Goodie's 'Good Gracious'

On the weekend The Chop Shop played host to Melbourne artist, Goodie. Known for her affinity for eyes and fleshy contorted creations, Goodie’s ‘Good Gracious’ was no exception to that, and a whole lot more.

Goodie took Canberra’s coolest bar for everything it had; utilising the unique warehouse space, showing a mixture of paintings on various surfaces (including the walls of the bar itself), mixed sculpture, zines and one lamp-lit locker littered with little lids (sorrynotsorry).

Upon entering the warehouse you were made acutely aware of the countless wide eyes gazing blankly at you. An unnerving feeling itself, made no less uncomfortable when you begin to notice the bizarre flesh coloured forms and faces these eyes belong to.

One piece, painted on a functioning curtain, featured surreal, Picassoesque perspective, mixed with renaissance realism; as if she took each beautifully painted facial features and fingers, and put them together in a blender.

Size of the works varied, from tiny eyes and noses painted within bottle caps, to the giant ragged piece hanging from the ceiling of the warehouse down and spilling at least another meter of itself onto the ground below.

The unsettling pale and cold colours of flesh seemed to feature in every piece, and her sculptures combined human and object; with detailed cast hands and fingers joined with spray cans, or a set of porcelain teeth surrounding a plastic cup coated in far-too-wet-looking pink forms.

When I spoke with the artist, she expressed some surprise that all her pieces had sold (even the larger-than-a-warehouse-wall painting) because of the somewhat unnerving nature of her work. But it’s no surprise when you consider the technical skill, complex content and subtle beauty within her pieces.

Goodie’s exhibition was like a combination of flesh and fantasy; exploring the intriguing beauty found in the somewhat grotesque.

Upcoming at the Chop Shop:

3rd October

One Night Only group exhibition

Featuring 10 Canberra artists of different style

10th of October

Houl x Mike Watt exhibition,
NOT TO BE MISSED!!

The Chop Shop more than a Small Deal

After months of hard work and overcoming huge unforeseeable obstacles, Canberra's first warehouse bar, The Chop Shop, finally opened it's magical golden doors on the weekend. The bar is the baby of Sancho Murphy of Sancho's Dirty Laundry and Pat Rose of Coy, and it's even more amazing than the completely rad thing you'd expect from two of the most passionate, creative, hard working and inspired people on the Canberra scene.

Sanch and Pat began their collaboration at the end of last year when Pat hosted The Coy launch party, they developed the idea for the arts space early in the year and once they found the empty warehouse (next to the Traders on Lonsdale Street, Braddon) their vision had a home. Together with the help of tens of local artists and creatives in July they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised $17,380 of their $10,000 goal.

Just a few days before their first event, Omar Musa's book launch, they were hit with a stop work notice and all their work was ground to a hault. The very next day the story was in the local media, social media and even the talk of politicians. In a rollercoaster that lasted 42 days the team worked closely with the government to overcome the issues.

Although the path to The Chop has been longer and far more complicated than the team had ever anticipated, the two stuck with it, not just for themselves, but for all the artists they wanted to showcase and support with the bar.

The first event they were about to hold all cosy up in their own warehouse was the debut exhibition of local artist James Smalls "I'm kind of a Small Deal". The exhibition was held Friday, the night before their actual launch party; which saw those lucky enough to get a ticket, party hard with some of the best acts in Canberra as well as Koolism's, Hau Latukefu getting on the mic with Suavess and Hayds.

During the exhibition, Smalls showed a range of works, including street art, prints, spray, paint, stencils, sculpture, line work, and on canvas, skateboards, and some kind of magical hybrid of spray cans and toy guns. Smalls work showed his range of talent, far greater than what's you usually stumble across on the street.



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