| INTRANSIT 2010 |
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| HOME ART BAGGAGE BIO INTRANSIT LOCATE |
Aug 2010 We landed in Broome with sore heads from the far too many functions attended. Now I must gather a little more energy and somehow celebrate the fact that I have been alive for five decades. Is this a milestone? Must I write a speech? Will it be just another boozy evening? Shall I feel unwell for a few days with post birthday depression, dehydration and the shock of discovering half my life is gone? Probably but that’s life. Carolina managed to acquire a brilliant birthday fish-cake to help ease the pain of celebration. As I have a strong love of these Thai savoury cakes and not being a sweet tooth kind of guy this was my ideal cake.   Next amusement will be the infamous Broome Cup event where horses run around a red pindan dirt track and people run around the horses wearing hats, sweating, laughing, screaming and drinking galore. I can do that surely!   My Broome exhibition at Short St. gallery titled SECRET GEOGRAPHY takes a peek at a number of locations I have visited around the planet from high up in the Andes to way down on isolated sub-Antarctic islands. Please visit the website www.shortstgallery.com.au  An informal dinner party was arranged in my studio to meet and entertain an excellent mob of roaming artists who were in the middle of a road trip across the NT and the Kimberly region. Tour maestro Steve Eland along with artists Sam Leach, Cang Xin, Tony Lloyd, Shi Jingsong, Ben Armstrong, Wu Daxin and writer Ashley Crawford all survived my Roo Randang (Kangaroo coconut curry), Chinese dried and steamed sausages and a slab of beer. Over dinner the group prepared themselves for more bush camping then much more kilometres onwards to Beijing and to Lhasa for the second leg of this collaborative Aussie-Sino trip. Their visit was a great break from my sweaty regime here in the hot green shed. The Shinju Matsuri festival is also on this month celebrating the multi-cultural aspects of this town along with the interesting pearling industry, which basically built Broome.  Carolina has slipped back to Argentina in order to resume work at the Bodega. Our separation will be far less than last year but still a separation. We both work hard at our individual chores as we watch the weeks slop along.   July 2010  Nine hours spent at Dubai airport waiting for a connecting flight was less than fabulous after which we fell into Hong Kong through a mountain of hot misty tropical cloud. Hong Kong is a grand city that is always pumping and it certainly was for the six days we stayed there. Hong Kong Island is a very different island to Upernavik but similar with its array of strange smells and odd food, each morning the pungent stink of gingseng floated from a nearby import shop to where we stayed. I drank a lot of iced coffee called “Mr Brown” and attempted to acclimatize fast from an Arctic climate to a tropical one.   Brisbane was a rapid and jam packed visit involving the showing of my 70 KNOT paintings at Milani gallery, a lovely dinner or two, friends to locate, a dog called Chilli to look after and attempts were made to find time to take a relaxed stroll around this culturally active city that expands rapidly as I write this blog.  The Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibits a body of my work under the title - An UNSTILL-LIFE. This is a short stroll through fifteen large works and nine small works of mine with the hope of displaying a few years of my wanderings via these works that were all spawned on the road. At William
Mora
gallery I hang another body of work from my travels in Antarctica
during 2009. This BLIZZ-LINE show is a selection of works produced at
Mawson station in the Wombat Studio/science building. Soon after this
show
opens and the farewell drinks have been drunk then Carolina and I jump
on a
plane to find some heat and some Broome-time.
 May 2010 I’m sitting in the middle of Mendoza with a short black coffee and a glass of water on my table. The café sits on a busy cross-road so thousands of vehicles cruise by along with the odd protest march, business suits and one crazy person talking to someone that is not there. On my table is a book – ‘The cloudspotters guide’ by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, above me there are no clouds at all but smog and thick dust swirl around making my eyes water. These ‘clouds’ are not in the book and I certainly wish that they did not exist at all but they do. Far too many of these clouds which I will name – ‘Stratus nubulosus translucidus venenum’ or the more filthy ‘Stratus opacus toxicus’ varieties cover our planet. Here I sit waiting to board another jet aircraft hypocritically smoking a cigarette, adding considerably to this sad brown cloud surrounding me. We humans make such a great mess.   The population of Greenland is only 56,000 but the area of land (80 % which is ice covered) is a massive 2,166,086 sq. kms. The last time I was here was in 1993 and since then the climate has indeed changed as according to local Greenlanders last winter the sea ice around Upernavik failed to freeze over to a suitable depth which ruined the hunting season and limited winter travels. More human mess I am afraid!   I bought a bottle of Linie Aquavit as it’s a favorite and is flavored by travel so I have a connection with this particular spirit. Marketed as “taste that really travels” it is a very good Norwegian brand that sails from Oslo to Australia and back again in oak sherry casks. The changes in temperature, humidity and the roll of the ship all play a part in the maturation as the booze twice crosses the equator during its production. For a travel addict like myself this seems logical, is fitting to my taste and as a popular bald cartoon character once said - “Alcohol, the cause of … and the solution to all life’s problems”. Carolinas selection at duty free heaven was the marvelous Bison grass flavored Polish vodka with a delicate green coloring and a not so delicate 40% alcohol content.    There will be no reindeer, narwhal skin or seal soup to be found at our next port of call but plenty of other exotic dishes to be found under hazy hot neon Hong Kong smog.   March - April 2010 Over the past two months Argentina has performed mostly warm nights and hot dry days with the occasional wild storm blasting through complete with marvellous cloudscapes. Big rains wet the grape vines and wash away the dust with electrical storms strobing the sky every so often. The horrific earthquakes over the Andes in Chile were certainly noticed here via numerous rumblings, tremors and after shocks. We sit a long way from the epicentre but the primary earthquake did wake us up by shaking the whole house but no damage occurred in La Consulta. Such tectonic plate movement reminds us all of our fragility and puts many things rapidly into perspective. Way above this geological activity on the green surface of earth, all around our house grapes are being plucked and will soon head towards massive vats. Later the fermented juice is bottled and finally arrives onto tables surrounded by people dining or perhaps friends just sipping the transformed fruit while chatting, laughing, seducing, arguing or just babbling on with a mixture of juicy gossip and local information.  My time has been spent putting some order into a book draft that will probably take another decade to complete but all the words and ideas seem to be there it’s the order that’s lacking any order. These past months I have also been slogging away at the computer preparing for my five exhibitions in Australia as well as making a rough cut documentary dealing with my time at Mawson station last year. I quickly discovered that editing and culling a year of experiences into ten or even thirty minutes is far from easy.  Please go to {www.youtube.com/user/saintonion} to see the 9-minute self-made documentary - WINTEROVER. I wish to especially thank Steve Heather in Berlin for the superb soundtrack.  To stop getting any computer typing cramps or laptop addiction I hunt for large rocks and move them from one location on the vineyard to another. I think this is some form of landscape gardening but others would just call it “strange behaviour.” It is definitely exercise and the selection of rocks that have tumbled down from the Andes during the past eon or so are most pleasing to toy with. I construct rock pavements, cactus gardens or just build up piles of rocks for my amusement. I sometimes wonder if I should I seek professional help regarding this pastime of mine and I don’t mean a qualified landscape designer or stonemason.  During the middle of the year I will be moving around Australia showing Antarctic works and possibly drinking a beer or two. My 2010 Australian solo exhibitions are as follows - 70 KNOTS @ MILANI GALLERY. Brisbane. Opening July 01. www.milanigallery.com.au UNSTILL LIFE @ MORNINGTON PENINSULA REGIONAL GALLERY. Victoria. Opening July 10. www.mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au BLIZZLINES @ WILLIAM MORA GALERY. Melbourne. Opening July 22. www.moragalleries.com.au SECRET GEOGRAPHY
@ SHORT STREET GALLERY. Broome. Opening August 25. www.shortstgallery.com A GOOD DAY TONIGHT TURNER GALLERY. Perth. Opening September 17. www.turnergalleries.com.au  Before these shows in Australia I travel with Carolina about 11,800 kilometres northwards to the north west coast of Greenland. My next blog will therefore be sent from an Arctic village called Upernavik located on a small island where no penguin has even been but there is a very large icecap nearby. We will soon pack our bags with some thermal underwear, fluffy socks and other fashionable items of clothing. It’s not the most direct route to Australia from Argentina but who says direct is the best way anyway? Jan - Feb 2010 I believe I am in Argentina now and the southern hemisphere summer festive season is in full swing, Carolina and I are getting to know one another again after our rather long separation due to my Icy desires. Many normal things still seem a little odd and surprising to me but the unantarctic pace, activities and views I now run around in will soon be totally natural.     |