Posted by: Sutu on September 7. 2011 at 1:38 am
I was fortunate to attend a special corroboree for Ned Cheedy last night. The man is 105, possibly the oldest indigenous man in Australia and recent recipient of the Deadly lifetime achievement award. Ned is also Alum Cheedy’s father, whom I’ve been collaborating with on the Jack and the Swordfish story.
I also attended the rehearsal for the corroboree where I was invited to learn traditional dance. I think I gotta work on my moves, everybody was laughing. Lots of fun!
Here’s my sketch of Ned as he listened to the women’s choir singing ‘Down to the river’ in language.
Posted by: Sutu on September 6. 2011 at 2:42 am
You might’ve noticed Nawlz has been seriously neglected the last few months. The reason is… I’ve been out bush.
Yijala means ‘now’ in Ngarluma; Yala means ‘now’ in Yindjibarndi.
For the last few months I’ve been working with the indigenous community of Roebourne on the Yijala/Yala project in Northern WA. We made this Love Punks versus Zombies film… I designed the costumes and did the makeup, shot the opening sequences including Troyden dancing and EJ falling off the pipe – freakin classic!
Here’s a couple extra shots from the shoot… Check out Ashton as Birdman…
And now, based on the incredible cast of the film, I’ve got permission to create an epic 18 character sci-fi adventure series, tentatively titled NEOMADS. I will even be working with the kids on the series as they act out the scenes of the story for reference material, from there I’ll be taking a photshop class once a week where their job will be to colour in their own characters. I wrote Wacom a sponsorship letter last week and they’ve agreed to give us 5 Wacom tablets to get the program started. So exciting! Look forward to more updates soon!
There’s a big quad bike scene up here, so I’m trying to come up with some kind of quad inspired hover bike… Here’s some concepts…
Also one of my favourite elders from the community Tootsie Daniels has agreed to make a cameo in the comic. Here’s a Tootsie sketch…
I also collaborated on a childrens book with writer, Alum Cheedy. The book is called Jack and the Swordfish and is inspired by his son Jack and their spear fishing trips along the coast. Here’s a preview of the book (That’s Jack reading it)…
I’ve just started working on part 02 of Jack and the Swordfish and will post some sketches soon.
Posted by: Sutu on June 26. 2011 at 11:52 am
Had a week in Tokyo, felt like I was there for a month. Kalleidoscopic, super-frenetic, Shibuya neon still hypersynapsing in the back of my mind. Everyday was 18 hours awake, 4 hours sleeping, 2 hours of souless limbo dragging heels around twisted back alleys, smashing Suntory highballs, having ears pounded by overexcited pachinko waveforms blasting from every urban cluster. How do Japanese people cope with this kind of perpetual enslaught? Are my senses not equipped simply because I’m from Australia, the land where you can drive a car 1000 kilometres and not see a single person.
Tokyo can string you out, take your senses to an unknown edge, leaving your eyes perpetually bird-like and also inducing similar bird-like twitches as you try to absorb everything and possibly nothing at all. I think the computation of my senses are still waiting for the dust to settle. The memories, colours and details, weigh in my mind as colourful A/V splinters. I can still hear the melodies of trains departing the Yamanote line and see the colours of illegible signage, only to be digested as new logos. Here’s a few subconscious regurgitations in the aftermath….
I was staying 3 minutes walk from the busiest intersection in the world. Somehow the pocket we were squeezed into did provide sanctuary from the commuter bustle. I sat there a few hours documented the scene with my trusty .05 unipin…
At this intersection, my best friend Yoichi described the Tokyo shake. Fifty story highrises waving goodbye to the sky, all ants on the ground seeing the ominous sway, wondering how they were not toppling over? The Lawson’s convenience store’s empty of stock, not a single onigiri to drop in your ration pack. All those colourful sneakers criss-crossing the sky walks, taking the gamble on imaginary escape routes.
An accidental photo-collage of the same intersection revealed a feeling that semed to match Yoichi’s description. I call it the Shibuya Splintersection…
Post Tokyo I had a vision of a little Japanese woman entering a cluttered room of junk. For a brief moment she assessed the room, shaking her head with nervous angst as her mind absorbed the pile of chaos sitting before her. With haste, silence and efficiency the woman then began moving all the junk from that room into an adjacent empty room. Once all the junk was transported to the new room she sighed, briefly, before aknowleging the new pile of junk and then beginning the process again, only in reverse.
I’ve been to Japan 4 times now and it’s hard to say if the human traffic seemed more urgent now. Japan is infamous for it’s around-the-clock work ethic and the frantic pace of today matched that of ten years ago. But, if you’ve never been to Japan and were to arrive in Tokyo today, the image of relentless would appear in context a distractive measure to prevent further dwelling on an impossible situation. It’s not like the whole of Japan can resort to higher, more stable ground or to any other ground for that matter. Japan’s urbanisation sprawls to the borders of the small island.
But alas, even from the heart of Tokyo refuge can be found. Escape the claustrophobic carnival and b-line to Chigasaki City. In a post quake, post tsunami climate, I feel a little awkard in pointing out that my own peaceful mindshare during my time in Japan was discovered on the coastline, where I threw myself in the ocean to defuse my electric Shibuya halo. And after we watched the sun go down, we set off curry flavoured firecrackers. Ah yes, only the Japanese would think of such an exotic treat.
Upon departing Chigasaki my friend Yoshiko thanked me for braving Japan after the quake. She felt the news had spooked the world, relentlessly bombarding the airwaves with nuclear fallout hypothesis, resulting in nobody wanting to visit. Are you kidding me? My sick mind was more inclined to visit Japan after the quake. Having said that, please note, I do not endorse disaster tourism, that would be s disrespectful waste of Japan’s limited resources at this critical point in time. I was actually there for a friends wedding. Anyhow, I fucking love Japan and will continue going there til I die. Even if it means dying premature Toxic Avenger style, I need my Tokyo fix yo!
Time to split…
Posted by: Sutu on June 19. 2011 at 8:14 am
Hiroyasu’s latest works are now showing at the No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne until the 26th of June.
I’ve been sharing a studio with Hiro for the last 6 months and I’ve seen how he works. Relentlessly. Night and day. The guy is Japanese after all and that 24-7 Japanese work ethic definitely flows thru to his art practice. He has a fierce discipline that is matched by an inspired flux of creativity. It’s been a pleasure working beside him. He’s like a wise old man, trapped in a young man’s body. I went to check out the work today and it’s beautiful to see it all mounted in the space. I spent an hour soaking it up. The painting below is about 2 and a half metres high, titled ‘Granpa Shelved’, a very personal piece, it pays hommage to the late grandpa Tsuri (who was also an artist). I often wonder if Hiro is the potplant, bowing his head in admiration and respect.
Another favourite piece, the empty bottle of Suntory whiskey. That says something…
Posted by: Sutu on May 17. 2011 at 11:22 am
Don’t do it!
My buddy Telen caught the standoff on his iphone…
