Introducing: Artist Dame Dismember

Sydney artist Dame Dismember might make you a little uncomfortable, like a visit to the dentist can stir up nerves, cold sweats or blog addiction.

I first saw her paste-ups in Newtown a few months ago. They're photocopies of collages showing sliced and fragmented human faces re-imagined with playful enthusiasm for the grotesque.

These collages make me uncomfortable for two reasons. First, they show how fragile we are, how external appearances are so easily changed with a blade. The second is that, for all the disfigurement, these faces look good. Even alive.

I was curious about the artist behind the faces, so I got in contact with Dame Dismember. Below is her response, followed by some of her work. Photo credit for the top image goes to Awol Monk.

Dame Dismember: I've always loved assemblage / collage art. I found drawing & painting kinda boring. My mum told me that when I was a child I'd quickly get bored with colouring in.

I've had an obsession with images as early as I can remember. I can't really pinpoint how my style developed. I never set out to make dark disturbing images. 

They just came out that way. I'm sure you have a similar experience when it came to developing your style too.

I think Frances Bacon is my biggest influence. A collagist influenced by a painter. The intuitive representation of the human form / condition.

You might also like:

■ Street art magazine Get Up or Get Out

Fukt stencil in Sydney

Sydney stencil artist Fukt has been getting a little emo lately. He's known for stencils and paste-ups that contain gnawing social commentary. But lately he's stencilled angsty rants while waiting for Godot.

Worried about you Fukt. I found this piece in Newtown and it reminded me of Mobstr's web-famous Boooring series.

Maybe we should chat. You could tell me all the colours you'd make if giving them away wasn't illegal.

Sydney street art: Newtown

So where has Acid Midget been lately? I have no idea. But you're here, and so am I. A feeling of ambivalence has seeped inside me, like red wine stains teeth. What's the problem? I think you know...that's why you're here.

This is part of a large mural, by Hazzy Bee and Akisiew, on the streets of Newtown. On looking at it, I felt ambivalent again and a little lonely. Then realised I'm a man in a man's world and, with that idea fuelling me, I believed that other men would let me fix it.

In photography school they said "use the rule of thirds and your offspring will flourish" before realising rules made me sad. So, I've nicht idea what this mural is about - but I like it. Fifty Shades of Grey. Do you like random pondering? Do you like a person thinking freely without regard for fur form? Avoid the truth; it's all lies.

I've seen a few of these stencils around Newtown. They're a reminder to watch thy step. The streets are where crime/assaults/love happen, and I have a thing for you. Even though you don't know me, I _____ you.

Surf's up? No. Just a wheatpaste of a bro in short shorts and a sik tit tatt. Chitty chitty bang bang.

I stood on a crash barrier to shoot this. The artist, Syke, glued it to the side of a building. What's depicted on the board? The side of a building.

I promise to never tell you the truth.

You might also like: 

■ Newtown Street Art 1
■ Newtown Street Art 2
■ Newtown Street Art 3

Fukt Commbank subvertising, Newtown

While I was editing getUP or getOUT yesterday afternoon, Fukt sent me this juicy piece of subvertising he put up in Newtown, right next to the Martin Luther King mural.

The meaning of the very open-ended "Can't" Commonwealth Bank ad currently polluting Sydney bus shelters was given a kick in the ass here.

Oddly enough, Fukt now calls himself Jack Fennell on Facebook. Maybe he's losing it.

You might also like:

■ Global street art project
■ Fukt IKEA stencil
■ White collar puppets stencil
■ McDonald's fat stencil
■ Fukt: Best We Forget

Street art in Newtown, Sydney

OK so now Sydney Mardi Gras is over we can all get our lives back on track. Did you have a good time? I was chasing dragonflies.

I've previously published street art located along this stone wall facing Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. It's been raining a lot in Sydney and that gave these photos a soft blue hue.

This roller graffiti is (obviously) by Trap. In the background is the spire of St Stephen's Church.

Haven't seen these around, but possible that 'Anza' pasted it up. This was around the corner from the park.

My research shows that one in every one people who visits the park smokes weed there. They usually travel in groups.

This one looks like Scribbla.

You might like:

■ Newtown Street Art
■ Newtown Perspex Etching
■ Slug Graffiti
■ Newtown Street Art and Posters

Free Calls to the Premier

(King St, Newtown)

Street art installations are interesting - it's odd to see them being installed yet they aren't as 'offensive' as aerosol work.

Fit for seniors. Now this installation, made of carved timber, cord and a can, was fixed onto a light pole in the centre of bustling Newtown.

Street sign sticker art

(Denison St, Newtown)

Where have you been? I've been walking the streets. I feel at home walking around because I'm a bit of a social outcast.

I walked to Newtown yesterday to buy drugs and I saw this sticker on a street sign. I paused before crossing the road. I was on the lookout for fragile mothers with innocent children.

But before I had even looked around for cars, or children, or mums/moms/milfs, I saw a turquoise sticker stuck to the sign.

I had a double-take to make sure what I saw was real. Yes. The end of a penis was shooting R18+ contents into the mum's open, gagging mouth. Gagh-gagh-gagh.

I giggled after the initial shock. Then I began to worry about the kid. Should it be exposed to the 'real' world yet? Does he/she know how it was conceived?

Is crossing the road safe any more?

NEWTOWN: Perspex etching

(Denison St, Newtown, Sydney)

This etching depicts a bird in flight while also half-full of liquid. Atop this liquid is a floating paper hat.

Beside the bird is a short passage which states:

"I miss you. I hope that you still draw sometimes."

Is the bird taking a message from one person to another? Is the bird a metaphor phor how 'feelings' are transmitted between human entities?

This work is incredibly sad. So sad because we don't know who made it, but they have created the image of a deep internal monologue. We are supposed to hear the artist's thoughts

This is possibly one of the saddest pieces of art I've seen in a while. In a way, it reminds me of the emotional hit of seeing Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone. Because I know who van Gogh is, his work resonates more with me.

And this piece resonates because we can read what the artist may be thinking.

Would Acid Midget resonate with you more if I was more 'open' with my feelings?

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Newtown Street Art

Exploding dog graffiti, Newtown

(Buckland Lane, Newtown, Sydney)

Acid Midget reader bag has sent us another Slug piece he found, this one in Newtown.

It is similar to the one we posted the other week. Seems Slug is finding more squalid, deserted locations for his pieces and spends more time on them.

Do you think he works so fast with such varied imagery that sometimes his subconscious does the work?

Can a writer prepare for a piece like this, or does their mind 'vomit' it out?

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Killer Slug Dog Mural (Chippendale)

Fresh Newtown street art, posters

(Images: Newtown, Sydney)

 So we're back in Newtown again. If you like street art/using your time appropriately then this is good.

Good Fucking sweet! can also be used to describe this candy Bunkwaa poster above.

Posters like this are great. A reason to follow the street art 'movement' party! 

 

Some new brown paper Houl. He's been a busy paper paster lately - his work is everywhere. All over Newtown and Enmore my pants!

More SMC3 FUCK YEAHHH!

Cute Disney pussy tat meets punk rocker meets professor = too much fun. On the right is a Will Coles remote control sculpture. The gang is together.

This looks like a crazy Dragonball Z character. It's a bit of 'superhero pastiche', oui?

I can't stop wondering why he has an anus face.

The mother-daughter are being eaten for their Campbell's Soup tin. What does this beast have against Azns?

Ooh, sexy Yakuza slut. Just inviting you to walk with her to a quiet alley the police station down the road!

Artist: Slug

 (Images: Newtown, Sydney)

Found so many Slug pieces recently but couldn't blog them. It's hard to shoot trackside graffiti from a moving train.

The condom-gouged eyes aesthetic is proving popular this year. Soon advertising firms will leap on this buzz trend and incorporate it on billboards and TV.

Want some jizz with your 6pm news?

I like you, Slug. Do you believe in Nihilism/Chaos Theory?

Your pieces shock, they dissociate pedestrians from the predictable reality they exist in.

But poor Gerald the Dog. Poor pup. His face has aged. All the LSD/meth has really fucked with him.

Maybe it's time to retire/shoot him, start with a new character?

See u soon, Slug.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

Gerald the Dog is back in Sydney

Gerald the Dog

Newtown street art and stencil series

(Bedford Street, Newtown, Sydney)

"Again. It happened again. I forgot to wear trousers over this fucking garter belt!" - Rupert Murdoch

This stencil is by Ill. Also, I just discovered Bad Cop, an indie/punk/garage rock band out of Nashville, TN. 

Listen to 'Time After Time' as you read this post and join hands with us in rebellion.

 Bad Cop - Time After Time by ROIR 

(Ibid.)

This character looks intimidating, but nothing freaked me out lately like Black Swan. And by freaked out I mean unbelievably aroused.

 (Denison St, Newtown, Sydney)

Now we know Timmy Bongs has crab hands. Great.

 (Bedford Street, Newtown, Sydney)

Ill again. This reminds me greatly of Philip Seymour Hoffman's rendition of Truman Capote.

 (Ibid.)

I wonder what it would be like to lose our bodies. Would we need them in 200 years? By then I assume technology would be so advanced that using the body for manual labour would be inefficient compared to cybernetic replacements.

To put this in context, 200 years ago we weren't far into the Industrial Revolution and machines already began to supersede the manual labour force.

Wait, how did we end up here? Um, fuck it.

 (Ibid.)

Ill once more. Really hope someone begins selling little zip puppies.
 

 (Ibid.)

This figure looks like actor Matthew Newton. Feel sorry for him. He likes the odd line of coke and has 'aggressive' relationships with Australian actresses. If this was Hollywood, his popularity would skyrocket.

 (Lennox Street, Newtown, Sydney)

This mural depicts famous American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. He has, along with Beat writers Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, greatly influenced Acid Midget.

This mural is peppered with the opening lines of Ginberg's iconic counterculture poem Howl, which reads:

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix."

He was referring to San Francisco in the 1950s. Sounds to me like Newtown on a weeknight.

Listen to him read it. It's better:

(Ibid.) 

R.I.P. Laura.

(Ibid.)

A patchwork cartoon of Morticia Addams?

(Ibid.)

Spotted these cats around Waterloo and Redfern. I should spend less time chasing pussy and more being with you.