I did this sketch at Princes Wharf 1, MONA FOMA 2012. Watching my friend Michaela from Sydney and her quartet of electricity puppets being played by the seismic readings from the planet since day DOT!! It was quite a performance.
Archive | January, 2012
Drawings from The Barbarians – MOFO 2012
26 Jan
SO – I just finished being a part of the premiere season of the Barbarians as part of IHOS theatre – here’s lots of stuff that I drew whilst I was sitting around the set in the Hobart City Hall as part of MOFO 2012. I was in the Greek Chorus which didn’t involve much talking, but a lot of costume changes, the last of which involved us ten blokes being draped in a necklace of offal and being squirted with genuine blood. I assure you that it was a very funny sight to see 10 grown men charging through the backstage area drenched in blood and only wearing their knickerbockers to get to one of the four the showers first. Bravo Constantine Koukias and bravo IHOS – it was tops! And well done to MONA for commissioning this very very very amazing production!
I made a zine of these drawings and others which I gave out to the cast, most people appeared to like it – so that was a success. As an aside, someone gave a copy to Amanda Palmer … hopefully she gives it to Neil Gaiman … who knows. Crazy!! 
We had sheep in the production … until they ran riot all over the set and placed their faeces and urine everywhere under our bare feet … 
This was the set they ruined … in city hall in Hobart. 
This is Ayrton and the donkey (who was far more professional than his sheepish counterparts). 
The soprano Grace Ovens who was great! 
The rappers in the show.
The Barbarians
14 JanI just saw Ryoji Ikeda’s Datamatics last night as part of the MONA FOMA festival … I felt a bit like I’ve looked inside the universe and understood it.
Also, the following night Nadine and I saw Pierre Henry play. He was in France in his house mixing his music which was filmed and beamed live to the other side of the planet to the big screen. Nadine made a beautiful picture based on it that she put part of here!!
I’m in the supporting cast for IHOS Opera’s The Barbarians at the MONA FOMA (MOFO 2012) … I’ve been making lots of sketches backstage during the rehearsals which I’ll stick up next week when I get a chance to scan them. Constantine Koukias is the director and here’s an article in the Australia Newspaper.
The opera of the Barbarians is based on a poem by the Alexandrian Greek bloke Constantine Cavafy called Waiting for the Barbarians. Here’s a quick comic based on the poster for the opera – I call it: Barbarian (f)art 
A mysterious Tasmanian dog
12 Jan
Here’s a link to the Fox Eradication Program in Tasmania. They have some interesting bits and bobs. Its a controversial topic … given that most people in Tassie don’t believe that there are foxes here at all … and its all a waste of money … here’s the stats from that website
Physical Evidence of Fox Activity Collected in Tasmania (since 1998)
Carcasses – 4
Skull – 1
Blood – 1
Footprints – 2
Fox Positive Scats – 59
Pages 47-50
8 Jan
Here is the beginning of the second chapter of The Long Weekend – It’s called Saturday.
If you’d like to read the first chapter it’s here – Friday
It has been written and designed to be read as a book rather than online so if you’re the patient sort then you can wait for another year or two whilst I finish off the pages and sort out options for publishing … or alternatively, if you’re the impatient kind of person and you have good connections in the publishing world – you could save me a whole heap of time and send me tips about who to approach.
Incidentally, I suggest that some of you who might be interested should check out Palestine by Joe Sacco. It’s from the 90’s, but it suffers from chronic awesomeness. It’s quite related to the LW as Sacco studies the nature of colonisation referencing both Edward Said and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; the latter being directly related to the second chapter of this comic right on this page. I haven’t gotten my dirty hands on Sacco’s new book – Footnotes in Gaza but here’s a good link with an interview with him about it.
Giants walk among us
4 Jan
One of the first in a series of drawings exploring some ideas for a big comics-based project I have in store for 2012 … the working title is “Sleuth”.
I’ll get stuck into it more when I’ve finished the Damned Long Weekend.
Cradle Mountain Xmas
1 JanHere’s a comic from our trip with the German in-laws to Cradle Mountain in the North of Tasmanien last week. I have been to Cradle a few times but this was the first time I actually saw the mountain (i.e. it wasn’t covered in a blanket of cloud and fog and rain) … in fact, it was stunning … I think I can see now why it was made World Heritage Listed.
Lots of wombats, pademelons, Bennett’s wallabies, possums, we saw a potaroo (never seen one in the wild before) … and tonnes of skinks. 
Joshua Santospirito Art 