Installation

Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal

This weeks photo challenge theme is quite convenient – for me at least!

Last weekend I spent Friday and Saturday night in Apollo Bay with my partner Strobe, because he won second prize in the Greens Art Prize, and two nights accommodation was the prize (pretty good prize)!

Apollo Bay is a coastal town along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, and is a popular tourist destination for international and local tourists. During the winter months its resident population is around 2,000, but come summer this explodes to 15,000 – 20,000! Luckily we were there just before this explosion.

So the photo challenge ‘renewal’ theme has a double meaning for me : first it coincides with a relaxing and renewing weekend away, strolling along the beach, sleeping in, coffee on the promenade, yummy restaurants and taking photos!

Secondly, the constant renewal of the environment by Mother Nature. As well as personal renewal, the photos I am sharing depict detail images of the ever changing shoreline. As tides flow in and flow out coastal debris becomes ensnared in damp sand, forming mini organic installations. And each day these spontaneous ephemeral artworks created by Mother Nature are renewed, fresh and invigorated for the next beach comber.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Near and Far

As I am currently living in Bentleigh, and not my home, I don’t have access to all my camera lenses, so for this weeks challenge I’ve dug up some images from a couple of years ago that I took while undertaking an artist residency in Beaufort, Victoria.

At this time large parts of Victoria were under drought conditions, and many of our waterways were extremely low, if not dried up.

The aim of this residency was to draw attention to the environmental impacts of climate change by creating an installation on one of the many regional lakes in the area. I chose Lake Beaufort, one of many rural lakes, which was extremely low at the time. In fact at this time Lake Wendouree, Lake Learmonth nd Lake Burrumbeat were completely dry.

During the first few days of the residency I contructed some large abstracted bird forms from recycled clay on the shore line of the lake – which was actually exposed lake bed. After the forms had dried they were moved into the water and allowed to disintergrate. The process was documented photographically, as is the practice for ephemeral installations. Many of the photos I took using the near and far method in order to highlight the exposed lake bed.

An exhibition of selected photographs from the residency was later exhibited at the Ararat Regional Art Gallery.

The bouy in the foreground was once in the water, it now sits marooned on the dry lake bed. The length of the chain indicates how deep the water was at this point. The clay sculptures can be seen in the distance on the waterline.

The clay birds can be seen in the far distance on the waterline. The foreground is dry lake bed.

Late afternoon View of the dry lakebed. Debris that was once beneath the water is now exposed. Clay sculptures in the distance.

The clay sculptures are now in the water.

Footprints

Unicorn Galley – Grand Opening

A new public art initiative in Ballarat began on Friday with the grand opening of the Unicorn Gallery. Situated in Unicorn Lane – between the CBA and the Unicorn Bar on Lydiard St, the gallery consists of eight wall mounted metal boxes in which artists of any medium can exhibit art work. The boxes have perspex fronts, are internally lit and are lockable. The initiative has been developed by the Ballarat council, and as such is free to artists and no commission is taken on sales.

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the opening exhibition. Installation was conducted on Friday afternoon, and the boxes looked great. Come night time at the opening they looked even better, with the lighting working well against the starkness of the laneway walls.

During the afternoon while artists were installing their artwork, lots of passers by stopped to look and comment – all were very positive to the idea, and agreed on the value of art and public art within the community – so YAY!

I installed four organic abstract forms by mounting them to the back wall complimented by stones arranged along the floor of the box.

Here is a slideshow of the artworks and the opening.

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The Best of 500 Ceramics – I’m in!

Some of you may be aware of the 500 series published by Lark Books. The books cover a range of different topics, and one of those topics is ceramics. Some titles include 500 Pitchers, 500 Bowls, 500 Plates, etc. In the past I have been lucky enough to have been included in 500 Ceramic Sculptures and 500 Raku.

The Best of 500 Ceramics

Lark have just put out an anniversary edition celebrating ten years of 500 books called The Best of 500 Ceramics – AND I have been included in it! For the statisticians out there that means that , for example, if they have put out ten books (it has been more, but not sure how many) and there are 500 images in each that is 5000 images to choose 500 from! And that’s on top the jurying for the original book. Again, for example in 500 Ceramic Sculptures 7000 ish entries were received.

So what art work made in in? Water Spiral : wheelthrown, burnished, pit fired and installed on bamboo.

Water Spiral: Pit Fired ceramic

Lorne Sculpture Show: Slideshow

The Lorne Sculpture Show was great… Large outdoor sculpture, small indoor sculpture, performance art, artists making sculpture on the day so that the general public could watch, interact and ask questions and children’s workshops to engage kids and introduce them to new ideas, mediums and 3D concepts.
The following slideshow are photos I took of some of my favourite works. They are all outdoor works as it was too difficult to photograph the indoor works as they were all in the shop windows along the promenade, and reflections from shop windows are hideous to work with!!
I will post some photos of the performances and other happenings of interest over the next few days.
If you live in Victoria or are lucky enough to be on holiday here it is well worth a visit to Lorne to check out the show.

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Lorne Sculpture Show

This is the artwork I have in the small works category of the Lorne Sculpture Show, which opens this weekend. The Lorne Sculpture Show began in 2007, and has grown as an international sculpture event. The show runs from the 16th October-6th November and consists of large scale & ephemeral outdoor artworks along the Victorian coastal shore & small sulptures in the shop windows of the adjacent boulevard. On both weekends of the exhibition’s duration there are numerous artist & workshop events, including children’s sculpture workshops, one of which I am conducting on Sunday 16th October. More information about the exhibition & related events can be found on the Lorne Sculpture Show Event Guide.

habitable sculpture

habitable sculpture. This blog has some great organic architectural ceramic sculptures

PhD Installation

My PhD installation comprised of organic sculptural ceramics that explored environmental issues through the use of organic and textured materials. Clay was utilised as a metaphor, in either its fired or unfired form, as it is ‘the skin of the earth’, and is therefore ideal to communicate the fragility and changeability of our environment. The installation is intended to be a conduit for the participant to reinvigorate their innate interdependence on the natural world.

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