Tag Archives: Andrew Harper

wot i bin up to

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have not posted for a while here…

i’ve started a web design course at tafe, so conceivably bilateral will be moving to a better coded, diy home soon.

have also been working towards a comprehensive squatspace website.

also: will post up some writing soon that was published in latest spinach7 mag – about a super project called splint. check out splint’s beautiful website.

in the meantime: watch unco artist andrew harper (witch from tassie) – he has a film up at www.hobartunderground.com – it’s his celluloid curse against the current government.

also: if in Melbourne, go visit Spread of the Empire – by unco artist Forest Keegel at the Melbourne City Square corner of Collins and Swanston Streets. The work will be on display from midday Friday October 8th until 2pm Sunday October 10th
more info is at the Melbourne environmental art website http://ausmag.de/xxx/enviro/
(the website is made with frames (ugg) so you have to click to “programme” and “melbourne city square” and “page 2” to see info about this great project.)
From the press release: “Spread of the Empire refers to the colonisation of Melbourne. White flour was part of the currency used to supposedly purchase the land Melbourne stands on, and will be used to symbolise the white settlement and City grid being stamped onto the land.”

ps – get your entries in for the NUCA unco grants due at end Oct – see the blog entry from August 2 2004 for details!!

magic in melbourne

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I'm down in Melbourne for NUCA's participation in Resistance thru Rituals, which opened on Thursday night June 24. Andrew Harper, the witch from Hobart and Australia's 24th Most UnCollectable Artist, made the trip to Melbourne for the show. At the Westspace opening on Thursday night, he performed part 4 of his "Flying Spell" – an ongoing series of incantations which, from my meagre understanding of all things witchy, is about transformation and movement. This spell is a positive progression from his previous "Celluloid Curse Against the Current Government" (completed a year ago) in which John Howard was cursed, not to die per se, but simply to "know what it's like to be me" – and I'm thinking Harper's undertaking was no small task.

The curses and spells themselves take the form of a continuous barrage of screaming-banshee diatribe which alternates between Harper's endearing Tassie-ocker directness, and an anachronistic channeling of olde-englishe beseechings (full of "thee, thou, dost", etc). When casting spells, he simultaneously projects super8 films full of "shadowy" images. In the case of "The Celluloid Curse", the film was burnt, along with hair clippings and fluid drippings donated by members of the "audience" – and the ashes sent to our esteemed national leader in the mail.

One somewhat sceptical spell-witness on Thursday night wondered when the FLYING would kick in, given that it was a "Flying Spell" Harper was enacting. When questioned, Harper was philosophical – he didn't exactly know, since the spell was only up to part 4 (perhaps half-way through?) – or what form it might take. But he DID say that he had started the spells just before becoming part of the Network of UnCollectable Artists, a serendipitous connection that had resulted in his "flying" to Melbourne this week. So perhaps our Tassie Witch is already working his magic…