The Book of Revelations  (on zines and strange careers)

CRAIG SAN ROQUE, who thought up this idea in the first place, ushers in a new exhibition at Watch This Space:-
 
I saw Josh working on his long weekends in Alice, again and again, and from his deluge of graphic thought I learned much, and I said  – ‘I like that.’
 
I saw Blair, over years, coming home from western desert horizons
fluttering with gentle  cartoons of his encounters in Pintubi Mind.
 
I saw Beth drawing bleary-eyed in the cacophony of Coles carpark,
her days and nights, recording conversations between cars and sunset.
 
And I thought  –  ‘That I like.’
 
I saw Marlene Rose at work on sketches, fragment memories, sad girls and secret images from the underbelly of suffering children.  Bewildered in the institutional  claustrum. May God break us out.
 
And I saw Wendy’s graphics in motion, more strange happenings in the underground of our town and young people dawning on graphic novel forms.  And I thought – ‘Something wishes to speak’.
 
And I said to the child of Gold – ‘ Draw.’
 
And I saw, as she passed through town, Ioana Wildlifeofdetail.  Her notebooks … dark interiors, black lines from a Poland caught after Warsaw  burned to the ground. And still Ioana draws life in delicate lines defiant upon the wall.
 
And I saw Rod struggling with creatures crawling from Blue Moon Bay,   Grotesquerie – eternal coastal town, crabs of the apocalypse  crawling from a bucket.  And I thought  – ‘Something is gathering here.’
 
– a cloud of black ink, crows feet trotting along the tarmac, swooping in from the south side of town –
 
I saw Sally talking to the ladies of Ankerre Ankerre,  Coolibahs dancing in graphite salt and she said ‘ They asked me to write them a love letter. And I will.’
 
And I saw the Uti Kulinjaku women drawing.  Saying – ‘Drawing helps us see clearly.  It settles our hearts.’  Walpa, Tjulpu juta and Blessed Katelnd drawing delicate babies at the breast.
 
And others came to me and said,  ‘I can see moving fingers writing upon the walls. The writing is upon the wall in our town and always it is rubbed away by a blind man in a green truck. With green paint.’
 
And I said to Beth Sometimes. Sometimes, I feel God is trying to show me something. And she said ‘God is a Strange Career.’
 
And turning to Zoya, I said  ‘God came to me in a dream saying –
‘I Like Comics’  –
And Zoya said, ‘Let there be an exhibition and let no man rub them from the wall.’
 
And I said,  ‘I like that….  Let us encourage the Manifestation of Ink.’
And children were seen drawing upon the wall and God smiled again.
 
 
Images from top: Sketchbook notes from SydneyPurgatorio by Joshua Santospirito • The Party by Ira Gold •  Love Letters to Ankerre Ankerre (detail) by Sally Mumford and Eremaya Albrecht.
 
 
Strange Careers, which includes a range of locally-produced zines for sale as well as the work on the walls, is showing at Watch This Space till 27 May. It is one of the last shows in the present WTS venue in George Crescent. After a decade there, the artist-run initiative is moving, re-energising  the premises at 8 Gap Road, with its exciting mix of  artists, musicians, dancers, community events, concerts,  exhibitions, studio spaces for local artists, and residencies for interstate artists.
 
The new space’s inaugural show will open on 14 July.