Vociferous Whimsy

I couldn’t resist curating a small selection of textiles...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:42:00 +1100

Gloves 1630 - 1650

Altar Frontal with Doves

Large-leaf verdure Tapestry

Part of a Chasuble

Baby's Bonnet

I couldn’t resist curating a small selection of textiles available at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, which I’ve studying for an assignment on Renaissance self-portraits by women artists. There’s no link between the subject and these exquisite textile, except my love for them both.

The Altar Frontal with Doves is from a Milanese workshop dated approximately last quarter of the 15th century, or is from Indian workshop perhaps early 17th century.

The Large Leaf verdure Tapestry dates from the second half of the 16th century, from Flanders. It is 300 x320 cm, so could have filled a whole wall.

Part of a Chasuble, the oddly shaped piece of cloth, comes from Italy or Spain in the second quarter of the 16th century. A chasuble is “a sleeveless outer vestment worn by a Catholic or High Anglican priest when celebrating Mass, typically having a simple hole for the head.” (Wiki)

Gloves 1630-1650 originate in England or Flanders and feature silk, leather, pearls and silver embroidery.

Baby’s Bonnet probably comes from Central Europe in first quarter of the 19th century, it features mental thread on silk.

I love looking an textiles, especially when they are so rich with history. The baby wearing this bonnet would have been quite wealthy, and may have donned it only for special occasions.

On an art crawl last year, during the exhibition Power to the...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:16:51 +1100

On an art crawl last year, during the exhibition Power to the People at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). The artist is Natasha Johns-Messenger - http://www.natashajohnsmessenger.com/

It was like thinking with portals.

In this video, leading Japanese contemporary artist, Riusuke...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:01:05 +1100

In this video, leading Japanese contemporary artist, Riusuke Fukahori demonstrates his technique. Using layers of acrylic paint separated by resin Fukahori creates extremely life-like images. Inspired by a goldfish he kept for seven years, he began painting fish in 2000, while searching for ideas.

Riusuke Fukahori is represented by ICN Gallery, London which focusses on Japanese and Asian artists.

ADA - analog interactive installationA kinetic sculpture by...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:02:06 +1100

ADA - analog interactive installation
A kinetic sculpture by Karina Smigla-Bobinski

From the artist’s website:

Filled up with helium, floating freely in room, a transparent, membrane-like globe, spiked with charcoals that leave marks on the walls, ceilings and floors. Marks which «ADA» produces quite autonomously, although moved by a visitor. The globe obtains aura of liveliness and its black coal traces, the appearance of being a drawing .

Roman Ondák discusses Performance 4, Measuring the Universe, at...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:01:00 +1100

Roman Ondák discusses Performance 4, Measuring the Universe, at MoMA New York.

The gallery space allows for different participatory acts. The viewer is encouraged to take risks and have fun. In the past passivity was all that was expected - to look and appreciate. Today viewers frequently produce the artwork under the direction or suggestion of the artist.

Measuring up the Universe is formed entirely by gallery goers having their height, name and date recorded on the gallery wall. The installation would look different every day as the black marks increased and darkened the walls. This is a very versatile idea, I’d love to see it replicated in Australia, perhaps with white text on a black wall. Lighting up the universe.

Artist bio:

Roman Ondák (b. 1966, Zilina, Slovakia) is widely regarded as one of the most important neo-conceptual artists working today. His work is characterized by a minimal use of materials paired with a subtle humor. Inviting strangers to participate in the production of his works is also a common strategy for the artist. Ondák lives and works in Bratislava, Slovakia.

You might also like Yayoi Kusama’s The Obliteration Room at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art.

Review | Yayoi Kusama: ‘Look Now, See Forever’

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:55:00 +1100

Yayoi KusamaDots Obsession 2011Vinyl balloons, dot sheets, paint, mirrorsImage: Exhibition...

Yayoi Kusama - An Introduction. (Via KusamaDocumentary). An...

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:08:53 +1100

Yayoi Kusama - An Introduction. (Via KusamaDocumentary).

An exhibition of Kusama’s work is currently on display at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, until 11 March 2012.

Review | VCA Graduate Show 2011

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:35:00 +1100

Valentin Palonen Everyday Alchemy Mixed media If you haven’t seen the School of Art Masters...

Sir Kenneth Clark on Raphael - The Hero as Artist (episode 5)...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:56:00 +1100

Sir Kenneth Clark on Raphael - The Hero as Artist (episode 5) from the BBC series ‘Civilisation’ (1969).

In this rare video Clark describes how Raphael was received at the time. Though not in favour as he is today Raphael’s significance is noted by Clark who goes into great detail about several of Raphael’s great works.

A brief overview by Nicholas Penny from the Grove Dictionary of Art states:

He has always been acknowledged as one of the greatest European artists. With Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Titian, he was one of the most famous painters working in Italy in the period from 1500 to 1520, often identified as the High Renaissance, and in this period he was perhaps the most important figure. His early altarpieces (of 1500–07) were made for Città di Castello and Perugia; in Florence between 1504 and 1508 he created some of his finest portraits and a series of devotional paintings of the Holy Family. In 1508 he moved to Rome, where he decorated in fresco the Stanze of the papal apartments in the Vatican Palace—perhaps his most celebrated works—as well as executing smaller paintings in oil (including portraits) and a series of major altarpieces, some of which were sent from Rome to other centres. In Rome, Raphael came to run a large workshop. He also diversified, working as an architect and designer of prints.

Emily Floyd, Steiner Rainbow 2006 In this video for the Gallery...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:05:00 +1100

Emily Floyd, Steiner Rainbow 2006

In this video for the Gallery of Modern Art’s 5th birthday celebrations, Peter McKay, Curator of Contemporary Australian art, speaks about the changing significance of rainbows. Emily Flod’s sculpture draws inspiration from the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, taking the small wooden sculptures used in Steiner/Waldorf schools and enlarging them. The scale is a little bigger than human, as you can see in the video.

As a Steiner graduate I immediately recognised this sculpture. At school there were many small wooden objects which we all played with, the rainbow was one. This sculpture draws our attention to colour and scale, as well as the relevance of rainbows (which McKay speaks about). Steiner Rainbow is large and imposing, but it also draws you in, irresistibly you have to walk around it. There are many ways this artwork could be displayed, just as when we were kids changing the angles of each colour arc. It’s temping to touch too and while I was in the gallery small children were encouraged not to touch the artwork, though you could tell they really wanted to. (This seems at odds with the intended use for small wooden rainbows but perhaps not contemporary art objects.)

An interview with Emily Floyd is available in the Hiede Museum’s Colour Bazaar: Nine Contemporary Works education resource here. Colour Bazaar was on display 12 February to 19 June 2011.

The debate about video games as art continues, while the jury...

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:17:00 +1100

The debate about video games as art continues, while the jury may appear missing in action, if there ever was one. I’d suggest it’s worth looking at games such as this one, Dear Esther, to see what’s posible. Lewis Denby describes the game as:

It’s an experimental first-person game [about] a nameless protagonist exploring a misty island. There’s no action, and no real puzzles to solve, but as you wander around the place you start to learn the unsettling and tragic story of the island, and those who ventured to it.

For my part I believe games can be art, depending on the intentions of the developers and the experience of the player. I love the premise for Dear Esther as all about discovery. Games can be really great at keeping the player in the dark and revealing information slowly, strategically, so that you’re swept along. Dear Esther will release on PC 14 February 2012.

Review | VCA Graduate Show

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:27:00 +1100

Tonight is the opening of the 2011 Master of Arts graduate show at the Victorian College of the...

What do you think?

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:31:06 +1100

To celebrate the first day of summer, among other things, I’m asking you what you’d like...

Cressida Campbell - a brilliant Australian artist you've never heard of

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:00:06 +1100

Cressida Campbell is an artist worth knowing about (and admiring) if you love detailed artworks...

Review | Ranjani Shettar’s Sunshine and Dew drops

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:48:05 +1100

The first thing you might note as you walk through this exhibition by Indian artist Ranjani Shettar...

Norman Rockwell comes to life in the photographs of Afred T. Palmer

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +1100

I made a truly exciting discovery while searching flickr for images on the Commons: the American...

Art historian and poet TJ Clark speaks at The Wheeler Centre,...

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:01:00 +1100

Art 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 the part in this interview where he says he was staking everything in the book of the idea that “visual images, paintings, can carry as much weight, depth, complexity and intensity as this”. This is a very important question I think, for the (art) critic, because it points to the way we idealise images, the way our reading of them involves our experiences.

I’ll always associate Monet’s work with being a kid because his was the first artist I really liked. I imagined living in the water lily garden and walking along the garden paths with nasturtiums. And I spent a long time looking at his water lily paintings. I cannot look at his work without these memories, memories which were triggered by a book about one girl’s journey to Monet’s garden. I just wanted to be that girl.

Below is an image mentioned in the interview: Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake, 1648.

An Artwork A Week: An Edwardian Gown [Part 2]

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:01:00 +1100

As the Buckley & Nunn evening gown was in storage for many years before and after it was...

An Artwork A Week: An Edwardian Gown [Part 1]

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Originally published this time last year, this post covers the conservation processes used for...

Critical Failings, a post from the past

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:48:00 +1100

Continuing with the past posts here is my response to the Critical Failure: Visual Art event (the...