet another stroke of genius.

NOW OPEN A BLOODY STORE HERE!!!

SHOW OF THE WEEK

hot potato hot potato

Umbel Ballits by Dylan Martorell

The official description of Umbel Ballits states that it is "an overlay of responses to the underlying structure of sound and botanic form featuring hand drawn scores, performances and an evolving installation of plant based sound sculpture" and of course Dylan's exhibition is all of the things it says on the packet, but it's also curious, playful, inspiring and displays an excellent appreciation of the absurd. In a meeting of sound and botany Dylan has created weed music for a post deadhead generation.

Rather than being too tied to conceptual construction Dylan's work has always left space for accidents, room for error and remains the most contemporary of craft because despite it's outfitting as avant guarde 'fine art' at it's heart all of it ultimately has to do something, it all has a purpose, form and function and it works.

There is, however, a significant difference between Umbel Ballits and Dylan's past stream of consciousness soundworks : he has said of this project that he needed to teach himself how to read and write music in order to construct the intricate diagrammatic 'scores' that illustrate the space like a cross between sonic space maps and geometric string art patterns from the 1970's, and he has used the rules and regulations inherent in creating these reproducible scores to great visual and conceptual effect.

The juxtaposition of the plant materials, shanty town construction aesthetic and the highly ordered sonic diagrams perfectly articulate Dylan's effortless straddling of high and low art, pop culture and fourth world mythology, technology and nature. Think Sun Ra plays a gamelan version of "What Plant is That?" and you'll get somewhere close to where it's at.

Umbel Ballits is on at Craft Victoria from the 22 May until the 28th of June. And in case you were wondering, Dylan's hit pick for 'potato of the week' is the Dutch Cream - in stores now.

SALE OF THE WEEKEND

swatch city
Who knows. Could be good. Prices starting from $10 a metre doesn't sound too cheap to us (the ladies of hml are big fans of the cotton drill for $3 at spotlight) and we aren't 100% sure where all this 'vintage' is coming from. that being said we'll be there Saturday morning elbowing people out of the way to get to the good bits.