upcoming

Some shameless self promotion, as featured on Art Guide

12 October to 23 October

Susan Ewington -  Transference

In this exploration of the relationship of photography and object, contemporary jeweller Susan Ewington is set to blend the boundaries of traditional image making and metal-smithing.  These two disciplines are unlikely in their companionship, one 2D and one 3D.  Yet their history is ingrained with symbiosis, precious metals are integral in many photographic processes, and a tiny portrait of a loved one is kept safe and close in a hollow shell of gold.

A random collection of antique images are the origin for an investigation by Susan to transfer the essence of a memory, era, or emotion from these frozen moments.  The obvious subject matter will not be the focus, instead she will aim to reveal the unintended significance or punctum of each frame, from objects, shadows, or distant scapes.  It is these elements that will reach through the image into the object of wearable art.  This transference is multi-layered and metallic.

 www.galleryonethree.net

memorial piece

Here's a piece I just finished for a client who commissioned a pendant be made from her custom piece of glass.  

The interesting thing?  The glass contains some of her mother's ashes.  You can just make them out floating in the centre of the glass,  mostly visible from the back view.

The glass piece was made by a local glass artist, Brenda Page from Blue Dog Glass.

It's set in 18ct yellow gold. 

crazy clouds

These crazy clouds greeted me this morning.

artist in focus - yayoi kusama

Recently I remembered this favourite installation artist of mine from one of the most influential exhibitions I have seen - the 2002 Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Yayoi Kusama (b.1929) is a multidisciplinary Japanese artist, whose works are predominantly expressed through repetition, illusion and colour.  Her lifetime accomplishments have recently been celebrated with a retrospective exhibition toured in Europe. 

She is reported to have been afflicted by mental illness since a child, when she would hallucinate spots all over her view of the world.  She has resided voluntarily in a mental institution in Japan since the late 1970s.

To be honest with you, there's just so much to talk about when it comes to her works, so lets just let some images do the talking:

Yayoi at the age of 10

at her studio in New York, 1958

'Aggregation: 1000 Boat Show' 1963, first installation

'Narcissus Garden', 1966 Venice Biennale - she famously sold her mirrored balls for approximately $2 each, in protest of the commercialisation of art, and is stopped by officials.

'Obliteration Room' reworking of 2002 Asia Pacific Triennial installation - the room is a blank canvas, and each person to enter is given a sheet of coloured sticky dots, this was just too fun for words

Original 'Obliteration Room', 2002, Asia Pacific Triennial - I was fortunate enough to visit this room many times during the exhibition so I got to see it's progress

One of her many infinity rooms - mirrored rooms with suspended neon balls

Yayoi in front of her paintings at the Tate Modern 2012

'Snow in Nets' 2007, acrylic on canvas

Yayoi, untitled 1966