Thursday, September 29, 2011

Studies in Porcelain

Since i haven't updated my website in a while, I wanted to use this space to share with you a bunch of images that came out of the neat little material samples and studies I made leading up to the Studio Remix exhibition... I have a couple new projects lined up in the meantime including an exhibition at the Telephone Booth Gallery which is coming up on Nov. 30th, and includes the incredible work of Dorie Millerson, Pam Lobb and Amanda Parker.. so hopefully I will get a chance to dive back into working in porcelain again sometime in the new year and make some awesome new stuff for you to check out! hope you enjoy!




 
 

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Studio Remix @ the Ontario Crafts Council

























Just a quick heads up! this is the last weekend you have to check out the exhibition Studio Remix at the Ontario Crafts Council gallery, queen and ossington. 

The exhibition took over a year in the making, from the first conversation I had with curator Monica Chow when she visited me at the Artist Project in March 2010, to the final opening reception for the exhibition on August 4th.
The project was a huge undertaking, as each of us as we stepped out of our comfortable and familar studio practices to both teach and engage in the making of work in new materials.




Participating artists in the show include: Aneela Dias D’Sousa, Shuyu Lu, Benjamin Kikkert, Rose Angeli Ringor, Lizz Aston, Sylvia Nan Cheng, Micah Adams and Niko Dimitrijevic. Here is a look at some of the work:


Shuyu Lu, Assimilation (detail), 2011.
Textile hoops, stoneware clay, silkscreened underglaze, glaze


Micah Adams, Homemade Geology, 2011.
Fused and carved glass





Niko Dimitrijevic, Clouds, 2011.
Copper, brass


Lizz Aston, Porcelain 'wall paper', 2011. 
Paper, free-motion embroidery, burn-out, porcelain.

Exhibition catalogues are available at the Ontario Crafts Council, 
Here is an overview of what the show is about:
Ontario Crafts Council Gallery
990 Queen Street West
Toronto
http://www.craft.on.ca
There are many factors that contribute to an individual’s decision to pursue a life of craft.  Nostalgia and personal history, cultural identity and community or family relationships, can deeply inform the aesthetics and theme of an artist’s work, as well as the material and techniques that are employed to achieve the desired effects.  These ideas and concepts can be expressed in other artistic and visual ways, so what compels someone to work with craft media?  The unifying trait of all craftspeople could be described as an innate understanding of material: they possess an intuitive knowledge of process – a natural aptitude that is honed through continued education, practice and exposure, and the ability to manipulate material to translate their ideas and concepts into multi-dimensional form.
Studio Remix presents an opportunity to transcend a particular material and confront, or embrace, a different set of material challenges.  Eight Toronto craftspeople who work in one of the four primary craft media (ceramics, fibre, glass and metal) have been partnered with one another, forming four collaborative pairs of artists who work in two different materials.  Each participant has been tasked with teaching their partner the processes and techniques of their own material to the extent that each member of the pair will be able to conceive and produce work using the material they have just learned.
By removing these craftspeople from their comfort zone and presenting them with a whole new set of material challenges, Studio Remix puts form to the underlying forces that drive creative processes.  Correlations between different craft media are revealed, and new materials operate to effect change in established bodies of work.  After all, a change of scenery always presents a whole new way of looking at the things you see every day.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Love Lace International Lace Award Exhibition @ the Powerhouse Museum

As I mentioned in the last post, I am going to start updating you on all the great exhibitions I have seen over the course of the past month. The most significant of these is an exhibition that I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of during Sydney Design week at the Powerhouse Museum.
The preparation for Love Lace from initial proposal to making and shipping the work and finally flying out to Australia has been almost a year and a half in the making!

I can't even begin to describe the amount of anticipation and anxiety that has gone into the undertakings involved in making work for the exhibition, as well as shipping it internationally for the first time, showing up for the final installation check, as well as private and public openings. It has been a really moving experience being able to represent my country as a contemporary Canadian craft artist at one of Australia's leading arts and culture institutions.


















The exhibition opened to the public on July 30th 2011, staging a ground-breaking exhibition of never before seen lace works by artists and designers from around the world. 130 lace works by 134 artists from 20 countries around the world will be featured in love lace which is open until April 2012.

The definition of lace in the exhibition includes 'an open network structure in which the pattern of negative spaces is as important as the solid areas.'
For my application I was interested in expanding upon my Anitquated Notions series to include a set of four new burn-out studies...

Here is a sneak peek at some of my work in the show:










Here are some highlights from my favorite artists in the exhibition:

I have been long interested by the work of artist Shane Waltener and was soooooo excited to finally see his work in person, as well as take part in his interactive installation. Here is an excerpt from his artist statement: 

Another World Wide Web (2011) consists of a series of modular web-like structures knitted in shirring elastic using a traditional Shetland lace technique. I am interested in how the work is moulded and shaped by the nature of the space and architecture where it is installed. 


Installation: Shetland lace knitting using shirring elastic

Another artist involved in the exhibition whose work I have been interested in for a long time is fellow Canadian Meghan Price, from Montreal.
Meghan had her work fabricated for her in Sydney where it was overseen by curator Lindie Ward, Lindie described the experience of watching the process of water jet cutting to make steel lace during the lecture: Not Just a Thread. Here is an image of her work:

water-jet cut powder-coated steel

Joep and Jeroen Verhoven of Demakersvan opened the same symposium, delivering a thought provoking lecture into the work that they make and their steel bobbin Lace Fence ...which is such a sought after product that it has its own seperate company and website! 

Metal lace fence (3 panels): bobbin lace technique using galvanised steel wire; fabricated in Bangalore, India



Pricking proposes a custom-made digital construction kit for lace-making, which diffuses the conventional roles of designer and consumer. This will take the form of an interactive interface that allows users to playfully craft and explore the algorithmic procedures of lace-making.
This was a really incredible piece! There were also a number of laser-cut paper patterns as a record of the lace forms being manipulated.


Some other works I liked include: Tomy Ka Chun LeungKim LiebermanMichaela Bruton and Lenka Suchanek.


Unfortunately Janet Echelman's Tsunami would not be installed for the opening of the exhibition so I didn't get a chance to see it. If you are in the Sydney area over the course of the next year, it should be installed and up now, so please go check it out on my behalf!

Aerial lace installation: machine netting using Spectra® fibre

Hope you enjoyed everything you've seen!
I would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for their support in making this exhibition possible for me.