Entanglement at Manningham Gallery

This post is devoted to some more images from the Entanglement show that I was in at the Manningham Gallery that ended a few weeks ago (see this post and this post for more info), plus some promotional/advertising material that featured my work.

All the photos are courtesy of Megan McEvoy, the curator of the show. I wasn't able to get to the show, so basically I've mostly chosen photos that feature my work, or the work of other artists I know. The first 3 images show my work from different angles, but I don't know whose work is around mine:




This image has work by Kelly Leonard on the wall on the left, close to the corner (the two woven panels), and Brook Morgan's work on the facing wall (the large circular piece). Kelly is also in Momentum in Tamworth, and Brook is someone I know from COFA.


The show from another angle. Unfortunately I don't have any details of whose work is featured (A list of the artists in the show is in this post):


And here are the materials with images of my work that were used to promote the exhibition. There were many more, but I only chose the ones with my work! This is my blog after all, so I'm allowed to be self-indulgent!

Momentum: The 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial

I've just come back from Tamworth for the opening of Momentum: The 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial. This post is showing photos of the exhibition, with some photos from the opening weekend, and a brief description of the public programmes that went ahead.

Before I left for Tamworth, I was afraid (see this post) that it would be primitive if not dangerous, but it turned out to be quite nice. Tamworth reminds me of one of those suburbs out west when you're heading along Parramatta Rd (for those who know Sydney) - lots of car yards, one-story buildings. Most of my time was spent in the gallery, attending artist's talks, and a panel discussion, and then a field trip to a smaller town outside of Tamworth, Nundle, to see a wool mill. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of the other artists in the show, and hear them talking about their work.

Here are some shots of the gallery, front and side:



The gallery is on the second floor, with the library on the ground floor. A banner for the show is at the bottom of the stairs to entice people up to see the show:


This is the view of the show to the right when you come into the gallery:


From the left: Demelza Sherwood's Horse and Zebra (2008); one of Robyn Glade-Wright's works (on the next panel, 2006); Cecilia Heffer's Shadow Traces (2008 - the white panel hanging from the ceiling); Burn Out Series (2008) by Mandy Gunn behind that; also on the far wall is From the Heart 1 (2007) by Christine Atkins; my work is the three panels, Six Degrees (2004-07 - see this post again, or if you haven't already for further details); then Alana Clifton-Cunningham and Annabelle Collett's works on the wall on the right.

This is a closer shot of my work, with Alana's Second Skin (2007) series, and Fiona Gavino's Perspectives Shift (2008) in the foreground:


This is a view to the left when you enter the gallery:


From the left: Debra Porch's My Eiffels series (2006-08); works from Annie Trevillian's Bodywrap Series (2008); a series of woven rings by Jane Bowden (2007-08); two works by Melissa Hirsch on the far wall (the red and white coral works, 2006); Kelly Leonard's A Weaver's Perspective (2 panels, 2008); the works in the circle are called Tinkering with Nature - A Decorative Response (2008) by Vicki Mason; and then 2 printed textiles from Maningrida's Babbarra Designs - Susan Marrawar's Black and White Fish Traps, and Deborah Wurrkidj's Purple, Orange and Green Dilly Bag and Fish Trap (both 2008).

These works are on the central wall of the gallery:


Lucille Martin's Lace Tree (2007); 3 pieces by Jill Kinnear(2008); and re-collection:specimens 1-67 (2007-08) by Louise Saxton. All of the photos above were supplied by Sandra McMahon, the Director of the Tamworth Regional Gallery. There is an excellent catalogue available. Contact the gallery for details.

At the opening, during curator Valerie Kirk's speech, the artists who were present were invited up the front (and photographed by Pam Brown):


From the left: Elefteria Vlavianos, the two artists from Babbarra Designs, Demelza Sherwood, Christine Atkins, Cecilia Heffer, Alana Clifton-Cunningham, Elisa Markes-Young, Hilary Green, Liz Jeneid (in front), Robyn Glade-Wright (behind), Lucille Martin, Kelly Leonard, Mandy Gunn, and me next to the speaker, looking a bit like Kevin Rudd!

This is a photo from the panel discussion on the Saturday afternoon:


Martien van Zullen (standing) was the moderator, with Valerie Kirk, Christine Atkins, Louise Saxton, and Alana Clifton-Cunningham on the panel. In the corner is Ainslie Murray's An Architecture of Thread and Gesture (2008), and the three white works are by Robyn Glade-Wright. I had arrived at the gallery in the morning for the talks by Lucille Martin, Mandy Gunn, Kelly Leonard and Elisa Markes-Young, but found that the camera I'd borrowed had flat batteries, so no photos of them unfortunately.

These are the talks from Sunday morning. First is Elefteria Vlavianos talking about her work, the Touch series (2007). :

Liz Jeneid giving her artist's talk, with her work Tea Party (2008):

Demelza Sherwood with Susie, The Pink Balloon and Other Tales (2008):


Here's me waving my arms around while giving my talk:

And here's an extra shot, courtesy of Annie Trevillian, of me with the (no doubt enthralled) audience:


Hmmm... I hear you think, Rodney, why are the weavings in the work behind you running vertically when the earlier photos showed them running horizontally? I'm glad you asked. There was a slight technical glitch over the opening weekend in regard to the hanging of my work, but it has been suitably dealt with and now the work is hanging horizontally with the names running vertically.

A number of similar themes came out in the artists' talks, especially the amount of time that it takes a lot of the artists to make their work, as well as the amount of time that the artists need to spend at jobs to earn money to enable them to make their art. A perennial problem in all areas of the art world.

And here's one final shot, of Cecilia Heffer with a better view of her works. On the wall behind her is Penny Malone's Gum Blossom and Fashion Fan (2007):


Here's an image of one of Elisa Markes-Young's works in the show (from The Zebra Factory Blog):


The Zebra-Factory Blog also has a page from a Tamworth publication with photos from the opening night, a video walk-through of the exhibition, and some great commentary on some of the work. Overall it's a great blog that I can only aspire to (if I were a better writer, and didn't just report on the facts and only the facts!).

I did take more photos of the other artists, but unfortunately the camera I was using was a point and snap digital camera, and photos that looked in focus on the camera screen turned out to be not so great on the computer screen. If anyone has better photos, or more detailed images, then I would love to add them here.

From Lausanne to Beijing: The 5th International Fiber Art Biennale

Another group exhibition that I'm in is coming up. From Lausanne to Beijing: The 5th International Fiber Art Biennial will open on November 25 at the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Here's a snippet from the event proposal: "The main purpose of the upcoming event is to promote the development and exchange of International Fiber Art. The intention is to advance Chinese Fiber Art and art education through an international mutual aid and communication for Chinese and international artists, art colleges and universities in the field of fiber art at home and abroad. We hope to establish beneficial circumstances for internal and external academic exchange."

I have one work in the show. It's called After Me No Lover But Death Will Know You. It's difficult to get an overall shot of the work because it's about 200cm long, so if the whole length of the work is in the shot, then the body is so small that nothing can be seen of the detail (it's only 13cm wide). This was an early work where I didn't separate the hair into different colours before spinning and weaving. It was when my concerns were about the group, but the individual wasn't differentiated from the mass. The work therefore has patches of brown with a smattering of blonde, then a black section with hints of red hair, random and mixed up.

Here are two shots to show a bit more of the length of the work, although it is exhibited flat on the wall:


After Me No Lover But Death Will Know You is one of my early Holocaust-themed works. The title comes from a CD called Flamma Flamma: The Fire Requiem by Nicholas Lens. The songs are in Latin, and this comes from a song called Deliciae Meae:

POST ME
PROCUS NULLUS
NISI MORS
TE POSSIDET

When I first showed the work I wrote those words in graphite below the weaving, and had names of German concentration camps level with the work and leading towards it. The work was also part of my show at MARS Gallery in Melbourne, but in that space there was no room to include the concentration camp names. There will be no wall text in Beijing.

18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial

This post is to let you know about Momentum, the 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial. Below is the invitation. Unfortunately all the writing is quite faint, so I've added it after the invitation images. After that I have images of the works that I have in the show. The opening is on Friday, November 14 at the Tamworth Regional Gallery. I'm actually going to the opening, even though my idea of Tamworth is (probably inaccurately) that it is like Wolf Creek, or that town that the drag queens in Priscilla stop at and Guy Pierce nearly gets beaten up... I don't get out of the city much. I'll be driving there. I figure if I drove out of and back into Paris and managed to live, then I can drive out of Sydney.

momentum
18th tamworth fibre textile biennial 2008

curated by valerie kirk
christine atkins babbarra designs jane bowden alana clifton-cunningham annabelle collett fiona gavino robyn glade-wright hilary green mandy gunn cecilia heffer melissa hirsch liz jeneid jill kinnear kelly leonard rodney love penny malone elisa markes-young lucille martin vicki mason ainslie murray debra porch louise saxton demelza sherwood annie trevillian elefteria vlavianos

Front image:
Ainslie Murray
An Architecture of Thread
and Gesture (detail) 2008
Tyvek, carbon fibre, acrylic,
monofilament, aluminium
Approximately: 980mm x
1410mm x 2050mm
Image credit: Ian Hobbs


Free Admission 466 Peel Street Tamworth Tuesday - Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 4pm Closed Sundays. Open Mondays by appointment ph 02 6767 5459 gallery@tamworth.nsw.gov.au www.tamworthregionalgallery.com.au

Tamworth Regional Council and Tamworth Regional Gallery invite you to the

Welcome to Country
Bob Faulkner
Aboriginal Leader and Board Member Arts North West

Guest Speakers
Councillor James Treloar
Mayor Tamworth Regional Council
Carol Mills
Director-General of the Department of the Arts, Sport and Recreation NSW
Valerie Kirk
Head of Textiles The Australian National University, School of Art
Opening Address
Brian Parkes
Associate Director Object Australian Centre for Craft and Design
Official Opening
Friday 14 November 2008 6 - 8.30pm
Rsvp 7 November 2008 on 02 6767 5459
exhibition dates 15 November 2008 - 18 January 2009


I have three works from the Six Degrees series in the show. This is how they looked at the Ivan Dougherty Gallery last year when the series was shown in its entirety. Each weaving is 13x95cm (approx.), and framed they're 85x105cm.


It's difficult to see in photos, but above each weaving I've written the names of the people who donated the hair. Here's a not-very-good shot where the names are (slightly) more visible:

The next 5 images are just the weavings in various detail. The first is a complete shot of one work (not actually in this show, but part of the series). It's the section 'Vida Gaigalas to Bob Hunt' (each section is called Six Degrees with the names of the end people listed depending on the exhibition).


This section is the 'Joanna Falkland to Zara Collins' section, or at least a detail of it. This part will be in the show. The 10th, 1st and 2nd sections are in the show. They are 'Anjali Roberts to Rodney Love' then 'Rodney Love to Joanna Falkland' then 'Joanna Falkland to Zara Collins'.


I'm pretty sure this is 'Sally McLennan to Vida Gaigalas':


And this is 'Zara Collins to Emma White':


This is the first panel, 'Rodney Love to Joanna Falkland'. That's my hair on the left.

Here is another excerpt from my thesis about this series:

2.1 SIX DEGREES
Six Degrees (fig. 26-29) is a series of ten hair weavings which I began in 2004. Each is a rectangle, approximately 13x100cm, with the names of the donors of the hair written above them. Each person’s hair is distinguishable from the next by its colour, yet permanently woven together. The series developed from an earlier body of work, Memento Vivere, 2002, in which I produced hand-made paper sheets, each embedded with the hair of an individual. Each square of paper in the 9-piece by 18-piece grid was a “portrait” of the person whose hair it contained. Although Memento Vivere was presented as a group, each piece could be moved or separated from the rest. With Six Degrees, each person’s place is set, their place in the group permanent and indissoluble. This was the first work for my MFA that began exploring the relation between the individual and the group.

As with Memento Vivere, the hair in Six Degrees stands for the donor, and is a portrait of that person. The genre of the portrait, however, emphasises the individual subject. “The portrayed person’s subjectivity is… defined in its uniqueness and originality, rather than in its social connections…. The subject’s continuity or discontinuity with others is denied in order to present the subject as personality.”41 With Six Degrees, the “uniqueness and originality” of the subjects is still evident, but their inclusion in a group is unmistakable. Here is an example of symbolic communitas, with each individual an essential part of the makeup of the group, but no one person being more important than another. The individual is defined, but connected to the rest of the group.

Each person is linked to the next in his or her group, but the groups are also connected. The last person in a weaving is the first person in the next weaving. The six degrees of the title are the ‘six degrees of separation’ first proposed in 1929 by Hungarian writer Karinthy Frigyes in his story Chains. The basic concept is that:
[A]nyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet
through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five
intermediaries…. The concept is based on the idea that the number of
acquaintances grows exponentially with the number of links in the chain,
and so only a small number of links is required for the set of
acquaintances to become the whole human population.42

As each of the groups in Six Degrees is connected, any one person is fewer than five degrees of separation from any other. The first panel starts with Rodney Love and ends with Joanna Falkland. Joanna Falkland’s hair is at the beginning of the second panel, and Zara Collins’s at the end. Zara Collins starts the third panel, and so on. The tenth panel ends with Rodney Love, and the
chain is complete.

That's the end of the excerpt. To read more, go to my thesis online.

For those who might be interested, here is a list of the names of the donors of the hair, and their place in the work:

'Rodney Love, Lum Chune Yang, Stephanie Steadman, Sarah Marie Little, Tony Garrett, Edith Loftus, Jipsey Gitanoes, Zoe Allebone, James Kay, Teik Kim Pok, Nina Jacobson, Jason Wong, Joanna Falkland'

'Joanna Falkland, Jeremy Ryan, David Fredric, Barbara Mobbs, Emile Sherman, Michelle Barrett, David Marcelline, Jennifer Zacks, Ash McLeod, Chi Keung Lam, Michele McCamish, Rob Scott, Jane Knowles, Zara Collins'

'Zara Collins, Jenny Wilder, Nirmalya Talukder, Simon Hegarty, Alice Kebourian, Owen Leong, Ben Kay, Cheryll Lava-Gollon, Karsters Jarke, Emma White'

'Emma White, Ruth Toppler, Bem Le Hunte, Daniel Goldstein, Erin Normoyle, Hannah Player, Lyndal Campbell, Eve Spence, Matin Hing, Stephanie Schmidt, Sally McLennan'

'Sally McLennan, Kane Van Dam, Richard Gurney, Amber McCulloch, Liz Williamson, Mariko Yoshida, Jeff Wybrow, Irene Kindness, Jarrod Hocking, Philip Johnson, Vida Gaigalas'

'Vida Gaigalas, Renata Field, Jenny Tabakoff, Ben Curtis, Kasumi Ejiri, Justin Yoon, Judy Haywood, Lisa Addison, Monique Kinerson, Bob Hunt'

'Bob Hunt, Marlo Bodzick, Lisa Salmon, Amanda McLoghlin, Timothy Moore, Sylvia Ross, Eric Siu, Elly Drummond, Pim van Enoo, Tamsin Hughes'

'Tamsin Hughes, Suzanne Vose, Julie Bartholomew, David Serisier, Di Saxton, Robyn Forrest, Atanos Djonov, Paula Brand, Jamieson Hunt, Chris Jones, Jane Castle'

'Jane Castle, Izaak Connaughton, Katherine Woolnough, Rose Vickers, Michael Yelf, Penelope Benton, Bill Lungas, Deborah Rozea, Ella Dreyfus, Kirsten Hann, Anjali Roberts'

'Anjali Roberts, Hitomi Matsui, Briana Rocheta, Rosemary McLean, Tommy Kwok, Ashlin McCamish, Nathan Thompson, Jennifer Hamilton, Peta Price, Farida Batool, Rodney Love'

Paintings for Drew

This post, which has taken me ages to put together because of all the resizing and rearranging I had to do, is about one series of paintings that I made for my friend Drew in exchange for a website. A website? you ask. Yes, I had it for about 5 years until a couple of years back. I think it got superseded by blog technology. This forum gives me much more freedom with the combination of text and image. Anyway, I made 21 small panels with various (painted) collage elements which have been combined (not by me) like so:



I can't remember off the top of my head what year these were made. Late 20th century? Nor do I recall if they have a title. No doubt all the details are on the back of the panels (along with paint brands and colour names for future reference).

Anyway, there have been issues regarding the appropriateness of some of the images for living room display, specifically these ones:


Here's how the other 15 might look without them (this post has a lot of padding...):


So what I'm working on now are 6 replacement panels for the contentious works. After that I'll be continuing to work on more paintings so that I can use up a number of panels and canvases that I've accumulated over the years, and experiment with a number of different techniques and ideas that have been percolating for awhile.

Here are all 21 panels for your viewing pleasure: