I suspect my love of arranging things in spaces harks back to my teenage dream of becoming an architect, abandoned a year or so before completing my degree after a huge row with one of the lecturers who disapproved throughly of my design for an underground library accessed via steps and ramps under a community garden and somehow convinced himself that the grazing goat I had included in my perspective drawing was intended to represent him. It was a nanny goat so I still have difficulty in making the connection myself, but perhaps there was an aspect to his life he wasn’t ready to share yet. Be that as it may, I hot-headedly stormed out and while I have occasionally regretted that impulsive action I must also admit that I probably don’t have the personality (and certainly didn’t when much younger) to successfully negotiate with clients.
I would have designed what I considered to be the perfect domestic layout with north-facing alcoves for winter naps, a bath with a garden view and a small pool in a courtyard (I was besotted by Moorish architecture thanks to a visit to the Alhambra in 1976) for air-conditioning in Australia’s warm climate and then the client might have said something innocuous such as “do you think we might change the height of the kitchen cupboards” whereupon I would probably have shouted “nein, nein, nein !!!” and the client::architect relationship would have been straight down the toilet.
So you can imagine how much I have enjoyed myself when I have from time to time been given the opportunity to install a solo exhibition without interference other than occasionally enlisting someone to assist with deciding whether a work is hanging at the correct angle. An exhibition that was doing the rounds about ten years ago remains one of my favourites; installed at the Tamworth Regional Gallery and the Barossa Regional Gallery in 2014, and then in Tasmania for their Festival in 2015. Each version claimed the host space in a different way, telling the same story but with a unique nuance.
Here are a few links to notes on the installations ::
The Barn, Rosny, Tasmania 2015
A story about the journey to Tamworth NSW from where I live in South Australia
And an online flipbook that served as a catalogue.
What has prompted these musings on exhibiting is my inclusion in a group exhibition of work arising from various artists experiences of their residencies on King Island to be shown later this year. I am having to send my work to be installed by someone I’ve never met…and because my experience of the residency was not so much focussed on product as on drawing, writing and simply being (t)here, I have only cloth samples, a notebook and some drawings and photos. At first I thought I would stitch the cloth samples together as a knee rug and offer the notebook for perusal in company with an armchair, side table, standard lamp. Possibly biscuits and a cup of tea and preferably with a view of the sea. But the pages of the notebook are becoming daily more encrusted and (given one of the pages is covered in sparkly paint made from ground nacre and Malva arborescens) more fragile so it will probably be better displayed on a table of some kind.
Thanks to the plague (and my grandmotherly responsibilities) I haven’t had a solo exhibition since early in 2020. I like my work to tell a story rather than simply being “product” and although I had a very kind offer of exhibiting in Japan next year, I had to admit that in all honesty I couldn’t find anything worth saying with my work other than expressing my general feelings of dread in regard to the world. The prospect for America is terrifying no matter which way the pendulum swings. Gaza is being flattened and its population decimated despite the protests of multitudes of humanists around the globe. Men in Afghanistan seem to have conveniently forgotten that the very reason they exist on the planet is because they enter it through a very small portal between womens’ thighs and spend the rest of their lives being nurtured by them. In countries beyond number there are populations being oppressed by other more powerful ones. Frankly I don’t think anyone wants to have their noses further rubbed in the tidal wave of misery that the media shows us every day. So a solo exhibition is very much on hold for the present.
Speaking of the ‘present’, though…when the project was first announced we had rather hoped the portraits would be installed and ready to be gazed at around the June solstice, but such are the vagaries of building anything these days that the opening of Fabrik is more likely to be some time in August. It seems they are hiring, too, so if you live in South Australia (or are prepared to move here), you might like to investigate.
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If all goes well I hope to release a pocket-sized ‘course’ on July 7…basically a gathering of ideas and practical solutions to creating a dress from a t-shirt, put together for my friend Marion (the proprietor of Australia’s much loved on-line silk emporium) who had the notion of offering her lovely silk t-shirts together with a length of silk yardage for those who might like to make an dress that is easy to sew, dye and wear. My eldest moko kindly modelled one of the maquettes I was working on (necessarily diminutive in size so as to fit into the viewfinder of the recording device).
The offering will be priced at AUD $15 so that the cost will be mitigated by the 10% discount code available in the class for those of you who invest in Marion’s kit and still affordable if you just want to make a dress from a pre-loved t-shirt and the delights of your own stash (or lots of dresses if you explore all of the ideas).
Meanwhile the seventh section in the geometry of gathering has gone out into the world today. It’s a course that keeps sprouting more ideas in my mind (usually just as I’m going off to sleep) and so there are one or two sections more to film in it still.
A mixed bag of further reading
The week in review , and ‘Where is Palestine in Children’s Literature’ by Alice Rothschild, retired physician, author, filmmaker and social activist.
The article at this link is quite sobering. But worth perusing as most of us didn’t learn much of the grim truth at school.
Some reflections worth sharing by Mary Heath.
There is a new exhibition on the horizon at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Called Radical Textiles, it celebrates the cutting-edge innovations, enduring traditions and bodies of shared knowledge that have been folded into fabric and cloth over the past 150 years (though I suspect that the ‘ecoprint’ process that spread worldwide after being developed here in this very state probably won’t be represented 😉)
And lastly because all beautiful moments should be celebrated…this adorable family of ducks.
That model. Perfection. The finger point, her signature move!
Your work is certainly unique and I loved looking at your styling. I don’t think I would feel comfortable with someone else setting up my work. Just like I don’t like my husband dusting, nothing ever gets put back in the same spot. I envy your sea glass collection. Not living near the water anymore I don’t do any more collecting. And I noted you stayed in Dodges Ferry when in Tassie, a great spot, plus they have a great pub!