‘Go, said the bird’ @ fortyfive downstairs

Exhibition-visiting Saturday continued with a visit to fortyfive downstairs for two exhibitions. The first is ‘Go, said the bird‘.

Participating artists: Marcos Guzman, Courtney Jackson [instagram], Inari Kiuru [site], Shaun Tan [website].

photograph taken with artist permission

Exhibition media:
“Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.”
T. S. Eliot, 1935
An extract from Burnt Norton (Quartet One), Four Quartets

Go, said the bird borrows its title from a poem by T.S. Eliot. The exhibition presents the work of four artists who examine the ambiguous nature of time through images, objects and jewellery.”

photograph with artist permission

As expected, I was completely enamored with Inari’s work … in fact, this was a grouping of objects, jewellery, and photographs from the last eight years. Her large objects are stunning; her fine-line work is precise and almost afraid; the moth pieces are my favourites … but new favourites are the black brooches ‘Clay and rock turning into steel‘ (2015).

photograph with artist permission

Shaun’s large-scale paintings and Marcos’s playful jewellery provide colourful counterpoints to Inari and Courtney’s pieces; Inari’s are dark and broody; Courtney’s intricate, delicate, and fragile.

[There were quite a few visitors at the time I was there, so it wasn’t easy to get photographs of all the work; I’m not keen on publishing images with people in them … in case they should be somewhere else. Worse still though, my little camera phone was being temperamental with light, so many turned out overexposed and blurred. A random-though-related thought: I wonder if perhaps Courtney’s work could have benefited from a coloured background, even if only slightly tinted, to help it stand out (I’m no expert curator mind! just an idea)?]

photograph taken with permission

Check out the exhibition facebook page for more photographs.

Sorry, I was only able to visit this on its last day … ‘Go, said the bird‘ was part of Radiant Pavilion and was at fortyfive downstairs until 12th September 2015.

‘Victorian Craft Award’ @ 45downstairs

Following on from my visit to the ‘Victorian Craft Award‘ at Craft, I popped into the continued exhibition at 45downstairs.

I’ve said a million times, I love this space for its brightness and that window.

exhibition at 45downstairs

More textile works are here than were at Craft … which I was glad to see, as I was beginning to wonder about their inclusion. The grouping in the first (smaller) room were beautifully curated; they look amazing together, being similar in their colourings.

exhibition at 45downstairs

I took a number of photographs, but I think in my haste I failed to get the focus right. Grrr.

My absolute run-away favourite of this group was the large pastel-coloured ceramic ‘Sometimes Yes‘ by Kate Jones (front and centre in the top image); and therefore I was exceptionally pleased she won the ceramic award.

A close second was the wall installation ‘Domestic Rail‘ by Mark Edgoose; and more work by Lindy McSwan’s ‘Take Me Back to Blue Rag Range‘.

‘Victorian Craft Award‘ is at Craft and other venues until 15th August 2015 … quick quick, that’s only two weeks!

RMIT graduates ‘Good+as+Gold’ @ fortyfive downstairs

I walked out of this exhibition impressed, with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.

‘Gold+as+Gold‘, at fortyfive downstairs, is the year-end exhibition for graduates from RMIT Object-based Practice, Gold and Silversmithing.

photograph taken with gallery permission

This is such a fabulous gallery space. The pieces look elegant on their spindly-legged tables; so much better than thick imposing plinths.

photograph taken with gallery permission

Participating artists (in alphabetical order by surname):

• Ruby Aitchison (Honours), Natasha Avila [website], Megan Ayton
• Sue Buchanan, Pamela Chan, Katie Collins
• Natt Diamond, Rachel Fares
• Eli Giannini, Fatima Grant, Ceciella Ezra Gregory, Annie Gobel (Honours) [hibernating blog], Marcos Guzman (Honours) [Kit & Caboodle profile]
• Zahrah Habibullah [website], Sarah Jones (Stubbs), Kim Jonsson
• Varuni Kanagasundaram (Honours), Inari Kiuru (Honours) [hibernating blog], Wendy Korol (Honours) [hibernating blog]
• Steven Leslie, Bethwyn Mell (Honours), Roslyn Ann Peric [Kit & Caboodle profile]
• Stephen Robb (Honours) [blog], Jana Roman [blog]
• Elise Sheehan (Honours) [tumblr], Kate Wischusen [website]
• Michael Wong, Xuelin Wong

photograph taken with gallery permission

Dominant materials, in my initial perceptions, included mild steel and enamel.
There were hardly any, if any, stones or gem setting.
Smithing was also more evident than previous years.

I enjoyed looking at much of the work, especially though:

• Zahrah Habibullah’s ‘Family Heirloom Brooch Series – Brother’; my most outstanding single piece in the exhibition, I loved the shape and the colouring
  

  photograph taken with gallery permission

• Inari Kiuru, ‘From Saturnalia Industrialis-series‘; I saw some of this collection in the ‘Wondernamel 2013‘ exhibition
• Kate Wischusen ‘Montparnasse‘ brooches; also admired at ‘Wondernamel 2013‘
• Michael Wong, beautiful smithing vessels
• Natasha Avila, ‘Immersed reflections‘ brooch
• Sue Buchanan, ‘Gold seams‘ bangle
• Pamela Chan, ‘A Brushwork‘, lyric blackened mild steel objects
• Elise Sheehan, ‘No full stops‘ group of objects [foreground]
  

  photograph taken with gallery permission

• Wendy Korol, ‘Goodbye Blue Wren #2‘ [middle-ground] & Rachel Fares objects [foreground], creating a little dialogue as they sat together
  

  photograph taken with gallery permission

• Eli Giannini, contemporary mourning jewellery displayed on custom-made mirrors

Naturally I purchased the accompanying book (as I do every year). It is of beautiful quality, and I like that this year it includes artist statements. However I’m in two minds about whether the $20 is a little on the expensive side; on one hand it’s pretty special, but on the other hand I expect those of us choosing to buy the book as a momento are also those who have supported the auction and fundraising efforts already.

The gallery works listing did not include contact details for the students, as the NMIT and Box Hill students did for their exhibition. It’s a small thing, but hopefully an artist can be found if a gallery visitor is exceptionally excited about their work.

‘Gold+as+Gold‘ is at fortyfive downstairs until 14th December 2013.

—-

2012 ‘As Above, So Below‘ @ Victorian Artist Society

2011 ‘It was like a Fever’ @ No Vacancy Gallery

2010 ‘Bell Weather‘ @ £1000 bend

2009 ‘Cornucopia‘ @ Guildford Lane Gallery

—-

ps. I wish I could point you to the 1st and 2nd year exhibition, but for the first time in ages there isn’t one. I may write about this development soon, but this makes me quite sad. And unfortunately I didn’t get my act together to see ‘Oomph‘, the Honours exhibition at RMIT First Site Gallery; for some reason I had in my mind that they were open on a Saturday.

—-

Veronica Hazzard ‘Shrines and Ornaments’ @ fortyfive downstairs

The fortyfive downstairs site stated: “Veronica Hazzard is a Shrine Maker, Ancient and old bead collector and assembler“; which was accompanied by the below image.

from exhibition media, fortyfivedownstairs

I was fairly sure it wasn’t going to be ‘contemporary jewellery’, but I thought I’d pop along just to see anyway. True to the title there were artist-built shrines and beaded necklaces; but the beads were simply on string and I didn’t like their look. They may reference the oldest form of self-decoration, but they said little else to me. Maybe it’s fair to call me a bit of a jewellery snob … after all, my favourite beads are those from the e.g.etal Giving Bead Auction!

‘Shrines and Ornaments‘ was on 31st March – 11th April.

[just a note: fortyfive downstairs don’t seem to keep an archive of past exhibitions on their site, so links in this post may no longer be valid in the future]