Liverpool City Art Prize Catalogue

The catalogue for the Liverpool City Art Prize.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

This post continues my series looking at memorials I researched for my MFA thesis. This one is The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. All quotes are from the website, but all photographs are mine:
"It honors all of America's federal, state and local law enforcers. Inscribed on the Memorial's blue-gray marble walls are the names of more than 18,600 officers who have been killed in the line of duty, dating back to the first known death in 1792."

"Designed by Washington, DC architect Davis Buckley, the Memorial sits on three acres of federal park land called Judiciary Square. The site has served for over 200 years as the seat of our nation's judicial branch of government. A glance around the space finds plush carpets of grass, nearly 60,000 plants and 128 trees decorating the Memorial grounds. Each year, around the first of April, some 14,000 daffodils make the Memorial one of Washington's most spectacular attractions."



"Bordering the Memorial's beautifully landscaped park are two tree-lined "pathways of remembrance" where the names of the fallen officers are engraved."

"The names of the fallen officers are displayed in random order on the Memorial Wall. At an annual candlelight vigil held each year during National Police Week (in May) new names of fallen officers are added to the Memorial."



"Each of the pathway entrances is adorned with a powerful statuary grouping of an adult lion protecting its cubs. The bronze statues were sculpted by Raymond Kaskey. They symbolize the protective role of our law officers and convey the strength, courage and valor that are the hallmarks of those who serve in law enforcement."
(I didn't think the lions were "powerful" - in fact I think they're a bit cheesy, and the symbolism is heavy handed.)




"Under each of the lion statues are inspiring quotes that capture the spirit of the Memorial and the heroic men and women it recognizes"

"In valor there is hope."
-Tacitus

"It is not how these officers died that made them heroes, it is how they lived."
- Vivian Eney Cross, Survivor

"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion."
- Proverbs 28:1

"Carved on these walls is the story of America, of a continuing quest to preserve both democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure that we call the American dream."
- President George H.W. Bush



This is a rubbing I took of the above section:

I Am Because We Are Panels 2

This post continues the look at the sock panels that made up the I Am Because We Are installation. This work was made for the floor of the installation (above), but in the recent Landscapes: A Journey Home in Textiles show at Kudos Gallery it was exhibited running from the wall down onto the floor. The reason I embarked on this part of the project (naming the people whose socks make up each of the sections) is so that when I exhibit the work and people ask, "Are my socks in this one?" I can direct them here to check. The list of names below has some of the names repeated. This was because I used a number of different socks of theirs to make sure that I had variety in the colours of the panels. The names are typed onto ribbon which is woven in with the socks (the white strips you can see in the photos).




Andrew Metcalfe, Sandra Burchill, Ian Howard, Margaret Jackson, Anda Black, Bill Mobbs, Illona Caldow, Noel Love, Richard Brown, Ingrid Davis, Kennie Ward, Kevin Russell, Nancy Hall, Linda Jaivin, Paul Cordeiro, Peter Black, Harry Lukies, Quinn Cretney-Ross, Vivienne Webb, Sue Olive, Pat House, Andrew Gwinnett, Laila Marie Costa, Phillip Black, James Staniforth-Smith, Tony Napoli, Sally Hill, Libby Knott, Greg Cook, Peter Perry, Tim Lever, Myles Wearring, Barbara Mobbs, Charlie Blum, Russell Storer, Tim Smith, Billie Dyer, Roy Milton, Ada Markby, Joy Wellings, Kay Lyon, Peter Wong, Renata Joy Field, Miki Wakatsuki, Vanila Netto, Peter Black, Scott Maclennan, Siobhan Punshon, Donna Page, Jan Blum, Rebecca Reynolds, Allan Giddy, Jenya Osborne, Paraskevi Zafiriou, Alice Engel, Isolde Lennon, Tim Lever, Liddy Roulston, Ingrid Davis, Marianne Little, Rahayu Agustina, Ella Freer, Colleen Drew, Jenna Bateman, Sandra Eterovic, Virginia Baldwin, Margaret King, Jenya Osborne, Liddy Roulston, Peggy Smith, Kevin Greene, Dominick Rosenthal, Kristin Headlam, Viola Hofer, Gail Stiffe, Kathryn Greiner, Penelope Benton, Micheal Smith, Richard Morris, Mollie Osborne, Emmett O'Shea, Penelope Seidler, Clare Hodgins, Barbara Rogers, Basil Bessiris, Pierre Thibaudeau, Millie Phelan, Lyn Dickson, Gavin Palmer, Kean Wong, Fiona Kennedy, Rex Deutscher, Tamsin Hughes, Mike Stiffe, Phillip Black, Ian Fletcher, Suzanna Tan, Neryl Lewis, Ky Fisher, Linda Jaivin, Sally Sorell, Rex Deutscher, Margaret King, Barbara Rogers, François Limondin, Tineke Hazel, Kevin Greene, Colleen Drew, Val Little, Sandra Burchill, Ada Markby, Emmett O'Shea, Richard Morris

Landscapes: A Journey Home in Textiles Exhibition Shots

Here are some snapshots I took of the Landscapes: A Journey Home in Textiles exhibition at Kudos Gallery. The show continues until Saturday, November 7.

The first shot is from the entrance, looking into the gallery:


This is going to the left, with Brooke Morgan's Studies in Grass 1 first, then Liz Williamson's Small Remembrances:


Liz's work again, and Gaawaa: Lifeblood, by Lucy Simpson:


This is Urban Palimpsests by Joanna Redestowicz, and Paula do Prado's Flag Work:


This is my Embodied Landscape 1:



This is Embodied Landscape 3 (I Am Because We Are):


And Embodied Landscape 2:


Belinda von Mengersen's Dusting Cloth is on the right:


The quilt in the middle section is called Sydney Twinkle and is by Alison Muir:


More of Alison's work - Aquamarine, Troubled Water, and Medium is the Message, with part of Brook Morgan's installation Studies in Grass 2 in the next section:


Studies in Grass 3 by Brooke:


Sarah Evans, the curator, also put together a great catalogue. Here's the cover and my pages:

Momentum at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

The latest leg of the Momentum: 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial tour opened tonight at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. It continues until November 29. Here's a link to the MPRG's media release on curator Valerie Kirk's blog.

Landscapes: A Journey Home in Textiles

This post is about a show that opens next week at Kudos Gallery in Paddington. It's a textiles show featuring the work of a number of COFA students and staff. Details are on the invitation below:


This is my explanation of my work and how it fits the theme of the show:

Embodied Landscapes

The works for this exhibition were all made from old socks. I imagine these socks as people wore them to go about their lives, walking across pavements and parks and suburban streets. They have taken on the energy from the lives they have been connected to; the lived experience has become embodied in these socks. Along the way they have encountered myriad landscapes, the stages upon which our lives are lived. And each time they returned home, they brought those landscapes with them.

With these works I’m not trying to represent a landscape, but merely show the physical products that have moved through various landscapes. With the work from the I Am Because We Are series, not only are the various people joined together by their shared humanity, but also by our shared environment; Not only are our lives shaped by our social experiences, but also by the world that sustains us. As we irrevocably change our landscape, so we change ourselves.

The first two works are both called Embodied Landscapes, and are new this year. Embodied Landscapes 1 is made from only white socks, but the range of shades gives it a feeling of geological strata, meshing with the landscape theme. I've included shots of it stretched out and rolled up. I like both effects.





This is Embodied Landscapes 2. I showed a slightly different configuration of it in this post, before I sewed the individual lengths together. I was inspired by African kente cloth, but it also reminds me of Sean Scully's paintings.


This floor piece was part of the I Am Because We Are installation, but I intended the greens and browns of the colour scheme to evoke a landscape when I made it, so thought it would fit this show, too.

Fiber Arts Article

This is a feature from the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Fiberarts magazine called ‘Artists to Watch’ which shows some of my textiles. Well, part of the feature - only the page with my work on it. It shows work from textile students around the world. I was the only student from Australia included that year. The magazine's website also has more images from the students, including one of my sock weavings, here.