Sleuth – The Waldheimerin

8 Feb

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This comic was completed in March 2013 by Josh at Chugnut (comics weekend in Victoria). It was written with major assistance from Katsutoshi Osakabe and Nadine Kessler who helped with translations, I sneakily placed in some people I know, borrowed their stories somewhat and whatnot – thankyous therefore go to Jerome Santospirito, Andrew Harwood, Glen Ewers, Sarah Katz, Sophie Clear and anyone who looks after the Cradle Mountain National Park. This comic is part of the Sleuth series of comics, an investigation into the spirituality of modern Australia. I also stole something from TGH Strehlow.

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Book cover

7 Feb

Book-launch to be held March 16th as part of the inaugural Shock of the Now festival.

Here’s a sneaky-peek!!
The Long Weekend cover

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How to make a cover of a book

28 Jan

Here’s how you make a cover for a book …

Step 1 – spend weeks drawing lots of different ideas
Step 2 – have many arguments with graphic designer wife
Step 3 – don’t give in
Step 4 – realise that wife probably has better sense for this stuff than you do … and compromise

Step 5 – Draw the title, draw the outlines of two dogs about to have a scruff using the only lightbox you have available (the sun)
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Step 6 – Colour in the texture of that big shaggy dog on the back cover!
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Step 7 – Finish the writing on the back (some endorsements from Jennifer Mills, Rod Moss and Tom Singer!! )
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Step 8 And add the spine.
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Here’s the spine up close!
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Step 9 – scan and relinquish to graphic designer.

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Charlotte Salomon (1917-43) Documenta

25 Jan

At Documenta in 2012, the most interesting piece I came across was this historical oddity by Charlotte Salomon. It is a Gesamtkunstwerk of sorts, an ambitious fusion of visual art, poetry and perhaps other hidden artforms by a young Jewish German women who eventually found herself in Auschwitz. The entire work was made in 1941-42 and is a series of about 760 gouache paintings that retell the story of numerous suicides in her family, mostly women on a background of suggested abuse. It was mostly in German which I found difficult to fully understand (my German not being up to scratch despite being married for a number of years now to a beautiful German lass) but the intense visuals were quite astounding. I realised very quickly that this kind of artwork, which was laid out in a series of cases (as you’ll see in the images below), was a form of comics. It also happened to coincide with the period where I was organising the first of the Sleuth series of exhibits, which mostly involved me using entire sheets of paper as panels for comics that were to spread across walls. I found it very interesting indeed. I must get my mitts on a copy of the book of these images.

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The Shipwright & the Banshee

20 Jan

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The S&B was first performed by Chris Downes and Josh Santospirito as part of the 2011 Sound to Light evening which pitted a visual artist with a sound artist. Josh approached Chris in early 2011 about doing something together and they slowly developed the idea of performing a ghost story based on the Derwent River near Hobart, Tasmania.

Chris came up with the slow-burning 20 minute story of a young Shipwright meeting a banshee on the banks of Derwent River and Josh wrote the music and created the soundtrack and the music that he also performed. The story was cobbled together from various myths about banshee’s.

The second performance was at Chugnut (comics camp) in Victoria on the 31st of March 2012 where it was watched by every comicer worth a damn in the country (except for all the others) … who loved it.

The performance was then dissected for its weak points and turned into an interstellar monster with the addition of the idea of having an animated component along with Chris’s drawing … then we decided against that.

Then we asked Brian Ritchie (of the Violent Femmes) to include it in the MONA FOMA – an awesomely amazing music and art festival in Hobart, Australia … where Chris and I both live. The video is from the performance at the Rosny Barn as part of the festival.

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MONA FOMA 2013 – the Shipwright and the Banshee

13 Jan

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Joshua Santospirito and Christopher Downes perform The Shipwright and the Banshee on Friday the 18th at the 2013 MONA FOMA in Hobart, Tasmania.

It’s a performance that combines comics and sound – better make sure you get into the act!!

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Recent interview

6 Jan

Those lovely people at Framed Magazine did an interview with me regarding The Long Weekend in Alice Springs- Read it here.

In other news – Nadine and I are slaving away laboriously at turning the comic into a book as you read this!

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End of the preorder campaign

27 Dec

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Drive West Today’s 2012 wrap up

22 Dec

DWT had the most prolific year ever in 2012 with 15 concerts, some tours of mainland Australia and Europe and two mini-albums released.

I gotta say that the gig where I played best was the NOW now concert in August, but unfortunately there is no recording … it is slowly flowing out into the stars, mingled with other noise from Sydney at that time.

Some other highlight gigs this year were

the Pontevedra gig in Galicia, Spain, where I met some absolutely lovely people and played to a very attentive crowd

the recent gig in Hobart where I played with Matt Warren in a sort-of impromptu arrangement – the first gig of the Hovering Waitresses.

A concert in May at the Moonah Arts Centre where I worked in some sports commentary from a Carlton Blues game which worked a TREAT!!

I’d like to thank all the people I played with on various tours and whatnot, people who helped gigs happen and people who came and told me they liked my music! Met some rad people and had a blast. Big thanks to the beautiful Nadine Kessler for supporting me and making great tour posters. xxoo

2013 starts with an exciting gig where I will be playing with cartoonist Chris Downes as he draws the images for a ghost/horror story at the Rosny Barn as part of MONA FOMA 2013 … hopefully as an artist at the festival I can sidle up to David Byrne and get someone to take a sneaky pic when I hug him by stealth!!

thanks guys!!!

jxo

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18 Dec

Here’s an article in Arts Hub which … is slightly fictional in its factual … but reminded me of the video above that I’d forgotten about. It comes from a Sydney performance that I did in 2011 of the ongoing Acousmatic Ecology series … which is a style of playing that I developed over some years.

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