Foggy Beauty

A Beautiful installation called 'Cloudscape' by Transsolar and Tetsuo Kondo Architects, Germany, at the Corderie dell'Arsenale, part of the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. Photos via here

 

Marrickville Womens Salon Opening!

Oblique #2 Type C photograph

The inaugural Marrickville Women's Salon opened at ESP Gallery in Marrickville today. My work Oblique #2 was included in the show, and I was really proud to be a part of this exhibition that supports the work of female artists within the inner west region. The gallery itself sits ensconsed in a quiet residential street, yet only a 30 second walk to the bustle of Marrickville Rd, a really nice juxtaposition of calm and crazy!
The opening itself was packed! It was a real struggle to make your way through the crowds to actually see most of the works, it was so crowded I even walked past my own work on my way to try and find it! The mayor of Marrickville took time out of his busy election day schedule (!!) to officially open the show. Once making our way around the exhibition we chilled out in the beautiful garden area in front of the gallery and chatted to family and friends. The day topped off by a surprising red dot next to my photograph. Yay!

Dream Dress

I love everything about this dress! The fabric, the colour, the cut and the fact it's made by the lovely modaspia whose blog I follow. Does anyone have a spare $160 US they don't want? It's available here

Sunday

Beautiful flowers bought for me by a beautiful friend. A cup of tea in the sun and equilibrium starting to be restored.

Marrickville Womens Salon

I have one work in this upcoming show...unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the opening drinks coincide with election day. Maybe it could be a combo package - go vote then go see a show? Especially if you're an inner-westie! All the works are for sale, and if you check out the gallery section of the website you'll get a little preview of what's in store. A very wide ranging show!

ESP Gallery

228 Illawarra Rd Marrickvile 2204 NSW Australia

Official Opening 3pm Election Day (21st August).

Flowerbox Building

Pottymouthmama got me inspired to browse all things NYC in her Fantasy Island Friday post yesterday, and this is what I stumbled across.

This is the Flowerbox building on 259 East 7th St in East Village NYC.

An apartment building development with a difference - the vertical garden was completed in September 2007. The garden consists of over 500 plants and 80 different species. The design by Verdant Garden Design.

All of the apartments have 12-foot-high, floor-to-ceiling windows, (with perhaps a somewhat more picturesque view than my current back of the house next door), central air-conditioning and radiant floor heating  (mmm floor heating). The building has a part-time doorman, (tres convenient for all of the parcels that would be ordered from fave etsy sellers, as I would be stupendously wealthy if I lived here of course).

Private keyed elevator (no slumming it with elevator music - I'd bring in my own playlist), garage and a community garden, (maybe my rhubarb would grow better here than in my own vegie patch??) and they each feature a 'Neptune soaking tub'...not exactly sure what that entails, but it sounds damn fine to me. ...sigh...dreamy NYC fantasy life...
all images courtesy from here

It's all about balance

Check this guy out! Perhaps not for those with vertigo...I think it tells me that a lot of impossible things can be possible with balance.

Away

We had a lovely time away, Far North Queensland is pretty idyllic.

Working from Home

My little work desk, pictured here with the all important cup of tea accompanying the 1 terrabyte beast of a hard drive that lends some much needed guts to my somewhat puny macbook. My desk is graced with artwork by the uber talented flossy-p (top middle frame) and benconservato (left hand frame).

Here sits my at-home Creative Director - Boboli-Cat.

Keeping watch, as I keep trucking along editing.

Holding Back

Holding Back from Yvette Hamilton on Vimeo.

Oblique 1

                                  Oblique 1 - Type C photograph

Here's the work that I exhibited at 'At The Vanishing Point' gallery in Newtown as part of the 'Head On' photography festival. I was super suprised when I showed up at the gallery on the last day of the show to find that it had gone off without me. I sold it! To someone....I don't know! So thank you - lovely patron of art whoever you are!

R.I.P Louise Bourgeois

The amazingly talented Louise Borgeois has died aged 98. What an inspirational female figure in art. I just saw her pieces in the Biennale at the MCA on Sunday. 

                                            Echo 2007 - Louise Borgeois

They were beautiful sculptures cast from clothes that looked like they were once strewn across a room - impossibly, she made them stand up, making them resemble ghost-like figures.

 

I just love her cheeky smile in this image by Robert Mapplethorpe, where she's holding a giant...

grey

Big Bambu

This project is making me want to go MIA in NYC asap. Doug and Mike Starn are creating an amazing evolving sculpture on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art called - Big Bambú: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop. Which of course is making me think Beastie Boys - and getting me all side tracked reminscing about every college party I went to that had 'Ill Communication' as its soundtrack in the mid 90's.
But I digress - the sculpture is being assembled with the help of rock climbers, (a reliable type of person I've always found), and will evolve over the time that it's installed (April - October of this year). It's meant to be a marriage of sculpture, installation and performance representing a cresting wave with phenomenal views of the Manhattan skyline. I desperately want to go...

Opening Night

Thanks to everyone that made it to the opening. I really appreciate the support! More photos to follow soon...must sleep now.

Tonight!

'No People' launches tonight with opening drinks from 6pm. I've no idea where my work has been hung in the space, as the curator is doing all the hanging, so it will be a surprise for me when I turn up! I've been a lazy blogger of late - lots of work work and planning for a possible future show. I promise to catch up on the weekend.

Good news!

H

As promised - the good news! I've been selected to participate in a group show at 'At The Vanishing Point' gallery as part of the Head On Photo Festival. Ignore the dates in the image above - it actually starts on Thursday 29th April. Opening night is on that date from 6pm - 9pm. Everyone welcome!

I have one work in the exhibition, called 'Oblique 1'. It's part of the series of images that I've been sharing in previous posts, but this one has evolved into a sort of panorama. Unsure if I should post it here or not?

Shiny Day

I had some unexpected good news today. Combined with a beautiful sunshiny day, a brief 15 minutes in the sun eating a wonderful salad here...and I'm a happy girl. More details on the good news soon.

Uncertain

I'm uncertain about these images. Up until now they've not exactly been in the reject pile, but they've not exactly been properly worked on. I do like the blue tones, but there's something lacking. Actually when they're larger you can see that there' a sparkle running through the image that I'm liking.

The detail version here above is working for me a bit better. Thoughts?

Last Days

                                                                    Olafur Eliasson, Beauty, 1993

It's your last week to catch Olafur Eliasson at the mca. The work above was my absolute favourite...and the title says it all really. I am certainly obsessed with beauty within art - what can I say - I think that beautiful things/people/images captivate, and thus draw people in for a closer look.  

Fiona Hall is the master of this. She draws you in with her incredibly beautiful images, and you cross the room to examine them more closely, only to discover there's often more than meets the eye. Which I discovered when I took my niece and nephew to see her exhibition a couple of years ago at the mca, and they saw quite a few vulva and penis representations. Hmmm, bad auntie!

The Phenomenology of Perception

So I've been diving in to Merleau-Ponty of late...or, rather, attempting to. Through a great friend of mine, I've been introduced to phenomenology, this introduction has been a double edged sword. It is definitely pertinent to the themes within my art practice. But, it seems to be a massively contradictory field, and one that requires a lot of prior knowledge, of things such as Gestalt theory. Which makes me curse the 19 year old me who used to skip off from art theory lectures to go and have coffee and smoke Kent cigarettes (ewww!). So, now, it's just the slightly (!) older me, cigarette free, and therefore no excuse to not get stuck in and read some more. Hmm, maybe I should go eat some chocolate instead, it is Easter after all...

White Rabbit

Dong Yuan

(sorry I didn't note the title)

 

Thursday night, saw a friend and I taking advantage of extended opening hours of various galleries for art month. We had intentions to see more, but only ended up browsing through the fantastic White Rabbit space. A few people had described it to me before I went, and every single one of them had used the word "amazing" to describe it. I was not led astray, it is an amazing collection, an amazing concept, an amazing physical space. Everything about it makes you want to linger. Including, I believe their teahouse which wasn't open for tea drinking when we were there.

Sick

I've been feeling very yucky with the flu...so bad in fact, it could almost be a girly version of man-flu. I've found myself whining randomly and groaning in a pathetic manner. I've been hitting the Eucalyptus oil hard, so much so that I think the excessive aroma is getting me spare seats next to my person on public transport.

Produce

Look at this beauty, our very first home grown strawberry. It tasted so so amazingly great, just incredibly rich and sweet. it had an intensity of flavour that is so lacking from supermarket varieties. I hope it bodes well for the creation of our new vegie patch that should be up and running in a couple of weeks.

Art Express

 

Persons of Perception; Avoid Things Coloured Red; One and Five Pencils; A Bunch of Paintings Containing Lessons for the Future - detail view

Tal Chodos - Mariah College

Today at work, instead of having our Monday morning meeting in the office. We went out to see Art Express instead (yes, I do have a cool job thank you very much!). I've been a bit of a regular attendee of the show over the years, from my hopeful visits in year 9, 10 and 11. To my more bitter visit post year 12 when my work didn't make the grade! ; )

Untitled (Dialogue with Average Significance)  - detail view

Tara Rose Gurisik - Wyndham College

Dragster
Joshua Warren - Barrenjoey High School
 
This year I was quite blown away by the standard of work. To be honest, a lot of years I've been, there's been a lot of coverage given to some, well, to be honest, quite derivative artworks. (you know, Bill Henson lookalikes etc). Or, they've stuffed it full of too many pieces, all crammed into a small space.

Arpeggio
Belinda Bortolin - Terrigal High

Precious Cargo

Cassandra Simonetti - Santa Sabina College

This year, it is relatively sparsely hung, and overall the standard of work was exceptionally high, and really original....then I started to look closer at the school names where the students were from. It seemed to me to be a massive representation from some of the top private schools in the state (mainly Sydney). Knox, Ascham, Queenwood etc. While not taking away from the achievements of these students, I can't help but wonder whether these entries were hung because of their gallery-standard presentation that these students could afford to do...? Is that a terrible thing to wonder?