City of Sydney Cultural & Creative Sector Forum

*Image is mine from Instagram

I just thought I'd do a quick post on this. Last Wednesday I attended the City of Sydney's Cultural and Creative Sector Forum representing the Big Fag Press. I thought it was a really interesting couple of hours, and I was inspired to know how invested the council is in listening to the thoughts and ideas of people who work in creative fields, in order to see how best to help them be able to use the city as a canvas for their creative endeavours.

Furthermore, it couldn't have been a better place for networking - my table had a guy who works for the City of Sydney outdoor event management, a woman from ArtsHub, a woman from the Red Room Company, a guy who works in the youth music industry, one of the founders of the College of Event Management, and a woman from Waverley Council.

At the beginning I wasn't really sure I would have anything to contribute, but the discussion led to many things I had ideas about. Our table came up with a few collective agreements. One was that Sydney is very much a lively place in terms of art and culture. "Top down" events like Vivid Sydney, the Biennale, Chinese New Year and the NYE fireworks are very successful. We also agreed on the fact that the government does a lot to support smaller initiatives, but that maybe these efforts could be slightly better directed. In terms of "grassroots" initiatives, there was much talk on making it more accessible to individual young artists or smaller collectives wanting to just get out there and express creativity. I spoke of how, last year with my Ivory Tower posters, there was just no place to go out and put them. The dedicated City of Sydney poles for posters just get covered by advertising, and anywhere else they got ripped down. It would be so great if there was just spaces around for spontaneous public art. Places where you don't need to be a verified "emerging creative" to use. The Guerilla Photography project on Elizabeth St by Fairfax photographers was something that was brought up - but nobody really knows if doing something like that is okay. Is it considered defacing public property? If Clover Moore hadn't particularly liked those photographs installed in that place, would they have received fines for doing it?

Another thing I brought up was along the same lines - to me, at least when I'm walking around the streets instagramming things, it's the oddities, the interesting graffiti, the chic little cafes, and the funny coloured walls that get my attention. I like things that are different, and provide an alternate to a cookie cutter town of gloria jeans, lowes and perfectly arranged front gardens. A point was brought up about spaces being unused at certain times - there are many places that, for example, are in use Monday to Friday 9-5pm, but completely useless at other times. So here is where my idea comes through - why can't artists be the ones to decorate the city - to make the boring interesting. Why can't we designate it a business carpark by day and a pop-up art gallery by night? Why does a wall have to be a brick wall - getting a company building wall graffitied by local artists could attract valid attention to your business.

And thus brings up another point. About legal, OH&S, and regulatory council hoops to jump through. I remember when I was doing my Open House project in Foley St in 2010, we had a lot of forms to fill out and information to gather, like making sure people had their RSA's and everything. I know it's a lot to do with people's safety, which definitely should be put above all else. But getting through all that bureaucracy is a major hurdle for an artist or a small collective wanting to set up a guerilla pop-up gallery.

Much of our other discussion was about live music venues and making sure under drinking age teenagers also have access to entertainment, which I think is equally important.

Many of the other tables came up with similar points about reducing the "red tape" for artists and giving more opportunities to "grassroots" programs. Overall I found the forum had a very positive outcome, especially if some of these ideas are taken on by the City of Sydney. They could even have a direct impact on ARI's like the Big Fag Press, like Runway, like Firstdraft. Very exciting!

Daddy's Little Princess

Daddy's Little Princess at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre by Linda Wilken opened a couple of weeks ago. If you remember, I first met Linda by chance at the Firstdraft Depot where she was undertaking a residency and I was working at the Big fag Press. We discovered we had some conceptual ideas in common and I interviewed her for Ivory Tower Magazine last year (page 10 in this document).

Sexualisation and objectification of young girls is a current social and political issue. This exhibition represents the way young girls in contemporary western cultures develop their identity based on popular culture and stereotyping which begins in childhood. Influenced through magazines, music videos, social media and the internet, these ‘young consumers’ are being seduced into stylising themselves on hyper-sexualised ideals.

-From the Casula Powerhouse website

Here are some photos I took of Daddy's Little Princess.

[All photos are mine of Linda Wilken's work at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre]

FINITO!

Ivory Tower project is complete!

Here are a few images of the magazine, street art, and some sneak peaks into some photoshoots and other content.

*Artwork by Justin White

*Artwork by Giopet

*Artwork by Linda Wilken

*Artwork by Daniel Caballero 

*Photograph by Tristan Fitzherbert-Smith 

 *Photograph by Tristan Fitzherbert-Smith 

*Artwork by Max Temkin

*Photograph by Louise Kate Anderson

 *Photograph by Tristan Fitzherbert-Smith 

 *Artwork by Louise Kate Anderson

Tomorrow, I give the final presentation of my university degree!
Anyone interested in coming to see the UTS fashion exhibition Future of Fashion Showcase, please contact me.

HOMERUN

So I'm in the last week of my honours major project! Not getting much sleep, but every day gets me a step closer. I've set my print deadline for next Monday or if I have to, Tuesday. Then I have two weeks while proofs and prints are happening to put up the rest of my Street Art, work on my website, load things onto The Loop and update various social media platforms like my facebook page, twitter @LouiseKAnderson, and Instagram (LouiseKateAnderson).

I've joined in to work on promoting our year group through our social media pages as well. @utsfashion, #utsfashion, #futureoffashion, and UTS: Fashion, not to mention our continued fundraising from raffle tickets, & cupcakes every Monday in the DAB building, and our Pozible page.

Our catwalk is the evening of the 4th December in the UTS great hall. The exhibition there at #fashionspace runs for a week.

*Instagram photo mine. Cupcakes by Amanda Algeo

In business, baby!

I got my business cards printed!

PRINTING!!! (and web stuff)

So I finally finished designing my Street Art - I'm proud to say it's almost all my own work, I just got a little bit of feedback help with things like fonts and layout.

I got my plates made up the other day at Imagination Graphics. I'm glad I checked everything as (LITERALLY) the last second because my QR codes didn't work!!! Thankfully I was able to fix them in time.

I spent the last two days printing, and got everything done. And let me tell you, 2 colour plates x 160 sheets on our press in 2 days, not to mention chopping them all in half and signing the limited edition of 12 - is not an easy feat!!!

Here's a bit of a documentation of the process:

Choosing my ink colour for the fountain (and making sure the middle mixes to a nice purple):

Putting the ink on the inking rollers:

Getting the plate all ready and properly dampened:

First print, colour no.1:

Day Two: Black Ink

Plate no. 2: Black plate

Sorting out some "too much water" issues:

Drying on print racks:

Sorting out some registration issues:

Chopping!

And some videos to explain the whole process (excuse the dodgy "self-camera" work)

*Images & videos all mine.

And that's the printing.

Website work has been a whole new world for me. I've never built a wordpress before and suddenly I've had to look up things like CSS codes. I think it's looking pretty good though! Don't you?

Thanks to Lucas Ihlein for all the help.

Putting up Street Art Posters

So I've been working lately at the Street Art part of my major project. Printing my posters should go ahead in the next 2 weeks.

Although I'm not some company using the streets of Sydney to advertise, I'm a little concerned about the locations I choose to put up my posters. I've done some research on the City of Sydney's bill posters policy. Part of my project does involve some "guerilla" activity, but I don't particularly want a $1500 fine, and more so, I want to get my message across which won't happen if the council just tears down my posters.

I'm going to use places that already have posters on them, so it probably won't annoy anyone too much. Furthermore, the council has proposed the following areas:

I may also try to get permission from UTS & USYD to put a couple of posters up too.

As for how to put up posters, many people use wheat glue but I was thinking of mostly using tape.

Behind the Scenes....

Some pics from behind the scenes on Sunday! It was good fun, and I think the pro shots will be pretty awesome. This is my beautiful model Amelia, my fantastic assistant Lena, and my photog Tristan. I'm proud of the hair, never done hair in my life!