Max Dingle - The Art of Abstraction
  • Home
  • Recent Art Practice
    • Artist - Action - Reaction : Art for You
    • Death Love Art - Collage, Performance
    • Emotional Body
    • Man about the House - Collage
    • Mouth - Performance
    • Resurrecting Romance >
      • Resurrecting Romance 35 Collages
      • 101 People
  • OTHER ART PRACTICES
  • Raves & Rants
  • Dingle & McDonagh

Purslane

28/2/2014

0 Comments

 
PicturePurslane in my garden
Healthy eating
The rain has revived the garden, and all the self sown plants are going crazy, rocket, mustard greens rapini and purslane to name the quick starters. Purslane is mostly in 'western' cultures looked at as a weed, as you could guess by one of its common names "pig-weed". However in Europe, Mexico and Asian countries it is grown as both vegetable and edible medicine and I have also seen a reference to Australian Aboriginal people making the seeds into seed-cakes.
There are numerous species and it is easy to grow, in fact if you have it you certainly will not need to plant seeds. Purslane will grow in any soil, the current foraging movement in the cities find it growing in cracks in the pavement, but I like to have it in my garden beds - but it does need constant attention to stop it taking over the whole garden. If you have it in your garden then eat it, it one of the most healthy plants around having probably the highest Omega 3 contents of any plant, an essential fatty acid normally only found in quantity such as this in fish, as well as other fatty acids, antioxidants,  vitamins A, C, E and some B plus minerals, magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron.
The whole plant can be eaten, stems, leaves, flowers, seeds but usually it is best as the plants get older just to pick the 3 to 5 cm. Eat as is, in salads or on sandwiches, use as you would spinach, use in stirfries, and is also good as a thickener in soups. One of my favourites is my version of a Weed Pie, use the recipe for a standard fetta and spinach pie but substitute Purslane, dandelion, wild rocket, mustard greens for the spinach.

Max Dingle                                                                                 1 March 2014

0 Comments

Food on the road

26/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Conference and Book review

A Railway Dining Conference on the history of dining on railways is to be held in Tours, France on 16 and 17 December 2014, papers will cover railways throughout the world. Ideal for anyone who’s idea of heaven is sipping a fine red over a steak-frites and watching the scenery whizz by.  Contact : [email protected]  or  [email protected]  or  Michele Merger [email protected]

A Fork in the Road : Tales of food, pleasure & discovery on the road
Editor James Oseland 2013 Lonely Planet ISBN 9781743219775 (Hbk)

Thirty four stories on the joys and other wise of food and travel written by food obsessed writers and chefs from Neil Perry, Curtis Stone, through Madhur Jaffery to Frances Mayes and Michael Pollan. From the delightful first encounter Sandi Tan has when she eats the first food ever cooked by her father’s mistress. “ the rice was mushy, clearly budget-grain and cooked with a drunkard’s care” and “ the squid’s actual taste ... were immaterial, What struck me was that this child-woman had cooked me something cool and different – and seemed mightly tickled at herself for having done it. Chilli-burned, I scarfed down her joy, her unbridled exuberance, and asked for more.” To Tuscany (of course) the Amazon, Colombo and Greece these writer take us on an entertaining and , not always, mouth watering, adventures. The quality of the writing is excellent and, to quote editor James Oseland, each of the essays “says something ineffable about how we process and remember tastes and sensations, and about how they alter our view of the world”.
                     Max Dingle                   27 February 2014


0 Comments

La Trilogie - Flesh, Trash, Heat

23/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Flesh (1968), Trash (1970) and Heat (1972), prime examples of the New York underground film making during the late 1960's and early 1970's, were made under the auspices of Andy Wahol and all star Joe Dallesandro, who went on to feature in films by such directors as Louis Malle and Serg Gainsbourg in Europe before returning to the USA in the 1980's. The films are all free form comments on 'alternative' life style and outsider life. In Flesh, partly inspired by Midnight Cowboy released in 1969, on hearing about director John Schlesinger's version of the book by James Leo Herlihy being filmed, Morrissey and Wahol decided to make their own (very loose) version and release it first. Joe plays a young hustler out on the streets to raise $200 for his girlfriend and in numerous ways, mostly involving the removal of his clothes, demonstrates how a human being (the flesh) can be bought, sold and used without much compunction by other human beings. 
Trash (named as such because a New York critic's review of Flesh called it "trash") follows Joe,  his girl friend, one of  Wahol's Factory stars, Holly Woodlawn, and assorted other drug addicts around the streets of New York. Some funny scenes including a young college student trying to score and a welfare officer investigating Joe and Holly's living and 'working ' arrangements to see if they entitled to any sort of welfare.
A very early idea behind Heat was Blue Angel  (1930) with Marlene Dietrich, about the fall of a young woman under the influence of an older man, however Sunset Boulevard quickly took over as the main influence with Joe in the William Holden role and Sylvia Miles in the Gloria Swanson role. Needless to say every element is twisted and very funny.
There are four discs in the collection. While each film disc includes out takes , alternative takes and short films by Morrisey, the fourth disc includes nine documentaries of various lengths plus a bonus cache. These extras make the whole collection a must, have even if you have the individual films on disc
This signed limited edition collection of Paul Morrissey's trilogy, Flesh, Trash and Heat is only available in France Apart from one documentary on disc 4, all dialogue in the discs is in English with French sub-title , the latter can easily be switched off. This edition can be ordered via the web, although it can be a bit tricky if you cannot understand French or how to translate each page. Note: The DVD is Region 2, so you will need an all region player. 
                     Max Dingle                                                                              24 February 2014

0 Comments

The Lamington Enigma

22/2/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Lamington Enigma : A survey of the evidence
Maurice French
Tabletop Publishing 2013 280 pp  ISBN 9780987432209

The lamington is of course an iconic cake in Australia, known through numerous school , girl guide and many other fund raising drives, as well as being a popular serving at morning and afternoon tea., and, lets face it, it is delicious, but where and who created or invented this cultural icon?
This book is an enjoyable romp through the history of this sweet, named for either Lord or Lady Lamington - he was Governor of Queensland, 1896 - 1901.  French provides us with intimate stories of colonial life at the end of the 19th century with quotes from various named and unnamed sources such as 'Lord Lamington was a pompous ass, and no one would have named a cake after him.' , and of course Lamington was allegedly rather rude about the matter of the cake itself, describing them as 'those bloody poofy, woolly biscuits' . 
This search for the creator of the lamington encompasses many trips through newspapers, cook books, family histories and interviews with surviving relatives of cooks, maids and governors. It also brings to light, in one of the meanders down a side track that Helena Rubinstein (of cosmetic fame) was either a maid or a governess in the Lamington household. 
The conclusion you will need to read for yourself but the journey there is really great fun. I will give the last word in this short review to the author, who acknowledging that with this publication, many people will throw new light on the subject matter and no doubt a few will quibble with the assessment, 'To them all I say:"Let them eat lamingtons"'.

May be purchased from Tabletop Publishing, 60 Phillip St., Toowoomba, Qld 4350 AUD $39.95 
or contact [email protected] 

                      Max Dingle                                                                        23 February 2014

0 Comments

Cactus and Spirit - two exhibitions

21/2/2014

0 Comments

 

Bouquet of Cactus
This exhibition of the work of eight artists, all of whom exhibit regularly at Project Art Space in Wollongong, was held at the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre in January / February this year.  
The works by Nicole Ison, Joni Braham and Suzi Krawczyk were of particular interest, especially the work using recycled plastics by Ison. "Four hundred and sixty six loaves" using the plastic tags from the packaging of loaves of bread sewn together to form a plastic 'chain mail' veil was at once delicate and intricate while the strength lay in the pattern laid out by the different coloured tags. Two other works by Ison,  "Triangles" and "Squares", also combined this delicacy with the robustness of plastic, cut from 'mainly shampoo bottles' and the implied violence of nailing each element to the backing board. The patterns were simple but effective.
Joni Braham's "Looking forwards not back" an intricate sculpture from found material and paper mache was beautifully made and had a bizarre almost aggressive quality that makes the viewer slightly uneasy, I personally was not sure whether I could live in the same room for any length of time. Also on exhibition at the same time, in the Foyer Gallery, was an interesting exhibition of 'group' art made by the residents of Coastal Waters Aged Care.
Called "The Art of the Living Spirit" 
It was a collaborative art project which aimed to provide the residents increased self-worth and confidence. The residents are quoted as saying that 'the creation of the art has bought pleasure, a sense of joy, relaxation, the satisfaction of achievement and amazement in making something so effective'.  The joy that was found in the making, shows in the work, and there is real pleasure in viewing the works, such as 'To Live Again' and 'Life Force', produced through this meaningful art project
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Max Dingle, artist, independent curator and writer resides on the south coast of NSW, Australia

    Archives

    June 2025
    November 2023
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Alley Archies
    Apples
    Art
    Banquet
    Basket
    Beans
    Cabbage
    Cake
    Coast
    Contemporary Art
    Cupitts Winery
    Custard Tarts
    Dallesandro
    Dingle
    Dvd
    East Nowra Bakery
    Edministon Jones
    Elizabeth Cummings
    Escapefest
    Exhibition
    Finger Limes
    Flesh
    Gardening
    Gastronomy
    Gin
    Granny Smith
    Healthy
    Heat
    Hewitt
    History
    James Salter
    Jervis Bay
    Joe
    Karkalla
    Kylie Douglas
    Lamington
    Lime
    Mango
    Max
    Meat Pies
    Mediterranean
    Metaphysical
    Michael
    Morrissey
    NOW Contemporary
    Pears
    Press
    Purslane
    Red
    Ripe Sculpture
    Salad
    Salecich
    Salet
    Samuel Elyard
    Sculpture
    See Change
    Shiraz
    Shoalhaven
    Sourdough Bread
    South
    Symposium
    Tasmania
    Trash
    Vanilla Slice
    Vegetable
    Wahol
    Watercolour
    Weed
    Wellington
    Wine

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly