tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-188879822011-04-22T10:11:50.914+10:00Each January Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces hosts a project for the Midsumma Festival. Over summer the gallery is closed so the Midsumma show is a window display. For this year's show I've avoided the homo-as-window-dresser tradition by blocking out the window. Inside I'm creating a private space for a series of queer happenings. But in keeping with a more recent gay tradition of building our identities online, I've created this blog via which you can view the work.Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.comBlogger461100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1163542555123769862006-11-15T09:12:00.000+11:002006-11-15T12:05:02.146+11:00

It might seem like I am excluding again by pushing the transcription of the straight feedback to a blog site all its own. But at approximately 19,000 words (40 pages) it would out-weigh the rest of blog. Maybe you need the blankness of a white curtain for a rigorous and relentless discussion to ensue. There are only a few names mentioned so it’s really a mass of unidentified (closeted?) voices

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1163511928995017972006-11-15T00:37:00.000+11:002006-11-24T08:40:24.443+11:00

Mashing drag – we need more practice In regards to group conversations - maybe as a small, disparate community we’re out of practice. Maybe there was a need for more audience feedback, to give the interaction some space to breathe with the ideas and gestures presented by Gary Carsley (convener), Scott Redford, Alex Martinis Roe, Sue Dodd and Phillip Brophy. Maybe the topic of the forum was too

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1162890707033660912006-11-07T20:11:00.000+11:002006-11-07T20:11:48.643+11:00

Dear Robert,I am responding today because BAD GAY ART was/is on my mind. This post/open letter is more tribute to the show rather than a response to your generous comment in late January. Of course this is threaded through my personal recollections of that show - presented by the Sydney’s Mardi Gras in 1997. You probably also have to imagine that this email has been sent by ship (a slow ship with

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1162686998304080042006-11-05T11:34:00.000+11:002006-11-07T22:50:40.100+11:00

Should I post six months after my last post and not mention my hiatus? Maybe nobody is reading… Regardless – I made a commitment to tie those loose ends and adequately document the last few activities. After all isn’t - prompt completion - adhering to timelines and creating a manageable project within the boundary given privileging something archly conservative…blah blah blah or something. Did

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1145801199221679422006-04-23T23:38:00.000+10:002006-07-06T22:41:37.590+10:00

Well it's April. I am procrastinating about having a vague plan for the talk I'm giving about this blog (tomorrow) - by actually blogging. Something had to get me out of this lazy stupor of a mood I'm currently in. This was actually my deadline for resolving a few components of the project. Let's just say I'm not going to make that deadline. So in the tradition of apologies translating into

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1142377437841152762006-03-15T09:59:00.000+11:002006-03-16T08:13:09.916+11:00

Ok it’s been a while and there has been enough excuses both online and in person. There will be no ‘Dear diary’ catch-up and hopefully I won’t step on any toes. March is about positivity and…well um posturing. So here it goes. WITHOUT has tumbled into its second mini-manifestation in "Five Minutes to Midnight" – a show hosted by Victoria Park Gallery and curated by the ever generous Meredith

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1138884581446871182006-02-02T23:47:00.000+11:002006-02-07T18:01:12.326+11:00

What was with the last post? Enough sentimentality. I want to plough through the administrative phase of the project and my life. I'm moving house, being hassled by centrelink... Which is all distracting me from responding to comments made via blogger and through my email. All in good time I suppose. (Robert- I will respond once I post this text.) Right now I'm collating the queer reader's

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1138503953547161682006-01-29T14:03:00.001+11:002006-01-30T13:09:01.756+11:00

I am not finished with WITHOUT. While I am due to bump out tomorrow from Gertrude CAS, the cataloguing and framing of this project via the blog will continue. My priority is to complete the posters for the activists and present a series of flashbacks of the events that were scheduled during my time in the space. I feel like a librarian’s assistant – with a trolley of text I kinda don’t want to

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1138282126784360132006-01-27T00:20:00.000+11:002006-01-27T22:26:07.396+11:00

The hand job project – a how to guide for introducing explicit sexuality. (a series of contexts and inverted commas)a. You don’t want to be known (they mean marginalised) as a gay artist. You can be an artist who is gay and that’s no problem but don’t go representing your subjectivity or community – unless of course it’s cloaked or sublimated into a form that adheres to the formal and process

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1138105558238677422006-01-24T21:35:00.000+11:002006-01-31T01:44:38.170+11:00

Today WITHOUT actually felt like a lived project for the first time. It’s not like I’m asking people to pose for ‘process’ photographs (well apart from this gorgeous shot of Solate and Marcus in their helmets) or asking them to do anything they’re not comfortable doing – it’s just that I wasn’t being the usual anxious host and that the reading group’s familiarity with the space, activity and

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1138060426927980202006-01-24T10:16:00.000+11:002006-01-24T21:29:33.176+11:00

I'm finishing the reading I need to do for this afternoon's reading group (will post bibliography soon - I promise). So here are things I need to mention about about Day 5:- Afternoon meeting with Shannon (They Shoot Homos), Georgia and Shona who helped me prepare for the night's proceedings.- 12 volunteers RSVPing sometimes means 3 lovely volunteers turn up (Gemma Demarco, Ines Bowden and Emily

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137935401111107382006-01-23T00:09:00.000+11:002006-01-23T10:07:57.756+11:00

When I got a call from Felicity on Thursday regarding some of the participants not being able to rock up on the Friday for the Rainbow Network sculpture session I thought I would need to invite another group to utilize the blocks designed by YAK and EGG respectively. But the good thing about catastrophising everything is the other side of the drama. When four YAKers and one EGG rocked up I

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137815352395483762006-01-21T14:31:00.000+11:002006-01-22T13:00:34.983+11:00

"A model of our playground with Ben Pokidin, Cliff Fowler, Bunjey Spillard, Tristan Harrison and James Dunn." Assisted by Elise Willersdorf, Mark Camilleri and Felicity Martin.

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137676616192101282006-01-19T23:53:00.000+11:002006-01-22T13:45:54.136+11:00

Some of my closest friends are two dimensional. The other night while I was downloading some shots I had a read of Helen’s blog. I’m still on my blog-training wheels and I suppose I should have been ready for the moment when someone would read and misunderstand me. But it was a strange disappointing shock. I’m not blaming Helen at all for this – my writing is often unclear, flippant and clumsy.

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137624140420508932006-01-19T09:25:00.000+11:002006-01-21T16:43:16.746+11:00

After last night’s curtain fiasco I just felt like going all-foetal once I got home. I was tired but after re-establishing my diet cola addiction also a bit twitchy. I was planning on doing some reading while baking my cookies for the reading group but gave up and planned to wake early. (It felt like I was a 2nd year student again.) I had acquired my recipe (peanut butter with milk chocolate and

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137506555389482672006-01-18T00:31:00.000+11:002006-01-21T15:47:51.756+11:00

I've decided (in the tradition of making a decisions on the run) that I'll need a 24hr turn around to really reflect and then post. But just this once – here it is live. The launch went well - I think. The audience response and the performative action of Jeff and myself dismantling the cube (which I haven't subtitled) and pulling down the blinds all gelled to a good consistency. Except for those

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137420694178999742006-01-17T01:09:00.000+11:002006-01-17T10:31:33.216+11:00

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137403657209047782006-01-16T20:26:00.000+11:002006-01-16T21:15:41.890+11:00

As I haven't filled my two week program in the space I thought I could open the space to appointments for visitors wanting to participate in some of the ongoing activities planned for the inside. This might include discussing the poster project, finish constructing the paper blocks for the Rainbow network kids, having a read or a scan of the reader and beginning or finishing some of the tasks

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1137066220524289992006-01-12T22:43:00.000+11:002006-01-14T22:56:52.703+11:00

Yeah(y), Felicity gave me a call today as I was (some would say) frantically trying to install my blinds in the space. I thought none of my activists would reply to my request for feedback because – well just because…(Four days before a project is launched an inferiority complex often emerges). Even though this is my third project that sits between a curatorial, collaborative and solo practice –

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136986406200205862006-01-12T00:29:00.000+11:002006-01-12T00:33:26.200+11:00

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136985971628732032006-01-12T00:22:00.000+11:002006-01-16T22:18:10.606+11:00

The painting I made of my friend Michael being fisted by sailor – torrents of textual abuse followed the contoured forms of the figure - was confiscated by my high-school art teacher. She was disappointed and all she could suggest was that I rethink my strategy of airing my dirty laundry to the world. It was all bit expressive in those days and it wouldn’t be for another year until my really

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136856849434930332006-01-10T12:34:00.000+11:002006-01-10T12:51:13.366+11:00

Hi Kate,Just getting back to you with some preliminary ideas for the poster. I have come up with 4 ideas for the general conceptual framework. These are by no means fixed or rendered in any finished manner and are just starting off points. I had a bit of difficulty with your concept as I couldn't come up with an idea that dealt with the different facets of the issues you raised. So what I've

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136849915774588662006-01-10T10:09:00.000+11:002006-01-15T23:25:11.523+11:00

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136532279760375512006-01-06T18:19:00.000+11:002006-03-11T15:50:02.420+11:00

So I am coordinating this ‘queer’ reading group and my memory is struck by a few shows I attended and missed at the old ACCA. Well to be honest I wanted to create a balance between the Bad Gay Art catalogue and something from those heady 90s with some female representation. The first ACCA show I saw was with Christopher Langton, Maria Kozic and Kathy Temin – something about Bad Toys if I remember

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136435821081491362006-01-05T15:36:00.000+11:002006-01-06T16:21:08.746+11:00

Hi Felicity, Just getting back to you with some preliminary ideas for the poster. I have come up with 4 ideas for the general conceptual framework of the poster – these are by no means fixed or rendered in any finished manner and are just a starting off points. In consideration of the site for the poster (Family First territory or around the Family Association) I think that a poster that leads

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136435521658400452006-01-05T15:31:00.000+11:002006-01-05T15:37:29.683+11:00

Hi Mark, Just getting back to you with some preliminary ideas for the poster. I have come up with 4 ideas for the general conceptual framework. These are by no means fixed or rendered in any finished manner and are just starting off points. Yours is the poster I started off with and was confronted by the need to represent something very literally, when I am accustomed to being quite abstract and

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136200290703297652006-01-02T22:01:00.000+11:002006-01-11T00:28:06.163+11:00

I am so not into the pink enamel door at Gertrude Street. It was painted pink towards the end of the Gertrude Street studio artist show after being a pretty non-descript light sky blue. I get that it matches the vinyl lettering on the window and the colour identity of the organization as illustrated on the web but….no. Apparently this last blue is the same blue that the internal stairwell was

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1136192267192948652006-01-02T19:57:00.000+11:002006-01-03T19:47:40.916+11:00

Now I had this conversation probably a few weeks ago but posting it has consistently slipped by me – but with a New Year enthusiasm I am ripping through my to-do list. So. I met with Felicity Martin (for another poster commission) after my afternoon with the youth group that is participating in the construction of the paper block sculpture. Felicity has been really generous with her time –

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1135825418234083242005-12-29T13:58:00.001+11:002006-01-05T17:25:33.460+11:00

I love a well-dressed window and have always been intrigued by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauchenberg and Andy Warhol's display at the New York department store - Bonwit Teller in the late 1950's and in 1961 for Warhol. I just discovered that Mike Bidlo redid Warhol's window in 2000. Bidlo is the artist that continuously painted Duchamp's ‘Fountain’ on and in anything he could get his hands on. Of

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1135639357665057982005-12-27T10:22:00.000+11:002006-01-17T10:00:58.073+11:00

Like a y2k survivalist who hoards tinned beans – I have been collecting queer theory texts that I thought would come in handy some day since I started art school (in 1997). I say collected as opposed to read as I don’t call scanning for pics, reading the intro and a few key paragraphs as studied in a traditional sense. I studied in a transitional period: where the exploration of identity politics

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1135170744794643792005-12-22T00:10:00.000+11:002006-01-02T17:13:02.186+11:00

(25 years of legal buggering) Yeah I know, where is my promised relentless outpouring of postings? I’m finalising the construction component of the project and installing tomorrow. Busy. While I’m working on some entries I have neglected the blog and abandoned the live bit of the journal. Anyway – I have been sanding, shopping, leaving too many mumbling messages on collaborators' phones, having

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1134437324185827652005-12-13T12:15:00.000+11:002006-01-03T19:53:33.810+11:00

I first met Kate Davison while working as a teenager at Target – I was quite anti-social during my part-time student jobs so my short chats with Kate as I walked towards the lay-by department from ‘sound’ was me at my most conversational. Over the years I have given her a wave from across the street and more recently she was one half of the fab duo who organised the homo-histories conference –

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1134000197525996162005-12-08T11:03:00.000+11:002006-01-03T19:56:11.913+11:00

Met up with Mark Pendleton yesterday for my first activist / poster designer meeting. Mark works at RMIT as a research officer for the student union, is part of the editorial committee of BITE magazine and has held queer officer positions for NUS. Mark was concerned that he wasn’t currently involved in queer activism on an organisational basis (-has in the past) – so at the moment his support

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1133692656542953522005-12-04T21:31:00.000+11:002006-01-14T15:54:34.300+11:00

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1133674775343514612005-12-04T16:38:00.000+11:002005-12-06T22:26:25.120+11:00

I’m so not good at on-the-spot reporting and I have been concentrating on completing the pedestal for WITHOUT – oh yeah there’s now a title. I had another meeting with Jeff last week and I commented that I had been playing with words like out, outlet and outside – I also liked the simplicity of the title for my last project WITH. So Jeff suggested without - I got excited about the suggestion –

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1133388712739802662005-12-01T09:09:00.000+11:002006-01-15T14:27:59.856+11:00

Jeff Khan (curator of project) has aknowledged me as a co-author of the text below (planned for the catalogue) but I really only editted it in a minor way. WITHOUTA large black cube, standing blankly as Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces’ front window-display, confronts viewers of WITHOUT. Its minimal form, and the limited perspective offered by the street-front viewing space, seems designed to

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1132928519243839922005-11-26T01:18:00.000+11:002005-11-26T01:28:29.656+11:00

Had a meeting with the rainbow network today. The rainbow network is a group of organizations that runs all these queer youth programs across Victoria. When I was in 14 and 16 the Victorian AIDS Council and Gay Men’s Health Centre tried to set up an under 18 group – to no avail. Now there are groups in Epping, Geelong, Dandenong and Shepperton. So for starters I’m humbled by these guys – within

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1132752459638914982005-11-24T00:20:00.000+11:002005-11-26T15:05:20.750+11:00

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1132657195392624652005-11-22T21:58:00.000+11:002005-11-24T00:39:03.913+11:00

Ok – It’s so easy to slip into bad smart-ass one liners. This particular image could be ‘death on wheels’. Yeah its that bad. For those who don’t have time to grasp the conceptual thread of this project - Death refers to Tony Smith’s Die. Die is a black steel sculpture that is 183 cm cubed. (I was thinking a hardened double bed rising – typical daddy work and not his best by far.) When asked why

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1132656185956078232005-11-22T21:41:00.000+11:002005-11-22T21:43:05.970+11:00

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1132528457143273252005-11-21T10:06:00.000+11:002005-11-22T10:25:48.353+11:00

I have been spending a lot more time with my dad over the last couple weeks. Since loosing our studios to the new owners of Builders' Arms - I have been making my work in Moorabbin (my family's home). My dad has heaps of equipment and also lends a hand now and then. He's actually a perfect assistant - doesn't ask too many questions and senses when a problem needs to be solved. I think he's into

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1131800060507235722005-11-12T23:53:00.000+11:002005-11-13T00:21:35.630+11:00

Tony Smith, Die (1962)Steel, 6 x 6 x 6ft

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1131844321542771832005-11-09T12:10:00.000+11:002005-11-22T10:33:12.956+11:00

Ahhh – OSW (Terri Bird, Bianca Hester, Natasha Johns Messenger and Scott Mitchell) won the Melbourne prize for urban sculpture. It’s so exciting and so bloody deserved. It was so unexpected because while great projects like ones completed by OSW are acknowledged they don’t usually win $60,000 worth of prizes. Besides when I saw Terri sitting in the back row during the prize ceremony – I thought

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1132496505932440532005-11-06T22:45:00.000+11:002006-01-20T09:08:39.806+11:00

During the conference’s lunch break I went to Readings to have a look at a copy of They Shoot Homos don't they?. The magazine was launched while I was overseas and I was keen to see how some of my ideas manifested in the final version. I am involved on a minimal level - recommending the kind of art that I think will entertain, titillate and inform the predominantly queer male audience. The

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1131803040193707892005-11-05T21:42:00.000+11:002005-11-21T15:19:02.426+11:00

Rodney Croome started the conference off with a considered reflection on the historical lessons for GLBTIQ organising today. (While I’ll use GLBTIQ if it’s used in an author’s text – I’m currently considering queer as an umbrella term). Croome (a man with some mainstream gay activism under his belt) felt that the issue of gay marriage was the next challenge for the community. What happened next

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18887982.post-1131766953064720112005-11-04T09:30:00.000+11:002006-01-16T17:33:28.953+11:00

I was asked by Jeff Khan to design a project for the front window space of 200 Gertrude Street as part of the Midsumma festival in January 2006. The gallery is closed during this period and the project would only be visible from the vantage point of the street. This blog is both a publication of the process of making a project for this particular context and an antidote to a type of restraint

Spiros Panigirakishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06832712774464977589noreply@blogger.com0