RMIT Year 3: graduate exhibition

Our final year exhibition was called ‘Out of the Basement‘. I love this title.

For those unfamiliar with RMIT G&S, our rooms were in the basement of building 2 – so this was a wonderful turn of phrase, and I’m still incredibly fond of it.

We’d decided to use the image from the previous year’s graduating exhibition book, with a slight twist. We were keen to develop a series, and hoped that following years may continue – a kind of motif for RMIT G&S. Happily they did for at least two more years after this.

book cover for exhibition ‘Out of the Basement’

We had a great deal of difficulty in securing a location for our exhibition – a tip for any graduating class, start sorting this at the end of second year or the beginning of third year at the latest, seriously. We eventually agreed to ‘renovate’ an unused building across the grass courtyard outside building 2, called ‘The Cottage’. Apparently at one stage it was the space for G&S postgraduate students, but had fell into serious neglect.

Man, did that take some work. Though to be fair, a great deal of it was undertaken by our fabulous lecturer and technician. As it turns out, the university was so impressed and suddenly ‘remembered’ the space, that they then undertook to properly renovate it the following year.

I exhibited a group from my ‘Quilted Fragments‘ collection, and the ‘Mapping the Self‘ group. And my essay ‘Stealing the Mona Lisa‘ was also published in the exhibition book – so I’m officially a published author.

Strangely, it seems that I didn’t take an photographs … though I cannot believe that! So I can only assume I have misplaced the photo files somewhere. That makes me very sad. I cannot even find a copy of the exhibition invitation. Any of my RMIT alumni with an invite, please do send me a scanned copy.

I’m glad to have found Fitzroyalty’s post, which includes some images of the exhibition – the second image, reproduced below, is my work (erm and yes, the bottom one is of unphotogenic me and the beautiful Lucy). Thank you Brian!

image by Brian Ward, Fitzroyalty; reproduced here under Creative Commons; click on image for original source

I do have such intense memories of this exhibition, and the preparation for it (the auction, the book, the space) … ah, memories.

Graduates were (alphabetic by first name):

• Claire O’Halloran [website; artist profile]
• Danielle Lott
• Emma Sher
• Jamie Andersson
• Jenna Wilson
• Julia Storey [website; artist profile]
• Kara Breadmore [artist profile coming soon]
• Karen Thompson (me)
• Kat Goodwin
• Lucy (nee Blackmore) Hearn [blog, P+K; artist profile]
• Michelle Taylor [website; artist profile]
• Nicole Polentas [artist profile]

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This is my last post in my series from my RMIT years. I’m happy to have all the projects (at least partially) documented here. Though it is a little sad that I’ve finished talking about them already.

… see more projects from RMIT Year 1 here …
… see more projects from RMIT Year 2 here …
… see more projects from RMIT Year 3 here …

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ps. As I was doing a little internet research for the exhibition, to see if anyone else had written about it, I found that the National Library of Australia‘s copy was ‘missing’. So I sent them an email asking if I could send them another copy for their collection – you know, doing my bit – and I’m pleased to say they accepted my offer. I love sharing the love!

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RMIT Year 3, Semester 2, Showcase

One of our ‘context’ projects was to design and set up a mini-exhibition in the display cases in the hallway of the RMIT G&S part of the building.

We worked in pairs and the exhibition was up for a week each. We were required to document the show as well.

I partnered with the lovely lovely Jamie Andersson – he was one of my dearest friends during my degree. We decided that of the five panels of the display case, we would have two each and the middle one would share our work.

my side of the showcase; image not to be reproduced without permission

My side included work that was being used for my ‘Mapping the Self‘ project. The intent was to work from left to right, white to black, large to small scale, paper to solid materials, one layer to mulit-layer.

This mirrored Jamie’s work ‘Grey Matt(er)‘, which was a selection of his vast collection of found object, which he (matt) painted in graded scale from black to white. I remember he was really happy with this collection and it featured in our year-end exhibition.

(nightime) showcase; image not to be reproduced without permission

(night) showcase; image not to be reproduced without permission

A few more detailed photographs below.

… last post in this series: RMIT Year 3, Semester 2, Silversmithing, continued …
… see more projects from RMIT Year 3 here …

RMIT Year 3, Semester 2, Silversmithing, continued

To continue with this project…

3. Outer Hebrides, Scotland
dimensions: 170  *  85  *  22  mm
map source: Bartholomew’s “Half-Inch to Mile” Map of Scotland, sheet 23

Outer Hebrides; image not to be reproduced without permission

Outer Hebrides; image not to be reproduced without permission

4. Main Island, Orkney, Scotland
dimensions: 165  *  90  *  22  mm
map source: Bartholomew’s “Half-Inch to Mile” Map of Scotland, sheet 28

with porcelain print; not to be reproduced without permission

These were all made from 0.5mm aluminium sheet and bone-coloured 3mm perspex. Initially I had used the perspex as a kind of stiffener to help saw-piercing the aluminium. Though I loved the look of it I kept it as part of the finished object… reminded me of the saying ‘in my bones’.

The engraved lines are the four compass points. And all of the securing post points are placed at the end of these lines.

These are still among my favourite pieces from university – definitely in terms of silversmithing, and perhaps only third after the gold and quilt brooches.

‘Containment’ @ NGV

The 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is exhibited as ‘Containment‘, at the National Gallery of Victoria Ian Potter Centre.

I was looking forward to seeing this exhibition as the lovely Katherine Wheeler [artist profile] was part of it – and I wasn’t disappointed, her collection was astonishing.

Katherine Wheeler; photograph with gallery permission

Exhibition media: “The Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is a generous legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895-1982), a former Secretary of the Felton Bequests’ Committee. This ‘Award of Excellence’ focuses on contemporary design practice in the state of Victoria and is a reflection of the NGV’s continuing support for and commitment to contemporary design. It is arguably the richest and most prestigious prize ever offered to a contemporary designer in Australia, with a prize of $30,000. Held every three years, each exhibition is devoted to a particular design discipline. The past five exhibitions, in 1994, 1997, 2003, 2006, and 2009 represented ceramics, metalwork, textiles, jewellery and furniture design respectively. In 2012 the exhibition is dedicated to vessels and the notion of containment.“

I also loved Robin Bold’s group too. This is such a striking group of magnificent vessels; I really wanted to bring one home, especially one with the little ‘egg’ insert (see my previous adoration of her work).

Robin Bold; photograph taken with gallery permission

Participating artists (alphabetical by first name) are:

• David Pottinger (nerikomi ceramics)
• David Ray [website]
• Emma Davies [website]
• Garry Bish (ceramics)
• Ian Mowbray (glass)
• Katherine Wheeler [website, blog]
• Marian Hosking [website] – recipient of the award [article]
• Mark Edgoose [website]
• Neville French [website]
• Owen Rye [website]
• Richard Morrell [website]
• Robin Bold (metalsmith)
• Titania Henderson (ceramics)
• Yhonnie Scarce (glass / metal)

There are some wonderful images on the NGV exhibition page.

I felt the weight of the ceramics here; which isn’t a criticism but my personal response to the medium. There were representatives of metalwork, ceramics and glass; though I couldn’t help but wonder if other media or artists could have qualified to be included in a ‘Containment‘ contemplation, like woodwork or paper or even something entirely sculptural (remembering that ‘craft’ was central to this award). Though I imagine there are criteria I just don’t know about.

This exhibition has also been written about on HandMadeLife – interestingly they also wonder what other media could be included, adding textiles (basket weaving) to my above list.

‘Containment‘ is at NGV Ian Potter Center until 21st July 2013.

RMIT Year 3, Semester 2, Silversmithing

Third year, second semester, Silversmithing: Mapping the Self

As mentioned in my previous post, this was a project of free personal exploration. I continued from the silversmithing project of Semester 1 that year.

As I wrote in the ‘map’ that accompanied the collection:

“For each of us there are special places in world where we feel that we belong.  But what if you have not previously been to these places – what if you have come across them on your travels, yet these places resonate and have a strange pull on you?  Somehow you sense you belong, in the landscape, or amongst the people of that place.

Have you found a fragment of your identity in this place?

Or does this place somehow form a part of your identity?

Is this a kind of ‘genetic memory’ – a familiarity built into your very make-up?

Where are your special places?  Where would your map guide your visitors?

The special places I have so far found are detailed in this map – at least those found to date.  I am sure there will be further volumes in the future.

Thank you for visiting, but please do take care, tread lightly, and take your litter with you.“

I made four small-scale objects, one for each of the places I’ve visited in my travels that I felt a special affinity for. Each of these map-based objects was accompanied by a matching-scale porcelain slip-cast fingerprint (one of my finger prints, enlarged and carved into linoleum, onto which the ceramic was poured).

The fingerprints were not the most successful part of this grouping, but I did and still do very much love the small objects. I was especially pleased that I had resolved the securing of the layers in a much better fashion than the first semester project.

1. Cornwall, England
dimensions: 190  *  115  *  20 mm
map source: Ordnance Survey, sheet 203, 1:50000

with porcelain print; not to be reproduced without permission

2. Avebury, Wiltshire, England
dimensions: 160  *  90  *  22 mm
map source: Ordnance Survey, sheet 173, 1:50000

with porcelain print; not to be reproduced without permission

Avebury; image not to be reproduced without permission

Will write more shortly.

RMIT Year 3, Semester 1, Silversmithing update

In an update to my recent post on this ‘Scale’ project, I was wandering through my photos and found some that were taken by uni at the time.

I like these more than the quick ones I took.

image not to be reproduced without permission

image not to be reproduced without permission

… last post in this series: RMIT Year 1 Semester 2 Theory …
… see more projects from RMIT Year 3 here …

RMIT Year 3, Semester 1, Silversmithing

Third year, first semester, Silversmithing: Scale

The objective was “to build a (one) or a series of larger object/s that engages with the notion of scale“.

My immediate thought was maps. I love maps. Especially contour maps.
And what are maps without scale, if not a representation of scale, yes?

The first page of my visual diary has the phrase: “flattening the earth“.
I find it so Interesting that I came to the idea so quickly.
I decided to make a three-layer representation of three contours of the head of the Murray River, in the Kosciusko National Park.

image not to be reproduced without permission

It’s A3 size; the layers are stainless steel(2500m), aluminium (2000m) and monel (1500m).

detail; image not to be reproduced without permission

Part of the project’s objectives was to make a connection with professional manufacturing processes – I used software (the name of which I cannot remember now – maybe something like Rhino?) to transfer my pencil contour maps into a file that I then forwarded to a laser cutters. So yes, the metal is laser cut … the metal sheet is so large, the process would have been very unlikely to have been cut by hand.

detail; image not to be reproduced without permission

In retrospect I don’t like how I secured these layers together; I improved the technique on a future project (to be written about soon).

… last post in this series: RMIT Year 3, Semester 1, Jewellery #5 …
… see more projects from RMIT Year 3 here …