Bin Dixon-Ward ‘Grids’ @ Craft

Bright colour abounds at Bin Dixon-Ward‘s ‘Grids‘ exhibition at Craft.

‘Small City’

I like that each ring in the above collection has its own stand. On the surface the forms may appear repetitive, but subtle differences are the reward for careful inspection.

Exhibition media: “Bin Dixon-Ward’s exhibition is a playful exploration of the grid as it appears in the urban form.

Grids are everywhere, in the layout of our cities and towns, in land divisions for agriculture and housing, floor plans and building facades; the urban grid has endless translations.  As a fundamental unit of our endeavours to manage and control our environment, we use the grid to protect us, to navigate our way and to mark and control our boundaries.  The grid maintains a structure that is both self-supporting and flexible. Its foundations remain intact even when the surface is altered and eroded through use.”

installation

My sense is that the wearable pieces are far more powerful on a body than still and on display.

I am interested in how this technology will impact future creation of adornment – perhaps even self-service jewellery, where a ‘designer’ makes their original design available online and a person can purchase it to have it printed themselves in whatever colour and material they desire.

Bin’s website has some wonderful images of her work. And the exhibition was rapturously written about by the ladies at HandMadeLife (with beautiful photographs).

Bin Dixon-Ward’s ‘Grids‘ is at Craft until 30th August 2014.

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Update (21st August): Bin’s work is featured in one of the glossies – check out Pieces of Eight’s blog.

And the eagle-eyed among you would have spotted that the works list says there are 10 pieces in the ‘Small City‘ collection, but there are only 9 on the table. When I visited I counted and recounted about five times to be sure – then wondered if perhaps one had sold (though it’s exceptionally rare, if not unheard of for a piece to be removed from an exhibition before its finished); then had a sinking feeling that some despicable [swearword] had stolen one. But thankfully, after checking the original photographs from Craft, it seems that there may have always been 9 … just a little typo. Phew.

Bin has also been mentioned in the following previous blog posts:

• Melbourne Now ‘Contemporary Jewellery‘
• ‘Close to Hand II‘ @ First Site Gallery
• RMIT ‘As Above, So Below‘ @ Victorian Artists Society
• ‘Bell Weather‘ @ £1000 Bend
• ‘in the city‘ @ City Library

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