tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212770692024-03-19T06:29:32.916+11:00Happy AntipodeanWide-ranging. Thoughtful. Imaginative.Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.comBlogger3856125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-14566083111542755642024-01-23T01:52:00.002+11:002024-01-23T11:07:32.586+11:00Final post for blogGoogle has failed to index a lot of pages on this and other sites so I am throwing in the towel. I mean, Google even owns Blogger, which is where the blog you're currently visiting is located. If the parent company cannot see content made by a subsidiary there is something seriously wrong with either the parent or the health of the child. I blame the parent. I certainly won't blame myself, I justMatthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-6274505356174260162024-01-21T09:43:00.009+11:002024-01-21T09:47:20.728+11:00KDP - Kindle Direct Publishing for 'Gold 4WD' poetry bookBecause I had a show coming in up Mar ’24 at Gallery 59 in Goulburn I took the next STEP and submitted a book of POEMS to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) on 20 Jan. I’d gone through the poetry files over the previous couple of days, sorting and cataloguing them and finally putting each collection into a single MS-Word file for easier access. Once I got the hang of KDP I formatted the Word and PDF Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-62068101103109434732024-01-19T06:51:00.007+11:002024-01-19T07:00:54.409+11:00New site for poetry'Anti Pode' is the dark cousin of HA, anti-pode.blogspot.com the yang to HA's yin, the bread to the cheese, the cream to HA's strawberries. I never thought of usig this URL back in 2006 when I reserved it. Well think about THAT, it's been 18 years since I made the decision - not having been able to reserve antipodean.blogspot.com - to get this one. I wonder how this project is going to go.&Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-78110963537260437842024-01-18T09:47:00.001+11:002024-01-18T09:47:14.422+11:00New blog for Goulburn showTrying new things has always been a way of choice, so now I’ve set up a new blog for a show to take place in Goulburn from 8-22 March. ‘Gold 4WD’ is, as you’ll learn from a post I am putting there tomorrow, the title of the show because of a short visit to the town two weeks ago.Now I’ve done my share of road trips, in fact I bought my Aurion in 2007 because I wanted to drive around the Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-79587817153466960062024-01-15T02:48:00.001+11:002024-01-15T02:48:51.866+11:00TV review: Marseille, s 1 & 2, Netflix (2016-18)Oh boy am I glad the French hated this wonderful show, it crackles with insight and relevance and their detesting it gives me more opportunity to say “Screw you” (see end of post). I was a bit troubled by Julia Taro’s (Stephane Caillard) mental illness but in hindsight I could see how this slightly excessive dramatic ruse was important to underscoring the horror of criminal violence. Rarely has Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-45070470572893228882024-01-13T00:33:00.004+11:002024-01-13T00:33:46.484+11:00Starting the new year with a bang!Ok so I’ve overcommitted myself. It’s natural, you’d say. Don’t worry about it. But I feel like I’ve let someone down if I promise to pay for something then pull out a month later. In the past month I’ve been very busy and here I am, looking down the barrel at insolvency or, worse, making my name objectionable in London art circles. The outfit I’m talking about sticks up posters in the Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-91838327279527958992024-01-03T22:12:00.004+11:002024-01-03T22:12:56.336+11:00Combines proliferatingNot content with staying up til dawn in the lead-up to Xmas I continued the trend and made dozens of works with similar qualities. I call these combines, one of the Pop artists used this word I can't remember which it was so long ago. I was a big fan of Pop art back in the day, but nowadays find inspiration in colours mostly. I still use culture references though.'Proof II', 2024.Having started Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-87341594555463054692024-01-01T19:08:00.001+11:002024-01-01T19:08:39.628+11:00New works to start the yearLast night I was busy busy busy making combines, starting with one about NY Eve.'Observatory Hill 31 Dec 2007', 2024.Other things followed overnight, as I combined photos of country roads, city streets, and fireworks, TV dramas. All of the things that I love. Dad told me once that Joao Luis' family got preference in Portugal by pyrotechnics, I wonder if it's true. Maybe in 2024 I'll talk more Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-38989874185366763562023-12-31T19:03:00.002+11:002023-12-31T20:27:08.917+11:00New works to round out the yearI wanted to put up a few images to show what I've been up to. As many of you know the end of year period is hard for me, and like many people I find myself at a loose end. Perhaps if I'd made better life choices when I was younger things might've worked out differently. Or perhaps there were other factors, factors outside my control. I sometimes question myself. In any case i like to keep Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-72435827487806020612023-12-29T01:22:00.007+11:002023-12-29T01:22:47.999+11:00End of year memorial: DecemberAt the beginning of Dec I ran a stall at Hopsters Xmas Market which was useful as it taught me what works and what doesn’t in terms of display. I also applied to a couple of other markets and also to some galleries. Getting to Hopsters in Enmore was a trial as my train line wasn’t running and after the bus to Redfern I had to catch another bus to get to Newtown. I arrived early before the Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-85103446337446718352023-12-28T01:12:00.007+11:002023-12-28T01:14:56.130+11:00End of year memorial: NovemberThe second half of October was so busy getting ready for my first solo show at Laerk Space that I failed to write much for this memorial at all. The following is the chronicle for November. At the beginning of Nov once the show was over I went on to make commemorative works and gave one to the gallerist. The other I got framed using a frame from a work in the show that didn’t sell and put it on Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-33245119340814764802023-12-27T00:50:00.005+11:002023-12-27T00:50:23.400+11:00End of year memorial: OctoberI went to Pixel Perfect on 3 Oct to pick up prints of photos I’d asked for. The photos that I wanted to put into albums dated back as far as 2007. Once I started doing the work on my dining table having sorted out which packets of prints went together it was a thrill. I felt as if I was seeing the images for the first time, they sprang to life and I got the feeling that I was walking down the Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-24105584031292923402023-12-26T00:07:00.006+11:002023-12-26T00:07:42.157+11:00End of year memorial: SeptemberTo make ‘The Enormous Family Album’ (TEFA) I brought down a small desk from the back bedroom on the first floor. I needed the desk to accommodate my computer, on which I had the titled files that had been used to make many TEFA prints. I’d plug my ancient laptop computer into the power and scan through file names looking for the right one, then write up a label on paper and paste it into TEFA Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-56696522419292029392023-12-25T00:22:00.007+11:002023-12-25T00:22:31.710+11:00End of year memorial: AugustOn 1 Aug I bought an Elanor chair from Plush because Ming said I needed an armchair in the living room downstairs, and Simon from the art group worked in a furniture store. Simon helpfully made up a quote and emailed it to the Esag account so I paid a deposit. Much cheaper than the place I’d been used to getting furniture from and from whom I’d bought my couch, plus with only a deposit needed on Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-7255406824020775792023-12-24T00:19:00.010+11:002023-12-24T00:19:42.668+11:00End of year memorial: JulyOn 4 July I started using the new TweetDeck again because the classic version was ballsed-up and on 8 July I worked out the secret of Nabokov’s ‘Ada’ having read widely and having, in recently weeks, spent time with ‘The Blacklist’ a crime drama starring James Spader. The next day Basia went to the Blue Mountains and I dropped her off at Central Station. A few days later she went to Newcastle to Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-86154673335727901922023-12-23T00:46:00.008+11:002023-12-23T00:46:55.985+11:00End of year memorial: JuneI went with Simon on 2 June to the Art Centre of Sydney to talk about the show and the following Monday the gallerist cancelled it, it’s still not clear why but it probably came down to an assessment of financial return. I was looking after Ming and Omer for much of the following week but did go to the framers to cancel the second lot of pictures for the show and got a partial refund (see photo Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-6429936687707267802023-12-22T00:20:00.009+11:002023-12-22T00:20:47.261+11:00End of year memorial: MayOn 1 May Simon told me he’d entered a piece for the Waverley Art Prize, he’d just been unsuccessful getting hung with the Sulman finalists. I took items to the framers in Alexandria on 10 May, I’d just done another series for the show and we needed some things to photograph to send to the gallery for promotional purposes. The framer said they’d have them done by 31 May.Ming and Omer came over on Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-40310596975733439772023-12-21T02:49:00.005+11:002023-12-21T02:49:20.849+11:00End of year memorial: AprilOn 1 and 2 Apr I was still making abstract paintings (see below) the watercolour drying while I read a book or watched TV I realised on 3 Apr that all this working was leading to a new kind of anxiety related to the sense of loss I felt at all the abandoned years, I was neglecting myself not brushing my teeth not showering every night the sense of shame due to the loss – was it my fault was I tooMatthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-70286585377874412362023-12-20T00:13:00.012+11:002023-12-20T00:13:57.911+11:00End of year memorial: MarchOn 2 and 3 Mar I got the zodiac sign’s text file ready with the colours appropriate for each one, Adelaide told me what they are and I asked her innocently who decided such things. It seemed strange to associate colours with individual star signs but I guess that nothing is beyond the realm of possibility when it comes to the horoscope.Or life. On 2 Mar I went to the National Art School to see Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-22261021317052184942023-12-19T01:00:00.009+11:002023-12-19T01:00:59.869+11:00End of year memorial: FebruaryAfter in the afternoon getting a haircut on Botany Road I went out with Esag at about 5pm it was 2 Feb with Simon I was heading in the bus and on the train to Rushcutters Bay where we met with Sophie and Anthony, it was a lovely night Sophie got talking with Gavin and Daniel two men who worked up the road and Daniel ended up buying ‘Apparel VI’ (see below) I took the watercolours out of my Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-52886792862068662462023-12-18T00:51:00.003+11:002023-12-18T00:51:29.365+11:00End of year memorial: JanuaryThe end of 2022 was a major trial so for the beginning of January I made a resolution: to treat every day like Christmas Day, my rationale for conducting myself in this way grounded in the idea that, somehow, by anticipating every day the sense of anxiety that end-of-year 2022 inspired I might circumvent or otherwise side-step a malaise so pervasive it made me miserable for 10 days leading up to Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-83733773292447740452023-12-17T18:08:00.001+11:002023-12-17T18:08:25.046+11:00End of year memorial: PreludeThis year the memorial is not totally coherent mainly because I was more diligent in some months compared to others, November for example being completely empty because I was exhibiting and painting at that time. In the early months of the year I am writing a lot in a sort of stream-of-consciousness, this style chosen in order to achieve narrative effects suited to my mood, which was positive dueMatthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-22153579161038329012023-12-14T16:01:00.005+11:002023-12-14T16:01:31.727+11:00TV review: Blood Coast, Netflix (2023)Another French police procedural, but this one’s more
violent than ‘Black Spot’. It also lacks the supernatural element, and it’s
from the south of the country, not the east. The makers of ‘Blood Coast’ have
found a way to twist the standard plotline because Lyes Benamar (Tewfik Jallab)
is helping a local drug lord (Samir Boitard) to run his cartel.
Alica Vidal (Jeanne Goursaud) comes in from Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-44162923663755428302023-12-09T00:34:00.005+11:002023-12-09T00:34:50.212+11:00TV review: Black Spot, Netflix (2017-19)I really loved this strange police procedural based in eastern France, it’s sort of like the German show ‘Dark’ in that it involves s forest and a mystery. The acting, casting, and direction are excellent and make for a bingeable product. I stayed up all night to finish this.The show plays with ideas of Frenchness especially in the emphasis of pagan gods, the resistance of the Roman invasion, andMatthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21277069.post-6497928636350831672023-12-04T13:22:00.004+11:002023-12-04T13:22:26.432+11:00TV review: Designated Survivor, Netflix (2016-19)This show was so much fun, perfect for a news junkie like me
because every second shot has people in the White House looking at newscasts on
the TV. The number of TVs in the fictional White House is extraordinary, people
seem to stop in the hallway all around the place catching the latest on one
screen or another. Sometimes you get the extremely weird occurrence of you
looking at the TV watching Matthew da Silvahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158988637117138260noreply@blogger.com0