1.9.11

SHOWS OF THE WEEK

signs of life


Two shows have caught my eye this week - Space Invaders at RMIT and Diamonds in the Rough at Lamington Drive and both are opening TONIGHT people!!!

Whether using spray-can graf, texta tags, paste-ups or desktop magazine layout to catch the viewers eye both of these shows are a testament to the pavlovian appeal of advertising vernacular's visual language and clever scripting. After all, we all want to be sold something dont we? When done well, both advertising and street art can reflect our deepest desires and showcase the best of our creatives - able to be brilliantly amusing, thought provoking and gaspingly beautiful at the same time.

Space invaders looks at "the artist and their iconic street-based works at the point of their transition from the ephemeral to the collectable and from the street to the gallery", along the way both celebrating and making the case that stencils, posters, paste-ups, zines and stickers all comprise an important chapter in the development of Australian prints and drawings. Raising the question of legal vs. renegade once again RMIT Gallery has commissed a public art project with local street artists who will create a work in the laneway near RMIT Gallery during the exhibition. In addition a public seminar, Vandals or Vanguards?, will discuss the political, social and artistic aspects of street art and zines, Monday September 26 in the gallery space. Heavy  - but my money is on the vanguards.

'Diamonds in the Rough' by Andrew Ashton at Lamington Drive until September 17.

Diamonds in the Rough has been put together by design wizard Andrew Ashton and coincides with the release of desktop magazine’s 25 year anniversary ‘Time Capsule’ edition - edited no less by one and same wizard Mr A Ashton. Get ready for a gallery housing around 20 years worth of design ephemera, from a long list of Australian design glitterati... horders delight no? t should also be mentioned that this will the the last cardboard show at lamington drive so it is your last chance to say goodbye to the brown study that has been Lamington Drive before it becomes "a gallery formerly made of cardboard for nice people".
Given the pedigree's of both these shows i'm looking forward to seeing some seriously good schtick. BECK

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