JULY

Firstly a few exhibition dates and data.

WINTEROVER 
Opening 8th July and runs until 21st August 2011.                          
@ Broken Hill Regional Gallery. NSW. 
Three of my Antarctic short films will be screened. 
Winterover, Dumbshow + Forward in all directions. 

SUITCASE 
Opening Thursday.  August 11th    6 - 8 pm.             
+ Friday and Saturday 11 am - 3 pm.                      
@  SweetCreative Design                            
212  St Kilda Road. Melbourne.

Suitcase is a three day only work on paper exhibition literally straight from my suitcase and up onto the wall so if you are in Melbourne please come to this small wanderlust-full opening.

Now back to Argentina where tumbleweed bushes roll about the farm and occasionally land at our front door. I usually greet them politely but I don’t ask them into the house. I can certainly relate to this form of vegetation that rolls about in the wind, wondering where to plant its self. “I hope you find your place in the world,” a friend writes to me, which makes me consider if I have actually done such a thing and if I will live in Argentina the rest of my life or if my place in the world is really a long list of places. 
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How much depth and time does one need to be located or at home or comfortable in any particular place? Yi Fu Tuan informs me that in order to turn a new space into a known place that time and familiarity are required. Exactly how much time and how much familiarity are necessary I ask? Or do I wish to just wallow in a great expanse of space and forget any intimate familiarizing process that limits me to one specific zone?

I do know that communication technology has really shrunk the planet for many folk. Today I wrote emails to people I know in New York, Mendoza, Hong Kong, Perth, Berlin, Casablanca, and Casey station. That covers all continents but sadly I wont physically see many of these people for months or years or perhaps never again. 

Speaking of location and now onto the topic of the permission to be in a location, we now fall into the wonderful world of nations, borders and laws. The basics of being able to stay in one nation or another revolve around the two B words.  Birth or Blood you could add another B word; Bucks but then the law gets messy. You are born someplace and that’s your right to be there or you marry someone and you can also be there legally. I have just gone through the Argentinean process of obtaining Permanent Foreigner Visa status. As I have been married to Carolina for 4 years and a great many bits of paper were collected, translated, signed, read and whatnot I now have this right, which I am very thankful for. The process took five months, many visits to a confusing and confused immigration office and some Kafkaesque-like activity that is too ridiculous to mention. Carolina now battles the Australian version of this process with a hope that we can be together wherever we are.

A week long family/biz trip to Patagonia saw us strolling about General Roca, eating fabulous seafood in Comodoro Rivadavia, watching whales in the exceptionally clean tourist town of Puerto Madryn and staying in the charming historical Hotel Touring Club in Trelew where Butch Cassidy and associates stayed. That was back in the good old days when the gang attempted to be cattle ranchers but still executed few bold bank robberies in Patagonia.

Our trip down south involved no illegal activities except if you include over eating and drinking as illegal but it certainly was good to be on the move. Why do I feel so drawn to travel? The simple answer is that I am some kind of lucky down-to-earth person who acknowledges that nobody lives a long time and that the world really is quite large and extremely interesting. Therefore while I exist, I wish to see as much as possible of where I exist… so once again I pack my bag.