Guildford Grammar students have been learning some of the finer points of spray can art. Self taught artist “Task” Damien Seery spent a week helping senior students paint a mural in their art room. Art teacher Nick Allen said Task had been painting since he was 16 and was passionate about his work.

The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Ltd. and other nomenclature, splash their slogans and other didactics noisily through an otherwise challenging show. Upon entry, a young gallery attendant complete with logo plastered vestment in the form of a skirt and a crazy Sunday morning hairstyle may push his way into view, matched only by the staccato of audio level emitting from Room for Rent by Rachel Craze upstairs.

Another attempt at engaging in the critical social commentary space as a fledging critic, best reserved for those with the acumen and foresight that maturity brings in life.

Printmaking is an exciting medium with intaglio and relief methods reaching back to the past while photographic and digital images point the way to the future. Whichever technique is employed, printmaking demands certain technical expertise but that's not enough; first and foremost the print artist needs solid design skills, and for the most part that's what's on show here.

The Fifth Totally Huge Music Festival is now well underway with a smorgasbord of new music delights sure to interest the most ardent lovers of the cutting edge. With 23 events and over 100 artists participating in this year's event, it is difficult to pick a single event to attend.

Peculiar to everyday day talk stands the invitation title - Go Figure. As a literary prompt it has the potential to act as a tongue-in-cheek quip, or in this case, slide slowly through to the obvious literal visual reference for the human form in the artworks of this exhibition.

Ten young people have been selected to develop art that will be placed in and around the Town of Vincents, Perth, Western Australia’s planned youth facility in Leederville.

Local artists Graham Hay, Alexander Hayes, Victoria Nadas and Diokno Pasilan will exhibit new sculpture, paintings and performance art at the new Robertson Park Artists Studio in Halverson Hall, Robertson Park, Perth Western Australia from the 7th to 15th October, 2000.

"... Alexander Hayes' pieces are not inspired by the elaborate variations on the grid to be seen in galleries all over the world but by the lath and plaster structures, he deals with every day. Variations on presence in the landscape are Carol Rowling's chief concern in her complex colored patterns. The small brightly colored shallow relief panels of Victoria Nadas rely on one's sense that they are made through the determined struggle to maintain the rigid congealed surface qualities of the panels in relation to the intense presence of the image of human action that each present. This show is a very good reason for a stroll through the park.”

Ah, there’s always something going on in Perth's dizzyingly vibrant arts community. All you swingers out there, pull on your clingy woolen jumpsuits and poke your nose into an arty place in the Robertson Park Artists' Studio at the new Halverson Hall (176 Fitzgerald Street, Perth).

Mundaring Shire ratepayers poured $20,000 into the restoration of Darlington Hall whose mezzanine-floor gallery and craft space has earned only $20 in the two years since. The Mundaring Shire Council contributed $20,290 to the hall restoration project between 1995 and 1998.

Excitement Abounds as the WASAs draw near. A record-breaking one hundred and fifty films have been entered this year. Four panels of judges now face the pleasurable but daunting task of deciding on the winners of 25 award categories and the 1999 WA "Young Filmmaker of the Year'. Twenty-six young hopefuls are in the running for the $5,000 available for 'Young Filmmaker of the Year’, which will be announced at the WASA Awards Night on Friday, July 16 at the Wool Pavilion, Claremont Showgrounds.

Our cover this month ‘Words and Images’ comes from artist Alexander Hayes whose work was snapped up by locals at a recent exhibition in Darlington Hall. Hayes has been collaborating with local resident Daniel Oxenburgh in a recent exhibition entitled ‘Collage’ at the NICA Gallery in Perth.

Spare a moment to pop into Arthouse in Perth, Western Australia to catch the show by Wellman Street Studio artists Graham Hayes, Alexander Hayes, Diokno Pasilan, and Sofia Scarano. Though sharing the same studio each artist has a unique vision. That said, however, there is a thematic similarity between Hayes works which try to subversively fashion an indigenous landscape out of the format of the colonizer’s landscape tradition with Scarano's that "explore” the “transfer” of colonial notions of land as “real estate” across traditional, Indigenous ways of relating to land.

Local artists Graham Hay, Alexander Hayes, Diokno Pasilan and Soffia Scarano present sculpture, prints and textiles exploring cultural displacement. Graham Hay has built a reputation for paperclay and large paper sculpture.

There is so much fuss over grants for artists these days one tends to forget that most support their art from their own pockets. This is particularly true of young idealistic artists with no particular ideological axe to grind but a profound belief in the value of their activities.

Sure it's the hectic time of year but if you're hot shopping in the City or chilling out in Northbridge, it’s worth the mini detour to Arthouse Gallery to view this exhibition. Sculptures by Graham Hay, prints by Alexander Hayes and Diokno Pasilian, and mixed media works by Soffia Scarano fill the space with well-executed works of art that suggest creative exploration on everyone's part.

Cultural displacement is the theme of an exhibition of sculpture, prints and textiles by four artists who share a studio in Wellman Street, Perth. Graham Hay, renowned for his large paper clay and paper sculptures, looks at a displacement from the point of view of entering spaces owned by others. Alexander Hayes, who has worked with Aboriginal communities in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia explores the racial and religious aspects of cultural displacement.

The restored Darlington Hall will be put to good use early next month when an art exhibition will be held on the hall's mezzanine level. The exhibition will feature textiles and paintings by Alexander Hayes and Dimity Gregson, who have both won prizes for their creative works. Alex is studying an honours degree in art and educational technology at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.

It's nice to report that another generation of Gregson artistry will soon be on view in Darlington. Dimity Gregson, daughter of Gail and David Gregson, and her husband Alexander (who has been exhibiting for several years) make their Darlington debut at the lovely small mezzanine gallery in Darlington Hall next month.