Shut the fuck up.

“The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself.” - Paul Cezanne

The portrait exercise was extremely difficult in the sense that it was very confronting and almost intimidating as I chose to focus on one side of my face. Once again, this specific task also allowed for quite a lot of broad observations as I decided to explore a more artistic and marketable point of view and delve deeper into the psyche of myself.

One inspiration for this, was how in the original portrait, the colourful imagery on my wardrobe seems as though it is being blasted out of my head, prompting a more personalised feeling as my thoughts and interests are visibly perceptible. I created an image using a tacky little app on my phone called ‘pics art’ which allows for me to style a collage containing the inspirational images of my choice, which best highlight the most basic, and quite frontal personality traits. I was careful not to give away anything too personal as I dislike the fact that there may be nothing left of me once somebody has ‘figured me out’. I began with architecture, which I would like to think is an integral part of me. Not only am I incredibly passionate about the ultimate design of a building and the integration of a structure, but also how it can persuade my design piece. Are all my collages positioned equally? How creditable is the design and how accurate does it portray my imaginings? I chose architecture as it does encapsulate my life in a profound, though subconscious way, as I am not always aware of how much it influences how I do things.

By super imposing my original portraits over these images and fading them into each other, combines my headspace and visually allows the audience to view my thoughts with their eyes other than with their eyes, as I would rather show instead of tell. This exercise also helped me to be less introverted and mysterious about a lot of things, and was very confrontational to which I learned to grow and accept. The 60’s and 70’s are such an incredible time which has very much gained my attention, especially over the past few years. Film, fashion and the whole ethereal air of that era, provides much comfort for me and brings a lot of peace and acceptance to my personality. I am sick so of talking about myself. Singers such as Janis Joplin from that era, and ephemeral singers such as Florence Welch from our own era, who resemble an old soul vibe resonate with me deeply, as a singer. Whether it is Joplin’s grit and raw talent, Welch’s wraithlike presence and tone or the genius authenticity of her lyrics, both women bring something very strong to me as something I look for in people, or even hope to achieve within myself. A sense to unite people with music, words and the visual. This exercise only allowed me to portray the visual, to which I hope is uniting and peaceful in the tones I have used to accentuate the balance of emotion in my life. Colours such as blue, a tinged brown, black and white or red accompany the colour of my clothing from my original portend the congruous and plain temperament of the collage. The colours also contribute to the marketability.

The large and ever expanding book case, elucidates my passion for reading, writing and literature as a whole and with my portrait faded into the image, it portends metaphorically that my ‘head is in the books’. This trait can also be deeply acknowledged that imaginatively I live inside my head most of the time, as an introvert where I can create a whole new world through the influences of the books I have read, or just for comfort when I am not feeling as safe realistically. This also combines the symbolism of realism and surrealism which I have tried to depict with the making of the collage and its faded and blurred effects.  The water image resembles something more than just water and how much I love swimming or just feeling it around me, but more intricately shows how free spirited, resourceful and fluidly calm I am as a person. I am also obsessed with how paradoxically; the things that can make us happy in life can also kill you, such as water. Virginia Woolf is such an inspirational writer who I find myself stumbling upon again and again from childhood through till now. I like to find beauty in things where most people might not believe beauty really exists, and I find that Woolf’s idea of madness and how she could completely free herself from all thought fill her pockets full of stones and walk graciously into the river, where she then died, almost mesmerizing. There is something organically sensual about reading these sorts of moments, which are also fearful, but as I don’t like to dwell on something barbarically negative such as suicide, I would like to see it as a connection to the Earth, the only place she felt stable. The lantern represents the almost quirky side by also showing the style of which I enjoy best, a rustic warehouse sort of building.

It was quite easy to assemble these images and super impose them on top of each other. By relaying back to the 60’s and 70’s and being highly captivated by the advertisements of their time and artistic developments such as album cover art and political posters, I was able to craft an image that not only defined the minuscule though outward personality traits of mine in a marketable and visually appealing way.

Critical reflection – Tutorial

Miranda July’s interestingly captivating exercises ‘Learning to love you more’ definitely highlighted the emotional sense and linkages we may obtain towards art. The exercises entailed us to draw a sketch from a scene of a film that made us cry, and re-enact that scene in a diverse way, whether it was in front of a class, or presented by video or storyboarded. These ideas had me questioning the emotional connection I have with films, and apart from being emotionally stunted, I have yet to cry in a film. Although I did juggle between many that have made me very upset, including ‘The Lena Baker story’ about the first coloured woman wrongly executed in the state of Georgia or ‘Marley and Me’ because I am completely distraught at the fact a dog was put down and not a human. I am kidding, I am not that disgusting, or am I? We will never know.

When I watched ‘The Help’ on the other hand, it infuriated me that such a movie was even produced, based on true events. Racial discrimination and subjective profiling is abhorrently disgusting, and it tore my ligaments to hear the truthful stories of coloured housemaids who were restricted and abused emotionally due to the colour of their skin. The realism of this film triggers a depth of moral consciousness and the ability to not only love yourself, but those around you and embrace the fact that we are all different. These differences are beautiful and special, unless of course, you’re a prick. The scene from the movie I decided the reference was the part where maid Aibileen decided it was time to leave her last white child and look after her own family, as she walks off into the sunset on a wide and open road, and with the little girl banging on the window inside the house screaming her name, spoken narrative appears. It was then, where it hit me, her strength to finally break the boundaries of societal restraint complimented the way we learn to love each other.

To restrict such a broad topic of emotion and turn it into something almost timeless and tangent, was pivotal in creating this task as the video could have exemplified the scene in a new way, obviously with me, as a Caucasian man, instead of a coloured woman. The sketch could have been interpreted in a diversity of aspects as could other peoples works, due to the possibility that many may not know of the movie and only have the sketch or the 30 second film to understand that pain and emotive response in order to resonate with it. In this way, the scene may be blown out of proportion from all its restriction, and connected in various ways by the way people in the tutorial may have viewed the sketch or video. Some may think it is symbolic of empowerment and retaining effervescence, whereas others may just see the woman, walking into the sunset with an array of opportunities ahead.

Miranda July has constructed a website to which is enchanting and artistically celestial in the sense that with the whole tangency that art may possess, it gives you a direct proposal and guideline to follow. ‘Draw a sketch from a movie’ or ‘film a scene that made you cry’ says so much by saying very little, as the focus and the drive is more extensive than what is being asked. Creatively, all students focused on an abundance of ideas, and presented them hilariously to the class, and it was interesting to see our silent moments of pain, sadness and weariness, were actually as a whole, enjoyable and enthusiastic. The moments of despair were soon turned into happiness when shared with somebody which is so special about this exercise, due to the amount of emotion art can bring and the way we view sorrow and gloom in the eyes of other people. Quiet gratifying.

Nicholas Failla.

On one of my many lonesome coffee trips to the city, I encountered The Colour Parade in all their glory, swarming and dancing the Melbourne streets with outrageousness, quirk and of course, colour. And lots of it. I knew what the parade was, though had no intention of going, as dressing up pisses me off but once I was in the city, the feeling of inclusion and utter weirdness swept me in as they appeared in front of the Starbucks at City Square. The whole concept is to open-mindedly fill the streets with creativity and beauty, to make a bit of noise and to flaunt the ridiculousness of the outfits. The expression of individualism is one that Melbourne sure is known for, though The Colour Parade is also present in Sydney, Melbourne’s unique culture is large and prosperous, so any resident of the CBD will have no problem with the Blake Eyed Peas being pumped loudly out of stereo systems and a wild bunch of colourful men and women dancing and singing around them.

 It is just a regular day in Melbourne, or at least for me it is.  The parade and all that is entailed is present on countless websites, most publicly on Facebook, where enlightened people may meet and strengthen their friendships as they state “It’s all about bringing together like minded folk so you can certainly expect to expand your friendship tree with all the activated, inspired, explosive and expressive individuals you will encounter”. Did I mention the colours? Combining visual enthusiasm as well as the physical, the ethereal event becomes engaging and thought provoking to the public in the sense that it brings people exactly what is vibrantly needed, freedom, friendship, and complete foolishness. The idea that people are allowed to come together to unleash their creativity into one bout of fun, can tell a lot about transdisciplinary art and how visual and intimate displays fused together have the ability to mould something of meaning and worth. In the wisdom of John Berger, ‘Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak’ reflects the colourful idea of making the streets beautiful, or even finding splendour in something quite repugnant or contemptibly out of control.

The truth of these words resonates with the fact that colour can never get old, or stay too young, people of all ages have the effervescence within to experience a culture of brightness and monstrously loud contemporary R&B. To which I am all for, the more crazy people ‘twerking’ around the city, the better.‘The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe’ which in The Colour Parade, is where these beliefs are united into one whole body of singularly loving everybody and spreading happiness. The participation includes ‘all kinds of kooky antics- dancing, making music, random acts of passion and expression, spontaneous street parties, dress ups, …etc.’ which accentuate the use of art in a public place and between what is just seeing, comparable to what we can actually touch and feel. It is not only about the ability to see things with our own eyes, but how we can reflect that with body language, expressive outfits and the music that flows from our mouth. (Or body parts, however you like to party).

Personally, the overwhelming sense of presence was enough to permit my smile to last probably the rest of the week, and consented for ‘My Humps’ by the Black Eyed Peas to be stuck in my head for a sleepless month until I can drown it out with some Lauryn Hill, or Jefferson Airplane. Either way, I was still in a transcendent plane of bursting creativity and spite that I hadn’t thought of such a wacky idea myself. Perhaps I wouldn’t have to write about it to others, it could just be done. I have no idea what else to write about on this reflection, other than it was hilarious fun and definitely brightened up the streets as you shall see in the photography I have posted below. The most amazing and hilarious moment for me would have to be the conga line and then splitting into some ‘square dancing’ in which partners would dance down the middle of colourful people, who to some recovering from a weekend of vodka and tequila abuse…. Mixed with 11 jugs of beer (me) looked like an alive Berlin wall with fuzzy tentacles at a Prince concert. I feel like I can tell you guys anything, thank you, guys. The colour Parade, happens expectedly every March, and has been running for I have heard, three years now. I shall leave with a gesture to always travel alone to the city when your brain tells you to, because you will never know what you will see and participate in, but instead be less drunk and more organised.

All references actually come from this Facebook page, but for those lacking a Facebook (desirable) then here are other links to look at.
Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/584261451584916/

A few details: http://www.au.timeout.com/melbourne/aroundtown/events/6521/the-colour-parade

Tumble Page: http://colourparademelbourne.tumblr.com/

Yoko Ono’s loquacious extracts ‘Pamplemousse’ portray the creativity and brilliantly adroit ideas and thoughts of the imagination, expressed by Yoko in a blunt, though capricious way. It is easy to understand that Yoko Ono’s extracts are blatantly crazy, especially when the advisory posts allow readers to smoke pubic hair, or my courageous favourite, ’give birth to a grapefruit’. One cannot identify with such imaginings but what it does do for the reader, is provoking thought and lets the mind explore options of the absurd. The exquisite poetry, in all its eccentricities breaks the boundaries of what is taboo, and insanely intrudes a world of which many may have never explored or even thought of, beyond the box of comfort.

The extracts follow with outrageous titles innovations, lead under simplistic titles that either link with others, or just completely flow on a tangent. Interesting how every title is a ‘piece’ in which I would express since Yoko Ono has created these to bind people in unity and creativity; it would be likely that each piece could make us whole. Though that is just my reflection, or perhaps what I would like it to represent. Other than that, it has so significance, and I just write a lot of bullshit, like Yoko. As Albert Einstein says ““The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift” which in my opinion, is exactly the gift that Yoko Ono would like to share with us, to crack open our gifts and set our artistic explorations free. To ignore poetic expressions is simply mindless, but ‘Pamplemousse’ has explored the most pedantic forms of art which lay solely in our imagination and binds us with those who can share these experiences.

Of course one of my favourites would have to be the ‘Sky event for John Lennon’. I fucking love John Lennon. The event entails us to reach into our minds to create a moment with friends and strangers, where everybody is gathered below the sky. Choosing either to ‘wait until a cloud appears’ over your head, ‘wait until snow’ or a ‘chair falls’ and then progressing silently in your best clothes to take a photo for a moment. This moment may last for hours, which is so unrealistic that a large group of people will sit silently together, among strangers and wait for one person’s imagination to come to life. It is a beautiful prospect that it can be something that is shared between others, that the vision of many secret gifts being unleashed at once in silence, only to the sound of an unaccountable amount of people’s beating hearts, can be used to honour art.

Yoko Ono’s creativity can be seen as virtuosity, as the solemn flair, embedded in her poetry allows for readers to not only dabble at what is written, but actually go out and pursue. That’s sort of transdisciplinary, right? I mean, it offers an array of different approaches to the works, but in a way that is holistic and inclusive. No one is actually telling you to ‘smoke your pubic hair’ but it is at least entrenched in your mind whilst you’re smoking something. God (fictional) knows that Yoko was. Ostensibly, sending a smell to the Moon isn’t enough to enrich the essence of the reader’s dwellings, as the sensitivity of death pervades the poetry in a way that provokes thought, of a dark issue, and brings light to it. I mean we have all thought of what speech we would make at our own funeral, or perhaps that is just me, but it gives death an interesting outlook, that it is not to be feared, though celebrated even after we are gone, we should be living in some way. Even if it is in the back of a coffin car, riding all over the city, I’ll go for that.
There is not much else to say about Yoko, she is a crafty, intelligent though disturbed woman, but who wouldn’t want her outlook on life? It is peaceful and as ethereal as imagining the clouds dripping, and digging a hole in your garden to put them in.

I am Nicholas Failla.

Reference – ‘Some inspirations, compiled by Natascha Stellmach 2013.’ (Einstein quote)

Image - http://believeinchange.net/keep-your-coins-i-want-change/

Prolific street artist, ‘Meek’ from Melbourne, Australia creates the internationally notable 2005 ‘Begging for Change’ stencil art which portrays a homeless man on the sidewalk, holding a sign depicting his struggle for change. The art work is not only now featured around the world, but most notably featured in Canberra’s National gallery of Art. The LUMA exhibition displays the stencil art amongst other political and socially critical exhibits, contemporary during the Howard era and raises issues, congruous in our present day. These issues of war, inequality, the treatment of races, environmentalism and Indigenous identity are allowed a voice, and it is quite loud, through the artworks of those artists who seek change.

The socially engaging works, may be visually altruistic, actually resemble the disgruntlement of a whole group of people, in a witty and powerful way. With fellow stencil artist, Banksy, to which some of Meek’s inspiration is derived, artists have helped revolutionise the way people think about street graffiti, and the interactive uses they have whilst walking to work, or simply just going for a bite to eat. The heavy symbolism behind artworks such as ‘Begging for Change’ allows the imagination to delve into much more serious thoughts. La Trobe’s LUMA exhibition promotes the delicate and gives minorities and everyday citizens a voice to empower the lack of commendable political leadership. If certain laws were implemented where the narcissistic wealth of Australia were taxed instead of the working class, then ‘Begging for Change’ would possibly not exist, or at least not in political form. It is adequate to see why Meek’s artwork has rippled virally as the infiltration of the rich empowering the working class is congruous worldwide.

Meek has taken over billboards and various public displays for his artwork and has not only prompted the stencil art revolution, but also in a time (early 2000’s) of restraint and deplorable societal views under the Howard government, left much room for inquisitive freedom. The printed stencil and many other published works such as ‘Untitled (at Botany Bay) by boat-people.org exemplifies the struggle of minorities in Australia and the actuality of freedom that we say, we are so proud to have. The fact that anybody can come to our country and work, ‘as long as you do it our way’ is preposterous. Independence and fair chance has clearly been misinterpreted by our powerful leaders of parliament and without piquant artists, who are wittily and scintillating in the inclusion of the public in such grand issues on pompous scales, I dare to think what would become of our world without inquisitive minds.

-Nicholas Failla.

Howard government - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Government

Cool printing methods - http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/work/175222/meek-begging-for-change.aspx?impression=180228





I have no idea what else I should be mentioning, it doesn’t help when I have been fucking procrastinating all week. Horror movies, hell yes.