I've been 'slightly' distracted over the recent weeks with my graduate exhibition, finishing off work, displaying it properly for assessment, taking it down and mounting it for the exhibition and generally revelling in the relative 'freedom'! I have actually finished my
Diploma of Visual Arts from the CAE (now part of Box Hill Tafe) and I've majored in sculpture.
Majoring in sculpture was always the plan and I'm glad my plans have not come unstuck! It's been a really valuable year and I'm pleased with the body of work that I've created, along with the ongoing ideas that it has generated. Mila Faranov inspired us, pushed us, encouraged us and all the good things and some of the bad, a good teacher should do.
I ended up completing four pieces of work and all are exhibited along with the 30 odd fellow graduating students, most of whom are painters with only a few of us either sculptors or printmakers. The exhibition is 'ACE' and it's still on at the
SmartArtz gallery in South Melbourne. It's on till Saturday. I've been taking friends in and am really pleased with the response. (AND I've sold some of the works!)
The theme for my work is 'Abode', inspired by birds and thier amazing nest building skills and structures. I'm trying to explore ideas around making, building our homes, and recycling materials that are no longer useful.
The four works are:
Empty Nests: spun paper, copper wire, made into 'abodes' using a basketry technique, sitting on cross-sections of trees from our garden, kindly cut up by Tony at A.A.Timbers in Eltham.
High Rise: crocheted video tape (thanks Catherine), oh, and I DON'T need any more!and cellophane leftovers from
Reverse Art Truck.
Palace: handknit nylon wire and a bit of brass wire, mounted on a perspex mirror with lights.
Prefab: nylon wire woven on a weave-it loom, these 'abodes' are then manipulated and woven with bits of thread. I am in awe of the next building skills of birds, after attempting these!
And now it's on to the future! I've applied to
Craft Victoria for an exhibition based around these works and am waiting to hear the result of my application, expected in the next couple of weeks. There are so few places available, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. This will determine, one way of the other, what I do next year.
