events, events and more events....

I dont know about you but there seems to be a lot on at the moment. Someone said to me the other day that when you live in a hot, humid climate it makes sense to load everything on to the calendar at this time of year... its our winter...there are few holidays this time of year and so it is the time when things get very busy...and why not!
Before I tell you about these (local) events I am going to quickly find and post some images that appealed to me this week and you will see why!


...first up...I am going to come along with Mlle Paradis next time she goes to this place....













anyone else coming for the trip? Im not going to tell you where it is...go look here! She has a lot more wonderful places to take us up her sleeve!

....and after that exertion ....

how about this....




or even better really...for all those books waiting to be read.... the perfect spot...




these images come from Robyn at the lovely garden rooms. Pop over now and see more on this delightful (For me just now - escapist) theme!
This window reverie image made my heart leap...perhaps it reminded me of a wonderful home I had in Melbourne over 15 years ago now...or maybe just the aesthetic of absolute rightness about the parts that make this stunning whole - its the kind of beauty I adore in spaces... I want to be there... even though I dont know where is!

OK..now that I have gotten that part of the post out of the way....get ready to write in your diaries.... if any of you reading this actually live in this same city as me... its social calendar time!

I just looked up the website and it is fabulous.... not only that ... I have a CD of music by this musician that I love and have often had classes draw to it so I am really, really disappointed that I have a dinner to attend this friday night when this wonderful show will be on at the Botanic gardens for the World Wildlife Fund.  w:   www.linseypollak.com 

The Extinction Room

The Extinction Room is a solo music performance piece by Linsey Pollak. It is a sound  piece creating music from the sounds of endangered & extinct animals. In this performance of approximately 45 minutes,  the audience will wear blindfolds  and be taken on a journey into the Extinction Room….. a sound archive of endangered  and extinct species …… the calls of animals that no longer exist……or may soon not  exist. These sounds cry out to us in perhaps a more immediate and emotive way than  words can describe. They are a cry from the animals that share and have shared this  planet with us. This is an audio Library of loss, of despair AND of HOPE…….because  we can do something about it if we act NOW This is a solo performance using live looping (a process using real time instantaneous  recording of each layer of music) playing an Electronic wind instrument that plays  the  sound samples of animal calls. All the sounds used are animal calls and nothing has  been pre-recorded……it’s all being created as you listen. NEXT:

and last but not least:

If you pop over to my studio blog you can read much more on this and the venue... This is opening on June 18th and I will fill you in again before then... I am artist no: 4 in the pick-a-box. This will be a lot of fun so come along you Bris-based people...I'll see you there!

PS still painting but enjoying the process... 10 artists over `10 days... very doable!
caio,
S x

APT6 - The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at GOMA, Brisbane

Today I was enraptured by exhibits at the APT at the Gallery of Modern Art. A good friend from Melbourne was in town and we had wonderful few hours at this recently opened show. All I can say is that I am so pleased to have the luxury of time to be able to attend the triennial over the next few months - the chance  to view various spaces at leisure, watch films and attend special events - most of it free and open to the public.

First up is the jaw-dropping taxidermied elk with glass and acrylic beads called Pix-Elk#2 2009 by Japanese artist Kohei Nawa. I took a number of photos from various angles in the attempt to capture the sheer visual delight of the glass beads. In a small room of its own, with extraordinary white lighting and an unusually low ceiling the effect once inside and close up was both mesmerising and mind-blowing. It was created with the support of the Fondation d'enterprise Hermes and one can see why such support was necessary. I had seen promo images of the Elk - despite drawing ones attention it had nothing of the impact of seeing it today. When you visit the Gallery website you can read more on this work and listen to a audio guide to hear it discussed - as with various works in this show. The virtual tour may be found here.

Installation: Escape! For a dream land - Jiten Thurkral and Sumir Tagra have been collaborating since 2000. This installation refers to the Punjabi cultural phenomenon of migration to Europe, Nth America or Australia in search of  a better life and the prestige that brings to families. Walls are lined with photos of the young who have left home. This was a wonderful installation to walk into and spend time in. Vivid - but not just in the obvious ways. The fact one could sit on the lounge amidst this domesticity - albeit rather stage-set-like - the sense of social aspiration and changes taking places was eveident. (Thanks to my friend CC for playing a part here!) Read more here and see their website here.

Thukral and Tagra
NOTE: I took many images today and will no doubt take more. The works on view are diverse and highly engaging. I have only referred to two works here which is a minute taste of what can be seen and experienced at APT.

Q: did art help to add the sheen to Dubai?

A: read William Shaw on the excellent Arts and Ecology blog to see his response and that of others.



A comment left on this post by contemporary art historian Reuben Fowkes suggests the Sharijah Biennial in Dubai is perhaps an extreme example of a general trend of art biennials being hitched to the marketing goals of cities or regions, with contemporary art mobilised as branding tool to boost tourism.
The Arts and Ecology Blog is well worth investigating - it feeds from the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre which was set up in 2005 by the RSA-  the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce  in the UK. The Centre's head, Michaela Crimmin, says "Artists have always had a powerful relationship with the natural environment. Equally artists continually question and and re-examine society's notions of progress. We need their unique perspective on the enormous challenges ahead - on the relationship between environmental issues, and not least climate change, and people."
Read Reuben and Maja Fowkes fascinating www.translocal.org site for what looks like a very comprehensive take on contemporary art and ways it interacts with ecology. 
With a new year coming up, and time to pause, I wonder what will be thought up for 2010  that addresses the questions surrounding us at this time? 

Master teachers from the early 20th century

Currently showing at MOMA in NY is a major exhibition Bauhaus: workshops for modernity 1919 -1933. This morning whilst visiting the excellent blog Little Paper Planes I was prompted to look into the weblinks which I found most worthwhile.The page below is a timeline in images and notes which allows for a comprehensive yet brief overview. From there I went on to look at various sites, one or 2 detailing the period the Bauhaus was located in Dessau where various Master teachers were given houses designed by Walter Gropius to live in and work in. Klee resided next door to Kandinsky with their respective families and was known to conduct free painting classes in his home-based atelier, as well as carrying out more formal duties at the Bauhaus. 

'Introducing the Miracle' - Paul Klee 1916

The following workshop below is from an extensive program running for the duration of the exhibition. As you can see it is on this weekend...Oh to be in NY! There are repeats of this and other workshops over the next few months.To read about the Master's houses click here. 

New in October - Paul Klee 1930

Lyn Meyer-Bergen - student in Paul Klee at Bauhaus

Visit the excellent website of important Bauhaus Master Gunta Stolzl teacher here. Stolzl was an influential weaver and also a painter. Her textile work is shown below.

blueprint

I found this recently on designboom and it caught my attention immediately...the saturation of the blue with the fine white line detailing certain outlines and shapes and features of the location. The Taiwanese team from ou studio were part of DMY berlin design festival 09 and these images are of their installation called 'blueprint'. Read more here also. ou studio's website  contains some very fascinating projects - navigating it is tricky but rewarding. They concern themselves with spatial installation, furniture, interior, architecture, landscape and community development.
There's something so dynamic and forward thinking amongst increasing numbers of such studio enterprises globally that it enlivens the whole agenda of how things can be. This blurring of boundaries and collaborative push allows for optimum creativity and the realisation of projects in exciting new ways. There is something very potent in the idea of a blueprint - the fact something has been conceived to the stage of being put on paper and yet there is further to go and the thing is still in formation.

a walk in the wilderness

Visiting the charming "mes petites miscellanees" blog  from Marie-Es in France I discovered something that had to be shared this morning. Marie-E's blog celebrates colour amongst other elements and with a keen eye for less common images.


Introducing 'A walk in the wilderness' by Carmel Walsh who says of her shoes: "they are made with vegetable tanned leather, walnut wood heals, fabrics including caucciu covered organic cotton, linen. raffia, hemp, bamboo and cork to support the forms. Fun ideas spring to mind with my collection, changing the seeds instead of shoes with the passing seasons. It is my hope that in their second life they will decay and grow as an art piece."

In a world where 330 million pairs of shoes are thrown into land-fills every year, Carmel felt the need to make a product that would endure and try to find a balance between fast and slow fashion. She collaborated with a while range of suppliers to find suitable materials to meet her criteria. To read this article and see some excellent images click on Yatzer - an comprehensive weblink with the motto: *design is to share* started in 2007 by Costas Voyatzis.

art interventions by nuria mora

This morning I came across Nuira Mora's work through Poppytalk  - listed under decayed - in a  post featuring work from the artists's website of paintings carried out to cover graffittied walls. The characteristic geometric signature that is Nuria Mora's at once enlivens and calms the eye. Her website comes across as distinctive, novel and charming, yet somehow gutsy. Do have a look at www.nuriamora.com  - more art interventions like this I would love to see. Nuira's visual language appears quite sparse and abstracted but there is a richness to her ideas that became apparent as I investigated further. The watercolour I included hints at an interesting vision for living environments in urban settings. I'd like to read more on this artist!





























watercolour work






at the Tate Modern 
NB Nuria's exhibitions that I viewed form the Tate and Berlin were collaborative projects. 



from planetprozess in Berlin 







cosmopoetica  in Cordoba