Stand Back 5 Feet - Paris Exhibition

Study of the Object
Cotton on silk organza 

I was invited to participate in the exhibition “stand back 5 feet/ tenez vous à 5 pied en avant” by curators Evan Peacock, NSCAD MFA candidate and Levana Schutz, a visiting exchange MFA student from the BeauxArt academy in Paris. They proposed a double exhibition between the Atelier Rhème exhibition space in Paris and the Anna Leonowens gallery in Halifax. The shows will feature work exchanged by artists from both locations.

Artists have been asked to respond to the title of the show with a new work. Although this name maintains relevancy towards the mathematical space between Paris and Halifax, the title primarily refers to the ephemeral state of meaning caught between two languages and two spaces. This occurs through movement, distance, and translation. Perfect translations will not be possible. This offset between the movements of languages is the focus of “stand back 5 feet/ tenez vous à 5 pied en avant”. 

Study of the Object
Hung on window in studio
Cotton on silk organza

In response to the conceptual theme I have started creating work that explores binary code translated into stitch (using french knots and running stitch) onto silk organza, which through the very nature of translating code into stitch the reading of this is lost or at least difficult to understand. 

My favourite poem by Zbigniew Herbert called Study of the Object has been decoded by thread.  Whilst I am not entirely sure of the final outcome, it is likely it will be combined with digital imagery in some way.

Prints Charming at NSDCC

I am teaching an introduction to screen printing class at the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design. 

In the first weeks we explore the quality of line using a paper cut stencil as a resist for the screen. 

Paper cut stencil by Jennifer

And we explored the effects created when mixing colour whilst printing through the screen. 

Jennifer's paper cut stencil printing with two tones in using one screen.

Melissa experimenting with the positive and negative shapes cut from her stencil

The printed effect of using both the positive and negative cut out of the stencil

Anne working through her design.
The solid colour of the cutting board helps envision the final print.

Anne printing her design

Bethany's circular design stencil

Bethany's circular design printed using a combination of yellow and green ink.

As always, the results are incredibly exciting!

222 Grips for a Stone (22-26) Handles

Further musings on the found object which is continued from last week where I was pondering on the readymade which resulted in the assemblages below .....

#25 of 222 Grips for a Stone detail

#25 of 222 Grips for a Stone

The clay object in the image above bares marks of its function and use and traces of the lives who have handled it. Finger prints of unknown people have left their trace, embedded and imprinted on the earthenware clay. The latch too, shows traces of wear. Green discolouration on the brass suggests the age of the object because it has acquired a patina of time. The rusty water marks show that it has been exposed to the damp with other iron objects, and it possibly was immersed in water for a prolonged period for the rust marks to be transferred onto the brass. 

The objects have become endowed with interiority and a memory, things become stories of people, work and lives (Frow 273). 

These traces allude to the presence of absence. The finger prints point to an absence of the people who made, handled and shaped the clay. The patina on the latch suggests the once presence of water and dampness. Both contain a sense of geological and human time.  

#23 of 222 Grips for a Stone

#24 of 222 Grips for a Stone

#26 of 222 Grips for a Stone

Whilst the works in these images are not finished (the clay needs to be fired, the handles attached, and ideally I would like to suspend them from the ceiling)  it gives you the idea of what I am working on at the moment.

View from my studio

We have been experiencing some delightful autumn weather, and I captured the quintessential Haligonian view from my studio:  cruise ship, tug, and a transport carrier of some description.

Frow, J. A Pebble, a Camera, A Man Who Turns into a Telegraph Pole, Critical Inquiry Vol. 28, No. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Journals, Autumn 2001)  

Snow Days

We seem to have had quite a lot of snow this winter.

Snow piled up on my front door step

 Apparently it is unusual to get this much and for it to stay around for as long as it has.

Under all this snow somewhere is a road

For an Aussie, this much snow is delightful and exotic. Even the suggestion of shovelling snow sounded like a fun novelty.

View looking out the window at school (NSCAD)

There are fun snow patterns too...

And after a while it starts to pile up - this is the view looking towards the NSCAD buildings on Granville St Mall.

And the snow banks on the side of the roads are also starting to get high. These ones are about my chest height, which Im guessing is about 150cm. Apparently this is usual further north in places like Newfoundland, but not here in Halifax!

Chest high snow banks at my bus stop

Sometimes there is so much snow, and the conditions are so terrible that everything grinds to a halt. It is near impossible to walk outside with the icy sidewalks and the public transport is cancelled. On these days even school is cancelled and the city shuts down!

It is quite the experience for someone who had previously only experienced extreme cold when travelling through a Russian winter.

Teachers Assistant: Introduction to Studio Practice at NSCAD

As part of the MFA program at NSCAD I have the opportunity to be a Teachers Assistant. This is to observe and experience teaching in the classroom. 

The MFA program is geared towards teaching as an opportunity after graduation and there is also the opportunity to propose and teach your own course.

For Term A of the Winter Semester I am the Teachers Assistant for the Introduction to Studio Practice with Professor Melinda Spooner. This is a foundation course and it teaches the essentials for any student wishing to become an artist.

Some of the fun stuff that we covered included colour theory (I love colour!), pattern and repetition, and basic stop animation which was highly effective.

And later in the term the students undertook an exercise where they painted portraits of each other in a dark room lit by sodium lighting (street lamps) which removes all colour from the room and students were painting in tones.

The final result was amazing when we turned the fluorescent lights back on. So colourful!

I would love to be a foundation student again. They are having so much fun!

They were an incredibly talent bunch and I was very fortunate to participate in the classroom environment with Melinda. 

Teaching screen printing at NSCCD

I have resumed teaching screen printing again! This time in Halifax at the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design. Its so wonderful - I always forget how much fun it is and how much I enjoy it.

Catherine's print combining stencil and styrofoam stamps

The course participants learn a variety of print techniques. The first to make a stencil was using photocopy paper and a sharp knife to achieve crisp lines, or tearing the paper for a softer edge.

Catherine printing lace using paper doilies

Catherine was interested in lace patterns and experimented printing through lace doilies. Unfortunately these were not so successful because of the height of the doily resulting in a very unclear print. So the next week Catherine tried printing through paper doilies. The result was highly successful and she also experimenting with layering the print.

Layered paper lace doily prints

Meanwhile Janet experimented with colour, layers and registration to ensure a precise placement of the print.

Janet's screenprint incorporating printing through
cheesecloth,  strips of torn paper and placement through registration.

Janet's three colour print:
cheesecloth (red) potato print (blue) and paper stencil (green)

One of the things I encourage in my class is experimentation, because this is often where the most exciting results occur. 

Janet printing using a potato stamp

One of the delightful things about printing using stamps is their unpredictability to how the print paste will be transferred onto the fabric. 

Rebecca's paper cut stencil

Its so wonderful to see the sparkle of excitement in everyone's eyes as they work through their screen print ideas and I enjoy seeing the work develop over the duration of the five week course. For such a simple technique it can achieve a number of amazing and diverse results.

And Im having so much fun that the course will be offered again in the Spring.

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. 

Lichen Brooch and Burdock Hair Pin

Along with learning enamelling, I have also been continuing to learn and improve my jewellery making abilities with Pam Ritchie. Pam is an amazing artist who often incorporates unusual materials in her work, such as plastic and found objects and she encourages her students to do the same.

Our first assignment was to make a pin back. Rather than just make a pin back, our class all decided to make an interesting pin back.

I had picked up a beautiful piece of lichen earlier in the week. Given my love of them and their relevance to my work, I thought I would include it in my pin back.

This is what I made:

Brooch with living lichen
3.3 x 6.3 cm

Pin back detail
before the lichen was attached

And our first major project was to create something that was inspired by an image that was chosen in class. The image I chose focused on communication, and also hair. So I decided to create a hair pin, in reference to Geisha. This was the final result:

Fine Silver Hairpins
containing burdock seed

Initially the pins were designed to be empty. But the wires seemed to loose definition when pinned in the hair. So it was decided that they needed to contain something.

Dried burdock seed hair pin

I stumbled across some burdock in a vacant block of land in the middle of the city, and thought that these weeds would be perfect. I see weeds as a metaphor for pioneers, or settlers.

Dried burdock detail

I was also amazed at just how sticky these seeds were. They stuck to my fingers and even plastic (just like velcro)

Green burdock hairpin

 The green seeds were less sticky.

Green burdock detail.

An exciting development with this discovery is that seeds contain so much information. So I see these hair pins containers for information or communication. Originally I was thinking about Victorian lockets and how they do this.....  Im really looking forward to exploring this concept further.

Cuttle Fish Bone Casting

Summer is coming to an end and Im back at school. I have just started my Masters in Fine Art at NSCAD (Nova Scotia College for Art and Design). I am undertaking an interdisciplinary approach and will be working across ceramics, textiles and jewellery. 

As well as undertaking MFA courses, I am also polishing up on my jewellery skills. Recently I have been learning how to cast shapes in silver using cuttlefish bone as the mould. Cuttlefish bone is reasonably soft and it can be easily carved, or have objects pressed into it. 

Cuttlefish bone with a fork shape pressed into it.

I experimented with a few different shapes: fork, a piece of lego fence, and a twig. I discovered simple shapes work the best (because they highlight the striations of the cuttlefish bone that occurs naturally), and so I discarded the fence and twig idea and perfected the fork shape.

Cast silver fork shapes from the cuttlefish cast

 Generally the mould has only one pour (the heat of the metal burns away the cuttlefish bone and gives off a smell similar to burnt hair). The above image shows the first pour into the mould - notice I only achieved 2 of the 4 prongs (left).  On the right shows what happens if you use the same mould again. Much of the detail has been lost. Although this time I did get the four prongs.

Lego fence cast in silver and a twig

The above lego fence and twig were earlier shapes that I experimented with. Although the fence shape was relatively successful, I found that it the lovely cuttlefish bone striations were lost and so I discarded this idea.

My finished piece, another fork, was handed in last week for marking. It was finished with Black Jax to highlight the cuttlefish ridge striations. I totally forgot to take a picture but will post one as soon as I get it back.