In this unflinchingly honest show, four powerful female artists peel back the layers of their introspection and inspiration to offer a sparkling glimpse into what makes them tick. Via their work, we are asked to consider our own mental and emotional patterns, a map that spools across our psyche like ribbons in the wind; it is a clairvoyant adventure in which the only compass is a sixth sense and an intrepid investigative bent. 

Rebekah Chisholm mines a rich mental nebula; clouds of meaning, sparkling yet diffuse, form an internal weather system that toys with her emotion, in equal part vast yet minute. It is a kaleidoscopic rabbit hole of intense beauty,

Melita Rowston’s shipwrecked ‘White Woman’ is a blank slate on which to write the white settler narrative and legitimatise colonial intent, yet her hidden eyes and the totemic symbolism that wreaths her tells a far deeper story of identity and meaning.

Christie Torrington’s New Worlds are minute landscapes that transcend traditional representations of fantasy and reality stirring lost memories and creating imaginary universes, lines blurred between lost and found, light and dark, reality and fiction.

Created during lockdown in a 4 x 6m Bangkok apartment, Phanida Kovalevsky’s Pink Koala is a rendering of the subconscious mind in neon joy, works that depict the artist finding happiness in the face of mental and physical constriction. 

The post LITTLE FLUFFY CLOUDS appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

Queer Beasts are borne of drag detritus, the broken, discarded and cast-off bits that litter the floor once the costume is complete.

Flecked with sparkle, pleated in pleather, sequinned, stylish and ever shameless, these creatures hold power and pride in their hearts, reflecting the ‘othering’ of the LGBTQIA+ community and the powerful performative reaction that has grown from this demonisation.

A collaboration between Tortuga and leading costumier Alli Sebastian Wolf, founder of Deep Sea Astronauts, these beautiful creatures can be found at 47 George Street, The Rocks, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings during September as part of Sydney Fringe Sideshow.

The post QUEER BEASTS: Tortuga Studios x Deep Sea Astronauts @ SYDNEY FRINGE SIDESHOW appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

Trump howls ‘fake news!’, escalating his attacks on CNN and the New York Times and the world scuttles to its corner, shamed. Britain establishes a National Security Communications Unit to counter the growth of ‘alternative facts’, and social media smears ribald campaigns of disinformation like a virus, laying waste to a truth no longer dictated by authorities but networked by peers…

Sorting cold hard facts from the embellished glory of spangled fiction should be a cakewalk, and yet the virulent creep of misinformation is likely to lead to the regulation of social media, raises tensions between nations, and is considered by some to be one of the greatest threats to democracy, free debate and the ‘Western’ order.

The truth has a new shape, all raggedy lines and shadowed form, vacant, abandoned. Clickbait, controversy, sensationalism and spam, the spin swells in soundbites and we are held hostage to a culture of falsity and fear, claim and counterclaim caustic rejoinders in the virulent sluice of the comments section.

In this new world order of ‘filter bubbles’, algorithms and bots, in which partisan news and pop-up websites run by Macedonian teens take centre stage, where is the line in the sand? Does it still exist or are conspiracy and propaganda the forces that erase the tideline each time they surf up from below?

Featuring the work of over thirty multidisciplinary artists, FAKE is a powerful expression of artistic incredulity that – in an era of competing narratives and clouded transparency – considers the pirated, bogus, feigned and forged.

Will Coles
Garth Knight
Justin Harvey
Mark Swartz
Rob Kay
Dillon MacEwan
Jeff Wood
Jasmine Poole
Jo Shand
Miguel Valenzuela
Simon Scheuerle
Valentina Schulte
Ben Tankard
Pete Strong
Gemma Lark
BUNKWAA
Lu Campbell-Smith
Giles Morgan
Daniel Nimmo
Alex Holver
Christie Torrington
AWOL MONK
Terry Archer
Alli Woolf
Sarah Sharky
Ganbold Lundaa
Kassandra Bossell
Rhiannon Hopley
Alien Proof Construction
Pierre Cavalan
Stephen Harris
Brian Paisley
Paul Shanta
Jelena Gojkovic

Image credit: Will Coles

The post FAKE: A Tortuga Studios group show for Art Month 2018 appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

The peaceful crush of the Velvet Revolution; the black power salute from the winners’ podium; diggers on the barricades at Eureka, their demands for democracy cleaving an old order in two. The Arab Spring with its 24/7 media updates; Fidel and the fight of his life; the Bastille stormed to the howls of the underclass…

Our world is riven by revolution: rebellion, systematic oppression, a little coup d’etat, an instance of intifada – all pulsing, churning and erupting. We are bound by insurrection, insurgence, mutiny, protest and riot: to be heard, to be seen, to force change, the revolution is the last stand, a virulent vantage point for a new future.

From the old French word revolvere [to roll back] and the Latin revolutio [a turn around], revolution is born from an internal mutiny, and it is unpredictable and inevitable. As the world turns – its own revolution around a blazing sun an elliptical journey about an axis of time and space – we ache for change, for representation, our voices the maligned heroes of alienation and revolt.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that the “tree of liberty” must be watered by the “blood of patriots and tyrants”. Dolores Ibárruri, the antifascist leader in the Spanish civil war, said, “It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees”. Revolutions are to our species what experimentation is to science: a way of pressing forward, a way to change and grow. They are a necessity.

In a world where consumerism trivialises the very idea of revolution and degrades it to the point of obscurity – “a revolution in skincare!” “push back against the norm – let your accessories help you stand out!”– perhaps the rebel yell is the final stand, the holler of a million voices breaking with the strain.

And let it be heard: we will not be silenced. Our voices and our feet and our presence will fill a thousand spaces a thousand times with a thousand left to spare.

Hear us. Fear us. We cry “more”.

OPENING NIGHT: FRIDAY MAY 19th, 6-9pm
SHOW RUNS: MAY 20-26th by appointment
INNER WEST OPEN STUDIO TRAIL: SUNDAY 21st, 10am-4pm

The post With a Rebel Yell! – a Tortuga Studios Group Show -29th May, 2017 appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

The past has a constant echo. It is a reverberation of time with a diaphanous yet insistent tenure on the present that tugs and weaves us back, retelling the story, laced with remembrance and reminiscence.

Wearing memory like a shawl, the present has splinters of the past poking through threadbare patches, velvet-soft portals that spiral and curl time to a bygone era.

Proudly part of ART MONTH 2017 and headed up by acclaimed Blue Mountains artist Ben Tankard in association with Tanya Chaitow, Maz Dixon, Cathy Drew, Maria Gorton, Celine Roberts, and Alex Scheibner, Echoes is a group show that reflects, reimagines, references, reinterprets and reanimates the past.

Featuring fine art, sculpture, prints, photography and mixed media (including works that incorporate embroidery, and digitally altered photography), Echoes promises to hold your hand and gently transport you back to the past.

As with an echo of sound, it is loaded with reverberation; as with an echo of memory, it is loaded with inference; as with an echo of something else – a parallel – it is loaded with inference. It is, quite simply, loaded, a glimpse in the cracked mirror of time.

What will be reflected back at you?

During ART MONTH 2017, Echoes opens at 6pm on Friday 3^rd March 2017 at Tortuga Studios and runs until 15^th March, with live music by Reign on Mars on opening night.

The post ECHOES: a group show for ART MONTH 2017: 3rd-15th March appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

Ferrous – By Karen Bloomfield

JUGGERNAUT

Works by Karen Bloomfield

March 10-14 at Tortuga Studios

As a child of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs in the 1970’s, family entertainment often consisted of ice cream walks through Kings Cross or mammoth (and somewhat terrifying) pilgrimages to the Three Sisters and Jenolan Caves. My favourite, however, were the aimless sightseeing drives through Port Botany. These late-afternoon sojourns usually culminated in perching somewhere grassy with a grand view of the airport runways. Here we could marvel in the fairy lights of the ever-busy ports and the eternal comings and goings of the enormous Boeings with their bellies full of possibility.

While to some hard industrial subjects of industry, shipping and airplanes are considered ugly, I see nothing but beauty. The strong, clean forms and intense colours; the incredible play in scale; and, perhaps my favourite, the lights, all meld to create imagery that stays with you.

Last year I was lucky enough to find myself in creative discussion with a friend at DGX Shipping which led to making a connection with DP World. I requested access to the port to take reference photos for an exhibition, and was graciously given unrestricted (guided) access to the entire port. After four twilight/night and 2 dawn hours I had over 600 reference photos. Juggernaut is the result.

Juggernaut will run March 10 – 14, 2016 at Tortuga Studios, 31 Princes Highway, St Peters. The exhibition is open daily 10am-4pm or outside these hours by appointment. An industry evening is being held on Friday March 11 from 6-9pm. RSVP required. Enquiries may be directed to studio@karenbloomfieldart.com or directly to the artist on 0425361183.

Karen Bloomfield is an award winning Central Coast-based artist whose work is sought internationally and hangs in permanent collection at the NSW Police HQ. 

Scale – By Karen Bloomfield

Pre-dawn Hum – By Karen Bloomfield

The post JUGGERNAUT: A solo show by Karen Bloomfield at Tortuga Studios March 10-14 appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

Step inside the phone box. Turn on, tune in and avoid dropping out…

How to Add Ringtone for iPhones (using iTunes)

Download iphone ringtone (.m4r) file to computer first. Your iphone will also need to be authorized on the computer in iTunes.

1. In iTunes, click on File –> Add to Library (or press command-O) and find/select the ringtone file. Open your Tones library to see if it is there. If Tones is not an option in your Library selector button (upper left corner of the iTunes window), click iTunes –> Preferences –> General and check Tones in the Show selection.
2. Connect your iPhone to your computer and click the iPhone button in iTunes. Under ‘Summary’, tick ‘Sync only checked songs and videos’. Click the Tones button in the banner menu and check Sync Tones. Click ‘All Tones’ or click ‘Selected Tones’ and make sure the ones you want are checked.
3. Click on Apply at the bottom of the window to sync your phone.
4. When the your iphone has synced, open it and tap Settings –> Sounds –> Ringtone, and your new tone should be there to select.

How to Add Ringtone for Android phones

Download the .mp3 file to your computer. Connect your Android phone to your computer using a USB cable. Unlock your screen if it’s locked.

1. Open your device’s storage. If you are using Windows, you can find your Android phone in the Computer/My Computer window (⊞ Win+E). If you’re using OS X, the Android phone will appear on your desktop, but you will need to download and install the Android File Transfer program first.
2. Open the Ringtones folder. The location of this may vary depending on the phone you are using. It is most commonly found in the base folder for your device, but may also be found at /media/audio/ringtones/. If you don’t have a Ringtones folder, you can create one in the base folder of your phone. Right-click on a blank space in your phone’s root directory and click “Create new” → “Folder”.
3. Copy the ringtone file into the Ringtones folder. You can click and drag the file from your computer to the Ringtones folder, or you can right-click it and select “Copy” and then right-click in the Ringtones folder and select “Paste”.
4. Disconnect your phone after the ringtone transfers. The transfer process should only take a moment.
5. Open the Settings app on your phone and select “Sound”.
6. Tap the “Phone ringtone” or “Ringtone” option. Select your ringtone from the list.

The post Charged – Sculptures By The Sea appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

Into the lucid translucency of the Night Garden stomps the carnie, pie juice and fag ash smeared indelicately through his aura. Beneath gossamer skeins of light, bathed in iridescence, the candy butcher picks his teeth with a rusted safety pin before contemplating and consuming his juicy find…

Burnishing the inky darkness for just one night the Night Garden is diaphanous, a light exhibition that fills the back alleys of St Peters. But this year it is held hostage by the dark carnival of the mud circus – sliding in sideways and splayed with satire – adorning a darker shawl, woven with ruinous hedonism and lit with the glint from the ringmaster’s silver snarl.

On Friday September 25th, join us for a stroll through the garden of light that blooms just once a year and only at night; bathe in the milky splay of the projectors as they fill the cracks of our industrial space; or sit in the stillness of the shadows as they shift and slink in guilty pleasure.

But beware the carnies in for the haul, the twisted clanging of fire and metal and tar, lot lice on the loose high on burnt sugar, and the cackling dirge of demented clowns…

In association with Arcade Screenprinting, Dirty Kitsch, The Forge, The Velvet Garage, Little Flowers and Trolly’d, for the fifth year running, Tortuga Studios is proud to present some of Sydney’s most intriguing artists as they tend to their garden beneath the shadows of the night.

Follow the carnie’s bawl as it echoes along Mays Lane, a tirade of frolicking filth sullying the night garden that blooms at Tortuga Studios, its tendrils lighting the sultry dusk of Applebee and Hutchinson Streets from 6.30-9.30pm on Friday September 25th 2015.

https://www.facebook.com/events/547957842022469/

Image credit: Garth Knight ‘Ava’

The post In The Night Garden 2015 appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

SUMFINK FROM NUFINK at TORTUGA STUDIOS SOLO EXHIBITION

Splayed on the relics of our culture – the rusted the disregarded, the wantonly useless – NUFINK’s work comprises some of the most recognisable street art/ stenciling around, raw images honed with finesse and an acute eye for detail.

And it begs the ultimate question, how does humanity crawl from its warm pit each day, what does it mean, and why?

Time spent in the bush and high in the mountains, as well as in the pulsing concrete and tar arteries of a seething city drive these moments of poise, of humanity.

If you can’t just be who and what you are, come bear witness to someone who can, whose work invites you to lose yourself.

Musical delights with Stevie Dub and the delicious Electra De Christabelle aka Milky T…Tyler aka hunks acoustic and band…

https://www.facebook.com/events/711095672343089

FRIDAY 17.04.2015

OPENING NIGHT 6-9pm

Enquiries contact tortugastudiosinc@gmail.com

The post Sumfink from Nufink at Tortuga Studios solo exhibition opens 17th April 2015 appeared first on Tortuga Studios.

Cloaked in a wily shroud of deception, subversion looks the part, all straight lines, bowler hats and tucked-in undies. But beneath her chameleon cape a covert insurgency unravels wantonly, a ticking time-bomb set to blow the boundaries to bits…

As part of ART MONTH 2015, Tortuga Studios slips beneath society’s mantle into the shadowy realm of the subversive.

In a world bristling with mass surveillance, CCTV, data retention, media manipulation, corporate corruption, religious fanaticism and the spectre of cookie-cutter totalitarianism, we investigate the calculating depths of the anti-authoritarian, the utopian dream of the libertarian and a brooding dystopia that feeds a raging swell of anarchy.

Deceptive, covert and laced with anarchic verve, the aim of SUBVERSION is to overthrow, undermine and unravel the heart of the established system by means of challenging, irreverent works that demand an answer, albeit in a whisper.

Featuring the work of Brian Paisley, Chas Glover, Claire Conroy, Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Francesca D’Amico, Guy Warren, H Morgan-Harris, Jochen Gutsch, Justin Harvey, Michaela Davies, Rachael Lafferty, Sarah Breen Lovett, Simon Scheuerle, Telly Tuita, Valentina Schulte, Will Coles and Wouter Van de Vorde, this promises to tweak the lurking reactionary in us all…

https://www.facebook.com/events/1540352046231430/

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