ch ch ch ch ch check it out------> liyenchong.com
This Auckland artist embroiders using her own hair. She went to art school in ChCH and it deals with issues she faced surrounding her cultural background, creating a new place for herself in NZ. I love the detail in her work, and that she stitches things many times to get them absolutely perfect. The skeleton she made stitched from her hair has her exact proportions. I think using a material like hair you have to have some element of self portraiture in it if it is your own. At first glance you can't tell that her work is made using human hair, i like that my work is not like this because i want to keep that feeling of abjection towards the hair as being of the body, cast off and rejected.
“I started using hair because it is an expression of language: the way you wear your hair says something about you; it’s filled with your DNA."-Liyen Chong SOURCE
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Wunderkammer! ya!
A cabinet of curiosities is usually related to the collectors profession and contains exotic oddities aesthetically arranged, each piece has a story behind it. These miniature museums were an attempt to classify science and civilization while the world was still flat. A lot of these home-classifications were hybrids of science, religion and superstition that are defunct in terms of facts and artefacts from our history but still relevant for the imagination and thought processes that you can see ... artefacts of human thought and relationships, experience, I like to se what fascinated people hundreds of years ago, what they thought it related to, where it came from, their explanations and reasonings for it being there. 
Ok so Wunderkammer are really things that fascinate us and we oogle at them, as oppsed to a curiosity cabinet which seeks to analyse the mysteries of nature. It seems ridiculous that these cabinets could be thought of as scientific, fish head on rat body next to pig nose on cat face, next shelf; rocks and a piece of coral, all shaped like jesus and other religious figures, next shelf, 34 dead butterflies arranged like a flower. These cabinets attempted to collect, categorise and define things, looking for similarities and differences. go here! and read more about cabinets of curiosity and see some beautiful photographs of them.
It was pretty hip to be having one of these in the late 15th century, they usually contained little artifacts all related to a theme, the one below as you can see is crochet. and it rules.
I think this cabinet belongs to this creative Genius at Wunderkammer, Jessica Polka. She makes crafty little things using crochet and other sewing sorts of things and they are all awesome! especially the mustaches.
examining, collecting, cataloguing well there goes a use for the old library catalogues. Im sure that word has a U in it??? Victorian Gilt is one GIANT (a BFG scale giant) cabinet of curiosities. Being a pre-cursor to museums a Wunderkammer would compliment my work, making an heirloom out of my hair a-la victorian hair jewellery to remember the dead ones when i'm not dead yet or even old for that matter. It would be cool to display my little artefacts of myself in one of these, you would still need a magnifying glass though :( This method of presentation is something i think i would excell at because my bedroom/house is full of little strange objects and pictures that are arranged just so, these just really resonate with me :)
Ok so Wunderkammer are really things that fascinate us and we oogle at them, as oppsed to a curiosity cabinet which seeks to analyse the mysteries of nature. It seems ridiculous that these cabinets could be thought of as scientific, fish head on rat body next to pig nose on cat face, next shelf; rocks and a piece of coral, all shaped like jesus and other religious figures, next shelf, 34 dead butterflies arranged like a flower. These cabinets attempted to collect, categorise and define things, looking for similarities and differences. go here! and read more about cabinets of curiosity and see some beautiful photographs of them.It was pretty hip to be having one of these in the late 15th century, they usually contained little artifacts all related to a theme, the one below as you can see is crochet. and it rules.
I think this cabinet belongs to this creative Genius at Wunderkammer, Jessica Polka. She makes crafty little things using crochet and other sewing sorts of things and they are all awesome! especially the mustaches.examining, collecting, cataloguing well there goes a use for the old library catalogues. Im sure that word has a U in it??? Victorian Gilt is one GIANT (a BFG scale giant) cabinet of curiosities. Being a pre-cursor to museums a Wunderkammer would compliment my work, making an heirloom out of my hair a-la victorian hair jewellery to remember the dead ones when i'm not dead yet or even old for that matter. It would be cool to display my little artefacts of myself in one of these, you would still need a magnifying glass though :( This method of presentation is something i think i would excell at because my bedroom/house is full of little strange objects and pictures that are arranged just so, these just really resonate with me :)
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