Part 1 - Colourful angst and joy - 1977-1987

Toby Zoates art Part 1 1977-1986 | Part 2 - 1987-2019 | Part 3 - 2020+ | @ the Tin Sheds

"My kind of art [is] cartoon imagery, symbolism, political diatribe, libertarian satire, acerbic comment, working-class folklore, memoir journalism" - Toby Zoates 21 April 2017

1. Introduction
 
Toby Zoates, February 2019
Toby Zoates (b.1949) is a Sydney-based artist, writer, activist, music lover, performer and film maker. This blog is a listing of his artistic endeavours in the areas of posters, painting and performance. It supplements, and is largely based upon, Zoates' own written and internet-based records of his life and achievements. The most important of these is the wonderfully wordy blog Toby the Punk Poofy Cat through which he has had a voice since 2006. His semi-biographical, un-illustrated graphic novel Vagabond Freak (2017) is also a significant reference, outlining the many highs and lows of his early years prior to moving to Sydney in 1977. It was followed up in 2021 by the illustrated Punk Outsider which takes Toby's life journey through to the 1990s. Toby is also active on Instagram and Facebook at his Hard Art site.
 
The present blog reveals the artist known as Toby Zoates' distinctive display of anger and joy arising out of engagement with Sydney following his arrival there from Melbourne via India early in 1977. Zoates is a uniquely talented, and largely neglected, Australian artist who has recorded, in a highly critical and often sardonically comic manner, the harsher elements of city life, especially for a gay man. His art is cartoonish and edgy in the tradition of American artist Robert Crumb. It is also backed with an extensive knowledge of art history. 
 
The present writer initially encountered Zoates' art on 19 February 2019 at a Darlington exhibition mounted by his friend and dealer Damien Minton, wherein the work of Toby Zoates was juxtaposed with that of fellow Sydney artist and print maker Martin Sharp (1942-2013). In the listing below there is an initial focus on Zoates' poster work from the late 1970s through the 1980s. Since then he has mostly concentrated on individual drawings and paintings, with audiovisual and performance work spread throughout. He has also recently extending in the area of t-shirt and skateboard graphics, along with a continuing interest in animation which features his art. As such, included herein are a number of videos of Zoates' film and cartoon work, alongside personal reflections and biographical references which provide context. For information about individual works, and the purchase of digital prints where copies are available, please contact tobyzoates@hotmail.com or see the Toby Zoates Hard Art Facebook page where he can also be messaged.
 
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2. Autobiographical note
 
"[I was] born in Melbourne in 1949. Toby Zoates is a name de plume invented in 1978 when I decided I needed a household name. On hearing a television advertisement extolling the nutritional value of a famous breakfast cereal [Uncle Toby's Oats], the announcer slurred his "S" into a "Z", a letter that epitomises the renegade: Zorro, Zapata, Zippie the Pinhead and the Z list, thus I became Toby Zoates."
 
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3. Biographical outline 1949-85

1949 - 1967: William Arthur Tobin, aka Toby Zoates, is born and raised in Victoria. See Toby's anonymous autobiography Vagabond Freak for a detailed description of this period of his life, covering in detail the years leading up to his return to Australia from India in 1977 and subsequent move to Sydney.

Rosanna High School, Form 3B, 1964. Toby’s high school photo at 14, with Toby top row, far right.

1968 - 1971: Whilst living in Victoria, Toby graduated with a Diploma of Nursing, Palliative Care. He also studied modern dance with Arthur Turnbull (1929-2014) of Ballet Victoria. 

1969 - 1974: Studied art/yoga/philosophy with Murry "Latimer" Triggs (1919-1974) of Adelaide.

1972 -1975: Studied yoga, philosophy, music and meditation at Sivananda Jungle University, Rishikesh, India, from 1972 to 1975.

1972 - 1975 : Danced, wrote and performed rock operas on the beaches of Goa, India.

1977 : Moved to Sydney. Toby subsequently noted the following important elements of this period of his subsequent life leading up to about 1985, and some of the highlights of his poster work therein:

1) First of my fund-raising multi-media happenings, (civil disobedience as performance art), for which I silk-screened various posters and papered the walls of Sydney with them. Some are now in the archives of the National Gallery, Canberra. I was arrested for trespass at the White Bay anti-uranium riots hoping to stop the export of Uranium from the Port of Sydney. I produced a benefit at Balmain Town Hall called "Blood on the Streets" to help pay the fines of all those arrested, silk-screening poster and wall-papering Sydney with it.

2) 2nd Anti-uranium fundraiser with poster held at Paddington Town Hall.

3) Anti-Authoritarian Dance at Balmain Town Hall.

4) Benefit for Jail News with silk-screen poster held at Tin Sheds Art Gallery.

5) Benefit for Garibaldi's Cafe/Community Centre in Darlinghurst with silk-screened fluorescent ink poster.

6) Benefit for Prisoners' Action Group with black and white silk-screened poster held at Garibaldi's Cafe.

7) Silk-screen poster and co-coordinator of Science-fiction Festival of art and movies held at Stanley Palmer's Community Centre, Darlinghurst.

8) Benefit for the Settlement, Koori Community Centre in Chippendale with silk-screen poster.

9) Multi-coloured silk-screen poster on computer print-out paper for fund-raising sports event for Prisoners Action Group.
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4. Toby Zoates Exhibitions

[All exhibitions are solo shows by Toby Zoates, unless otherwise stated]

Exhibition, Opera House Gallery, Sydney, 1977. Group show.

Stanley Palmer's Exhibition, Sydney, 1978. Group show.

The Thief of Sydney exhibition, ArtSpace Gallery, Sydney, 13-30 June 1984. Featuring works of art related to the film, videos, comics and posters. One-man show.

Toby Zoates exhibition, Avago Space - Tin Sheds Gallery, March 1987, Sydney.

Gunnery Squat Gallery, Sydney, 1990. Group show.

Jan Taylor Gallery, Balmain, ?

Hogarth Galleries, Paddington, ?

10 Taylor Street Gallery, Sydney, ?

Tap Gallery, Darlinghurst, ?

Piccolo Cafe, Kings Cross, ?

Rex Hotel, Kings Cross, ?

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, ?

Exhibition of Posters by Toby Zoates '79 to '97, Roland Hump Galleries, Redfern, 17 June - 5 July 1997.

'Kings Cross' exhibition, Kings Cross Library, 2006. For Kings Cross Arts Festival.

The Grunge of Virgin Beasts, Newtown Library, 2010. For the Newtown Arts Festival.

Toby Zoates in the Annex Space, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, 11-12 September 2012. The video of the My Sob Story performance by Toby Zoates is available here: https://vimeo.com/64443064.

Art in the Hood, Joe and the Juice, Macleay Street, Potts Point, July 2018.

My City of Sydney - Martin Sharp and Toby Zoates [exhibition], Sheffer Gallery, Sydney, 19-23 February 2019.

Poster display, Sedition Festival, State Library of New South Wales, September 2019. Featuring the Toby Zoates White Bay Protest poster top centre of view.

Sedition: A Celebration of Sydney's 1970s Subculture, State Library of New South Wales + National Art School, Darlinghurst, September 2019. Group exhibition. Four works by Toby Zoates were included, from private and public collections.
 
Damien Minton Presents Satellite of Love in Six Verses (Verse Five) / Misfit Situationists - Exhibition of Works by Toby Zoates, PassPort Store & Gallery, 16 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst, 3 - 13 October 2019.

Toby Zoates - Politics of Survival, PassPort Store & Gallery, 16 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst, July 2020.
 
Toby Zoates, PassPort Store & Gallery, 16 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst, November 2021.
 
Toby Zoates, PassPort Store & Gallery, 16 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst, April 2023.
 
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5. Acknowledgements
 
This blog was initially compiled during May 2019 by Michael Organ, with the assistance of Toby Zoates. Since then it has seen a process of updating and expansion into a number of parts (linked above and below). Thank you to Toby for his generosity of spirit in supporting the exposure of his work to the wider community. Whilst Toby is quoted throughout, responsibility for any mistakes, error or omissions is with the writer. Please forward any corrections or additions to hokusai22 for consideration. Please enjoy :-) 
 
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6. References

Elliot, Tim, Fringe Benefits, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 September 2012. Profile of Toby Zoates.

My City of Sydney - Martin Sharp and Toby Zoates [exhibition], Sheffer Gallery, Sydney, 19-23 February 2019. Available URL: http://583elizabethstprojects.com/mycityofsydney/.

Toby Zoates, Internet Movie Database [website], 2020. Available URL: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2037370/.

Zoates, Toby, Toby the Punk Poofy Cat [blog], 2006+. Available URL: http://tobyzoates.blogspot.com/.

-----, Vagabond Freak - Deadbeat Realism in the Queer Underworld, Amazon e-book, 2017, 437p. Available URL: https://www.amazon.com.au/Vagabond-Freak-Book-Lives-Poofy-ebook/dp/B07287ST5Q.

-----, Toby Zoates Hard Art, Facebook, 2020. Available URL: https://www.facebook.com/TeaZerart/.

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7. Chronology of artworks
 
The following is a chronological listing of known works by Toby Zoates, with annotations and historical notes. Interspersed are biographical elements which are noted with an asterisk *.
 
* 1977 
 
During his first year in Sydney after returning from India, Toby made use of the Tin Sheds facility to print posters.

  
Blood on the streets. Glebe Is. / White Bay Arrest Support Dance, Balmain Town Hall, Friday, 14 October 1977. Screen print poster in three colours (pale green, red and black). Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: National Gallery of Australia.

The initial printing of this poster was red and black on an orange background, and a copy survives in the State Library of New South Wales collection. This was rejected by Zoates as he felt it diluted the impact of the red text font which he developed. This poster was his initial interaction with the Tin Sheds poster workshop at the University of Sydney. In regards to the production of the  Blood on the streets poster, Toby noted the following in his 21 April 2017 blog entry:

When I first came to Sydney in '77 I got arrested in the White Bay anti-uranium riots and, to raise the money to pay the fines of all involved, I organized a rock concert at Balmain Town Hall with up and coming rock legends "Mad As Cut Snakes". I went to the Tin Sheds Poster Workshop at Sydney University to silkscreen the poster for the event, "Blood on the Streets", designing it like a Z-grade '50s noir movie, lurid b/w photos from the press showing cops dragging protesters by their hair, dripping all over with red blood lettering. The gang who ran the Tin Sheds called themselves the "Earthworks Poster Collective" and they were much impressed by "Blood on the Streets".

Toby produced a second White Bay protest poster - a damaged copy of which remains in his collection. It likewise promotes a fund raising concert, which includes Mental as Anything, and was this time held at Paddington Town Hall on Thursday, 1 December 1977.

White Bay Arrest Support Dance, Paddington Town Hall, Thursday, 1 December 1977. Screen print poster in two colours (pink and black). Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney.

This second White Bay protest poster is distinguished by the use of dayglo pink text, a distinct and unique font devised by the artist for the large print, and a collage featuring Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Frazer, United States President Jimmy Carter and anti-uranium protests.

Fascist, 1977. Screen print in green ink. Featuring a portrait of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser who was responsible for the dismissal of the Whitlam government. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: National Gallery of Australia.

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* 1978
 
Zoates' interaction with the Tin Sheds evolved during 1978 and is noted in his 12 June 2017 blog entry below. He states elsewhere that he eventually produced 17 posters at the Tin Sheds over a period of seven years:

The Lead [Tin] Sheds Poster Workshop at Sydney University had long suffered my independent label, Toby Zoates, as a fringe-dweller to their “Dirtworks [Earthworks] Collective.” They had cooperatively shown me how to make perfect, beautiful hand-printed posters using photographic stencils on silk-screens, and they encouraged my individual, original designs and tolerated my passionate social critiques and political causes, much of which they too supported. I paid for all my materials, cleaned up after myself, and helped them when they needed labor to put their own posters up on the drying racks. I swear, I would always be heartfelt grateful for their assistance. 

Long before my “Darling it Hurtz!” poster, in 1978 I’d noticed cans of fluoro paints sitting idle in a dusty corner and asked who were using them, and was told, “Nobody, they are a new wave techno paint, ‘60s style fluorescent glow paint. We're not interested!” I recalled the fluorescent murals I’d seen in a hippie cafe in Bangalore, India, in 1973, Alice in Wonderland in glowing colors against a black field, black-lights illuminating them into psychedelic mind-warps, and I’d been flabbergasted at how brilliantly the style could communicate visions. I asked the workshop if I could use the unused cans of fluoros and, printing on waste computer print-out paper, I created my first fluoro poster, “The Anti-Authoritarian Dance” at Balmain Town Hall, with bands like White Trash and A.W.O.L. playing, and I must say the night was a rocking, roaring success.

Following some initial training at the Tin Sheds Toby also began using the screen printing facility at Stanley Palmer's around this time, such was his enthusiasm for the process and the role he could play in promoting events through poster production.

Stanley Palmer's Exhibition, Saturday, 15 April 1978. Screen print in four colours. Printed at Stanley Palmer's, Sydney.
   
Stanley Palmer's Community Healing Festival, Saturday, 27 May 1978. Screen print in four colours. Printed at Stanley Palmer's, Sydney.

 
 Stanley Palmer Science Fiction Festival, Saturday, 15 July 1978. Screen print on computer paper. Printed at Stanley Palmer's, Sydney.

This Affects You - 1978 Budget, 17 August 1978. Screen print. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney.
 
 Anti-Authoritarian Dance, Friday, 10 November 1978. Screen print on computer paper in multiple colours. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: State Library of New South Wales.

Discover Your Fete at the Women Behind Bars Prisoners Action Group Stock Exchange 10 Olympics, 17 December 1978. Screen print in three colours on computer paper. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: National Gallery of Australia.

Garibaldi's Benefit, Saturday, 28 April 1979. Screen print in five colours.  National Gallery of Australia. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; Powerhouse Museum; State Library of New South Wales..
 
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* 1979
 
Celebrate Bastille Day at Garibaldis, Monday, 14 July 1979. Oil based screen print on paper, 92 x 58xm. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; State Library of New South Wales.
  
NSW University Foundation Day Parade ... Roundhouse Dance, Thursday, 2 August 1979. Screen print on paper in five colours, 51 x 75.5 cm. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; State Library of New South Wales.

* 4 August 1979 - participates in an "anti-disco brick throwing demonstration" at the Tin Sheds, Sydney.
 

The Victims, Garibaldi's and Rags, Friday 6 October / Saturday 13 October 1979. Screen print in (1) or (2) black. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: State Library of New South Wales. The Victims were a Perth band that included David Faulkner, later a member of Hoodoo Gurus. The print was republished by the artist as a hand-coloured digital print in 2012 (shown above).
 
XL Capris - Tel products. As seen on TV, 1979. Screen print in multiple colours. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; Powerhouse Museum; State Library of New South Wales.

XL Capris, My City of Sydney [video], 1979. Starring Toby Zoates. The band members kindly gave Toby a producer credit to help him at the time. Duration: 2 min 32 secs.

A photo of Toby (upper middle with camera) filming a punk band at the Grand Hotel in Sydney, in 1979.

* 1979 - '90: Studied film animation with Eddie van der Madden, Dutch animation master.

* 1979 : Attended animation workshop at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

* 1979 - 1981: Wrote, produced, filmed and animated 60 minute Super-8 film My Survival as a
Deviant.

 Public Meeting - Death in Custody - Police Killings, late 1970s. Offset press poster print for the University of Sydney Law School.

 We Rule You, We Fool You ...., late 1970s. Ink on paper drawing for a calendar / magazine.

* 1979 : Created comic strip "No Future" for Tharunka, student newspaper at the University of New South Wales.
 
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* 1980

No Future, 1980. Comic, Titanic Enterprises, Sydney, 32p. A description of this comic by Toby Zoates can be found here. Zoates wrote and drew this for Headmaster Press, with a print run of 5000 copies.


Cover illustration for the production notes for The Thief of Sydney, 1980.

 2050 AD, Tharunka, 29 October 1980. Full page cartoon.

* 1980 : Toby Zoates wins the Noel Chettle Art prize for portraiture for the XL Capris poster.

No Future .. A-yers Rock nuclear waste dump, 1980 oil based screen print in five colours on paper, 69 x 86 cm. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; State Library of New South Wales.
 
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* 1981
 
My survival as a ... "deviant"?! A super 8 film by Toby Zoates, 1981. Screen print in four colours. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; State Library of New South Wales.

Anti-Authoritarian Calendar, 1981. Offset print by the Pyrmont Squat Collective "Panic Merchants". 

 Rocks Push Benefit, Friday, 6 November 1981. Screen print on computer paper, 56 x 38cm. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. The benefit featured the Aboriginal band Us Mob and also New Romance.

Darling It Hurtz, Darlinghurst Squats mural, 1981. Acrylic on paint, brick and cement. 
 
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* 1982
 
Drop Bears, Fun Loving [video], 1982, duration: 3.38 minutes. Filmed in  front of the Toby Zoates mural at the Darlinghurst squats.

CHOKE, Woolloomooloo Freeway Pylon Mural, 1982. Acrylic on cardboard which was placed on the pylon and quickly fell apart due to exposure to the elements. Initially placed on a squat wall in Darlinghurst.

1982 : Designed book-cover for Real Men Like Violence by Glen Lewis.

Jail News Benefit, Sunday, 18 July 1982. Oil poster ink screen print on paper, 50 x 75 cm. Printed at the Tin Sheds University of Sydney. Collection: National Gallery of Australia.; State Library of New South Wales.

Jail News. The prisoners paper. The truth behind the Department of Corrective Services bullshit, 1982. Screen print in two colours. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney.

Protest for Land-Rights Dance, Saturday, 18 September 1982. Screen print. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: National Gallery of Australia; State Library of New South Wales.
 
* 1983
 
The Heartburn of Captain Insatiable, 1983. Oil poster ink screen print on paper, 66 x 50cm. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney.

* 1983 -1990 : Majored in Writing and Text Studies in Communications at the University of Technology Sydney.

 The Evolution of Dolphin Man, Fortress Wall of Pyrmont Squats mural, 1983. Acrylic on brick and cement.


We Accuse Mayor Meers + Co....., c.1983. Screen print. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collection: Powerhouse Museum. This poster was glued to the front doors of the Sydney Town Hall by the artist, in protest.

Life for the Poor is a Constant Beat Up, 1983. Acrylic on paper. Later issued as a print. 

* 1984
 

In the Shadow of High Capitalist Fascism, 1984. Ink on paper. 

* 1984 : Wrote, animated, produced and directed 16mm animated film The Thief of Sydneypremiered at Academy Cinema in Paddington, exhibited worldwide, winner of Bronze Dragon, Krakow Animation Fest 1985 (Poland) and ATOM Children's Panel Award Best Animation 1985
(Australia).
 
The Thief of Sydney - an animated film by Toby Zoates, 1984. Acrylic screen print on paper, 78 x 55cm. Printed at the Tin Sheds, University of Sydney. Collections: National Gallery of Australia; State Library of New South Wales.

The video of The Thief of Sydney is available at the following link:

The Thief of Sydney [video], 1984. Animation. Duration: 11 min 23 sec. Collection: State Library of New South Wales.

* 1984 : Short story Welcome to the Mens for Gay Anthology Edge City edited by Gary Dunne.
 
* 1985
 
How Do You Feel?, Woolloomooloo Freeway Pylon Mural, 1985 - 2006. Second iteration. Enamel paint on tin, attached to the pylon. 2nd mural for Woolloomoolloo Railway Pylons Mural Project which was in place for 25 years but disappeared, possibly destroyed in 2009.

Toby circa 1984-5, aged 35 years.
* 1985 : First one man exhibition at Artspace Gallery of art from The Thief of Sydney.

* 1985 : Designed covers, cartoons and comic strips for calendars, diaries and posters for
Panic Merchants Press run by libertarians at Pyrmont Squats.

* 1985 : Painted mural on wall of Pyrmont Squats in Scott St. called "Dolphin Human
Evolution."

* 1985 : Wrote and drew comic strip "An Extra's Eye View of Mad Max 3" for Film-News.
 
* 1986

* 1986 : Wrote, produced and directed video drama Dirt Opera.
 
[IMAGE]
Dirt Opera.  Punk Outsider, 37.

* 1986 : Designed poster and cover for video magazine Off Air, issue No.5

1986 : Directed and animated music video-clip Sunday School for Johanna Piggot's band Scribble receiving extensive television airplay. Also designed cover for record's single (reproduced above).

* 1986: Short story Alec Farthing in Garry Wotherspoon, Being Different, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1986.

Photos of Toby painting one of his murals at Darlinghurst circa 1986.
 
* 1986 : Release of 40 minute Super 8 film Darling It Hurtz! which Toby wrote, animated,
produced and directed. His films played in Sydney's underground culture of cafes, squats, warehouses, pubs and halls. The Darling It Hurtz film in available online through YouTube in parts here:


Last updated: 14 August 2023
Michael Organ, Australia

Comments

  1. Me painting mural "Darling it Hurts!" on squat wall in Darlinghurst = 1981

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