Ghost Story: The Art of Aly De Groot

Ghost Story: The Art of Aly De Groot

ABC Iview 
http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/art-x-north/AR1501D001S00

Ghost Story: The Art of Aly De Groot
Ghost Story follows the artistic process of textile artist Aly De Groot who reclaims 'ghosts nets' - fishing nets lost at sea - and transforms them into beautiful sculptures echoing marine life.

Rachel Develin

Rachel Develin, Let Your Light Shine 2013, Installation,  poultry wish bones and copper wire

Rachel Develin, Let Your Light Shine 2013, Poultry wish bones and copper wire

 Sacred
M16 Gallery
November 2013
Website

Spider Web

An interesting and beautiful net.

Spider's web, Queensland.  Image supplied by Nancy Tingey 2015

Opening of Ocean Forrest

Monique van Nieuwland, Ocean Forrest, Sturt Gallery 2015

Ocean Forrest, Sturt Gallery 2015

Ocean Forrest, Sturt Gallery 2015

Ocean Forest

Monique van Nieuwland ~ Contemporary weaving
'Sound Vignettes' by Madeleine Cocolas

Sturt Gallery - from 7 June to 19 July 2015

Design workshop

Rachel Develin, Design Workshop May 2015

Belinda Jessup, Design Workshop May 2015

Belinda Jessup, Design Workshop May 2015

Place: spaces and beyond

'Place: spaces and beyond'.

 Feb - March 2015

Bev Moxom  was one of 4 artists to exhibit in Place: Spaces and Beyond at the Belconnen Arts Centre. 

Bev Moxom, 2014-2015, Gourds and basketry work atop plinths and placed in front of photographs of Bark landscapes with Terrain installation at right of Image. Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

Bev Moxom, 2014-2015, Gourds and basketry work atop plinths and placed in front of photographs of Bark landscapes. Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

Bev Moxom, 2014-2015,  Gourd with coiled pine needles. Photographer: Andrew Sikorski  

Bev Moxom, 2014-2015 Random weave cane, philodendron husks basket with rabbit fur.  Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

 

Bev Moxom: In this work I have twined cotton string and rope and then dyed the sculptural forms with eucalyptus dyes. Terrain began in 2011 and is ongoing. Photographer: Andrew Sikorski

Janet Meaney

Janet Meaney

Rocks in Her Head 2015

Photographer: Brenton McGeachie

Performance for camera.

In it I  demonstrate the typical refrain heard in response to behaviour of difference - she's got rocks in her head/ she is mad.

Interestingly, on a recent visit to India, I learned that this same refrain is used in reference to the village gossip. Maybe  they are saying that the weight of all that knowledge makes one mad.

Janet Meaney and Zoya Siddiqui

Halo 2015

Colombo, Sri Lanka

A performance in collaboration with Pakistani artist Zoya Siddiqui for Theertha Performance Art Platform Colombo Sri Lanka March 2015. Highlighting the visibility of women.

Janet Meaney

How Now Brown Cow 2015

Performance on Shanthiroad in Bangalore India April 2015

Wearing a thin red leather hide I approached a cow as she grazed on the rubbish. Initially, she sniffed  the hide (in recognition?) and then mouthed it but then moved away and even from a distance she kept her eye on me.As planned, the work drew attention to the situation of the cow and the title asked the question What next? opening further debate about the origin of the status of the cow as sacred and the right to kill  the cow and eat meat in the face of the Government's latestl ban on the eating of meat. The local residents were also hoping that  a focus on the rubbish would be noted in the press and a remedy sought

Links to the web.

youtube.janetmeaney

janetmeaney.wix.com/performance

janetmeaney.see.me

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Design Thinking workshop 31 May 2015 with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Covet Workshop with Sharon Peoples

Bev Moxon

Bev Moxon, Covet 2015

The Necklace 

Recently I came across a story written by a French 19th Century author, Guy de Maupassant called, ‘The Necklace’ and although the story is quite well known I had not read it until now. His tale was inspirational in motivating me to create a necklace for this exhibition. In this story a beautiful jewel necklace belonging to a friend was much desired by a young woman, Mathilde. 


Coveting and perception are the themes of the story and throughout the narrative the protagonist, Mathilde covets all that other people possess. She perceives others to have more than she and is so covetous of jewels, silks and furs that eventually she comes to a sorry finish. I won’t give the story’s ending away in case you haven’t read it, but I will put a link here so that you can read it for yourselves. 

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml 


It seems one of the most common weaknesses of human nature is to be covetous of the wealth of others and to perceive that they have more than ourselves. I have used very common objects found in nature to demonstrate how ‘all that is gold need not glitter’. Wealth is a matter of perception as is well illustrated when reading Guy de Maupassant’s tale. If we take the time to look there is a treasure trove to be found in nature. 
 

My necklace is still in the very early stages of designing but will eventually have a rabbit fur edging, cowrie shells, stones, small pieces of bone and other natural materials such as seeds and pods. Techniques employed are weaving, sewing and beading.

There are other layers of meaning within my work from the controversial use of fur as a decorative piece to adorn humans to the suggestions of natures objects, simple, common, yet beautiful and valued in their own right as Nature’ riches. 


I also allude to the historical use of shells as money. Shell money was used in America as well as Asia, Africa and Australia. The cowrie shell was the shell most often used as currency and in my work it becomes a signifier of wealth. 


It is ironic that Guy de Maupassant penned his own epitaph, which read,
“I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing.” 

Bev Moxon 

Monique van Nieuwland

Monique van Nieuwland ~ Contemporary weaving

Sturt Gallery - from 7 June to 19 July 2015

Exhibition Opening Sunday 7 June at 11am
To be opened by Meredith Hinchliffe, curator and writer 'Sound Vignettes' by Madeleine Cocolas FLOOR TALK by the artist at 2pm in the gallery

 Website

"Sea monsters show the world on the edge

‘Ocean Forest’ is a new exhibition of contemporary weaving by Monique van Nieuwland, featuring sound vignettes by Madeleine Cocolas, designed to challenge our thinking about the beauty of our ocean flora and the threats to this fragile environment created by the modern world.

References to mid 18 hundreds of Australian marine flora are used to create an ocean forest installation, consisting of damask woven panels suspended in mid space.  On the walls is a series of smaller Jacquard woven images. Some of these interpret the 1850-60’s W. H. Harvey  botanic drawings of marine flora and some reinterpret depictions of sea monsters from early world maps.

These monsters represent vortexes in the world’s oceans where much of the world’s plastic waste has been discovered to converge, forming large, menacing floating masses, submerged below the surface."

Network in Italy

 Image sent to Nancy Tingey From Matera Italy

Photographed and sent to me  by my brother’s partner Sue Leach. They were touring in southern Italy. ‘Took this in Matera yesterday…thought of you! It was one of many hangings from a handmade twig sculpture outside a pretty bar. Made from raffia…fruit nets gleaned from the sea shore…and white pebbles.’

Sharon Peoples

 Next installment:

Sharon Peoples, Golden Lungs 2015,  machine embroidery

Sharon Peoples, Diamond Lungs 2015,  machine embroidery

I directly made an embroidery working from my recent drawings and sketches just to see how they would go. Usually there is a slight 'lost in translation' between a drawing and the lace technique I use. disappointingly this did not happen. It was quite boring I felt. The diamond shape with lung insertions didn't express anything I was setting out to do.
 
I resorted to a familiar way of working -using the imagery of lungs. I have been working with these for the last few years but this seemed  a little easy in one sense. I changed threads to metal and, at last, I felt like I was getting somewhere. I think I was making things a little too complicated in one way - trying to fit in a lot of ideas when perhaps this was not necessary. Anyway for the moment I feel like a new path has opened up. 


I am also working on a very much larger piece, so have been resolving things between the two formats. I will keep you posted later on this work.

Ola Robertson

I have just come back from a week at Fibres Ballarat, doing a free machine embroidery workshop with Meredith Woolnough. We also had instruction on placing small embroidery pieces in resin.  The class had a really good atmosphere and every one enjoyed it, especially me. Here is my final piece which we had two days to complete and mount.

Covet

covet

verb

verb: covet; 3rd person present: covets; past tense: coveted; past participle: coveted; gerund or present participle: coveting

yearn to possess (something, especially something belonging to another).

From Google search

Open Studio - Katherine White

 Katherine White

Open Studio

 
Katherine White, Grey Rocks sketch, 2015
Katherine White, Guerilla Bay Sketch, 2015
Katherine White, Guerilla Bay Island and Cliff sketches, 2015

Katherine White will be opening her studio as part of Open Studio Eurobodalla on 

Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 May 2015, 11am to 4pm. All are welcome to view recent drawings 

and other art works inspired by local cliffs, islands and beaches.
 

whitekatherine1 (at) gmail.com
 

Jenny Manning - Vessel

JENNY MANNING

VESSEL

An exhibition at Form Gallery, Queanbeyan

19 April – 11 May 2016

Artist’s Statement
The main themes and subject matter of this exhibition focus upon the container or vessel and their relevance to human culture. Through a variety of processes from drawing and painting to coiling and ceramic decoration, I have created works that use pattern and form to reference the decorative aesthetic of Islamic, Mayan, Jomon or Navaho cultures. 


The symmetry and colour of the patterns in the drawings, baskets and ceramics are dictated by both the circularity of the form and the slow decorative process whether it be in pen and ink, pencil, coloured yarn or underglaze. 


Creating the baskets is a process that is both meditative and satisfying. It is slow and repetitive, with each wrapped stitch gradually building the pattern. The colour changes happen progressively and the form appears over months of time. Sometimes the pattern evolves from the coiling, spiralling process of wrapping plastic tubing with coloured yarn, but sometimes the pattern follows a predetermined design. 

Form Studio and Gallery 

Sharon Peoples

Sharon Peoples, Covet Shawl sketches, 2015

Sharon Peoples, Covet Shawl sketches, 2015

Over Easter I thought a lot about covet, particularly one night while I laid wide awake. I was thinking about things that I had coveted and had 'stolen' from family members. Usually this means borrowing with the intention of never giving back. I remembered I had a shawl that belonged to my sister, Elizabeth. She died of mesothelioma about seven or eight years ago.

I loved this exotic shawl, made of brown net and had very thin metal pieces bent around the fibres, almost like very fat staples. I don't remember the actual point of me stealing it, but I know I took it. 

I used the shawl in a class on the politics of dress. Students had to write what is called a 'significance report'. Each object in a museum needs to have one of these for each object. Students as part of their internships often have to write these as there is generally  a backlog as you can imagine. I brought in this shawl in for learning how to write these reports, using it for learning how to describe clothing and textiles in detail. By sheer co-incidence one student in the class had just seen a similar shawl that the NGA had purchased. It was a 1920s shawl made in Egypt. Subsequently some say they were made for the tourist trade, others say it was for women who had ravelled to Mecca.

The netting is a similar pattern to the way I machine embroider the lace I make. I have been making textiles with metal threads. I spent the Easter bringing the idea of the stolen textile, with work I have been trying to make about my sister's death. I'm not sure quite where this is going but it is a start. It was good to be doing sketches and not have access to a sewing machine. Just forcing myself to keep drawing and painting. Today I will start on the machine.

Sharon Peoples, Covet Shawl sketches, 2015

Sharon Peoples, Covet Shawl sketches, 2015

Sharon Peoples, Covet Shawl sketches, 2015

Valerie Kirk

Artist’s Statement

“Measuring Time”, a work in woven tapestry, is inspired by visits to the Age of Fishes Museum at Canowindra, NSW where I have drawn from the extensive collection of fossil fish. The specimens on display were discovered through a chance encounter in 1955 and they provide a view into life during the Devonian Period - the 'Age of Fishes'. The objects are evidence of life in our distant past and through their study and research we come to understand more about our world and its evolution. For me as an artist the collection provides a fascinating space for imagination and creative work exploring the gaps between the actual specimens and an imagined reality.

Valerie Kirk, Measuring Time, 2014

Valerie Kirk, Measuring Time, detail,  2014

 Valerie can be contacted through the Australian National Universities textiles department.
ANU Textile Department 
ANU Facebook 
Also
https://www.facebook.com/valerie.kirk.73345