Hate and Envy and Crime and Darkness and Pain 1

I've got three posts (here and here) about the exhibition Hate and Envy and Crime and Darkness and Pain which I had in 2007 at Kudos Gallery. I thought it'd be better to spread them out rather than have them all in one post. All three posts are starting with these four shots of the overall exhibition:




The exhibition was an overview of past works that all dealt with the idea of death and decay. The large chopstick installation was made in situ, and was mostly destroyed after the exhibition.

The chopstick works are all collectively titled Everything Ends. The four large works are about 50x50cm, and the small squares are approximately 20x20cm.







The small cubes are 20x20x20cm, and the larger boxes are 50x50x20cm.

More chopstick works

This post has some more random chopstick works. I think this is the last of them. I haven't made any for a couple of years now, but it's always possible I'll decide to make some more at some point in the future. I like to go back and revisit materials or techniques, then leave them alone for awhile. These works all fall into the Everything Ends series. It was a meditation on change and finiteness, as well as looking at architecture as inspiration. These first 3 cubes are about 20cm per side. The middle boxes are about 50x50x20cm, and the 3 flat works are 50x50cm. The last work is 20x20cm.

Push In, Up and Down to Lock

This was an exhibition of third year sculpture students at COFA, in the COFA Exhibition and Performance Space (as it was then called), May 2001. Push In, Up and Down to Lock: An exhibition of New Sculpture Works was the title, I think referring to how to use Blutac to fix something to a wall. The other artists were:
Leonie Barker, Hayden Fowler, Skye Gould, Lenka Kripac, Sam Roseman, Alex Gerec (I don't think this is how his name is spelled), Donna Page, Gabrielle Murdocca, Lisa Faddoul and Anna Jaaniste.

This was a shot from the entrance. Donna Page's untitled embroidered wedding dress is to the left; Lisa Faddoul's Sur VEIL lance is the video work; the t-shirts are my What a Piece of Work is Man; the hair plait coming from the ceiling to the paper on the floor is my Let Down Your Hair (a Rapunzel-related work); the bed-type thing is Anna Jaaniste's work Wednesday, I think; and the chopstick work is The Hanoi Hilton (more on that work here).


A view just to the left: Gabrielle Murdocca's soft sculptures are on the wall and floor, collectively called Probe.


The opposite view: The Hanoi Hilton again, Donna Page's work, I think Sam Roseman's work on the wall (Untitled), and I don't know what the things dangling from the ceiling are, or who they're by.


The Hanoi Hilton:

Study for Insecurity Blanket by Leonie Barker, and Panels by Hayden Fowler:

More Burnt Globe Works

These burnt globes were first made when I was working with wire cages. It was an accidental discovery that I then used for a number of years. For a sculpture class, I made a series of the globes that were tied with hair, and which had salt dried on them. I then hung them in a few places around the campus, with different configurations and different numbers. These works are collectively known as Comfortably Numb:


I had been working with chopsticks for awhile and decided to combine the two elements. The first work I made was called Hanoi Hilton. I conflated a couple of memories I had about the Vietnam War (umm, not personal memories... From TV and movies.), but particularly a scene from The Deer Hunter where someone is kept in a bamboo cage and then submerged in water. I don't think this was anywhere near the actual Hanoi Hilton where they also tortured prisoners, but the ideas merged for me:

This one is Hanoi Hilton II. It's the same idea, but the lines have become cleaner and more ordered:

I tried a few different configurations on the same theme:

Luggage... Not Baggage

This post has info about an exhibition I was in at PCL Exhibitionists in 2000.


Luggage... Not Baggage PCL Exhibitionists
August 15 - September 2, 2000 - PCL celebrates its 100th show

Rodney Love, Richard Morecroft, Jo Kot, Peta Morris, Sophie Gralton, David Sayer, Lesley Turnbull, Joan Rabinowitz, Irene Kindness, Julie Byrnes, Sarah Bishop, Elizabeth Wadsworth, Gabriella Hegyes, Deb Morrell, Dominique Downing-Hickey, Vanessa Forbes, Lyndal Campbell, Jo Tracy, Gwenda Hall, Izette Felthun, Yan Fletcher, Gail Joy Kenning, Alexandra Gray

Here is an installation shot, coming in the front door of the gallery:

This is the second room, with my work on the left:

My work includes the two sculptures on the floor, and the hanging bags in the middle:

This work was called In Darkness My Heart Was Won. Click on the 'chopsticks' link at the bottom of the post to see other works in this series. I'm not sure whose painting is on the wall behind my work, but they go quite well together:

This was another reworking of the hair dolls that have featured in a number of previous posts (here, here and here). It was called The Part That Wants Beauty To Suffer. I think I made this soon after the massacres in East Timor. It was supposed to be reminiscent of mass graves, and bodies found in burnt-out buildings.

These works all ended up with questions as titles: Just What Is It That Makes Today's Boys So Different, So Appealing? What Is It To Be Human? Why Prolong The Agony? What Price Love? I think the white bag is Why Prolong The Agony? but I'm not sure why. What Price Love? is the work on the right. It was made from acetate sheets with cards sewn in, and assembled into a bag. Each of the cards had the name of someone I'd "met" and we'd swapped numbers. It has since been destroyed, and I don't think I have any close-up shots:

This is What Is It To Be Human? It's made from human hair sandwiched between sheets of flywire, and sewn together. The handles are made from plaited artificial hair. Hmmm... Further research suggests that this is actually Why Prolong The Agony? The white one with fake fur on the outside and woven Gladwrap on the inside must be What Is It To Be Human? It still doesn't make any sense!

This is Just What Is It That Makes Today's Boys So Different, So Appealing? I've used the same title a couple of times.



Here are some shots of me getting the work installed. The chopstick sculpture is placed on a square of sand, and I had to sift it onto the floor to make it even and smooth: