Finally finished Plastic Fungi

 I've been working on 'Plastic Fungi' since late 2021. It's now delivered to the Yarra Sculpture Gallery for the 'Sculpture Now' exhibition. This is a members exhibition of the Contemporary Sculptors Association. I'll be going to the opening and trying to figure out if I can find time to sit the exhibition. This is the first time I've exhibited with the CSA since rejoining two years ago.

         Sculpture Now 2023

       Opening Exhibition
       8th of October 2023
       2pm - 4pm


Show will be open on Friday the 6th of October to the public and close 22nd of October

Plastic Fungi was inspired by the book 'Entangled Life' by Merlin Sheldrake. An amazing look at the life of fungi, which I carry around with me on my Kindle. 

An absolutely fascinating read. Makes you think about connectedness, life and where fungi sits in relationship to humans. It's the biggest single organism, fungi lives in our bodies. It can kill us, cure us, feed us, give us a trip, deal with all sorts of waste. And, who is the planet made for?

Somehow, this feeds into my artwork, and, plastic fungi is the first work to result from this inspiration.

I decided on plastic and to attempt to be more three dimensional with it. Rather than weaving a flat piece, I decided to work with it and attempt to 'build' a work. So, I've wrapped, stitched and fitted together.

I was still working on it when I did the residency at Ivanhoe Cultural Centre in July 2022, in the middle of trying to sell our house!! It did get displayed at the Banyule Art Salon, which was pleasing, but it still wasn't quite right and it wasn't stable.

I've added more to the base with a thousand, almost, plastic ties that I'd got from Gail at TACAS. I still have a box full. I'm now quite happy with it.

Plastic exploration - an artist residency

 Well it's finally started. Delayed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic but finally, I'm installed in the Mungga artist studio 1  at the Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub. Mungga means 'to make' in the Woiwurrung language, so nice to be part of the whole exciting hub.

The idea is to continue weaving with plastic, creating new works, but in particular, 3D works. I'm going to collect materials from the local Ivanhoe shopping precinct. I'll be there for the whole of July and propose to work Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, with the alternating Saturdays and Sundays. There are workshops planned. In addition, as a bonus, my big work 'Water' is to be part of the exhibition 'Change' which is in the Loft exhibition space. It should be an exciting install.

Day 1 was really about shifting in and trying to make the space look interesting. I did some repair work on 'Water' and just found my way around. It feels nice to have a space to myself where there are big tables to work on and space for the looms and materials.

Day 2 I spent adding more 2m woven plastic lengths to the already 8m of 'Water'. Big takeaway of the day was how slow I'm working! Did get faster though, so it's probably just early days, but I do want to achieve something this week.

I love the people that have dropped in already, it's lovely seeing how people perceive your work. Also interesting what you learn from them. My never-ending nylon thread was probably used for the hems in garments....why didn't I think of that!

Liminal // A Shared Distance - the works

Way back in February, the Banyule Artists group put out an expression of interest for the last exhbition to be held at the Hatch Contemporary Arts Space. I really wanted to be part of this as I'd been involved with Hatch since the start of the Ivanhoe Makers Market, a long time ago, so I responded.

As Covid-19 changed their exhibition and also changed the works I was going to produce. As part of the experience we were required to produce a video. Armed with my camera and discovering how it worked in regards to video I managed to do this.

I did produce three works. I couldn't narrow my focus so these reflect various aspects of Climate Change, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests.

1. Safe (2020) 

        Are we safe in our own homes, reflections on the effect of Climate change and the pandemic and how we might view the safety that our homes give us and how deceptive that might be.

2. June, 29 of 423 (2020)

        A difficult topic to try and respond to was the Black Lives Matter protests and how they were reflected here. The Guardian have an excellent website documenting some of the indigenous lives that have been lost in custody, a total of 423 since the Royal Commission in 1990. Each day of the year someone mourns a loss, 29 in June.

3. Global (2020)

        Global warming or the pandemic, these are my places of shelter around the globe.

  

 

Skating on Thin Ice

I've been playing around with creating shapes using other shapes. In this case to get a very round base, I coiled around a tennis ball. I used fabric remnants, handspun yarn and twine. I learnt the technique at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild during Summer School.

Finishing a piece is always tricky and it took me awhile to find the right pieces. I really didn't want to buy something as it really goes against the whole sustainable practice ethos. Luckily, I had some glass that was left over from a leadlight window class I attended way before children. I kept all the glass. Then some rocks from the garden supplies finished it off. Pretty pleased.

 Unfortunately, it hasn't found an exhibition, yet, in which to shine. 

Experimental Spinning in isolation

As the Handweavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria has closed because of COVID-19 we have held our meetings virtually with a combination of WhatsApp and Zoom. It's hard to figure out how best to use them. I suspect many of the features are there, just have to find them.

One good outcome is that I seem inclined to finish the different yarns we've done so far.

This is the bead yarn that seems to be a leftover from the last time we covered beads. The beads are dalmation beads and I put them on the single as it was spun. I've got some black alpaca that I'll spin and combine with this one.

We were supposed to look at Border Leicester, however, we weren't able to obtain some in time. I found some English Leicester and decided to do some tail spinning. I've only done it once before and this time it was more successful.

For information on Border Leicesters see: https://www.thespinningloft.com/sheep-o-pedia/border-leic... and https://www.borderleicester.com.au/why-borders

I found a good video on tailspinning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv24qJaEhpk

The last one I've completed so far, we were blending all sorts of bits and pieces. I had wool, alpaca, threads and core spun around some 4 ply yarn which  worked quite well.

For core spinning yarn by Ninja Chickens- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhRGnWdJeOc's 

This month we were playing with compost yarn that uses fabric and buttons. Lots of feathers were on the agenda for others in our virtual Experimental Group.