INVURT

With Itch having taken out the first Australian round in the Red Bull Wreckers event last Saturday night at 1000 pound bend, the trans-Tasman battle is in full swing, and for those of you not lucky enough to be in Wellington for the opening heat of this international clash, here are some details on the thrills and spills of the evening – which saw Yels take out the winning spot.

Particular thanks to Anna at Red Bull and Sarah Burton for the awesome pics …

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Kiran X has been kind enough to send through an open invitation to the opening of his new show coming up next month. A Wellington based stencil artist, his works are intense and beautiful, using heavy and considered layering to build up intoxicating images.

‘Seductive Mechanizm’ is self described as “a collection of wicked new stencils pieces based on robotics and Frankensteining on various found surfaces from rusty steel to fractured timber. I’m interested in how people are used in the construction of advertising imagery, models are dieted, composed, photo manipulated and hyper sensualised to endorse products of want, from desire,” says KIRAN-X. “What fascinates me is not the product but the process in which the imagery is engineered and how models are robotically mechanized,” he adds.

The exhibition is themed around a reverse engineered collection of advertising imagery pulled apart and reassembled to illustrate a series of new works that focus on the visual mechanical elements of desire. “Ironically the ‘Dr Frankenstein’ process of stencilling has graphically transformed the models into androids who are now liberated from a product, or perhaps becoming the product,”

Who: Kiran X 
What: Seductive Mechanizm solo show 
Where: Pixel Ink Gallery, 219 Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, NZ 
When: Show opens Wednesday 1st June 5.30 – 7.30pm and runs till 26th June

Check out more from Kiran-X at his flickr page or at Deviant Art, and for more info on this and other shows check out Pixel Ink Gallery.

Can’t find too many details on this show, but Matt Arbuckles work is fantastic, and he’s been kicking around the NZ scene for a while now. We found this from 2009 when he was featured on Red Bulls Creative Spaces as a description of his work:

“Matt Arbuckle is an up-and-coming young Auckland artist who after just finishing his degree has had the opportunity to show off his work throughout New Zealand including exhibitions in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. His paintings take the appearance of objects that are wrestled with, or perhaps even beaten into submission. His images go through radical transformations as they are meticulously constructed and deconstructed, with what remains in the finished work, a lucid tension of these various transformations at their most poignant. 

A neo-expressionistic painting style is undermined by the idiocy of the cartoon figures present, especially given the almost tragic emotions they seem to express … ”

  
Who: Matt Arbuckle
What: Periscope Dots solo show
Where: Ninety Gallery, upper deck – 90 Wellesley Street, Auckland, NZ
When: Show opens tonight, 6pm til late – not sure how long it runs for but we’d say a few weeks …

Check out Matts work on his tumblr site – and if anyone else has more details on it, send them through …

So, we said this would be a fortnightly column to summarise what’s been happening “in the press”, but I believe that it is now going to be on a “when Fletch can be assed on humpday” column – but, there *will* be one at least every month …

So, read on for all the latest news from your media conglomerate friends ..

• There was some live art performed last week up in Cairns by international artist Dragon 76, to raise money for Japan Day Of Hope – cool.
• Grab a view from a different perspective – the Borneo Post did a cool article on Melbourne street art this week – always great for Oz to get recognition from far flung places for its art. Yes, you read it right – the Borneo Post.
• An interesting article in the SMH about This City Speaks To Me, which came out a few weeks ago – the book covered quite a few street art influenced warehouses in Melbourne, including the infamous Sketch City.
• Great little article about a mural being painted up in Coffs Harbour – always good to see more urban beautification.
• Oops! They banned the Thirsty Camel ad – gee, didn’t see that one coming! If you haven’t seen it, actually, check out this reaction piece to it from CDH that we loved – that’s how you do it, Camel dudes.
• The Blue Mountains Street Art Collaborative had an article on them late last month, talking about the lack of funding for their workshops and activities. This is a huge shame – they’ve been forced to stop the program due to lack of government support. When will the government actually learn that this kind of thing can often be an essential engagement with youths in regional areas? Do not get.
• Then we see articles like this one – where a local wall in Marrickville is being revived as a legal wall for artists. Good work, Marrickville Council, really nice to see that you’re keeping up with the times.
• As we’re covering New Zealand now – well, we can’t not mention the array of, near often sensationalist and intrusive, articles and debate running through Nelson at the moment. Its good they’re talking about it, and figuring out how to best implement street art friendly policies, as long as they treat the artists with respect, in all ways.
• Stuff the debate stuff, there are other really cool things happening in NZ that are in the media as well,  including a bunch of Yarn Bombing going up in Queenstown, and this really cool mural going up in Wellington at St Bernards College. Nice.
• Too much politics, too many “ideas” on how to make “artists pay” for beautifying the street – so we’ll  just link to this article about some ridiculous, debt incurring, HECS type plan in SA and leave the politics for today.
• The last article we saw, was this one – good ‘ol Lismore, some fond memories of visits there. This article is all about The Back Alley Gallery – a new gallery that will turn an ordinary alleyway into a pasteup laneway. Mr Eyres? You’re our hero of the week – good luck with everything.

That’s enough mainstream crap – back to our regular programming …

Hey all – well, its hit Thursday again and, as per usual, its time for our roundup of video clips from the week. This week theres more cool stuff, and heres a big thanks to everyone that keeps on putting out these cool visual snippets – its great to always have content to watch on a Thursday lunchbreak!

First up, we have the promo for tonights Get Trucked exhibition at No Vacancys Project Space in Fed Square (which, if you’re in Melbourne, you should go check out!) .. very cool, and another great video from Just Another Agency.

Just Another Agency Presents ‘Get Trucked’ 2011 from Just Another Agency on Vimeo.

Next round, we have a video of Cam Scale on his work for the Pepsi Max V8 Super Car challenge – man, you have to check this one out, its a prime example of the cool things a talented artist can do with a creative canvas.

PEPSI V8 SUPER CAR WEBISPODE 1 from bruceallan.tv on Vimeo.

Lister was in town recently, and during his visit he did a new piece in Hosier Lane – great time lapse of the work he did!

Last up this week is the final part of New Zealands TDM crews visit over to Miami for Primary Flight. Check this last part, as well as the previous two parts if you missed them.

THE MIAMI DREAM Part3 from Askew One on Vimeo.

That’s it for this week, again, if you have anything interesting you’d like us to put up in our video wrap, just send it through to us at info at invurt.com or via the contact page.

Lo-fi keep on turning on the goodness, and next in line for the collective treatment is “Give Heart”, which is a “group exhibition featuring artists/tattooers who have come together to raise money for the Japan & New Zealand’s Red Cross relief funds. Each artist is presenting their work on a white traditional Japanese Fundoshi garment and will be up for auction on the opening night.”

Lots of great artistic fundraisers happening at the moment, and its always amazing to see creative’s give up a bit of their spare time to produce works for shows like this – such worthy causes both. If you’re in Sydney, get there and help out, and grab a cool Japanese Fundoshi!

 
Who: Jasmin Austin, Stevie Edge, Alison Manners, The Shanghai Charlies tattoo parlour crew, Jason Bell, The Ocean Ink Crew, Adam Craft, The TAttooed Heart Crew, Erin Chance, The Sacred Tattoo Crerw, Josh Roelink, The Tatudharma crew, Kate Knowles, The Chapel Tattoo Crew, Clare Hampshire, Dean Carlyle, Amanda Cain, Paul Surridge, Matty D’Arienzo, Bei Badgirl, Zan Von Zed, Terry James, Mimsy Gleeson
What: Give Heart charity group show
Where: LoFi Collective 383 Bourke Street, Sydney, NSW
When: Show opens 6pm, Thursday 19th May

Check out the LoFi Collective website for more details.

Man, this year is busy as, there’s so much going on right now its not funny – and the upcoming Red Bull Wreckers Yard event is just another perfect example of all the cool shit that’s happening.

Battle events like this are a particular favourite of ours – nothing like watching a group of hugely talented artists attempting to out do each other in a friendly competition to see who comes up with the best work – and this event gives everyone a chance to see it. Travelling from Melbourne, it then heads to Wellington, Auckland, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney (Sorry Canberra, Hobart and Darwin .. maybe not everyone!) – but if you’re in any of the participating cities, you’ll get a chance to check out some of the finest Australasian artists hitting it hard to impress the judges for some mintox prize money.

“Red Bull Wreckers Yard is taking street art culture from dark back alleys and the train tracks to the people. The best graff artists across Australia and New Zealand have been hand-picked to showcase their creative skill in a legit location.

This unique competition consists of a seven city qualifiers: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Auckland and Wellington. Each qualifier will host eight of the best graff artists from that region to battle it out against one another, displaying their artistic flair, whilst spraying against the clock. Artists will be provided with just a blank canvas and cans of spray paint to do their thing. Each round will be based on a theme, given to the competitors a minute out from the start of the round. Some examples of themes could include greed, lust, nature, fear or freedom. The artists will then have to spray according to the theme.

As the rounds go on, the time limit increases, but the canvas size gets smaller, pushing the boundaries of creativity. The judging criteria include creativity, style and theme interpretation.

The winners from each of the seven qualifiers will score themselves cool prize pack including Skullcandy and G-Shock gear and a trip to Melbourne, to compete in the Red Bull Wreckers Yard Trans Tasman Final! The finalists will go head-to-head to determine Australia and New Zealand’s best graff artist. The winner will take home $1,000 of cold, hard, cash, the chance to design a set of limited edition Skullcandy headphones and the opportunity to graff part of the Red Bull HQ office in Sydney.

Victorian Red Bull Wreckers Yard Curator, Jeremy Gaschk of RTIST Gallery says this is a great opportunity for the Melbourne public to witness graffiti art produced on a tight time-frame. Right in front of their eyes, not down some dark lane-way or train track. Simulating the way an artist would usually be restricted on the street. “Artists chosen to participate in this event are from all different artistic backgrounds. Making it the perfect recipe for a very exciting and visually appealing battle." Said Jeremy.”

Here’s a run down on all the events and where they are at:

There’s no detail on the artists involved as yet, but we’re certain that there’ll sure that there’ll be some of your favourites from your area, and we’ll update you with any more info as it comes.

Check out the Red Bull events page for more info on events ion your area! Oh yeah, hi New Zealand! This is our first article in our new NZ category and coverage – and we’ll be having lots more for you guys soon …

Another busy week comes to an end, and all of us here are full steam ahead with a bunch of projects and fun shit. Busy busy busy, cool cool cool.

We have a great art session happening this weekend in Perth, with Dibs, ToniTone, Poise, Deej, NVS and Suloh putting some licks of paint up on a dance studio. Makatron and Gore are painting a wall across the road from our studios at the moment, and in a few short weeks we’ll be transforming the inside of the whole Rival Revolution studios complex with the help of a lot of talented people … lots of cool shots and video to come for sure.

So its still full steam ahead on everything … the new site design is still coming along steadily (when I have time to work on it … sorry, spare time? What? When?) but we’ve now fully assembled our core team and are raring to go – maybe its time we did introductions?

Starma – is our new event and general office manager, I’ll be palming all that kind of shit off to him, he’s much better at it than I am.
FacieB – is one of our new writers, and she’ll also be working closely on the first of our side projects that we’ll be announcing pretty soon ..
Leah – another of our writer extraordinaires, she’s already done a bunch of pieces, and we love her laid back style!
Peach – is the creative director of .. yep, another side project we’re setting up that! She’s also a generally amazing office assistant.
Crutch (Lisa) has just come on board this week to work on our NZ section – that’ll all be starting up next week, hopefully!
Mel – will be helping us out occasionally with a bit of writing and photography in amongst her work with her Baby Trees project
Lara – is our new official Melbourne event photographer, so expect a bunch of shots from around here real soon (if anyone interested in coming on board for other cities,  just let us know!)

I mostly wanted to introduce them as a thankyou for all the hard work they’ve put in so far, and all the hard work that’s soon to come. It’s a great team, with an incredible amount of passion and talent (and patience with me), and I’m really stoked to be working with all of them – please make them all feel welcome!

Anyways! Enough of all that bullshit from me – here’s the wrap!

News and Miscellanea …

• Obviously this weeks big thing was all the feedback from the Carbon Festival – we did a full wrap including a bunch of links and the live blog transcripts here. Great event, and, really, keep an eye on it for next year – you’ll want to go.
• Stupidkrap studios have updated their website, and they’re including more news, interviews and such to go along with their online store – really enjoying what they’re doing with it, and looking forward to seeing me to come! We need more of that kind of thing down here – kudos guys!
• We also forgot to mention that Ben Frost from Stupidkrap launched a new website the other week, very cool.
• Everfresh posted up a cool link to a new interview with Melbourne graffiti artist Lush – hilarious.
• Rekas blog had a great link over to Kid Zooms recent interview with Juxtapoz – West Oz’ers doin it good n proper over in the NYC.
• Almost completely out of the ballpark, but I can’t go past posting this recent interview with a personal favourite – Retna. ’m sure he’ll have something to do with Australian art soon … right?
• Now, completely out of the ballpark, but this is the wrap and miscellanea, and its the only place we ever put this stuff! I have to put in a plug for one of our favourite bands, and good friends, Freak Technique who are playing at Red Bennies in Melbourne this Sunday – they’re amazing, go see them. – and as long s I’m mentioning shit outside the box, also go and check out pics of the new Qubic store that just opened up, totally fresh – gunna have to stop by there next time I’m over that way …

Pics And Images From Around The Traps …

• Some nice work up again from TwoOne for one of his upcoming shows!
• Some nice shots from Ironlak of the Back Burners show at LoFi up – I also really loved this Askew piece!
• Randomly saw this Beastman vs Yok painting posted up on flickr – (cant remember where I first saw it!) these two together, damn!
• You should all know who the talented Michael Peck is, so have a look at this great new wall piece that he did up in Sydney.
• .. you’ve also probably seen this, but its hilarious, and if you look at just one of these images look at this one! Ah, cause and effect … haha
• TEZ over at Nice Produce did this awesome character up in Newcastle with the people at the urban art/graff SAW project – mintox.
• Theres some great new photos of the recent Cat Rabbit exhibition in Melbourne up on the No Vacancy website.
• Did we cover these images from MEGAs show at the Fed Square Atrium yet as part of the Carbon wrap? If we did, too bad, here they are on Project 4000 – totally love it.
• We saw a post about this artist, Pencil Rebellion, over at This Life, after he just featured in Desktop Magazine, and wow – robots. Wow.

Also, don’t forget to check out the full listings of all the shows happening this weekend and into the near future on our Calendar! Also, don’t forget to like our page on facebook, we do a lot of out-of-blog updates, news and pics over there!

That’s all from us for this week, have a great weekend all!

As it should be – the past week has seen so many announcements of new shows, artists getting up, new galleries and a crapload of events happening around Australia … and its great to see. Australia Street Art is some of the best in the world, hands down, and all the derivations of the “genre” that we love to cover is going fkn gangbusters – the more the better, and the better for the artists getting out there,  in our books.

Friday wraps we usually reserve for our miscellaneous bits and pieces and news, so here’s some from us, a rundown on what we’re up to lately, as well as some info on upcoming shows and such ..

Invurt Workshop & Rival Revolution Studios

We posted up a new page this week, with details on our new workshop space within the Rival Revolution complex in Prahran. We had a preview last night in conjunction with a new market night we will be running on a monthly basis with the guys from RR, and had a bunch of people come down to check out what we’re up to. Though we’re still very much under construction, its great to finally have a base of operations, an office and general workspace, and we’re keen to have  creatives involved with us at the space – everyone is free to come and visit, just drop us a line.

We’ve also had some amazing artists come in and paint the space as well, including Heesco, Sim2, Mishap, Katie Houghton-Ward, Enix, Props, Ex-robot & Heidi Philips – all of them putting a riot of colour into an inspirational space. Theres more to come though – and if you’re interested, theres still a few smaller spots left if you want to get something up – its running out quick though, so contact us asap.

Prahran in general, seems to be on the up again and theres some great things happening – after many years of gentrification, archaic and irrational Stonnington near zero urban art tolerance, The Great Millennial Ed Hardy Invasion, and the burgeoning underground arts culture towards the Northside of Melbourne, its pretty exciting to see all the new stuff seeping back into the Prahran/Southside area. With RTIST,Signed & Numbered, T-Squat, Obese, Surface POP, Artboy, Rival Revolution,our new workshop, oh, and Blue Bar (ha!) and a heap of other stuff now in the area, all within ultra short walking distance of each other, well, damn – its starting to look like Prahran is fast becoming a great new “old” place to check out all this stuff … or so we think, anyways haha.

We’ll be running a monthly market event in the space with RR,  called Nothing .. and if anyone is interested in selling wares, art, or whatever, just let us know. Next months market night, Thursday April 24th, will be the official “Invurt” launch, so to speak – its bout time we had one, and you’re all invited, we’ll be having a bit of live art, DJs, lots of cool stuff to buy …and we’ll put out more details on that soon. We’ll also be running a bunch of other events in the future, from live art to screenings, the markets of course and a bunch of other events planned – its a great space, so if you’re interested in working on something with us there, let us know.

We also put up a new submissions and participations page, and we’d love it if anyone wanted to send stuff through stuff for consideration for publishing, guest blogging, or whatever – we’d like to open our doors to include the community around Australia, so feel free to send us stuff! 

Lastly, we finally, after much testing and frustration with freakin wordpress 3.1, have an event calendar up and running! Now you’ve got an easier way of seeing whats on, where, and when, without having to always scroll through the posts to find the info – we hope you find it handy!

To get more regular updates on what we are up to (we try to keep it to the Friday wraps here on the blog) just go like our Facebook Page – we often do updates there during the week.

So, that’s whats been happening in our neck of the woods – it’s been a really busy last two months or getting it all set up, but we’re all pretty damn excited about it – but for now, yeah, yeah, I’ll shut the fsk up and get on with the wrap …

Melbourne Shows

• Surface POP has a group show opening tonight, and theres some great work in it, so head to St Kilda and checkit.
• Reka has his show opening tonight at Backwoods! Can’t wait to see it, the teaser bits and pieces really were pretty teasing and we love his shit.
• Heesco still has his amazing show, Mongo Hustle, portraying Mongolian street artists, on at At Large gallery in Northcote – it was a really great opening, and the work is exquisite. Cool shit.
• Rancho Notorius has Up The Bend running , there grand opening group show -  if you’re in the city, go see.
• Drewfunk, who we talked to earlier in the week  ma-n, we went and saw the preview of it Wednesday, and the opening was reportedly amazing, but all that all nothing compared to the work in the show – some gorgeous ink work, so head to No Vacancy and see it.
• Sean Whelan still has his show on until Sunday at the No Vacancy project space as well
• Enix has work up for showing at Lounge in the city as well – his work is fkn great!
• Finders Keepers Markets is on this weekend!! It looks great! Sunday is the day we’ll be heading down to check it out, but its on all weekend …

Sydney Shows

• Kelly Thompson opened up her show last week, Pyjama Party – such gorgeous illustrative work of some hot as girls to boot.
• Tom Ferson opened up his first solo show this week, so head to Oh Really and see what its all about.

Queensland Shows

• Theres a great group show on in Redcliffe at the moment, with Unleashed: The Rise of Australian Street Art, a cool collection of work.

Miscellaneous bits & pieces ..

• You may have already seen it, but check out all the broo-ha going on over in NZ about the wall that Askew did that was recently buffed, and all the idiocy surrounding it. Go sign the petition as well.
• If you haven’t taken a look at Land of Sunshine yet, do so – Dean has some great coverage of art around Melbourne. With his site, Melbourne Street Art, Dont Sleep, Kompound and others, we always get our correct dosage.
• We can’t forget as well, Miss Blimey Pirate has put out a new comic drawn up by the talented hands of Pierre Lloga – get yourself a copy, and a copy of Nothing To Nobody while you’re at it!

Thats it for the event wrap, go check out the calendar if you want more details on everything running at the moment. It’s been a big wrap this week, but thanks again for reading, and see you Monday!

If you haven’t seen her work around the streets, then you probably don’t live, or haven’t been to Melbourne in the past year or two– or, you don’t pay attention to all the blogs and websites that track down her work when it goes up. She’s been quite prolific in recent times, and her work always has a tranquil, at ease, naturalistic feel to it. This is the kind of street art that makes you stop walking, and take a few moments in appreciation of its presence.

Urban Cake Lady is as down to earth as her images. With work pasted up all over, and having partaken  in several shows and events in the past year, such as the Irene arts festival, Sweet Streets, as well, this coming Sunday, the first Melbourne Tiger Translate show, there doesn’t seem to be any stopping her – and, really, who would want to?

Invurt was really happy to get a bit of her time this week, and to finally find out a bit more about this highly expressive, creative lady …

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The sounds of bass and scattered breakbeats play an important part in the New Zealand electronic scene, and, more often than not, one of the common sounds heard emanating from clubs across the Islands is dubstep. Working at the forefront of this effusive culture, Olie Bassweight, or DJ Evil as he is otherwise known, is one of many talented individuals who have helped turn New Zealand into a virtual Mecca for the dub phenomenon. With his DJ sets, production releases and the success of his Bassweight label, home to popular artists such as Organikismness, Optimus Gryme and Consequence, he is consistently one of NZs busiest DJs, and, as such, is as good an envoy for his homelands music as any other. (more…)