underwater sculpture

 The artist Jason de Caires Taylor's website is the place to go for fascinating details on this mysterious work. His sculptures "highlight ecological processes whilst creating artificial reefs and underlining our need to protect our natural world". View 2 brief videos of the underwater work - quite atmospheric and worth a look!

images above and below remind me of those National Geographic stories of archeological ventures all around the Mediterranean  as does the work above of Jason de Caires Taylor. Ancient amphoras were used in transportation all around this region...a 2006 thyme infused Olive Oil, and what was thought to be a salad dressing, was discovered in the cargo of amphoras...some still intact around 2000 years later.

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.

Concealed, Discovered, Revealed

archive for june, 2008 - post titled Australia - weblog of Sue Lawty

In May I posted on this artist from the UK who had a residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum with an excellent blog which is ongoing. Recent posts refer to a trip to Australia. Below are a series of articles about the World Beach Project which has been a wonderful off-shoot from her former residency that engaged people around the world to join in and post back their images. In the last 10 minutes I have had trouble linking to her blog site...so if that is not corrected you can enter the web site as below or click on May above and hopefully that will facilitate the connection. Her writing is a delight to read - intelligent but very accessible, thoughtful and very rich in ideas to leave you pondering. Click on the images with text to enlarge for reading! her other work is exquisite so do take a look if you can spare a few minutes!

archive july 2007 - Sue Lawty

archive august 2007

God save Vivienne

'the only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word "conformity". Nothing's interesting to me unless its got that element' - 

Vivienne Westwood

'I like wearing a safari suit for shooting tigers in'

'its so important to look to the past. because people did have taste, and they did have ideals of excellence, and those things are not going to come unless people look to the past.'

excellent weblink to Westwood's 2004 Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition.

Read about Westwood's life here on Wikipedia.

This is an image from a video of Jonathan Ross interviewing Vivienne Westwood. To view go to Westwood's latest incarnation as political activist in response to global warming at the website Active Resistance where there are 6 videos to watch on the current preocupation for this extraordinary woman who says passionately on this video - "my duty is to understand the world I live in...because understanding it you have to help the world...what can I do...this gift of life... you have to ask what can I do!"

a variation on arm chair travel

I guess your'e wondering what on earth I have posted here. Well...we had a slide show at home tonight. This odd assortment of  shots was part of that slideshow. My mother and a friend of hers took a trip to Europe not so long ago. My mission was to sort through hundreds of photos and turn it into the slideshow... a most unusual task I must say. I ended up possibly remembering more of their tour through Berlin, Poland, Budapest, Prague Vienna etc etc than they may after photo-shopping 100's of photos to find the best angle, and where crop, enhance, add or subtract. As the hours (!) were passing I began to get more experimental with the artwork.... so much so that Lyn tonight hardly recognised the shots from her camera. Certainly I amused myself with the task...and it was a telling exercise ...to step into another's shoes so to speak... see what they had seen and then add something of one's own to the mix.

The good news is that Lyn was delighted with my serious editing efforts and colour enhancements gone mad... and the Mozart soundtrack to add to the atmosphere. Big sigh from me though...would have loved to have been holding the camera on the trip actually...but still ...I almost feel as though I have been there.

an invented lexicon of symbolic images

Ky Anderson is an artist I found awhile ago now and wrote to as I was interested to post some of her images which I found strangely haunting yet familiar. She wrote a lovely note back, then time passed. However I kept coming across the images I'd saved and thought I must share them. Its been a busy, busy week but as it's hot here I am having a quick spell in front of the fan whilst posting this before I head back out again! 35 degrees C is not that hot...but it's a change from perfect spring days and suddenly the temperature climbs and you remember that summer in the sub-tropics is here again...best to get used to it! These paintings however make me feel cooler and carry me into a different space altogether. The website contains many more images and here is also an interview from the Emerson blog I found under news on Ky's website. Viewing images one after the other on the website was like reading another language which you feel you can almost remember...its there in the back of your mind...you can sense it...but you are struck mute and just have to sit with the work. I like this!

Many Colours - 2008 Oil on Canvas  -click to show full image

timeless longing

 just opened a journal from 1989,  the year I settled in Melbourne, having returned from a couple of years in London and time spent travelling. I found this quote taken from "Sculpting in Time", a book on film theory by Russian film maker Andre Tarkovsky*. Whilst in London I'd seen the affecting film 'The Sacrifice' - the last he made, filmed in Sweden in 1986. Ingmar Bergman was quoted as saying "Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream".
I have kept notes of all kinds in journals over many years, some continue to resonate with meaning and this one this morning caught my attention. In the background is a section of a painting 'big river dreaming' from work I was doing in 2005-2006.The  early life of Tarkovsky, and the circumstances he was surrounded by make fascinating reading -click on his name* above to read. The following is from the same text.
    "...in artistic creation the personality does not assert itself. It serves another higher and communal idea. The artist is always a servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by some miracle. Modern man however does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of self can only be made in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of our human calling..."
Current art theory generally appears to sit in a different place to the atmosphere and thinking of a person like Tarkovsky. Certainly arguements could be made contrary to Tarkovsky's position, however, I always find going back to read what has been said by those who shaped ideas, and succeeded in bringing forward a new vision, to be entirely though provoking and useful to reflect on. Some ideas are worthy of transcending fashionable ideas of the day - at least for the opportunity they offer to engage with different thinking.