inspections

I am still alive. For quite a while there I was very busy doing things so extraordinarily mind numbingly banal and tedious that i will not speak of them anymore, except to say that they involved cleaning, real estate agents, excel spread sheets and tax. These are a few of my least favourite things, needless to say.



The exhibition at Gallery 9 really went extremely well, to my amazement, with most of the work finding good new homes. Some is even going to London.
It was so nice to have my work in such a beautiful space, and to work with such good people. I have lots more photos here, including works-in-progress pictures. And i have added added some to my website, too, and will add more when i get a chance.



I am off to Nowa Nowa tomorrow, in East Gippsland, for two weeks, as The Long Now resident artist. I'll be doing an installation in part of an unoccupied house as part of Open For Inspection, in collaboration with the local community (hopefully!), and my sister Rhiannon, too (she is very good with paper and things, and a very good artist). I am really looking forward to actually getting there, rather than just preparing; there has been lots to pack, and organise, and think about. Some more about what i'll be doing here.



And here is Open For Inspection the blog

horsehairy

This work, THE MECHANICAL EQUITANT (in these photos it's not quite finished yet) has been commissioned for BLOODLINES: ART AND THE HORSE AT Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, which will open 1st of August (of course!). I'll be sending it on it's way this week, in time for catalogue photography. The show is curated by Peter Fay, there'll also be new commissioned works by Charlie Sofo, Slim Barrie, Jo Boag, Stephanie Hicks, Simon Scheuerle, Linde Ivimey, Martin Mischkulnig, and Tom Moore, as well as existing works by artists Noel McKenna, Nicholas Chevalier, Arthur Boyd, Ken Whisson, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Sam Fullbrook, Harold Cazneaux, Pro Hart, TV Moore, Sidney Nolan and, i believe, quite a few others.




THE MECHANICAL EQUITANT has undergone many changes and revisions as i've been making it, many parts were created that didn't end up getting used. The photos HERE show many of these parts. They'll all come in handy for something else. It seems i have a very inefficient way of working. Sometimes i think it would be nice to know exactly what it is that you're doing, and know it will work. But maybe it wouldn't be so interesting that way.

Will do another post on this work. Maybe when it's on its way and i don't have to look at it any more.

malleable fiction

Some odds and ends sitting on the window sill of my studio. Lots of them use the crumpling i've been doing a lot of lately, combined with papier mache. I called them FICTILE MEMENTOS. I like the word fictile, it sounds to me like it means 'fictional' but actually means 'malleable' or 'formed of a moldable substance' and is often used in relation to pottery. These two meanings aren't so different really, both imply a constructed entity, one of them , perhaps, a little more tangible than the other.



Some of these pieces were in a group show at FIELD in Newcastle a little while ago -

on their way!

A few weeks ago I finished some large sculptures for a private commission. They just left my studio today. It has taken me a really long time to get them ready to send to Melbourne. It's not so much the packing that has taken so long (though it did take quite a while) it's fact that there are 21 parts that need to be reassembled into 5 sculptures, with 11 'legs' that don't look that different yet all must go into a specific hole. And i'm not gonna be there to put them back together again. If i was, it would be easy, but making it easy for someone else to put them together - that's hard.




First there's a checklist of the parts. then there's a guide to what all the tags mean (each sculpture has a number, each leg and hole has a letter etc etc.) Then there's instructions for the way that the top part of each individual sculpture attaches to the legs (they are all different). And then there's a guide to the cd of photos i've included. Much more complicated than i'd expected.




The sculptures are called GHOSTS IN MACHINES (DESOLATION ROW 2) and are paper, textiles, wax, wood, wire and other stuff like glue and ink.

more secretive spectres

spectral monsters (from the omnibus), originally uploaded by me-jade.

More from saturday evenings semi-secret and rather devious 2 hour exhibition i had with Lauren Brown sheseesred.blogspot.com/2006/12/guerilla-girls.html

secret show

From saturday evenings semi-secret and rather devious 2 hour exhibition i had with Lauren Brown.
That's some of Laurens work on the walls in the frames.

oscillium asylum omnibus 4

oscillium asylum omnibus, originally uploaded by me-jade.

Just another picture of a spectral monster. I'll write something about them sometime.
I think this one should be called the 'horn-headed monster.'
Looks like it might make an awful noise.

new sketchbook page

from sketchbook, originally uploaded by me-jade.

From a new sketchbook - a squared moleskine. I've been using a bit of grid paper lately.

oscillium asylum omnibus 3

oscillium asylum omnibus, originally uploaded by me-jade.

OSCILLIUM ASYLUM OMNIBUS: SPECTRAL MONSTERS OF USELESS WORDS.

oscillium asylum omnibus 2

oscillium asylum omnibus, originally uploaded by me-jade.

oscillium asylum omnibus

oscillium asylum omnibus, originally uploaded by me-jade.

oscillium asylum omnibus - finally

oscillium asylum omnibus, originally uploaded by me-jade.

Finally I have some photos of my sculptures at 4A. My computer is still not fixed (though I’m hoping it will be soon) , so instead I begun the tedious and slow process of burning them onto cds – tedious and slow because the other computer I have to use is very slow and the burning program keeps crashing on me. But at least I’ve got them. Well I’ve still got another lot to go, but I’m nearly there. It has made me appreciate my own computer, aside from those rotten USB ports. And by the way Canon ‘support’ still hasn’t contacted me. Slackers!

Anyways the name of the work is OSCILLIUM ASYLUM OMNIBUS: SPECTRAL MONSTERS OF USELESS WORDS. They are made from various types of paper, including shredded documents from my local council as well as fabric, thread, wire, plant materials, spakfilla and latex surgical gloves. Some of the paper is folded, some is papiermache.

oscillium asylum close-up

oscillium asylum (episode one), originally uploaded by me-jade.

A close-up to illustrate what i'm currently working on (see last post)....i'll be making a few kind of like this....

oscillium; work in progress

oscillium asylum (episode two), originally uploaded by me-jade.

This sculpture is finished, but i'm in the process of making a little 'flock' of these, if all goes to plan they'll be in a show at Gallery 4A in Sydney next month, i'll post more details about that soon.
I don't have any photos of the ones i'm making, they're a bit like this, and a bit like the desolation row sculptures, except they dangle from the ceiling. See my post 'oscillium asylum'

Desolation Row part 4

desolation row @ silvershot, originally uploaded by me-jade.

This is a continuation of my previous Desolation Row postings, so it’ll probably make more sense if you read those first…then again maybe not. You’ll have to scroll right down to find them.

The Cinderella of ‘Desolation Row’ seems to be Cinderella before her transformation into glamourous ball-going princess. ‘The only sound that’s left after the ambulances go, is Cinderella sweeping up on desolation row.’ The aftermath of some sort of festivity gone wrong?

And so we are back to the carnival. It seems that originally this referred to a period of excess preceeding the austerity of Lent, which of course preceeds Easter. This seems to link nicely with the suggestions of the hanging being some sort of carnival, with Easter being a celebration of crucifixion.

‘And the good samaritan, he’s dressing,
He’s getting ready for the show,
He’s going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row’

Another textile reference. I think my sculptures resemble the leftover, faded paraphernalia from some sort of unknown ritual celebration, or a cast of characters in suspended animation, decaying carnival remnants, petrified puppets.

‘They’ve nailed the curtains,
they’re getting ready for the feast,
the phantom of the opera,
a perfect image of a priest
they’re spoonfeeding Casanova
to get him to feel more assured,
then they’ll kill him with self- confidence
after poisoning him with words’

Nailing the curtains? Crucifixion as theatre? It seems to fit with ‘postcards of the hanging’ And then there’s that play between soft and hard again and, of course another reference to textiles.

My sculptures respond to this through their tortured puppet appearance. I find the ‘hanging as theatre’ idea especially interesting (and a little amusing) when we refer to the act of installing artworks in an exhibition as hanging, ie ‘hanging the show’.

Afraid I think there’ll be more to come on Desolation Row.

Oscillium Asylum

oscillium asylum, originally uploaded by me-jade.

This little piece is called OSCILLIUM ASYLUM (EPISODE 1).
It’s made of papier mache, various fabrics and threads, wood, wire, pages from printed books and mixed media, maximum depth 36cm.

It was one of my pieces in a show at Project Artspace, (in Wollongong) LIMINAL PERSONAE, which is going up to gallery 4a in Sydney next month. The exhibition was/is curated by the lovely Lauren Brown and Moira Kirkwood……Laurens blog, She Sees Red , is really really excellent, (and she is an awfully good artist), so have a look! When the details of the show are completely definite, I’ll post’em.

In case you’re wondering, the word ‘liminal’ means ‘of the threshold.’

I was making the piece at the same time as making the Desolation Row sculptures, so it kind of fits with them, in terms of the processes and techniques used, and the ideas that informed its creation.

An 'oscillium' (in latin) was a mask (of Bacchus) hung in a tree in a vinyard to bring luck / a good harvest. It would swing in the wind, and this led to the word 'oscillate', which seemed appropriate, as the piece hangs from the ceiling….if there was a breeze, it would swing!
This also seemed to fit with its puppet-like appearance, as well as having an interesting link to the origins of the word 'personae' which, in its original form, referred to the masks used in ancient Roman theatre. So there is a definite theatrical theme.

I also feel that the work had certain paradoxical qualities….the wheels are immobilized, and so useless. It looks like it might like to fly away, but it is tied up with string, so it can only go round in circles, or swing too and fro. The piece is playful, but slightly ominous.

This is the statement I submitted for the publication accompanying the show;

‘Vacation or evacuation, fight or flight, sanctuary or suffocation, suspended animation, an atrophied acrobat.
It could swing either way. Who is pulling the strings?’

The ‘asylum’ bit seemed appropriate for its rather paradoxical associations. Supposedly meaning sanctuary, the experience of a mental asylum generally being anything but a pleasurable escape (or at least thats what i'm told..haha). And the same is often true in the case of asylum seekers….a detention centre is hardly a sanctuary, or a safe haven.
And so you cannot tell if the sculpture is happily floating, or ‘strung up’, unable to escape.

The piece seemed to fit nicely with Liminality, too. It looks like it could be in some kind of transitional state, neither here nor there. Sort of like it might metamorphose at any moment.

desolation row photo

desolation row @ Silvershot, originally uploaded by me-jade.

just an illustration for my last post. This is one of the tallest of my sculptures.

Desolation Row (part 3)

There are quite a few references to textiles within the Desolation Row lyrics; some overt, others implied.

Of course there is the hanging, mentioned in the first line...and you can't have a hanging without some rope...or something like rope...at least not that i'm aware of. Then, a couple of lines down, we find '..the circus is in town, here comes the blind commissioner, one hand tied to the tightrope walker, the other is in his pants':- two there! (and that's if you don't count a circus tent) Perhaps the hanging rope and the tight rope are not so different? It seems to me that Dylan is drawing a subtle analogy here...the hanging is like a circus?

Then there's a verse on cinderella. Now in the story of Cinderella that we all know, Cinderellas ball gown, bestowed by her fairy godmother, is a key part of her transformation. But not so important to the story, of course, as those glass slippers. And of course that is a soft thing (slipper) made into something hard (glass). And i reckon this is an interesting parallel to Ophelias 'iron vest,' mentioned in the song.
I am sure by now you will think i am mad, but i considered it my duty not to make my desolation row sculptures illustrations of the song, and i am always finding what are, to me, strange and interesting connections between things...i suspect everyone has there own.
Anyways, this was kind of relevant to the sculptures because of the way i used textiles and paper, layering them with glue to form something quite hard. Often in my work i am making hard things into soft things, like little fabric stuffed scissors, so this seemed a logical step. And there is an interesting play (in the song) between the forces of authority and restriction, and what we could call poetic or creative realities, for want of any better terms.

Anyways, there'll be more to come on Desolation Row...it is a long song, but it is also a whole world, or three.
And there's plenty more textiles and paper to talk about yet!

Desolation Row (part two)

The arabic bible(new testament)i mentioned in desolation row part one seemed particularly relevant for a few reasons....of course for the biblical references in the song, (though most are old testament, except for the good samaritan...and there are veiled references to crucifixion, well i think so anyway) but also for the sense of displacement. The arabic seemed interesting to me in light of current world events, and for the sense it which the characters in the song are 'outsiders,' perhaps rejected by the mainstream.
In my mind it kind of fit in with the stuff like 'praise be to Neros Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn......which side are you on?' partly because of the history of the book itself (see part one)and even the line 'painting the passports brown'....connecting to the issue of asylum seekers,(where identity and official papers are all-important) and even stuff like David Hicks in Guantanamo bay (and becoming a British citizen)........so of course we are back to the boats, at least if you can follow my train of thought!

Desolation Row (part one)

The references to the carnival within the song DESOLATION ROW were particularly interesting to me....there is the suggestion that the hanging ('postcards of the hanging')is a kind of carnival. This worked nicely with the appearance of theatrical decay that is often visible in my work.

There is a whole cast of characters that Dylan has 'collaged' together...Romeo, Noah, Cinderella, Casanova, the Hunchback of Notredame, Ophelia, the Good Samaritan and more...most of them literary, or from books anyhow (the biblical references were especially interesting in this way...coming from what is known as the book).

As Dylan says, he 'had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name'. This made my habit of ripping up old books (often they are falling apart)especially appropriate for this work, i thought. There are pages from any books used in my 'desolation row,' the words and pages are layered to form my 'cast of characters.'

Pages from a 'A Century of Ghost Stories'and 'Teach yourself Dutch' seemed particularly appropriate...the ghost stories because the Phantom of the Opera is another character in Desolation Row, and because of the sense in which Desolation Row is itself a kind of ghostworld, partly in this world and partly in the other. And the origin of the word spectre (same origin as spectacle) fits nicely with the carnival thing (more on spectre later!)

'Teach yourself Dutch' was good for the Dutch association with things naval...there are a few references to that kind of thing in the song, and i made parts of the sculptures quite boat-like (a bit more on that later).
Another thing was that phrase 'double dutch'...certain parts of the song refer to a sense of confusion (ie 'right now i can't read too good' and 'you're in the wrong place my friend') and there are also a few references to language itself ('off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet').

Also, I read somewhere that the Dutch are known as Dutch (by English speakers) because (a long time ago) english speaking people mistook them for German! (ie Deutsch) So this fitted with 'Painting the passports brown,' and of course with the name of the show, ITS PAINTING SO IT MUST BE GERMAN, haha!

Another book i used is a little book in arabic that i picked up a few years ago, when it was thrown out because it was damaged by 'the great flood of wollongong' (you'll see why i like call it that when i tell you about the book, i think!)

Although the book is in Arabic, i managed to find out a suprising ammount about it....it was published by Cambridge university press, originally purchased in Marseilles, France, and that it is a copy of the NEW testament (people seem to find it suprising that it is a new testament...but it's not really, if you think about it). And then somehow it made its way to wollongong uni alumni bookshop...quite a journey.