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Sleuth: OMG
26 DecSleuth: OMG from Joshua Santospirito on Vimeo.
Art, direction, music and written by Joshua Santospirito in 2014.
As a part of Joshua Santospirito’s ongoing multiformat “Sleuth” series, OMG was published in June 2014 in comic form in Island Magazine #137. It details further Santospirito’s obsession with identifying and naming the pre-human archetypes of the Australian continent, in particular the one that haunts our darkest dreams and ensures we remain terrified of the vast interior.
But this archetype is no Jungian whimsy … this one means to do us all harm. From the darkest recesses of our psyche, OMG plans to use some form of crazy reverse colonisation to take over the planet and burn us all to a crisp.
The Sleuth series is an ongoing series of investigations into the modern Australian spirituality and psyche. Look out for further exhibitions and writings at Josh’s website.
Also, much thanks to Island Magazine.
2014 – my year.
22 DecPersonally, it’s been a pretty average year for me,
But artistically – It’s been an awesome year
… I’m not sure if that means I’ve come out on top or not … who knows.
Awards
I won some awards for The Long Weekend in Alice Springs … now I can refer to myself as a “multi-award-winning-graphic-novelist” … isn’t that rad.
- ComicOz Award for Best Australian Original Comic Book for 2013
- But even more important to me was this one – 2014 Chief Minister’s NT Read Non Fiction Book Award. It’s rad to have won this award in the NT, where the story of The Long Weekend belongs. In fact – there was tonnes of Central Australian stories up in Darwin nominated at the book awards – which is awesome for the Centralian region.
Exhibitions
I had 2 exhibitions which is pretty alright I reckon!
- Sleuth: The Delegation – at Sawtooth ARI in Launceston in April
- The Long Weekend in Alice Springs at the Top Gallery at the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart.
Publications
I managed to get 2 different Sleuth pieces into literary magazines this year which is exciting, as well as some other stuff.
- Sleuth: OMG – published in Island #137 in June
- Sleuth: The Transcontinental Distress was published in Meanjin in September.
- Oi Oi Oi! First 9 pages of The Long Weekend was reprinted in this.
- Fluid Prejudice – some other pages from The Long Weekend was contained in this wonderful Aussie History Comics anthology
I’ve also been working on a series of 20 kids books in the3 Yankunytjatjara language from South Australia – these will be released in early 2015 (if all goes according to plan).
ALSO – I continued organising and publishing the Down There comics series through San Kessto Publications – Tom OHern and Tricky Walsh both had releases of really awesome Tasmanian comics through that series – one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever been involved in!
Writing
Something I’ve not done for a while.
- Wrote for the Meanjin website in January
- Wrote for the Island Website in May – review of Fluid Prejudice
- Wrote for Island Magazine in June – Island #137 – on the making of The Long Weekend in Alice Springs.
Festivals
Managed to be at a number of Festivals during the year for writing, comics and music … here’s a list!
- MONA FOMA, Hobart – played manic guitar as part of the Hobart Improv Collective
- NT Writers Festival – Word Storm – Darwin: spoke on panels, presented my graphic novel, hung out and stuff (won an award)
- Emerging Writers Festival, Melbourne – spoke on a panel
- Her Majesty’s Favourite Really Great Graphical Festival – I was the Festivale Directeur Flamboyante of the first Comics/Illustrators/Zines festival in Tasmania in June.
- Helsinki Comics Festival, Finland – international comics festival that I had a table at – and met lots of fine folks.
Music …
Concert-wise it’s been a quiet year by my normal standards with only about 7 or so performances … but I did manage to fit in a few gigs here and there, played in Helsinki twice as well which is rad.
Recordings – I did have two recordings released through two channels.
- “Feels” was commissioned and played on Ears Have Ears show on FBi radio in Sydney in September, it can be listened on their Soundcloud site for free.
- “The Waterhole” was a track that was released on the Hobart Experimental Noise compilation Convergence, curated by Matt Warren and Julian Teakle, which can be bought/downloaded from Rough Skies Records.
So all up – It’s been a pretty good year!!
2015 is already shaping up quite well –
- 2 more exhibitions lining up – One in Hobart! One in Canberra!
- A longer comic piece being finished for August or thereabouts
- Some more festivals
- Knuckling down on some more graphic novels
- Some weeklong workshops
- Chris Downes and I performing The Shipwright and the Banshee in Melbourne
- Her Majesty’s 2nd Favourite Really Great Graphical Festival, in June
- More Down There comics – I have soooooo many Taswegians lined up making comics it’s just not funny … not funny at all!!!
- Who knows what else!!!
Poster making
19 DecEarly stages of developing a poster for NPY women’s council in Alice Springs – next up tracing and making it better and stuff
Hoppers 2: lifesick
7 DecSan Kessto Publications has published ANOTHER comic – Tricky Walsh the art-machine has churned out issue 2 of Hoppers, her incredibly large planet engulfing saga involving a train … that you just gotta sit on, until it crosses the planet and drops you back where you got on … damn … and it’s slow … really bloody slow.
So stoked – for Xmas you can buy 3 DOWN THERE TasComix for the price of 2 – including both Hoppers issues + Blood and Bone. Click on the poster below – YAY! Will ship immediately so you get it before Christmas and can chuck it under your tree …
Writings – 2014
28 NovIn 2014 i got a little excited again about the written word … it’s been a long while since I put any written word out there for the world to see – since in the last few years I’ve become more concerned with words & pictures. Here’s a few things I wrote this year for those that might be interested –
Island Magazine #137 (print) – Translating Culture and Comics, an article I wrote which accompanied a series of talks I gave in Hobart and Darwin about the making of The Long Weekend in Alice Springs graphic novel.
Island website – Prejudicial Ink (review of Fluid Prejudice)
Meanjin website – What I’m Reading
My blog – Something i wrote whilst sitting in an art gallery – fairly spontaneous thoughts, unedited and raw – and nice.
Fluid Prejudice Re-inks Australian History
26 Oct
Another beautiful review of this Anthological gem.
“The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” – Mark Twain
Review by Sky Croeser
Unlike most histories from above or below, Fluid Prejudice stands out as one that doesn’t provide a coherent narrative. Instead, it’s a dream-like journey through Australian history, haunted by the violence of colonization. Single-image cartoons jostle with longer stories, and well-known figures sit side-by-side with personal stories. Some characters recur in different forms across stories, shifting from the foreground to the background. This jumble creates a more radical approach to history which leaves questions and contradictions unanswered, rather than offering the reader an easy vantage-point.
Title: Fluid Prejudice
Creators: Sam Wallman, Aaron Manhattan, Safdar Ahmed, Katie Parrish, and others (50 contributors in total)
Editor: Sam Wallman
Published: Self-published in 2014
Page Count: 175 pages
Other Specs: Softcover, black and white interior with colour cover
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Uti Kulintjaku – Mental health language literacy program poster
23 Sep
This was a ripper of a project that I illustrated for earlier this year for NPY women’s council. I worked with designer Elliat Rich (who lives in Alice Springs) to come up with this poster in consultation with a group of ladies from NPYWC. It was translated into 2 languages – Pitantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra – and attempts to use existing words from those languages to discuss concepts around mental illness, feelings and behaviours rather than bring in English language words. A very interesting project to draw. And the poster has apparently had a great reception.
We’re doing a second poster about child development – it’s in the pipeline.
Sound Klub 12
22 Sep
Oct 3, 2014 – SOUND KLUB 12
Noel Meek & Olivia Webb (NZ)
Sister0 (Tas, just returned from Austria)
The Hovering Waitresses (Tas)
____
$5
The Grand Poobah
9pm, noises at 9:30pm
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– Noel Meek & Olivia Webb –
Wellington-based sound artist, Noel Meek, has been working in experimental music for over 15 years. Meek’s current music project uses samplers to build drones out of acoustic and electric instruments using non-traditional tunings and notes pitch shifted by microtonal intervals to build ecstatic layers of overtones. His latest live works have been described as “apocalyptic.”
Artist and musician Olivia Webb reworks video of simple, natural environments to complement and build upon Meek’s soundscapes. Webb’s videos play with elemental themes, an obsession with weather patterns, and ideas of irrational symmetry. Images morph as the sound pulses creating one holistic/universal experience for the audience.
http://soundcloud.com/noelmeek
http://vimeo.com/96862871
– Sister0 –
Nancy Mauro-Flude has…
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Joshua Santospirito Art 