The new Tatu apartments

Ever wanted to see Mr David Bowie’s face every night when you come home? Like any girl with a penchant for a guy who knows how to dance (in the street) I have wondered what it must be like.

If you have a handy 400,000 big ones, you may be able to live the dream. An apartment block in Prahan has been designed with four-story façade featuring Bowie’s Aladdin Sane photograph, proving that he was doing lightning bolts and sparkly skin before it was cool.

The creative minds behind the design are Tin&ed, who formed in 2004 and can already include The Royal Women’s Hospital, Puma, Lee Jeans, Myer, BMW and others on their resume.

If the thought of being inside Bowie doesn’t get you going, that portfolio surely will. For some top tips on portfolio building, make sure you attend the Portfolio Masterclass where Tin&ed might let you in on some of their secrets.

The Future

‘Tis the season for cinephiles in Melbourne this month at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The latest creation from author, director, actor, artist and generally creative lady Miranda July is The Future, showing at MIFF this year. We have waited six years since her last film Me and You and Everyone We Know won awards at Cannes, Sundance and the Independent Spirit Awards, but it was worth it.

It is narrated by a talking cat who is darkly philosophical as he waits patiently in a veterinary clinic.

His prospective owners are acouple of thirty-somethings who struggle to prove that they are mature enough to take on such a long-term commitment as having a pet cat.

The movie deals with a couple experiencing a pre-midlife crisis and how they deal with the looming presence of middle age. The two confront the kind of everyday anxieties and the bad decisions that people make throughout their life. It is equal parts comedy and tragedy, and is a definite must-see for this year’s festival.

Miso's Tchusse

Miso is another one of my favourite artists, whose work I first became familiar with on the streets. She works with pen, ink, pencil, as well as paper cuts and embroidery in the Mitten Fortress along with her partner GhostPatrol.

In her new exhibition, Tchusse, Miso has created an ambitious installation inspired primarily by the Ukranian folklore that she grew up with and also with the street art of Melbourne which she actively participates in.

Expect a city built from paper, material and decaying wood as Miso reproduces a urban landscape from her memory.

Miso also has a new website up and running. Check out the website of the Melbourne Artist Miso.

South Melbourne Night Market by ahwkhoo

The St Kilda Beach night market has become a popular staple of a balmy Thursday night throughout late spring and summer. The smattering of stalls and hippies mesh well with the busy atmosphere of Acland St. Its warm, beachy and fragrant with food and what I like to call the distinctive “pong” of St Kilda.

I think the South Melbourne Night Market is attempting to tap into the same late-night market crowd. Little stalls attach themselves to the edges of the closed South Melbourne Market. South Melbourne market itself is housed in an ominous red brick building and the night market stalls are like a community of squatters on it’s fringes. Unlike the suburbs of Carlton and Fitzroy, where the culture and the hustle of the city tend to bleed into, South Melbourne is like an isolated inner suburban pocket. When I went, the night was really still and the whole place had this calm, almost secluded atmosphere – despite the proximity to the city.

Around the market, huge vats of paella bubbled away and a ten year old boy played Lou Reed songs on the guitar. There was plenty of those knicknacks, which seem to only appear at markets (badges, light bulbs in plants, fisherman pants, hippie scarfs and headbands.) All this stuff generally ranges from the kitsch to the mildly useless. But then again, markets are fantastic places for young artists to sell their stuff to the public.

The South Melbourne Market did have a couple of decent vintage clothes stores. Wild Monkey (a vintage store in a container shed on the Coventry St side) had a diverse and carefully put together collection of dresses, coats, chunky knit jumpers. There were plenty of those colourful crepe dresses, with horizontal pleats, bright patterns and strange below the hip-line waists. There were some good box hats and a range of vintage sunglasses with thick rims.

Just around the corner was a lovely open air vintage stall. Ankle boots with zips and buttons and old Doc Martens spilled from suitcases with coiled-up belts and coloured scarfs. The variety of tops and jackets were really impressive too. I loved this silver creation made from a delicate, web like fabric, it had these sequin embellishments around the shoulders and a gathered-in waist.

The overall feel of the market is enhanced by nightfall under the glow of the little coloured lamps that hang from the ceiling, however it is also a bit on the small side and comes abruptly to an end after a store selling Belgian waffles. If you are into your analogies, you could compare the night market to a racehorse – not quite at it’s stride but showing signs of early promise.

In addition to the beautiful market itself, I must mention that across the road from the market, a couple of stores stay open until late. One of them is a lovely French vintage and homewares store called, Gigi a la maison, crowded with little French artifacts from the early 20th century. I adored this lamp with a porcelain base shaped like Marie Antoinette with beautiful colour and detail despite some minor chipping.

Acorn, Ghost Patrol And Nior At Gorker Gallery

Three spectacular Melbourne artists will be showcasing their latest body of work in the first installment of The Triforce Advance, titled The Neverending Masterquest. A number of collaborative works by Acorn, Ghostpatrol and Nior will be on display as well as many of their individual pieces.

Expect truly vivd characters, which these three artists are so often noted for, created with range of mediums such as acrylic, found objects, paper and water colours.

Opening nights at Gorker Gallery are often very busy, so get there early!

Little Boots live at Parklife

On the weekend I and many other of the youths around Melbourne attended Fuzzy and Future Entertainment’s Parklife at Birrarung Marr on the Yarra, signalling the coming of summer and the festival season.

It was a stellar Melbourne day with the sun coming out to shine and many youngsters coming out to show some post-winter fake tan and party. I kicked off the day with a raucous performance by Sydneysiders and Triple J favourites, Art Vs Science. It was very well received by an enthusiastic crowd, with the band even getting some mime-costumed lads to come dance up on stage with them, and an excellent way to kick off an epic day.

Next, I headed off to the Water stage to catch the up and coming superstar of Australian dance, Shazam. He played a pumping set despite the roadie for Little Boots deciding that it would be a nice idea to start their sound check right bang in the middle of Shazam’s set, the nerve! Boy, oh, Boy was I angry! But the adorably dweebish Shazam persisted and finished off a set of future indie hits without complaint. After they hurried Shazam off stage at the end of his set, we were regretfully informed that not only was her roadie obnoxious but that British export Little Boots was running late and would be a few more minutes before she came on. Luckily, when she finally did arrive, sporting some cool Saiyan armour and some not so little heels, she busted out a rapid fire of hits without fault.

I then battled through a overwhelming crowd at MSTRKRFT to catch some club hits from the remix masters. From there I rushed over to the Fire stage to enjoy a tight and rich performance by quirk-pop darlings Metronomy, with a recently new line up and wearing some rad lights. As night approached we got our party on to Yacht Club DJs, spinning a barrage of hits spanning all genres and pumping up the crowd with some rock star antics including multiple journeys into the crowd on top of an inflatable boat… or yacht? We then retreated back up the hill to watch Metric play a subdued 45 minute set with more of a rock and roll flavour, leaving early to secure a good spot for Empire Of The Sun’s debut Melbourne performance.

The people flocked to the Water stage to catch Luke Steele’s extravagant performance featuring multiple costume changes, an accompanying acid-trip lightshow and dancers dressed as swordfish. People sang along and the crowd swayed but in comparison the set was rather lack lustre and was missing that Nick Littlemore charm. At the end of the Empire Of The Sun journey through time and space, I popped back over to the Fire stage to catch The Rapture channel some Sting and do some sweet justice to the dance rock genre. A fantastic way to cap off an evening!

And if my experience of the day is anything to go by, I think they got it wrong…

…at Parklife, people still dance.

New Villain QV Store

It seems like QV is the place to be, first with a new No Vacancy gallery popping up, and now with a New Villain store claiming some space just off Russell street, at 26 Jane Bell Lane.

Villain provides a range of different products, ranging from locally designed clothing to original artworks and prints by some of my favourite artists, such as Ghostpatrol. Toy lovers be warned. Your jaw will drop to the floor when you see the custom made vinyl toys on offer.

The new store also features an exciting changing visual space is their known as the Villain Window Project where artists are invited to showcase their work. Jaime Palomba is the first featured artist utilizing this space, displaying her imaginative and highly detailed 3D charicatures hand-crafted with paper.

The store is kind of like an artist’s playground and an all day exhibition with something for everyone.

Some Type Of Wonderful

Some Type of Wonderful is a global appreciation of typography, initiated in 2008. Twelve artists hand-picked from around the world are each asked to interpret a month of the year and express it in the form of an innovative typographic design.

The artworks are then compiled into a limited edition wall calendar which will keep you going until next year’s exhibition. They will also be available as limited edition prints on cotton rag paper, accompanied by an artist signed Certificate of Authenticity, rivalling the quality of prints displayed in a museum. You don’t get that kind of service when you use Times New Roman.

International illustrators and designers exhibiting their work include: Jonathan Zawanda, Mario Hugo, Luca Barcellona, Maxwell Lord, PMKFA, Theo Gennitsakis, Jessica Hische, Pablo Alfieri, Sebastian Lester, Siggi Eggertsson, Jiro Bevis and (…one of my personal favourites…) Gary Taxali.

If you can’t stand the sight of Comic Sans, or if you’re one of those people who prides themself in knowing the difference between Arial and Helvetica, then Some Type of Wonderful is for you.

Big Day Out 2009

The Lineup:
Bluejuice
Calvin Harris
Dizzee Rascal
Eskimo Joe
Girl Talk
Grinspoon
Groove Armada
Karnivool
Kasabian
Kisschasy
Ladyhawke
Lily Allen
Lisa Mitchell
Magic Dirt
Mastodon
Midnight Juggernauts
Muse
Peaches
Powderfinger
Rise Against
Tame Impala
The Decemberists
The Horrors
The Mars Volta
The Temper Trap

Also, check out the interview with Muse’s Matt Bellamy this friday in the The Age as he talks about his creative ideas for this year’s stage effects: “We’ve always used music and video in combination with our theatrical moments. The design of the stage brings across certain ideas we always have been interested in”.

Melbourne Stencil Festival 09

Since their first exhibition, held at a ex-sewing factory in 2004, the Melbourne Stencil Festival has continued to attract large audiences, allowing them to connect with many undiscovered yet talented artists.

The aim of the festival is to promote the street art movement, supporting artists and enthusiasts from this unique part of Melbourne’s art culture. On the opening night over 200 people filled the Yarra Sculpture Gallery to listen to speeches and winners of awards, such as the 2009 Best in Show Award given to Tom Sevil (AKA Civil), co-founder of BreakdownPress.

This year the festival will run until the 4th of October, spanning across the Yarra Sculpture Gallery and the closely located Collingwood Underground. Besides the galleries exhibiting stunning street art, there are also many workshops and collaborative wall-spraying events for all ages.

Check out the Melbourne Stencil Festival website for more information about what’s happening at both locations.