INVURT

Back again after a massively hectic month of article writing and editing! August has been an interesting month in the news, so here is your wrap up of all (most all!) things media related in Oz and New Zealand …

• Mandy Ord and her work was in the SMH last week also – you mgiht know her from the Inherent Vice event that was on down at the NGV, who did a cool comic book interview for us! Great article!
• Fintan Magee was featured on the SMH and The Age websites. We interviewed him this week about it all …
• There’s a bit of a write up about the Oi! You! show in NZ over at the Nelson Mail … interesting read! There’s also an article there about Josh Manu, one of the 20 finalists selected in the event.
• Stormie Mills got written up all over the place for his show at Metro, and this is a cool article on the artist – but, umm, I mean, that byline? lol – oh Herald Sun, you romance novel loving funsters, you!
• Oh look, another stupid law in South Australia – yeah, because removing some ones license is going to stop them painting. It was stupid when it was first suggested, and its stupid now. Wake up, SA – and what’s with media outlets using what look like legal pieces attached to articles on illegal work?
• We actually caught out OnePerth doing the same thing last week, where they had a piece on illegal graffiti (well, probably anything that looks colourful) being removed from all over Perth because the Skeksi, I mean, the Queen, will be visiting. They removed the pic and replaced it with a tag (which isn’t too bad a piece of calligraphic art). I guess its nice to see the media actually paying attention to its readers, but it would be nice if they all actually stopped using legal artwork to go along with their graffiti "scourge" pieces.
• Oh and hey look, go NSW! So progressive of you! Now that you’ve put in harder laws, you’re going to choke your legal system even more by forcing people who have"graffiti implements" to go to court, instead of getting a caution or diversion. Sounds great! Idiots. Ears said it perfectly in the article – "Until there’s some understanding and acceptance of the culture, and actual facilitation for it to grow – not just token gestures – then I don’t think things are going to change.”
• Anyways, on to something nicer – Toowoomba artist Ian McCallum did some legal work last week at Sojo Collections – looks pretty colourful and cool, dude.
• The Footlocker Art Prize was won by Brisbane artist Kalin Thompson, and heres an interview with him – nice kicks and nice work!
• Everyone’s talking about those "Banksy" inspired pieces that the NZ Police have done up around the place to get new recruits. Funny how they’d promote themselves with something that they are later going to arrest people for. I mean. Really?
• A little bit left of centre for the end of this run, but Gizmodo had an article up a week or two ago about an Alternate Realty application for iPhones that lets people paint the walls around the place … hmm. Yeah, nah.

Now, we certainly don’t condone illegal acts of vandalism here, but we will certainly condemn idiotic laws that are out of touch with modern culture. There was also a whole lot in the press in the last month about a whole bunch of stupid laws, and people being forced to pay ridiculous amounts in damages. It would be nice to see full cost breakdowns as to where all these officials get their estimates when they are claiming "it caused $100k in damages." I bet in reality it costs a hell of a lot less than what is purported.

Regardless, I still think the Queen looks like a Skeksi.

Time to get back to the Press Mill Wednesdays, where we recap all of the “mainstream” press surrounding the art we all love. The column was put on the backburner for a little bit whilst we did some behind the scene restructuring, and now, given there is a little more free time on this editors hands, we’ll be able to get back into a few more special columns for you.

So, right into it …

• Deb, Amuse, Simon Clouston, Jess Cook and other street artists all raised money for the environmental group Borneo Orang-utan Survival – $11,000 worth, last week – wonderful.
• A great little article in the Age about the recent painting in Union Lane by some young creatives, under the mentorship of Paul Round. Great to see this kind of thing!
• There has been a lot of news in recent times as to the proposed re-vamp of the Keith Haring mural in Collingwood – The Age had another article on it a week or so ago.
• Theres a “Phantom Knitter” on the loose in Hobart, and the ABC tried to track them down … nice little piece on some cool yarn bombing.
• Sounds like Sydneys China Town is getting a revamp – including a bunch of “street art” – Jason Wing will be doing a big piece, which sounds pretty cool  … but, you know, it hurts my head thinking about the hypocrisy, considering the new NSW laws against street art and all …
• A really nice and heart warming, positive piece a young guy using a spray can as physical therapy – you go, Sam Ford!
• Students at Goondawindi State High got up in a big way and painted  their local PCYC – this is a fantastic example of integrating street art into the curriculum – more more more.
• Some recent news on the case against a NZ artist who is being sued in court in a civil action by the Auckland City Council – I’d like to know where they dig up their figures, apparently it costs around $100/$200 to remove one tag – really? ffs …
• Owen Dippie is making splashes both in NZ as well as over in NYC – this Herald article covers it all pretty well – he’s been going large!
• Finally, there is a really, really great article up on Voxy about all the artwork that is going up in Christchurch, celebrating all of the police who did heroic things during the quakes – a cool example of the beautiful uses of urban art …

That’s it for this week – see you back with another regular Press Mill in a fortnight.