Calendar: December 2009

There are lots of exhibitions of RMIT graduate and undergraduates – see this calendar for more details (photography, drawing, ceramics, sound art, textiles, architecture, media arts, interior design, sculpture, and more); also check out Craft Victoria’s calendar here

…

all month:

• NGV International [link] ‘Building a Collection: Recent acquisitions of prints and drawings‘; until 31 January 2010; my review story
• NGV International [link] ‘Chinoiserie: Asia in Europe 1620-1840‘; until 14th March 2010; my review story
• Object Gallery (Sydney), group show ‘Precious Pendants‘ (contemporary jewellery) [link]; until 31st January 2010

1st December: last day for NMIT graduates from Product Design – Jewellery, Connect-7, ‘Connect the Dots‘ [blog]

2nd December: Guildford Lane Gallery, ‘Explorations 2009‘: “The unique exhibition, presented by one of Australia’s leading jewellery suppliers, features new work by over 250 professional jewellers and hobbyists from across Australia and New Zealand. This will be the first year the event travels outside Sydney to Melbourne.” [link]; until 20th December

3rd December: Black Finch, new jewellery by Emma Grace [link]; until 17th December

3rd December: last day for Monash University Art and Design graduate exhibition, including jewellery students [link] (thanks to Melissa Cameron for the info!)

4-6th December: No Vacancy market [here]

4th December: last day for application for inclusion in Lark Books ‘500 Silver Jewelry Designs‘ [link]

4th December: Craft Victoria, ‘Fresh!‘, ‘The freshest hand-picked works by graduates in the fields of ceramics, glass, jewellery, gold and silver-smithing, fashion, textiles, industrial and furniture design‘ [link]; until 23rd December

4th December: last day ‘artifex‘, graduates of Charles Sturt University Bachelor of Arts (jewellery) and Master of Arts Practice (jewellery design & production), in Wagga Wagga; courtesy of Kit and Caboodle [here]

5th December: Jam Factory, Octavia Cook ‘Cook & Co; Antiquities for the Future‘ (contemporary jewellery) [link]; until 24 January 2010

6th December: last day for Craft Victoria enCounter (window), ‘Sneak‘ new jewellery from NMIT graduates

7th December: last day for entries to Linden Postcard Show 2010 [link]

8th December: VCA ‘Masters Exhibition‘, Margaret Lawrence Gallery [link]; until 13th December

Update: 9th December: Guildford Lane Gallery, RMIT Masters of Fine Art Graduate Show; I must admit I’m a bit confused about this, as the RMIT calendar has different details to the Facebook group [here]; according to the latter, opening is 9th and exhibition runs until 20th December

10th December: RMIT First Site Gallery, New Collectables Auction, 6pm; previews 9th and 10th December [link]; ‘For one exciting night, buyers have the opportunity to purchase unique works by RMIT arts students at bargain prices. New Collectables is an auction of contemporary artworks by Melbourne’s most promising new artists. It gives buyers the chance to bid on works created at the very start of a brilliant career. All proceeds go directly to participating artists, with no commission taken on sales.‘

12th December: Craft Victoria ‘Hatch’, emerging artist market [link]

16th December: RMIT Gallery, Siemens RMIT Fine Art Scholarship Awards [link]; until 23rd January 2010

19th December: special Craft Victoria Christmas ‘Hatch’, at State Library of Victoria

20th December: Studio 20/17, ‘Feast‘ (contemporary jewellery) [link]; until 24th December

24th December: last day for Studio 20/17, ‘Christmas Showcase 2009‘ [link]

… link to exhibitions and events on the November 2009 calendar and December 2009 sneak peek …

‘Peep Show’ @ Self Preservation

As I mentioned in the quick calendar update earlier this week, the 2nd year group (oops, I initially thought they were graduates – sorry about that!) from jewellery at Box Hill Tafe, collectively ‘The Body Corporate’, have a exhibition ‘Peep Show‘ at Self Preservation.

front window; photograph taken with permission

Participating artists are (alphabetic order):

• Amber Crocker [blog]
• Alexandra Downes
• Puneet Jodhka [blog]; I particularly liked the ‘spikey ring’ with scrolls of paper and an unusual shape (there is an image on her blog)
• Kate Marshall [blog]
• Karyn Nankivell; the polypropylene rings are expressive and effective
• Stephen Robb [blog]
• Misako Sakai [blog]
• Sarah Thomson [blog]
• Jane Walker [blog]

It’s interesting that most of the students have blogs, which I incidentally discovered a few weeks ago – each started in October and have a few posts. Perhaps it was a class project? I think it’s great that jewellers, and in fact any artist, explore the possibilities of connecting with others using this kind of format. I am interested to see how many of the students take to this form of communication and thought-collection, and intend to check again early next year to see which blogs have been abandoned (after all, this is not for everyone) and which have been taken up with gusto!

photograph taken with permission

The layout of Self Preservation has changed since I was last there. The larger first room, beyond the cafe area, which was once full of cabinets of jewellery, now is a larger cafe space with a large communal table and other tables and chairs. I was told that the kitchen has also been extended and that the menu is more comprehensive – while I won’t wander into food-blogging territory here, I plan to go back soon and try some food.

Anyhoo, the jewellery cabinets have been moved into the back room which was the gallery. This room was often bare when an exhibition was not on, so this move is a good one. However it does mean that when there is an exhibition, like this one, it is a little crowded in there.

‘Peep Show‘ is at Self Preservation until Sunday 29th November 2009.

My jewellery collection #7

Around the end of our third year at university, in 2006, Lucy Hearn again showed her loveliness and made brooches for many of her friends in the course.

The below is the one gifted to me. I love it (it’s about 3cm across).

2006 brooch by Lucy Hearn

It’s particularly effective when worn to a very serious work meeting, with very serious work people, talking about very serious work things – it’s kind of like blowing a subtle raspberry as all the seriousness.

Again, thank you Lucy! (more on Lucy in the last post on my collection)

… last post on my jewellery collection #6 …

Update (8th February 2010): photograph published with artist permission

Quick calendar update

Just a quick calendar update; and many thanks to Katherine Bowman for her post on this – I would have missed it otherwise.

23rd November: at Self Preservation, ‘Peep Show’, Box Hill Tafe jewellery graduates; until 29th November

Happy exhibition visiting – so much on!

… link to exhibitions and events on the November 2009 calendar and December 2009 sneak peek …

‘Cornucopia’ @ Guildford Lane Gallery

Following on from the 1st and 2nd year show is the exhibition of the graduating group from RMIT Gold & Silversmithing: ‘Cornucopia‘ at Guildford Lane Gallery.

installation view

Participating exhibitors are (in alphabetical order):

• Helen Bowman
• Michaela Bruton*
• Catherine Da Costa
• Emi Fukuda
• Sam Horstman* [kit and caboodle]; the cuffs/bracelets are stunning and well developed
• Naoko Inuzuka; I really liked the enamelling used in the four brooches; and my favourite piece in the whole show is ‘Water Drop’ vessel – such fantastic soldering technique and patience must have been required for this!
• Claire McArdle
• Suzi Kyriakidis [site]; I liked the brooches referencing mapping
• Victoria Mathews
• Victoria Purves
• Fiona Simmons
• Roxanne Watts [site]
• Rochelle Woods
• Charles Wyatt [site]; the untitled brooch (item #15) is fabulous

Michaela and Sam (marked with *) were also in the ‘It’s Got Legs‘ exhibition earlier in the year, therefore I expect they’re graduating from Honours perhaps, not the bachelor degree?

installation view

I notice there was not as much obvious colour as there was in the 1st/2nd year exhibition; but it does exist in many works in more subtle ways. Further, there isn’t the same proliferation of gems. However, in Robert Baines’s introduction in the accompanying book/catalogue, he states “When viewing the work of RMIT Gold and Silversmithing students there is always evidence of gems but this precious material sits along preciously crafted galvanised steel, plastic, enamel, porcelain and rubber.“

The gallery is set up beautifully for this exhibition and the lighting is great. Due to the space, each exhibitor is able to present quite a number of their works, which is always fantastic to see.

The book for the exhibition is impressive too; with each artist having four pages for their work (bit jealous!). Though I do notice that there are no essays this time – interesting? And after the last four years using the same basic image (of the back of our beloved building 2), each year adding their mark of individuality (eg. selectively coloured, black embossed), this year has moved on from that series and have used a square format with a cover image of a collection of everyone’s work. I liked the idea of the series, but I do admit that the series (of which my year was the second to use) had probably reached the end of its time and it was time to develop a new look. Besides that, the back of building 2 no longer looks the way it does in the image with the crazy renovations that are still in progress.

There are some truly wonderful pieces here, and I look forward to seeing how these emerging jewellers make their way in the coming years. Congratulations!

‘Cornucopia‘ is at Guildford Lane Gallery until 26th November 2009.

Karin Findeis ‘sampler’ @ Craft Victoria

As mentioned in the previous story, Craft Victoria has a wonderful group of exhibitions currently showing; and in gallery 3 is Karin Findeis ‘sampler‘.

Exhibition media: “In her latest exhibition sampler, Karin Findeis uses the intimate environment of jewellery to investigate the history of collecting. Findeis positions herself as a contemporary explorer, the jewellery she makes reflecting the environments within which she lives and travels. Findeis’s process references the collecting practices of the Enlightenment era where diverse elements were drawn together and categorised to create a semblance of order; the ‘real’ and the ‘ideal’ reconciled through representation and reinterpretation.“

exhibition media; photography by Barry Langrishe; click on photo to link to original source

There are fifteen open boxes displayed at about waist level, internally white and externally dark blue-grey. Each box is oversized and open, displaying a piece of jewellery.

The display of the 37 component ‘Entomoid‘ in this exhibition is a little different to the media image above. I think the graphing-type paper used in the above image evokes more a feeling of collection and ordering and scientific enquiry than the plain paper below…

photograph taken with permission

Each piece is named and then subtitled with ‘from the collection of …‘; where the collections are ‘entomoids‘, ‘amalgama‘ and ‘miracles‘. The group above is the only entomoid; there are nine in ‘amalgama‘ and six in ‘miracles‘. Though the connection within the groups is a little faint to me, I would propose that the ‘miracle‘ group is more delicate where the ‘amalgama‘ group more colourful and bold even.

Two pieces I liked most are: ‘China blue‘, a lime-yellow-green ceramic and oxidised saw-pierced backing brooch; and I am intrigued by ‘Veneficus magu (holotype)‘, a brooch of driftwood peppered with small onyx beads. An image of ‘China Blue‘ can be seen here in a story about exhibition when it was held in Sydney early last year; and an image of the latter can be seen on Karin’s site here.

photograph taken with permission

‘sampler‘ is at Craft Victoria until 28th November 2009.

Update (31st January 2010): Craft Vic blog has an interview with Karin here.