Art Talk with Adrian Perrine

Last month Adrian Perrine launched his solo exhibition Wildergrim at Bivs. Our art curator Martin E Wills took a little time out to chat with Adrian about his recent works and life as an artist.  

The head with the stag and a pizza

You've got a successful illustration career ticking along, congratulations!  For those of us who might not be familiar with your work, where might we have seen it before?

Thanks to Bivouac for having me! Well I think around Perth you might have noticed my work most often on the art and branding for WAMFest, which is the annual music festival put on by West Australian Music, and it's a crazy good time ever year! I think people might have also just come across my work on Instagram.

What's the thread that ties all your work together?

The ongoing struggle and unlikely friendship between darkness and cuteness.

I'm really interested in how people nail down their style. When did it all come together for you, or do you still feel like it's all a work in progress? 

I've been drawing since I was a kid, but about 10 years ago is when the aesthetic I have now really started to develop. And it's changed and evolved over that time. I see it as a work in progress because I always want to do better than I did before. Sometimes that means refining it, and sometimes it's trying something different.

So, what's your process? How do your images start, and how do you know when something's finished?

For my personal artwork I rarely ever sketch anything, I just sit at my computer and start drawing. So there is a real element of spontaneity and emotion to what I make even though it's digital. I do a piece in one session usually but often I come back to earlier designs to add to them or revitalise them. Whether something is finished is just a feeling I get, sometimes I'm satisfied and sometimes more work is required.

The head with a bottle and penguins

Which artists or designers do you have hanging on the walls at your place? 

I have a Mike Mignola limited edition print of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster I can't wait to frame and get up there. Other than that it's mostly vintage illustrated film posters and some photos and artworks by friends and my partner.

Some creatives find Perth challenging. Why do you think that is, and how are you faring here?

I'm actually not sure. I mean I think trying to be successful as a creative anywhere is usually pretty challenging! But I've been fortunate to find an audience online and a few jobs through friends and contacts that helped a lot with exposure.

Any advice for young illustrators who might envy your success?

It's different for everyone in terms of what success is. In my thinking I'm not there yet actually. But you should focus on working hard, developing an aesthetic that is you, being professional and being nice to people.

Where can people follow your work and buy your prints?

Instagram is my main online presence. Prints and other info you can find at wildergrim.com.

And finally... What are you doing over the Christmas period, and can I come along?

I will be playing a lot of PC and PS4 games! Definitely welcome to join me online :)

Art Talk with Naomi Corteen

Last month Naomi Corteen launched her solo exhibition Non-Fiction Fantasies at Bivs. Our art curator Martin E Wills took a little time out to chat with Naomi about her recent works and life as an artist.  

Congratulations on the successful opening night of your new exhibition "Non-Fiction Fantasies"! How are you feelin?
Honestly the validation that you receive from a successful opening night is so uplifting - I’ve been buoyed up by both the support of friends and other artists in the community, as well as of family. The show opened about a month after I got home from a two month stint in the UK and Europe, and my travels had me thinking a lot about the general state of the arts in Perth - I feel spurred on to get the wheels rolling on a bunch of new projects, all with a renewed faith and love in the artistic community in our little city.

How long did this show take to come to fruition?
I started on the earliest of these pieces in 2016, and slowly built up the current collection over the last two years. Collage is something that I will sit down to do either when I’m brimming with a particular emotion that I want to channel forth, or when I simply feel like the repetitive motions of selecting, cutting out, and arranging will serve to calm my mind. So all up it’s been a two year process.

"Non-Fiction Fantasies" is an evocative title. Can you elaborate?
When grouping all of these pieces together I wanted to reference the source material - books, periodicals, annuals etc. So it’s a sort of play on genre, and a reference to the fact that overwhelmingly the source material would be of a non-fiction nature - National Geographics, science annuals, biographies, educational materials, but the content of those publications has been removed from its original context and reimagined. The process of collage making has often helped me to access notions and feelings that were mostly residing in my subconscious, hence the “Fantasies” element of the title.

When did you start making collage and what draws you to the medium?
I began working with collage in 2014. I had taken a long hiatus from making art due to burnout and long running issues with crippling perfectionism. Collage took away all the mental pressure that I had put on myself around drawing and painting by giving me ready made images to work with, and the means to have fun with the creative process again. My early work is mainly just centered around fun and inconsequential ideas, and the more contemplative and complex pieces slowly emerged as my practice developed.

How do you even start when you're creating an artwork?
I have some themes that I enjoy expressing over and over again - the feeling of hope that science fiction and scientific discovery inspire in me, mental health and the journey toward self knowledge, betterment of the self and society, and the historical context or nostalgia that is always going to imbue an old publication - so if I’m not creating from a base image with a specific situation or emotional experience in mind, I’ll have those themes to start from, and will collect images that echo those themes. Then I just start arranging working from background to foreground, and a cohesive image will either come or it won’t!

I also have a filing system of images that I find symbolic or evocative - birds, animals, mountains, and so on, that I can go to instead of trawling for hours through my collage books. That idea actually came from a friend who mentioned that Joan Rivers would file her jokes away by subject matter so that she always had inspiration for material close at hand, and if there’s anyone who I’m going to model a career off it might as well be her!

When you're not in the studio, what are you up to?
I’m an avid reader, another reason why working from books makes so much sense to me. My other major hobby/passion is hunting in op-shops for vintage clothing, I’m obsessed with the history that clothing and objects can contain and represent. I love that anything produced in the last hundred years will represent some aspect of its historical context in its design, and the availability of such things to a collector. Plus, I run a vintage clothing market stall so that I can share that passion with others! And maybe also to prevent the collecting from overrunning my house!

Where can we see more of your work?
I’m most active on Instagram as @noam_chumpsky_art but this exhibition has spawned another project, so I’ll also be exhibiting again in the next six months. Thanks Bivouac!

Biv Cha Returns this Sunday

BIV CHA is back for three Sunday sessions during Fringe World and Perth Festival! 

Chef has shaken up a new menu for Biv Cha. We're talkin' yum cha heroes like prawn shumai, pork belly, soft shell crab and egg tarts. Even chicken feet! Check out the all-star lineup below.

Experience Bivs off your trolley and get amongst yum cha inspired eats and bubble tea cocktails. 

Sunday 4 Feb
10am - 2pm
BOOK NOW

Sunday 18 Feb
10am - 2pm
BOOK NOW

Sunday 4 Mar
10am-2pm
BOOK NOW

Bookings recommended!
Don't worry... in true yum cha style,
you'll be able to walk in, grab a number and we'll find you a table.

Festive Bivness

What do you want your Christmas wind-up to look like?
 
Laid-back, fun and a little out of the ordinary...
 
Then Bivs is for you.  Feast like a boss and let us take care of your group with a delicious journey through the Middle East, sampling wines you’ve never seen before and cocktails you won’t forget. 

Our Chef Feed Me menu will have everybody covered but if you prefer the choices don’t stress we do that too! We can chop and change the menu with packages from $35-$65 catering for groups of up to 30 peeps. Drink packages start at $29 for 3 hours. No matter the budget or flavour, we'll look after you (and any vego and gluten free friends too!). 

The hot dates in December are filling up fast.
Make an enquiry for a Private Function HERE.  

Art Talk with Tim Meakins on 'Always Alive'

Last month Tim Meakins launched his first solo exhibition Always Alive at Bivs. We took a little time out to chat with Tim about his recent works and life as an artist.  

Hey Tim Meakins. How are you? 
Hi! Im very well, feeling healthy and strong. Had an apple this morning as well. 

Congratulations on 'Always Alive' and thanks for gracing Bivs' walls with your artwork.
Thank you and thanks for having me!

So we know you're a talented and in-demand young designer and a great artist. Where did your connection to the arts start?
The connection started very early for me, I realise that now but at the time I never perceived it as something I wanted to do. I was always heavily into comics and wanted to draw superheroes but never had the natural talent or patience. When I started to study design it became very clear that I finally had the 'want' to create. I think all I needed was a platform and in this case was a computer, eventually it became an obsession and here we are today.  It was not until very recently I started to paint the illustrations and with the help of people like Martin E Wills was able to create for an audience. Feels good. 

What or who inspires you?
I honestly think anything and anyone really. I am heavily inspired on how people perceive items or objects. The components and intricacies that make up the item to help us conceive what that 'thing is'. Hopefully that makes sense haha. But really people, places, objects, how people act, emotions, food, anything. 

If you were to describe your work in three words, what would they be?
Haha you already know whats its gonna be, its always cute, sometimes I'm unsure if cute is a good thing but thats just my thing I guess. Colourful, Cute and Playful.

Some people might think simple work is easy. What would you say to them? 
I would say simple work can be easy, but also think simple is the hardest thing to create. I come from a heavy design background and imprinted in my mind are these principles that constantly allow me create but in a way box me in. Now I'm not saying its a bad thing, the box is super chill and allows me to think in a different headspace to access all the fundamental ideas that I would when designing a publication for instance. The box is a good thing. But simple design to me is problem solving. Thats why its hard. Its also a preference idea, I enjoy simple effective design so thats how my illustration and art should reflect. Also have a strange obsession with balance.  

What are you listening to right now?
Listening to a producer called Indian Wells from Italy.

Where can your new fans see your work next?
Instagram is probably the best way to keep updated with me, have a bunch of new projects underway so some new things on the rise. @tim__meakins

Thank you Tim!
No thank you!

Head into Bivs to check out Always Alive over a graze and gabble. 

Launching 'Always Alive' by Tim Meakins

Tim Meakins is a graphic designer and visual artist from Perth. His playful work brings life to the cold geometries of vector-based design through cheeky anthropomorphic detailing and punchy colour palettes. 'Always Alive' is Tim Meakins first solo exhibition, curated by Martin E Wills.

You'll find the these pops of colour and fun on the walls at Bivouac until Sat 10 June.

Have a peek of images from Opening Night on Monday 13 March, proudly supported by Gage Road Brewing and Bivs. Photo credits: Dwight O'Neil - @poyce.

Happy Mondays

Get your chills at the notorious B.I.V as Happy Mondays returns on Monday!

90s prices and 90s tunes every Monday through Fringe from 5pm til late. 

Head in for ghost chops or a Thom Yum or three. 

Fresh out of the box

We've popped the menu in the toaster and it's come out hotter than pop-tarts...
and it's landed just in time for festival season. 
Check out the next level yums!

Daytime
Evening

There's a new chef in town and she's got a mad sweet tooth. Word is the Fried Donuts stuffed with milk jam and other good'ns are the perfect after party pleasures. 

Biv's top 5 hits for Fringe

Get those guides out and buckle in as Fringe World and PIAF land in Northbridge!  It all kicks off on Friday Jan 20th and we can't wait. We've rounded up our top 5 hits for for Fringe:

Djuki Mala - indigenous dance and YouTube sensations tells their story story in a high-energy show. Energetic, hilarious and unique. 27 Jan - 14 Feb

Monroe & Associates - this theatrical role-playing game for one sells out every year! It's like nothing else you've experienced at Fringe, step into Frankie's Caravan and solve the crime. 20 Jan - 12 Feb

Briefs - this dazzling sell-out doesn't disappoint. An all male, sharp shooting cabaret of burleseque and balls. Aussie Cirque du Soleil meets Ru Paul's drag race... nuf said. 25 Jan - 14 Feb

Uta Uber Kool Ja - a rock'n'roll hotel room after-party like no other, in the deluxe and to-die for Aloft suite smack bang in the middle of Fringe. Round up a little posse, it's cray cray. 20 Jan - 5 Feb

Nautilus - taking mime and physical comedy to the next level. Tygve Wakenshaw has been dubbed a 'living cartoon' leaving his 'audience slack-jawed with admiration'. Winning a bucket load of awards this one is not to be missed. 27 Jan - 4 Feb

See you down in Biv-town for your Fringe binge real soon!