Electric Woolies

Part 5 of the Bega deconstructed project...revisiting the scene of the architectural crime that is the new Woolworth's complex...

Bob Georgeson, Electric Woolies, Auckland St, Bega, 2 Sept. 2012

When did you last have an orgasm?

Various locations, Bega, New South Wales, Australia, 22 August 2012...

Worlds in Collision

Worlds in Collision is a project I have been working on this year. I have been photographing and videoing images and segments from foreign language (well, at least foreign to me) TV news services from Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. I have a fascination with this part of the world that seems to have had more than its fair share of troubles, whether it be from invaders like the Mongols or Crusaders, or internal conflicts between neighbouring peoples. 

This is the first of my video experiments that I am reasonably happy with. I had originally conceived a more menacing soundtrack, but I never tire of listening to Herbie, and it just happened to fit the length of the timeline...

Alleyway

Part 3 of Bega deconstructed...Auckland Street...July 2012...

Bob Georgeson, Alleyway, 2012, Digital photograph

Ecstasy

Part two of the Bega deconstructed project...

Bob Georgeson, Ecstasy, 2012, Video projection, Woolworth's complex, Bega.

Bega deconstructed

They say that Bega will be transformed when the new bypass is completed, but for many local residents they might have wished that they could have bypassed this town forever. 'I've had a Bega of a day' is instantly understood as meaning NOT GOOD. However, as the largest centre of the Far South Coast it's facilities such as the hospital, local government and shops make it impossible to ignore. There are little treasures amongst the architectural monstrosities. The Historical Society's museum, Candelo Books, the Regional and Spiral Art Galleries, the Anglican Church are small cultural havens that contrast with the arguing couples outside the Centrelink offices, or the bunch of colourful characters that sit at Gloria Jeans Coffee Shop. A visit to Bega makes one realise how fortunate ones life has been...

So, I have decided to deconstruct Bega with a view to eventually using it's vagaries for public art projects. I am indebted to Craig Cameron for sparking this project with his original idea of using vacant shops as art spaces...

Bob Georgeson, Undercover Parking, 2012, Installation view, Woolworth's complex, Auckland St, Bega.

road TRIP

The third in my series of experimental films...

...a warning for my overseas readers: Australia really looks like this!

...and, as I am still learning all this stuff any feedback on technical issues, file sizes, file formats, video and sound quality etc. would be appreciated...

Airport

Bob Georgeson, Airport, 2012, Triptych, Digital photography.

Blood of Medusa

Bob Georgeson, Blood of Medusa, 2012, Digital photo.

Bit of a lull in posts this week as the artistry of mother nature takes centre stage. Violent storms and huge swells make art and ideas seem somewhat irrelevant. And how invigorating it is for the soul to be at close hand on a deserted beach where the sound of wind and surf make conversation pointless (maybe it always is!). Occasionally coral is found after such storms. Reminded me of an earlier post about its origins in the story of Perseus and Andromeda from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Even though there are spectacular rocks where I live Andromeda was nowhere to be found. I will keep looking...

Descending nude

My second movie! Where's the red carpet? Oh well...look on the bright side, it's only a minute long, the soundtracks groovy and it does feature June Palmer...

The Quarrymen

Bob Georgeson, The Quarrymen, 2012. Installation view, Eaglehawk Quarry, Bendigo, Victoria.

In interview discussing I Am The Walrus, John Lennon said he was writing nonsense lyrics in response to a teacher getting students to analyze the words to Beatles songs. He also commented on Bob Dylan's lyrics saying he "was getting away with murder" and added "I can write that crap too". Of course Lennon was following his already established tradition of montaging phrases from a  wide variety of sources.

I often look through art magazines, shake my head in wonderment, and think I can make that crap too...

...and for John Lennon's final word on Bob Dylan: after Bob had gone all Christian on us Lennon did his piss take on Gotta Serve Somebody, called Serve Yourself...John at his acerbic best...

Night nurse

Well, you gotta start somewhere...first the blogosphere, next Bollywood, then Cannes and maybe even Fyshwick!

That is such for practical purposes though not in name or according to strict definition...

Bob Georgeson, Explosion and The moment I had been waiting for, Mixed media, 2012

My original idea was to have an online presence for my art and thought that a blog might be marginally more interesting than a static image repository. I wanted to be able to 'point' interested parties (like prospective gallery directors) at a site so they could get an idea of what I did and where I was coming from.

Then I started to think about the 'blog' becoming the art work in  itself. This had great appeal because of my distaste for being 'curated' and having to deal with art wankers, not to mention the cost and stress of mounting exhibitions that few people see because I happen to live in a remote part of the planet. In this environment I can control what I want to exhibit and how it is presented, and reach a far greater audience than in the 'physical' world. Like many other artists around the world I am also concerned about the way in which the conventional art 'system' works and is controlled, and look for ways to exhibit in, and support, non-elitist public spaces.

Virtual art is a term usually associated with computer generated imagery and gaming, but art displayed in the virtual environment is a relatively new concept. I had been flicking through an art mag recently and thought how do you know that these images of installations are real? And since so much of our experience of art comes from reproductions in books, magazines and the web does it even matter? British man of letters Samuel Johnson said a very long time ago that 'a room full of pictures is a room full of thoughts'. Does not the thought linger regardless of the medium?

It may be hard to make money out of it but as an artist with a dismal sales record anyway it really doesn't make much of a difference, although it would be nice to get funding for large scale installations and the video work that I want to pursue...

The title of this post is the definition of 'virtual' from The Concise Oxford Dictionary. I hope you find it helpful...

International Women's Day

She said this morning that she was going to clean the bathroom and vacuum the floors. I said 'You can't do that on International Women's Day', to which she replied 'DON'T TELL ME what I can and can't do on International Women's Day!' and added, with finger wagging perilously close to my chin, 'and DON'T call me dear!'. I crawl back to my studio...

Later in the day I say 'Why don't you put your feet up and relax while I cook dinner'. She says nothing...

Bob Georgeson, She rests her tired legs, 2011

There's no time like the virtual

Bob Georgeson, Worlds in Collision #1, 2012

Ines Rojas, Director of the Museu d'Art Virtual de Barcelona, stands in front of Worlds in Collision #1, a six-channel digital video installation at the 2012 Barcelona Biennale...

Desecration in the Church

Bob Georgeson, Time of Desecration, 2012

...for Alberto Moravia, who's Time of Desecration is one of my all time favourite novels, and for all those babies who have pissed on the priest at baptism...

Thanks to Suzanne for modelling...

Bega to Cobargo after the party

Bob Georgeson, Bega to Cobargo after the party, 2012

I was going to enter this one in the Bega Valley Art Prize but when I saw who was judging it! Ooops...just joking...I actually couldn't afford to get it framed...which reminds me that all of my work in this site is for sale...

The series...

Jelena #1

Bob Georgeson, Jelena #1, 2011

I have absolutely no interest in tennis as a sport, either as player or spectator, but I am fascinated by the central European female stars...they have a 'look' about them which not only reflects their region's history, but I keep getting drawn back to Caravaggio's Judith with the furrowed brow as she beheads Holophernes. (Jelena and her father perhaps?)

More images...