ELSEWHERE

A Hooded plover in hand

This hooded plover drawing of mine is a new work for a forthcoming exhibition. It dances with the black swans and gulls at Williamstown, in the photos below. A fitting photo setting given how wonderfully performance heavy March has been.

For those of you who may have missed it, here is G's post, Dazzle and a fair amount of woo, on The Australian Ballet's Don Quixote.

And here, reflected in the mirrors of the Playhouse foyer, is the two of us (as part of The Foyer Series of instagram captures) at the Bell Shakespeare's Henry 4.







Winged facts:

Hooded plover
Thinornis rubricollis
(Other name: Hooded dotterel)

My guidebook describes this bird as 'tubby', but I think this is a little harsh. There is a certain roundness, but tubby? No, I don't think so.

The Hooded plover of ocean beaches (and inland salt lakes in s. WA), is recognisable by its black hood and throat. Its white rear collar distinguishes it from other (adult) waders. Its voice is a short, piping 'pert peet' or a barking 'kew kew' when in flight.

The habitat is the broad sandy ocean (and occasionally bay) beaches where the seaweed is plentiful and there is adjacent dune wilderness. It is fond also of weedy rock shelves and reefs, and tidal flats upon occasion.

Its conservation status in Victoria is Endangered.

Something utterly brand new

It is with great excitement that I can officially unveil Gracia and my new site. Many long days and many equally long nights have gone into the making of our brand new site. We had not realised just how long it would take to rebuild a new space for 71 zines, 69 artists' books, and countless exhibitions and their related projects.

On our new site, you can turn the pages of Gracia's A different picture with every look (Kjøbenhavn). You can head to Bangor too. Or Egypt. And you can see what objects we gathered from recent reads long ago. You can see details from recent zines such as Collection, Birds that like to display, and A set of two things regarded as a unit from 2010. Everything we've worked on from Mardi Gras posters for ACE hotel to Big Issue collages has a home. You can see details from our pieces made especially for Could be, and steal a closer look at Passenger pigeons. You can read through interviews and catalogue essays, and it is so up-to-the-minute that it even feature's G's piece for Fjord Review, Life Support, about a smoky performance as part of Dance Massive 2013. If that all sounds too much, head to our little piece, Why books?, to find your footing.

I hope you enjoy looking through the site and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it too.

(Completely unrelated, here I am in the State Theatre foyer with my Mum at The Australian Ballet's performance of Don Quixote last night. As previously shared, here is G and me, at the opening night. Here, also, is G with her Mum at the Tuesday night performance. We're locals, it seems, and we've enjoyed this impromptu Foyer Series. With a few more performances to see as part of Dance Massive, perhaps a Malthouse portrait will appear soon.)

Massive March

Here we are, thanks to instagram, at the State Theatre. It's the opening night of The Australian Ballet's Don Quixote. What a thrill Friday was! What a beautiful performance. Such colour! I feel very lucky that I will get to see it again next week too.

Things may seem quiet here but with good reason. Last week, several performances were seen, including our Spanish jaunt. Most have been as part of Dance Massive 2013. Massive is exactly how I'd describe March. I'm enjoying going to the festival with G who is writing about what she has seen for Fjord Magazine. So far, I feel very fortunate to have seen Stephanie Lake's Dual, and last night, Chunky Move's 247 days.

All this greatness and excitement has been sanwhiched in between building a whole new site. This has been a massive undertaking. Long days and long nights but our new web site is very nearly ready. It will feature a closer looks at all our zines and artists' books, exhibitions, and related projects like collages for The Big Issue. As I said, March has been tremendously busy. When we are not up to our elbows finding images from book launches at Hound Dog's Bop Shop from 2004, G and I have been in dance heaven. Can April top this?

In the homes and hands of others

One of the sweetest parts to rebuilding our website has been the discovery of a folder of images of our artwork and zines in the homes and hands of others. Above you can see a smattering of these. They remind me of how blogging used to be. Some are recognisable and others are more of a mystery with their file names giving nothing away as to their source. Some date back many years now. Some are photos by Fanja, Camilla, Shari, Nathalie, Brita, Brian, Mav, Brydie, and perhaps you? Thank-you for these happy memories, and we hope you don't mind us reposting these here.