Dara Gill knows how to provoke anxiety. At Kudos right now you can not watch his video Untitled (Prototype: un-viewable nailbiting video) 2011.  When a visitor enters the space sensors ensure that none of the truncated video is revealed.  By doing almost nothing, Gill manages to achieve a lot. Indeed, the very passivity of  the artist’s role, and the silence of the work itself, multiplies the experience of frustration. In the end I had to ask what the unviewable footage depicted. The answer? Dara Gill biting his nails. As Brave As You, continues at Kudos until 28 May 2011.

On Sunday I made shoes at MOP. I discovered that it’s really hard to re-imagine the ubiquitous. My shoes were carved from two thick pieces of polystyrene and secured in place with knotted scarfs. Pretty conventional really compared to the ones that the Bababa boys made. Check out MOP’s website if you want to have a go. Also, the Bababa International exhibition, New Movement, contains cake.

What happens when you leave a Rococo painting in the back of your mind to fester for a while? You get a fabulous Tim Schultz painting. Schultztown at MOP is a salon hang of Schultz’s Surrealist-neo-Rococo works from the last decade. The paintings are rich, sexy, ironic and droll. Cracking architecture, morphing limbs and cyclopheads. Schultztown is a delight. Exhibition closes 10 April 2011.

A rather subdued show of abstract paintings by Callum Innes opened Andrew Jensen’s new Sydney space on Wednesday night.  Jensen Gallery (hailing from Auckland) represents a number of respected international artists, so I’m pretty pleased about this kiwi-ditch-jump. How great would it be to see a Tony Oursler show around the corner in Paddington?

Dreams are not afraid of the absurdity of life. The theories we rely on to perceive the world and make it meaningful melt away when our subconscious takes over. Ivan Buljan’s composite photographs in Metropolis evoke surreal spaces in which gaps in understanding are allowed to blossom. These rich and intriguing images remind me to question perception and, perhaps most importantly, to notice the absurd. Exhibition continues at Gaffa Gallery until 8 March 2011.

Patricia Alvarez and Kath Fries’ collaborative installation / performance Clothe the wold and meet the sky is a human driven web of hair and fibres. It’s feminine, tactile and a little bit trippy. The artists’ treatment of their materials oscillates between unruly and controlled, resulting in an eerie ”wold” that is part intention, part imagination and part accident. The medium is message here I think. If weaving is about making connections between things, then this entangled cave is an apt analogy for the strangely beautiful mess we make when we interact/connect with others. Check out a short video of Thursday Night’s performance here. Exhibition continues at Gaffa Galleries until 8 March 2011.

A stack of rescued CRT TVs at Sarah Cottier’s features Justene Williams energetically performing in noisy Mondrian-esque get-up. Crutch Dance, 2011 is typically mesmerizing and Art Tart particularly enjoyed the way Williams handles screens within screens. The title, which evidently references to the crutches prop, takes on new meanings when the artist mounts a TV. Love it. 4 Rock Droppers & a Cubist Phone continues until 19 March 2011.

Well I knew that Sydney art dealer Vasili Kaliman had moved to Melbourne to open a gallery, but what I didn’t know until yesterday, was that Jarrod & Tara Rawlins are closing Uplands Gallery in order to re-open with Vasili in July! Two great galleries and three great gallerists, so that should equal five stars right? Watch their website for developments: www.kalimanrawlins.com

I wasn’t expecting to get much from Tracey Emin’s solo exhibition at Amanda Love‘s Woollahra home, but I did. Praying to a Different God presents recent embroideries, monoprints and neon; the connecting thread being language. Poetry even. Tracey’s phrases are simple and heart-felt, and I can’t get them out of my head. ‘I walked away from you’ has haunted me for half a week now. Tracey isn’t afraid to talk about typically feminine relationship issues, and you’ll enjoy the work if you’re brave enough to engage with them. Exhibition open by appointment on Thursdays between 3 & 5pm until March 31.