MFA exhibition: Progress in Work in Progress

Earlier this week, on a rainy Monday evening, was the opening for the MFA exhibition Progress in Work in Progress at the Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax. 

I chose to display a work that I had created earlier in the year Bush Telegraph. Made from a collection of vintage objects, manipulated domestic ware and machine embroidery embedded in resin, Bush Telegraph refers to my current interest in pioneering history and domestic spaces. I am particularly interested in exploring how many families were isolated, both in the sense of place (as both Canada and Australia were so far away from the mother country, England) and space as some families resided many miles from their nearest neighbour or town.

Bush Telegraph 2014

Thinking about this distance made me think about communication and how this occurred between countries. Often it would take 6 months for a letter to travel from one recipient and country to the other - and how it is this communication informs my work now. I am reading letters written in the 1800s by Elizabeth Moodie, British Canadian authoress, who wrote home to her mother in England about the trials and tribulations of living in a new land. 

Bush Telegraph 2014

The exhibition contains the work of the 17 current MFA students with works that range from a short documentary by Connie Littlefield, dying with and cataloguing local plants by Anna Haywood Jones to a performance piece about looking for a short term friend by Allyse Bowd. 

Bush Telegraph
photograph by Evan Rensch

Infront of my work at the opening

Gallery view of exhibition by Evan Rensch

For more information and pictures from the opening please visit the MFA blog. 

Kitchenalia

The Travellers, 2014. Image by Christina Arsenault

I was invited to participate in a group exhibition entitled Kitchenalia by curator Angela D'Elia at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.  17 artists who either worked with kitchen items or made works that represented kitchen items participated in the show.

I chose to submit my recent work The Travellers, made from antique kitchen strainers, combined with brass and copper patina-ed wire, machine embroidery and resin.

The Travellers was inspired by immigrants from the United Kingdom who left their homes to seek fortune and opportunities in foreign and often hostile lands when Britain was establishing new colonies in Australia and North America. Passages of writing by early British immigrants, who experienced the inconveniences of first settlement and the destruction of their precious personal items that travelled the rough bush roads to their new dwellings inspired my work. Despite adverse conditions their pioneering spirits never faltered, allowing them to follow their dreams and create better lives.

More information about The Travellers creation can be found here.

Participating artists include Jacqueline Bradley, Hamilton Darroch, Melinda Le Guay, Stephanie Jones, Waratah Lahy, Birte Larsen, Nongirrnga Marawili, Ellie Mucke, Alison Munro, Mylyn Nguyen, Susan O’Doherty, Rachael Roxburgh, Niomi Sands, Kate Ward, David Watt, Anthony Whyte and various knitters.

Kitchenalia runs from 28 August to 11 October 2014 at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.

Completed Basket Rings displayed within Ceramics

Basket Rings. Photography: Christina Arsenault

A couple of months ago I shared with you the beginnings of a new series of work: baskets that are woven in metal and attached to rings, and more information on the concept behind these pieces can be found here. 

Pioneer Landscapes. Photography: Christina Arsenault

Initially they were designed to be displayed within the context of larger blocks of clay. (Further information on this concept can be found here). 

Salt of the Earth 1. Photography: Christina Arsenault

Salt of the Earth 2. Photography: Christina Arsenault

Although I also like them displayed without the ceramic pieces and just in the engraved pebbles that support them, as seen in the top image.

The Travellers - Antique Kitchen Strainers

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

At the beginning of the year I found some delightful antique kitchen strainers and I immediately fell in love with their shape and form. I wanted to incorporate them into my artwork and create something beautiful with them.

Incorporating metal wire (copper, brass and silver plated that has been patina'ed) each antique strainer contains or carries a machine embroidered heart, that is incased in a resin house shape.

They certainly have character and have developed a life of their own. They became the inspiration for some stop motion animation, ending up in my 3 and a half minute animation, The Drive.

Finally I have finished a family of three 'Travellers'. Here they are

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

The Travellers
Photography by Christina Arsenault 

Basket Rings

In the ring course I learnt how to make a basic ring shape through annealing, bending and soldering the metal. 

Excitedly I put my new skills to the test and made a variety of rings using sterling silver, copper sheeting and thick copper wire. 

Basket ring (in progress). Sterling silver band, woven copper, brass and silver wire.
Image: Christina Arsenault 

I wanted to experiment with small woven wire structures that were attached to the band - relating to basketry and referring to my ongoing interest with pioneers and the native foods they would have to gather and eat in their new countries.

Basket Ring. Copper sheeting with woven copper wire.
Image: Christina Arsenault 

The delicate nature of the woven wire baskets reminds me a little of the flower that was abundant across Nova Scotia in summer last year, Queen Anne's Lace. After a little research I also discovered that Queens Anne's Lace is also known as 'wild carrot' and the root can be eaten, like a carrot. No doubt these plants would've been eaten by the pioneer settlers of Nova Scotia.

Queen Anne's Lace flower.

Basket Ring (in progress). Copper wire band, woven brass and silver wire.
Image: Christina Arsenault  

These rings are the beginning of a entire new series of work which I am incredibly excited about.

Im thinking I will display them with my ceramic works that look like slabs of rock cut from the earths surface. 

Hollowware: First project

Something I have always wanted to do is learn the basics of metal smithing, and my lack of skills and desire to know more became apparent last year when I was playing in the jewellery studio at the NSCCD residency in Halifax.

So I decided to enrol in a hollowware class.

Our first project was to learn some of the basic forging techniques, and below are my first samples. They are tres dodgy!

After learning the basics of stretching the metal in various ways, we then had to design either a spoon or butter knife using our new skills. 

I wanted to make a butter knife based on the idea of a shooting star. By this stage I was starting to understand the techniques involved to manipulate the metal (a lot of hammering and a sore arm!). And I ended up with this.

Shooting Star butter knife.  Brass 17.5cm long x 1.6cm wide

Not bad for my first attempt!