ONE NIGHT ONLY

What’s Cooking?

Jason Cook will take to the stage of the Astor Theatre on Friday, May 21, at 7.30pm as part of the Wild West Comedy Festival. Bookings can be made through BOCS.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

Theatre With A Twist

The Shape Of Things runs at PICA from Saturday, May 15, ’til Sunday, May 30. Bookings can be made through BOCS.

FOTOFREO FRINGE

WA’s biggest photography festival, FotoFreo, returns to walls of art galleries, bars and restaurants this week, showcasing the work of a truly comprehensive array of photographers. Established in 2002, FotoFreo has grown exponentially since its inception, now offering hundreds of exhibitions and fringe events to appease even the fussiest photo fan.
X-Press has taken the hard work out of choosing which shows to go to with this handy guide to some of the exhibitions that make up the festival’s Fringe component. For more information on what’s happening and where, check out fotofreo.com

Superbia

The lawn-bowl loving members of the North Freo Bowls Club have invited the FotoFreo Fringe festival to take over their club premises in coming weeks, with photo media artist Bo Wong set to adorn the Club’s walls with stunning photographs that make up her Superbia exhibition.
Down the line from Northam where she’s teaching indigenous families about photography, Wong shares her excitement about the impending exhibition.

“I chose the North Freo Bowls Club initially because it hasn’t been used as an exhibition space before and because it has such a fantastic vibe. We’ll be playing barefoot bowls on the day of the opening and you can bring your own food and cook it on the barbeque, the beer is cheap, it has such a nice vibe, I love it there! “The members are really really pleased – they want the North Freo Bowls Club to be more of a community hub. They want to have art shows and music there – it’s a fantastic spot which is why I chose it for my exhibition.”
When asked what inspired Superbia, Wong reveals that it was a combination of family, place and architecture. “I have a background in architectural photography and this show is partially images of buildings. I have quite a few generations of family who have lived in the South Fremantle area where I now live. I photographed some of the houses that my great grandparents and grandparents lived in. I also photographed other buildings around Fremantle; ones that I think are quite beautiful in a non conventional sense but extremely beautiful to me. I’m playing with the idea of things that are in your memory and in your past. I’m also entangling it with photos of other buildings that are unrelated but the viewer doesn’t necessarily have a sense of where the truth of my history, my family or my memory could be.
“The idea behind it is that our memory is fluid but buildings are something that are static. Photography has its roots in truth and truth-making and this is a photography exhibition that questions that. It says you can make new memories and you can choose what kind of photos you take. You can make your own memories.” Wong’s excitement about the FotoFreo Fringe festival is palpable; it’s clear that she, and the photography community in general, are extremely excited about all the exhibitions set to take place in Fremantle and beyond.

Faceless

Photographer Mihaila Lukis is fascinated by photos where faces are obscured, which she explores in Faceless at Mojo’s. Blending, blurring and hiding heads, Lukis’ exhibition ponders whether it’s possible to gain meaning without seeing a whole face.
Ride Nature’s Ripple
Phil Tucak invites photo fans to embark on a journey through nature with Ride Nature’s Ripple, at Mrs Brown Bar. Featuring images of nature at its best, the exhibition celebrates natural beauty, depicting environmental extremes blended together.

Space To Space

Acclaimed photographers Izabela Pluta, David Jo Bradley, Shane Hulbert, Juha Tolonen, Nic Duncan, Christine Ko and Christine Tomás will adorn the walls of Harvest Restaurant for FotoFreo Fringe, exploring themes of change, adapatation, identity and place.

Sons Of Ganga

In 2008, photographer Seng Mah packed her bags and went in search of adventure in India, roaming the country with camera in hand, capturing the nation’s culture one shot at a time. The result is Sons Of Ganga, an exhibition that focuses primarily on Varanasi, a holy city with an even holier river, where men and women swim for spiritual enlightenment. Sons Of Ganga is on display at Behind The Monkey.

Perth From Space

Brothers Jackson and Gene Eaton team up for Perth From Space, an exhibition that explores the urban landscape and the art of portraiture, at Free Range Gallery. Upon returning home from a stint of overseas travel, the Eaton brothers found themselves with a new perspective on life in Perth, the world’s most isolated capital city.

Le Campement

Intrepid photographer Darren Smith found himself intrigued by the concept of bohemianism while travelling through Europe recently, resulting in an exhibition of photographs that explore this lifestyle and those who choose to live it. Taking place outdoors at 91 High Street in Fremantle’s West End, Le Campement observes gypsies who have dumped their caravans for mobile phones and permanent residences, telling private and public stories through beautiful photographs.

CENSORING

COMMUNICATION

Internet Filtering Gone Mad

You’ll have to forgive certain brusqueness to this article, but I have 5000 characters to discuss a matter that could easily take up 5000 words. To begin with, let us outline some of the key arguments that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is making in support of his Internet Filtering legislation, a legislation that will implement a non-optional moratorium on websites deemed to be “unfit” for the decent public.

Conroy claims that: the filter will only affect websites of a paedophilic or sexually violent nature, and websites carrying “detailed information on carrying out illegal activity”. This could be done with an extremely high degree of accuracy (screening out most objectionable material without screening out most unobjectionable material) and without affecting internet speeds. The list of websites to be blocked would be generated by groups representing the population of Australia, independent of the government. In this way what is deemed ‘objectionable’ would be a decision made by fellow Australians, not by the government. The government is not trying to exert censorious control over Australia, and is merely trying to protect the Australian people.

There are numerous arguments flying around the internet regarding any and all of these, mostly concerning the efficacy of these products, and contesting any of these points, but, for argument’s sake, let us take all these as given. We’ll give all this ground to Stephen Conroy, even if that latter point does smack of the “protection” of a police state, and has been used to give credence to the recent erosions of our Freedoms of Association, and the recent introduction of stop and search laws.

The crux of the matter is that given all this, Internet Filtering would still constitute a serious erosion of our freedom of speech, and is worth fighting, despite the fact that Australia has no constitutional guarantee to freedom of speech, and that one’s personal internet usage might not be affected. The bill has yet to get through Parliament, so there is no better time to be voicing dissent against the matter to the people elected to represent you.

The great humanitarian revolutions of 1779 and 1789 were marked by a call for “universal suffrage”. In essence, the ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity belong not to a place and era, but to all, for all. Legal constitution or no, freedom of speech is a universal right, and should be treated as such and fought for on all levels. True, in this situation its subversion is trivial compared to the gross indecencies made against it in totalitarianisms around the world, but that such a basic freedom could be eroded at all in a supposedly enlightened country like Australia is worrying indeed.

The corollary of freedom of speech is one’s freedom to listen. And to not listen. Any attempt to induce the silence of another imprisons oneself from hearing dissenting ideas. In the context of those “illegal activities,” the former point is key. Exposure to information deemed illegal is important, because the government can make anything illegal, and accepting the censorship of some ideas means that we will accept the theoretical censorship of any idea.

The latter point applies to pornography of all stripes. Where is the line between fetish porn and ‘violent’ porn, or indeed any porn and ‘fetish’ porn? Like all entertainments, the lines are blurred and the landscape grey. The one person fit to see such a difference is you, and don’t let anyone tell you different. If it doesn’t turn you on, turn it off, but the government has no business between our legs, and should be chastised every time it tries to pry. Suffice to say that to the people who are interested in paedophilia will be able to access it anyway, in the same way that felons and terrorists get their hands on illegal guns and explosives.

Who then, I ask, has the right to decide what I should and shouldn’t see? Keep in mind the censor sees all. The censor is privy to all materials they could then deem objectionable. The ludicrous nature of government censorship comes into full view when it is suggested that ‘representatives’ of Australians would determine objectionable content. Take a walk down the street. Which of these people would you say were good enough to make a decision regarding what you should see? Which one of those people would you give that power to?

Alan Isaacman, lawyer to pornography magnate Larry Flynt, warned a jury over three decades ago that it indicated to the government that it could build a wall to hide the things the jury did not want to see. One day, they would wake up to find that walls had been built everywhere, and there would be nothing they could see. I only lament that such sentiments are still pertinent now. Yet the motion has not carried, and things are not yet dire. Soon, however, the bill will be in parliament. Now, more than ever, is the time for letters, for conversations and phone calls between the people and their elected representatives. Let those who would stand for us know what we stand against.

For more information, head to
nocleanfeed.com.

_JOE LUI