Jep and Dep are the delightful folk duet, Jessica Cassar and Darren Cross. Their melodious sound is inspired by the folksy, country music of the 1960’s. They say they are just a boy, a girl and a guitar but the commercial potential of this group who have only been performing together for 8 months, suggests that they are so much more than that.

Recently returned from a 6-week tour of Berlin, they played last Thursday night to a heaving Union Hotel in Newtown for ‘Proper Music Social, A night of Folk and Country at The Union’. So far, they have been happy to tour the local music haunts and drinkers dives that are the standard stomping grounds for anyone seeking out live music in their hometown, Sydney.  Listening to their  sweet harmonies  and mournful heartbreakers as they sing pretty ditties about ‘love gone right and love gone wrong’ you might be tempted to think of Regina Spektor and Jack Dishel.

While I was lining up at the canteen for chocolate milk and paddlepops with Cassar, Cross was fronting 90’s alternative group – Gerling – and selling out the Metro. But he seems to have journeyed, musically, far away from those heady days where he was playing Big Day Out with Ben Lee standing in as the guitarist. Gerling is currently on an indefinite hiatus and if that means that Cross has more energy to throw at Jep and Dep, it’s not such a bad thing.

The potential is obvious and free for you to behold tonight at  where they will be playing along with new talent, the Battleships  from 8pm.

 

You can check out more of their music here > http://jepanddep.blogspot.com.au/  and https://soundcloud.com/#jep-4  or stalk them on Facebook to find out how to be a groupie.

This year family Christmas trees all over Australia will be decorated with beautiful pieces which have changed the lives of families in Africa, and brought the endangered Grevy’s Zebra back from the brink of extinction.

The decorations are part of a collection of works which make up Beads for Wildlife, an alternative income and livelihoods project championed by Zoos Victoria. The beadwork is made by local women, and purchased by Zoos Victoria for sale in Australia.

The program has also empowered women says Zoos Victoria’s, Brooke Squires who is one of the Zoos Victoria staff who travels to North Africa each year to facilitate the program. “One of the biggest issues in Samburu and Rendille culture is household violence, and a lot of it is born out of frustration, it’s born out of an inability to make ends meet. It’s born out of families knowing that next week they could be starving. We’re finding that by having more reliable stable income systems, that household pressure is relieved enormously.”

“When the bead money comes in, it’s the woman who does the finances, that is just how they work it culturally, and she actually will give him an allowance. So it reverses things, and her ability to control the financial space has much better household outcomes.” Woman are more likely to invest in children’s education, vaccinating domestic livestock and buying grains to facilitate food security.

Not only are the angels, Christmas trees and other decorations beautiful lively additions to any Christmas tree, they have a wonderful story and remarkable impact on North African families and wildlife.

 

Beads for Wildlife can be purchased online at: http://shop.zoo.org.au

Oh Grenfell ! You were the place that nagged at the heart of Australian poet, Henry Lawson, his birthplace. To read the monument to his birth just outside this centre of this NSW country town, you get the sense that Lawson felt a little guilty about his departure from the town. His poem, Said Grenfell To My Spirit , opens with the town itself berating him for his disloyalty -

Said Grenfell to my spirit, “You’ve been writing very free Of the charms of other places, and you don’t remember me.”

4 hours out of Sydney, this historic gold town has known a few celebrity ex-pats (notably the bushranger, Ben Hall) and surrounded by flowering canola blossoms and rambling Patterson’s Curse, it’s probably no prettier than it is in springtime. But it wasn’t the history, the view or the pub that caught my eye on a recent exploration of the town. It was Grenfell’s lovely typography.

I was struck by the many painted signs, some old some new, and wondered if perhaps Grenfell was also home to a typographic talent, yet uncovered?  Whoever the one or many sign-writers are, their legacy adds a particular flair to this  town of 2200 people.

After gold was discovered in the area by a shepherd in the 1860’s, the town boomed as miners flocked to the area to get their piece of shiny. By the 1870’s it was producing the most gold of any town in NSW.

The Weddin Mountains fringe the village, and in them are caves and hideouts of bushrangers from these boom times.  The locals will tell you, in that traditional country Australia, laconic style, that there’s gold in the caves still – bushranger loot –  stashed away right before they were shot by police or dragged off to the lock-up, a hundred-year-old secret.

Apprently it’s hard to get to, though, on account of the mini-avalanches that have resulted in the entranes being blocked by fallen rocks.

So, there are hills in which to hunt your fortune. But if you prefer a more leisurely exploration, try sign-watching and enjoy Grenfell’s typography treasures.

 

What If…

Ten years ago, Sydney asked – what if the city’s public spaces were taken over by artists? In response they came up with their first Art & About program. Ten years later this event is one of the most loved on the Sydney calendar – taking art out of conventional venues and putting it in unexpected locations. Join in all the excitement and come along to one of the many events as part of Art & About Sydney this year from 23 September – 23 October .

AGDA is celebrating The Poster and calling for submissions to the 2011 AGDA Poster Annual.

The selected finalist posters will be exhibited from October 20 at the Gaffa Gallery in Sydney. The AGDA Poster Annual Exhibition is intended to engage the general public and creative industries with the finest works of Australian graphic designers.

Celebrate the art of the poster and its power to motivate and inspire. Be “inspired by music” and create ideological posters as a response to your cultural outlook.

Head over to the Poster Annual section now for full details!

The Refugee Art Project presents fear+hope, a group exhibition by asylum seekers who live within Australian detention centres. Our friends at Design Federation caught up with Safdar Ahmed & Anton Pulvirenti to ask them about this exhibition that kicks off at the Mori Gallery in Sydney on Monday, 20th June 2011. Here is a snippet of what they had to say!

How did the Refugee Art Project begin?

Safdar: Anton and I both come from a fine arts background. We met and became friends at art school, in the year after I had finished high school, and have always shared a passion for talking and thinking about art. Last year I was speaking to a friend (the co-founder of this project, Dr Omid Tofighian) about refugee issues and it then occurred to us that an art exhibition might be a great vehicle for understanding the position of refugees in Australia. We started to visit the Villawood detention centre for art classes shortly thereafter, and Anton soon joined us to assume a teaching role.

Anton: My involvement began with an invitation from Safdar to join the project. As a long time friend, he was well acquainted with my art practice. He was also aware of the thesis I am completing at The Sydney College of the Arts on my grandfather’s internment at Loveday camp during the Second World War in South Australia. He thought that going inside Villawood would help me shed light on my grandfather’s experience in Loveday of which little is known.

How did you meet artists inside the Villawood detention centre and who are they?

Anton: Safdar had already met some artists. I knew no-one on my first visit. I sat simply sat down, commenced a portrait, and soon made new friends! The artists are predominantly from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq. They have all escaped some form of religious or political persecution.

Read the rest of the interview here .

What: The Refugee Art Project – Fear & Hope
Where: The Mori Gallery
168 Day Street, Sydney (5 mins from Town Hall)
When: 22 June – 8 July 2011
Open Tuesday, Thursday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm
Late night Wednesday, 11am  – 8pm
Cost: Free

икони The British Council is calling for Australia’s most creative local talents to enter to win one of five awards to grow their skills in the UK.

Realise Your Dream has no age restriction. Candidates in creative careers such as visual arts, fashion, design, advertising, architecture, music, animation, digital media, performing arts, publishing and computer games are encouraged to apply.

To find out more, applicants should head online to www.realiseyourdream.org.au . Entries close 4 July 2011.

Graduates from TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute will showcase their creativity through photography at their first ever exhibition held as part of the 120th year celebrations of TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute and in conjunction with Head On Photo Festival.

Captured will showcase the works of graduates who are working all over the world in advertising, marketing, the arts, fashion and media. With each image you will enter their world and witness it through their eyes. So come and see their point of view, Captured forever in print.

What: CAPTURED – Graduate Photography Exhibition
When: Now until the 15th May 2011 – Mon-Sun 10am-4pm
Where: TAFE Ultimo Gallery
Address: Harris St, Ultimo (between Thomas St and Mary Ann St), Sydney
Cost: Free

COMIC-ISH is a new online comic-boutique, which offers varied ‘comic-ish’ projects with loads of quirky characters and not-so-traditional serial comic strips and comic nibbles.

Behind COMIC-ISH are two Melbourne based graphic designers (and couple) Igal and Sari Hodirker, who created COMIC-ISH out of passion to the illustrated word. “We wanted a place, for us and our readers, to have fun and a bit of a laugh. Basically it is a place for us to be creative, write our minds, doodle and scribble, do the Hokey Pokey and turn around. That’s what it’s all about.”

Amongst the different comics you can find Maximilian – a Russian anti-hero dude with bizarre superpowers and his cat Koshka, Dr. Rex a specialist who gives really bad advice, and Franz and Ganz – two angry dolls who are busy complaining about the world.

Come and have a look www.comic-ish.com

Fifty fist-sized teapots have met their fate at the skilled hands of a select group of established and emerging artists. With the fabulously diverse line-up consisting of painters, print makers, photographers, graphic designers, typographers, digital, textile, and street artists, there’s sure to be eye candy to satisfy any sweet tooth.

Artists include Bec Winnel, Aramas Ridge, Caitlin Shearer, Gimiks Born, Sam Octigan, TEZ, Alex Louisa, Ellen Stapleton, Eirian Chapman, Jessica Singh, Rebecca Murphy, Burntfeather, and many more fabulous Australian talents.

Everyone is welcome to attend the exhibition opening night on April 13th, 6-8pm, at Paper Plane Gallery in Rozelle, Sydney. There will be free refreshments, delicious hot and cold teas, and nibbles served throughout the evening.

These tempting teapots will be on show until May 1st.