The Craft Council

The Craft CouncilIf you are ever near the Angel tube station, I highly recommend you drop into the Crafts Council to check out the current exhibition showing entrants and winners to the the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2005: Metal. Admission to the exhibition is free and some of the sculptures and effects that people can create out of different metals is quite amazing. I found that the gallery is not large enough to occupy lots of your time but it is still a nice thing to peruse nevertheless and has a magentised wall for you to attach floating comments to.

It is a shame that photography was prohibited and even if you cannot visit the gallery in person, the Craft Council have a virtual gallery available on their website.

In Transit

Invite to transitA few of us managed to make it to an event tonight that hadn’t been really heavily advertised. I had stumbled across a poster on a bus stop on my way home from work and was captivated by the mystery of an event touting the latest in Asian Art, Music and Film. Sponsored and promoted by Tiger Beer, the website Discover Tiger Beer had plenty of opportunity for people to apply for an invite to Brisbane’s “Transit” event.

Strangely enough (or maybe not so), the invite to “Transit” said to be at Platform 3 at Roma Street Station (a major Brisbane train station) at 7:30pm. Those of us who attended could not form any preconceptions because of the lack of detail on the invite – Were they really going to close a platform? Were we going to catch a train somewhere? Or would the event actually be held on a train?

I think we were all positively blown away by the evening that ensued. Transit was literally held on Platform 3 @ Roma Street Station, with the number of walls constructed turning the area into an art gallery. Live house music pumped throughout the night, accompanied by clips of modern Asian films and a combination of live performance and static art pieces. Free (Tiger) Beer, Wine and Water, as well as freshly cooked Asian dishes served in those little boxes you see mainly on American TV were also readily available through the entire night.

The crowd was a strange mix of different groups of Brisbanites, some dressing up (in suits), with others dressing down (t-short and shorts), but all with the consistent theme of being there to have a good time. Overall it was a very entertaining event for a Thursday night and was a definitely good way of breaking up the week with something different.

Anarchy and a bit of BIFF

BIFF
Last night was the viewing of my first two movies at the Brisbane International Film Festival (otherwise known as BIFF). The first was a Korean film called Samaritan Girl (Samaria) directed by Kim Ki-duk who is infamous for his controversial films. I was literally lost for words at the end of the movie because I had not prepared myself for the depressing and graphic nature of this film. Perhaps it would have helped if I had read more about the plot summary) or had read more about other films Kim Ki-duk has directed.

The other movie I saw (starting at 11pm!) was produced by the famous Japanese anime company Studio Ghibli called Pom Poko. Centred on the story told by the Tanuki (Japanese for Raccoon), it continues the studio’s common ‘human-vs-nature’ theme in the light-hearted and quirky style that is only Studio Ghibli. Having seen two other films produced by this company (Spirited Away and Princess Monoke), I can only whole-heartly recommend any of their movies. UQ’s Schonell Theatre is still showing a special showcase finishing on Ekka Day (Wed Aug 11) featuring some of Hayao Miyazaki’s films.

Anarchy
To top off the night (or shall we say morning?) we headed to Rockafellas to support my mate Aaron Blishen (AKA Anarchy) at his debut DJ gig, Resonate. Anarchy’s entire set was extremely well received by a decent sized crowd (especially considering that it was at a time when the taxi queues were at their peak – i.e. 3:30am) . An awesome selection of tracks was enjoyed by all for another hour and a half as the laser show went off in sync with all of the music. Unfortunately the misty haze created by the smoke machine for all the lasers meant that none of my photos I took turned out. Can’t wait for the next gig!