This is coming up soon in Hobart, Tasmania!
I asked Laura McMahon (Brain Foetus) to make the poster and she did a stellar job. We ran off copies in blue on my risograph and they’re going up all over Hobart now. See you there! jxo
facebook event is here
Tag Archives: Tasmania
2018 Small Press Zine Fair
18 OctSOUND KLUB 16
24 Apr
Sound Klub is a series of small events and concerts held in Hobart curated by Matt Warren and Joshua Santospirito focusing on audiovisual / improv and experimental sound / performances. It has been ongoing since 2009 … so next year it will be 10 years old.
Sound Klub 15
30 Mar
Saturday April 14 at 6pm with sounds from 6:15, $5 donation
Set-times subject to change
6:15pm – Joshua Santospirito & Sara Wright
Experimental dance/sound collaboration two Hobart based artists. This should prove very very interesting.
Listen to Josh’s at http://drivewesttoday.bandcamp.com
7pm – Trommel Inc.
Trommel Inc. is a troupe of Hobart-based drummers dedicated to performing percussive experiments, planned, improvised or somewhere in between. This will be their debut.
7:45pm – Maria Moles and Adam Haliwell (Melbourne)
Extraordinary Noise & Drums duo invoking incredible sound & music Improvisations. We were lucky enough to have Maria and Adam at a previous Sound Club episode. Maria also performed a solo percussion show at the Odeon during MOFO 2018.
https://mariaandadam.bandcamp.com/album/if-the-times-were-right-i-wouldnt-be-writing-this-after-all
SK is curated by Matt Warren and Joshua Santospirito.
It was started in 2009 by Matt Warren and Scot Cotterell and is a shifting collective of artists and musicians interested in live sound, experimental music and audio-visual performance. Based in Hobart, Tasmania SK produces small-scale, sometimes themed events presenting the work of local, national and international artists.
Poster art – by Matt Warren, Lettering by Joshua Santospirito.
Follow Your Shadow
10 Oct
13th Oct – 5th Nov
An exhibition of comic, cast and cartoon art at the Rosny Barn.
With artists – Scott Baxter, Alyssa Bernudez, Grace Garton, Paula Hatton, Joshua Santospirito, Paul Peart-Smith, Vivien Mason and Sarah-Jane Moore.
Opening – Thursday the 12th Oct, 5:30pm.
FREE, All welcome.
Artist talks – Saturday the 14th Oct, 2pm.
FREE, all welcome.
Student drawing competition – 13th Oct – 5th Nov.
FREE, students 18 and under.
Follow Your Shadow moves between surface and source. Curated by Dr Sarah Jane Moore, Tasmanian artists Scott Baxter, Alyssa Bermudez, Grace Garton, Paula Hatton, Joshua Santospirito, Paul Peart-Smith, Vivien Mason and Sarah Jane Moore collaborate to create a magical place of mystery, animation, exaggeration and intuition. The shadows we cast are explored through object, sound and space where cartoon meets comic, graphics meet sculpture and holograms meet playful projections. From Marvel to Minions, comic and cartoon art is all around us and is increasingly being recognised as an art form with both high artistic value and the power to communicate diverse stories. Join us and follow your shadow.
Hobart Small Press Zine Fair
3 Mar
Poster art by Tom OHern and printed by Joshua Santospirito on a Risograph.
Josh’ll be selling his comics and zines at this. It’ll be fun. Come!
The Comic Art Workshop
14 DecFor the first two weeks of November I was taking part in the inaugural Comic Art Workshop. It was held on MARIA ISLAND off the East coast of Tasmania. Technically I was the only Tasmanian at the workshop, but Leigh Rigozzi used the workshop as an excuse to return from Sydney after a decade. So we now have another comic maker in our midst YAY! … and to make things more interesting, I met Eleri Mai Harris at the workshop – turns out she’s an ex-Tasmanian who now lives in Canberra after having lived in the States for a bit – so there was tonnes of Tassie action going on. Leigh’s Dad also works for Parks and Heritage. He came over to Maria and gave us a bit of a talk about the island and the nature and whatnot. Tony Thorne from Hobart also came over on the middle weekend and talked about the history of Indigenous peoples in Tassie and also gave a watercolour Plein Air workshop.
We had Leela Corman and Tom Hart from Florida come to be our master-comic-artists. Go to the Comic Art Workshop link for the full line-up of the amazing attendees.
Here’s some random pics!
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!!!
Program flier
17 May
Nadine Kessler did the design, Tom O’Hern the image, Josh Santospirito the words.
Festival Program – #HerMAJhobart
16 MayHer Majesty’s Favourite Really Great Graphical Festival
The Southernmost Tasmanian graphic celebration in the NATION!
2014, June 5–8
Join us or die – on Farceybuuk & Twotter
Hobart is filled with artists – we know… we all read the census report. We went to the museum and it was very nice (it was very lovely thankyou Lord Berriedale). But frankly, I think we’d all like to bloody well see more cartoons. More kids books! MORE COMICS! Where have the illustrators all been hiding?
Her Majesty has decreed that it is high time that her favourite Australian state, Van Diemen’s Land, celebrated its own zines, illustrators and comic-makers. She has has graciously allowed these festivities to be the fanfare to her own birthday celebrations in the state capital of HobART.
The festival is filled with fun events that showcase some mighty Hobartian artists that don’t often get to see the light of day. Artist talks, performances that combine visual graphics and sound, comic-launches and events that let you all have a crack at drawing things yourself and making your own publications! Jump over the program page to have a look.
Her Majesty’s Artist in Residence for 2014 will be Sir Tony Thorne of Dynnyrne. In honour and recognition for his patriotic fighting in the trenches of artistic endeavour. He’ll be performing, talking and presenting at three of Her Favourite events and sharing his wise wisdom with all. “Hail, Sir Thorne”
FULL PROGRAM
Friday May the 23rd – pre-festival event
Arts Forum at UTAS College of the Arts – Josh Santospirito (festival creator/organiser) gives a talk on his award-winning graphic novel The Long Weekend in Alice Springs. He’ll talk about the adaption process and other elements to do with long-form comics. Dechaineux Lecture Theatre, Tas College of the Arts, 12:30-1:30pm. Free, open to the public. FACEBOOK EVENT
Wednesday May the 28th – Pre-festival special event
Rachel Tribout launches her first picture book
CAPTAIN BLUEBERRY’S – MONSTERS OF TASMANIA
to be launched by Jon Kudelka
@ Fullers Bookshop, 5:30pm – free event. FACEBOOK EVENT
Basically, all you need to know is that this is a very special book.
Thurs June 5
A Thousand Words– 6pm
Illustrators talk night – great projects and graphics, a great opportunity to have a look at the illustrating process with the artists themselves doing the show and tell. Short animated films will also knock ya socks off.
Featuring Sir Tony Thorne, Sam Lyne, Gay McKinnon, Christopher Downes, Hiiragi, Rex Smeal, Paul Peart-Smith, Tom O’Hern and Sarah Catherine Firth.
Constance ARI, 100 Goulburn Street, enter with a single gold coin donation.
Bar open on the night, proceeds to Constance gallery.
Friday June 6
Drink & Draw – 5:30pm
Graphics … Performances … drinking … drawing … !!
Performances from Tony Thorne & Joshua Santospirito.
Come down to TMAG for a drink and have a crack at some drawing with some of the artists. The TMAGgots will be manning the bar. A TMAGgots event at TMAG, Dunn Place, free entry
Saturday June 7
Blood and Bone by Tom O’Hern – 6pm
Tom O’Hern made a bloody comic. He did it as part of Sankessto Publication’s Down There series of Tasmanian Comics. There’ll be speechies from Tricky Walsh. There’ll be booze, there might be cheese, there’ll be all of youse, and there’ll be meeze.
Hobart Bookshop, Salamanca Place, free
FACEBOOK EVENT
An Extraordinary Sequence of Events – 8pm
In a paper theatre, pages come to LIFE. From the heartbreaking illustrations of Tasmania’s favourite masterpiece Last Days of the Mill, to the ecstatic whimsy of Captain Blueberry – you’ll love this night. It’ll be filled with extraordinary events! One might be particularly interested in the matching of fine, popular, fine artist Robert O’Connor with the chaos of Danielle Page’s Noise outfit – Kovacs. The night will be finished off with a macabre and heartwrenchingly bloody tale of murder on the banks of the River Derwent – Downes/Santospirito present a MONA FOMA favourite – The Shipwright & the Banshee!!
* The Shipwright and the Banshee by Christopher Downes & Joshua Santospirito (MONA FOMA 2013)
* The Last Days of The Mill by Tony Thorne & Pete Hay
* Captain Blueberry’s Monsters of Tasmania by Rachel Tribout
* Rob OConnor & Kovacs
at The Grand Poobah, 142 Liverpool St. Entry $8-
FACEBOOK EVENT
Sunday June 8
The Small Press Zine Fair
Bands, zines, comics, workshops, zines, creativity, zines
Imagine a world where everyone made their own publications … imagine it – right NOW! … crikey, I think we’ve DONE IT – All the zine-makers of the Southern Hemisphere are descending upon the Poobah for this afternoon of swap/buy/give/show-off all their zines and publications. They make awesome presents for yourself and for your Mum, and for you brother, and his girlfriends.
A WALLOPPINGLY fun afternoon, 1-5pm, at The Grand Poobah, 142 Liverpool St. free entry. FACEBOOK EVENT
Information for Zine stall-holders: No registration required, BYO card-table, crate, table-cloths etc. Set up on the day, jump on a table with someone you’ve never clapped eyes on before – AUTOMATIC BFFs!
Joshua Santospirito Art 