Andrew Quilty, Liberty and Route 66. Courtesy the artist.

ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program that looks at the exhibition Blue Highways, USA, which gives us a glimpse of America seen through the lens of  Australian Walkley Award winning photographer, Andrew Quilty.

Quilty followed the old roads, or Blue Highways, through Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and New York. The exhibition Blue Highways, USA shares with us the people and places he encountered ‘from the dustbowl to prosperity’.

Andrew Quilty will be joining me in the studio for chat about his work and the exhibition.

Blue Highways, USA is on show Maunsell Wickes Gallery, Paddington, until Monday 14 May, as part of the annual Head On Photographic Festival organised by the Australian Centre for Photography.

Andrew’s photographs have earned him the following accolades: World Press Photo Award (2008), The Inaugural Walkley Young Australian Photojournalist of The Year Award and an invitation to join the prestigious Australian Photographic Collective Oculi. In 2009 he was invited to be the sole judge of world’s richest photography prize – The Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize.

More on Andrew here: http://andrewquilty.com/about/

More on Oculi here: http://oculi.com.au/about-2/

And the music? Well, where would a show about road trips be without music about the travelling highways and the open road? Lucinda Williams, Brownie McGee, Memphis Slim and more. And in keeping with Quilty’s America as seen in Blue Highways, there’ll be Dylan and Guthrie in the mix. So, you can expect jazz and poetry, politics and twang.

As always, I look forward to your company, 10:30 to noon.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Sigmund Freud, by Max Halberstadt, 1921

ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a show previewing Seeking Mr Freud, another of Eastside’s fabulous own radio plays, the Sonic Tales.

Everybody’s heard about Sigmund Freud, of course, and most people would associate the psychoanalyst with dreams. Eastside’s black comedy Seeking Mr Freud is about a disturbed psychology Ph.D., Sigrid, who dreams of marrying a Mr Freud …

Joining me in the studio for chat about the history of radio plays and the upcoming new season of Eastside’s Sonic Tales is their producer, Gill Falson, and we’ll also be chatting with the writer of Seeking Mr Freud, Noelle Janaczewska.

Season 1 of Eastside’s Sonic Tales here: http://eastsidefm.org/?p=33003&preview=true

More about the writer here: http://noelle-janaczewska.com/2012/04/20/seeking-mr-freud/

And the music? Jazz and blues playlists abound with songs about dreams and secrets, so I’ll be taking you on a musical journey sampling some oldies and goodies from the songbooks, as well as some more recent avant-garde jazz tracks and a couple of contemporary takes on our mad world.

So, if you like Vince Jones, Lizz Wright, Bill Evans, Julie London, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Paul Motian, Billy Bang, Johnny Lee Hooker, Louis Sclavis, Herbie Hancock or Gary Jules, then be sure to tune in.

As always, I look forward to your company, 10:30 to noon.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Join me, Jane Raffan, on Easter Monday for a twisted gospel show and a preview of Pulpit Rock – one of the new season’s fabulous Sonic Tales, Eastside’s own radio plays.

You might know about America’s most famous radio drama broadcast – Orson Welles’ 1938 version of The War of the Worlds.  It caused panic, convincing many that an actual invasion from Mars was taking place.

Joining me in the studio for chat about the history of radio plays and the upcoming new season of Eastside’s Sonic Tales is their producer, Gill Falson.

Season 1 of Eastside’s Sonic Tales here: http://eastsidefm.org/?p=33003&preview=true

And the gospel part? I’ll be cruising through Easter Monday entertaining you with a gospel playlist with a few twists. Let’s face it, there’s always more than one side to any story (the idea of god wouldn’t have had nearly the same impact without the idea of the devil…).

So, if you like Tom Waits, Etta James, Al Green, The Staple Singers, Lanie Lane, Lyle Lovett, Sonny terry & Brownie McGee, or The Staple Singers, The Doobie Brothers, Nirvana and Mojo Nixon, then you are in for a treat.

As always, I look forward to your company, 10:30 to noon.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Our guests are:

Prof Jill Bennett - founding director of the National Institute for Experimental Arts [NIEA] and previously founded the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics at UNSW, where she also holds the position of Associate Dean Research, College of Fine Arts.

Aymeric Maudous – Organiser of the Eco Xpo, sustainable art enthusiast.

Tracey Deep – Currently part of the Material World Exhibit at ANCA. She has been working as a floral sculptor for the last 15years. Evolving over the last 10 years her art practice spawned from floral art & has developed into the realm of environmental art, sculpture & installations. Her passion is working with used, industrial, organic, discarded, pre loved & discontinued materials, to create sustainable art. She revels in the natural world. Her works reflect a poetic play of light & shade, earth textures & sensual forms, inspired by the essence of nature.

Jenny Pollak, 1 Degree of Separation, 2011, courtesy the artist and the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney

ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program that looks at one of our precious and threatened natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef, and specifically, its main life force, the coral.

We’ve been hearing about the various dangers to the oceans—and the Great Barrier Reef in particular—for a while now, including shipping & pollution, ocean acidification & temperature rises, and most recently, UNESCO’s concerns about dredging the seafloor near Gladstone, Queensland. You can learn more about this threat at: http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/coal-seam-gas/great-barrier-reef/save-the-reef

My guests today are Dr Jude Philp, Senior Curator at the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, and artist Jenny Pollak, whose work features in the Macleay’s new exhibition, called Coral: Art Science Life.

In Coral: art four artists exhibit works that explore our relationship with this fragile waterscape. In Coral: science the work of four University scientists demonstrates the importance of research for understanding the reefs and their future. In Coral: life two schools in the Torres Strait share their vision of living on the reefs of the Coral Sea.

More on the exhibition and the museum’s hours of opening can be found here: http://sydney.edu.au/museums/events_exhibitions/macleay_exhibitions.shtml

And if you are interested in stats on the threat to coral reefs and into mobile app technology, then check out the art posters in Taylor Square, Sydney.  Lynette Wallworth’s ReKindling Venus: InPlain Sight invites you to join a global network by downloading a free app, which activates a 3D portal. Point your app at the posters – immersive installations – and you will be able to receive real-time alerts about coral bleaching world wide and link to a website with more information on warming sea temperatures. This work is part of Wallworth’s larger ReKindling Venus project, http://rekindlingvenus.com

And if you want to mix your activism with scuba diving, visit earthwatch.org.au for information on an eight day research trip to Orpheus, an 11 kilometre-wide island in the GBR, about 1200 km north of Brisbane. They are looking for open-water certified diving volunteers to assist scientists collect data.

Taking cues from the subject of the Macleay’s exhibition and the City of Sydney’s public art program about coral reefs, the program’s music will reference watery themes, including contemporary jazz tracks actually named after underwater organisms – true!

As always, I look forward to your company.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Christian Edwardes, Travelling Landscape-Objects: A Ship Aground, 2010-2011. Type C photograph, 50 x 70 cm. Courtesy the artist and Peloton.

ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program that investigates aspects of Cockatoo Island’s institutional heritage through an in-situ exhibition.

My guest is curator Claire Taylor, who is a director of Peloton, a not-for-profit artist-run organization in Sydney. We’ll be talking about Claire’s latest curatorial project for Peloton, which is an installation of the works of 7 artists on Cockatoo Island called Drawing Lines in the Sand. The site-specific works each address a particulate aspect of our colonial history, including the island’s history as “a condensed site of acquisition, containment and control”.

And the nature of the works? Visitors to the island can explore a lawn inset with colonial montages, a virtual reality simulator, take a walk through a forest of scaffolding, follow a journey descending into a saltmine, hear a ghost of the many machines that once were deafening within the island’s workshops, and perhaps get lost within a giant 3D drawing.

More on the exhibition can be found here: www.peloton.net.au/t/projects.

For transport information visit www.sydneyferries.info/timetables/cockatoo-island.htm.

Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour is open daily to the public and entry is free, visit www.cockatooisland.gov.au for more information.

And taking cues from the exhibition, the program’s music will reference themes and imagery that resonate with some of the historical intersections offered up by Cockatoo Island and the artists’ installations.

As always, I look forward to your company.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Destiny Deacon, The 3 diss graces, 2009, inkjet print from digital image on archival paper, 60 × 45cm. Courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

Hello Dollies!  ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program that delves into the psychological and symbolic resonances of the doll, as explored in the exhibition Hello Dollies! at Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest.

I’ll be chatting with  the Gallery’s Curator and Collections Manager Dr Shirley Daborn, and Acting Director Victoria Harbutt, and we’ll be examining the myriad of  interpretations on display in this fabulous and fascinating exhibition.

The exhibition features more than twenty artists with work dating from the 1940s until the present day. Hello Dollies showcases works of art across diverse mediums including a life size woolen knitted sculpture, intricate pen drawings, photography, painting, assemblages and projection.

Exhibiting artists include Peter Baka, Penny Byrne, Gunter Christmann, Will Coles, Matt Coyle, Destiny Deacon, Adrienne Doig, Fiona Fenech, Rosalie Gascoigne, Barbara Hanrahan, Joy Hester, Di Holdsworth, Linde Ivimey, Kate Just, Deborah Kelly, Alasdair Macintyre, Tracey Moffatt, Mirka Mora, Janet Parker-Smith, Joan Ross, Sally Smart, and Peter Spilsbury. Also included is a variety of exquisite miniature doll tableaux.

More on the exhibition can be found here: http://www.penrithregionalgallery.org/Hello%20Dollies.php?mode=preview

And taking cues from the exhibition, the program’s music will also focus on the doll, and will be be a mix of jazz, blues, R&B and other vocal pieces, with a few surprises,  including tracks by Memphis Slim, Cat Power, Duke Ellington, Lunia, Paloma Faith, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith and more.

As always, I look forward to your company.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Miao people, Dragon necklace, 20th C, silver. Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales.

ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program about the significance of the dragon in Chinese art and culture.

I’ll be joined by Cao Yin, Curator of Chinese Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and we’ll be talking about the Asian gallery’s new exhibition called Dragon, which runs 1 through 6 May.

Celebrating 2012 as the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, this exhibition showcases works of art with dragon motifs.

Encompassing bronzes, porcelains, textiles, paintings and calligraphy, the exhibition examines the creature’s diverse meanings and manifestations in Chinese art, ritual and politics. Works of art from Japan and Chinese export ware demonstrate how the dragon has been adopted by cultures outside China.

More on the fourty-four works in the exhibition can be found here: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/search/?exhibition_id=6012

And taking cues from the interviews, the program’s music will be a mix of instrumental jazz pieces influenced by the East, as well as a few classics referencing China, including tracks by Bill Frisell, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Bunny Berigan, John Zorn, Jon Jang and Yusef Lateef.

As always, I look forward to your company.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au

Elaine Campaner - Breakfast in Sydney, 2009, digital print on 100% cotton paper, 553 x 830 mm, edition of 10. Courtesy Damien Minton Gallery, Redfern.

ArtiFacts Eastside.

Join me, Jane Raffan, for a program about art, poetry and literature specifically focused on Sydney.

I’ll be joined by Damien Minton, Director of Redfern’s Damien Minton Gallery, and we’ll be talking about the gallery’s new exhibition called Five Bells – a Visual Ode to Sydney, which runs 1 through 18 February.

Taking cues from Kenneth Slessor’s poem – voted Australia’s best poem by ABC listeners in 1988 – and Delia Falconer’s recent book on Sydney, the group exhibition features works by forty artists across a range of media and styles, and offers visitors the chance to reflect on a Sydney they may not recognise.

More on the exhibition can be found here: http://damienmintongallery.com.au/artists/five-bells

Related events:

Saturday 11 February 2012, 3–5 pm, Geordie Williamson (chief literary critic of the Australian) in conversation with Gail Jones (author of the novel ‘Five Bells’).  Saturday 18 February 2012, 3–5 pm, Fiona McGregor (artist and author of the novel ‘Indelible Ink’) and Martin Edmond (author of the book ‘Dark Night, Walking with McCahon’); 5-6 pm, Laurie Scott Baker and Ruark Lewis performing ‘Five Bells Remix’.

Kenneth Slessor’s famous poem can be found here: http://treasure-explorer.nla.gov.au/closerlook/slessors-five-bells

And taking its cue from the Slessor elegy for his friend Joe Lynch, the program’s music will be a mix of instrumental jazz tributes, more eulogistic than elegiac in tone, including tracks by Charles Mingus, Don Pullen, David Murray, Charles Lloyd, John Coltrane, Marty Ehrlich and Mal Waldron.

It’s good to be back with you on Eastside. If you have questions or suggestions about the Arts Monday programs you can reach me at jraffan@ArtiFacts.net.au.

I look forward to your company in 2012.

Jane

www.ArtiFacts.net.au