artists of the 17th parallel

It was g8 to see art that does not pull its punches

2011-11-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Harun Farocki used CCTV footage from a prision and showed the brutality guards put down prisioners fighting, and how because of the gang affiliations, this was used against each other and bets were made over the fights in the yard. his other videos were on the military and its experts justifying the use of technology in training for war. The first Gulf War brought home the footage of the homing missile and the use of computer gaming for both warfare training and handling PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) by placing the soldier in ther virtual battlefield.

Tall Man is a four-screen work from indigenous artist Vernon Ah Kee. Constructing a new narrative of the 2004 Palm Island riots, this was distubing is its emotional power was you watched the raise in the anger on Palm Island; women protestinging at the injustices; the fear of the police themselves and the voyeristic pack sensibilities of the media.

http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/program/production?id=3907&idx=13&max=13

Hanging The Great Leap Forward, now showing at 45 Downstairs.

2011-01-25T21:43:00.000-08:00

Yo

2011-01-12T18:00:00.001-08:00

Hey chemical agents, its been a while since we've caught up. Hope the festy season is treating you all well and your hyped for a new year of productivity.
I'm 5 days off an exhibition at 45 Downstairs opening on Monday 17th Jan, I hope I see you there. Also I'm heading into a partnership/collaborative relationship with an architect/artist and am very excited about it, excited to be moving away from the deepest depths of war and chemical crap to head into the unknown. I'll keep you posted on that one.
Don't forget I have a shopfront on Sydney road to exhibit in (Brunswick being the art center of Australia n all).
Lets catch up when we can, maybe even a skype meeting.
kellyxx

New Works for 45 Downstairs Jan 2010

2010-11-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

The Great Leap Forward

2010-11-07T04:35:00.000-08:00

The Great Leap Forward hanging in my front window.

Sometimes you just need to scream

2010-08-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

Reasons to scream

1) Republican party opposition to a mosque and cultural centre being built next to ground zero, 911 site.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/gets_reid_flag_on_mosque_g37ElHqkp6HwJ3mrZBlRlJ

In the late 70s and 80s Australians did not want Buddhist temples built in their streets, for Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees.

Now we do not want mosques built too, all in the FEAR as we dickheads have been sold the War on Terror by Western Governments.

2) Both Liberal and Labor party leader oppose same sex marriage. Who really gives a fucken hoot? If gays/lesbians/and transexuals want to get married let em.

3) Carbon credits = derivatives and shares green pickings for corporate greed, you dumb ass tree huggers. Oi I'm an ol' farm boy so I'm all for renewable energy technology.

4) Artists in Australia are still paid shit!

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2985771.htm

http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/research/artists/reports_and_publications/artistcareers

5) Boat people and immigrants globally are blamed for a nation's woes; Mexicans in the USA, Muslims in Europe, refugees in the UK and boat people in Australia.

6) Israel still abuses the fundamental rights of their Arab neighbours.

7) Iraq and Afghans are still dying from bombs and predator drones (built by Israel!!)

8) USA, CHINA (and Israel) have not signed the lasted UN bill to ban cluster bombs.

So i just want to say politicians ARE all a bunch of CUNTS!

I want real leadersip and vision for a true human and natural ecology, cos if you dumbasses have forgotten we only have ONE FUCKING PLANET.

Dioxin Mitigation

2010-06-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Vietnam-US group seeks $300 mln for dioxin mitigation
Last updated: 6/18/2010 9:50
Mai Tinh with both her children affected by Agent Orange in the central Da Nang City’s Ngu Hanh Son District.

The US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin has called on the US government and other donors to provide US$300 million to address the lingering effects of the toxic chemical.

The call for funding was made in a report released by the group on June 16.

Released both in Hanoi and Washington D.C., the report suggests that the funds are used over a 10-year period, with most of it used to expand services to people with disabilities linked to dioxin exposure.

The rest could be used to clean dioxin-contaminated soils and restore damaged ecosystems in about two dozen dioxin “hot spots” in Vietnam, along with conducting further joint scientific research into more diseases suspected of links with herbicide exposure.

By the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese people had been exposed to Agent Orange used as a defoliant by the US Army, causing 400,000 deaths, Vietnamese official statistics show.

“We think that this funding is quite modest compared to the suffering of millions of victims,” said Ambassador Ngo Quang Xuan, deputy chair of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chair of the panel, calling the issue “the biggest challenge that hinders our improved bilateral relationship.”

According to the report, at least 4.5 million Vietnamese and 2.8 million US military personnel who served in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975 were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides.

The Vietnam Red Cross estimates that up to three million Vietnamese adults and children have suffered adverse health effects, congenital and development defects due to Agent Orange.

Since 2007, the US Congress has approved about $9 million for dioxin clean-up and related health activities in Vietnam, which Xuan described as “a tiny amount.”

Professor Vo Quy, a working group member and a long-time advocate for Agent Orange victims, said continued debate about the adverse effects of the defoliant would not improve the situation, even in the next decade.

“We want to emphasize that these effects are very real and we believe that the US agrees with us,” he said. “We don’t know if we will get the proposed funding. But we still hope that the figure will double, or even triple.”

Starting this year until 2012, the panel has suggested priority be placed on finishing an overview map of the remaining hot spots and surrounding areas, in addition to completing cleanup at the northern end of the Da Nang airport, where dioxin levels in soil, sediment and fish are 300 to 400 times higher than prescribed limits.

"We are talking about something that is a major legacy of the Vietnam War, a major irritant in this important relationship,” Walter Isaacson, co-chair of the joint US-Vietnam working group, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. “The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up.”

While suggesting the US government should play a key role in providing the proposed funds, group members hope to garner support from the US business and Vietnamese-American communities in America.

The working group, which includes prominent scientists, citizens and policy-makers from both countries, was established in 2007 by the Ford Foundation. The group does not accept, receive or disseminate funds.

Chemical Agents.m4v

2010-06-07T00:20:00.001-07:00

Chemical Agents exhibition

2010-06-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

The Great Leap Forward I, by Kelly Manning

2010-06-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

A-17P new exhibition!!

2010-05-14T04:43:00.001-07:00

ART STRIKE AT NAZIONAL GALLERY London

2010-05-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

ART STRIKE AT NAZIONAL GALLERY

The Nazional Gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square boasts on its website that :

“This month Gallery talks look at the theme of revolution and dissent. Discover the subversive side of the collection”

Meanwhile, workers at London’s Nazional Gallery will stage the first strike since the formation of the new Lib-Con government when they walk out tomorrow in a row over pay.

Warders and shop staff at the gallery in London will take industrial action for two hours tomorrow lunchtime as part of a campaign to achieve the London Living Wage of £7.60 an hour.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said: “Our members provide valuable services at what is one of London’s major cultural attractions, but they are living on poverty pay.

“During the election campaign, there was general agreement between the main parties that civil and public servants in London deserve to be paid the living wage. This will be an early test for the new Government to show its commitment to fair pay.”

A page on the Nazional Gallery’s site about the strike action says:

“Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. The Gallery is doing all it can to keep disruption to the public to a minimum during this time.”
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/strike-action

Everything to keep pay at a minimum more like.

Karen Karnak of the DAta Miners = Travailleurs Psychique will join her comrades on a two hour art strike at lunchtime, on Thursday 13th May 2010

you may conduct a psychic assault on The Nazional Gallery at this time:

Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 2885
(includes Typetalk)
Fax: +44 (0)20 7747 2423
information@ng-london.org.uk
Email:mailorder@nationalgallery.co.uk
Email:enquiries@thenationaldiningrooms.co.uk
Telephone:020 7747 2525
Email:info@thenationalcafe.com
Web Page:http://www.thenationalcafe.com/
Telephone:020 7747 5942
Email:development@ng-london.org.uk
Telephone:020 7747 5875
Email:education@ng-london.org.uk
Telephone:020 7747 2424
Fax:020 7747 2431
Email:lad@ng-london.org.uk
Telephone:020 7747 2542
Fax:020 7747 2892
Web Page:http://www.nationalgalleryimages.co.uk/
Email:press@ng-london.org.uk
Web Page:http://press.ng-london.org.uk/
Telephone:020 7747 2865

CHEMICAL AGENTS @ THE LIBRARY ARTSPACE

2010-05-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

Vietnam from the Left (blog)

2010-05-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

http://mihalisvn.blogspot.com
Below is the intro to Michael Karadjis's blog on a leftwing view of vietnam. He's a well known activist from australia and has written heaps on anti-imperialism re many other countries. Above is a link to his blog. Juz good to hear some views that aren't sanctioned by corporate media!! cheers, van
"This site hosts articles I have written over the years seeking to analyse the Vietnamese revolution and the ongoing struggle between a socialist and capitalist direction that has been taking place the last 20 years. I have lived on and off in Vietnam since 2000. This blog analyses from an unapologetically anti-capitalist point of view, while overall sympathetic to, while far from uncritical towards, the Communist Party of Vietnam historically."michael karadjis

sneak peak at A-17P melbourne exhibition next month

2010-04-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

a bloody artist rant

2010-04-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

What the hell am I doing? I am so frustrated with this world and with my art. Is it common to feel so constipated as a conceptual artist? you'd look at my work and not the conceptual, but the process I need to put myself through before I've even prepared my surface, is torment. I think sometimes how nice for people who can make art just because they want to and make something that looks nice. Then I think fuck you, how dare you devalue the word art, how dare you call yourself an artist, surely an artist HAS TO MAKE ART, and has little say in what they make.
I am so sick of following that inner dictator who says I must make work that is a natural progression of what was before it and art that helps, exposes and talks of human nature/human evil.
But when does the artist have a say? sometimes I want to sell out, make some money, not care. But this seems impossible even when sometimes I feel I despise the human race.
Why when I feel I can see things so clearly I feel so confused, like there is no hope for artists in this country.
Just have to paint more what else is there?
I'm between themes closely related but it feels as if I'm in a foreign land. I wish I was in Hanoi.
The Vietnamese are not perfect but fuck they have a high regard for artists, that's a nice feeling.
What else would I do? if I didn't make art, maybe politics, maybe work with troubled teens, maybe enviro work. But I can not fully commit to anything other than what my inner dictator tells me and it all revolves around art. I wish I was naive enough to believe in god.
I'm off t o my mates wake, he couldn't do it any longer as an artist, so I will for him. I miss you Simon.

Hanoi

2010-04-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

Social realist painting of young Uncle Ho off to France

An example of communist iconography at the Uncle Ho Museum

Statues in the Nha San space in Hanoi

Cuong is Mat Mat Sinh To Master

2010-03-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what happened to I Love Pho curator Cuong Phu Le? He has re-emerged as a sinh to master at a beautiful sunny beachside location. He specialises in serving pure juice, fruity smoothies, and creamy ones, with names like "Happy Banana", "Soldier Carrot", and "Passion Pineapple". I played with his Mat Mat wall, and created a kind of Mat Mat Mural (see detail). In return I was treated to sinh to after sinh to and can vouch for their quality. I also lost 4 kilos. Thanks Cuong! These images indicate he is still very much in action.

2010-03-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

Diversity, quoting the Victorian premier "44% of Victorians are from overseas or have a family member from overseas." and "Melbourne is the Multicultural city of the nation."

I have travelled to a many of state capital cities in Australia, and i would say that visibly Melbourne is more ethnically diverse than most of the other capital cities.

Dom's statement on the tv media

2010-02-14T02:38:00.000-08:00

Who are we? Really? Anglo centric with colours on the peripheral

Does the Australian media/drama reflect in the characters and personalities of who Australians are irrespective of race, sexuality, and how we all live in this great land called oz?

Will having cable, more SBS channels and a real community television like PBS in the US, address these concerns?

The African-Americans and the Hispanic-Americans have their own programs and cable channels... sure our population number of 21 million is not a good enough excuse not to?

Can we say we are genuinely multicultural? Or do we just play lip service to diversity without doing anything about it?

And how long do minorities have to keep being minorities before being taken seriously enough by commercial drama and programers.

We must start our own free to air channels, develop our own programs, lettermans, sit coms, an' blk chick tv talk show, cop shows, medical dramas, etc.

So I'm callin' out all writers, actors, directors, producers, be you: gay, lesbian, people of colour an' all ethnicities, mixed blood, single, transvestite, ex crims, ex cops, single parents, hookers, pimps, johns, hustlers, pro-abortion, pro-lifers, bogan whites, indigenous, recently arrived, long term migrants....

TO WRITE and MAKE and SCREEN your god damn story in ANY friggen format and show it to the Australian PUBLIC on OUR OWN GOD DAMN TV station!

Channels spared from rules on local content

2010-02-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

WHY I HATE AUSTRALIAN TV

ARI SHARP COMMUNICATIONS CORRESPONDENT
November 21, 2009

TV DIGITAL multichannels will not have to screen a minute of Australian programming, with the federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, declaring that local content rules will not apply.

Senator Conroy told a gathering of screen producers that the ''technical and economic'' challenge of launching the new channels - so far Seven's 7Two, Nine's Go! and Ten's One HD - meant the requirements were inappropriate.

But, ultimately, he said, viewers would force the channels to screen Australian shows.

''It is content that drives take-up, and new channels have to offer attractive programs,'' Senator Conroy told the Screen Producers Association of Australia conference in Sydney yesterday.

''That's why I firmly believe that Australian audiences will demand Australian content.''

The three commercial broadcasters have launched digital multichannels this year but they show little Australian content.

With more than half of all homes having digital TV, the new channels are winning viewers. But the stations are some way off being profitable. Industry insiders fear the stations will invest significant amounts only to cannibalise existing audiences.

The veteran producer Des Monaghan said local content rules were important given the cheap product available overseas.

''Australian programming invariably enjoys a disproportionate share of ratings success,'' the Screentime executive director said. ''The problem is that overseas program is effectively dumped into this country.''

While significant new Australian production for the multichannels was unlikely, he said, the channels could be a part of a secondary market for local content.

The multichannel policy is a concession that local content rules will increasingly come under threat as free-to-air broadcasters compete against pay television and high-speed internet.

Senator Conroy said he had ''no plans'' to relax the rule for about 90 hours a year of new Australian drama on the main commercial channels. Local programming must also constitute at least 55 per cent of content on free-to-air main channels.

why i will no longer vote for KR

2010-02-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

Kevin Rudd's $250m lifts TV profits

journalists: Geoff Elliott and James Chessell, from: The Australian, February 10, 2010 12:00AM

THE $250 million handout from the Rudd government to Australia's television oligarchy will flow almost directly to the profits of the networks' owners because there are no conditions that it be used for local content.

The decision to slash the licence fees paid by the commercial networks to the government, which was made just weeks after a series of meetings between television bosses and the government, including one with Kevin Rudd just before Christmas, yesterday drew fire from critics who questioned the policy of handouts to powerful TV networks in an election year.

The Australian has learned that equity investors, banks and private equity firms with exposure to networks Seven, Nine and Ten are being told the decision to slash the licence fees will "go straight to the bottom line". These networks have since watched their fortunes rise in the market over the past few days.

The government announced that it was slashing the annual fees the commercial TV stations pay the government by 33 per cent this year and 50 per cent next year - equating to about $250m in lost revenue to taxpayers - and explained the decision as a recognition that "the commercial television broadcasters will require some assistance to maintain Australian content production".

Analysts have spent the past two days upgrading profit forecasts for the stockmarket-listed television networks, driving their share prices higher.

"The government intervention suggests that (free-to-air) television has a favoured status within the Australian media complex," Deutsche Bank analysts said. The market value of the Ten Network, which is a pure commercial television company and best reflects the value seen in the government's decision, has risen $130m in two days, a measure of the excitement among stockbrokers and bankers over Canberra's leg-up for the industry.

Two media analysts contacted by The Australian confirmed that Ten had indicated that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's announcement would not affect its cost base because the deal did not contain any further obligations to produce local content. This meant the additional revenue would boost bottom-line profits. Regional broadcaster Southern Cross Media has indicated the money will go to working capital. A Ten spokeswoman declined to comment.

The financial performance of Nine and Seven has been constrained by the massive debt loads taken on by both networks' owners during private equity deals in 2006. Nine is controlled by private equity firm CVC Asia Pacific, which took on more than $4 billion in debt to buy the company. Seven remains 47 per cent owned by US-based KKR, with the balance held by Kerry Stokes's listed Seven Network and management.

The Free TV industry group argues that the licence fees - calculated at 9 per cent of the big TV networks' annual gross revenues - are out of kilter with other countries such as the US and Canada. It argues that the cost of the switch to digital television has also placed other burdens on the networks.

The chairman of Free TV, former Queensland premier Wayne Goss, defended the deal struck with the government, saying the "fees in Australia were much higher and completely out proportion to what they were in comparable countries", and adding they had not been reviewed for a long time.

The rebates have frustrated other media players who believe that commercial networks already receive assistance in the form of the anti-siphoning sports list - which gives free-to-air networks the first right to bid for sports such as Australian football and cricket - and an undertaking to block a rival fourth commercial television network.

"This appears as just another handout on top of the protections the free-to-air networks already enjoy," Foxtel chief executive Kim Williams said.

"In an act of breathtaking indifference to the announcement, major metropolitan networks are now briefing analysts in the investment community that the full tax handout will drop directly to their bottom line with no deductions, despite the government saying the tax break is needed to protect local Australian production."

Foxtel is 50 per cent owned by News Limited, publisher of The Australian.

Commercial radio stations also pay licence fees to the government. The industry body indicated it might lobby the government for similar treatment to compensate it for the cost of establishing digital radio services. "As digital radio continues to roll out across Australia, the radio industry will be considering its options," said Joan Warner, chief executive of Commercial Radio Australia.

Simon Whipp, national director of the Actors Equity section of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said the industry was "surprised and disappointed" that the rebates had not come with strings attached. "What is being granted at the moment makes no guarantee there will be more Australian content," he said.

Deutsche Bank said the rebate was "largely a recognition of the challenging conditions faced by the industry and is not tied to any specific spending requirement".

Michael Fraser, director of communications law at the University of Technology, Sydney, questioned what was behind the policy announcement. "The Prime Minister has been saying they do evidence-based policy but it doesn't appear the (television) stations are required to do anything," he said.

A spokeswoman for Senator Conroy would not answer direct questions about why there were no conditions attached to the rebates regarding local content production. "This is an important interim measure to protect Australian content while the media landscape is changing, and as we make the switch to digital television," she said.

Additional reporting: Sally Jackson

where has real community/political media gone in Australia?

2010-02-09T17:27:00.001-08:00

Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Community TV is on its death bed, when will Conroy step in?
by Crikey gumshoe Emma Rugg

As Australians warm to digital television before its official takeover in 2013, community broadcasters are watching their analogue programming wither on the vine.

“Our fortunes are directly linked with getting a digital licence, and the uncertainty of when that’ll happen is killing us,” Richard McLelland, General Manager of Melbourne’s Channel 31, told Crikey.

Channel 31 Melbourne — still broadcasting in analogue — has lost 20 per cent of its audience this year as digital set top boxes start infiltrating Australian lounge rooms.

While SBS and ABC have been allocated space on the digital network, which will replace analogue services completely by the end of 2013, community broadcasters are still waiting for a slice of digital spectrum.

“The community television sector is marooned on the analogue service, so as the Federal Government is successful in persuading viewers to move across to digital, our audience is diminishing and you can see the direct link with sponsors,” said McLelland.

Sponsorship is Channel 31’s main source of income, since the Victorian Government’s support has fallen by 85 per cent to less than $90,000 over the last 15 months.

“The Rudd Government inherited a flawed system that made no room for community television,” Laurie Patton, Chief Executive of Sydney’s local broadcaster TVS and spokesperson for the Australian Community Television Alliance, told Crikey .

A representative from Stephen Conroy’s Ministry of Communications told Crikey that community stations are guaranteed digital spectrum, but the package they’ll be offered is still under construction. Broadcasters are hoping the options will be more clearly outlined in a yet-to-be-released Green Paper on the future of community television, which was marked for publication on July 31 this year.

“We’ve been hearing that the Government is on its way to announcing a digital changeover for a while. A number of dates have been earmarked, like the budget, but that goes back to June and we’re still waiting,” Paul Mills, CEO of Queensland’s local broadcaster QCTV told Crikey.

Like Channel 31, QCTV is having trouble building its audience amid the changeover uncertainty. “We’re stuck in limbo and as long as we’re waiting we can’t make any plans for future programming,” said Mills.

The move from analogue to digital will add up to ten extra channels to the original five free-to-airs, but with reruns and international sport now filling most of the extra space, it won’t be hard for quantity to eclipse quality in the digital revolution.

“Commercial networks won’t be putting money into Australian content, they’ll be importing content from overseas, so [making] community television the only new source of local programming.” said Patton.

Channel 31 in Melbourne alone produces 95 Australian shows each week, with 2.5 hours a day reserved for youth television.

TVS in Sydney broadcasts 75% local content, and aims to make that around 80-90% over the next couple of years.

“An increase in television channels is a good reason why we have to continue to fund Australian programming. We need a balance so we don’t lose that sense of ‘Australianness’ reflected through TV, where we can see things about out culture that we can celebrate and also be analytical about,” Dr Wendy Davis, media and education research fellow at Central Queensland University, told Crikey.

“The Government needs to recognise that TV remains central to our culture whether we like it or not.”

Book Recommendation

2010-01-19T11:29:00.000-08:00

Colonialism Experienced:
Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism 1900-1931

(translated into English)
ISBN 0472067125
by Truong Buu Lam
University of Michigan Press c2000

Recent Research Trip

2010-01-18T00:19:00.000-08:00

Hey A-17thP, sorry there has been no contact but once I stopped blogging the fear set in.
I've recently returned from a research trip to the north/west of Vic and nearby N.S.W connecting with nature and the local indigenous community with artist Linda Studena and a Czech writer Blanka. For me the journey was about picking up some new survival tips and recording the differing landscape, which seemed ever changing and quite frightening at times when your an inexperienced 4x4 driver.
Interesting the search into a true-ism of change being a constant and adjusting to an evolution in fast-forward. Observing things that may save my life, not exactly fearing but a human instinct to survive. this feeling of preparation for something whether it be natural or human I don't know, a residue of living the Vietnam War vicariously and not or feeling a connection to the land and sensing a revolution from below.
I feel like I want to dig a hole and make a shelter to hide out in, make it everything proof, buy some seeds and fuck off. I just watched Denton interview Helen Thomas and am comforted by an old school US political journalist's truths on the inhumaness of todays world, and I thought passivity should be a crime.
I'm posting a pic of Rufus River, a massacre site in outback Vic, 30 people killed for stealing sheep by Charles Sturts men. The remains have been covered and preserved in that area and show signs of particuly brutal deaths.
Have a look at Connected By Light on iview about media-artist Lynette Wallworth. km

more vietnamese anti communist whinging

2010-01-09T15:01:00.000-08:00

no matter your subject, you never out run em!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWq_xWb4Ooc&

a nice youtube video on Vietnam

scroll and read the comments.

but I guess you can't please everyone

must read! north korean artists banned from visiting Australia

2009-12-11T03:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.theage.com.au/national/north-korean-artists-not-welcome-their-propaganda-is-20091210-km94.html

Age Paper

View of Hanoi from a B-52

2009-12-07T17:30:00.001-08:00

New work for Gallery 4a

two sheets of paper, one rice paper and ink, the top layer is tracing paper ink and acrylic

2009-12-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

"Looking at the lives of my birth parents through the narratives of Vietnamese refugees"

Translations-Generations

Gift from Vietnam

2009-11-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

I received a gift from Vietnam today, and just wanted to share it with you.

new logo up

2009-11-29T16:58:00.000-08:00

hey chem agents,
I've just put up dom n mai's new logo plus the blurb and our names (alphabetcal order)....I think looks great!! if you wanna muck with layout etc you're all linked in - or just let me know what really annoys you about the layout and I'm happy to try n change things. Otherwise, I'm sure we're all happy this is a work in progress.....
van

A Collective in Motion

2009-11-29T12:50:00.001-08:00

hello again maties.

as we all know we are a collective in motion: we have hung together these past months, and rather than stagnate we still flick emails to each other and dom & van have just done yet another gig @ dancing dog cafe.

all these activities help us shape ourselves; to better figure out where we are: in relation to the big wide world around us, but also to each other.

anyway. this text is the lasted on who we are. it is dated & can be further developed.

i thought it might be nice to add pink to the orange in the logo: girl's prerogative. leaves a lot to be spunked up more, but good for a little while. mr d got this text rollling. i just kind of tweaked it. thanks heaps dom. well done i reckon. kel has issued a thumbs up too. yay kel.

Artists of the 17th Parallel

The 17th Parallel was the demarcation line that
created North Vietnam and South Vietnam,
officiated by the 1954 Geneva Convention.

The members of A17P all belong to
a shared history of Vietnam.

A17P recognizes art as a mechanism that is
sensitive to everyday realities.
Inclusive amongst these various realities are social, economic, and gender inequalities, and the indomitable force of politics as it shapes our cultural perspectives.

http://www.a-17p.blogspot.com/

Endorsed by A17P members
30 November 2009
Dominic Golding .Mai Long .Kelly Manning .Van Thanh Rudd

William Yang + Storytelling : Performance4a

2009-11-10T18:40:00.001-08:00

Hi guys. Brad Pham, myself, & four Chinese Australian colleagues just participated in a storytelling workshop (1 Nov) conducted by William Yang at Performance4a, a wing of Gallery 4A in Sydney. Annette Shun Wah, Director of Performance 4a, also worked with us throughout the entirety of both days. It was an incredible experience and culminated in a public performance (8 Nov) to an appreciative audience of over 100 at the Sydney Mechanics School of the Arts, hosted by the Chinese Heritage Association of Australia. Here is a photo of the delicious dumpling dinner afterwards. Wow. I didn't know that storytelling could be such an exhilarating and liberating experience - especially so with a great bunch of other participants &, of course, with the guidance of the legendary William and Annette. A great privilege indeed. For more info follow this link: http://www.performance4a.org.au/content/blogcategory/8/4/#story

2009-11-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

SBS Luke Nguyen

2009-10-25T03:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/lukenguyen/watchonline/page/i/1/h/Watch-Online/

I love this show.

At last a Vietnamese cooking show, in Vietnam, by a Vietnamese chef, a dashing young fellow too.

Yet even here on SBS's website, cannot escape the clutches of the Cold War, follow the comments and you see that old ideologies die hard.

It's a pity, as the show is clearly a celebration of the richness Vietnamese culture and traditions. The program does not set out to score political points.

I'd be the first to admit that I watch this show with much joy as it takes me back to when I lived there, eating and drinking my way around the country.

I do not like to eat Vietnamese in Melbourne's CBD. All too white man's Viet. Nothing equates to the regional foods let a alone a Vietnamese mother's cooking.

Food should NOT assimilate, ethnic foods must retain the heart and soul of the country and region the foods are from. How else can white folk really appreciate the richness and diversity of a people and their culture.

If its too spicy, order fried icecream.

some of the faces of A-17P

2009-10-17T23:58:00.001-07:00

top:Van Rudd and Dominic Golding

Middle:Dominic and Mai Long

Middle:Mai Long and Van Rudd

bottom:Van Rudd

adoptee art and ptsd

2009-10-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

art, supposed to heal, mend, the world as we see it.
but my work does no such thing, it kills the stories we tell ourselves.
currently i am working on three projects at once
two Big West exhibitions
and my thesis on adoptee artists

yet my art always raises the demons of a war, and my very being is at war with love, intimacy, death, horror, sorrow and the dreams and hope i want to give to other adoptees.

i'm not an ABC or FOB

i never saw myself as a refugee- a person who made to choice to flee, to go into exile from the land i grew up in.

i was made a refugee by the great Western powers

this is my art, my struggle with the self

this is my horror and my blessing

i am torn between nam and oz

yet i can not live in both worlds in peace.

only in my art can i see some sense in my world i live.

words, and art

2009-10-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

to assist me on my travels through the worlds of visual art criticism, i have borrowed a book
La Bennale di Venezia, Making Worlds

a blurb written about an artists in the Mexican Pavilion, an artist's work speaking in light of Mexico's horrid war on drugs and trafficking.

This is how they commented on how she developed her work from an earlier project, as seen as:

"... to develop a number of evanescent and abstracted methods to contaminate with body substances the post minimalist esthetics of contemporary art, has taken a new twist towards works involving a subtle and moving chronicle of the pervasive economy of death that plagues the north of Mexico."

this maybe so.yet my beef is not with the work in question

it is the written language of visual arts, i can't decode this damn sentence!

for me writing about art is rooted in the social, the history, the politics of the person.

As for the USA section of the show, the art is:

"...each thread is a connector, existing between two terms that are tentative examples of possible polarities--open categories that do not pretend or intend to constrain the constantly surprising open-endness in which ...'s work operates."

Ok i know these quotes are given no context, but my argument is this... is this one of the reasons art is not accessible? Is this use of language applied to works is an attempt to heighten the work away from the politics of the real?

Missing in action and back with avengeance.

2009-10-13T03:11:00.000-07:00

Hi 17th Parallelians-its been a while and sorry for that. I've been doing mojito's and no personal space in Spain, commy/cappo time in Praha and loving diversity in Berlin. Arrived home mid last week and out of it. I wanted to come home after 3 weeks in Europe after getting incredibly inspired-needed to get into my studio, however Saturday we went househunting, found a house a got it all on the same day. Went to work Monday, resigned Tuesday, move Friday and start a new money for joy also job Wednesday.

But I needed to check in, as I am moving out of my studio(very sad) for the studio/stong room in the double garage fund saver.

I'm a little bit still out of action but been checking in on your works.

Van-am going to check in on Kerb Gallery, I read some very great feed back from the show its very impressive. Its great to hear people are thinking out there and your helping to facilitate that.

Mai-I'd love to see some photo's and commentary from Mission Mongrel. I've just resigned from my job, I have other work till January but could be free for some residency action soon.

Dom-I missed a catch up, rain check?

I'm collecting crap/chipped figurines of humans without hats or head adornments.

Oh another thing, it seems like I might have another bloody benign inner adornment, this time in the brain. O the wonders of AO. Anyway I'll keep you posted.

van rudd's burnt car

2009-10-07T03:08:00.001-07:00

Mai's burning dog

2009-10-07T03:00:00.000-07:00

Selling my Afghanistan Piece for $1.2 Billion

2009-10-05T04:21:00.000-07:00

Hey A-17P, me just put a price tag (after some difficulty) on my 'Used Car Part From Afghanistan' artwork.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/05/2705160.htm

Agent Orange and radiation--the quiet act of warfare.

2009-09-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Last Ghost
Is a doco on the use of the herbicide in Viet Nam. A sobering account of the effects of the chemical on the three generations of Vietnamese. The children often born of acute disabilities, and parents cancer.
The Chemical company absolve their responsibility knowing the dioxin was harmful, sold tons to the US military to spray over rivers, plantations, and of course the jungle.
The military historian who wrote Operation Ranch Hand could find no documented evidence the chemical was used for the purpose of warfare. That is used with the intention to harm humans.But I could tell the lie of the military, though I believe the man tried to admit wrong was done--in the name of war.
I have seen first hand the effects on babies at an orphanage. To date the US government has came up with $400,000 for the clean up of land waters affected.
US veteran groups have came up with $2.2 million from fund-raising and campaigns.

Today in Iraq and Afghanistan, children are dying from radiation, again from American war. Uranium depleted shells and from wreckage. Like the children and families in Vietnam, metal salvage has in the long term became a death sentence. A long and painful death. To be honest I believe this too is a form of warfare. It is not to Congress, let alone the military, but it deprives the country and the people future economic sustainability. It is oppression by other means. It takes the parents away from work, forces them to deal with medical cost beyond their means, and deprives the children from full equal education and employment prospects.

The least the American administration could do is fund hospitals and schools, and disability clinics in the countries they occupy by force and with private contractors.

Silent Sister

2009-09-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

Hey silent sister. What's rockin' in Prague?

Workshop me Happy

2009-09-06T02:21:00.000-07:00

Hey Dom.

Thank you for that.

That was a good read.

I do think its all about "money" mate.

But because "money" has traditionally been "white" often that is where that power structure emanates from.

And in the end you (I) see "white" you (I) see "power" and sometimes "anger". And...if it were not for "white", there would not be "yellow"...or any other colours in the world so we all need each other. But and then having said that there are so many shades of yellow, and red for that matter. So, its all about protecting identity and in the end having a reason for ligitimate existence. Anyway. To end, thanks Dom...triggered something in me; To be further digested. Love to read your completed thesis. Hurry up and finish. Mai.

damn if you do and damn if you don't

2009-09-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

race and color and being color blind

I've been working on my thesis, and two of my chapters look at whiteness and post-colonial from the adoptee position. The more I think about race and color, the more i think it should not matter. We live in a global transnational community, providing you have the wealth and means to travel and be exposed to many cultures and people and customs. Yet the more I think of this the more I believe I just maybe treading down the path of color blindness- the refusal to see color, in people. But, I always see color in power and economics of our society. So I can not be totally color blind. That is to refuse yo acknowledge racism, whilst also maintaining white privilage and access to power and opportunities.

As an adoptee grown up white, tried hard for six damn years to be yellow, Vietnamese. Failing that, I've come back to being grudgingly white. Admittingly I love most things white, pale ale, fairy floss, tractor pull competition, the dole, V8s, the country fair, the old pub which serves schnitzel that's too big, and ye i know i look at colored chicks like a white guy. Hell yeah lets all fuck across race and cultures. Think we'd all be better off too, just as America is ... whites are becoming the minority. Here, i reckon it'll be cool if the Sudanese got on with the Viets, the Irish got on with the Jews, the Indians got on with the Greeks, the Anglos got on with the Latinos, the Chinese got on with the Mexicanos, and so on and so forth. Till we can celebrate this one world, one universe, one global village.

It's all the power tripping hangover of colonization and self entitlement white men have i hate. Hand me the double barrel shotgun, and i'll take out those bloody zombies on the hill, an' sure me baby's in the pram letting rip with an uzi too.

Time to get over our fucked up cultural insecurities of being Australian. We are all fricken Aussie. We come ere yo. We sign up yo. You are are Australian! If you don' like it then fuck off!

where

2009-08-20T19:37:00.001-07:00

where does the darkness come from?

half breeds & orphans

2009-08-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

it seems, as it currently stands, perhaps we are a group of half-breeds, orphans, and those that perceive themselves to be orphans on one level or another. but is that last phrase not something that relates to everyone in the world today? is there really such a thing as belonging. i dont think so.

im still a bit confused about what we are. maybe it dosent really matter. critical thinking requires one to have a point a view in the first place. if only i can figure out what mine is.

how do we get to that point of knowing we know something? what are other nice terms we can use for half-breeds? mongrels? bastards? half-caste? mixed race? bi-racial? again, is mixed race really not something that relates to all of us in the world today? so what creates the perception of being on the outside? is it really the race you happen to be mixed with? what is my dream mix of races i wonder. does it make a difference who fucks who. probably not. so long as they don't procreate.

my vietnam blog

2009-08-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

http://dmztour.blogspot.com/

My travel up and down Vietnam, yes that means I crossed the 17th parallel. By train, oh soooo colonial and romantic.

2009-08-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Two must see films on art and humanity

The Cats of Mirikitani, about an elderly Japanese-American homeless man who's an artist and his experiences of his internment during World War II.

Directed by Linda Hattendorf. Lucid Dreaming Inc, Madman Entertainment(distributor), N.Y., 2006

Indonesia: Art, Activism, and Rock n Roll, about Taring Padi, a group of artists and their role in activism and the democratic protest movement.

[Australia] : SBS Television; Loganholme, Qld : Marcom Projects (distributor), 2004

A-17thP @ Slot

2009-08-13T01:45:00.000-07:00

Great films of the exhibition, I would have really liked to have seen it in the flesh but the next best thing is better than nothing. I really enjoyed watching first time hit man rudd interviewed, it was actually quite refreshing hearing someone talk about art who hasn't had a serious art bullshit jargon injection. I think you maybe onto something there Van. The show looked great, I am now the proud owner of a Mai Long drawing, which I am very excited about and can see the detail, time and emotion in the drawing, so I can imagine her work in Slot. I would love to see Van's and Dom's, especially Dom's as he has surprised me with his multi talents, though you have to be a little annoyed at someone who can do much much more than just create great visual arts.

One-Time hit man Alfonso Rudd on A-17P

2009-08-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

One-Time hit Man Alfonso Rudd takes a look at A-17P at SLOT

2009-08-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Mai

2009-08-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

hey Mai - are you able to post any feedback (positive and negative) on our blog? Think would be awesome. Understand if you too busy.
van

to Kelly, Mai and Dom

2009-08-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hey A-17P - can you guys set up your blog entries so that when you make a post, we all get notified on our emails? It's fairly easy - just log on, go to settings, then permissions, then add our email addresses in the first box?(ie I have all yours down so you all know when I've put in a post).
Also I've set up the blog so you can all administer it - ie design it etc.
cheers, van

A-17P at Slot - Photos by Mai Long

2009-08-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Left to right: Long,Golding,Rudd

posting this

2009-08-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

thanks mai for taking the shots!!! I reckon you did a great job putting the works up. I feel very proud of this first A-17P exhibition. Thanks for the 'et al' info - will check em out.
RE that bit I wrote - I was mostly referring to making my art at universities, being in group tutorials where everyone has to talk about your work.....most people start to get angry for no reason - and hate to look at the issues raised in the work - instead they are much more friendly to the students' artworks that are more aesthetically oriented - nothing to confront - nothing to test what it means to make art these days - there's no history - just postmodern waffle-speak. 'this image has the potential to mean this....and this.....and this....and this.' There's way too many layers to the readings.
I'm not saying everyone at uni was/is like this - some were/are very supportive - but that's just a small amount. I guess I'm just frustrated that universities claim that they're democratic. They'll support you when you think individualistically and are concerned about your own problems as an artist - until you question the very system that we/they live under as a society - ie where does uni funding come from? why have so many tertiary staff been axed recently? Why do we think the Guggenheim is the ultimate? and why does the world have tons of biennales coming out of its ass?!!!
I'm not arguing that I sit seperate from all this - I'd love to be in some biennales. I'm immersed in capitalism as much as anyone else. I guess the strength I use to make my work comes from the fact that I want to analyse this system and see its mechanations, just like historians look at feudal society.......however the difference is I want to look at capitalism for what it is - a class based society - and the bottom class doesn't like the conditions it's in at all. The world without a doubt is in a class structure that is many times worse than that of 18th and 19th century london. There's no doubt many people know this - it's not rocket science. I can either accept this and believe it can't change - or not accept it and strive to change it. I choose the latter.
I guess I'm also frustrated in seeing that most art books and art magazines can totally neglect that most great artists throughout history are prominent because they were immersed in revolutionary social action. I'm thinkin David, Gericault etc around the French Revolution and Tatlin, Malevich, Grosz etc - immersed in the Russian and German revolutions coming out of the mass destruction of ww1...they were all involved deeply in political parties and wanted change - and they were fully aware of who were pulling the strings. The monarchy and aristocrats were the ruling elite before the frnch rev and the ultra-rich industry moguls (mixed with dying monarchy) were the early capitalists B4 the Russian revolution.
Hey Mai - I could go on forever - I still wanna get represented by a decent gallery - I still wanna survive as an artist by selling work. I don't blame artists for this - it is ultimately an individual game to suvive under this system. THat's why I'm likin collectives. That's why I belong to a leftwing politcal party. I don't think art can change anything unless it is consciously immersed within reality (doesn't mean we can't be creative)....immersed within broad movements for change to this corrupt, destructive system.
talk soon.
ps are you able to send my art back down when you take down show? I'll send postage money by internet.
Cheers, van

strange when your political work is judged aesthetically

2009-08-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

I've often been frustrated when art world 'know-it-alls' judge your art totally based on it's aesthetic achievements. No matter that you've tried to bring world attention to the fact that the US and Australia and UK are undergoing yet more violent, illegal occupations - and the fact that the NT intervention in australia in blatantly racist....as long as the artworld decides if it is aesthetically 'interesting' to warrant being seen by the public. Otherwise, to this artworld it's like 'being hit over the head with a hammer'.
OK I'll put this little hammer down......pass me that sledge hammer!!!

2009-08-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

An interesting article on Vietnam's need to be more accountable to the works shown and sold.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/arts/design/01copies.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hpw

But i like the fake art, you get a Matisse for 40 bucks.

Public verses Pubic

2009-07-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

On the public art thing, it just shits me to see so much crap out there in Melbourne. The only thing apart from a few pieces, graffitti and the citylink on the way to Frankston is poo. I just wonder if their were people paid by the government to put applications together for artists so artists recieved the same chance to put their work in public BUT it would rely on the quality of the art work and not the fucking writing, how noval would that be. It seems so annoying that the writing process stops many artists from realising many things, it also is obvious to me that without the writing process artists would have a better chance of keeping their works fresh-say like graffitti art. I much prefere the graf works out there to most of the public art that burocrates chose for our visual pleasure. As for pubic goes- get it out there.

I agree with Mr.D

2009-07-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

There is a big part of my practice that involves making art in public - it is actually quite unfortunate that we constantly have to refer to "public" vs "private". At the end of the day it seems quite silly to place so much importance on art that is enclosed in a space that only a handful of art elite millionaire tossers can see. However it is certainly a vicious circle for artists in general. We're herded into bourgeois institutions because it is a logical way to make a living out of art - to be considered legitimate.....therefore the emphasis on gallery art is immense! It is almost against the law to write on your resume that you've exhibited one of your paintings just outside the National Gallery of Victoria for an hour, or in a crowded shopping mall where hundreds of people have seen your work!! But you're told to write on your resume that you've exhibited at some 'renowned' space with only 10 people off the streets who viewed it over 2 weeks. I certainly list my gallery shows on my stupid CV, BUT I also list my interventions (legal and illegal) because, as Mr D said, they are artworks for the people! It is a real pity that graffiti carries such a heavy penalty - a great example of injustice at work. Also a great example of who runs the state - corporations. Public space was meant to be OUR space.

real public art is...

2009-07-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Art is all around you when you walk the streets of Melbourne. Graffiti and stencil art. Sure every city has tagging and public art. But I've been to Perth, lived in Adelaide, hung at in Sydney
and Brisvegas. But none had the prolific amount of artistic paintings on the walls. And i do like to stress the quality of the images sprayed. It seems we, in Melbourne have a crew of Banskys' running around in the dead of the night. Cities need the public art, illegal or not. It all adds character to the city. New York, San Francisco both have a unique street flavor, all brought about by illegal street art. This to me is real public art. It is art made by the people, for the people. My only regret is that alot of it is style and is striking. It doesn't have the venom of social critique we would see in Harlem or South LA. If corporate advertisers can sell their messages and products all over the city. Artists who are aware of the world we live and die under must sell, and brand the walls with their messages.

From the Queen's Land to..." (SLOT 2009)

2009-07-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Van Thanh Rudd
“From the queen’s land to...” (2009)

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised this image may contain references to the deceased.

Artist Statement: The director of “The Promotion” has successfully lobbied for a major release of the film in the year 2018. It will join a series of films created by the same director (titled 200 years of genocide in Australia) to be released the same year. The celebrations surrounding the director’s successful deal with major studios such as Time Warner have been unprecedented. According to many global human rights groups this has been a long time coming. http://www.van-thanh-rudd.net/

A-17P relevance statement
My father was a Vietnam veteran and met my Vietnamese mother during the war. I needed to find a position that best explained the War in Vietnam to me, and my existence. Other members of A-17P may have differing views on this, but we are united in our struggle to make sense of what happened. It is a perspective that unwaveringly supports the struggle of a majority poor of the world. I support the view that things can change for the better via direct engagement with the people in my community and abroad.

What are you Fighting for? (SLOT 2009)

2009-07-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

Dominic Golding
“What are you Fighting for?” (2009)

Artist statement: To be “free” is to remember everything happens ideologically, for a reason. War needs to be justified. America has always fought for freedom, in all its wars. With my SLOT work, the question is really aimed at two audiences: the mainstream Aussies and the Indigenous locals - asking us all who and what are we fighting for, whose freedom, what does freedom mean and would you take up arms to defend it?

A-17P relevance statement: As an adoptee (Operation Babylift 1975) I have grown up with the history of war. My history occurred south of the 17th Parallel. This was America's war. As an artist I have since crossed to the north of the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) at the 17th Parallel. My visual art and my performance work is about decisions, divisions and the resulting wars that powers exert over us.

Inu & Spiirydko: the Rebirth (SLOT 2009)

2009-07-14T15:08:00.001-07:00

Mai Long
“Inu & Spiirydko: the Rebirth” (2009)

Artist Statement: How many times does one feel they know nothing and must start all over again, from the beginning. The feeling that one’s own skin is barely recognisable or the skin of others is equally as foreign. Is power and the illusion of it a shifting entity: facts that slip and slide? In any community or society there will always be a majority machine and a minority voice. Who is setting the measure? Inu and Spiirydko (a girl named "dog"' and her "spirit dog" friend) are constructing their own universe together. Sometimes it seems beyond logic. Inu wants to own her anger and grow up in a new world of hope; to accept loss and our shifting perception of things and move on. Paramount are one’s feelings: they are real and can lead us through understanding justice and violence. www.mai-long.com

For more visit the SLOT website http://www.slot.net.au/
SLOT is an Incorporated Association. All projects are privately funded by SLOT and the artists.
Note: some sections of the artist statements have been adapted by Mai Long with assistance from Gina Fairley.

2009-07-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

A-17P "launch project" at SLOT

2009-07-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Launch Project at SLOT www.slot.net.au
A-17P: A NEW COLLECTIVE

Note from Mai on the SLOT project

The 17th Parallel: The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone established as a dividing line between North and South Vietnam as a result of the French Indochina War. During the Vietnam War, it became important as the battleground demarcation separating North Vietnamese territory from South Vietnamese territory (wikipedia)

When the Directors of SLOT generously invited me to curate a show for SLOT late 2008, it was a very specific series of events that I was intensely working through, a few serendipitous happenings, and then a final gut feeling that inspired me to invite Dominic Golding and Van Thanh Rudd to hang with me. If I had any reticence at all, it was the fear of further perpetuation a stereotypical “Asian-Australian” construct.

I came to know Rudd during that period when there were complaints that my work was politically and culturally insensitive to the Vietnamese Community of Australia (VCA). During that same week Rudd was ironically having his own censorship issues with City of Melbourne. He “admitted” to me he was a “socialist” – absolutely taboo in the context of VCA issues. Golding appeared in my lounge room via an ABC Compass program. My TV reception is shocking …but I could make out this charismatic guy in a cowboy hat, and in the next instance he was on stage in army fatigues shouting and carrying on. Golding explained to me that in his performance and theatre production – his key area of expression to date – no one is spared criticism.

Rudd and Golding’s works are brave: exerting a strong irreverent, honest searching: both are asking hard questions; of both themselves and others. As a group, we each have our individual paths, but in common we are trying to make sense of this world we are in today, and we find that this inevitably leads us in one way or another to those Vietnam War issues…and, more specifically, the 17th Parallel…a schism of self and psyche.

This project has led me to an understanding that we have formed A-17P not because of any racial or political affiliation, but by force of history and circumstance. Personally, over that 20 June 2009 coffee when the collective crystallised, I felt like this was the long-awaited tangible evidence that we CAN talk to each other – an effort that is sometimes earnestly snuffed out by what I consider the inward-looking and fear-driven elements within the Vietnamese community Vietnamese language media.

It is a widely known fact that the large majority of Vietnamese in Australia have arrived as refugees, or through the family reunion scheme. It is a less appreciated fact that “Vietnamese Australians” are not one homogenous group, and a lesser celebrated fact that Vietnamese also arrived in Australia BEFORE the “Vietnam War” (eg via the Columbo Plan scheme). We are all Australians. The question is: what does this mean; and who defines this. We all share an equal responsibility in trying to make this world a better place. It is so much easier said than done.

Thank you Gina and Tony; thank you SLOT for making the project possible, for providing the mental and physical space to let A-17P materialise. Thank you also to Casula Powerhouse for the Viet Nam War exhibiton series, and for other Viet Nam related projects, without which the need for these dialogues might not have been so aptly highlighted.

This is a first project, and perhaps more than anything, a symbolic event. I look forward to continued dialogue on what A-17P represents. To exist, one needs projects and tangible actions.

a-17p.blogspot.com Members: Van Thanh Rudd, Dominic Golding, Mai Long, Kelly Manning*

*The SLOT project was conceived in February 2009. Dom, myself, and Van met Kelly via the Nam Bang! exhibition during April at Casula Powerhouse. Kelly is also a member of A-17P.

As an Artist of the A17-P

2009-07-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

The bullet holes along the walls of the Citadel, in Hue. Marines, and ARVN battled NVA forces who held an ancient fortress it was also a battle for a city (close to the 17th parellel) during the Tet offensive in 1968. It was also a fight in the cultural heart of a nation.

For a long time war is all I wanted to know, but never experienced. I'm a being without roots, language, family, relatives, birth culture - because of America's war in Vietnam. A war that I only really read and watched films about, South of the 17th parallel. I took a trip across the border, a border that divided my country, a border imposed upon the Vietnamese by the French and the Americans. I wanted to see and feel for myself the war north of the 17th parallel. The then North Vietnam. Their skies rained bombs, dropped from B-52s. Hanoi, a city razed time and again, "a xmas bombing, will bring the commies to the negotiating table" believed Nixon, and McNamara.
As an artist I saw Vietnamese living a peace, hard won, too many died for. And it was by crossing the 17th parellel, that i could see how my performance art is about the social, the politics of freedom, the need to simply tell the stories, to lay out the hard cold facts of war and power.

do nothing art grrrr

2009-07-07T04:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in a large lecture theatre. I'm attending the ADSA conference in Perth, WA.

An academic is talking about performative time. And showing a video of two female dancers, slowly moving in and out of the black background; with a voice over saying "poetry"- a list of words listing colours, or movements.

This is the second time within a month I've seen a piece of video art, where the artists are exploring a concept of time.

Which got me asking, why do these artists like to show nothing happening, no action, no narrative, little movement- or in some cases none at all! And all this being a notion of Time.

A good example of this, is Tacita Dean, now showing at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Southbank, Melbourne.

It was the first time I wanted to plant a car bomb inside the damn art space!

Hell, the year 12 VCE art students make better art! Stuff that f*#kin' says somethin' 'bout the world we live.

my painting for SLOT exhibition 2009

2009-07-02T19:58:00.001-07:00

Painting title: From the queen's land to....

Artist statement:
The director of The Promotion has successfully lobbied for a major release of the film in the year 2018. It will join a massive series of films created by the same director (200 years of genocide in Australia) to be released in the same year. The celebrations surrounding the director's successful deal with major studios such as TimeWarner have been unprecedented. According to many global human rights groups this has been such a long, long time coming.

Lateral Thinking in a confused world

2009-06-30T04:03:00.000-07:00

Today I picked a hard cover full colour book Vietnam-the secret war for $4, its a hard habit to break. I inherited an almost obsessive interest and connection to this war through my fathers experience as an engineer with the Australian Army, my world has always been filled with the images of human atrocities. Along with this horrific early view of the world I was also blessed with a healthy dose of dioxin in my bloody stream.

Through war I've learnt about survival, terror and chemicals so in my new paintings I need to invent a fictional and practical place to attempt to a create some sort of reconciliation between each other, the environment and ourselves.

SLOT Dominic Golding

2009-06-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

Americans love a good fight. If one looks into America's history all the conflicts have been about freedom. From the War of Independence, the Civil War, to the current War on Terror is has always been about defending the principles America's founding fathers drafted back in 1787.

Yet the question we have to ask ourselves is... "What are you fighting for?"

Another Chemical Agent

2009-06-24T18:52:00.001-07:00

Hi All, I am also a A-17P and keen to write down my thoughts about what this means. At present I am making some works on paper about a paranoia about being invaded by Russian, Korean, the Japanese everyone really and also that mother nature is fed up with us and who can blame her, anyway I need to run I have some preparation to do.

As a member of A-17P

2009-06-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

I’m not coming from the point of view that my artwork totally revolve around issues relating to Vietnam. As I take an internationalist, Marxist perspective on the global capitalist system, I see that people are being oppressed due to the production relations that capitalism produces – ie, there is a reason indigenous people are poor – generally speaking, their communal mode of existence and production of food etc has been suddenly halted due to imperial capitalism, where they were essentially seen as very cheap labour to rich pastoralists and hearded around various reserves (19th Century). Fast forward to the current global economic crisis and poor people all over the globe including all indigenous groups are still facing similar problems as they’re forced to assimilate into this system or perish. This inability to assimilate is viewed by the capitalist establishment (ie state and apparatus such as police force that ultimately serves the interests of big businesses) as an inherent defect in their genetic make-up and hence the inherent racism. The NT intervention is a current example where a paternalistic approach by government forces reinforces the racist notion that the indigenous people cannot look after themselves. I’m not necessarily pointing the finger at ‘whites’, as I think this is an unnecessarily divisive argument. For example, one of the most successful indigenous solidarity up-risings in relation to their absolutely shit conditions on pastoral land in the 50s (?) was assisted by a white, Scottish, communist party of Australia member.

So when it comes to Vietnam, I view the American war as part of a chain of wars that are related to capitalist imperialism. For example, Japan wanted to claim Vietnam the same way France and the USA did – luckily enough for Vietnam (but unfortunately for Japan being blown to bits), Germany and Japan lost WW2. France was weakened by this massive world conflict and so gave the chance for Vietnam to claim independence. But the economically powerful USA was already interested in this power vacuum and was already on a world-wide campaign to discredit struggles for an alternative system such as communism (or in other words, where the ownership of resources were put into the hands of everyone and not just the wealthy). I see the people of Vietnam similar to the way I see the poor (eg Indigenous people) of the world in general. They’re the victims of a system (capitalist) that benefits a global elite.

I think you’re right when you mention the fact that the division between nth n south Vietnam was a construct to create an unnecessary war. It came out of France and the USA’s weakness to contain the popularity of communism. There was to be an election in Vietnam to decide if Ho Chi Minh was really that popular –the west freaked out so they orchestrated the negation of the elections.

The reason I call myself an artist of the 17^th Parallel is because I feel like I had no choice in this division and am essentially a product of it – the product of an unnecessary division. Imperial forces have no problems dividing up countries to suit themselves economically – the creation of Pakistan in 1947 is a great example where ruling elites (expecially UK) divided India to keep ties with local elites and the military so people couldn’t unite to control resources. Religion became a great way (Muslims vs Hindus) to excuse this. You’re right in that the USA felt they could unite forces against their international fight against communism by convincing Vietnamese they should move south – in particular the more well-off catholics. In reality the resources (human and natural) was what the USA was afraid they would lose if Vietnam was unified. The 1950s and 60s and 70s was a bunch of decades the USA was wreaking havoc across the world in trying to defeat popular movements that wanted to hand over resources to their own people instead of letting in stay in the hands of very rich oligarchs – The Diem regime was a great example of a rich Vietnamese oligarchy that had no dream whatsoever to give wealth to the Vietnamese people.

Cuba, Panama, Indonesia, Guatamala, Cambodia, Oman, Laos, Chile, Angola, Iran, Libya, El Salvador, Nicuragua, Lebanon, Grenada, Honduras, Iran, Bolivia, Philippines, Chile, Sudan, Afghanistan etc etc are only a few of the countries as you may well be aware, the USA has directly intervened militarily in the last half of the 20^th Century to keep profits rolling in and to expand production and wealth.

Art and performance

2009-06-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

To perform, and to who, and what end?

Do we perform to entertain?

Do we create in order to raise issues about our failed experiment - the experiment of liberty, justice and equality?

Or do we just create art to be objects for collectors and sold at Sotheby's auction house?

Art needs to have a performance outcome.