‘Kitsch Australiana’ @ Lord Coconut

Finally, I’ve visited Lord Coconut. Well about time I hear you all say!

entry to Lord Coconut

I popped in to see ‘Kitsch Australiana‘, the exhibition also previewed by The Age recently. The exhibition occupies to middle and right segment of the beautiful cabinet in the below image.

image taken with permission

To my looking there seemed to be more object of art and pieces of interest than strictly ‘jewellery’. And on further thought that probably makes a lot of sense in the ‘Australiana’ sense … it could be said Australians are house-proud and so not much about adornment.

The colour of the carved emu eggs by Tim Murray were exquisite – I’m not sure if I should be ashamed not to know that the teal green is in fact the genuine colour of the shell, once the outer green-so-dark-it’s-almost-black shell is carved away. Amazing. I’m actually quite taken with them, however as regular readers will know I am not such a fan of figurative or faithful representations of living things in art… so I’d more prefer an abstract design … oooh, perhaps another entry on the commission-wish-list…

Participating artists are (in alphabetic order):

• Ali Alexander [site]
• Justine Austen [site]
• Beth Croce [site; Lord Coconut post]
• Natasha DeSilva [Lord Coconut post]
• Diane Erdmanis [Lord Coconut post]
• Jo Grant
• Liz Jones [Lord Coconut post]
• Tim Murray [Lord Coconut post]
• Lauren Pitt [blog; Lord Coconut post]
• Andrew V Wetherill [Lord Coconut post]

I spent a lovely time chatting with Mark, ‘Lord Coconut’ himself, about jewellery and business and such marvellous things to discuss on a lovely sunny Melbourne afternoon….

‘Kitsch Australiana‘ is at Lord Coconut until 11th February 2012.

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If you haven’t yet visited the retail gallery, then you simply must … most especially if you’re a man, or are looking for a gift for a man [caveat – no, I have no financial affiliation to Lord Coconut – I just like supporting retail outlets who support making in Melbourne!] … if you need any more encouragement, Carlow House is a gorgeous building with a few remainders of time gone by…

lift lights, Carlow House