Have I ever mentioned Grey Area on this Blog?

After we finished our honours year at RMIT, a group of us found a studio to share in the city. It was amazing really, great natural light, great artificial light, 24 hour access, security guards, nice real-estate agent (Phil, we probably didn't appreciate you at the time, but thanks) all this directly across the road from Flinders Street Station, above  the very unfashionable Port Phillip Arcade. We were very serious and uncompromising, rigorous in our non-objectivity, attention to space, no frills approach. Phil the real estate agent then offered us use of a shop downstairs for free for 6 months, which we were able to extend for a mere, I can't remember but maybe it was $80 a week. And so Grey Area Art Space was born.

This show 'Hedge' was one of the first we had. I painted cardboard boxes in cardboard coloured paint, stacked them up and painted a fluoro green square across the higgledy piggledy surfaces. I made another green square by running a line of light green tape across the floor, which then hit two pieces of white paint wood of different sizes which were casually leaning against the wall. The light green line turned into a painted line as it went up these pieces of wood, fading into dark green as it reached the top, then it met a line of dark green tape which ran around the back of the cardboard boxes, joining up the square. So there was a green square within a green square. Confused? Just look at the pictures. Oh no, they'll probably confuse you more. For some reason I don't have a view of the whole installation from front on.

I was REALLY into Jessica Stockholder at this stage. It seemed like she was doing everything that I would have wanted to do. Like the inevitable direction of my work was into her work.

Also, if you look at the wall behind the long plank of wood, you'll notice a greenish glow. That's because I painted the back of the plank with fluoro green paint. That's a real RMIT painting trick. We liked 'humour'.

The back view - you could walk behind the wall of boxes.

My studio - nice, eh?

I'm doing some drawings based on those Moroccan rugs I posted a few days ago. The drawings look a lot like my other drawings, which is not what I intended. I can't get them how I want them. I think the rugs are the result of trying to rush through a time consuming process. I'm experimenting with different speeds of working to see what happens.

Mad genius Moroccan carpet weavers

I sometimes look at this website 1stdibs.com for inspiration. A lot of antique dealers from all over the world put their stuff on there. I like to look at the lights and the carpets mostly. The other day I found these 'Vintage mid-century Moroccan carpets'. I haven't seen any Moroccan carpets like this before. Were the carpet weavers trying to make the craziest looking carpets ever, or was it just by accident?

The wall drawings went through an aggressive stage in 2000

I was lucky enough to be included in a show at UKS in Oslo in 2000, with Ricky Swallow and David Jolly. Ricky was the curator. I showed a wall drawing, 'FutureMonster2000', and a group of works made of perspex and automotive paint. Later that year, I was  fortunate enough to be included in another show, this time at Gertrude Street, in the first Octopus, which Max Delany curated. The pink and orange wall drawing I made was called 'A Piece of the Action'.

By the way, I think I have managed to break my Dad's slide scanner. You guys don't need to worry though, because I have already scanned enough of these early works to keep the blog going for quite a while. And I suppose Dad won't think any worse of me than he already does.

For a minute there I was also into small appliances

And combining small appliances with runners.

I swapped some of these with David Noonan for a painting.

These photos were most likely taken by Kenneth Pleban.

I used to like drawing runners

I used to take photos of runners I liked - sometimes while people were wearing them, then later just the pristine runners in shops. I used the shapes in my wall drawings. These ones are from 1998.

The top and bottom photos are by Kenneth Pleban. I think the middle one might be by me, it's a bit out of focus.

Guess What??!!

I've made a new work!!!

I'm just flattening it a bit under these books. It should be up at Arc1 in a few weeks.

Fade Outs

Back around the turn of the century I was very into the fade.

Around the end of 1998 I did these drawings with gouache on multiple pieces of butcher's paper. I used the biggest  I could find. I was very particular about which piece sat on top of what - there was an order - but I can't remember how I did it now, and it doesn't really make any difference when you look at the photos.

 

This was my contribution to  'Video vs Watercolour', a rubik show we put together in Andrew McQualter's bedroom. (photo Kenneth Pleban)

This was in the end of year studio artists' show at Gertrude St. Rose and Charlotte weren't very happy about it -  they thought it was drab. (photo - not sure- maybe me?)

These were smaller works done on better paper. (photos Kenneth Pleban) Then I started to make 3D 'real life versions'

I made these by cutting the corners off cardboard boxes and painting them. This was in the Arts Victoria offices.

Then I made these for my Studio 12 show at Gertrude Street. I made them out of sceneboard, so I could muck around with different angles and sizes, unlike the original ones where they were all right angles. The first ones were much more convenient to stack afterwards though. Kenneth Pleban took the photos.

Records indicate that I lost interest in the fade for a year or two. This show was in 2000, in the back room at First Floor.

 

The next and maybe last gasp of the fade out was at Sarah Cottier in September 2011. I did 50 of these small paintings, collectively called Dragon Lady. I also did some really big ones which didn't make it into the show. Sarah, Ashley and Nick thought I needed a wall drawing in there. It's called 'I'm too sexy for this wall'. Kind of different to my other wall drawings. These photos were taken by Ashley Barber.