Verge B-Boy Week Finale It might seem like we've gone a little nutz for breakdancing this week huh? Looking back there was the Planet B-Boy review, the Planet B-Boy competiti... Read More

Verge David Hicks Speaks David Hicks has spoken... albeit briefly. The email was sent out this morning from Social Justice and Activist group Get Up declaring that David Hicks... Read More

Verge A Word With Hartley Jackson When we heard that Adelaide pro-wrestler "Jag" Hartley Jackson was headed over to Japan to do bloody battle with the world's best, we had to... Read More

Downhill On Four Wheels Have you ever had the experience where you see something on the Internet, something like Italian Spiderman and it's so good you just assume that it's spawned in the far off regions of a place more sophisticatedand advancedthan your own town? Well, apart from offending your peers, making assumptions like that is just stupid in this day andage.After ... Read More

Parra-fanalia One of our favourite designers/artists/illustrators, Parra, has some new stuff rolling out from his fashion factory label Rockwell. The Dutch artist is doing bigger and better things all the time. The above image is from the cover of Juxtapoz magazine in which he told the interviewer about all sorts of random shit as well as dropping bombshells abo... Read More

DIY Obama Poster Although we can rest easy after Barack Obama was confirmed President Elect of the United States last Wednesday (Tuesday US time), we have only just now found this downloadable poster by artist Shepard Fairey and had to share it with you guys. It wasFairey's works thatoriginally lead us to uncover the mountains of Obama fan art out there. In case yo... Read More

Hedonism has a film clip Well, not a film clip per se, but a docu-rocku-mentary of the ever-cool and super-hyped French electro pair that form Justice. Our good friends over at Fuzzy were kind enough to drop us a line to let us know that the Australian premiere of A Cross The Universe, would be going ahead in Sydney later this month.The film is credited to Romain Gavras (w... Read More

A Word With Tim Douglas This story may take a while to upload depending on your connection but Tim Douglas' images of underground infrastructure are spellbinding.If you hear the sound of a mysterious camera clicking away somewhere under your feet, chances are it’s Tim Douglas. Member of underground exploration group the Cave Clan, Tim has been checking out and captu... Read More

Bulletproof Fashion There are times in life when you simply want to look good. And then there are times when you want to look good while being protected from a hail of bullets shot at you by the Medellín cartel.Enter Miguel Caballero, who produces a range of what he calls ‘high security fashion’ – everything from a sporty outdoor jacket that w... Read More

The Rundle Lantern Up until now, when you think “Adelaide landmarks” you thought either a couple of shiny balls or some pigs scrounging in a bin or something. But since Friday the city has a landmark to be proud of – the Rundle Lantern on the corner of Pulteney and Rundle St.Making up the Lantern are 748 square panels that are lit by a series of LED... Read More

Irving Baby Sweet 16 Photographs by Lara MerringtonSweet 16 is the design initiative of two Adelaide sisters Trenna Oelsnik and Briar Petersen. The projectwas startedas a way to celebrate their store, Irving Baby's,16th birthday. Trenna and Briar invited 16 (actually more than that) artists to offer their take on the same dress and the results arequite remarkable. Alth... Read More

Counter(top) Terrorism Just because terrorism is serious business doesn’t mean that you have to be all pouty-faced about it. The War on Terror (sarcastic finger quotations implied) isn’t going anywhere any time soon – so why not kick back, relax, and join in on the band wagon by spending some of your strong Australian dollars (more finger quotations) to... Read More

A Word With Rob Patrinos You might have noticed more and more kids getting around in some pretty sweet sneakers. If you haven’t noticed, then you probably don’t care about shoes and that’s fine. However, Rob Patrinos might try and convince you otherwise. The man is a dead-set genius with an airbrush and a pint of acetone, wreaking havoc on any standard is... Read More

Intelligent Design "Plantbot" is an intelligent plant stand that moves over the course of a day to follow the sun and make sure it's cargo is ever connected to the sun's life giving rays. It's one of The Play Coalition's designs who describe their style as being functional as well as fun. They've got a bunch of other quirky designs on their website. Read More

A Word With Don Hertzfeldt Interview by Doug MickleyDon Hertzfeldt is an artist that people don’t just talk about knowing, they brag about knowing. He captures real life moments, and emotions, that would usually get lost in animation. By the end of his films you find yourself questioning your job, girlfriend, god, and any of the cool stuff you used to like.Patiently dr... Read More

Obama-rama While it’s true that the next US Federal election will be tightly contested by the two candidates, McCain and Obama, it’s not so even in the art department. We’ve reported previously on such stunning poster campaigns as Sheppard Fairey’s massive work in the Manifest Hope gallery but there are tons more out there too. It seem... Read More

A Word With Oscar & Ewan When the new Roots Manuva album landed on the Merge desk we couldn't stop looking at the cover. Everything about it was getting us randy, so we hunted down the creators, Oscar and Ewan and forced the two gun designersto divulge the secret of their awesomeness.How long have you been doing what you do?We studied Graphics together at Central Saint Mar... Read More

The New Old Photography While digital photography has revolutionised the way we view and do photography, film cameras like the Golden Half (below) are causing a return to film amongst Adelaide’s more adventurous and experimental happy-snappers. Andy Irwin from Value King, who stocks a wide range of toy cameras, explains that film encourages a different appreciation ... Read More

A Stranger's Just a Friend Story and illustration by Robin Tatlow-LordCouch Surfing: a philosophy perhaps; a way of life for some, but essentially a semi-organised global system of crashing at mates’ places. Except that these are mates you’ve never met before; mates who live across the ocean or at least at a different mouth of the Murray; mates with delightful ac... Read More

A Word With Jeni Oye It's not the manliest stuff in the world, in fact it'sstraight outcute but the jewellery designs featured on Jeni Oye's website, Oye Modern,have captured our eyes, hearts and minds with their irreverent playfulness and personality that is too often missing from mainstream jewellery designs. The pick of the litter has to be the tiny household earrin... Read More

It's a Microscopic World It’s incredible how something you wouldn’t take a second look at normally becomes absolutely mesmerising once you zoom in really, really close. That’s the premise behind Nikon’s annual International Small World Competition, which seeks to recognise the brave efforts of those who chose to spend all day looking at a rat embryo... Read More

America the Gift Shop Taking the concept of the gift shop to strange and tremendous new places, America the Gift Shop poses the question: if we were to buy novelty tat commemorating the last eight years of US politics, what would that tat look like?The answer is hilarious, disarming -and a more than a little bit terrifying. The artist is New York-based Phillip Toledano,... Read More

La Machine Likes Spiders Last week giant crowds in Liverpool looked on as a humungous mechanical spider delighted in taking a stroll about the place. It was all part of celebrations for the “Capital of Culture” event in the England town better known for beetles than arachnids.Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets during the five-day street theatre ... Read More

Penny Pinchers We all love the police, that “protect and serve” thing really sums them up. Well, in Amsterdam they’ve knocked up their efficiency to another whole level by “securing” one of the instillations from the Urban Play festival. Curator, Scott Burnham, writes about getting up the very next day after the launch party for Urba... Read More

A Word With Glenn Manders Glenn Manders is one big happy coincidence. We met the Brisbane comic artist by pure chance on the Beautiful Losers forum. He'd uploaded some saucy little comics for the world to peruse and the world (...or maybe just us) loved what they saw. His comic BadTeethfeatures the exploits of a rather cheery couple of friends that speak as if they're recov... Read More

What's Your Wallpaper? This is the sort of delightful question that you never need answer because you can always change your mind and paste over whatever the hell you were thinking last year when you glued that Alaskan wilderness scene to your living room wall.Whilewe're pretty sure wallpaper went out of fashion in the mid to late 80s when interior architects went throug... Read More

Above And Beyond SUPRA Footwear out of LA is taking a huge bite out of the sneaker market with its relatvely tiny mouth. Although it's not one of the "big four" sneaker companies, the brand has had huge success, with recent releases causing pandemonium in shops the world over. The shiny gold Muska models reportedly sold out in America within 30 minutes of... Read More

Canvassing Change Through Art Oxfam is currently taking entries for the Canvas for Change exhibition. It all seems like a pretty good idea. Paint acanvas that highlights the effect climate change has on theearth's poverty stricken.People all over the world are taking part in this international project and all entries will be exhibited online in Oxfam’s specially created &... Read More

A word With China Heights Booked to the brim in this its fifth year, China Heights in Sydney's Surry Hills is so contemporary, art gets old after a week on its walls. While they themsleves, are cooler than forgotten piece of toast, Mark Drew and Edward Woodley, China Height's directors have an eye for heat and constantly feature the most amazing artists on their walls. Matt... Read More

Women Are Heroes We first learnt about the prolific and amazing talents of French artist JR when we fell upon images of his poster work in the Rio Favelas. Those images captured space and sentiment and moulded them up into a big aesthetic cookie-doh ball. We then found his work from Kenya, South-Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Women Are Heroes. The film was made i... Read More

If James Bond Was A Surfer These images of Nicholas Notara's collapsable surfboard have been on several design sites around the world this year. However all of them tend to read like a Demtel advertisement for Tupperware, "can't fit surfing into your life, well now you can" and so on. Looking at these images and the over all concept I'm more inclined to think of so... Read More

Time Keeps Ticking It’s all about time at Merge right now.Deadline is set and the count down is killing sixty minutes quicker than we’d like. But that’s publishing. So we built a bridge… got a straw and sucked it up realising thatif we’ve got to watch the clock all day we may as well look at some good ones. Here are the best clocks we c... Read More

Rich Man Art Money can't buy you happiness. Money can buy you a Lamborghini. And even more money can buy you a hand-drawn custom paint job like this one. Done with a sharpie permanent texta and then coated with a clear fixer to make it real permanent, this rich man or woman's play thing sticks out even in LA where the Gallardo is a pretty standard auto. Unfortu... Read More

Sexy Old Bags It’s a difficult ask to get a product that is made out of recycled materials and also looks like something you’d proudly stroll down the boulevard clutching. But trust the Swiss – in 1993 Zurich locals Markus and Daniel Freitag stumbled upon the idea of transforming old truck tarps into messenger bags and they managed to hit onto ... Read More

A Word With Pixelh8 For a man whose name implies a dislike of pixels, Matthew Applegate, aka Pixelh8 sure seems to enjoy making music about them.His latest album, 2007'sThe BoyWith The Digital Heartacts like an umbilical chord connecting the listenerto a point in their childhood whentheytore throughpixelated lands of question-marked boxes and mushroom power.Pixelh8 is... Read More

Wall Talk: Moving Image Tour What happens when you give an art-toting, hat-wearing, projector-bike-riding, video-shooting, super-guide a generator and a loudspeaker? Well if it wasn’t during SALA (the South Australian Living Artists festival), he’d likely be arrested or even put in a padded room. Thankfully though, it is SALA and instead, those who braved the frigi... Read More

Nike To Meat Shoe No we haven’t suddenly forgotten everything Sesame Street taught us about spelling, it’s just an extravagant pun we thought entirely appropriate for this extravagant Nike project. Artist Olle Hemmendorff, along with seven other artsy-type people were commissioned by Nike to put their spin on eight different Nike Sportswear icons. Dubbed... Read More

Unphotoshopping The phrase 'the camera doesn't lie' seems like an ironic joke these days. In an era where a few clicks in Photoshop can take an image out of all reality, you can't trust a camera as far as you can throw it (I mean a really heavy camera). All of which is why Henry Hadlow's series 'Tell a Lie', which subverts the proud tradition of Photoshopping, is ... Read More

A Word With Idan Raichel The Idan Raichel Project changed the Israeli pop music scene in 2002 with their message of love and tolerance. Merge caught up with the guy, who started it all in his parent’s basement: IDAN RAICHEL.What role did the military have in your development as a musician?Like all young people in Israel, I had to join the Army when I turned 18. It is... Read More

A Word With Matty Boylan Matty Boylan started off DJing in Adelaide before taking the leap across the pond to Kyushu, Japan, where he continues to live, work, and spin today. When Matty recently skipped back home for a few days, Merge took the opportunity to catch up with him and find out what life is like for anAdelaidean DJ up Nippon way. Here's what Matty told us over a... Read More

Beautiful Losers Everyone hates a name-dropper but recently released film Beautiful Losers just couldn’t help itself. The film, currently only screening in the US, centres around one of the most influential art collectives in the States and even the world. Names like Ed Templeton, Jo Jackson, Mike Mills and Shepard Fairey have had a huge affect on shaping the... Read More

A Word With Joshua Smith Everyone knows Joshua Smith, even if they don't know it yet. He's the guy who did that awesome stencil you saw one time hanging in a pub or club but waved it off thinking it was just a computer print out. He's the guy that sold some art to a Yakuza boss in Japan and doesn't mind a Piroshki from the markets. Still nothing? Well anyway, his name is J... Read More

Get-a-fix If the spawn of Satan rode a bicycle, it would invariably be a fixie. ‘Fixies’ or fixed-gear bikes are going to hell-in-a-hand-basket and they’re taking the meanest, most hard core bike riders with ‘em. A massive exaggeration, but one, we are no-less inclined to make. The trend of knocking off your bike’s gears and fix... Read More

First-Person Mining At last all those long, lonely nights in front of DoomII have paid off. No – we’re not being invaded by flying heads from Mars (calm down) – but a similarfirst-person video game technology is now being used to train miners who are headed down the hole for the first time.In a $430,000 collaborative project between several organisat... Read More

Blockin' Out Like an 8-bit video game thunder-bolted into life, at the moment the art of Nathan Sawaya is Merge’s favourite thing in the world ever. A New York native, Nathan’s work is constructed entirely with Lego bricks – proving once and for all that building outside the kits is way funner than rehashing that dinky little pirate ship over ... Read More

Chinese Security Force Update It’s hard not to be pulled into the swirling Olympic vortex of China this month.Everything has gone China from McDonalds and Coke right through to Mitsubishi and Panasonic, I think I even heard that The Vapors werer turning Chinese. Merge too gave up all pretences of integrity a couple of months ago after seeing Chen Zhun’s photoshoot f... Read More

Hard-Hitting Sheilas The “game”, as it were, had not begun more than a minute and already there was a pile of women in a tangled heap at the far end of the track. The clatter and skid of plastic wheels on the hard gym floor and the sickening thud of flesh and bone against the brick wall were enough to make me furrow my brow with concern. I thought I’d... Read More

Caught on Tape The packing tape industry must love Mark Jenkins. An innovative Virginia-born street artist, his most novel projects involve creating sculptures entirely out of tape – resulting in dream-like translucent figures that seem bizarrely juxtaposed to the urban scenes where they appear.Jenkins has created tape sculptures of everything from horses t... Read More

Rockin' Out With Tesla Although it sounds like something that only the Gods should have power over, it’s now possible to build a machine that will shoot giant bolts of electricity to create music. It’s all based on an invention pioneered by Nikola “Mad Scientist” Tesla back in 1891 called a Tesla coil, which creates an electrical charge similar to... Read More

Tree Art We’re not sure how you say it but the Pooktre artists are playing God with trees; shaping them, taming them and forcing them into designs of their own conjuring. Merge enjoys the natural beauty and grace of wild trees, one of our favourite places on a warm afternoon are the Botanic Gardens but these contortions of nature are pretty special.Us... Read More

A Word With Italian Spiderman Italian Spiderman is a certified internet phenomenon. Created by a core team of five friends with a whole lot of talent and a passion for 1960s cheese, the video project is closing in on 4 million hits and a deal with Italian TV. In the lead up to the next shoot, Merge caught up with the 21 year-old Director of this perfectly chaotic mess, Dario Ru... Read More

Sustainable Hedonism A night out on the tiles is something Caligula would be proud of. You get the feeling that the gluttonous Roman tyrant would be at home amongst all that glugging of booze, random violence and grinding of crotch material. Fun as it may be to get plastered and manically gyrate your body until you vomit into a sewer, it is difficult to argue that you&... Read More

King of the Street If street art needed a king, then his name be Brad Downey. Downey, a Kentucky native, ticks all the boxes when it comes to what’s great about the art form: not only is he innovative and funny, but he’ll also get you rubbing your chin like you’re in a C+C Music Factory video.Often dressing up as a council worker to avoid detection,... Read More

Agents of Orange Abandoned houses sunken in their rotting surroundings want to be noticed. Four Detroit artists are roaming their neglected streets, coating their community’s run-down buildings in ‘Tiggerific’ orange paint – creating what they call ‘Object Orange’.The newly painted corpse of once-lived-in houses have captured the... Read More

More Brain by the Grain 37 billion grains of rice is a fair bit. Especially when you consider one bowl of the stuff contains about 3 thousand little grains – so that 37 billion works out at somewhere around 125 million individual servings. And, what’s more, all those bowls were donated by people as lazy as you.It’s FreeRice, and it’s brilliant. The... Read More

George Carlin’s Excellent Adventure Ends Profanity everywhere is mourning the loss this week of one of its greatest supporters. George Carlin has checked out at age 71 after being admitted to a hospital in the US earlier this week for chest pains.If you’re unfamiliar with Carlin’s comedy style, think of a mutant Jerry Seinfeld/Eddie Murphy concoction and you’re still som... Read More

Instantaneous 3 “It was hot. Same kind of hot that creeps up the back and whispers thoughts of rage in the ear of the most placid man…” TO BE CONTINUED is the theme of this comic book art exhibition. Instantaneous is an exhibition dedicated to comic book art and its creators. It’s about getting illustrations out of the sketchbook, out of z... Read More

It's The Next Wave Showcasing over 400 artists in over 60 shows, the 2008 Next Wave Festival is charging along in a most Melburnian fashion - taking over streets, squares, theatres, coffee shops, Laundromats, and any conceivable crevice where art can be rendered.The festival, which started last week, continues in Melbourne until the 31st of May and is taking visitors... Read More

Hardcore Box Action It's one of the oddest sub-cultures clogging up YouTube - and some of the strangest vicarious thrills the Internet has ever produced. It's "unboxing", and to understand what it’s all about it’s best to see it in motion. Take one new video game or piece of computer hardware – freshly boxed – flick on that camera and... Read More

Fully Art-Optioned Auto Henry Ford once famously said that consumers could have their car in whatever colour they wished, so long as it was black. Now, it seems, car companies are saying you can have your auto in whatever colour you like – so long as it’s graffiti.Admittedly that paragraph makes about as much sense as the whole idea of car companies using what... Read More

Banksy Got Cans! Forget the flashy lights, red carpets and plastic people – this “Cans Festival” was celebrated in a dank and disused railway station in London. There, under the unused train platform at Waterloo Station, infamous stencil artist Banksy, brought together 40 international artists and art collectives to help create a free three-day st... Read More

Message in the Making Although human blood, chewed up food, a tricycle and telephone conversations don’t sound like ideal media for creating art, they’re all essentials for Phil Hansen.Take Hansen’s portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Not only is it somehow a mildly flattering picture (a difficulty when using Jong-il as a subject, let’s ... Read More

Garbage: the Final Frontier A growing cloud of space garbage may threaten future intergalactic travel. As much as it sounds like what you might read in a 1970s sci-fi novel (with appropriately air-brushed cover), it’s actually a tip off from the European Space Agency (ESA).According to the ESA, the ever-increasing halo of dead satellites and discarded spacecraft orbitin... Read More

Reverse Graffiti: Sao Paulo Brazil Empty Magazine (issue 11) reported on Alexandre Orion, a photographer and graffiti artist from Sao Paulo Brazil. Orion Removed soot in the max Feffer tunnel joining Av. Europa and Cidade Jardim to create the Intervention Ossario: Art Less Pollution. There's video of the piece's creation below.Check out more Alexandre Orion. Read More

Blowing up New York Something's making the trash in New York dance - and this time it ain't the rats. Local art student Joshua Allen Harris has attached plastic garbage bags to sidewalk subway grates, so that when a train passes underneath the creations are filled with air and spring to life in the form of dancin' animals.Harris says that since he's a student and unab... Read More

Ripple Tipple Who would have ever thought getting involved could be so lazy... Ripple.org is an idea which almost puts the whole notion of activism on its head. It's grassroots and cybercables all rolled into one sleek, organic, machine that turns mouse clicks into cash for deserving people the world over.Working with charitable foundations: WaterAid, OakTree Fo... Read More

In the Dark If you started bumping into things even before you’d touched a drink last night, chances are you were caught smack-bang in the middle of Earth Hour 2008.For an hour last night people were encouraged to switch off their lights and other electrical appliances, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions – and generally show climate change how... Read More

Guns Across America Kyle Cassidytravelled 15,000 miles over two years photographing Americans in their homes and asking one question:"Why do you own a gun?"Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes is a 208 page hardback book by the photographer Kyle Cassidy and ranked in Amazon.com's 100 best books of 2007.Check out more Armed America. Read More

Chattin' Wit YOU It's YOU! YOU is an innovative Australian zine that's been discreetly appearing in all the right places since late 2001. Taking the form of a weekly personal letter addressed to you, YOU details the little moments, big successes, and quiet musings of a revolving cast of anonymous authors.Merge caught up with the man behind the whole shebang, Luke, ... Read More

Just Hangin' Around Ever noticed sneakers hanging from electrical wires? New Zealand photographerGeoff Buddhas. Merge caught up with the man who thinks sneakers hanging from powerlines is simply progressive street sculpture.What compelled you to create gallery Sole Intentions?Curiosity. There’s a heap of sneakers swinging around the streets where I live in west ... Read More

A Word With Nial O'Connor Adelaide artist Nial O’Connor (a.k.a. Zeldz Magnoonis) left Australia four years ago to take his comic to the world. Now, on the eve of his return, Nial talks to Merge about the Adventures of Pepe through the luscious curves of the earth’s creation. How the beautiful game flows through his fingers and the importance of love.What was the... Read More

Hilltop Hoods Sneaker Australian Hip Hop group the Hilltop Hoods have gone into releasing sneakers now. Albeit briefly! Word on the street is that the sneaker they put out with long-time supporters DC shoes has already sold out in many instances. The Hilltop Remix shoe takes a current model of shoe (DC Prides) and re-touches it with the group’s own flavour. At a g... Read More

Spot These Pigs Trendy New York eatery, The Spotted Pig, joined forces with DC in another unusual collaboration to produce these flaming orange kicks. Originally created exclusive for The Spotted Pig staff, owner Ken Friedman decided to let them go on general release when he started noticing staff finishing their shift in socks after having sold their shoes to pat... Read More

Digital Paint on a Digital Brush Painting’s biggest problem is that it’s just too expensive. Once you’ve got a proper set up of canvases, oils and brushes, chances are you won’t have enough scratch left over for any sort of wholesome food, and a paint brush is no use when you’re lying in malnourished heap atop your collection of Empty magazines.Luckil... Read More

Can eating Kangaroo turn you green? It seems, given climate change, drought and the growing marketof “conscious consumers,” the roo is under the pump. Or perhaps hammer is more accurate. The hammer of rifles which belong to a breed of farmer not so affected by the drought – kangaroo farmers. In Australia vast numbers of kangaroos are permitted to be harvested for th... Read More

Industrial kite surfing You might have seen them, figures cutting across waves, taking chunks out of the ocean at speed, always chasing after an incredible and seemingly elusive sail in the sky. Kite Surfing is becoming an increasingly fixed sport on the Australian beachscape. But a little further out to sea you might soon find something even more impressive.Some innovati... Read More

The Incredible; The Amazing - reacTable Amongst theexplosive cavalcade of colour, carnivale-esque atmosphere and general weirdness that infested Bjork’s show at this year’s Big Day Out, was the exhibition of electronic music’s hottest new toy: the reacTable.What at first glance might have seemed like some quasi-intergalactic Fisher Price play set for ages 2 and up, turn... Read More