February 2012
2 posts
2 tags
3 tags
January 2012
4 posts
3 tags
3 tags
4 tags
4 tags
Review | Yayoi Kusama: ‘Look Now, See Forever’
Yayoi Kusama Dots Obsession 2011 Vinyl balloons, dot sheets, paint, mirrors Image: Exhibition catalogue
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist whose paintings, sculptures, performances and installations have influenced generations of artists from minimalists in New York to contemporary practitioners the world over. Kusama was born in 1929, in Japan where she studied for one year before moving to New...
December 2011
7 posts
3 tags
10 tags
Review | VCA Graduate Show 2011
Valentin Palonen Everyday Alchemy Mixed media
If you haven’t seen the School of Art Masters exhibition you have sadly missed your chance, it closed on 11 December. You haven’t missed your chance to see some of the works here, however, or to read about them. This is more of a post-review review (holidays and deadlines don’t always mix).
This year’s presentation of the graduating fine artists...
3 tags
6 tags
3 tags
4 tags
Review | VCA Graduate Show
Tonight is the opening of the 2011 Master of Arts graduate show at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne - to celebrate I’ve posted last year’s show review. This year’s review is on the way too, it might be interesting to compare.
The converted gallery spaces were packed with bodies on the opening night of the Victorian College of the Arts Graduate Show. It was a...
What do you think?
To celebrate the first day of summer, among other things, I’m asking you what you’d like to read on this blog. Who would you like me to review? I’ll search out their work and tell you about the way they work, their inspirations, what it’s like to view it etc.
Do you have a favourite artist or era that you would like to know more about? I’m interested to know what you...
November 2011
13 posts
5 tags
Cressida Campbell - a brilliant Australian artist...
Cressida Campbell is an artist worth knowing about (and admiring) if you love detailed artworks which blur the line between truth and fiction. Campbell, b. 1960, is an Australian artist who trained at what is now the National Art School, but what was then the East Sydney Technical College. She also studied in Tokyo at the Yoshida Hanga Academy. I specify these biographical details because Campbell...
5 tags
Review | Ranjani Shettar’s Sunshine and Dew drops
The first thing you might note as you walk through this exhibition by Indian artist Ranjani Shettar is the importance of shadows. The walls and floors become a canvas while Shettar’s sculptures hang and cling to the walls and ceiling. Also notable is the hand crafted nature of these objects – their surfaces are shiny, textured, as well as creepily latexy. There are a range of materials and...
6 tags
Norman Rockwell comes to life in the photographs...
I made a truly exciting discovery while searching flickr for images on the Commons: the American Library of Congress has a catalogue of photographs featuring women working at the Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California during World War II. These images remind me strongly of Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Rosie the Riveter (below) and the less well known Liberty Girl.
Norman...
5 tags
WatchArt historian and poet TJ Clark speaks at The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne.
In this interview Clark speaks about art, poetry and the special quality of artworks that we return to again and again. For me this is the work on Claude Monet, for Clark it is the work of Nicolas Poussin. Clark also notes the tricky processes involved with writing about art from a personal point of view. I particularly like...
4 tags
An Artwork A Week: An Edwardian Gown [Part 2]
As the Buckley & Nunn evening gown was in storage for many years before and after it was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) it needed significant restoration. Mary-Anne Gooden, Textile Conservation Officer at Artlab Australia, outlined the process used by the restoration team at the NGV.The first step in the restoration process was to identify the materials used in the gown....
4 tags
An Artwork A Week: An Edwardian Gown [Part 1]
Originally published this time last year, this post covers the conservation processes used for restoring the exsqusite Buckley & Nunn Ltd evening gown, which was in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Australian Made exhibition. This is a double post (part 2 tomorrow) which will be of interest to textile enthusiasts and anyone interested in Melbourne’s fashion history.
This edition...
4 tags
Critical Failings, a post from the past
Continuing with the past posts here is my response to the Critical Failure: Visual Art event (the video for which was blogged yesterday).
Critical failure was chaired by Peter Mares and the guests were John McDonald (art critic Sydney Morning Herald), Naomi Cass (Director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography), Phip Murray (Editorial member of un Magazine), and Patrick McCaughey (former...
3 tags
WatchFrom the Wheeler Centre’s Critical Failure series, this video focuses on visual arts criticism. The speakers are John McDonald, Patrick McCaughey, Naomi Cass and Phip Murray.
3 tags
4 tags
5 tags
Review| 21st Century: Art in the First Decade at...
The 21st Century: Art in the First Decade exhibition fills three levels of the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), South Bank, with all the unexpected installations and materials we have come to love. The product of ten years collecting contemporary art, 21 Centuryfeatures old favourites as well as a few specific commissions. At the entrance visitors will see two silver spiral slippery slides, which you...
2 tags
Prepare for past posts
Some of you will be aware that Vociferous Whimsy hasn’t always lived at tumblr, previously (and until the glitches started) this site was Wordpress themed. Coming up I’ll feature past posts as a sort of best of feature. There are two reasons for this: one, I hate losing work and hope to show it to as many readers as possible, and two, while I prepare for end of year exams there can be...
4 tags
July 2011
3 posts
2 tags
An Artwork A Week: Magdalena Bors
Currently on show at the Little Deer Tracks cafe, Coburg is a group show of local artists. The showstopper is Magdalena Bors’ photography. One photograph by the RMIT graduate is featured, ‘Woodland Scene’ (2006), from the Homeland series, and it’s a stand out for several reasons.
Sitting on a black and red couch is a woman knitting. She wears black and we can only see her hands and legs, not...
5 tags
6 tags
The problem with titles
It’s not often that I get a bad taste in my mouth when reading art criticism. I’d like to say it’s the quality of the writing, but it might also be the sliding definition of criticism that we encounter in mainstream papers these days. The second is a tale for another time, today I’m concerned about Christopher Allen’s weekend collumn from the Australian. It’s...
June 2011
4 posts
4 tags
Q&A with Katrina Rhodes
A while back I reviewed Katrina Rhodes’ show at No Vancancy - below is a Q&A with the artist.
Describe the project you’re working on at the moment? At present I am concentrating on making an extension to my studio, as over the past year it has seemed to Implode with endless brushes, canvas and general painting supplies. I have two commissions in which I need to start, but during the days...
2 tags
Do you know who I am?
The title for this post is written in good humour (more an opportunity to quote Eddie Izzard quoting Darth Vadar than anything else). Today I visited the National Gallery of Victoria and while taking notes on the first available chair I was stopped by a staff member. Pens and pencils, it became clear, are not allowed in some exhibitions. I put a way my pen and book and asked how else I might take...
2 tags
April 2011
12 posts
8 tags
Review | Katrina Rhodes at No Vacancy Gallery
No Vacancy gallery was crowded and noisy on opening night of ‘A Handful of Civilised Friends’, three of its walls hung with ornately framed paintings and photographs and the forth glass wall kept out the cold autumn night. Katrina Rhodes’ paintings make up three quarters of the exhibition and a final section features her photographs, vintage and water marked. At first glance the subject of her...
3 tags
WatchBill Henson conducts a question and answer at the University of Technology Sydney. He speaks about his creative process, “that rubbish” that was the controversy of 2008 and the photograph as an object among other very interesting subjects.
8 tags
Review | Bill Henson at Tolarno Galleries
When I visited Tolarno Galleries it was quiet and almost deserted. Nothing hinted at the 500 strong crowds which had piled in for the opening night, nothing except the director’s lost voice. In the silence I contemplated the thirteen Henson photographs. I was drawn to the far corner and Untitled 2009/2010 (#11) and found that it encapsulated Henson’s interest in artworks of the past, statuary and...
3 tags
4 tags
Q and A with Madeleine Brown, jeweller.
I met Madeleine Brown when I lived in Brisbane, working in arts administration. Madeleine was one of the many amazing tutors at Flying Arts, and a perfect candidate for a question and answer post. Below Madeleine discusses the art and craft scene in Brisbane, what it’s like working from home and her sources of inspiration.
Describe the project you’re working on at the moment?
It’s the...
Ch ch ch changes...
Vociferous Whimsy is transitioning from wordpress to tumblr, which is why the content/posts have temporarily disappeared. They will be back though and all will be well with the world. So don’t panic. In the mean time new content will be available here in the same vein as before. Stay tuned.