Samantha Riegl

Things you can buy at Sticky created by me

2012-02-25T21:28:00.001+11:00

Okay, the zines have been put in Sticky. You can purchase the zines! Yay! There are three different zines for sale.

1. "For my mother" -$5

2. "Somwhere borrowed: the zine" - $3/$4 (ugh, can't remember, sorry.)

3. "Target 168" -$1

Some of the zines I made from Target 168 can be purchased soon, probably by the end of next week. I dunno, extra zines and no one to give them too. I'm not sure how many copies there are of it but there are 10 copies of the other two. Find Sticky deatils here. (Clickity click click.)

Queensland

2012-02-25T21:06:00.002+11:00

I went up to central Queensland for two weeks back in January. There were lots of mountains, trees, beaches and cane toads. I got a killer tan, now I am back here in Melbourne. Home.

sick

2012-02-25T20:37:00.002+11:00

I got sick awhile back. And a mysterious stranger sent me "Get well soon" flowers. I love my friends.

rambling

2012-02-25T20:29:00.001+11:00

There's a slew of posts coming. I'm tired though. I've only been back in Mebourne for about a week since a drive down from Brisbane, been working a few days straight (more coming), the boys in the apartment below me invited me over for drinks tonight but I don't know if they were joking or not so I'm staying in updating my blog and watching Jersey Shore instead. I'm going back to university to start my last year on Monday. I'm not ready to go back.

Target 168 2012

2012-02-08T00:36:00.000+11:00

The making of my sixty-three zines for Target 168. During the making of this zine I wished I had a T.V with working channels so that I could watch trash and go to the toilet during the ads. I wished for a guillotine but slicing and splicing with a metal ruler and stanley knife builds character, my fingers are all still intact. I also wished for a production line with more than one person in it. Realistically though a guillotine would be rad and maybe a person who can clean my house for me but doesn't throw out anything I might use to make art.

Also my digital SLR seems to fit in my hand nicely right now. It's different. Top image is not mine, it belongs to Sticky Institute.

Alive

2012-02-07T17:25:00.000+11:00

Okay, so let's see, where did I leave you last time? I ran away from my life briefly, two weeks in a mostly sunshine state. It was lovely. During those two weeks things exploded on Tumblr with my monoprints, thanks to everyone so much for the support. I'm flying back to the sunshine state in nine days so that me and Elliott can drive down because my favourite person in the whole wide world is going to come live in this unbearable city with me.

I guess due to the overwhelming response I got from my monoprints, I gathered up enough courage to put one in a show. Might have been helpful if I had mentioned the show earlier... The show was held at Brunswick Arts and is ending on the 12th of February, so you do have five days to jump down and have a squizz. My name isn't on the list of exhibiting artists but I swear the work is there.

In the spirit of being productive when I got back from the sunshine state I made a little zine. I just got it photocopied today. It's called "Somewhere Borrowed", which has been a recurring theme in my recent works, words and thoughts. I have a tumblr for Somewhere Borrowed, clicky clicky the words and it shall take you there!

Also I have been even more productive! I'm totally in love with making zines at the moment, I think it's a great way to get your art out there plus I have heaps of fun making them and I guess as everything is, it is a learning experience. So I decided to participate in Target 168 with Sticky Institute. One week to make a zine incorporating a secret theme. You need to make a zine for each person participating so I'm making sixty-three copies of my zine. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to give away but my connection to the theme is so abstract. I think it's a great project to be a part of and I'm pretty excited to see what else everyone else has come up with!

So I'm heading into Sticky on Thursday. I am going to put my zines up for sale. So probably from Thursday onwards you can buy "For my mother" (yeah, remember that one from LAST YEAR, ugh, I've been so slack) and "Somewhere Borrowed". I haven't decided on the prices but they will definitely not be over $5. Anyway that's all I have to say, I am sorry for the lack of pictures and the huge masses of words. I am going to sort out my zines now.

P.S I can't wait to go back to university, so nervous. Only a few more weeks until I can develop all my film!

Tumblr

2012-01-07T19:08:00.002+11:00

...is freaking me out. Oh dear lord. It's freaking me out.

monoprints?

2012-01-06T22:47:00.002+11:00

"Don't make sex into something it isn't. I'll make sex into whatever I want."

"Already fucked everything up before it even began."

"He likes another girl."

"You made it really easy for Sam."

"Don't start to like me. I'm a prick."

"I don't need anyone James. And I sure as fuck don't need you."

"I forget things."

"I just liked kissing you but you just wanted to fuck."

"Your life is fucked Sam. You're too scared to live in your own house. You fucked things up with Luke."

"I like you and that makes me sad."

"I want to be Tracey Emin. But I also want to fall in love and stay that way. Sorry Tracey."

"I wish you would hold me. Like that one night. I hope it wasn't just one night."

"I'm fucked."

"I'm so sad. Everything makes me so sad."

"Somebody needs to tell me that they love me."

"We went our sperate ways. Now I am lonely."

"We're fucked. But everyone is so happy."

"I like you. But you don't like me."

"telling someone you are lonely doesn't change anything."

"We used to get dumplings from Boxhill. Then it turned into a ten month rut."

"I'm sorry we couldn't make it work Sam."

"This is a bad idea x 8."

"Things are so messed up. I have learned to keep my mouth shut though. Telling people you are sad leads to psychiatric wards."

"We can't do this anymore."

"We're all so fucked."

Um, I think they're called monoprints? I made heaps of them. This is the shit that goes on inside my head. Mixed in with things people have said to me. Apologies for my language.

2011 from my phone camera

2012-01-03T00:16:00.001+11:00

cooking food, falling in love, Camberwell Market, sleeping, trips to the tip, Tracey, making art, pushing boundaries, dressing up as a pyramid while at work, crotch getting wet due to transporting a fishbowl, buffet with mum, moving to a new house, slacking off at work, making more art, embracing Learning to Love You More, waiting for trams, building a cubby, wondering why I left, asking questions, saving baby possums, Courtney's photo shoot, Pantalaimon, moral support for myself, falling out of love, my window in my hospital room, my hospital room, kindness from other patients, working at a shoe, being lonely, me.

My new years resolutions not made by me.

2012-01-01T13:00:00.003+11:00

Find Mr. Right
Be happy.
See the world.

Elliott made these for us because I didn't have any. Highly romantic, not to sure if they're achievable. New Years just makes me sad. You can just see how skeptical I am about 2012. AREN'T WE ALL SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD?

I swear

2011-12-30T00:37:00.000+11:00

I have been doing things. There just hasn't been that much updating going on here. I have about 10 rolls of film to get developed as soon as I get back to uni. And I have just started a momentous project involving a years worth of text messages. Plus I've been pottering about with the idea of "Somewhere borrowed".

Life is busy with work, I'm going up to Queensland in just over a week to see my friend Elliott. Party! Oh and me and two friends won a $500 voucher for Topshop.

Words the kind of describe what I make work about to some extent

2011-12-24T10:33:00.002+11:00

relationships, interactions, conversations, loss, time, impermanence, fragility, safety, loneliness, sadness, daydreams, cure, pills, dear anxiety, happiness, searching.

60 seconds: sound and image

2011-12-24T10:22:00.003+11:00

This is another project that we did in technical class. Our task was to use an image and create a 60 second sound piece to accompany it. This is mine. It caused a lot of things and a lot of changes. I hate listening to it. There are more videos on The Photography Department (Vimeo account).

Assessment, semester 2, second year

2011-12-24T10:17:00.000+11:00

Really late post, really bad photo quality. Next year my aim is to take my proper camera to assessment with me so that I don't end up with crap iPhone quality pictures yet again. The need for proper documentation outweighs my need to get drunk in parks.

I actually did pretty well. I got my marks back a few weeks ago. To be honest I was really surprised seeing as my "hiatus" from here ended up being a hiatus from life and I hid for a few weeks. Ah well, all good. Now just to hit the ground running next year.

You broke my fucking heart.

2011-12-24T09:50:00.004+11:00

And I bruise so easily.

Thinking of getting this printed big. Or maybe just printed at all. Stop looking at things from a computer screen.

Experimenting

2011-12-14T12:03:00.001+11:00

Just playing around with some old photos while at my dad's house. Trees, circles, Helvetica, caps, lowercase, is it possible to do this in a darkroom, why did that boy just call me? I don't know.

2011-12-12T15:52:00.001+11:00

They waited eighteen years to diagnose me.

Bruises: a collection

2011-11-30T11:00:00.001+11:00

I've been photographing bruises for awhile now. This is my collection. Most of them are mine. No one pays attention to bruises, they don't matter and they fade quickly. But you know, they hurt?

Progress of assessment

2011-11-30T10:45:00.000+11:00

So it's been awhile. To be honest this should have been uploaded weeks, if not months ago. But hey, I'm slack. I'm finding spare time to update my blog before work. These are some photos from the trial installs of the room I created for assessment. The room was used to create a mood and a space that two books I created could be read in. The books revolved around the disintegration of a recent relationship. The first book was titled "NOW AND THEN"and the second "NOW AND THEN". It was a reworking of the previous semesters work, "One day I'm going to come home and all of your things will be gone." It didn't exactly happen that way but it left holes in life.

This is gonna hurt

2011-11-16T16:42:00.001+11:00

Have I said that university has finished for the year? I don't remember. It's all done. I have been working nearly everyday, saving up for some unknown "purpose" or "thing". Anyway, things still need to be updated on here but I'm trying not to sit in front of the computer (the mess surrounding it makes it less appealing), hopefully I will do it soon.

I just bought a cable release for my Pentax K1000 and ten rolls of film. I'm going to stock up on things to create with. I've also started doing mono prints. Fun stuff. I think I just really wanted to put it out there that mono printing is pretty sweet.

34 DAYS

2011-11-13T09:47:00.001+11:00

34 DAYS to create a piece of artwork to put into the second year show, that's how long we gave ourselves to put together our first group show together. It went okay. I got drunk. I put two pieces into the show. The first being the black and white print of Luke sleeping and the second being my collection of zines that I painstakingly made! Out of the two, the zines were far more successful. Out of fifty zines, there are only eleven left now. (Which works outs well, one copy for me to keep and ten to put into Sticky!) People actually donated as well, I got about $70, definitely not enough to cover costs but thank you to all the people who dropped in a cold coin and a very big thanks to the lovely girl who dropped in a $5 note!

If anything really amazing has come out of this experience, it would have to be the zines. The process of formatting, printing, bounding. The realization that making a zine ain't easy, I have so much respect for zine makers now. I will never shun a zine because it is over $5. I'll probably just buy it.

All credit for these photographs go to the amazing Mister Ashley Mustow. My documentation of the show (and various other things) are being held hostage...

Exhibition Space

2011-11-09T17:00:00.001+11:00

Each semester from second year onwards we are required to set up our previous semesters work again, usually in a different space. The point of this is to re-work the work and make it fit into a different space which is usual occurrence when work is put into galleries. Also a lot of the kinks in the work can be resolved. In this case reinstalling my work in the exhibition space was highly successful. The work was culled down (lack of plinth), everything was used as a prop (the lamp being off, not as a source of light) and everything is closely collected rather being in two separate spaces. Had I used this install for my assessment I feel that I may have done better. I dunno, my opinion.

Share a Coke, if only.

2011-11-09T11:24:00.001+11:00

Sometimes I feel like the world won't let me forget.

The Last Roll

2011-11-09T11:20:00.002+11:00

The Last Roll: I couldn't bring myself to get it developed for a long time. It wasn't as heart breaking as I thought it would be.

tired

2011-10-14T14:01:00.001+11:00

All I do is sleep and smoke and maybe watch some T.V, a lot of Sex and the City, there was a lot of love for "Friends with Benefits", love of yellow hair, boredom at work, weirdness of reality, people actually noticing I had been gone, break downs over curtains, new friends, old friends not being there, oh dear god Ready Steady Cook is on, I have wasted my day, I was supposed to go to uni today and paint these plinths I wrote on and then write my essay, so far I have not left the house, I have brushed my teeth though and high lighted some sentences in an article and opened a few tabs in the internet. Need to write essay but all I want to do is make art/do nothing.

2011-10-01T14:31:00.003+10:00

You are human.

2011-09-28T11:00:00.000+10:00

I guess as I find things I can upload them if I have time. Which I do now as I sit in class, being massively hungry. These are just some documentation photogrpahs of the zine "For my mother" while it was being made. I made fifty copies of this zine all myself. My hands hurt from the eyelet puncher which made the holes. I swear the neighbours would have had to get angry from the loud sounds it made. But I did it. I had my own little production line. There are eleven zines left now. I will be putting ten of them into Sticky soon. I'll let you know here when it happens.

Hiatus

2011-09-20T08:55:00.001+10:00

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog at all so it may not be relevant. I'm taking a hiatus from this blog and the internet and life. All I plan to do over the next two months until university ends is make minimal amounts of art, write and rewrite my essays and do my artists talk. I'll be back. Don't forget.

It's been a long week

2011-09-03T08:39:00.000+10:00

It has certainly been quite a full on and tiring week. Two shows in one week, angry people, lack of sleep, too much art. Oh dear, way too much art. I'm so sick of it right now. My second year show "34 DAYS" was installed, opened and de-stalled this week and along with that I submitted work into Proud, an exhibition featuring the whole school (and mainly those who wanted work in there.) I think I'll do a post on them later. I have quite a bit of stuff going on that I would like to pst here but have been unable to due to lack of time and need for sleep. The progress with my zines, my re-install of last semesters work and just random drawings and such. Hopefully it will happen soon.

Series

2011-08-26T09:40:00.003+10:00

I've been taking some photogrpahs to try and build a series. The first one has been printed on fibre based paper. I attempted to print the second image in the colour darkroom (it was originally colour) but the negative was too thin to work with so I've been working with the print from the one hour place in Photoshop. I'll probably get it printed digitally. I need to go and get it re-printed today.

Assignment #15 Hang a windchime on a tree in a parking lot.

2011-08-17T18:51:00.004+10:00

This semester for my CFI class I chose one that explored art, public and community. I chose it mainly because Miranda July was mentioned in the descriptions and she is one of my favourite artists! So far I'm really enjoying it, I feel like I'm getting a lot out of it and that it may be a direction I would like to take with my art! Our first task that we complete one of the assignments from Miranda July's (and another artist who I can't remember, fail) website "Learning to Love You More". It is also a book. Me and Luke are working on a cover of "Don't Dream It's Over" which is another one of the assignments. Open for my university is this weekend and the head of my department requested that in technical class we each make a sixty second video to be displayed on Open Day. Now, I don't usually work in video ever. I don't think that way so I was a little worried about what I would especially due to the fact that it would have been displayed on Open Day! I decided to kill two birds with one stone and made a video that could double for CFI and Open Day! Many big, lovey thank you's need to be sent out to my friend, Ashley Mustow, who helped me so much making the video! (If you click his name you will see his blog, which will then link you to the other billion places hwere he hangs out on the net!)

Wanderings

2011-08-17T17:24:00.004+10:00

half eaten fried rice, the kitchen window, desk area and kitchen, bookshelf in the lounge, the corner near my house, close up of the kitchen window, old pasta, zara, lounge room/balcony view, thousand pound gallery, containers and MoMo, bathroom, bedroom window, half eaten spring roll, bedside table, half eaten waffle, street view, tree, avocado, roof of the thousand pound gallery, more bedroom window.

Printmaking

2011-08-17T14:46:00.002+10:00

So in second year of my course it is required that you take an elective for a semester (I think). It has to be outside of your normal discipline so I could do photography, that would've been pointless. I chose printmaking, mainly because it's something that I haven't really been able to do due to lack of access to facilities and equipment. This was my first etching I did. I think I'm going to be incorporating more photography and college to my final pieces.

Phillip Island

2011-08-17T10:57:00.003+10:00

I probably should have uploaded this awhile ago. Maybe before I started uni. Or at least within three months after I took these photographs... It's actually been so long since this happened I don't really know if it was at the end of the summer holidays, wait, yes. This all happened at the end of the summer holidays. Luke and I ventured down to Phillip Island and spent the weekend there. It was super lovely. We both held our breath as we drove over the bridge. I failed, Luke succeeded. We watched some movies, went op shopping, played mini golf and went for a walk to look at the mangroves and the little crabs that live there. We also went down to the Penguin Parade in the freezing cold. The penguins are so cute as always. When you leave you have to check under your car to make sure there aren't any there! I didn't get any photographs from there as they've now totally banned photography due to stupid people using the flash on their cameras and blinding the penguins. I love Phillip Island, can't wait to get down there in the summer and go to the beach.

Luke

2011-08-10T10:36:00.000+10:00

cb

2011-08-10T10:32:00.001+10:00

cb's a bit of a babe. I can't decide whether I like it better in black and white or colour.

Four (4)

2011-08-10T10:21:00.002+10:00

Four weeks to create 4 A4 sized images, this was the task set for technical class over the hollidays. I totally forgot about it until the first week back so I used some older photographs as well as some that I took.

For my mother - Zine

2011-08-07T16:05:00.002+10:00

So this is the mock up of what my zine would look like. This is the first and so far only copy but I am hoping to make some more and then try and sell them in Sticky. A few changes need to be made though. The images need to be moved further away from the spine, I need to print them on much better paper so it's not see through and I need to make sure the binding doesn't fall apart! I'm also going to go do some shameless self promotion and stick a link to my blog on the back... We all love a bit of self promotion. But yeah, pretty happy with this!

For my mother - drawings

2011-08-07T15:44:00.003+10:00

Death to crappy scanning quality! Anyway this is what I'm working on at the moment. It's a series of self portraits in various moods, however the majority of them look the same. I used a ball point pen and water colour paints. I have made one zine out of these and hope to make some more. (Zine will be in the next post.) The title "For my mother" came about as I made this for my mother as a little guidebook to help her pin point my emotions, it is supposed to be completely useless and confusing. I showed one of my teachers the zine and the whole idea and I got a lot of positive feedback which made me happy! I have been having a pretty good time at uni recently, which is a change but a nice one. I think I might be showing this piece in my group tute this Thursday.

R.I.P Tracey 20.05.2011 - 28.07.2011

2011-08-07T15:05:00.004+10:00

Last week my goldfish Tracey died. I'm not sure why. Kelvin and Klaus are fine so I got them a filter and I need to get the water tested soon. I loved Tracey, I still do. I buried her in the communal garden at the apartments but I think the "caretaker" threw out her grave marker. I miss you Tracey.

Just a quick nothing,

2011-07-27T17:10:00.004+10:00

I know I haven't updated anything worthwhile really, just photos of myself with some whiny ramblings. This is another one though hopefully the rambling is slightly more positive. House wise, I'm pretty settled in. I just spent today organizing my desk area and cleaning the lounge. I think the next things I'm going to do is put up all my photo frames and pictures on my bedroom walls. And then organize the balcony, I spend a fair amount of time on the balcony. It's starting to feel like home. I ma still having a little trouble with adjusting to how small it is compared to my last house but I'll get used to it eventually!

University started this week with a lot of confusion. My first class back was my elective, I chose printmaking. It's a lot of fun and very hands on which is something I like a lot. I have a good feeling about this class! Other than that I've already started slacking and sleeping in and maybe spending time with Luke rather than doing what I should be... So hopefully some photos and works will be uploaded soon! Then you might not have to see my face anymore!

Bratty moods

2011-07-09T00:29:00.002+10:00

I have been in a bratty mood recently. I'm angry. I'm picking fights. Cutting down on cigarettes, stressed from packing. I think about a week or two ago me and my house mate decided to move. We got a house and since then everything has been going so quickly. I've been tired. I've been packing and walking up two flights of stairs carrying boxes to the new apartment. I missed mid year intake for university courses, I'm scared to go back to mine. Sometimes I don't think I can do this anymore. I'm tired, depressed, drained and just, I just can't sometimes. I'm so scared.

Back up work + assessment

2011-07-09T00:14:00.002+10:00

So it's been a little while again. This should have been up weeks ago. University is done for the semester and I'm halfway through break. This is just some documentation of everything, the back up work I did then finally the actual assessment. There's not really much else I can say about it as all the progress is here on the blog. I got my marks yesterday, happy to say That I passed, okay with how well I did, well, not really okay.

Preparation is a tricky word

2011-06-20T19:35:00.002+10:00

It's been a long day, tomorrow will be even longer. These are some photographs from around my studio today at university where I was getting prepared for tomorrow. D-day. After tomorrow I will no longer steal my boyfriend's things, make my fish travel in cereal containers and I will wash my hair more frequently. It'll be okay. Also, just as an end note for now, if you don't know what the hell I'm going on about and you would like to, you cam email me. Long night over, longer day ahead.

One day I'm going to come home and all of your things will be gone - fourth trial install

2011-06-20T19:22:00.008+10:00

My internet just broke on me. I spent about twenty minutes fixing it. I'm tired, I want to hang out with Luke, I want to shower and tie my hair up. So I'm going to keep this short then there's one more post until next time. Oh, next time. Here I was just playing with the layout of the hang for the Polaroids. I thought that by cluttering them together it made sure that nothing was more important than anything else but by aligning in rows and columns they can be seen a little bit more clearly and according to another teacher more of a "Sophie Calle" hang. I should get another fish and call it Sophie. She and Tracey could be friends. Oh and Tracey hates me heaps right because I took her to uni in like an air tight cereal container... (I made sure air could get in though, there was a lid in the lid...) and now she just keeps looking at me from her bowl. Glaring, hating. I'M SO SORRY TRACEY BUT I LOVE YOU. I also tried moving the table around into the middle of the room. I got my dad to build me a plinth based on what I told him. I'll have to see what it looks like tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

One day I'm going to come home and all of your things will be gone - third trial install

2011-06-20T18:48:00.003+10:00

It's hard sometimes when you have three or more different opinions coming at you, you're making work that's going to be assessed and you just want to make everyone happy. Ultimately I guess, you have to take on board what everyone is saying, listen but then do what you feel is right. I had decided to ditch the Polaroids for a period of time there in favor of the objects, not anymore. I don't understand what possessed me to take photos of the things that Luke leaves around my room, maybe I'm broken or fucked in the head or something but that's what I did, I can't explain it. If no one else understands why, guess what? I don't either. I tried to find a compromise between objects, photographs and all the advice that's I'd been given. The Polaroids sit outside the empty room, dimly lit. Inside the empty larger room sits a small beside table. It's here where the note is displayed amongst with other objects. The note is able to hold it's own here more so. The ambiguity it previously had has moved to the Polaroids as now it stays with personal belongings. It's a little bit of a shrine, a mourning of something yet to happen. In the drawer are photos of me and Luke, tickets to movies and other memorabilia I would never want to see again if this hypothetical situation became a reality.

One day I'm going to come home and all of your things will be gone - second trial install

2011-06-20T18:40:00.004+10:00

After speaking to one of my teachers after the first trial install, we spoke about how things would really look in the hypothetical situation if someone was leaving someone else. Rather than being scattered about and strewn everywhere, they would be packed neatly and ready to go. I quickly tried it out while packing up all of Luke's belongings. Not feeling the vibe here too much...

One day I'm going to come home and all of your things will be gone - first trial install

2011-06-20T18:22:00.006+10:00

Experimenting with the idea of bringing in Luke's things to recreate a room. The concept has moved forward in many ways now. After starting as a documentation of space, it now deals with fragility, impermanence, paranoia and reassurance. The idea has evolved a lot since this trial install. Having both the Polaroids and belongings is a bit too much. The way the items were placed made it seem like an argument had broken out and I'd thrown Luke out rather than him leave (hypothetically, this is all based on a hypothetical situation). The note just couldn't hold it's own in that big white room.

Documentation of the girls/Shit my psychiatrist says

2011-06-20T18:14:00.003+10:00

I can't remember how long it's been since I stuck up my drawings of myself that I've now started referring to as "the girls" in my head. Maybe a month, maybe more? They've braved all that Melbourne's weather has thrown at them: rain, hail and shine.

Shit my psychiatrist says - out in the world

2011-06-20T18:05:00.004+10:00

The girls have been out in the world for awhile. Clearly back when the sun was shining but as Melbourne weather slowly turns to Winter the girls have started to peel off and come apart. My dad thinks people have been ripping them off. I think it's what happens with street art. Anyway these photos are of the girls in all their glory, only hours after they had been stuck up. I was covered in sweat and wheat-paste after what seemed like an endless task of gluing and sticking. I've had a pretty good response towards this piece. A few of my classmates have told me how much they like them and I see people stopping to look at them when they walk past. One of the nicest things that happened was talking to a French tourist who stopped at each girl, took a photograph and got her friend to translate the text.

twenty (again, still?)

2011-06-20T17:57:00.003+10:00

A few photographs that I took on a disposable camera on my birthday. My boyfriend, my boyfriend waiting with me at Boost, me excitedly showing off my own presents to myself, a present from my cousin in Germany, her boyfriend and family, PLUS MY FISH (TRACEY, KELVIN AND KLAUS.) I really like my fish. They've been in a hateful mood recently (mainly Tracey), more on that soon.

Board Girls

2011-06-20T17:48:00.003+10:00

Yet another really delayed update. Back when I was um-ing and ah-ing about where to put and what to do with my little wheat paste girls I was testing out text on a blank white board at university. In the end I decided to go with the formating of the one on the right and included some speech bubbles. These girls are gone now. Someone needed the board.

Absence

2011-06-18T16:37:00.002+10:00

Looking back at my log, it seems that I haven't been absent for that long. A few weeks tops maybe. It seems a lot longer than that. The semester holidays have drawing closer but this past week I've declared my own holidays, barely leaving my bed. My assessment is this Tuesday. I'm preparing all my back work at the moment. The final placement/arrangement/objects/photographs/whatever it is I'm doing has been decided. FIngers crossed everything goes okay, I want to do well.

One day I'm going to come home and of your things will be gone

2011-06-01T19:26:00.003+10:00

So I've been having a lot of trouble printing the photos I took of things that Luke leaves around my room. I've tried printing them in the darkroom, scanning the negatives, digitally printing them and all seems to have failed due to my crappy negatives. With twenty-two days until my assessment I set out on the hunt for Polaroid 600 hunt with the hope of reshooting. I bought eight packs off a lovely man on eBay who was able to get them to me today. Now with twenty days until assessment I'm hoping the self published book I compiled them all into will arrive in time. If not, I do have a back up plan. Turns out this boys has been leaving even more things around my room since the last shoot. Oh well.

World Expo Shanghai 2011 - United Kingdom

2011-05-25T10:03:00.004+10:00

As it's probably aware I went to China in the later part of last year. We went hoping to see the Shanghai Biennale (cancelled due to the World Expo) and the Singalpore Biennale (cancelled due to the Grand Prix). We did make it to the World Expo though, which was fantastic. A whole day was spent here, roughly from 10am until 10pm that night. My feet were covered in blisters so badly that I managed to get blisters upon blisters the next day. Anyway these are some photographs of the United Kingdom Pavillion known as the Seed Cathedral. My digital camera battery died earlier that day so I had to revert to my iPhone camera for the majority of the day. None the less this building is beautiful and was by far my most favourite pavillion at the Expo.

Blow over

2011-05-25T07:28:00.002+10:00

I want everything to blow over. I want it to stop. I fell like a little speck of dust thats been swept up in a giant gust of wind and there's nothing I can do about it.

Twenty (20)

2011-05-22T23:35:00.004+10:00

I turned twenty last Friday, that's two days ago. I have been twenty for two days. I don't feel any wiser or stronger. If anything I feel worse, I'm twenty years old and going in a direction I wish I could run away from. All plans of travel have been put on hold, it's impossible to save while studying and renting, then there's the need for a laptop which never got replaced after mine got stolen (much thanks to Luke who lets me borrow his). I make everything sound terrible. My actual birthday was lovely. Songs, breakfast at lunch time, a free Boost, some new pet fish from Luke (Tracey, Klaus and Kelvin!), taking it easy and watching movies. Exactly how I want to spend every birthday.

I haven't updated in a while, to some extent from laziness. I have a set of photos to scan, one set to upload, probably more than one set to upload. Uni break is coming up really soon, so hopefully I can catch up then with all my posts. But for now it's time to loose my birthday slack and get back into uni, essays and work. Blah.

Cabinet

2011-05-11T21:44:00.003+10:00

This was my second piece from last semester's assessment. I created a medicine cabinet filled with bottles. Each bottle held the necessary materials things to re-create a certain moment in my life but ultimately not enough to successfully re-create the moment.

Don't say I didn't fucking warn you

2011-05-11T21:36:00.004+10:00

This is work from my last semester which I had recently reworked into a video. I had the lovely Sam help me get the vinyl onto the wall while I supervised. Haha. I think this whole piece is pretty self explanatory but I did enjoy just working in text. I did not enjoy turning it into a video. I had to work with the text like stop motion which took hours then muddled about with Final Cut Pro and Toast trying to burn it onto a DVD. So much frustration. (Oh and yes, terrible photographs, I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me yet that I need to take photographs with something that's not an iPhone...)

Melbourne University Grounds

2011-05-11T21:25:00.003+10:00

At the moment, as there is every year, a competition is running to photograph the grounds of either Melbourne University Parkville campus or the Victorian College of the Arts Southbank campus. We were all encouraged to submit an image so I thought I might as well give it a shot. I went walking around last Wednesday with my Holga camera which light leaked all over the top of my negatives. I found it really hard to shoot this in an interesting and different way but we'll have to see how we go. I think I'm going to submit the second image. I was really excited when I wandered around and found that there were actually hot houses near the back of the university. I would totally love to study plants.

Three goes into One

2011-05-11T20:22:00.004+10:00

This is another assignment we had to do for technical class. All we had to do was create a triptych (such a hard word to say!) using any three images we wanted but to have them edited correctly in Photoshop. I used this opportunity to experiment with documentation of me working on my paste ups of "Shit my psychiatrist says" (more photos from that coming soon too). For more triptychs have a look at Gate 5.

The Last Frame

2011-05-11T20:16:00.003+10:00

This is one of the projects that we did in technical class. The whole concept was that the image you would present was the last frame that you took. The photographs weren't necessarily the best of the roll (as you can see in my case) and it may not have been the favourite either. You can see more of "The Last Frame" at Gate 5.

VCA Photo - Gate 5

2011-05-11T20:08:00.007+10:00

If you have the time you should swing by this website that's run by Andrew, one of the technicians at the VCA. Gate 5 is collection of works from all year levels of the photography department. It also has projects that we have been working on in and out of technical class. It's such a great collection of work definitely worth looking at!

Delayed update

2011-05-11T13:58:00.004+10:00

It's been a little while. I think. I've been so tired recently, just purely exhausted, I've forgotten what day it is. I didn't go to university today. I got up in the freezing cold, got dressed and went to walk out the door, when I just couldn't. I crawled back into bed fully clothed and slept. At one point I managed to get back into pajamas but I have hardly left bed all day since. I'd say it was brilliant if I didn't have a nagging worry in my mind about needing to go to university tomorrow, it's Thursday tomorrow, right? Then continuing my training at my new/old job. Oh dear, I just want this to be done with. Hopefully I'll get around to uploading some stories and art, got a few things lying around and it's not like I'm doing anything better, maybe I'll clean my room.

Bourke St.

2011-05-01T15:30:00.005+10:00

This is one of the first photographs I printed in the colour darkroom. Argh, it's so tedious and time consuming but I'm going back in there tomorrow to start printing out the series "Things Luke leaves in my room."

ILLEGAL DRUG GUIDE

2011-05-01T15:16:00.004+10:00

Another piece from last years assessment that never went anywhere. I used this weird film that for some reason always turn out really grainy no matter what the lighting conditions are, it becomes even worse when the lighting isn't of good quality. Bah!

bracket.

2011-05-01T14:23:00.002+10:00

More old work. I think I made this when I was in year 11, home alone by myself on the school holidays. I made it for an online zine called bracket. I don't think it ever come to exist. If anyone has ever heard of it let me know...

NO SUCH SAFE PLACE

2011-04-14T00:13:00.003+10:00

I made this years ago but it's always been one of my favourite pieces. It was taken at one of my old high schools. I printed the photos while I was still there, then the text got added later. When it all got weird and I never wanted to go back there again.

Attempt

2011-04-14T00:08:00.004+10:00

This is an attempt at a perfect black and white print from the darkroom. So much dodging and burning and failed prints! Me and Sara tried to make me fake cry, it worked pretty well considering the chilli sauce we used as blood got into my eye.

Problem sets

2011-04-13T23:55:00.007+10:00

Photograph the space next to your bed.

Make an impression.

Green Guide: frame it.

Recreate it in a photo of a video.

Related Studies changed in second semester instead of recreating famous works we were given certain rules we had to work within each week. These are a few that I kind of liked and had digital copies of.

CFI 2010

2011-04-13T23:47:00.004+10:00

Last year in CFI (Center for Ideas) my second semester group project was to create some fake record covers representing the music stereotypes. These are the two that I did: "emo" and "country and western". In our readers there were images from the website Bizarre Records which is where we got our inspiration from.

Make a Fake

2011-03-30T21:25:00.011+11:00

Cindy Sherman

Francesca Woodman

Sam Taylor-Wood

Philip-Lorca deCorcia

Jeff Wall

Thomas Demand

So last year I had a class called Related Studies. For all of semester one we attempted to re-create works by famous photographers. I failed, so badly. These are a few of the slightly less terrible ones. (I know it sounds like I'm totally opposed to this class and I hated it an everything which is kind of true but it was useful. I learned and got soul destroyed.)

Nostalgia

2011-03-30T21:05:00.006+11:00

In my miserable state lately that combines sickness with a lack of motivation, sleep and security I've become a little bit nostalgic. For the old days back in high school, the second high school in the second year. It was me and Jamie (I know I have wrong grammar but I can't stand to say "Jamie and I") running around like lunatics in photography class. We shared a camera, argued over the negatives, both took the time to print the photos we liked regardless of who might have snapped that shot. I remember being so angry whenever I had to go on camp for outdoor education and I would miss photography class. Sharing six enlargers between a group of thirty kids was tedious, we would print one photograph then switch with the next person on the waiting list scribbled on the chalk board. Twice a week for a double period, I looked forward to it so much. Even the time when we were learning about shutter speed and I was photographed with my dress flying around my face couldn't deter me. The teachers gave me odd looks when I asked if I could use the darkroom during my free time, as if they couldn't understand why someone would lock themselves in a nearly pitch black room during their free periods and lunch times. I don't think I understand that either now. What would have happened if I'd stayed? What would have happened if I kept sharing six enlargers with thirty kids? Maybe the magic would still exist, I hope it comes back.

Shit my psychiatrist says - W.I.P

2011-03-30T18:22:00.007+11:00

These are a few photos from around my studio space at university where I've been working on my current wheat paste project. The project is based on conversations that I have with my psychiatrist which are usually unhelpful and the the better times, entertaining. The last photograph is a mock up of what I would like the final series to look like, I hadn't photocopied that drawing yet. Unfortunately due to my drawing skills it has been a long process, currently I'm trying to work out the text fonts and placements and then I should nearly be done!

Moomba 2011

2011-03-22T22:40:00.009+11:00

Over the Labor Day weekend Melbourne has the Moomba Festival. Luke and I ventured forth on the Saturday which heated up pretty quickly! We rode the ferris wheel which was awesome even though I'm petrified of heights and also played in the Art Play space (all the photos of tangled webs, that was Art Play), where we got to tie and throw elastic around to add to a giant web! A little kid used me as a pole and wrapped elastic around me... Luke failed to win me a pony though, I won Princess Sparkles the Second all on my own.

Things Luke leaves around my room

2011-03-22T22:16:00.007+11:00

I've been thinking a lot about bedrooms recently. How they are our safe places, how they can get invaded, how they can represent a person. When our house got broken into earlier this year, I was angry and upset that my laptop got stolen. One of my housemates, who also had something stolen, had the same feelings I did but also felt that our space had been violated, that someone had broken into something personal. I guess it got me thinking about how much my bedroom is my space, something that I don't want strangers rifling through. I think I might have always felt this way but never realized it, I mean I hate having people over and I hate having strange people sleeping in my bed, my friends gets classified as strange people when they sleep in my bed.

I've started doing a large series on bedrooms. This is just one of my sub series'. I wandered around my room camera in hand looking for things that Luke leaves lying around. I like it. I was thinking along the lines of "Where's Wally?" but more along the lines of "What has Luke left in Sam's room?" I don't mind that I can see his things everywhere, I like it. These are just scans of the photographs, once I finish my current project I'm planning to lock myself in the darkroom and print all of these by myself.

house/home

2011-03-18T21:01:00.006+11:00

A few photographs from around my house, it always a constant mess.

Yarrawonga

2011-03-18T20:28:00.007+11:00

These are the few photographs I took whilst up at Yarrawonga, to be honest I spent most of my time sitting behind Luke on a jet ski or sun baking on a boat. But it's really lovely up there, the weather was perfect once it stopped raining. And sorry for the lack of updates, university is back on and this year is so much more full on than the last! Also trying to figure out what to do for work and get over this mutant cold virus which decided to attack Luke then me.

Hello Kitty in China

2011-02-25T18:41:00.012+11:00

Last year I went to China for a university trip. My Pentax K1000 broke after the first day there and I couldn't find anywhere that would fix it. Luckily for me at 798 I found a man on the side of the road with a collection of film point and shoot cameras. I picked up a Hello Kitty camera for real cheap and for the rest of the trip it was my much lighter, yet still trusty camera. These are some photos from the first roll I got out of the Pentax K1000 before it bailed on me and the many other rolls I got from the Hello Kitty point and shoot.

Holiday story number #1

2011-02-13T10:38:00.007+11:00

The watered down recounting of my New Year's Eve: Luke and I tried to go to a porch party. Before we left I vomited. We went anyway. On the tram, I felt like I was going to vomit. The moment we got off the tram I vomited. All the way down this street we walked along I vomited so I'm terribly sorry of you came across any of this. We caught a cab back to my house where I vomited, right into the New Year. I spent the first few moments of 2011 hunched over my toilet vomiting. We called an ambulance. It never came. We drove to the hospital. I vomited. We sat in the hospital for three hours. I vomited some more. They finally found a bed for me. I got up and fainted. They stuck a drip in my arm., I couldn't drink water until I found a nurse who wasn't aware that it would make me vomit. He gave me a cup of water. I vomited. I felt better. I went home. I passed gastro onto Luke and Beck. I spent the next four days in bed.

Holy crap, I don't think I've used the word vomit so may times before.

Laneway 2011 (first slightly on time relevant post!)

2011-02-13T10:23:00.008+11:00

Last weekend I went to Laneway with my friend, Jess. It was super fun and now I have no money. At all. The spiral potato was $5, we paid $5 for a tasty potato, it was so tasty. We managed to see most of the bands we wanted to see: Two Door Cinemas Club, Jenny and Johnny, Cloud Control, !!!, Holy Fuck and Yeasayer. Laneway is good. The weather held out on us and didn't rain much to our disappointment as we had also purchased $5 ponchos which we chose to wear anyway.

Stolen

2011-02-13T10:19:00.008+11:00

My laptop got stolen from my bedroom, my house. So screw you person who took it. I hope you realized it's broken, won't update and there's nothing vaguely incriminating about me on there (as far as I am aware).

Sovereign Hill and a quick recap

2011-02-13T10:05:00.011+11:00

So far the past two or three months I've been on holidays after making it through my first year at university. These holidays have been under stimulating, tiresome and a downright letdown. I have been producing minimal amounts of art, working minimally at a juice bar, saving minimal amounts of cash that gets dipped into every month to buy food and spending mass amounts of time with my boyfriend.

It hasn't been as bad as I make it out to be, there was a day trip to Sovereign Hill which I thoroughly enjoyed, Laneway Festival (which stole all my money, photos soon) and a few trips up to Yarrawonga where I got to ride on the back of a jet ski and experience boat politics. I'm going to be back logging a little bit, some work from last year maybe, some stories about these holidays, the minimal amounts of art I made. Oh well, university starts soon. Real soon.