blah blah blah

To start the year off I'm going to do some back tracking and link to a few interviews I did that appeared on the webs last year. Who knew I could talk so much!

Craft on Foot is an initiative of Craft Victoria. It's a podcast hosted by Kate Rhodes and it offers a self-guided audio tour of my hood - Flinders Lane. (although perhaps not for much longer. More details as the year progresses). I talk about my experience of working in Flinders Lane over the last 16 years!!! (listen out for me shooting my mouth off about our greedy landlords - this might come to backfire on me someday)

The Audio Design Museum was put together by Object in Sydney and is a library of Audio tours of the design precincts of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Vivianne Stappmans, of the Design Guides, came up to the studio and interviewed Nicky, Cass and I and we appear in the 'focus on jewellery' podcast under the Melbourne tab.

I did a graduate profile interview for the School of Performing and Creative Arts at Deakin University. I'm not a graduate of Deakin but I'm a graduate of somewhere so they used me as an example of a successful (cough, cough) arts business! It has a kind of business focus so is less interesting than the other two.

And here's a picture...

Humph was chasing the rats in the lane behind the Nicholas building and was spotted by a professional photographer, PJ Santiago, who wanted him for his portfolio.

Chadwicks here we come.
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Cast Off

Keeper Gallery at Gaffa in Sydney have put out a call for an exhibition of jewellery that incorporates casting. I just thought I'd spread the word....

This was sent to me as a PDF from the lovely Mel Young. If you click the image it opens as a larger file which you can download. If you still can't read it properly and you're interested, shoot me an email and I'll send the original through to you. annadee at annadavern with an au after the com.

Publishing opportunity

Now, I don't "call" myself a textile designer. But that doesn't mean I don't make things from textiles.

A few years ago I was invited by Glenys Mann to teach a workshop at the Ballarat Fibres Forum. Being the open minded cross disciplinary artist that I am, I said 'yes'!

Well! Had I known what I was signing up for, I would've done it years ago. Suffice it to say, I've been back every year since, as a student.

This year I did a basketry workshop with Anna King from Scotland and this is the result...

Four baskets and a hanging thing. salami elastic and cable ties. 

tallest: 45mm. photo: Terence Bogue

detail...

Yes. Salami elastic and cable ties.

So, to the publishing opportunity. I recently found out about TAFTA's plans for a Fibre Design Book through the Craft Almanac and thought: Salami elastic, surely that's fibre? And sent in my images. I've just heard that the images have been approved by the book designer and have now been sent through to the selection panel.

The closing date for applications is the 1st September. So to all those artists out there whose media of choice might loosely define itself as a fibre, get applying!
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Felicity Peters

Felicity Peters
Kopernik Daisy Neckpieces
Acrylic
image reproduced with permission from Klimt02

Felicity Peters got a creative development grant from the WA Department of Culture and the Arts last year. It was a hefty sum and it enabled her to do an incredible amount of work and travel and study and lecture. As a result she's exhibiting some amazing looking things at Lesley Craze gallery in London (the first solo show at this gallery by an Australian artist, apparently!)



Felicity Peters
Kopernik Daisy Bangles
Acrylic and powdercoated aluminium
image reproduced with permission from Klimt02

The exhibition runs from the 5th to the 27th February at:

Lesley Craze Gallery
33 - 35a Clerkenwell Green
EC1R 0DU - London

I hope that we get to see this work on the east coast of Australia some time soon.

As a part of the grant, the Department of Culture and the Arts set up a blog for Felicity to document her year. It makes for very interesting reading.

This information was garnered from the Klimt02 newsletter

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e.g.etal blog

(nicked from here)

As you may know, I have been represented by e.g.etal in Melbourne since the gallery opened in 1999. For those of you that don't know, e.g.etal is a contemporary jewellery gallery/retail space in Flinders Lane in Melbourne. Over the past 10 years, e.g. (as it's affectionately known amongst the jewellery community - well, at least in my studio) has supported and promoted Australia's contemporary jewellery artists and I would like to credit them with contributing to the wide appreciation of contemporary jewellery that exists in Melbourne.

e.g.etal interior (nicked from here)

E.g.etal has recently set up a new blog. And as a part of their ten year celebrations, Emma Goodsir (owner of e.g.) wanted to acknowledge the artists who had shown with the gallery from the beginning and it turns out that I'm one of them! And I'm in good company with Camilla Gough, Nicky Hepburn and Amy Renshaw. There's a bit on the blog about all four of us here. And they've employed Lucy Feagins from The Design Files to interview and write about each of us individually. The first interview was with Camilla and today, they published the interview with me!



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...Return

Melissa Cameron is curating an exhibition called ...Return to coincide with this years JMGA conference in Perth. The exhibition will feature the work of ex-WA jewellers: Melissa Cameron, Michelle Kelly, Regina Middleton, Belinda Newick and Robin Wells. I found out about it from Melissa's blog and I wanted to share with you some work by Michelle Kelly because I really liked it!

Michelle Kelly, Basidiomycota 2007

Michelle Kelly, Basidiomycota 2007 (detail)

Lovely.

I won't be going to the conference cos I've got something else on. Bummer

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Facebook?...

so passe.

Check out the online network of contemporary jewellers

Set up by Kit and Caboodle blogger, Cathy Salter


And here's something from the archives...



not jewellery. It's just a thing
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Jennifer Wehlacz

Check it out!




I found her through carrotbox and I reckon she makes some cool stuff

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diamonds, art and immortality

'For the Love of God' - Damien Hirst


Was anyone else listening? Radio National on Sunday afternoon? A program analysing Hirsts' "collaboration" with Bond Street Jewellers Bentley and Skinner? With guest commentator Robert Baines!!

If not, you can download it from here

The focus of last Sunday's Artworks program was on 'collaboration' and featured articles on two performing arts works as well as a conversation between Deborah McCoy and Robert Baines analysing 'For the Love of God' by Damien Hirst (pictured). The work is introduced as "the world's most expensive collaboration" but, while Hirst acknowledges that the piece was produced by Bentley and Skinner, I very much doubt that he would call it a 'collaboration'. In fact in most of the publicity surrounding the work, B&S are simply referred to as "a Bond Street Jeweller". This would seem to imply that what is important is not the skills of the particular maker but the value of their real estate!

It was wonderful to hear a contemporary jeweller's (or as Baines terms it, an "art jeweller's") analysis of this work on national radio. I have read much commentary in the press analysing it in terms of contemporary art practice and contemporary art collecting but it's interesting to not have heard much about it from the contemporary jewellery/craft sector (forgive me if I've missed anything).

On a superficial level the work is intrinsically linked to jewellery practice, but the more I think about it, the more irrelevant it starts to seem. Baines points out that if an artist jeweller had made this piece it would be totally dismissed. And he's right. But as he also points out, the use of precious materials in contemporary jewellery is often subversive; stones are drilled into, set upside down, etc. A contemporary jeweller would not make this work, with it's complete orthodoxy of materials and techniques.

Hirst uses the platinum and diamonds to symbolise perfection and mastery of material and technique. Contemporary jewellers use these materials to question those symbols and to talk about what jewellery is and what it can be.

Hirst is not the first artist to employ 'artisans' to realise his ideas, Jeff Koons being the most prominent. But also, closer to home, Patricia Piccinini's practice is more that of a 'producer', she employs a diverse team of people from digital animators to auto paint artists to produce her art works. Usually these artisans are uncredited. In the case of 'For the Love of God' the crediting of "a Bond Street Jeweller" says less about Immortality (as Hirst states the work is about) and more about hefty price tags and inflated publicity.

Addendum...

...to that previous post. I while checking out Hillary Pfeiffer's website I found that she has a blog too. It's cool, go check it out.

Idar-Oberstein #6

I just discovered the blog of Theo Smeets! He is the head of the jewellery department at the University of Applied Science in Idar-Oberstein. The blog showcases what's happening in jewellery in I-O. And in this post there's more information about the Artist in Residence program. Theo's website is pretty cool too.




Theo Smeets: Frog
cork, wismut(?), paint

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Ok, now for some jewellery posts

I'm so far behind, I keep putting off posting and now it's beyond a joke. So, back to Rome. I visited Alternatives gallery, which is Rome's contemporary jewellery gallery. It's quite small and unfortunately the building was covered in scaffolding so it was quite dark. There was an exhibition of work that had been shown by them at Collect at the V&A museum in London. I couldn't take photos but here are some images from the alternatives website of work that I liked...



Janna Syvänoja (Finland)

This was my favourite artist, although the image is not of my favourite work. It's made from paper. The pattern comes from the printing on the paper which is from telephone directories and newspapers.




Alessia Semeraro (Italy)

Those of you who know me might be surprised that I like this work. I think it's because there is an element of "Estonian-ness" to it. Estonian jewellery is very "poetic" which is a strange definition for objects but these pieces have the same qualities of simplicity and respect for material which is common to Estonian work.




Ramon Puig Cuyàs (Spain)

I love this work! It's collage. It's narrative. It's abstract. All right! (and it reminds me of the wallpaper in the kitchen of my Nan's house in Carnegie.

More coming straight up

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sorry for another non-jewellery post...

...but I keep finding other interesting stuff out there that I want to share.

As a result of the "troubles" in Tallinn (this is what the situation seems to have been coloquially termed in English), The Estonian police have set up a website where you can go and identify people in photos taken of the riots. It smacks of 'dob in an garden waterer' to me but it's worth a visit, if only to see the extent of the vandalism and looting. Here are a few images that caught my eye...



This one's interesting because of this photo...



which I took a few days after the riots.

and these two just tickled my fancy!



Yo! Homey!




mum said 'get size 14', these are only a 12
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New links

Here's some old work as an excuse to post to let you know that I've updated my links list to the right. Go and check some things out!



These are 'mozzie tanks'. They're little tanks with wings and they are sprouting earrings. The tallest stands about 5cm high and the lids come off and the earrings (18ct gold and pearl) are held in the lid using their butterflies.

They were exhibited in 'Beaut' at Craft Victoria.

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St. Petersburg

I'm off to St. Petersburg this weekend to spend a couple of days wandering around the Hermitage and immersing myself in 18th century architecture.

Before i leave I want to point you in the direction of the blog of Mel Robson. She is a Brisbane based ceramicist (ceramist - I'm not sure which one it is) and her recent post shows images of dolls she's making which I think are quite delightful.




I particularly thought of the knitter when I saw them.

more next time

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I love mail

I know that this is a jewellery blog and you're probably not interested in my personal life but I have to post that I GOT MAIL!! And how good it is. Thank you to Brigette (could your airmail sticker have been any bigger and I love my Siamesemu), Hannah (I had so much trouble opening the double layer envelope, I still think I have missed a little pocket with a surprise Euro-treasure in it) and Katherine (my table is covered in glitter now too). I also got a note from the post office which is in Estonian so I can only assume I have a parcel waiting for me somewhere.

Also, I found this...




via Sienna Gallery which I thought might be of interest to my knitting friends which includes the aforementioned Brigette.

I love you all

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Being Foreign

In researching my foreignness project I’ve found some amazing images, which I have to share with you. This…



From Medical Journal of Australia
Via Welsh View

in which her skin has grown over her wedding ring!

And the latest in surgical implants, a magnet



FromGizmodo


And we know that Peter Skubic is mad but this image is new for me



"Irritation" 1981 from Der Kosmos Des Peter Skubic published by Museum Fur Kunsthandwerk, Leipzig


I start my first day of teaching today but it will be a crit of their last project so that should be interesting. I’ll try and get images if they don’t mind.

It’s my 40th birthday

Magali Anidjar

I was going to try and avoid making this blog a linking blog but I've just found something I have to share with you.

Somehow in my surfing I found Magali Anidjar and she makes wonderful work like this...

Silver and fired enamel ring

Happy horse race day off!