Inherent Vice at NGV Studio @invice-blog - Tumblr Blog

Inherent Vice at NGV Studio

@invice-blog

From 16 July 2011 eight cartoonists from Melbourne will vacate their lonely studios to work together at NGV Studio. They will be working on comic art collaborations, D.I.Y. publications, site specific artworks and their own larger projects. Visitors to NGV will have the chance to see what goes on behind the closed doors of a cartoonist’s studio where comic art and independent comic books are made.

125 posts

Posts

Kept spelling my name wrong when I was signing books last night. Oh dear. (Taken with instagram)

Photography by Kasper Voogt

What I Made During Inherent Vice - Sarah Howell

I started my Harold Holt project. Last year I promised Bernard Caleo and Jo Waite a comic to be performed in the tradition of Komishibai picture theatre. Due to overwork and illness I didn't deliver the comic in time. The premise I had for the comic was really appealing, but I had struggled to determine a motivation for the characters and got stumped. The story idea was Harold Holt (the Australian prime minister who drowned/went missing in the late 60's) is somehow still alive or a ghost and abducts Tony Abbott while Tony is swimming.

While in residence I researched Australian politics searching for the foundations of a faustian set-up for how and why Harold Holt wants to abduct Tony.

The result was a synopsis, thumbnail scripts, and character designs for four stories:

one about Prime Minister Joseph Lyons and his wife Enid who was a political force in her own right;

an overview of Harold Holt's life before his disappearance;

what happens after his disappearance; and

Harold's abduction of Tony Abbott

So what started as a flippant fun idea has turned into a big project about Australian Liberal politicians and their forerunners. WTF?

Having got a good running start at this thing I turned my attention to my next commitment for Bernard and Jo, an exhibition titled "I Heart Tintin" at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel (2-9 October) as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

So that's what I got up to at the NGV Studio.

It was awesome times and awesome people. Thanks to everyone who dropped by.

What next for NGV Studio? A bunch of art student ratbag types! My friend Nic Tammens is one of them.

To follow my continuing efforts on the Harold Holt project, etc, visit my blog www.sarahhowellprojects.com