March 2020

“Visual images do not merely replace words but do things that words cannot do.” – Ivan Durrant 

Ivan Durrant, a leading exponent of photorealism, and natural raconteur, will be celebrated in a major survey paying tribute to five decades of his extraordinarily diverse career since the 1970s, at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 1 May 2020. 

Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw is the most comprehensive survey of Durrant’s work to date. Featuring over 100 multi-disciplinary works from the Melbourne-born artist, the exhibition will also unveil a new larger-than-life sculpture inspired by his controversial back catalogue. Drawn extensively from Durrant’s personal collection, the exhibition also includes major works from public and private collections from across Australia. 

‘A prolific artist and provocateur, Ivan Durrant has created one of the most audacious bodies of work in Australian art,’ said Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV. ‘With his work first exhibited at the NGV in 1979, we’re delighted to welcome Ivan back to pay tribute to his extensive career and provide a platform to unveil an unmissable new work.’ 

The exhibition chronicles the evolution of Durrant’s diverse career, including his earliest folk paintings depicting an idyllic childhood in the countryside, which were a sharp contrast to his own experiences having grown up in an orphanage; his realist paintings, short films and sculptures of the 1970s and 80s, including his race track and movie star series; politically motivated installation works including Butcher Shop 1977/78, held in the NGV Collection; and more recent evocative ‘soft-focus’ paintings of the 1990s and 2000s. 

A large proportion of Durrant’s later works employ a technique the artist refers to as ‘supraphotorealism’ – an abstract-like technique which mimics an out-of-focus photograph through the use of vibrant colours, softened edges and select focus, extending beyond the traditional parameters of photorealism. 

Inspired by the deliberate intention to shock, Durrant first achieved public notoriety in 1975 when he deposited the carcass of a cow in the NGV forecourt. Soon after, media began referring to him as the ‘enfant terrible of Australian art’. Struck by the apparent double standard whereby people could buy, cook and eat meat but could not acknowledge where it came from, Durrant hoped to highlight the hypocrisy of killing an animal for human consumption. 

The artistic context for Durrant’s work in the 1970s related to the distinguishing shift in Australian art with a new generation of artists beginning to explore socio-political issues and experiment with artistic mediums and techniques. Durrant was inspired by the potency of performance art and its ability to make a statement and elicit emotional responses in an unconventional way. Durrant also harnessed the power of the media to promote his work on a broader scale outside the traditional confines of the gallery space. 

In ‘The Severed Hand Happening 1975’, Durrant generated the perfect media storm when he drew on his skills working in a prosthetics laboratory at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and exhibited what appeared to be a severed human hand. Coming under police investigation, he revealed the hand was actually an intricately detailed resin sculpture. 

Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw includes a mini-documentary featuring an exclusive interview with the artist. The film will be exhibited alongside newspaper archives contextualising the Australian media’s response to Durrant’s most notorious works and the artist’s enduring fascination with playing the role of the larrikin. 

The NGV will publish an exhibition catalogue featuring contributions by Australian playwright and actor Barry Dickins, writer and curator Rodney James, and NGV exhibition curator David Hurlston. 

Ivan Durrant: Barrier Draw will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 1 May to 25 October 2020. Free entry. Further information is available via the NGV website. 

Brace yourselves, Hideous Sun Demon are back with some of their most punishing and electrifying music to date. The Melbourne-based group, who made 2019 their own through the release of their EP Good Time and over the course of extensive bouts of touring, announce their newest Australian tour venture for April and May.

The brand is hitting the road, coming to some of the country’s best venues, brandishing their new single ‘Gimmicks’. Best believe, the song comes packing a serious punch. Arriving with the type of self-confidence that would make anybody envious, Hideous Sun Demon’s latest single is a furious snapshot of the trio operating at their crazy best.

Of their upcoming Australian tour, the band is chomping at the bit to reconnect with fans and introduce the public to their rejuvenated and hectic sounds. “We had grown pretty bored of our old sound. We had kinda gotten into this formulaic approach to songwriting that was defined by fuzzy guitars and doomy riffs. We were eager to adopt a wider breadth of influences, especially since Jake and Vin had bonded over their love of post-punk and new wave in their youth. We’ve started playing with cleaner guitars, writing songs that have a higher focus on tight playing rather than balls to the wall noise, as well as reimagining and broadening what our sound can be.” Hideous Sun Demon

Throughout last year, Hideous Sun Demon were honing their craft on stages throughout Europe, with the Good Time EP bringing them to the radars of many. Following on from 2018’s FAME, EROTIC, DREAM album (the band’s third), their 2019 material showcased a band that was further exploring their sonic identity. Heading into 2020, Hideous Sun Demon are flexing their songwriting and live muscles more than ever.

PRAISE FOR HIDEOUS SUN DEMON

“Hideous Sun Demon are both the odd kid on your street burning their toys with a magnifying glass and the warped, melting plastic figures themselves. Reckless abandon and gleeful horror all at once.”
Triple J Unearthed, Dave Ruby Howe

“A young band kicking genre’s expectations in the teeth.”
The AU Review

“Hideous Sun Demon have a solid sound that makes them stand out in the most beautiful way possible…they are easily one of the most exciting and interesting bands around.”
Beat In My Bones

Welcome this new chapter with the guys at a venue near you this Autumn – we dare ya.

HIDEOUS SUN DEMON AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

Friday, April 3rd The Curtin Melbourne
Tickets

Saturday, April 4th The Eastern Ballarat
Tickets

Saturday, April 18th Lord Gladstone Sydney

Sunday, April 19th North Gong Hotel Wollongong
Tickets

Thursday, April 23rd The Northern Byron Bay 

Friday, April 24th Vinnie’s Dive Gold Coast
Tickets

Saturday, April 25th Bearded Lady Brisbane
Tickets

Saturday, May 2nd Exeter Beer Garden Adelaide
Tickets

Saturday, May 8th Mojo’s Bar Fremantle
Tickets

Sunday, May 9th Lyric Lane Perth
Tickets

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New Orleans punk band Pears have an announced an Australian tour for May of 2020. Pears will be touring their brand new self-titled album Pears, to be released March 6 on Fat Wreck Chords. 

Head over to the Fat Wreck Chords YouTube page right now to listen to “Comfortably Dumb!” It’s a ferocious first taste of their ripping new full-length.

This is their third proper full-length and was recorded with Chris Fogal (The Gamits) at Black in Bluhm Studio in Denver. PEARS will take their latest effort on the road extensively in the coming year, with tours in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South America.
Full Australian tour details below.

Some of history’s best punk bands came and went before they had a chance to get comfortable (and boring), so it’s not surprising that PEARS frontman Zach Quinn had doubts when it came time to record the band’s third full-length. While PEARS have only existed since 2014, maybe a couple LPs and hundreds of explosive live shows were enough?

“I was perfectly prepared to have my Blue Album already,” Quinn says, laughing. “That whole fucking cliché of ‘Our best record’s behind us.’

With the imminent release of PEARS (March 6, Fat Wreck Chords), Quinn says, “Maybe not!” But there’s no maybe about it. PEARS is a significant step forward for a band that has grown by leaps and bounds on each album.

Recorded with Chris Fogal (The Gamits) at Black in Bluhm Studio in Denver, PEARS is 14 songs and 31 minutes of the band’s signature hardcore: heavy, melodic, blistering, pointed, and surprisingly catchy. While it continues down the path set by Green Starand 2015’s Go to Prison, PEARS finds the band taking a different creative approach.

“The last PEARS record, almost every detail was worked out before we ever stepped foot into the studio,” Quinn explains. “This record, we went in with skeletons of songs and put things together on the fly. ”

“We never could afford the studio time to be in there 24/7,” adds guitarist/vocalist Brian Pretus. “A couple of songs ended up being stuff that we wrote on the spot.”

Those include “Naptime,” which moves from loping pop to group-chant hardcore in the space of two minutes, and penultimate track “Traveling Time,” which Pretus describes as a “palate cleanser.” Basically, a midtempo pop song, “Traveling Time” began as a Quinn solo track but found its way onto PEARS thanks to the band’s more open studio approach.

“Collectively, we figured we’ve danced around pop music our entire career so far,” Quinn says, “but we were like, ‘Let’s just do a full-on fucking pop tune. Why not?”

“Full on” is a good descriptor for PEARS in general. The album opens with feedback at the beginning of the riff-heavy “Killing Me” and closes when the even riff-heavier “Cynical Serene” (whose opening plays like Nirvana by way of Hum). In between are 12 songs that shake with can’t-sit-still energy, as the band—rounded out by the ace rhythm section of bassist Erich Goodyear and drummer Jarret Nathan—shifts on a dime between parts and sounds. Elements of prog and grunge intermingle with classic hardcore and hook-laden rock—and it can happen in the space of one song. (In this case, “Worm.”)

Atop all of it are Quinn’s voice and words, which took a different approach as well on this album.
“I thought that I was going to continue the absurdist poetry thing that started with Go to Prison and amplified on Green Star,” he says. Describing Green Star as “The Iliad with shit and cum,” Quinn notes that this time, “The songs are about shit.”

Not shit in the “shit and cum” sense. Quinn writes directly about getting older (“Traveling Time”), moving past anger (“Nervous”), and the prospect of never having a family (“Daughter”), among other topics, all with the wit and candor PEARS fans have come to expect from the explosive frontman.

“It makes perfect sense that this is the third act, but it’s not what I would have predicted it to be,” Quinn says. “I wouldn’t have guessed that the album would end on a bittersweet note. It’s more uplifting than either record that we’ve done, but it’s not a happy record.”

PEARS – AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2020

May 28 – Singing Bird Studios, Frankston
Tickets
‪May 29 – Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets
‪‪May 30 – Hotel Metro, Adelaide
Tickets
‪‪May 31 – The Den, Perth
Tickets
‪June 1 – Margaret River Football Club, WA
Tickets at the door
‪June 3 – Transit Bar, Canberra
Tickets
‪‪June 4 – Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle – Free Entry
‪‪June 5 – Bearded Lady, Brisbane
Tickets
June 6 – Vinnie’s Dive, Gold Coast
Tickets
June 7- Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney – Free Entry

Tickets on sale now. 
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: 
pearstheband.com

SATURDAY MARCH 28TH 12PM-10PM
FULL LINEUP:
Theo Parrish, Sister Nancy, Mella Dee, Anastasia
Kristensen, C.FRIM, Cassettes For Kids, Lord Echo (LIVE),
JESSB, Mildlife, Mwanjé, Pink Matter, SK Simeon, Sophie
McAlister, Wax’o Paradiso

Get connected:
https://www.facebook.com/untitledgroupau/
Untitled Group are the group behind Beyond The Valley and Pitch Music & Arts Festival, the collective also represents boutique event brands Ability Fest, Grapevine Gathering and Melbourne electronic hub XE54.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/crownrulers/
Between acts like soul-jazz icon Roy Ayers, Detroit house godfather Theo Parrish, and Chicago dance luminary Larry Heard, the Crown Ruler name has become synonymous with soulful underground music.