Interstate guests for Remarkable Sandwiches
One of the highlights of Burning Seed this year was meeting the Glam n Cheese crew.
Chase and Ash of Glam n Cheese Toasties agreed to share their herb butter recipe.
Gratitude
As a kid I would ask my father if we could celebrate Halloween and he'd scoff, saying something about it not being an Australian tradition.
If I could go back to that conversation I'd point that out he was born in North America.
Now that I have kids I celebrate Halloween with them and it seems to be increasingly part of the Australian calendar. It seems to me an opportunity to meet neighbours.
Another celebration that Australia needs is Thanksgiving.
It would be good to promote thoughts of gratitude and sharing a meal.
If I could go back to that conversation I'd point that out he was born in North America.
Now that I have kids I celebrate Halloween with them and it seems to be increasingly part of the Australian calendar. It seems to me an opportunity to meet neighbours.
It would be good to promote thoughts of gratitude and sharing a meal.
Scarred tree
Hadn't noticed this one until roadworks included removing the trunk in the foreground.
I'd like to learn more about how to identify them, as well as recognising the tools used to make them.
Kraken comic
I find myself wrapping arms around people and then registering their surprised look.
Remember...
I like the clever way this comic pokes fun at the use of V for Vendetta masks by protestors who seem to have been quickly distracted.
It also speaks to me of the ease at which online technology does become distracting.
There was a study I read about that looked at the phenomena of walking into a room and forgetting why one went there.
I think there's a similar process at work when we open an internet browser.
There was a study I read about that looked at the phenomena of walking into a room and forgetting why one went there.
I think there's a similar process at work when we open an internet browser.
Neve's The Last Fart Bender
The latest etching on the kitchen table by my daughter is this representation of her younger brother.
He wasn't impressed but I am. It's a good likeness.
Observing #metoo with respect
Maybe it's too early to say but last October felt important.
At the beginning I was at Burning Seed and interested in the conversations about when an eleventh principle needed to be added to those that guide the event.
One speaker at a Town Hall meeting said it should be called Radical Respect and acknowledge issues of consent.
It became a topic I raised in conversations throughout Seed. Many women I spoke to thought it was a good idea, in contrast some men suggested it shouldn't be enshrined.
I could see both perspectives. On one hand it's important to promote consent and to frame it within a broader discussion of respect; while on the other hand, it's the case that most people are already respectful and ensuring consensual relations with each other.
It was said that making respect a principle risked looking like a nanny.
Then came #metoo and it was a shock to see many women I know shared experiences of times when consent and respect were lacking. The volume and details in these accounts were powerful.
It demonstrated clearly that society does need to be reminded to respect individual autonomy.
The #metoo discussion varied from women recalling hearing catcalls while still children, through to accounts of rape.
There was an outpouring of grief and also support, the latter valuable as social media does not offer mechanisms beyond audience reactions to address mental health.
Then men joined the conversation with their own examples of feeling like victims, again ranging from sexual harassment to rape.
But then I feel it became even more remarkable when I saw a few men I know acknowledging on Facebook that they had been part of the problem.
These blokes reflected on times when they hadn't respected a woman's autonomy and I feel that it showed how powerful the conversation had been, as well as the potential for it to have broader impact if the reflections I'd seen from older men and women reached a younger audience.
The thing that gave a surprising resonance in these conversations was when one friend recounted times when she'd been abused by strangers in public and the lack of response from passing men.
She illustrated her #metoo post with this graphic, which I assume must be from a Burner website as it proposes the 11th Principle should be Consent.
I like the phrase Radical Respect as it opens a broader topic in addressing interpersonal relations. As you can above, I used the term when I was looking for a phrase to embroider at a workshop recently.
It would be good to see the conversation continue, both within the Burner community and more widely in society.
One speaker at a Town Hall meeting said it should be called Radical Respect and acknowledge issues of consent.
It became a topic I raised in conversations throughout Seed. Many women I spoke to thought it was a good idea, in contrast some men suggested it shouldn't be enshrined.
I could see both perspectives. On one hand it's important to promote consent and to frame it within a broader discussion of respect; while on the other hand, it's the case that most people are already respectful and ensuring consensual relations with each other.
It was said that making respect a principle risked looking like a nanny.
Then came #metoo and it was a shock to see many women I know shared experiences of times when consent and respect were lacking. The volume and details in these accounts were powerful.
It demonstrated clearly that society does need to be reminded to respect individual autonomy.
The #metoo discussion varied from women recalling hearing catcalls while still children, through to accounts of rape.
There was an outpouring of grief and also support, the latter valuable as social media does not offer mechanisms beyond audience reactions to address mental health.
Then men joined the conversation with their own examples of feeling like victims, again ranging from sexual harassment to rape.
But then I feel it became even more remarkable when I saw a few men I know acknowledging on Facebook that they had been part of the problem.
These blokes reflected on times when they hadn't respected a woman's autonomy and I feel that it showed how powerful the conversation had been, as well as the potential for it to have broader impact if the reflections I'd seen from older men and women reached a younger audience.
The thing that gave a surprising resonance in these conversations was when one friend recounted times when she'd been abused by strangers in public and the lack of response from passing men.
I like the phrase Radical Respect as it opens a broader topic in addressing interpersonal relations. As you can above, I used the term when I was looking for a phrase to embroider at a workshop recently.
It would be good to see the conversation continue, both within the Burner community and more widely in society.
Need an alibi?
So, if you're in Leeton and you need a cover story, maybe he can help.
Reflecting on Streams
One of the highlights of opening the Crossing Streams exhibition was learning a new word.
Ekphrasis is a Greek term for a literal description, particularly in poetry, of the narrative in visual art. So I’d guess that the responses to haiku describing scenes local to Narrandera, that were then interpreted with photography and music is a kind of inverted ekphrasis.
This was part of the writing workshop led by Dr Greg Pritchard, who had contributed to both Crossing Streams and the exhibition Slow Book Haiku that his collaborator Kelly Leonard had brought down from her home Mudgee after the works had been part of the Bring To Light Projects show in Dubbo.
I really appreciated Kelly’s interest in exhibiting in Narrandera at the Arts and Community Centre is a large venue with two rooms. There had been times when I doubted whether the exhibition I’d been asked by Western Riverina Arts to curate would manifest.
However, the exhibition slowly snowballed from unattended workshops, to around one and half dozen haiku, to over 70 tracks from musicians around the world that provided over five hours of music. For this I am grateful for the support of Marco from Naviar Records and also Marc from the Disquiet.com blog, whose Junto joined the fifth poem as one of their weekly projects.
Five hours is an almost perfect amount of soundtrack as the that’s how long the exhibition is open each day until 29 October, ensuring most tracks will be heard daily. The music contributed can be heard in the gallery and also available for perusal on an iPad with headphones.
Another highlight of the opening was hearing Lizzie Walsh and Mary Sutcliffe performing composer Fiona Caldarevic’s 'The River's Edge,' a response to a haiku by Sue Killham. Fiona contributed musical responses to each of the five poems shared by Naviar Records and they were all of a high quality and distinct among the mostly electronic contributions.
The process of curating an exhibition was one that required me to rethink my approach. In my previous exhibitions the focus had been on my role as photographer. While I contributed photography, as well as video and haiku, the idea of being a curator seemed to be one that needed an outward and collaborative focus.
While we were installing, Kelly had mentioned that this would be the first time Greg saw their work. It seemed incredible but somehow made sense given Greg’s frequent transient roles travelling between arts communities and making connections.
In the artist talk Greg told how their project had begun with a handwritten note on handmade paper from Kelly that invited him to collaborate. It said a lot about her style. I’ve really appreciated her enthusiasm for this exhibition and am excited about the idea we have to collaborate again.
It has been fascinating to see how a short poem can be interpreted sonically and the variety of the contributions provides a rich experience in comparing and contrasting individual approaches.
I was also happy to see the variety of people attending and engaging with the exhibition. At one point I passed two women considering the meaning of the word ‘verdant’ and, after reaching for their phone to check, learned it means green. That they didn’t shrug and move on showed their interest.
Crossing Streams has been a rewarding experience for me and I am grateful to Western Riverina Arts for the opportunity, as well as the photo above. Before it concludes on 29 October there are workshops on Sundays from 1pm, with Peita Vincent discussing writing then Kelly introducing weaving techniques.
Ekphrasis is a Greek term for a literal description, particularly in poetry, of the narrative in visual art. So I’d guess that the responses to haiku describing scenes local to Narrandera, that were then interpreted with photography and music is a kind of inverted ekphrasis.
This was part of the writing workshop led by Dr Greg Pritchard, who had contributed to both Crossing Streams and the exhibition Slow Book Haiku that his collaborator Kelly Leonard had brought down from her home Mudgee after the works had been part of the Bring To Light Projects show in Dubbo.
I really appreciated Kelly’s interest in exhibiting in Narrandera at the Arts and Community Centre is a large venue with two rooms. There had been times when I doubted whether the exhibition I’d been asked by Western Riverina Arts to curate would manifest.
However, the exhibition slowly snowballed from unattended workshops, to around one and half dozen haiku, to over 70 tracks from musicians around the world that provided over five hours of music. For this I am grateful for the support of Marco from Naviar Records and also Marc from the Disquiet.com blog, whose Junto joined the fifth poem as one of their weekly projects.
Five hours is an almost perfect amount of soundtrack as the that’s how long the exhibition is open each day until 29 October, ensuring most tracks will be heard daily. The music contributed can be heard in the gallery and also available for perusal on an iPad with headphones.
Another highlight of the opening was hearing Lizzie Walsh and Mary Sutcliffe performing composer Fiona Caldarevic’s 'The River's Edge,' a response to a haiku by Sue Killham. Fiona contributed musical responses to each of the five poems shared by Naviar Records and they were all of a high quality and distinct among the mostly electronic contributions.
The process of curating an exhibition was one that required me to rethink my approach. In my previous exhibitions the focus had been on my role as photographer. While I contributed photography, as well as video and haiku, the idea of being a curator seemed to be one that needed an outward and collaborative focus.
While we were installing, Kelly had mentioned that this would be the first time Greg saw their work. It seemed incredible but somehow made sense given Greg’s frequent transient roles travelling between arts communities and making connections.
In the artist talk Greg told how their project had begun with a handwritten note on handmade paper from Kelly that invited him to collaborate. It said a lot about her style. I’ve really appreciated her enthusiasm for this exhibition and am excited about the idea we have to collaborate again.
It has been fascinating to see how a short poem can be interpreted sonically and the variety of the contributions provides a rich experience in comparing and contrasting individual approaches.
I was also happy to see the variety of people attending and engaging with the exhibition. At one point I passed two women considering the meaning of the word ‘verdant’ and, after reaching for their phone to check, learned it means green. That they didn’t shrug and move on showed their interest.
Crossing Streams has been a rewarding experience for me and I am grateful to Western Riverina Arts for the opportunity, as well as the photo above. Before it concludes on 29 October there are workshops on Sundays from 1pm, with Peita Vincent discussing writing then Kelly introducing weaving techniques.
The River's Edge
Conversing Streams
While approaching musicians to ask them to make their responses to the haiku in the Crossing Streams project available for the exhibition, I had an interesting conversation with one who questioned whether it was appropriate for a non-indigenous person to comment on (what they saw as) indigenous history.
They wrote:
My reply:
They wrote:
If it’s OK, can I ask a few questions regarding the exhibition? I thought about this for a while after the actual Junto, but are any of the people involved in the event indigenous? Or even the writer of the original haiku?
I ask because the prompt is using the lived experience of that group of people and I feel like it’s sort of weird for me to have even participated, being a well-off non-oppressed guy.
My reply:
Poison Waterholes Creek…is one of 14 poems that will be exhibited, along with around five hours of music.
That poem was written by a friend who is very conscious of local history and my initial response was that I liked my poem about that location better because it didn’t open old wounds.
Then I had to remind myself that I want to engage people but, more importantly, I read a column by Stan Grant where he talked about the need to break the silence surrounding the Frontier Wars.
Stan’s father is a senior Wiradjuri elder and lives in Narrandera, while Stan Jr has also become a prominent voice in the process of reconciliation that Australia is going through.
I think it’s an important conversation, particularly as increasing numbers of Australians identify as indigenous.
It’s been really rewarding for me to see the discussion in the responses to the Junto, particularly those people who’ve gone and looked into Wiradjuri culture or found parallels with indigenous people in their own locations.
Sometimes I think on how I can claim to be a first-generation Australian and how that is convenient when it comes to excusing myself from reconciliation.
However, I am increasingly seeing the need to play role… So I’ve begun taking the opportunities to promote the conversation and it’s developed over the last six months while I’ve been thinking it through.
Small things seem important, like reminding people of the treaty that was thought to have been negotiated nearby in the early 19th Century. As the national discussion about a treaty continues to be muffled by other issues, it’s good to remind people that it’s not something new.
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