1 : RAEWYN HAUGHTON : ILLUSTRATOR
2 : BIC RUNGA : MUSICIAN
3 : SONYA NAGELS : PHOTOGRAPHER
4 : NEXTWAVE : CREATIVE FESTIVAL
5 : FEMINIST ACTIONS : EXHIBITION
6 : JEREMY SCOTT   : FASHION DESIGNER

7 : CAPOTE
8 : CALLUM MORTON
9 : CHUCK ANDERSON

  

: FILM
: ARTIST
: GRAPHIC DESIGNER
   

3 : LES KRIMS

 


1 : RAEWYN HAUGHTON / ILLUSTRATOR

 

 

1) How was your day? Did anything interesting happen?
My day was medium-good, I didn't enjoy the warm weather especially since it is meant to be autumn now but I saw a man at the train station after class throwing dried corn at pidgeons and he got upset when they had trouble eating it.

2) What was the last drawing you did? Why?
I drew a picture of a cat and an ugly baby doll and vines. I drew the cat because I had never drawn a cat before because I don't really like them as animals and then I drew the other stuff to steal attention away from the ugly cat

3) What inspires you? What do you like to draw?
spaghetti, grass, dogs, birds, children, pizza, body parts, food labels, plants and patterns

4) How would you describe your style?
Quite clean and graphic with most of my drawings being heavy in laborious line work

5) You're studying graphic design. How do you find the transition between the two mediums? Do you enjoy one more than the other?
I like both, I couldn't do one and not the other. I like the freedom of creating whatever I like with illustrating. However I like balancing it out with the more challenging and restrictive design side in which you have to solve problems graphically. I like the practicality of studying graphic art, it makes me feel somewhat smart while still having the opportunity to be slightly creative.

6) If you could work on your dream project, where money is no limit, what would it be?
I don't know, painting a mural somewhere would be nice. Boring I know but I try to be a realist.

7) What're you hoping to do when you graduate?
Get a job and earn a modest wage while trying to promote my illustrative work then hopefully one day the two will combine to equal an excellent job.

8) What's your favourite animal? Why?
I like beluga whales at the moment because they are smooth, white, happy and plastic looking, I don't like the whales that have barnacles stuck on them, they're ugly.

www.raewynhaughton.com

 


2 : BIC RUNGA / MUSICIAN

 

Bic Runga’s uniquely phrased pop songs and hauntingly beautiful melodies have already earned her a special place in the pantheon of New Zealand song. Since emerging at 19 years old with her debut single "Drive" a decade ago, Bic has travelled a remarkable musical journey, taking her to the top of charts at home and around the world at the same time as winning enormous critical acclaim for her winsome, transfixing tunes.

Her albums, 'Drive' (1996) and 'Beautiful Collision' (2002), have sold seven- and eleven-times platinum respectively in New Zealand, the latter spawning the single "Get Some Sleep", a top ten hit in Japan and Ireland that also broke into the UK top 40. 'Beautiful Collision' featured at no.32 in Mojo magazine’s list of the best albums of 2002 and no.34 in Uncut’s annual critics’ poll for that year.

Having spent most of 2003 and 2004 living in Paris and London, Bic returned home for the summer of 2005. That summer ended on a sad note for the Runga family with the death of Bic’s father, Joe, but Bic went on to complete a world tour playing as a soloist in support of the Finn Brothers through March and April.

Neil Finn had long been a fan of Bic’s music and had contributed vocals to 'Beautiful Collision'. Talking with Bic on the Finn Brothers tour, he immediately warmed to Bic's idea to record her new album as “live” as possible -- and agreed to join as pianist/guitarist with the ensemble of players she had in mind including vocalists Anika Moa, Shayne Carter and Anna Coddington, Trinity Roots’ Riki Gooch on drums, Conrad Standish of acclaimed Melbourne band The Devastations on bass, and “Boxcar Benny” Maitland and Pluto’s Tim Arnold on guitars.

Taking the role of album producer herself, Bic convened the band in Auckland’s Monte Cecilia House in August 2005. Built in 1879, with wonderfully detailed architecture complete with parquet floors, elaborate ceiling roses, marble fireplaces and four-storeyed tower overlooking a wooded park, Monte Cecilia provided the perfect location for the month-long recording session.

Initial recording concentrated on capturing the often elusive magic of great “live takes”. With up to ten singers and players recording in the room at one time, Bic’s approach harked back to jazz recordings of the 50s and beyond and the timeless pop recordings from before single instrument track-laying became the norm in the 1970s. There is a natural intimacy between instruments and voices playing live in the same room that she felt could be easily lost in a modern studio setting.

By the time an eight piece string section and further instrumentation including French horn, flute, harp and clarinet had been added, the intricate arrangements and richly textured songs were taking shape. Bic flew with the tapes to London to mix the album with Simon Gogerly, renowned for his work alongside Nellie Hooper and with artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens and U2.

The resulting album is a superb distillation of Bic Runga’s incredible songwriting talent and her firm grasp on the universal language of romance. Undercurrents of subtle melancholy in songs like the breathtaking and spacious "Captured" and "Say After Me" flow through to uplifting notes of hope in first single "Winning Arrow" and "If I Had You".

Bic Runga’s ubiquity in New Zealand music belies her relative youth. Three albums into a career that her numerous admirers trust will run for many years to come, she demonstrates the artistic value in trying new ways to bring her songs out into the open and letting them soar on new wings. Bic will tell you that this album’s creation was a magical experience for her -- and you can hear that magic in the songs. 'Birds' is simply her finest musical statement yet.

Bic will be performing in:

Melbourne 16/03/06 Hamer Hall

Sydney 17/03/06 State Theatre

The New Zealand tour starts from 19/03/06 see www.bicrunga.com for dates.

 


3 : SONYA NAGELS / PHOTOGRAPHER

 

 

1b) Is there a reason / pattern behind what you capture?
The reason? To record and document. To create a visual history. To explore the beauty in the moments other people would forget. The moments I strive for are the ones where people forget about me (as the photographer). When I capture some thing well, it opens up that person or place to be examined differently.

2) What is your idea of the perfect picture?
One that creates an emotional response in the viewer- a feeling of nostalgia, curiosity, disgust- as long as you feel something.

3) If you could photograph anyone person -dead or alive- who would it be?
I would really like to photograph my father (who is alive). He is quite evasive and I do not feel I have ever captured an honest side of him. It is always difficult to objectively photograph the people which are the closest to you. I want to photograph him because I feel like there is a gap in my understanding of him, and photographing him might give me some insight.

4) You did your first proper fashion job recently. How did that go? How do you feel about fashion photography vs. art photography?
I did a shoot for STU mag- it was fun, but strange. Listening to a 16 year old girl who was too small for any of the outfits, bitch about how fat she was.... you just cringe and wonder why you are perpetuating these stereotypes. For me, commercial photography is a different part of what I do. I do a lot of band photography, and have done weddings, portraiture, film stills, etc. It is always interesting to take those jobs on. But they
are not why I am a photographer.

Art, photographic or otherwise, feeds the fashion industry, and fashion reinterprets those ideas. For example, the whole "heroin chic" look was directly influenced by fine art photographers such Nan Goldin
and Larry Clark, who documented their social scenes, exploring themes like sex, abuse, prostitution, HIV and AIDS, loneliness, drugs. These photos got a lot of attention in the art world in the mid-late
eighties, and this style of photographing was picked up by fashion photographers- it became the hot new look.
So then skinny, white, junkie looking models were used for glamourous fashion shoots- and the context that this "look" came from was removed. Fashion made it cool to be a skinny white junkie.

I think the line between fashion and art is very fine, and there is a lot of grey. Essentially, one is exploring truths, the other is advertising.

5) Being a New Zealander living in Australia, have you noticed a difference in photographic style between the two countries?
Stylistically, I think all art forms in NZ have a much darker aesthetic- visually and emotionally. New Zealands' film, music, fashion and fine art all seem to draw from a darker instinct. It's almost like our colder, damper climate seeps into our work. New Zealander's also seem to have a blacker sense of humour, which comes out in the work. Overall though, New Zealand and Australia are very
similar countries. We share a lot of the same stories.

6) You've also lived in the UK, did you document much of your time there? What was the best moment you caught on film?
Yes- the UK was a turning point for me. I have never shot so much. I just went crazy and photographed everything. I met some great photographers there and I learnt a lot- technically and also about what direction I wanted my work to go in. Anyone who knows London will understand, it can just spit some people out.

One of my most important photos is of my friend Jonny, he was living in a hostel in Brighton. I've never seen such a dramatic change in a friend. He just kind of gave up and said "Fuck it". It was eventually liberating for him, but painful for me to watch him go through. This photo caught something about the change in him.

7) Where to next [personally and artistically]?
Artistically- I am really interested in doing some studio portraiture. I'm working on a series of portraits of girls. I like exploring the unnatural, uncomfortable side of posed shots. I'll also continue my personal documentary work.
I'm moving back to London, for a year or two. I'm going with my partner this time and I am looking forward to travelling with him. I want to go to the Netherlands and photograph my relatives in their homes. They all collect things like mad - I have started my own egg cup collection in honour of my Oma.

www.iamvicki.com

 


4 : NEXTWAVE / CREATIVE FESTIVAL

 

 

Collecting the best new artists from across Australia and around the Commonwealth, the 2006 Next Wave Festival will draw together some of the world’s most talented, entertaining and provocative young creative voices in Melbourne under the theme of Empire Games during March 2006.

Straddling both an official Commonwealth Games youth program and the biennial insurgency of new artists, the 2006 theme of Empire Games connects the old world with the new. Audiences can expect the spontaneity and provocative brilliance that has defined Next Wave since 1985.

Next Wave Artistic Director Marcus Westbury says, “Empire Games is both a nod to the Commonwealth Games own history and a reinterpretation of an old term for a new age of new empires and new games. It invites the sort of questions that young artists are asking of the world and sets the scene for a Festival of politics and play in roughly equal measures.”

From new works by precociously prodigious Melbourne International Arts Festival participants The Suitcase Royale, to a multi story international village of shipping containers in Melbourne’s Docklands, subversive sound installations, the Statue of Liberty wearing Pink Denim performing in a snow dom, Shopping Games in convenience stores from hell, a cult like army of hedge heads, statues with storm trooper masks and portable human art galleries, Next Wave continues to push the boundaries of art to see where they push back.

With more than 600 artists across 70 different projects including performance, visual and media arts and a series of art forms they don’t have names for yet, Next Wave’s Empire Games will question and consider, challenge and provoke, explore and incite, entertain and inspire.

Let the games begin!

15 March - 2 April 2006
For a full program of events visit: www.nextwave.org.au

 


5 : FEMINIST ACTIONS / EXHIBITION

 

At the turn of the century, a new breed of art practitioners is prevalent: those that are obsessed with power, fame and beauty.

Feminist Actions presents various subjective, identity-based renditions of past and present cultural symbols such as the cowboy, the debutante, the narcissist and the female rock/pop star. Through a series of photomedia and performance-based artworks, power, beauty and fame are treated with critical distance in an endeavour to explore current modes of feminist politics in contemporary art and discourse.

Ambiguity and playfulness are key themes in Feminist Actions, with the title giving an ironic nod toward the ‘right-on’ feminist actions of the 1970s. To facilitate discussion around the exhibition, Feminist Actions will be accompanied by a catalogue with essays from the curator, Veronica Tello, as well as academics Dr Anne Marsh and Dr Felicity Coleman.

Feminist Actions is showing at Spacement Gallery as part of the 2006 Nextwave Festival, from 16 March - 2 April.

www.spacement.com.au

www.nextwave.org.au

 


6 : JEREMY SCOTT / FASHION

 

The fact that Jeremy Scott was born in Kansas may explain the Oz-like sense of whimsy in his designs. His farcically-themed shows have taken inspiration from S&M leather culture, mermaids and sea monsters, and even Gilette Venus razors, featuring wild designs incorporating trash bags, dollar bills, and one-legged pants.

He's garnered attention from fashion icons like Karl Lagerfeld, celebrities, and socialites alike. After living and showing in Paris for several years, Scott returned to the U.S. in 2002 to inject a shot of glittered good humor to the Los Angeles fashion scene. It's easy to see that his over-the-top collections are narcissistic without apology, theatrical beyond compare, and designed for women who love to dress up and play the part of ultimate diva.

His Fall 2006 collection, with an 'I Want Candy' soundtrack, Scott played homage to sugar and spice and all things nice. It was candy floss collection where nipples where embellished with ice-cream cones, and "Jeremy" logos reminisent of well-known chocolate bars.This collection was not for a conservative (that is an understatement), they're larger-than-life and ready to eat.

Visit www.nymag.com to view the collection.

 


7 : CAPOTE / FILM

 

 

In November, 1959, author Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, reads an article on a back page of the New York Times. It tells of the murders of four members of a well-known farming family—the Clutters, from Holcomb, Kansas. Similar stories appear in newspapers almost everyday, but something about this one catches Capote’s eye.

The story presents an opportunity, he believes, to test his long-held theory that, in the hands of the right writer, non-fiction can be compelling as fiction. What impact have the murders had on that tiny town on the wind-swept plains? With that as his subject—for his purpose, it does not matter if the murderers are never caught—he convinces The New Yorker magazine to give him an assignment and he sets out for Kansas.

Accompanying him is a friend from his Alabama childhood: Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), who within a few months will win a Pulitzer Prize and achieve fame of her own as the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Though his childlike voice, fey mannerisms and unconventional clothes arouse initial hostility in a part of the country that still thinks of itself as part of the Old West, Capote quickly wins the trust of the locals, most notably Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent who is leading the hunt for the killers.

Caught in Las Vegas, the killers—Perry Smith and Dick Hickock—are returned to Kansas, where they are tried, convicted and sentenced to die. Capote visits them in jail. As he gets to know them, he realizes that what he had thought would be a magazine article has grown into a book, a book that could rank with the greatest in modern literature.

His subject is now as profound as any an American writer has ever tackled. It is nothing less than the collision of two Americas: the safe, protected country the Clutters knew and the rootless, amoral country inhabited by their killers. Hidden behind Capote’s often frivolous façade is a writer of towering ambition. But even he wonders if he can write the book—the great book—he believes destiny has handed him. “Sometimes, when I think how good it could be,” he says, “I can hardly breathe.”

www.sonyclassics.com/capote

 


8 : CALLUM MORTON / ARTIST

 

 

Callum Morton is probably best known for his scaled-down model of Farnsworth House, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1945, a building described by the critics in terms of floating planar forms but by the woman for whom it was built, Edith Farnsworth, as a glass cage for 'a prowling animal'.

Architecture is often separated from its real history, from the human circumstances that lie behind the production of such iconic forms. Morton began his career in architecture, which he studied at RMIT in the early 1980's, but his architectural models quickly reveal themselves as the stage-sets for his tiny, constructed historical dramas. Fragments of conversation, music, the sounds of tiny televisions, lights, signs of movement emanate from within his built forms.

“When you first encounter it, you are struck by its physical form - its pure, sculptural qualities and beautiful construction. Beyond this you find yourself hooked into the weird, tinny, pint-sized drama,” writes Gina McColl of Babylonia in 2005.

Although the conflicts within these models are distilled from real events, they clearly belong to all our lives. “And it's no surprise either” writes Stuart Koop of More Talk about Buildings and Mood, “that outrage and bitterness, disappointment and intolerance, illness and sadness, the whole gamut of motley abject emotions arise from within architecture and typically in the act of habitation.”

“One of the common threads of my work is that you're always looking at the surface of it, you can never penetrate it… That notion of standing at the threshold of a door that you can't cross - that is a totally psychological space, that's about family, thwarted desire, all those kinds of things,” says Morton.

Callum Morton / "Mini Moments"
is currently showing at the Anna Schwartz Gallery

 


9 : CHUCK ANDERSON / GRAPHIC DESIGNER

 

 

Twenty year-old wunderkind Chuck Anderson only briefly stumbles when asked for his job title. He explains, "If I say I don't like to have one, I sound like I'm trying to be cool."

Settling for artist-slash-illustrator over designer. The midwestern mix of sincerity and self-awareness is typical from this Chicago suburbs-based upstart, the first male in four generations of Anderson lineage who's not a clergyman. Instead, during his brief tenure as a freelancer, Anderson has moved out of his parent's house, amassed a client roster that includes everyone from Absolut Vodka to ESPN, and just last Spring launched The Brilliance, an online collection of interviews and interests that exudes the same youthful energy as Anderson's work.

How did you get here?
I've been creative all my life, drawing and painting, and then I finally found the computer. I was in seventh or eighth grade when I got my hands on photoshop and I used it like pencils and paints.
The last legitimate education that I had was high school. I was exhausting the classes in high school, so I was taking independent study classes. It was my first experience doing projects and running with my own thing. I graduated in 2003 and got a job with a screen printing shop. In December or January I quit with no job ahead of me, but I had work on my site. The way things actually kicked off for me, Design is Kinky linked me when No Pattern was only a site with my photographs and a couple of drawings.
The first paying job I ever had was a website for Aurelio's Pizza in Chicago in late 2003. A friend from my church was a manager there. I figured 500 bucks sounds cool for the entire website. They had budgeted up to $5,000. I undercharged. The first serious one that actually got my work out on a national level was for xlr8r. I noticed an abundance of art in their magazine, found the art director's email, she gave me a project, and I got to see my work in a magazine. I guess I kind of take it for granted a little bit now, but the first time you see it, it's kind of an unmatched feeling. It's kind of funny when I think back to it now, compared to what I do today; it's not much different. I hope I'm using a more developed, progressive style. The scale of clients is bigger.

What role has your age played in your career?
For a month, me and another designer, >Electric Heat, a really close friend of mine, worked on this Microsoft campaign in San Francisco for McCann-Erickson. They had this massive advertising budget. On the last day we were there, basically in a 20 minute meeting they told us we were off. They gave it to >Stardust because it was two big for just two people. So maybe if I was older, more experienced, I could have known what to say to stand up to a corporate giant. It was rather devastating, but we still got paid a little.

Other than that age has been an extremely positive thing. I've used it to my advantage. I think if I was doing what I'm doing right now but was 27-28 people would still like it, but I think it'd be different. It's a pretty inspiring thing for people to hear, that you can do something at any age.

Any advice for young designers?
I'm not here to tell you, "This how you make the glows that I did in that one project." I can’t stress enough that you have to meet the right people. Associations are everything. I've spent days, weeks trying to get in touch with people and show them work. I'd be working at Burger King right now if it wasn't for that. I can't say how important it is to put work out there, meet people, introduce yourself, and don’t be shy. You have to get up and say, "Here's what I do," and be proud of it. You can never do enough. Unless you're George Lucas, someone who's completely on top of their game, you can never do too much self-promotion. It's almost as important as your work.

I'm not going to get up there and tell everybody that their beliefs are wrong. I'll share my story. I mean, the people speaking; I can't even put a finger on their talent, like Joshua Davis, the Orphanage, Charlie White. These guys are like gods in their field. It's incredible to be lumped in this event. It's wild. But it's for a reason, I believe, because I really prayed. I asked God to put things in my path and He delivered. There's no way I would be able to be in this position without some kind of faith and belief that this would work out.
I encourage anybody to really think about going into this field before you do it. I love where I’m at, but I've been very blessed, but there's always issue of drive. You have to be prepared to stay up for 24 hours straight and tell your friends you can't hang out some weekends. You have to be extra dedicated. It's not going to be fun if you don’t like yourself and you don’t like hanging out with your cat.

[text courtesy of coolhunters.com]

www.nopattern.com

 

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Editor: jason.lingard@nothingmag.com
Staff Writer: ellamudie@yahoo.com.au
Design: Kill Design

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