Baadlands – another kind of lands

Few weeks back, I attended the opening reception to the exhibit BAADLANDS: AN ATLAS OF EXPERIMENTAL CARTOGRAPHY @ Tin Sheds Gallery, in Sydney, curated by Zanny Begg.

Dictionary.com says that ‘badlands’ signifies a barren area in which soft rock strata are eroded into varied, fantastic forms. In everyday language, baadlands are the outlawed places, where centralised, official rules don’t hold much value, but the locals can have it their own way, either good or bad. An impressive number or artists and groups (Clement Valla, Lorenz Aggermann, Eduard Freudmann, Can Gülcü, Maria del Carmen Lamadrid, Democracia, Todo por la praxis, Santiago Cirugeda, Diego Bonetto, The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), Ammon Beyerle, Michelle Emma James, Iconoclasistas, and Yurt Empire) proposed 9 original, unconventional maps of secretive or unknown location that are overlooked in traditional cartography. They are maps of inequalities, showing off the daily challenges their inhabitants have to face, they are maps of crimes and illegalities, they are maps of rent-free housing, they are maps on unbuilt yet subways, ugly car parks, and hybrid suburbs, they are maps of weeds adventures in urban Sydney, they are maps of markets who didn’t figure on any other map, or simply beautiful Google Earth 3D snapshots.

Guess what? The exhibit will be on display till 7 September. See you there, right?

Sydneysiders’ Coffee Bible

It’s mine. Finally. After months of back and forth to news agencies, when I was either missing out on the last copy, either I had no cash with me at the time, either my credit card was not working, either I was recalling two minutes too late that I forgot to grab it, either… Once I even asked the owner lady to save me a copy but her hubby found it, thought it was accidentally misplaced, and put it back on top of the counter. It was a matter of minutes till somebody else grabbed it. The most painful moment was when I discovered it at Pentimento for double the price. As bad as I was craving for it, as much as I love browsing around the store and choosing gifts for my friends, as little money was (still), doubling the price is not a practice to be welcomed. I’m a hipfair 😉

Today everything worked as simple and beautiful as a lemonade ‘di Positano’ in a summer day in Campania can be. Saw it, smiled, bought it.

Let’s get caffeinated!