I go where the Party takes me exhibition Opening

I go where the party takes me
Exhibition Opening. It was rather nice tbh,

Image 1: Some of Rabs work and fun ppl that turned up
Image 2: One of 3 of my pieces. Untitled
Image 3: My family that came with me (Lauren, Alan, Jason, Noeline and Christopher)
Image 4: The other 2 pieces of my work. both are called Untitled.

For the joys of entertaining Mila

A Video from Jaime Trillas :D

A Video from my friend Jaime Trillas
He was at work and thought he'd entertain me while i write my essay's
:D

Patillo stuffs.

Too bad we didnt get our entry forms in on August the 7th for Patillo.
Mind you im not really fussed, tho i have heard word that people that have gotten into bigger exhibtions have not been selected. a lil chaos i guess?
hmm Id like to hear what the opinions are of those that didnt get in
I really like the idea of the Salon deRefuse :D Reminds me of the old school exhibitions that used to happen back in the old school days of exhibiting.
Bloody Office People and their wanting to make something lame with Sculpting Chaos. COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW!
and the end of the day, its good that everyone entered, coz we were to lazy to enter, maybe its coz the fear of making something shit. Funny coz you think that 7500 dollars would motivated you to doing something for it.

Been Johnson

Been

i like this photo

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_o6LfHzjDjw8/Sskwrt-WbPI/AAAAAAAAAGY/YNCi2-bXsFo/s400/IMG_2669.jpg

8:29pmCamillia

lol oh thanks lol

are you looking at my blog?

8:30pmBeen

casually :)

8:33pmCamillia

lol

:v

8:41pmBeen

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_o6LfHzjDjw8/Ssg_lSJt1mI/AAAAAAAAAEI/w2MS9zVKlRI/s1600-h/Dylan+and+Sian+(60).JPG

whats up with her expression?

8:52pmCamillia

lol

oh sorry

im not too sure

8:53pmBeen

maybe a couple of dogs doing what a couple of dogs often do when crowds gather...

9:15pmCamillia

lol

oh did you see my recent post?

9:16pmBeen

just reading now

i enjoy the rate of updates

keep it up!

9:17pmCamillia

ima be afk for an hour k

i need to write some other things on the blog

9:18pmBeen

afk?

9:18pmCamillia

away from keyboard

9:18pmBeen

ahhhhhhh

-understsnds-

10:55pmCamillia

yup

sorry

it was more than an hour

10:55pmBeen

i should say so!

10:55pmCamillia

lol

10:55pmBeen

cripes!

10:55pmCamillia

cripes i want crapes

10:55pmBeen

people are starting to get restless

quick get on stage

start your act!

10:57pmCamillia

hmm

im so happy that Fringe is on

10:57pmBeen

yes

its a good show!

10:59pmCamillia

yup

11:00pmCamillia

so did you read the update?

any opinions?

any corrections?

something that didnt make sense?

11:01pmBeen

-clicks refresh-

11:01pmCamillia

lol

brb gota pee

then i will be all ears

11:06pmCamillia

okay im back

11:07pmBeen

how is showing something art?

11:07pmCamillia

what are you referring to?

please quote the section

11:07pmBeen

sorry it was just a thought i had about her work

she depicts/shows but what extra is there beyound a representation of something?

why is it art and not documentation/journalism/illustration?

11:09pmCamillia

Ben that is a good question.

Im not sure how to justify what makes it art.

Just when i was looking, for me there was a real sense of connection

i was able to connect to the photographs therefore the connection between the artist and her lens had a relationship with me personally.

sometimes when i look at her work i think its not for everyone.

when i first looked at her work i saw snapshots

and thought to myself any one could have done that

I guess her motivations and the output makes it what it is

Im going to sound rather contradicting but in so many ways I see it as documenting

Been

i do like what you have written

try and expand on why you like the portraits

reflection is an important element in art practice

11:13pmCamillia

its hard to explain about why i like portraits

11:14pmBeen

then theres something valuable in that

11:14pmCamillia

O.o explain?

11:15pmBeen

it moves you and what moves you will move other people and if you can find the material qualitys of the art that moves you you become better at make'ng art that moves people

which is the whole point

i think

11:17pmCamillia

hmm.

that makes sense

My talk notes from yesterday.

I gave a talk yesterday to my Contemporary class. I had to select an NZ Artist and give a seminar about the Artist in relation to my own work. It didnt have to be long, 5mins tops. Here are some of the stuffs I said. and some of my own personal comments I discussed with my class.

Edith Amituanai

• 1st generation NZ Born Samoan
• Graduated from Unitech with a Bachelor of Design 2005
• Exhibitions incl. Dateline: Contemporary Art from the Pacific
  Le Folauga
  Offside
• Announced the inaugural winner of the Marti Friedlander Photography Award 2007
• Shortlisted for Walters Prize 2008
  I went to the Wallace Trust Gallery last year in September/October to see these photographs. I sat down from being in awe of the photographs, had to sit down, the size of the photographs were breathtaking. Sat down just to look at each one for a few minutes. The more I looked at them, the more I understood the feeling.
  
• Process of selecting and constructing images move beyond a snapshot.
• Pays close attention to the interior and exterior views that frames her subjects.
  I guess the interior and exterior views can relate to the information within her photographs. the relationship between the items in the photographs to the exterior of the idea creates almost a realistic viewing of truth
  
• Portraits are linked with their surroundings.
  When referring back to the photographs of the lounges back in Aukilani, youll find alot of portraits on the walls of family members from the past to current. You'll find these in alot of typical Samoan born Parents.
  
• Work is about relationships and space. Narratives of migration
• 2006 saw her receive a Creative NZ Grant and travel to Europe. Produced a body of work based on professional Samoan rugby players working in Italy and France.
• the 'Dejeuner' series explores temporary migration of her family living and working abroad
• Portraits of young sportsman out in the field and documents their homes back in Aukilani, detailed with mats, furnishings adorned with shelves of suite of photographs.
  I feel the relationship that Edith has with her photographs are the same relationships I feel that I have with my own and with her photographs. I can relate to alot of the imagery and make the connections on a personal based experience.
  
• Evokes a sense of memorial or longing for an absent son and the celebration of achievements.
  
• Photographic essays work on many levels and deals with the concept of continuity and relationship. Implicit in her images are some of the questions she asks herself about her culture when she was growing up. 'Many 1st and 2nd generation NZ born Samoans would look at her photographs and understand the questions shes asking'.
  As I have said above, I can relate and understand the questions shes asking via being a 1st generation NZ born Samoan, its questions I find myself constantly asking myself.
  
• You'll notice framed family portraits in the background are grouped together evoking a family shrine, suggesting a relationship to the past and the homeland through family memories.
  Its almost like a manditory vision when stepping foot into a Samoan house hold. The family shrine quite often has photographs that can date back to the early 1900s to the current. For example, when I go to my Auntie Meaati's and Uncle Silofau Kasitone's house im greeted by a large photograph of both my Aunts and Uncles late parents, adorned in bright colored ula's (Fabric made necklaces) then to continue round I see photographs of everyone else in their family, family that live abroad and family that have passed away. Each photograph it self has a narrative via the process of the photograph to the setting. Some early photographs were taken by photographers that were in Samoa documenting what they percieved as being a dying race. It makes me giggle sometimes, i see pictures of my great great grandmother and grandfather with fake backgrounds of palmtrees.
  

A few examples of my own photographs are shown in this blog etc etc
I find that with Ediths work I enj0y the Portraits the most. I dont really know how to explain it, but I just love the feeling of being able to look at the expressions. idk. I <3 Portraits.

-Mila

Miranda Parkes talk :D

Miranda Parkes
^Christchurch based artist
^Artist in Residence at Tylee Cottage > Residency>Rearch
^Student work > 3rd year submission > Floor, collecting paint > Taken off ground
^worked with installation
^Scholarship through University > Intervention on existing space
^INSPIRED > Jessica Stockholder > 3d Space
utilising everyday objects
Bringing back to everyday experience
^Mondrian>Installation> Walk into a painting
^Exhibited at Artist Run spaces
^If someone is doing something similar to your work<->Organic Marks

^Conventional stretching
^>Conventional Painting materials



- Mila

...

- Mila

So'o

- Mila

Mulu.

Photographs of Mulu Tatiluni Richard Mariner.
C.Afele


- Mila

Stuffs

Mila's stuffs.




































































































- Mila

Edith Amituanai. Photographs.

House of Tia Tia 07


Monsieur Philemon Toleafoa 07



Mister Manu 06


DÉJEUNER ( Installation View )
Walter's Prize Show, 2008







Edith Amituanai


- Mila

Jan 09. Cossey Wedding.

Cossey Wedding.
Photographer: Camillia Afele
Jan 2009
















































































- Mila

Expose much?

Photographs of the times.
C.Afele



































































































- Mila

Obessions...

I have an obsession of flicking through photographs that arent mine, a friends photograph, a friend of a friend. It seems that this networking system of Facebook/Bebo/Myspace/Hi5 and any other networking website is endless for finding people and viewing images of people that I have never seen ever in my entire life. Im find myself looking through my own photos Iv uploaded then to click on a friends profile and search through their photographs, then to search through photographs of someone else, does it become a public exhibition of ones personal photographs?
I sit here a look at photos of my friend Neeva whom I worked with when I was a checkout operator at the almight Write Price. I hadnt spoken to her in years, yet Im still able to keep up with what she is up to. Makes me think im almost stalking her. But i find im always drawn to looking at the photographs, looking at the color, the fashion of the time, the hotspots via the camera flash, be nicer if there was a screen or something to reduce the hotspots. Its like, you know when your sitting in a nice cumfy seat and your doing something relaxing or lying in a bathtub of warm water and you could just melt. I find i have the same facination but with photographs. lol Im currently talking to my friend Sarah Powell who is currently living in Wellington, both she and I are talking about the obsession of looking through peoples photographs. It just amazes me how curious one gets, you look at one photograph and then you want to keep looking at more. Well come to think of it, it is basicalliy a Public Exhibition in virtual space. Its like people tend to put up photographs that they think they look good in, almost like going to the movie store to hire a movie. You look at the cover and if it doesnt seem too appealing you put it back down and pick up the next one that has the brightest and best looking cover. Feels like I should be surfing for Pornography lol, does both things, images/photographs, its appealing, you can get self gratification from it, and lots of people are obsessed with it lol.
I would like to leave this post openended because im sure to come back and continue in a later post about obsessions that i have. A little bitsy, but its fine imo. Nothing like bitsyness for me I say.
This is Sarah doing the peace sign :D



- Mila

Stuff

I must say, I have been sitting here for a lil while trying to figure out what to type. Iv had alot of things on my mind, from the Tsunami in Samoa/Am. Samoa to the little things like what undies should I wear to Art making and whether or not I feel that I'm in the right frame of mind to be producing art. I guess sometimes it baffles me when I look around and see exhibitions, and look at the work on display and think of it as unpolished not really well executed well, to be honest the word I really want to say is piece of shit, coz in some instances i'd rather see a piece of shit on a plinth compared to what I see on the plinth is the one word i could think of that would summerise the art piece altogether. After taking a break from playing World of Warcraft, im left sitting here mindlessly thinking about how to get my next fix of Warcraft, till im reminded by my lovely Jason that he's cancelled my account, which I hate the thought of not being able to play, but thus it has given me time to think about things, rather sleep more and eat less. No need to eat if im not going to be productive in my thinking and move from my bed to the chair, a whole 3mtrs away. Dont hate me coz its 3mtrs away I say, but love me for making the effort of moving the whole 3mtrs. To think that I have played a game, which has become my second job next to being a loving partner to my beautiful Jason. It has made me feel so disconnected to the reality of being physical in the sense of going outside and playing a game of bball or something that would cause one to sweat and excellerate hearts all for the pure enjoyment of it. I have missed those times, and sometimes I dont. I have on my hands an obsession with a few things.
1. World of Warcraft. The obsession with networking and making myself readily available to raiding in a makebelieve world of Dragons, Enemy's, Horde, Alliance, Battling the defeatble, when i think about it, everything in game is overcome by the networking scheme of making an alliance with a group of people/characters inorder to defeat something, someone, the opposing faction. Basically escaping the reality of real life i assume. Some people i have met, have had the obsession of moving their characters into a more elite form of motivation; gear, transportation, skill, playing endgame instances which only a handful of those could only imagine being able to play.
2. Failure. I have an obsession with failure I guess, sometimes once i have one foot in the door, that it feels as tho im almost unable to accomplish things. Everything seems fine, but seems as tho I self sabotage the possibilties of completing anything, for example, Cleaning a room. to me the room is tidy, to Jason the room is untidy, sometimes i sabotage things by leaving stuff on the chair to give the illusion that it is untidy, then on comes the words of dissappointment. sometimes the feeling of failure is reassuring that maybe someday well to be honest, i dont have a fucking clue sometimes.
3. Tearing stuff. I LOVE dismantling boxes, tearing down the seams, then to tear it in half and in half again, so that ever peice is the same size, and only can get smaller so that it is the size of my fingernail. its feels so comforting i guess, being able to reduce something so big to something yet so small. its like picking at my fingernails, im sorted sitting there picking at the skin around my fingers and biting my lower lip.

hmm and the lil girl is still finding it difficult to think of what to type.

- Mila

Marino Mariner

Hay Guys and Girls listen and Vote for my Cuzz Marino :D Sounds awesome!! More Support the Better!!!! Peace! http://www.mtv42unheard.com/view_artist.php?id=1618

- Mila