Aratula

The first night my friends and I went camping. Best. Night. Ever. Seriously, I can't explain how much fun I had. It was amazing because the group was so very chilled, so many things went wrong but we couldn't have been happier. We got lost on the way there, we hardly ate, it was ridiculously wet but most of us still remember it being the most fantastic trip we've been on together. Driving there listening to Cat Empire with Ryan. Arriving in the dark and attempting to set up. Camping on couches from curb-side collection. Trying to light a fire with the damp wood. Singing until our voices gave out. Waking up and seeing that there were a load of children across the creek and realizing we shouldn't have been singing until our voices gave out. Embracing the fact that our camping spot was flooding and having a mud fight and then going down to the creek to wash off and skip stones.

With this last presentation out of the way I feel like I need to live again, and I don't mean just go out and party. I mean get away from it all for a few days with my friends, relax, maybe take a few photos but overall just escape from uni and the hugely negative feeling I get from it at the moment. I'm seriously craving a camping trip away. I want to be free.

Antony Gormley

I saw Antony Gormley's work ages ago but it didn't even occur to me how similar it really is to my own work! His use of, once again, a medium which is long and thin like string (in this case wire) is used to create objects which are solid (but not?). He uses the wire to create voids in space and thus uses negative and positive space to make shapes. This working of a material which is so very close to two dimensional to create three dimensional shapes is highly effective.

In my pieces I hope to do the same thing with a large scale. I hope to, like Gormley, use staight lines to create curves and voids in space so as to create effective works with great impact for the viewer.





References

Caiger-Smith, Martin and Antony Gormley. 2009. "Antony Gormley" London: Tate Publishing

Gormley, Antony. 2011. "Antony Gormley Official Website" Accessed August 28. http://www.antonygormley.com/

Nike Savvas

A friend in studio recommended looking at this artist after he saw what I was doing with my stitching in the doorway. It's basically exactly what I was doing on a much larger scale and using frames rather than directly onto the space. The above piece is from Savvas' 2010 exhibition in Sydney called Sliding Ladder. She uses materials such as woolen thread to break the conventions involved with the perceived view of craft. "I like the idea of using materials from the real world and turning them into high art." (Savvas, 2010) This is EXACTLY what I've been aiming to do! Changing materials traditionally used for craft into pieces which can be considered more than craft.

She also says that "like(s) the repetitive process,” (Savvas, 2010) which I can definitely also relate to. Through repetition I like to experiment. I also like the fact that repetition can lead to large scale works such as those of Savvas and can create such an impact on the viewer. This is definitely a goal for the future.

References

O'Sullivan, Jane and Nike Savvas. "Artist Interview: Nike Savvas- Australian Art Collector" Accessed August 28, 2011. http://www.artcollector.net.au/ArtistInterviewNikeSavvas.

Jim Drain

Jim Drain's work shows an obvious obsession with colour. He works and experiments with many different materials, textures and colours to create rooms with great impact for the viewer. Generally he uses multiple sculptures within one space. I guess he uses crafty technique simply on a huge scale. His sculptures have very loose form, almost like giant soft toys. They're reminiscent of primitive forms (fish nets and the like).

On the other hand in some of his works he uses circles and paint to create very sharp, graphic and decorative spaces. In these pieces he explores pattern and colour once again without the intervention of texture. I suppose my works are more textured than his circular works however the same fascination with colour and pattern is evident especially in my early canvas pieces.




References

Green Naftali Gallery. 2011. "Green Naftali Gallery: Jim Drain" Accessed August 29, 2010. http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artist/Jim-Drain.

Kushner, Rachel. 2004. "Jim Drain" Artforum 43 (4): 203

Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota's large scale installations and performances deal with sleep, night and the self-forgetfulness of the dreaming body. She uses woolen thread (usually black) to create her amazing pieces. Her approach to this style, although very similar in medium and space to Tomas Saraceno, contrasts with his work. The messy and chaotic nature of her style makes the thread into an almost solid space and creates walls that could realistically be pulled down in one swipe of the hand. This creates fantasy-like spaces and landscapes which play with the viewer's perception of what is real and unreal.

This approach to work amazes me. The time and effort required to create such spaces is obvious in the finished product. I hope to create large scale installations such as this with thread also. Perhaps in the second half of the semester I will take my thread and stitching pieces to a new level and new, larger scale.




References

Kataoka, Mami and James Putnam, Chiharu Shiota. 2011. Chiharu Shiota. Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag GmbH & Co KG.

Shiota, Chiharu. "Chiharu Shiota- Official Website." Accessed August 29, 2011. http://www.chiharu-shiota.com/

Ed Bing Lee

Ed Bing Lee knits food. It sounds completely bizarre but he works to create fantastic sculptures from products such as waxed linen, raffia and cotton. In his collection 'delectables' he recreates food with his signature materials. I found it interesting because of the similarity in materials to my current works, plus they're pretty darn cool to look at. I think these works are successful because he has taken food (something that everyone can relate to) and used a material which is not traditionally used to portray such things. Everyone I have shown these works to seems to love them and I guess I hope for people to relate to my work in the same way. Hopefully that comes from my 'crafty' point of view.



References

Bing Lee, Ed. "Ed Bing Lee- Delectables" Accessed August 29, 2011. http://www.edbinglee.com/index.php?/root/delectables/

JACradio

I have a confession to make. I go to QUT but I occasionally listen to a UQ student radio station. There you go, I've said it! But to be fair, it is pretty rad. The music is generally in line with my taste (which is often a hard thing to do). Plus there's this guy James who I've only met a couple of times but evidently he is a mad dude. He co-hosts #hashtag which examines trending internet topics. He broadcasts on Mondays at 3pm, don't miss it!

Listen to it here!

Tomas Saraceno

Born in Argentina, Tomas Saraceno now works predominantly in Frankfurt and Main. He creates large scale installations with the use of black rope in mind-boggling scale. He finds interest in the workings of spiderwebs and the suspension of things in them such as drops of water. He says that everyone takes away a different experience from his work dependent on their experiences in life.

The way that he has taken such a small, thin medium such as this black rope he uses and turned it into something large scale and immersive astounds me. He manages to transform the space completely. I can only imagine what it would feel like to see this in reality. This is what I think I aim to do with wool in the future as an extension of my current works. At the moment they are working within space but not at all 'transforming' the space. I think that taking them to a larger scale would do that. Hopefully I will manage to transform a whole room at some stage and create an immersive experience for the viewer just a Saraceno does.




References

gustavhofer. 2009. "saraceno biennale export arte." YouTube video, posted June 4. Accessed August 28, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YBiwGiT_FY&feature=player_embedded.

Saraceno, Tomas. 2011. Tomás Saraceno: 14 Billions. Italy: Skira Editore.

Saraceno, Tomas. "Tomas Sacareno- Official Website" Accessed August 27, 2011. http://www.tomassaraceno.com/

Richard Burbridge and Maurizio Anzeri

These stitched photos are obviously a major source of inspiration for my current stitching project. I saw them quite some time ago and I still love them just as much as I did then. These works are quite similar to mine not only in terms of medium but also in the process of thought behind them. They have taken a traditional craft medium in stitching and added it to a modern medium such as photography to create a unique and striking technique. They have redefined the use of stitching which is exactly what I have tried to do throughout my own process.

You can see my original post here.

Gareth Pugh

Starting by designing costumes at 14 years old Gareth Pugh is a young British designer who makes statements about the sculptural nature of fashion. He works to distort the the established and accepted silhouette which creates striking and sometimes frightening sculptural pieces which challenge the human figure. I love Pugh's work. The imagination shown in the creation of his work is inspiring. His beautiful pieces are such a change from the normal fashion designs. He questions the ever-changing role of fashion in today's society, on one hand a purely practical need for clothing and on the other hand a form of creative expression in a sculptural form.




Pugh has taken an industry which is traditionally very commercial and changed it into a form of pure creative expression. My stitching creations are similar in a way, taking something which is traditionally crafty and turning it into something more, both decorative pieces and experimentations in space.



References

Pugh, Gareth "Gareth Pugh Official Website" Accessed August 26, 2011. http://www.garethpugh.net/.

O'Byrne, Robert. 2009. Style City: How London Became a Fashion Capital. London: Frances Lincoln Ltd.

Local Residents Beware

Today I kinda attacked your local surroundings... sozzle. I was experimenting with my coloured wool! Firstly in a tree and then on a railing at the end of my street, here's some pictures! :)

I Leave Dem Bitchez In Stitchez

This is studio! Today I was super productive! Can you tell my first piece of assessment is due next week? I think I've almost exhausted the patterning I can do in terms of the patterns so today I experimented a little and started to work my stitching pieces off of the canvases. Instead of working on a surface I started to work in space, in three dimensions. I think ultimately this changes them from decorative patterns to experimentations with the medium of wool and the space it occupies. The above image is worked in a doorway, later with addition of other colour. The image below shows my studio space with the canvas pieces so far and a little bit of experimentation with space shown in the red and orange wool. Successful day of studio in my opinion. Please excuse dodgy quality mobile phone photos.

Goodbye.

I want to leave.

I want to pack up with my closest friends and just go. Anywhere. I want to be able to live my life already. I resent that I feel I need this ‘further education’ that society rules I must receive to get anywhere with my life. It makes me unhappy and pulls the full capacity of my creativity away.

So why do I do it?

Candy Is Dandy, But Liquor Is Quicker

Last night we congregated in the style of Willy Wonka to celebrate the 18th birthday of the wonderful Tom. It was a fantastic night and I hope that he had as much fun as I did! I wish I could do it all again.