Christina Tester

News.

2011-11-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

This year has gone fast and now I feel awake from my Winter hibernation so I can show some things I've been doing.

Firstly, I've been working on some collages and I've submitted some to the Linden Gallery Postcard Show, which opens on February 4th 2012.

I've also been making some music. My album has been mixed and I'm just working on some film clip ideas before I send it out into the world. Zac and I have also been working on some songs for a couple of years and they are nearing completion. We are just finishing off a 5 song cassette, 2 tracks of which will be put up on our website in the very near future.

Baryshnikov played our last show quite a while ago. Our final release is available for download here.

In older news, my film Summon The Sun won the Upwey Community Bank Best Film Award at the Hillside Film Festival in February.

Also, Carl Cox's new album 'All Roads Lead To The Dancefloor' is out now on Intec Digital. My vocal soundtrack to 'Come Together' is used in his track 'Kommen Zusammen'. Here's the audio from the album:

and here's Carl playing it live in Germany:

Collages.

2011-11-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make some still images using found pictures and my own photographs. I started looking into some art history and found that collage has been used for a very long time but has never really been a 'fine art' and has instead existed alongside other art forms. It doesn't require much technique - just ideas and imagination. I think it helps people to express their subconscious, as you pick images that you are naturally drawn to and the subject comes out of the process of creating it. I'd like to keep making them as I have ideas and perhaps have an exhibition at some point.

Click here to see more Collages.

News.

2011-01-05T04:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
Hope everyone had a fun Christmas. It's been a busy start to the year. 'Summon The Sun' was accepted into the Stuttgart Filmwinter Festival in Germany and I'm excited to be attending the event. Yay! Because it is all happening so soon and an opportunity I don't want to miss, I have booked my flight and am putting on a film screening fundraiser. Here are the details:

Thursday January 13th @ The Workers Club (Gertrude St.)
I am going to be showing a few films and there will also be performances by:
Miles Brown (from The Night Terrors)
Fjorn Butler
Natasha Rose (from Patinka Cha Cha)
& the guys from Absolute Boys DJing!
There will also be a bake sale and a limited edition DVD for sale featuring a selection of my films. Please tell your friends and come along as it will be a great night and will help me get to the festival and make some German friends.

If you can't make it all the way to Germany to see the film, it is also screening at the Hillside Film Festival on 19th February in Belgrave. Check the website as more details are announced.

In other news, Baryshnikov are currently mixing our first full-length album, which we will hopefully be releasing soon as a 10". I am also currently mixing a solo album, but more info on that soon...

Hope to see you next Thursday!

Stina.

News.

2010-07-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hi,
Again, a long time between posts and lots of news:

I finished Part 1 of my Spring film. It's called 'Summon The Sun' and I've made a separate post showing the complete film streaming from Vimeo! At the moment I'm trying to get it screened at some festivals overseas.
I also finished editing together my film clip for the Flesh Vs. Venom track 'Apocalypse Now'. I'd taken the first footage in 2008 and showed some of it on a loop when the band was playing its last show. Recently I selected a song off their last album and, with Zac's help, built a film clip around it using this old footage. There are some stills from it in the relevant post.
I've been finishing off some of these old projects in the hope of releasing a DVD collection of my work. I'm planning to begin compiling this by the end of the year.
Both bands have been busy playing shows. Gold Tango are planning to record a full-length album by the end of the year and hopefully go overseas in 2011. Baryshnikov are talking about recording again too in the next couple of months and hopefully going to New Zealand sometime as well. We're playing in Adelaide on the 17th and 18th of July. Check out the myspace for details.

Talk again soon!
Stina.

Apocalypse Now.

2010-07-07T08:40:00.001-07:00

film clip for Apocalypse Now (june 2010, 4'20)
Sound performed by Flesh Vs. Venom. Raw footage first screened at their final show, 2008.

I began shooting footage for this clip to be shown at the final Flesh Vs. Venom show in 2008. Back then I didn't have a clue about image sizing and Final Cut Pro and compressing so I had a lot of trouble exporting out a 25GB file on to a DVD! So, on the night of the show, I had to film my laptop screen and, since the file was too big to even play all the way through on my computer, I had to manually drag the cursor through the timeline and did a bit of improvising when the footage skipped. Anyway, I eventually got the film to the gig and screened my footage directly off of the video camera. Surprisingly I got some pretty good feedback.

Fastforward 2 years and by now I have a bit more of a grasp on these programs on my laptop. I decided to use this 15 minutes of footage and edit it down into a film clip for just one track from the final FVV album 'Family Trees'. After settling on Apocalypse Now, Zac helped me with the editing process to get my idea of the narrative across. The basic idea is that a girl turns into a bear and goes into the woods in search of a partner.

Summon The Sun.

2010-07-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Summon The Sun (june 2010, 3'30)

Summon The Sun is a lyrical film that evokes the feelings of transformation which occur when Winter becomes Spring. Life beckons the sun to assist with its awakening from a deep sleep. When the time is right, the dormant state of winter is lifted and life bursts forth into activity. Sounds and images combine to praise and celebrate this moment in the cycle of seasons when the aliveness of the world is most visible.

Apart from Wonderlust, which hasn't yet been successfully realised, this is my first finished film with multiple visual settings, and I feel it is a more developed collaboration between a musical soundtrack and diegetic sound.

News.

2010-03-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

Hi, i've had a busy start to the year and this hasn't been updated all decade! I've got lots of exciting news to share again:

Baryshnikov have a new CD EP demo thing out. It's a preview of a full-length recording we're hoping to start working on soon. We recorded it ourselves and the cover was a communal effort from band mates and even Zac, our #1 fan hehe. We're going to be playing on our first visit to Brisbane on the 26th and 27th of March. Check out the myspace page for details. We're also playing at Catfood Press this Saturday the 13th of March if you're in the area.
My film 'Gravity Rebels' is going to be playing on the outdoor screen at Federation Square as part of the Next Wave Festival. I'm not sure which night my film will be on yet but the festival runs from 13th-30th of May.
I'm still working on my Spring film and it's about half complete. I'm hoping to get it finished in time to submit to the Brisbane International Film Festival in November. I'll upload some stills soon.
Another random thing that happened is that Josh Abrahams and Carl Cox have used the soundtrack to my film 'Come Together' in a new techno song they've been working on. They played it to me the other day and, i don't know much about techno but it's dark and dancey. It's not something I would've ever imagined myself to be involved in but that alone got me excited. Hopefully it'll be on Carl's new album that might be out early next year.
I built a Harp about 18 months ago and i'm finally learning how to play it. My teacher for the past few months has been Xanya Mamunya and she's rad. It's very fun and exciting to be learning something new and it'd be nice to incorporate it into film sounds and other music projects once i get the hang of it. Here is a picture of me shredding:

News.

2009-11-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

Baryshnikov are playing this Sunday November 8th with La Quiete (Italy), Cult Minds and Yeah Right at El Joyero (923 High St, Thornbury). It's an all ages show with a vegan BBQ. Entry is $10 and it starts at 3PM.
The Gold Tango EP has been launched and will be appearing in stores sometime in November. Our next show is at the East Brunswick Club on November 22nd.
My film for the Bicycle Film Festival is almost complete! The opening night of the exhibition is next Thursday the 12th of November at 1000 Pound Bend (corner of Little Lonsdale and Elizabeth St., City) from 7 - 9PM. There will be cheap drinks and lots of art celebrating bike culture. The exhibition runs until the 29th. Check out some stills from my film below:

This is my little orchestra of instruments I used to make the soundtrack:

Stina.

Wonderlust.

2009-11-05T06:42:00.000-08:00

Wonderlust (november 2009, 5'30)
Screened at the 2009 Bicycle Film Festival, Melbourne.

I had decided to make an ode to Spring - to celebrate its excitement and energy and capture it in a little film. But I wasn't that happy with it as a finished work - it was an immature representation of what I wanted and I don't feel like I had explored the ideas enough. However, through seeing what was missing from this film, it inspired me to remake it and that's what i'm currently working on. I haven't incorporated any footage of this into the new Spring film but I still might.
The title is a word that I may have invented; the meaning being 'a desire to wonder about the world'.

News.

2009-09-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping busy so I have lots of news to share:

My film 'Come Together' is screening at Dogs Bar (54 Acland St., St. Kilda) as part of the St. Kilda SHORTS Short Film Festival. The program starts at 8pm on Monday 12th October and I will be attending as a guest speaker.
I am currently working on a film to be shown as part of the Bicycle Film Festival. It will be screening as part of an exhibition at 1000 Pound Bend (corner of Little Lonsdale and Elizabeth St., City) from 12th - 29th November.
My band Baryshnikov are playing a show at Catfood Press (289 Lygon St., East Brunswick) on October 10th. Also playing are Holy Samolly, Brainwaves and Edison. It starts at 6pm and entry is $5.
Finally, a lot has been happening with Gold Tango. We have a few shows coming up including this Wednesday and Thursday (23rd and 24th of September) and our EP launch on October 16th. Check the myspace for more details. Here is a glimpse of the cover art that I made with Zac's assistance. It's a collage of a landscape, made up of many other landscapes:

Talk again soon!
Stina.

News.

2009-08-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog/website. i've made this (with a little assistance) so that my films and music can be easily accessed, so that people can find out about me, and get in touch with me if they want, and so we can share ideas and inspiration with each other, and also for me to keep track of my chaotic existence and creations. Things are still being added and uploaded on an almost daily basis at the moment so check back often - there's some of my photography to go up soon and some audio of previously unreleased solo music endeavours.

Current projects:

Gold Tango have finished recording for our 7" and we should be putting that out in the near future. Our next show is on the 15th of August at Edinburgh Castle, Brunswick. Baryshnikov don't have any shows coming up but we're planning to record soon - maybe in September/October.
I am working on a new film in the realm of stop-motion sci-fi/fantasy. it's a big project so I am expecting it to take a few more months but I will upload some stills as it progresses. I'm hoping to get it done before December so that I can enter it into a sci-fi film festival in Greece.
I'm also working towards compiling a DVD (coming out on Exo Records) with all of the films that i've made so far. I'm currently trying to finish the film I made for Flesh Vs. Venom for inclusion on this.

Talk again soon,
Stina.

Below are the first stills from the film i'm currently working on:

..and the the lighting setup i used to film the world:

Flower Performance.

2009-08-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

It was my first year at QUT (2003) and I had just moved from the country. I was doing a semester on performance art and I missed the plant life so I had an idea to dress up as a flower and plant myself in a pot for a day as a piece for my uni course. I ended up doing it over 2 days for about four hours at a time. The first time I was set up in the middle of the uni, the other time was in the city at the west end of the mall. I had watering cans full of water for passersby to water me at will. I also had a friend of mine come to be 'my gardner'/security - to gently encourage people to water me, and fill up the water cans, and 'weed me'. If people didn't water me for a while I went all droopy. People were really lovely. One girl watered me in my mouth and some people watered into the pot where my feet were. My feet were covered in soil up to my ankles. Some people walked around me and watered bits of my skirt or my arms/leaves. I made the petals and leaves of my costume out of placemats and paint. I think it was generally intended as a fun event.
As a side-performance I had planted seedlings around the city in different spots - at the end of alleyways, behind shops, in driveways, carparks. I got soil and planted little seedlings of random flowers that were in season. At my flower-pot performance I had some flyers telling people what I was doing with a map so people could go and have a look on the progress of the seedlings I was trying to grow. I'd go in and check on them every 2 or 3 days with water and fresh soil. The people in a cafe around the corner from one batch used to call me the 'green fairy'. Some flowers were doing really good but they were near a downpipe and they got washed away during a big downpour.

Inhabited.

2009-08-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

An experiment with long exposures from 2006. Though these look like layered images, it is actually a single exposure that captures a live performance.
Click on an image below to view entire album...

Melbourne Photos.

2009-08-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos I have taken since I have been in Melbourne. Most of these are from 2006.
Click on an image below to view entire album...

Gravity Rebels.

2009-07-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Gravity Rebels (september 2008, 4'30)
Presented and screened at the 2009 Yebisu Festival for Arts and Alternative Visions in Tokyo, Japan.
Screened at Federation Square as part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival, Melbourne.

A handful of different bold shapes are animated in a simplified silhouette animation. Throughout the film the shapes are constantly moving around in a sepia playground, changing and morphing in and out of each other. The gravity in this world often shifts with sometimes the shapes free to float around the screen and, at other times, restricted to move in the ways of the real world. I chose particular sounds for each shape to build them a unique character so that when many appear on the screen at once they create a cluttering symphony. As they playfully challenge the laws of nature, the imagined becomes real in this film of lively transformation.

Come Together.

2009-07-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

COME TOGETHER (march 2008, 3'00)
Screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2008.

Extending from the Liberation Poems, using charcoal on paper and my own voice, I wanted to focus in on one audio/visual element and meditate on it for a while to see where it could go. In this film there is no speed manipulation or fast cutting as the charcoal lines snake across the paper at their own pace. I like to think of them as a poetic expression for the human spirit. Blind to their destination they move on instinct; accumulating, meeting, and passing one another on the paper. None of the drawings were pre-planned in an effort to capture a randomness in the movement of the lines, and the sound was performed and recorded live to the film.

Liberation Poem For Voice 1 & 2.

2009-07-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

LIBERATION POEM FOR VOICE 1 (june 2007, 2'30)
Released on a compilation DVD of emerging Australian film artists by Tape Projects collective ['DVD Issue 3', December 2007].

LIBERATION POEM FOR VOICE 2 (november 2007, 2'50)

A series of visual scores, drawn using charcoal and pencil, were animated then performed with the human voice. Each line and movement in the animated score is described and liberated with its corresponding vocal performance. I performed and recorded the sound live while watching the animated score. Once the audio is synced to the animation, the complete work is manipulated through strange cutting and speed alterations. This work is a study into how sound can evoke an image, and vice versa. I enjoy pairing images with new sounds and sounds with new images to create different possible ways of seeing the world.

Releases.

2009-07-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

BARYSHNIKOV s/t
self-released cd, 05/2010

Christina Tester [voice, bass, keys]
Mark Free [drums, voice]
Nathaniel Walker [guitar]
recorded in 2010.
click HERE for band website and audio.

BARYSHNIKOV s/t
self-released demo cd, 02/2010

Christina Tester [voice, bass]
Mark Free [drums, voice]
Nathaniel Walker [guitar]
recorded 12/2009.
click HERE for band website and audio.

GOLD TANGO s/t e.p.
cdep on Exo Records, 11/2009

Christina Tester [voice, organ]
Cinta Masters [drums, voice]
Dakoda Abrams [guitar]
recorded 07/2009.
click HERE for band website and audio.

VARIOUS ARTISTS the warm cupboard
12" compilation on Albert's Basement, 06/2009

one track, 'Girl With Balloon', performed by and credited to Christina Tester [voice and balloon].
recorded 2007.
click HERE for label website.

BARYSHNIKOV s/t
self-released demo cd-r, 01/2009

Christina Tester [voice, bass]
Mark Free [drums, voice]
Nathaniel Walker [guitar]
recorded 2008.
click HERE for band website and audio.

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Other Appearances:

Carl Cox - All Roads Lead To The Dancefloor (Intec Digital, 2011)
- voice on track 7, 'Kommen Zusammen'.

The Night Terrors - Back To Zero (Exo, 2009)
- voice/egg timers on track 10, 'Back To Zero'.