在金融危机到来的时候，首先萎缩的肯定会是中低端的艺术市场。所以，即使今天的悉尼终于结束了连日来反常的阴冷天气，即使 Art Sydney 08 已经在几个月前就紧锣密鼓的展开行销战役，这个星期六，来Royal Hall of Industries的艺术收藏者们还是少的可怜。

前身为Affordable Art Fair （买得起艺博会）的 Art Sydney（艺博会）， 无论是从参展画廊的档次、现场艺术家、国际画廊数量方面，绝无法与高端的欧洲艺博会相提并论，甚至比它的老大哥 --- 澳洲艺博会的领头羊 --- Melbourne Art Fair 都相差甚远。但主办方依然非常用心的将艺博会放在了座落于Moore Park的Royal Hall of Industries，这里依综合购物中心傍职业橄榄球场，合家欢乐老少皆宜，是悉尼东区中产阶级最喜爱的周末休闲场所之一。总共有大约100家澳洲本地的画廊在这儿共聚一堂，抱着三天之内能卖出尽量最多作品的期望，笑脸相迎每一位花$20进场的观望收藏者，作品以画居多，价格浮动从$500到$20000之间不等，没有挑衅刺激易燃物品，一切都很符合中产阶级的口味。

可是在金融危机的压力下，$20一张的高价门票扫去了观望者的热情，我想，在这个周末，还有点闲钱的悉尼人大概都去参加房地产拍卖了，缺少了大牌的 Art Sydney 08，只能选择惨淡收场。

From ART SYDNEY 08

From ART SYDNEY 08

From ART SYDNEY 08

Nimbi，俗称澳洲大麻村，位于新南威尔士洲北部，是一个聚集了60年代嬉皮遗老，反对传统文化，提倡自由主义和神秘学，具有浓重乌托邦精神的地方。在Nimbi，大麻多，修炼营地多，心理治疗多，抑郁症应该也很多。最重要的，它应该还是一个可以让人“好好 干一场”的性爱天堂。

虽然我从未对嬉皮抱有过什么好感，在我的观念里这帮王八蛋都只是为了自己的性器而活。但还是阻挡不了我对Nimbi的好奇，感觉它和澳洲白人的主流文化彻底背道而驰，好像一个给乌托邦娱欢的天堂。

有关Nimbi的一些链接：

http://blog.yam.com/pc16033/article/15656910

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbin

http://www.nimbinaustralia.com/

在网络上看到的一些照片：

Phillip Toledano 的新摄影作品：phonesexthebook.com，采访记录了电话性爱工作者真实生活的一面。电话性爱，到底是寂寞太难挨，还是物质生活下对欲望肆 意渴求的一种？摄影师并未给出答案。但对这一日渐普及甚至有些“变态”的社会现象，喜欢阴暗的你不要错过！

另推荐邹博士导文：http://mszou.blogspot.com/

http://sandeechan.com/

陳珊妮，2008全新專輯《如果有一件事是重要的》，預購起跑！預購送限定迷你專輯〈粉紅色〉，收錄14年音樂生涯從未發行四首單曲Demo，陳珊妮親自手抄流水號，每張都是獨一無二！網路限定優惠價，NT$388！

試聽機：

Our Future Was Ours - Darren Sylvester

Exhibition Review by Chen Huang (Jeuce)

With skinny jeans and David Bowie's cheek, Darren Sylvester certainly looks like those handsome guitarist plays on a Saturday night. But it's not long before you realise how much photographical talent this 34 years old Sydney born, Melbourne based guy has got. His beautifully staged, cinematic, and hyper-realist photographs of angst-ridden teenagers looked just like those from television and movies. However, those glossy photographs are much tougher than a first glance may suggest. Accomplished with melodramatic titles like "How do you know it's real love?", "If all we have is each other, that's OK.", "Let hope & dreams be things we can achieve.", “Don’t substitute a life to satisfy mine.”, Sylvester’s photographs despites subjects like love, loneliness, fragility, struggles, hopes and dreams of melancholy teens.

It's nine years now since Sylvester emerged from the 1999 Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary art accompanied by a flurry of critical attention. Since then, Sylvester's images have been exhibited in major Australian exhibitions that seek to engage with youth subjects. Over his career, Sylvester has mined a deep vein of cinematic, staged tableaux, offering scenes rich in narrative potential that with references to popular culture.

Consumer products are often placed at the heart of Sylvester’s photographs, where they become so dominate and overwhelmed, suggesting meanings unto themselves. However, Sylvester does not admit nor deny that his photographs are critics of consumerism. "We all consume," he says. "It's just a reflection of day-to-day life. I'm as bad as anyone else who reads magazines and has a desire for a new gadget or object. I'm just making little morality tales, or parables, within a photograph. Often dramatic moments in life have a lot of fast food or makeup or products or pop culture tagged with them."

From the outset Sylvester has risked being sidelined as a mere stylist. His works are always meticulously constructed. They are also stylish to a point and might sometimes be mistaken for advertising photographs. However, the vague line between “commercial” and “art” sits perfectly within the contemporary popular sensibility. Sylvester’s photographs invite us into the narratives for these situations, and that they seem continually familiar to us, which is a testament to Sylvester’s skill for activating our collective memory.

Darren Sylvester's Our Future Was Ours shows at the Australian Centre for Photography until 30 August.