johannes klabbers

the last post

2007-07-31T09:14:00.000+10:00

Sadly the time has come for me to leave Ashfield. I’d like to thank Ashfield Council, which is to be commended for offering an artist in residence programme. As an artist/writer who lives and works full time in a regional area, this represented a rare opportunity to engage with the city of Sydney, the community of Ashfield, and to spend a sustained a period of time concentrating on making and thinking about my work and writing/reading. I am very grateful for the opportunity, and I hope I have made a contribution to the Ashfield community.

I would also like to thank Anthea Hart and all the people at Community Services (as well as Ray in the Library). They are warm and wonderful and bend over backwards to help. Thanks are also due to Charles Sturt University, my employer, for supporting my residency by allowing me to spend six weeks away form the campus. Finally my thanks to Sarah Last for writing the application/proposal, and liaising with Ashfield Municipal Council, which resulted in my being invited to participate in the programme.

This blog will be archived and preserved on CD, and also remain available online for at least two years, as will the photo-blog on Flickr.com with pictures taken during my walks around the Ashfield Municipality. Both websites can be accessed through the links at http://joh.net/ashfield. I also made 10 sets of 8 photo cards (MOO cards) of some of my pictures on the photo-blog. Each card depicts one of the letters of the “ASHFIELD” sign at Ashfield train station. The text on the reverse of the cards reads : “Johannes Klabbers Artist and Writer in Residence Ashfield Municipal Council June/July 2007.’

I also documented my residency through found objects. On each day of my residency I walked for an hour or two in the Ashfield Municipality and I would find objects in the street which were interesting in one way or another. I had intended to document each of these objects in images, however I ran out of time, and I will complete this aspect of the process when time permits. When the objects have been documented the images will be published online and my Sydney Time Capsule Ashfield Municipality June-July 2007 will be presented to Ashfield Municipal Council.

Last but by no means least, thanks to everyone who attended one or more workshops. Keep on blogging!

number one

2007-07-27T19:07:00.000+10:00

i am grateful to my colleague damian, formerly a resident of sydney, who recommended thai number one on “the other side” of the railway in ashfield : the pad thai is great and cooked right there and then in front of your very eyes and their yellow chicken curry is equally delicious and won’t break the bank at 10.50, or you could have it as a lunch special with rice for a ridiculous 6.50.

today i sampled the equally impressive satay chicken and whilst waiting for my order and pondering the practicalities of permamently relocating to ashfield so i could eat here every night, i witnessed the following scene :
a man in green pants and no teeth asks for a dollar’s worth of rice.
no, they tell him, rice is $2. take away.
(did i detect a slight emphasis on the last word?)
he hands over a two dollar coin.
can i have it here?
they ignore him.
please! he pleads.
he sits down uncertainly.
a couple of minutes later they bring him a fork and plate of rice. it is a generous serving. he doesn't hesitate to get stuck in.
it looks like he hasn’t eaten much for a while.

thursday workshop

2007-07-26T18:11:00.000+10:00

patricia and bimla both made blogs today!

wednesday workshop

2007-07-25T13:33:00.000+10:00

a huge roll up today. if the numbers get any bigger i'll have to ask council to employ me an assistant :P thanks everyone for turning up!

this is what you did :
martha set up a gmail account! liz contnued work on her blog the answers. tridzia - made a new blog with a long url which she kindly emailed to me as i forgot to write it downv:| cris - made a new blog called crisetta. yvonne - didn't know what to call her blog but cris helped her out and it is called mapleleaf-jacaranda and
graham - made a new blog called ashfield heritage.

ashfield station (2)

2007-07-20T11:38:00.000+10:00

i found the workbook of someone who is learning english, at ashfield station. i snuck a peek.
:|
the workbook is in diary format. as it is part of a class project, and was addressing to the teacher, i didn’t feel like i was reading something particularly private. the teacher had corrected the english, but i copied the page as it was originally. the pathos is significantly increased because of the way she uses english language : i was quite moved.

i finished with boyfriend on friday
so i cried.
sorry.
but i am ok now :-)
i want to go together with him.
i wanted married with him.
but he is very angry so i wait him.
i don’t need new boyfriend.
i talk to him yesterday night.
then i had hyper ventilation syndrome.
i vomited yesterday midnight
so i absented to school today.

mary quartz

2007-07-18T11:51:00.001+10:00

i should not have given up so easily on tek's gifts & things : at last i found the perfect gift ... at a perfect price - and it has a wonderful tick ... tock ... what a shame! i will have to keep it for myself...

but alas kitsch lovers : it was the last one.

click here to see a bigger version of the image and here she is unwrapped...

tuesday workshop

2007-07-17T15:00:00.000+10:00

a great roll up at today's workshop. thanks for coming everyone!

fortunately jean returned and the mystery of her blog address has been solved. here is her blog with memories of the ashfield of yesteryear. (and since she was born in 1922 she has plenty of memories!!)

here are the other blogs by today's workshop participants : pam, david, mary-jane and liz.

remember that there will be no blogging workshops on thursday evening 19 july this week or tuesday 24 july next week. instead i will run two special workshops on wednesday 25 july (1-2.30 and 5-6.30) instead. then we return to normal for thursday 26 july 5-6.30 and tuesday 31 july 1-2.30 - and that i am afraid ladies and gentlemen will be it for me. i am required back in wagga wagga!

ashfield vs burwood

2007-07-14T14:30:00.000+10:00

today i had to find a birthday present for someone who doesn’t need anything. i needed it fast and it needed to be cheap, but without looking cheap. you know the kind of thing. so tek gifts & things was not an option. k-mart could have provided the answer, but i just ... i don’t know ... i am so bored with k-mart. even the name of the store sends me to sleep, let alone going in here.

i have been reading a book called speed the plough to try and find out more about some of the wonderful old houses i am finding on my walks around the municipality in my attempts to restrict the growth of my girth resulting from the extra calories which are making its way into my body thanks to my tarts research. (for any interested readers : yes this research is ongoing, but i am stuck at the moment trying to decide whether the summer hill village patisserie’s pear and ricotta tart is worth nine, or nine and a half stars. i think what will eventually determine this is consistency. is it as good on say a tuesday as it is on a friday? how about a monday? saturday? and so on.)

according to speed the plough, in the seventies ashfield councillors were rueing the fact that people were shopping in burwood rather than ashfield which lead them to pull down the beautiful old town hall which once stood on liverpool road and build the monstrosity which currently houses the library and council as well as k-mart, coles woolworths and franklins. and they were well pleased with themselves. (this was in the days before superannuation funds financed shopping centres.)

so i decided to do what ashfield shoppers seem to have been doing since the seventies and head down the road to burwood, where i found the outrageous cathedral of consumerism called westfield burwood. this place is like a tardis and probably produces the same amount of carbon emissions as several african nations. you could fit the entire wagga cbd inside this thing. after several hour of walking and browsing i found a gift and went home exhausted humming a hall and oates song and feeling like i had been to the dentist.

i think ashfield lost. but a trip to tek’s gifts & things is less stressful.

iyer : tuesday workshop

2007-07-10T13:36:00.000+10:00

iyer at the workshop in the ashfield library today. iyer is a veteran of two workshops, and he learnt how to upload pictures to his blog today.

also joining the blogosphere were kathy, mary-jane and jean. everyone got a blog up and jean shared some memories of ashfield on her blog. kathy will soon be sharing her new skills with some of the senior citizens to whom she is teaching computer skills. spread the good word.

i will be running another workshop for beginners intermediate and advanced users on next tuesday (1-2.30) at the ashfield library.

ode to a tart

2007-07-10T12:29:00.001+10:00

what a tart!
Originally uploaded by toycamera

as i am about demonstrate, verse is not my forte and i rarely rhyme, and then only reluctantly.
so what, you exclaim, would cause to me to wax lyrical?
the answer, gentle reader, is a tart.

now far be it from me, a mere visitor to this fair city, to advise the citizens of ashfield on culinary matters. judging by the number and range of restaurants, cafés and other food outlets in this area, you are experts all, and my doctorate is in fine arts not fine tarts. your council has employed me to make art, not to eat tart. i am the artist in residence, not the tartist in residence.

but i can keep silent no longer on a topic close to my ... erm ... heart : i am an amateur, but my research has been extensive, and i have consulted an independent expert from victoria who agrees with my findings : i have found a great tart which i am moved to celebrate in text and image

so i give you, without further ado : my ode to a tart

good citizens of the ashfield
i beseech you : tarry not!
living amongst you is a pastry maker fine,
in the pleasant suburb of summer hill is his small shop
and a mere two dollars and cents ninety nine
he charges for this creation fine :
a tart of pear and ricotta with caramelized sugar topped

(be sure to serve at room temperature)

nine thousand steps

2007-07-06T12:24:00.001+10:00

for a bracing walk of 9000 steps or 7.2 kilometres and five suburbs (ashfield, dulwich hill, hurlstone park, canterbury and ashbury): from pratten park walk up arthur street, turn right at queen street, right at canterbury road, right at princess street, right at king street, right at travenar street, left at holden street and left back down arthur street - along the way you might meet a friendly but anxious persian and/or a magnificent completely laid back chocolate cat. you might purloin some unusual grocery items from shops in which you’ll feel yourself transported to the outer suburbs of tripoli or a much more obscure place in the middle east whose name i cannot pronounce, and you might chance upon this magnificent stately old home, or this unusual mailbox.

tarts and milk bars

2007-07-02T20:57:00.001+10:00

i am abandoning my (ahem) fruitless search for fruit buns. instead i am switching to tarts! so far the best tart i have been able to locate in the ashfield municipality is the pear and ricotta tart from the summer hill patisserie. any readers who wish to nominate a tart which i should sample, please comment.

i am also looking to find out if there are many old style milk bars left in the ashfield municipality ... this one is in summer hill

any tips? please leave a comment...

ashfield station

2007-06-27T13:44:00.000+10:00

i must have the kind of face or countenance which looks helpful or non threatening because i am forever getting confused old ladies asking me for help. at ashfield station this morning the question from a dapper looking lady with a full head of very grey hair and a raincoat just in case was : which train go to ashfield?
- but darling this is ashfield!
she is surprised to receive this information.
i want to go to shops! she declares, after thinking for a while.
- well the shops are over there. down here and turn right over there, i point.
she looks around and disappears in the direction of platform 5.
my train is due on platform 3 in one minute. i watch her descend, slowly, the stairs down to the platform.
- excuse me! hello...?!
she ignores me being completely occupied with negotiating the stairs.
the train due on platform 3 for all stops to museum is delayed by... four... minutes, says the voice on the public address system.
the lady has stopped halfway down the stairs and is looking around and up and down, like a confused muppet. i walk over and call out : excuse me! you won’t be able to get out that way!
she climbs back up again. when she reaches the top of the stairs she says :
wha? but i want to go to shops!
i decide that one of the functions of the artist and writer in residence at ashfield council must be to help old ladies find their way around and i explain again how to get to the shops and say : have you got a ticket?
she produces her ticket and i help her feed it into the turnstile and she begins her walk over to the correct stairs. my train’s arrival is imminent and i hurry down, looking to see if she emerges on the stairs. i board the train and take a seat where i can see the stairs.
still no lady.
the train pulls away.
maybe she caught the lift down.

first workshop at ashfield library

2007-06-26T14:12:00.000+10:00

thanks to christine, sandra, iyer, barbara and ray for attending the first workshop. it went off! and thanks to ray for helping barbara to learn how to use the mouse and how to set up an email account. you're a legend :) the next workshop for beginners is on thursday at 5.

a kookaburra vs crows bun fight

2007-06-26T11:09:00.001+10:00

I witnessed a hilarious fight between a young kookaburra and some crows on the power lines by the Pratten Park Bowling Club today. The crows were working as a team to really teach him a lesson. I wonder what his crime was? Eating worms from a patch marked : “ONLY CROWS WELCOME HERE” or “NO KOOKABURRAS”? Saying : The Crows don’t stand a chance against the Swans in the Aussie rules game next week? Any suggestions, particularly from younger readers of the blog are welcome in the form of a comment on this post!

day three : more about buns

2007-06-26T07:58:00.000+10:00

Fruitbun #3 was from the French HOT BREAD shop on Liverpool Road next to TeK’s Gifts & Things where they have nice boxes in many sizes and colours cheap - did I mention I have a thing about boxes and containers of any kind ? But I digress ... Back to the business at hand : this was the fourth shop I visited today in my quest to locate the best fruit bun in the Ashfield municipality. No fruit buns are sold in Jenny’s Cake Shop or Maria’s BAKERY INN on the corner of Hercules Street and Liverpool Road, although many wondrous buns of different kinds are on offer there. I think the lady serving was underwhelmed by my limited imagination when I insisted that I would only be satisfied with a bun containing raisins or currants and preferably both when pineapple buns, coconut buns, sweet mango buns, pork buns and many other varieties of buns could be had, all very reasonably priced.

In the STAR ACE PATISSERIE on Hercules Street I was offered an escargot or snail, a delicious invention of the French involving custard which can make a messy snack unless eaten with care and attention. The delightful young woman serving there seemed genuinely sympathetic to my plight but she was unable to be of service either. I guess I was clutching at straws looking for fruit buns in cake shops. Thus I was seriously relieved when my enquiry as to the availability of fruit buns was met with a positive response at the French hot bread shop and nary a snail in sight. Unfortunately my request to purchase one of the aforementioned was met with a sad shake of the head. Fruit buns are only sold in packs of six. Merde. But I wasn’t going to give up now and a dollar fifty for six was certainly value for money.

Back at Thirning Villa it was with trembling hand that I removed the plastic bag from my booty. Six small buns had been crowded together and baked in some kind of tin probably. Not a good start : for a bun to reach its full potential in the oven it needs space, to expand ... To breathe ... Ah well ... I remained hopeful ... I detach one of the buns from its siblings and cut it open. Eek!! It is yellow! And the bun is curiously lacking in fruit. I hit it with some low fat spread. Due to my physician’s concern over the cholesterol levels in my blood after many years of eating my fruit buns with a thick layer of European style cultured butter I have made the switch to an expensive low fat spread which claims that rather than raising the levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol. It actually lowers it. Or raises the level of good cholesterol. Or something. I hope it works. It costs enough.

It tastes a bit of fish, otherwise completely tasteless. Unremarkable texture. No chewiness. I feel sad. Half a star for so far being the cheapest fruit bun in the Ashfield municipality but no other redeeming features. I am going to have to widen my search beyond Ashfield itself to Summer Hill, Croydon and Haberfield. Please HELP me. If you have ANY tips gentle reader as to where my urge to eat a good fruit bun may be satisfied, please comment.

in search of the best fruit bun in ashfield (part two)

2007-06-24T15:30:00.001+10:00

fruit bun #2

fruit bun #2
this one is from bakers delight in the ashfield mall. great colour, and a nice glaze - but the taste is average and the consistency is all wrong : too fluffy! not chewy enough! also fruitwise it is severely lacking. you need a bicycle to find a currant, as my father would say.

price : an outrageous $1.20

stars : one (for the colour and the glaze.)

fruit bun

2007-06-23T07:36:00.000+10:00

i bought a fruit bun from a chinese baker near the railway station that was closing up.
it was 40 cents - it looked like one of the fruit buns my grandmother made once - it was the only time i can remember her ever making bread of any kind and it seemed to take many hours - i could barely contain myself but when the buns finally came out of the oven i was disappointed : they looked small, sad and pale not like the big brown buns from the baker - i went off to play ... later when the buns were cool, i ate one with lots of butter - it tasted of yeast - i didn’t want another one - i don’t know what happened to the buns that didn’t get eaten - my grandmother was not one to throw away food - maybe she took them to the river for the swans and ducks.

day zero

2007-06-22T07:11:00.000+10:00

today begins my momentous journey. i have done artist in residence gigs before but they have always been of shorter duration. six weeks is a long time. i am going to miss my little house and my little groove, and i am going to miss out on the long break from teaching.

but i look forward to actually living in a community and being charged with relating to it as an artist/writer. (i don’t see much difference between the two in essence, although they are two ends of a spectrum - perhaps with airport novels at one end and ... damien hirst ? at the other - and you know what? ironically i don’t think damo would mind that comparison in the least.)

one of the problems with being away for six weeks is that you have to take such an awful lot of stuff with you. and because the tools of my trade involve machines there are all the different chargers, leads and adaptors, and there are lots of books (i am hoping to write an essay when i am there) and some zine making bits. i have two zines to finish. but i am not taking anything else with me. oh except clothes and personal hygiene stuff. i have recently converted to the church of the electric toothbrush. (i tell you what your life will be changed forever.) oh and some bedding and linen. i might take the heater out of the study too. sydney people can be a bit blasé about the cold. ah it will be over soon. um yeah when i am back in wagga! oh and some kitchen stuff : my stocks of coffee, tea and peanut butter. and...

i am sure i am going to forget something vital...

ashfield wi-fi hotspots

2007-06-14T07:13:00.001+10:00

i am hoping to do some blogging in public whilst i am in ashfield, so i am looking for any wi-fi hotspots in ashfield, where my ibook can connect to the internet through its wireless card... if anyone knows of any such hotspots (and if they sell coffee and cake there as well, and it is not mcdonalds, so much the better!) i'd love to hear from you... please post a comment with your recommendations...

on line writing workshops

2007-05-14T20:34:00.000+10:00

we will be doing our online writing in blogs.

one of the great things about blogging is that its allows you to express yourself and connect with people with similar interests in the local community and all over the world. i will be running some workshops on utilizing online writing spaces during my residency at ashfield for people young and old. if you would like to make your own blog, and do some writing online or share stories, poems or memories with your friends and family, or even everyone that has internet access. depending on the interest we can also go into uploading pictures and sound to the web which can be shared and/or incorporated in your blog.

these workshops will run for an hour and a half, and are open to young and old. i particularly enjoy working with people who feel they are non-technical or who have perhaps had traumatic experiences with computers in the past. no cost is involved and no special skills are required. you don't even have to be able to type.

there will be three workshops in a series designed in such a way that you can join in at anytime or start over - as follows

one workshop in week 1 : workshop 1 : teenagers or adults only
one workshop in week 2 : workshop 1 : adults (or teenagers) only
two workshops in week 3 : workshop 2* - workshop 1/2 combined
two workshops in week 5 : workshop 3** - workshop 1/2/3 combined

* to attend workshop 2 you must have done workshop 1
** to attend workshop 3 you must have done either workshop 2 or the combined 1/2 workshop

the workshops will be held at the library. if you might be interested in taking part in a workshop call anthia hart at ashfield council for more information about times or to register. or send me an email if you have any questions : johannes.klabbers@gmail.com

links

i will also publish links here to the blogs that the members of the ashfield community will create for themselves and which will hopefully continue beyond the completion of my residence.

bread

meanwhile, i love to eat good bread so if anyone has any tips for bakeries in ashfield that i should patronize be sure to leave a comment here. or just say hello.

:)