Nathan Gray

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece Part 0

2011-12-07T14:17:00.000+10:30

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece is an installation which creates a situation for performance. It encourages small groups of people to study, exercise and play music at the same time. The different activities form accompaniments to one another. The installation guides the performers by its layout and the types of equipment supplied. It subtly creates prescriptions for the type of piece which might be created.

I think of this installation as similar to one of the experimental scores commonly used in avant-garde composition. Rather than a work by itself, it is a blueprint for a work which is performed by the audience. I've drawn direct inspiration from Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra here and their strategies for increasing the autonomy of the performer particularly their Scratch Pieces .

The physical structure of the work is based on practices of contingency common in Indonesia; the home-made, the bootleg, and the portable. They are strategies for coping with a lack of resources, money or access and are usually considered incomplete or imperfect but serve the same function as more permanent, expensive or authentic forms. Various relevant images to this work and my continuing research into making in general are at www.inspirilog.blogspot.com

This installation and its accompanying fleeting performances celebrate the continuing processes of exercise, study and practice.

I would like to thank: Julie Burleigh, Esther Kokmeijer, Leonardiansyah Allenda, Febrian (Yayan) Mulyono, Rizki (Kiki) Lumaela, Woto Wibowo, Taring Padi, Lintang, Tim O'Donoghue, Ican Harem, Prihatmoko Moki, Krishna and Dinah and Everyone at Kunci

and especially

Everyone at Cemeti Art House

AsiaLink, Arts Victoria and the Australia Indonesia Institute.

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece Pt 1

2011-12-07T01:20:00.000+10:30

This is a collection of DIY instruments made or rehoused for the show chosen for their ease of operation. They are largely Gamelan parts salvaged and roughly rehoused but also features an analogue synthesiser and cardboard amplifier, photos feature Prihatmoko Moki, Krishna and Lintang who conducted the analogue synthesiser workshop.

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece Pt 2

2011-12-07T00:34:00.002+10:30

Inspired by home gyms found all throughout the world photos feature Ida and Wowok. A more refined version of this sort of equipment is featured in my crypto-aerobics post.

Theorist Training Camp/Practice Piece Pt 3

2011-12-07T00:20:00.002+10:30

A small sci-fi, survival, music and art themed library based on the Indonesian practise of bootlegging books. In Indonesia this is largely due to excessive import taxes, but it has an interesting quality as if a file sharing had escaped the digital realm. Here's a link to another blog post about the Kunci cultural studies library in Jogja whcih was a source of inspiration as were the stripped back, imperfect style of the books themselves. Mbak Dinah of Kunci is guest reader.

Moire studies Numbers Four to Nine

2011-09-26T00:29:00.000+09:30

make being here enough

2011-09-08T21:24:00.000+09:30

Moire Studies No.s 10 - 13

THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
someonehastodosomethiningbeforeanybodycandoanything

Thursday 16 June Until 11 July 2011
with Louisa Bufardeci, Starlie Geikie & Helen Walter, Nathan Gray, Alasdair McLuckie and Francesca Rendle-Short.
Curated by Martina Copley.

Perception Vibration Threshold

2011-08-26T02:24:00.000+09:30

For New Psychedelia - University of Queensland Art Gallery Curated by Sebastian Moody

ACCA ART#2

2011-08-10T22:45:00.000+09:30

All the Performances from ACCA's ART#2 inluding the above along with an interview about the project are documented online here

From the Bottom of a Long Black Tube

2011-08-02T08:07:00.001+09:30

Help To Keep Time

2011-07-09T22:00:00.003+09:30

Some outcomes of my workshop/study group with the Slow Art Collective on Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Music book. The book (pictured at top) provides a framework for collaboration in the workshop. We attempted to apply it to sculptural and performative outcomes.

Rural Infrasonics

2011-06-13T18:07:00.003+09:30

Spectral Light and Pressure Changes

2011-04-08T10:27:00.005+09:30

Instrument for Multiple Musicians, 2010

Instrument for Multiple Musicians, 2010 (video still)

Proposition for Synthesizer (Act, Mishap, React, Repeat) 1 to 3, 2011

Propositions for Disfunctional Ensembles, 1 to 3, 2010

"Whilst the title of Nathan Gray's latest show “Spectral Light and Pressure Changes” describes raw, impersonal phenomena, the works encourage the opposite; an intimate experience of sound and colour which focuses on the quality of perception and the problem of interaction.

A mixture of old and new works, the centrepiece is a table with various materials drilled into its surface. The tabletop is amplified with the intention that the viewer/user experience the sound and feel of these materials in a heightened, literally amplified way. This work is accompanied by a video of the artist and his partner improvising a performance on the table/instrument.

Along the walls are two-dimensional works on plywood and paper that use a heightened colour palette. Painted using enamel, oil and water based paints, salt and soap crystals, these opposing materials interact, repelling or attracting one another without mixing. They are painted as a series of accidents and contingent solutions to these accidents, both blueprints for, and depictions of, hypothetical musical works."

Opening Thursday 14 April, 6pm-8pm

Nathan Gray: Spectral Light and Pressure Changes
April 14-May 1
@ MR KITLY gallery

Upstairs, 381 Sydney Road

Brunswick

http://www.mrkitly.com.au/

In the year 2525

2011-04-08T09:45:00.004+09:30

Everything You Think Do and Say is in The Pill You Took Today, 2011, installation

Won’t Need Your Eyes 1 to 9 , 2011, ink drawing on paper, 31.5 x 24cm

Nobody's Gonna Look At You, 2011, ink on paper, 69 x 50cm

Inspired by the writings and predictions of futurist/entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil and social critic/terrorist
Theodore Kaczynski (the Una Bomber) both of whom predict that we are inexorably approaching a period of
technological growth so rapid that it will radically alter humanity, making humans hyper intelligent,
effectively immortal and indistinguishable from their technology. The two have vastly different
interpretations of this event, Kurzweil is actively promoting the technological changes and life extension
techniques proposed by this prediction, whilst Kaczynski is serving life in prison for his campaign of
bombings against science intellectuals with similar interests to Kurzweil in an attempt to stop these
changes.

This end-of-history event is commonly referred to as The Technological Singularity. The term was coined
by science fiction author Verner Vinge who in his 1993 essay remarked “I'll be surprised if this event
occurs before 2005 or after 2030”. The title of Gray’s exhibition is derived from the 1969 Zager and Evans
song of the same title, which predicts a humorously dystopian future. It was number one in the UK during
the moon landing of the same year.

Moire Studies 1 to 3

2011-04-08T09:35:00.002+09:30

Previously presented as part of "What they Brought Back" and "In The Year 2525".

What They Brought Back Revisited

2011-03-07T12:30:00.002+10:30

Photos From Ryan Renshaw Gallery Brisbane, a representation of What They Brought Back, Photso by Ryan himself. Original post here. Static structures based on rumours and rube goldberg machines.

outside the diagrammatic

2011-01-23T10:25:00.006+10:30

Two Plateaus, 2010, silk screen on paper, 67 x 56.5cm, edition of 20 and

In Conversation (LaMonte Young and Mickey Hart), 2010, silk screen on paper, 56.5 x 67cm, edition of 20.

Extended Delay, 2010, silk screen on paper, 56.5 x 76cm, edition of 20 and

Inner Ear, 2010, silk screen on paper, 67 x 56.5cm, edition of 20

Atlas Eclipticalis, 2010, silk screen on paper, 67 x 56.5cm, edition of 20 and

Use of Digital Computers, 2010, silk screen on paper, 67 x 56.5cm, edition of 20

Heres a collection of prints I made for last tear's RMIT Summer Printmaking Residencythe results of which form last December's show "Delineated", thanks to all involved especially Andy Tetzlaf.

All these works except the first one are from electronic and experimental music texts with the diagrams and scores replaced by other more lyrical objects. The works follow the original layouts of the pages and a tradition of visual scores. I was looking at the ability of the diagram to influence what is heard or can be heard and what is imagined or can be imagined, intending to open this up to a playful less scientific area, one which exists outside the realm of the diagrammatic.

Three of these prints are going into a show thats coming up for the 5th aniversary of the radio show Noise In My Head hosted by Michael Kucyk and co-curated with him by Utopian Slumps' Melissa Loughlan.

Introduction to a Recreation of the Melbourne Central Shopping Complex

2011-01-06T22:18:00.002+10:30

When beginning work on this project I wanted to do something which looked at the site of The Westwing, the Melbourne Central shopping complex. The theme of the show “zero dollars” seemed to be such a great contrast with an internationally financed mall and entertainment complex.

I also got to thinking about MP3s and how they're free and how they've changed the way I access information and the amount of information I access. I seem to be constantly listening to podcasts wherever I am and it builds these informational associations with different places. There's a corner of the park I associate with the Global Economic Crisis now. So I knew from early on I was going to make an audio tour of the complex. The content is more slippery I guess the atmosphere of mall are pretty unreal, especially this one with its animatronic fob watch and 19^th century shot tower in the middle of the arcade, so I wrote a fantasy about the space.

The work takes the form of an introduction to a virtual (or equivalent) recreation of the mall, and the idea is that you should listen to it whilst in the space. I have always read sci-fi and now since been introduced to the idea of the technological singularity I have been obsessing over the future but can't decide whose side I fall on Kurzweil's or Kaczynski's. Anyway the piece deals with the future of capitalism, and what could be more central to an exhibition with the word "dollar" in the title?, and of course I offer my work here free of charge.

Introduction to a Recreation of the Melbourne Central Shopping Complex
right click>save as.....

Thanks to Greg Wadley Research Fellow in computer science at the University of Melbourne who narrated the piece, I chose him because of his work with second life.

Featuring Charlie Sofo, Christopher Carmody, Christopher LG Hill, Karena Keys, Zanny Begg, Taree MacKenzie, Dan Bell, Rowan McNaught, Sean Bailey, Nathan Gray, Trish Roan, Vivienne Binns, Helen Shelley, Lisa Radford, Brie Trenerry, Bababa International, Mary MacDougall

The West Wing is located on the second level of Melbourne Central,
opposite Gloria Jean’s Coffee and adjacent to the ‘hanging garden’.

11.01.11 – 16.01.11

Closing celebration Sunday 16 January, 4-6pm

Not a Dance

2010-12-30T13:43:00.001+10:30

Instant installation for INCU menswear in melbourne. Video by jason heller, photos by jesus.

stockroom

2010-08-12T13:40:00.002+09:30

Standalone works from the "What They Brought Back" project on show at the Utopian Slumps stockroom until the 28th of August.

These works all deal with optical effects as a construct for adressing myths and contagion, history and mutation.

From top to bottom left to right. Bifold 1 (bat colony), Material extrusion, Gallipoli extrusion, Moire work 3 and Bifold 2 (cane toad). Photos by Jake walker.

precursor

2010-08-09T13:06:00.001+09:30

I present to you now another work which precedes "What they Brought Back" my project space comission for Gertrude Contemporary at this years Melbourne Art Fair. It is a comission for Acca's regional tour (ART1) clunkily titled "Permeation:for Shepparton Regional Art Gallery". The work consists of a continous and continually mutating line, brightly coloured in the subdued ligting of the gallery and line the "Permeation for Gertrude" attempts bring the outside into the gallery this time through the amplification of the gallery's sliding doors.

Art Fair 2010

2010-07-26T16:30:00.002+09:30

I will be representing Gertrude Contemporary in a project room at this years Melbourne Art Fair. Above is a preview of part of the work and below is the catalogue essay by Ash Kilmartin. Coinciding with the show will be some new works on display at Utopian Slumps in their stock room.

VARIOUS PROGRESSIONS / notes on composition

Objects appear and reappear, progressing across the surface of the stage, referring to themselves and reading like the progress of history -– they are part logic, part chance, always revealing how the story was put together by its composer.

Starting with structure, the ground for the figures: a standard sheet of ply, as large and as flat as a billiard table, that surface upon which the laws of physics are played out through the movements of simple and identical objects. Here, each object is different. Each figure an illusion and illustration of physics at work - mirrors, moiré, objects miming movement. Sequences are laid out like stopped stop-motion animation, not quite connecting.

Diagrams of events, the making of the way things may have gone, or are going. Picking up histories, retelling them through images, sometimes embellishing en route to the present. Half of a facade reflects the desire for order, manifested in the symmetry of old architecture.

A walkman playing a short loop of distorted tape. One side of the player is removed, revealing the mechanics of the spindles, turning, yet fixed in place. The hand-lettered cassette reads various swiss prog. Whilst the larger tableaux suggests action, the only moving object on the surface moves only around itself - various swiss prog is neutral, un-progressive, remaining in the same place.

Free music? A found tape, a compilation of dubbed drone, repeating itself until the sound has become degraded beyond recognition. A set of compositions, removed from their concept-album context and reconfigured for easy listening, repeat their distorted story amongst a group of similarly manipulated objects. An intellectual treadmill or just going in circles. The reader, moving around the stage, is the one who moves.

Starting again - objects and events appear and reappear, pointing toward each other across the woodgrain. Five fluoro balls on ceramic stalks, five more sinking into their ground in progressive slices, another echoes the marbled yellow sun on the cover of Dune (paperback/mylar cover). Apparently Pink Floyd were invited to make the soundtrack for the movie.

Making progress: still in orbit, bringing back stories of discovery (desert worms, Spanish Flu, tunnels to and from St. Vincent’s under candy-coloured rocks and over the Exhibition Buildings). Scale is exploded or imploded to connect episodes on a single plywood sheet. Small sets of sets, theatres-in-the-round or chapters, enjoying repetition and confusing the sequence by recalling and foreshadowing all at once in every scene. Flimsy backdrops for actions which don’t ever happen, actions which are only proposed by objects which barely touch.

And after. The same objects, removed from the studio and remade inside the structure they refer to. Dispersed once again into more morphing sets, different groups, in various corners, changing, and repeating.

By Ash Kilmartin

Permeation: For Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces

2010-07-09T10:39:00.001+09:30

Anyway. two posts to follow on recent works which need to be shown to contextualize my upcoming work at the Melbourne Art Fair.

Starting as a strategy to address a perceived need, that of linking together the often disjointed end of year studio artist's show and expanding that to addressing a (also perceived) disconnection between the wider community and the gallery/studio residents. "Permeation: For Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces" set out to literally link together the street, the different galleries and the studios.

Starting as a spray painted line on the foot path and transforming from tape to string to wood and so on, the work formed a continuous connection which mutated via an internal logic. At each link transformed through mechanical utility (ie one link physically supporting the next)t or traversals of the picture plane (ie drawn lines to wire lines) . At certain points stopping to engage with the structure of the building, support a shelf of books on local history and provide a voice for the public.

The end of the line was perhaps the most successful, throughout the conception of the piece I wanted to partially invert the usual system of artists displaying work to public without much feedback and so at the end of the line I placed a microphone connected to a speaker placed in the hallway between the artist's studios, originally more as a gesture than an actual functioning sound work. The effect was pleasant and far from annoying to the artists as I originally thought it would be. The street sound piped into the studios proved popular, functioning as a device for bringing the street into the studio and I assume making the artists feel less isolated.

Aggregation 7

2010-05-31T11:05:00.002+09:30

The seventh in the aggregation series is a recreation of the 2nd aggregation made originally in 2006, and comissioned by Kate Just and Daine Singer for the Dreamweavers show at CAST in Tasmania.

possible permutations - insert coin here

2010-02-18T18:51:00.000+10:30

Insert Coin Hereis a group exhibition curated by Nella Themelios & Kim Brockett. The exhibition is part of the 2010 L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival cultural program.

Insert Coin Here comprises of two vending machines strategically placed in public spaces around the Melbourne CBD. Containing limited edition 'fashion objects' produced by over 50 Melbourne-based artists, the vending machines are activated when a member of the public inserts a $2 coin. The exhibition explores alternative interfaces of exchange for fashion, the mechanised system as a form of 'fashion dialogue'. More broadly, it thinks through discourses around public space and the role that fashion might play in it.

1 - 31 March 2010

My project is called Permutation

From my project notes:

Permutation is a set of objects collected for their versatility and potential. It is an invitation to improvise an assemblage and although originally intended to be wearable you may utilize it for whatever purpose you may wish.

You might want to use all or only some of the objects provided, keep them intact or permanently alter elements. You may wish to try several possibilities. You may want to pass them on and see what others make of them.

I would be greatful for photos of your creations and can be contacted at;
nathan at undodesign.com

photos of assemblages archived at

www.possiblepermutations.blogspot.com

ADSR Drawings and Studies

2010-02-08T23:03:00.001+10:30

photos above by tanja milburn and below by me

ADSR (redo)

2010-02-08T22:23:00.001+10:30

Photos above by Tanja Milburn below by me.
(This post replaces the 2 previous posts concerning this show)

Attack Decay Sustain Release

17th of September from 17th of October

Craft Victoria

31 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000

catalogue essays by Francis Plagne, Jared Davis, James Deutsher, Simon Taylor and Helen Johnson download here or free at the show

The show is called ADSR or Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release after the four factors used in sythesis to control the amplitude envelope (the shape of a sounds volume). These words used in their more general sense say something about the process of working.

This set of works coincides with a recent interest in synthesisers and the modular way they make different sounds from a singular set of processes. As well as a recent interest in materials and processes in sculpture and drawing.

The sculptural works were designed at the same time as a sound piece which will be presented in four channel and which also moves episodically from bass tones which progress through a series of filters and to form the higher tones. The piece moves between the raw synthesized piece and a version of the piece recorded in the space, mapping spatial changes. A sample can be downloaded here

mailboxes

2010-01-27T22:10:00.002+10:30

6 sculptures and a drawing done for 2 different shows at mailbox 141. Line curated by Martina Copley November/December 2009 and Cut That Shark Open curated by Olivia Poloni. on from January 28th 2010.

AIF - closing / book launch / snawklor gig

2009-07-15T09:47:00.005+09:30

An Infinity of traces upstairs at Studio 12, gertrude contemporary art spaces closes this saturday and Dylan and I (Snawklor) will be playing a live electro-acoustic set.

With Snawklor playing 3 different types of set at the moment each geared to the style of event and type of sound system. Its a very nice thing to be able to play in a gallery space. the volume is decreased and the audience becomes that little bit more focused. The small sound system seems to be the only time we can safely use mics without the threat of feedback so we have a lot more freedom to be quieter more detailed an delicate. Add to that that studio 12 is a ridiculously reverberant space and that the fact that the installation is built around a balinese gamelan xylophone made massive chunks of smelted brass and you can see the potential. Should be special.

This is also the launch of the recourse book for the show; "Kebyar Library" layed out by Edward Davis. Its a collection of resonances that the show dredged up for me, lots of avante-guarde composers having eastern epiphanies, geological processes and kids.

Snawklor Gig/Kebyar Library Launch

3pm, July 18th

studio 12 (upstairs)

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces

200 Gertrude St. Fitzroy

An Infinity of Traces

2009-06-25T22:26:00.006+09:30

A new show entitled "an infintiy of traces" in studio 12 at gertrude contemporary art spaces from the 26th of june. My studio is just across the hall so come and say hello if you like.

An Infinity of Traces is a fantastic assemblage built on top of a gamelan xylophone. It uses paper rope, various types of wire, styrofoam and xylophone keys smelted in bali and tuned in the Kebyar scale. Its a kind of meditation on the influence of gamelan on westerner's fantasies (my own included). I realize this warrants a lot more writing and I will endeavour to geta round to it soon in the meantime I have included with the show is a zine entitled "kebyar library" which charts the show's influences and resonances. It is published by HMpress and will be released with performance by snawklor during the show details soon. Below are some selections from the zine.

waterslides

gate, monkey forest, Ubud Bali

non indonesian gamelan orchestras

Lamonte Young and Guru Pandit Pran Nath

NW

2009-05-20T18:47:00.003+09:30

new work!

SEC 2

2009-04-30T10:44:00.004+09:30

Secretion Erosion Conjunction

Nathan Gray and Alex Vivian

Finding a way to work together. First there is a gap. Does a gap need a bridge?. A gap is after all a sort of link because it must be between things whose proximity implies a relationship. There is a knot of ideas here, so maybe not a gap, but a collection of ideas too intertwined to be isolated, proximity issues again. There is something we have in common, lets not dissect it lets elaborate on it.

We have both indulged in weird fantasies for a while, some visceral, sexual, gross and some material, elaborate and palely utopian. In the show we make a link (gap) between the body and geology. There is a melting together here, a merging. A loss of borders between the body and the world. A melding of bodies and minds, not a communion but a nauseating loss of self. A loss of gravity. An insipid optical illusion.

This is collection of objects both startling and crummy. And a collection of gaps (links) between objects. A collection of weak jokes and crap magic tricks. It doesn't matter that you can see through the special effects. We all need shifts in our realities but you're too old for real epiphanies and too smart to trick. Its all an ineffectual effort to blow your mind. We hope you appreciate the effort.

hope you can all make it contact me if you have any questions

Secretion Erosion Conjunction

Alex Vivian and Nathan Gray

May 1st to 22nd

Rear View Gallery

(at the rear of)

244 Smith St. Collingwood

(Discount Chemist Wharehouse)

enter from Stanley st

open wed - sun 12-6pm

TQA/EIT

2009-04-27T22:24:00.002+09:30

A video work I produced in Bahia Brazil with the assistance of The Australia Council for the Arts and the Sacatar Foundation Originally Exhibited at The Narrows (gallery) in Melbourne in December 2008. Tudo Que Acho (everything I find/think) was a studio installation resulting from material enquiries into the environment and culture of Itaparica island. The video is a musical improvisation within the installation by Manoel Paulo de Jesus Junior (Arroz), Orlando Reis (Feijão), Filipe Matheus G. dos Reis (Cenoura), Rahul Anand Das and myself (Nathan Gray).

DVD and blueray copies of this work are available to purchase from the artist and this work is not exhibitable without his express consent.

SEC

2009-04-23T12:16:00.003+09:30

hope you can all make it contact me if you have any questions

Secretion Erosion Conjunction

Alex Vivian and Nathan Gray

May 1st to 22nd

Rear View Gallery

(at the rear of)

244 Smith St. Collingwood

(Discount Chemist Wharehouse)

enter from Stanley st

open wed - sun 12-6pm

tide over

2009-01-29T11:22:00.005+10:30

Hi as this blog is slowly transformed into a site and as i put things into a more homogenous easier to access form. I thought I'd tide you over with a few pictures from Tudo Que Acho's second iteration at Narrows and a commision i made for the Fehily family early last year but only finished/photographed the other day.

Stay cool

N

Tudo Que Australia/Brasil

2008-12-16T13:07:00.006+10:30

(last days open from the 5th to the 15th of january by appointment only)

Nathan Gray / Tudo Que Acho

December 4 – 20 2008
Opens Thursday Dec. 4, 6pm
Nathan Gray spent two months in Brazil producing a body of work entitled ‘Tudo Que Acho’. In English the title translates as ‘Everything I Think’ but in Portuguese it has a double meaning because to think and to find are the same idea. So the title is a pun on the the act of collecting to form and inform perceptions, a blurring of the boundaries between experiences and ideas.

Itaparica Island, Bahia the setting of the piece is a stronghold of Afro-Brazilian culture. Despite slavery's attempted decimation, African cultural practises still dominate though synthesised with Catholicism and mutated to suit the Brazilian environment. Magic, multiplicity and movement have been bred by the landscape and the ocean.

Resisting sensationalism Nathan relied on his experiences rather than research to understand this highly charged atmosphere, approaching Itaparica with a variety of strategies. Documenting, drawing, mapping, imitating and collaging together works inspired by altars and rituals, the wind and tides, local craft and materiality.

This set of experiments became an installation linking these elements literally. Drawing comparisons, creating lines of movement flowing in and around his open air studio and out into the garden. These disparate elements are linked together, mapping a flow of ideas and defining the perimeter of a zone of concepts-in-confluence in which Itaparica, as he saw it, existed. A zone in flux agitated by the wind, frequented by animals and used a setting for music and improvisation.

Nathan Gray is a Melbourne based artist whose practice shifts between art, music, print and performance. Recent exhibitions include Quem Viu ao Vento? at Galeria Canazares, Brasil (2008), The Fruiting Body at Black and Blue Gallery (2008), Mirka@Tolarno presented by ACCA (2008), Love, Purity, Accuracy at Utopian Slumps (2007), and The Fold at Joint Hassles (2007). www.undodesign.com

This exhibition of drawings, collages, objects and films opens on Thursday December 4 at 6pm.

For more information or press images contact Warren Taylor on 03 9654 1534 or info@thenarrows.org

Exhibition supported by
Hyperdyne Pty. Ltd.
Instituto Sacatar
The South Project Inc.
Australia Council for the Arts

also:

Bilingual, multi modular poster designed by Warren Taylor, contact The Narrows to get one....

tudo que acho

2008-10-01T08:06:00.003+09:30

more extensive gallery here

video and installation realized in Bahia, Brazil

TUDO QUE ACHO / EVERYTHING I THINK
NATHAN GRAY
DECEMBER 4 - 20
OPENS 6PM THURSDAY DECEMBER 4

with the support of
The Narrows
Instituto Sacatar
The South Project
Australia Council For The Arts

who has seen the wind? / quem viu ao vento?

2008-09-21T01:22:00.007+09:30

Galeria Canazares
Rua Aruajo Pinho
212 , Escola de Belas Artes da UFBA
Canela, Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

11 de Setembro ate 25 de Setembro de 2008
Seg a Sex - Das 9h as 18h

11th to 25th of September, Monday to Friday 9-6

with thanks to
Escola da Belas Artes
Instituto Sacatar
The South Project
Australia Council For The Arts

The Fruiting Body

2008-07-03T17:10:00.006+09:30

Press Release says;

"The Fruiting Body"

by Nathan Gray

The mushroom (fruiting body) is the terrestrial expression of a vastly larger subterranean organism...

Nathan Gray attempts to create works which are optimistic, dynamic and festive, brightly coloured improvised assemblages that incorporate sculptural experiments, screen print and drawing, works that are inclusive of many areas of endeavour rather than singular honed products and that privilege the handmade, improvised and accidental. Space, colour, density, appropriation and collaboration are all approached from Nathan's musical background.

“The Fruiting Body” is inspired by travels to Bali and the palm leaf weavings that are used as daily offerings and then discarded. The show incorporates photos of small-scale sculptures offered/littered/installed in natural settings and playing upon ephemeral phenomena like fungi, plant parasites, water, fire and light, sculptures which defy the archival imperative and satisfy the artist's urge to destroy his own work. “The Fruiting Body” is a small expression of a much larger field of ideas.

“Here, ‘minimal was maximal’. In the oeuvre of an ardent anti-minimalist, there is no space for simplicity amongst such gargantuan-scaled, gallery-sprawling installations, nor between the intricately interwoven lines of immaculately executed prints and drawings. But the intent is the same: to offer an opportunity for a transcendent experience, a drugless psychedelia, an experience that can then be added onto a long list of references for providing the basis for further creation.”

From “No Revolution, No Suicide” by Chhar Daka Chan.

Opens Thursday 17th. From 6pm

Black and Blue Gallery 302/267-271 Cleveland St.
(corner of Elizabeth St.)
Redfern NSW Australia 2016.

Opening Hours:
Thursday-Sunday. 11am - 6pm.

People/Plants Resource Book

2008-07-03T16:05:00.006+09:30

I have just put together a book of photographs from my travels, things which have informed my work lately. They're all of plants interacting with people or with each other. They divide fairly evenly into Balinese palm leaf folding, a photo documentary of a game played by children in Lombok with a greased coconut, Thai holiday beach adornements, Japanese street and temple gardens and Australian mushrooms and fungi. Its 74 pages full colour and you can choose paperback or hardcover. Preview and order it here at Blurb books on demand or buy it at my exhibition at Black and Blue Gallery from the 17th of July, see proceeding post.

Most of the images have made appearances on inspirilog.blogspot.com where most of my influences show up.

heres a quick selection

magpie mind

2008-05-01T08:32:00.003+09:30

collaboration with jeweler karla way
for bus gallery's skin and bones 2
at fashion week
april 08

drawings of broken, tangled and accidentally amalgamated sculptures 1, 2 and 3

2008-05-01T08:17:00.003+09:30

Exhibition: The Drawing Machine
Dates: 1 – 18 May 2008
Opening: Thursday 1 May, 6-8pm
At: Green-Wood Gallery
1 Hotham Street
South Melbourne VIC 3205

Gallery hours: Wed – Sun, 10-4pm.

Mirka@Tolarno Gallery

2008-02-24T16:27:00.003+10:30

Up now a gallery of shots from my show at Tolarno Restaurant in St. Kilda.
here

Snawklor....Quick Be the Feet...That Run to Mischief

2008-01-15T17:42:00.001+10:30

So my duo with Dylan Martorell has released a CD for the first time in 5 years, unbelievable almost. Its called "Quick Be the Feet.... That Run to Mischief"
Its available on the bus gallery's Outer label contact me for info on how to obtain it.
theres previews at myspace.com/snawklor and other albums can be downloaded from www.snawklor.com

Official melboune launch is at the Toff in Town on the 31st of jan with Paeces and Fabulous Diamonds and Guests 8pm $10

and Sunday 20th January
Secret CD launch is at the Yarra bend Bat colony
Bell bird Picnic Ground
Yarra Boulevard Kew
melways 44 k3

6pm Free

with Always and Guests

Outdoors at sunset against a back drop of more than 10,000 bats taking to the skies.

contact me with any enquiries

tolarno/mirka/acca/nathan gray

2007-12-15T12:53:00.000+10:30

New works of mine are on display at Tolarno Hotel heres the write up.

ACCA and Mirka at Tolarno Hotel have joined forces to bring contemporary art to the adventurous patrons of Melbourne's brightest new restaurant. In a series of four annual exhibitions which are set to change with the seasons ACCA will give four young Australian artists a unique chance to show their work in this exciting new satellite venue.

The Tolarno Hotel has always had a tradition of food and art. In the 1960s Georges Mora, restaurateur, gallery owner and curator, and his wife Mirka made the bistro and gallery one of Melbourne’s best loved cultural and culinary icons.

Visitors welcome and encouraged.
Admission is free.
From December 11 2007 to March 1st 2008
Open from 10am to midnight daily

Mirka at Tolarno Hotel
42 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

www.mirkatolarnohotel.com

Room available for functions

Presented by

pictures

2007-11-30T22:54:00.000+10:30

archives of the show at utopian slumps up today and as usual I have divided them into drawings and aggregation shots enjoy...

No Revolution, No Suicide

2007-10-27T17:15:00.001+09:30

Stage by stage, the organism increases in complexity; but that very complexity enables it to ‘live’ more satisfactorily...to produce a type of progeny with new and greater potentialities of self-expression than its parent.

Theosophy’s theory for the evolution of life and form tracks the course of nature as one that slowly but persistently builds on a systematically flawless, self-organising whole. Pedantically self-reflective, perpetually re-consolidating on what came before, Nathan Gray's body of work is similarly re-combinative, reconstituting its basic particles into exponentially complex sequences of forms. Inching towards the perfect aggregation – yet untroubled by the knowledge that it will never reach this end point – it is content with being an eternal work-in-progress.

Viewed as part of a constant timeline, this latest installation continues Gray’s meta-project towards a history that is infinitely revisable and fluid. It is a work of optimism, a denial of apocalyptic attitudes, a show of firm faith in continuity. A simple statement that there will be a future, whose quality depends on present action.

The installation plays out like an abstracted Rube Goldberg machine, with its assortment of branches, paper petals and things on string, blending and bending around countless corners, creating countless cosy crannies in which are hiding micro-worlds of botanic harbours and aquatic paradises… Out of this, the whole structure coheres into an organised system of love-making. A blend of biological imperative and tactile pleasure.

Rube Goldberg devices accomplish simple tasks via absurdly intricate means. Although the event of Gray’s art is ultimately that of gift-giving – just as 'the evolution of life is not a receiving but a giving' – for him, the importance lies primarily in the ‘enjoyment of the journey’, as in the delight and excitement of following ball bearings and cogs as they course their way through a Honda ad. In Gray’s work, lines connect, materials marry and colours clash continuously: an aesthetic ‘Mousetrap’ without a mouse; concerned not so much with what will happen in the end, but what happens along the way.

Spacemen 3 (whose cover for their album Playing With Fire the show’s title is lifted from) enjoyed a journey of their own: venturing along tangential trips across repetitious, phased and folded territories. If they took drugs to make music to take drugs to, does Nathan Gray listen to Spacemen 3 to make art to make music to? For Gray, art and music operate symbiotically in a synesthetic order, where experimentation with form, colour and composition plays out in the sensorial spheres of sound and vision.

At the cusp of the eighties and nineties Spacemen 3 began combining an ungainly amalgam of American musical minimalism, proto punk and BBC Radiophonic Workshop synth-scape with the era’s standard shoe-gazer fare of heavily improvised sets pumped with droning riffs, grating feedback and barely distinguishable vocal melodies. Shamelessly plagiaristic, they reconfigured their record collections to establish the foundations for an inspired call-and-response manner of practice.

Here, ‘minimal was maximal’. In the oeuvre of an ardent anti-minimalist, there is no space for simplicity amongst such gargantuan-scaled, gallery-sprawling installations, nor between the intricately interwoven lines of immaculately executed prints and drawings. But the intent is the same: to offer an opportunity for a transcendent experience, a drugless psychedelia, an experience that can then be added onto a long list of references for providing the basis for further creation.

Kandinsky heard notes in colours: middle-C on the piano, for instance, played yellow. Like a visual wall of sound, Gray’s colour-saturated installations are loud. Building on the momentum of previous, more static sculptural pieces, Love, Purity, Accuracy offers a body of work that trips over itself in its good will, in its explosive dynamism. It spills out and stains the sterility of the white cube. Adorned in the most flamboyant of festive get-up, Gray’s creations cry out for celebration, for us to forward this ‘open-ended love-letter’ of whom you are the recipient.

Pass it on.

-Chhar Daka Chan

October 2007

Love, Purity, Accuracy

2007-10-11T08:13:00.000+09:30

Love, Purity, Accuracy
Installation and drawings by Nathan Gray.

Opening Friday 19 October

Until Sun 11 November

At Utopian Slumps
5/25 Easey Street Collingwood
Gallery Hours: Fri-Sat 12-6pm
Other Times By Appointment: 0403 009 291

info@utopianslumps.org
utopianslumps.org

Exquisite Whispers
During the show audience members will be invited to re-draw one of the artists drawings their drawing will then take the place of the original and the next audience member will be invited to draw the last persons drawing. A game of chinese whispers on paper will play out through the duration of the show with all of the works being exhibited on the closing night. Paper and drawing materials will be provided

Closing Party
Sunday 11th 6pm
Exquisite Whispers sub exhibition
Music from Snawklor and Jarrod Zladic

Snawklor is a long standing collaboration between utopian alumni Nathan Gray and Dylan Martorell, a blissed out synth-scape of found sounds, drones and fields that phase and pitch contorting into a hallucinogenic ecology. An analogue to both artists' visual work.

Jarrod Zladic (of Fabulous Diamonds and Oh Belgium) makes solo improvised keyboard pieces whose nearest point of reference would be Cluster or Terry Riley if it weren't so unique. Its nostalgic and futuristic at the same time. Complex phrasing keeps splitting from the central mass, time lagging and shedding skin after skin. Looping out of time with its self, tripping upwards. These pieces are infinitely dense but weightless, pure and resolute they express big things but in a concise unlaboured way.

Archives from the fold

2007-08-25T23:05:00.000+09:30

Now the works from The Fold can be accesed from the side bar and are divided into assemblages
and collages.

The Fold was an exhibition at Joint Hassles in July 2007

fold ...statement

2007-07-25T18:26:00.000+09:30

people have been requesting more info about the show so...

The show was initially intended to be my own version of a museum exhibit. I went to the osaka museum of ethnology recently and was blown away. All the best parts of all the cultures of the world were mixed together, masks costumes musical instruments weapons and rituals. It was a completely different approach to a contemporary australian museum. I tried to recreate some of the energy of this place by making my own masks and tools, but instead of being in some way ethnological, I realized how much I was being influenced by album covers and band posters. I guess this is my culture .

The work is a collection of collages. The exhibition is a (very) abstract representation of a fictional neolithic village with shelter tools musical instruments masks and decorations all made from paper that I've hand inked dyed, marbled or screen printed. As always it deals with my continued investigations into display and composition, the psychedelic and unseen, music, energy and colour.

the fold performances and CDr

2007-07-20T14:53:00.000+09:30

This is it folks,
The Fold- Nathan Gray.
From the 27th of July to the 17th of August,
Joint Hassles 2a Mitchell Street Northcote 3071
Opens Friday the 27th 6-8pm, then Thursday til Saturday 12 - 5pm.

performances include

Sat 28th July 2pm
halfman/halfmoffarah
electronic/vocal improvisation
duo with chris hill

Sat 4th August 2pm
snawklor
decade old musical collaboration with dylan martorell
electro acoustic/acoustic/field recordings/trumpets

Sat 11th August 2pm
the fold ensemble
previously roots rock family band food group
the name change signals a new sound
wah/guitar/vocals/synth/loops and recorders
trio with julie burleigh and blake sonic richardson-gray

Also to be released my CDR of field recordings from Australia, Thailand and Japan.
Contact me if you want me to mail you one.

The Fold

2007-07-05T10:18:00.001+09:30

This is it folks, The Fold- Nathan Gray. From the 27th of July to the 17th of August, Joint Hassles 2a Mitchell Street Northcote 3071. Opens Friday the 27th 6-8pm, then Thursday til Saturday 12 - 5pm. Check back in here for associated events.

ESP

2007-07-05T10:06:00.000+09:30

cover for a comp i designed for nervous jerk it includes tracks by Panel of Judges, Crayon Fields, Always, Calvin Johnson, Sly Hats, Guy Blackman, Kelley Stoltz, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, My Disco, Kiosk, Weird War , The Stabs, Michael Yonkers , Sean Bailey, Superstupid, Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano, Fabulous Diamonds, Francis Plagne, Birth Glow, Little Wings, Hi God People, Josephine Foster and Mount Eerie.

coming soon

AIH shshshshirt

2007-07-05T09:57:00.000+09:30

Designed this t-shirt for band Architecture In Helsinki, Will Sweeney did their cover so I'm in good company.

jah jah sphinx, peloton and snawklor

2007-06-15T10:53:00.000+09:30

Been spending/wasting/killing/augmenting a lot of time on posting on and looking at this pictures only blog by a lot of melbourne artists. Purile and sublime by turns.

jahjahspihnx

Also have a work ina group show at peloton gallery, a show of A0 sized works curated by Warren Taylor of my favourite gallery in Melbourne right now; The Narrows. The idea comes from crossing out letters of the name "the narrows" to get "ThenA0".

PELOTON GALLERY: 19 Meagher Street Chippendale (Sydney) NSW

Further more my almost decade long (actually next year its 10 years) musical collaboration with dylan martorell "Snawklor" is finally almost ready to put out our next cd and so as a primer we have put up for download our last 3 albums. Go here and get em .

bootlegger

2007-05-28T08:23:00.000+09:30

Bootlegger curated by Niels Oeltjen

This is my piece for the show. An edition of five photocopys on hand inked acid free paper 60 x 60cm. Also available as bandanas in a simple blue on white colour scheme.

From the site;
Bootlegger is a fine art exhibition that explores the bandanna’s potential as an art object. We see the bandanna as an element of outlaw style, and we want to celebrate its aesthetic, its cultural roots, and its history. The selected artists were invited to express their ideas in the form of an original drawing, painting, or print. The images created by the artists have been printed onto fabric and made into bandannas, which will be available for sale at the opening. Here is your chance to own some very exclusive edition artworks by some wonderful and collectable artists.

Opens Wednesday 6 June, 6-8 PM
Continues until June 30
Click here to download the invite

Until Never Gallery
2nd floor 3-5 Hosier Lane (Enter from Rutledge Lane)
Melbourne, Australia 3000
Gallery hours : Wednesday to Saturday 12-6pm

Aggregation No.6

2007-05-25T21:50:00.001+09:30

Currently on upstairs at

alice euphemia
Nicholas Building
Cathedral Arcade
Ground Floor
37 Swanston Street

Created as part of Blame It On The Rain 07 this work was originally constructed in a night club, with the audience invited to position small works on paper, paintings and wool onto a flexible pine framework. The frame work also supported costumes and acted as a screen from which to perform behind an inside. The initial installation culminated in a vocal performance by Chris Hill and myself as Halfman/HalfMoffarah. Costumes were created by Annie Wu and additional assistance was provided by Matt Valdman, Oliver Hextal and the general public.

What exists at Alice Euphemia currently is a faithless reproduction of what the audience created on the night.

skin and bones

2007-04-04T14:20:00.000+09:30

sources and thankyous

2007-03-04T23:34:00.000+10:30

Well just started putting up photos from my travels, details, things that Ive been thinking about and would like to base work on. Its just a showing of potential source material but may be of interest. Sources.

Now that the Viewmasters project is over, just like to thank everyone involved especially Takashi Kojima and Jane Hindson, The Osaka College of the arts, Sensei Kazushi Kuakabe and all his students, all the other artsist involved as well as our funders Westspace, Australia Council for the Arts, Osaka Arts Aporia and the city of Osaka.

Above is the print I produced in Japan - "Loop Line". Its a CMYK, 4 colour silk screen, 480x720mm.

station to station

2007-02-09T13:50:00.000+10:30

Station to Station is a collaboration between Nathan Gray and Dylan incorporating field recordings of Melbourne and Osaka and make-shift structures covered in hundreds of small works on paper. It is presented as part of Veiwmasters exhibition at Hamadera Koen Station Gallery in Osaka along with a concert on a tram.

kuchure for sure

2007-01-29T17:04:00.000+10:30

Annie Wu pictured top made two track suits which i designed the prints for theyre to be featured in Christopher LG Hill's performance 'omni 2step' at 200 Gertrude St from 2nd March to April 1, and also in Sydney show at Loose Projects from Feb 5 - 24.

Meantime Dylan and i are setting up our show for Viewmasters (info in japanese is more current)in osaka at hamatadera koen station do come down if your around opens saturday the 3rd of february at 7ish.....

On This Joyous Occasion

2007-01-12T18:14:00.000+10:30

Heres some pictures from the open studio show aggregation 5: on this joyous occasion.

p.s.

Spending some time in japan working on a little something with my buddy dylan martorell, but while Iｍ　ｈｅｒｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ　ａｃｃｅｓ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｂｅ　ｐａｔｃｈｙ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｇｒａｍｍａｒ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｂｅ　ｓｈｏｃｋｉｎｇ　ｃａｕｓｅ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｇｉｂｂｅｒｉｓｈ　ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ　Ｉｍ　ｗｏｒｋｉｎｇ　ｏｎ．

open studio

2006-12-11T23:17:00.000+10:30

Open Studio
Thomas Jeppe, Nathan Gray and Mark Rodda
warehouse at the rear of 672 nicholson street north fitzroy
tuesday 19th 6pm and therafter by appointment (email)

To end the year I will be exhibiting a new piece, a work consisting of abandoned ceramics, screen printed, dyed and marbled paper, plasticine, t-shirts, power cables, lighting and materials for the scraps bins at my day job. Everyone is invited not just friends, if you want to come along feel free.

I'm calling it "Aggregation 5; On This Joyous Occasion".Here's how I've approached the piece so far.

Using the basic functions it needs to fulfill i.e. lighting and display as a starting point and framework, the racks and power cables are used to support a construction made from numerous small scale 3 and 2 dimensional sketches and experiments. I intend this to become, by weight of numbers something else, as when spores become a mould. I want to ornament the necessary and then extrude this ornamentation out into space touching upon and connecting, objects and architectural features.

I'm also connecting different areas of my creative work. Using screen prints made as demonstrations, experiments with new techniques and T-shirts made for commercial purposes. Incorporating scraps, offcuts and discarded student work, reclaiming and exhibiting uncollected ceramics pieces in amongst my own.

I want to leave the convention of presenting pieces in isolation for the clutter common in "outsider art" for want of a better term, maybe spacious presentation is a claim to rationality by artists. Its not appropriate when this work is a fantasy; the fiction that functional objects could be parasitised by living ornaments. The central technique to these aggregations is that no part is central, all parts have equal importance (or unimportance) and the strength of the work is in its complexity.

whew, well that does me for the night....

ciao N

snawklor to share

2006-11-22T22:15:00.000+10:30

this is our 2003 recording to share and enjoy. Let me know if you have any problems with the download ciao N.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/0faa44

aggregation no. 3

2006-11-21T14:35:00.000+10:30

exhibited at the joint hassles inaugural show

in case you forgot whose site this is

2006-11-17T08:07:00.001+10:30

signiture from keith and lottie and self portrait for selena

Dylan Martorell presents

2006-10-23T21:15:00.000+09:30

As part of his fantastic art show:

Snawklor (and guests) at someday gallery 4pm - 7pm tuesday the 23rd of october

and the hi god people (and guests) 5:30 pm saturday the 26th

someday gallery
level 3 curtain house
swanston street melbourne

heres a video of a sickening orgy with the the hi gods and me wearing the costume above
go

post perth post

2006-10-23T21:04:00.000+09:30

pics from aggregation 4 at keith and lottie

Keith and Lottie and You and Me

2006-09-26T19:31:00.001+09:30

well the flyer says
Keith and Lottie present:
4 intricately drawn screen printed works(yoinks) by Melbourne artist/ illustrator/ musician/ libertine/ diletante/ ne'er-do-well Nathan Gray
with an accompanying new range of t-shirts and a new aggregation especially for perth. Oh love ya perth.

Thursday October 5th to October 26th
Opening night Thursday October 5th, 6 - 9pm.
regular opening hours: seven days 11am to 6pm

Keith and Lottie
276 William Street Northbridge, Western Australia, 6003
phone/fax +61 8 9328 8082
www.keithandlottie.com

Ariel Pink.....

2006-09-26T19:16:00.000+09:30

Did the poster and tour single cover for this dude. You love him or you will. For Mistletone records......

((((((((( on tour ))))))))
Ariel Pink Australian Tour - Sept/Oct 06
Melbourne - East Brunswick Club - Sept 27
Newcastle - Soundsummit - Sept 29
Sydney - Spectrum - October 1
Melbourne - Missing Link Instore - October 4 5pm
Adelaide - Rocket Bar - October 5

((((((((( releases ))))))))
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - House Arrest - out now
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Tour 7" - Gates of Zion / Ghosts - available at the shows

Joint Hassles

2006-09-26T19:11:00.001+09:30

PAECES with HALF MAN HALF MAN (me)(2pm)
play this sunday the 24th at JOINT HASSLES 2a Mitchell ST northcote vic (crn of High and Mitchell)
with googoogaagaa, bonesherif and guests who are special. 1-6pm*

To open JOINT HASSLES first show Featuring:
Sean Bailey
Jame Deutsher (and Hao Guo)
Nathan Gray (me)
Christopher L G Hill
Bianca Hester
Helen Johnson
Jess Lucas
Harriet Morgan
Joshua Petherick
Kain Picken and Rob McKenzie
Andie Tham
Alex Vivian

Another Aggregation (no.3) this one a large scale drawing...picture soon.

Show runs betweenthe 24th of october and 13th of november*

More Trouble

2006-09-26T18:16:00.000+09:30

Well its over. Terrarium has finished well and truly. Last day was a mini celebration an unveiling of Aggregation No. 2 a temporary wall peice which I installed during the show and some music from Ian Wadley, Mof fah rah and Snawklor (my band, see entry below somewhere)all quite good I thought.....

Aggregation No. 2 was an assemblage made from catalogues from the show, screen printed paper, cardboard, wax, plasticine, fishing line and cocktail umbrellas. An experiment with with assemblage in which I started from two cental points and worked my way out using the same materials on each side but in different ways, unfortunately I only have a working shot of one of the sides in a very early stage see above.

Thanks extend to Gertrude Street staff and all the people who helped out Matt Valdman especially, you all helped to get me through electrical faults, manic windchimes, leaky ceilings, art theft and ultimately the failure to get a photo of "Aggregation No. 2" before it was destroyed, now its lost in time unless by chance someone has photo somewhere?

Aggregation of Slime Molds

2006-09-10T22:57:00.000+09:30

This is from a book called Emergence by Steven Johnson.

"The slime mold spends much of its life as thousands of distinct single-celled units, each moving separately from its other comrades. Under the right conditions, those myriad cells will coalesce again into a single, larger organism, which then begins its leisurely crawl across the garden floor, consuming rotting leaves and wood as it moves about. When the environment is less hospitable, the slime mold acts as a single organism; when the weather turns cooler and the mold enjoys a large food supply, "it" becomes a "they." The slime mold oscillates between being a single creature and a swarm."

read the books whole introduction here

some biznass

2006-08-28T19:55:00.000+09:30

Just a few Terrarium related tid bits....

The show is now open...see previous posts for details. But if your not in melbourne you can pick up one of the catalogues by emailing the gallery (info@gertrude.org.au). Theyre quite the production. A5, 22 pages and a mixture of hand screened, black and white and colour pages and the price.... just $2 AUD plus postage. bonkers aye??

Prints from the show are also now available they're 2 colour, hand screened on japon proofing archival quality paper and are 640mm by 960mm (25.2 by 37.8 inches).They are a limited edition of 20 and cost $300.00 P+P included, if your interested email me and i'll send you a pay pal invoice. Cheers

second gardenesque aggregation

2006-08-28T17:40:00.000+09:30

Pictures are on their way of how I set up the Terrarium show. During the installation of the work it changed considerably from the rudimentary way I organized it in the photo on the entry page. The purpose of this set up which was to display the individual elements in a photograph. In the exhibition I added more elements and made a vastly more complex arrangement. Arranging them was a kind of playful process one which i think relates well to my drawings, where I begin from a single point and work out adding a large amount of simple elements to form a complex whole.

This is a process I'm going to call "aggregation". Its a word which when used in a biological context means to form a cluster like in mould which is a large congregation of tiny organisms. As I understand it, moulds form in a similar way to my drawings starting from a central point and working out. This is because the spores drift in a basically random fashion and attach to any cluster they come into contact with. So "Gardenesque Aggregation" ended up being the title of the cluster of small objects as it exists in the exhibition.

I will be in the gallery space from 11pm on each tuesday in september 'til the show closes (thats the 5th, 12th and 19th of )working on a second "Gardenesque Aggregation" this time a 2 dimensional one on the wall. I will also be answering any questions anyone has about my work. Everyone is welcome. There will also be a low key closing to show off the wall piece in its finished form.

archive of the future

2006-08-08T23:22:00.000+09:30

Heres some of the work for "Terrarium". I've divided the archives into Prints and Sculptures but the show will see no such divisions. Theres also a few pieces that are too large to set up yet so no photos. Theres only one way to see how it comes together I guess ....

Terrarium by Nathan Gray
opens 25th of August
runs for one month

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
200 Gertrude Street Fitzroy
Victoria 3065 Australia
T: +61 3 9419 3406
F: +61 3 9419 2519
E: info@gertrude.org.au

Opening Hours:
Tue - Fri 11am-5.30pm, Sat 1-5.30pm

cryptozoological junc

2006-08-08T21:38:00.000+09:30

Just put up the archive for my cryptozoology series which is showingJunc gallery in L.A. from the 19th of August as part of their "Flaunt" Show

"The show is Scheduled for the Saturday August 19 and runs September 10. This is our annual group show where we introduce artists new to the gallery and to our patrons. The show also coincides with The Sunset Junction (LA's largest street fair August 26 and 27) which works out well since the gallery is located at ground zero.

The participants are Sophia Dixon, Jenny Hart, Amy Ross, Eric Beltz,Camilla Engman..."

and myself of course.

Woah did you see that?

2006-08-01T22:14:00.000+09:30

If you came here via the undodesign address(and please continue to do so) you will have noticed a few changes. First of all that index page. Its all sculpture work for my show coming at gertrude contemporary art spaces its called "terrarium" and consists of sculpture, screen prints and wall paper. Its going to be the largest exhibition I've attempted so far and I gotta say I think its some of my best work. If you're in melbourne please come along to the opening on the 25th of august or attend the show in the proceeding month. I your not in melbourne i'll be trickling images up through here over the next while.

Also I'm now running the main page with blogger in the hope that it will be a little easier and therefore better maintained than before still sorting out the css stuff so drop me a line if stuff don't work.

crypyozoology and half man/half man

2006-08-01T22:01:00.000+09:30

Detail Fom "Electrical Spirit"

Pictures from my "cryptozoology" series will be showing at LA's Junc Gallery as part of their yearly "flaunt" show in august. I had a showing at my place a month or so back for the locals in which JKF and Paeces both played along with my solo act Half Man / Half Man. I hope to get a MP3 up of paeces excellent set, they have a release at the above link on Music Your Mind Will Love.

Snawklor vs the Hi God People vs Wolf Eyes

2006-08-01T21:54:00.000+09:30

Snawklor and HGP performed as one to support Wolf Eyes who are some out of town bogans. Along with Blarke Beyer and the Grey Daturas and the Ambarchi/Fushinato/Walls trio (no link, use google, too much, too famous).

At the spanish club. 25th May.

best gif ever

2006-08-01T21:41:00.000+09:30

Please somebody point the way toward a t-shirt before you have to talk me out of a tattoo.

Little Angels

2006-08-01T21:27:00.000+09:30

Detail from "Little Angels" Screen Print On Paper

Over the holidays I got it together to compile some music I had made for soundtracks over the last 3 years. It comes as a CDR packaged in a limited edition 12" sized screenprinted cover based on the insufferable op-shop record "The Little Angels". It was launched at the broken records show in sydney and is available for AUS$15 by mail order if you wanna mail me.

Heres a sample: forest theme MP3

Broken Records is a record cover themed show (obviously) curated by living legend Sonny Day running form 20th to 29th of Jan at China Heights gallery in Sydney, level 3, 16-28 Foster street , surrey hills My other piece for it was based on one of my favourite records "The Perfect Prescription" by The Spacemen 3 one of my alltime favourite bands.

Snawklor still exist...

2006-08-01T21:18:00.000+09:30

Snawklor, my band with Dylan Martorell, have found a label for our 5th cd release. BUS Recordings the sonic arm of BUS Gallery, will be releasing it early in 2006.

See our last two self-released screen-printed CDs here and here. We will be re-releasing these at the same time as the BUS CD with different art work and music remasted by Cornel Wilczeck of Qua .

Download a sample track 'Loosening of the Earth' from our 4th CD "They Live"

Mum Smokes Tee

2006-08-01T21:10:00.000+09:30

Mum Smokes is a band who I designed a flyer and T-shirt for and I Love 'em. They're available in black on lemon and dark blue on light blue (the tees that is). Contrary to previously stated these luddites now have a minimal web presence here

DC 4 WWDIS

2006-08-01T20:59:00.000+09:30

Detail from my "Portrait of Darby Crash", various media on paper

What We Do Is Secret No. 4, the Australian free press mag dedicated to punk and DIY, features a cover and centre spread by me. It's a portait they comissioned of their god Darby Crash who died 25 years ago this month (on the same day as John Lennon).

This work was available for sale at Someday gallery's christmas charity show. A benefit for VACCA - a culturally sensitive charity for aboriginal kids.

From Thurs 1st Decemeber
SOMEDAY
LEVEL 3
CURTIN HOUSE
252 SWANSTON ST
MELBOURNE

Sussuruth Book by Nieves

2006-08-01T20:51:00.000+09:30

Nieves Books has released a 22-page black and white booklet of drawings that I did this (antipodean) winter. It's called Sussuruth, an onomatopea for the sound of the wind or sea. More on Nieves here.

Works for Otherworld

2006-08-01T20:29:00.000+09:30

Detail of "Totem", Screen Print on Canvas

Other World a group show themed on nature and the supernatural. My work for this was a "totem" pole prayer for a society in need of the "withering of law". The show includes artists Andrew Mcleod, Josh Petherick and Ryan Hill.

From 28th October. Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces. 200 Gertrude Street Fitzroy, Melbourne.

Rock Bottom at Alice Euphemia

2006-08-01T20:21:00.000+09:30

"Rock Bottom" the titular work form the show.

Rock Bottom
8 pen and ink drawings and a sculpture
by Nathan Gray
26th September to 15th October
at Alice Euphemia (clothes store)
shop 6 Cathedral Arcade
37 Swanston Street
Melbourne

more images from the show

There's an article about my work in the issue 5 of un magazine by my good friend Anna Daly. I found it helpful, maybe you will too.