exhibition

I haven't made it to the "Over Here" exhibition as it's in Perth (and I'm not), but a classmate posted the online catalog - one to keep in mind for my materiality class exercises.

Over Here : NYISZTOR STUDIO (391 Canning Hwy, Melville, Perth)

we went along to the Tracing Materiality exhibition on Sunday. the artists had been doing some continuous drawings on large rolls of paper, as well as wall drawings, and working with wax. I'm going to try make it to the talk on the 20th march too. I loved all the work! and there was a stack of drawing books for me to chase up also :)

wow. I went to Grayson Perry's "My Pretty Little Art Career" exhibition at the MCA today. he's so prolific! and varied. there were pots/ceramics, paintings, tapestries, a digital room with interactive displays and screens plus his books and many others on ceramics etc., films, interviews, sculptures. I hadn't seen his pots up close before - only images on occasion. I was thinking how great an example of collage they are - he has text, paintings, photographs, tradition patterning, modern styles mixed with the older styles. so layered! I was getting dizzy just walking around each one to see everything, and I think I missed looking at everything in detail and will need to go back again once I read through the catalog. loved the tapestries - the large ones were there - taking up long walls, and filling the room. such bright colours. I saw the ones from his tv series on social classes. my favourite was marked as a hand-embroidered piece, "Britain is Best", which is quite substantial. so many French knots! and so neatly stitched. perfect rows. I also loved seeing some of the pages of his sketchbooks which were on display. I wish I could have seen more of these. he really seems to think in pictures, and add text notes, rather than making text notes with added images. it was great to see the preliminary sketches / ideas dump for one of the tapestries (from the tv series).

yesterday, we went to the Piranesi exhibition at the State Library of Victoria. his work was amazing! such fine detail in his etchings and prints. there were around 100 works on display, but i found that I was transfixed by the close-up detail of his mark making in the works. when he was younger, the prints were lighter and later in his life he ran his own printmaking business and developed darker, denser prints of imaginative buildings, street scenes and maps. the exhibition included his visions of Rome etchings. most of the buildings did not actually exist outside his mind and works — they are imaginary buildings and cities. he showed amazing skill with depth of vision, fine detail in the clouds and architectural designs and showing darkness and light in the images. Giovanni Battista Piranesi lived from 1720-1778. a statement reported by one of his early biographers, via his Met Museum article shows his love for imaginary architecture:

"I need to produce great ideas, and I believe that if I were commissioned to design a new universe, I would be mad enough to undertake it."

I tried drawing some of the marks in my notebook but found the pen i was using didn't give me enough variation in the lightness and darkness of the lines.

I made a knitted spoon for the upcoming "Spoons!" exhibition at The Slow Club. It’s called "A Spoonful of Threads" (original name was "nice and slow"). I was thinking of a slow / handmade theme – slow baking, stitching, knitting. I was going to do stitching but ended up knitting. it's using three stitches — knit, purl and knit-from-behind, in random order to give the holes some texture. the wooden spoon is made of birch wood and I used red embroidery thread. it was a short callout—so I made it over the weekend. the exhibition runs from May 12-24th.

The Slowclub has since changed names to The Snug.

here’s the flyer for the Spoons! exhibition (when still called The Slowclub)

here is the call for submissions & here is the event page.

I had a listen to the first lecture of Grayson Perry - The Reith Lectures 2013 a couple of weeks ago. I loved his comments and disregard (?) of the artworld and his analysis of International Art English language.

since coming across this, I heard also that Grayson Perry and Brian Eno are working together. I can't wait to see/hear what comes of this collaboration!

the BBC blurb:
"The award-winning artist Grayson Perry presents the 2013 BBC Reith Lectures, titled Playing to the Gallery. Across four programmes he discusses what makes him an artist, the limits of contemporary art, how to gauge the quality of new artworks and the future of the avant-garde."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith - podcasts of the lectures & related material

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03969vt - Democracy Has Bad Taste: Grayson Perry: Playing to the Gallery: 2013 Episode 1 of 4

I see that the first lecture is also available on youtube

Grayson Perry- Reith Lecture No.1: Democracy Has Bad Taste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtehJ3O3vMk

this weekend in the UK the "Subversive Stitch Revisited: The Politics of Cloth" conference was (is being) held. as it's a bit far to go from Australia, I missed out on attending the lectures. their twitter feed mentions the sessions will be uploaded as podcasts soon, so I shall try to take a listen to them. I have a copy of the original book, "The Subversive Stitch: embroidery and the making of the feminine (1984)" by Rozsika Parker, though I have only browsed through it. I hope to read more over the Christmas break (along with Colour book).

here's an image of the flyer:

event details, from the ticket site:

Keynote Speakers include: Professor Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds

The Subversive Stitch Revisited: The Politics of Cloth will explore the legacy of Rozsika Parker’s groundbreaking book, The Subversive Stitch: embroidery and the making of the feminine (1984) and two landmark exhibitions from 1988 that developed Parker’s ideas. It will consist of a two day event held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and an online resource that will include documentation of the event. The Subversive Stitch Revisited will be dedicated to the memory of Rozsika Parker, who died in 2010.