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 :)

Célio Braga

'Célio Braga does not make jewellery. He observes people and their interaction and gives a reaction through the objects he creates. Those pieces can sometimes be worn as a brooch or a necklace. Truly applied art: the object that poses questions and hands you suggestions can accompany you all day. As a recollection, a confrontation or an act of wilfulness.'-Ward Schrijver [source]

Sorry I'm not allowed to download his images but if you click the link above you can view them or see his website here. Unlike most of the other artist that use hair i have come across his use leaves the hair looking very messy and hairy, very visceral. His work deals with the fragility, mortality and vulnerability (same thing amanda same thiiiing) of the human body so materials that are discarded like hair really compliment this idea.
He has some photography work which has been cut back in to and looks like reptile skin rather than human, the photographs are ECU and have the same translucent greyish look that hair has when viewed close up, you know like vermicelli?? I love this guys work, love the artists he references, his materials, his objects, everything :)

Jenny Hart

Oh Unicorn
9" x 9", 2005
hair embroidered on leather

These are single strands of human hair (artist's own) embroidered on soft leather.

Jenny Hart makes embroidery look so cool, not that it was ever un-cool, not since i took it up anyway. She is the founder of the Sublime Stitching website which was launched in 2001 and with its cutesy slick un-granny fanny like design who wouldn't want to stick a needle in something. stick stick stick. She describes making the above piece with hair 'like embroidering with air', i know exactly what she means, you can't see or feel it until it breaks then its squinting over your creation trying to find the loose end. She is a fan of embroidery that serves no function other than to embelish which is what my work is doing, well mine is art so it was never going to serve a purpose hmm. The juxtaposition of human and animal materials is awesome but something i wouldn't do myself because I don't believe I can justify using animal products in my work, even found leather although i did plan to use a pair of leather boots earlier this year but the lame tattooist never got back to me. puck you. i think i will still make that work at some stage i just need to think about where i'm sourcing the material from because its kinda sorta permanent...

"La Llorona" ©2005 Jenny Hart

Her website is HERE!

Mona Hatoum again...

"Keffieh," by Mona Hatoum, (1993-99), human hair on cotton, 1993-1999, collection Peter Norton, Santa Monica

Mona Hatoum uses Human hair as well as images and footage of her own body in her work. In the above piece she has interwoven pieces of women's hair into a traditional Arab head scarf worn only by males. Issues of gender and suppression surround this piece. There is something beautiful and at the same time grotesque about wearing the hair of another human as decoration and I find this object quite unsettling and repulsive. The use of hair makes the work quite intimate and is a familiar thing as we all have it although it shifts to being uncomfortable when taken out of context and removed from our bodies.

"The macho style is an externalized response to the powers of domination; but it is also a form of domination turned inward, within the community poised against the presence of women, whose voices are either repressed, or sublimated in the cause of struggle. Hatoum's feminized headscarf reveals this disavowal of the place of women and re-inserts their point of view through the embroidered strands of hair that hang loose beyond the boundary, breaking the pictorial grid of the material in the process of redefining the symbolic surface of political struggle." source

A series of etchings called 'Hair, there and everywhere' are collections of hair which look as though some have been arranged into patterns and others just laid there. You can make out images yourself and imagine what creates could be hiding amongst the interweaving curling lines but you can't quite tell if she had intentionally made images amongst the hair.This work is very intense and involves a lot of human hair, I would love to know who it belonged to and how she obtained it because this has a lot of implications. I like to think that it is her own, that in a way she suffered for her art and what she believes in, putting a part of herself into the work. This seems to have been the case with previous works such as 'Corps étranger' (1994). I love the format of the video in this work, the close up shots and the feeling of grotesqueness and ‘Deep Throat’ (1996), installations that use endoscopic journys through the interior landscape of the artist’s own body.

This work also used leather and beeswax, materials from animals in conjunction with human derived material. The leather is durable, the human hair seems fragile, not holding the suitcases together, awkwardly fumbling across the gap.This work 'Van Gogh's Back' (1995) is very light hearted and fun. It reminds me of playing in the bath with shampoo in my hair and making fun shapes. I love her different uses of hair and the Human body, all of them have vastly different effects on me weather that be repulsion, fascination or just very thought provoking.

More Exhibitions

Wallace Art Awards-Aotea Centre
I went to see the shortlisted ones that didn't make the final before moving on to the main ones I guess you would call them. Its a shame they weren't displayed in a bigger gallery, Amy's work was up so high on the wall that I couldn't see any detail, the same with other works which had awful lighting or were just overshadowed by other works. Who cares, i saw works from a lot of my old lecturers which was awesome! Jim Cooper, Michelle Beevors, Peter Cleverly AMY POTENGER! yeah! I loved the painting of the little boy with his arm cut off, the lighting and colour were tumeke. There were heaps of paintings come t think of it, in comparison to how many of my peers are painters anyway. I loved the lego tree made of pine, and the...rest of it, the paint skeleton was cool!! go and see the exhibition.

Forget me-Unitec
well... It really shined through that this was photography and not Fine Arts. I was a little disappointed with the exhibition not being enough like an exhibition, I can see now why we put so much emphasis on resolution and presentation. All of the photos were great, but they were all A4 sized so you couldn't see any detail, they looked amazing when a few of them were being projected but other than that they really didn't have much impact. Technically the photos were brilliant ron, and after talking to one of the students who explained the course I could see why the exhibition was the way it was. They are not encouraged to extend beyond the use of photography, presentation has to be in the same format obviously and this was so restricting!!! I also found that the images didn't really relate to each other or flow a lot of the time, they just pick a few technically beautiful photographs and put them on A4 mount on a shelf. i blame unitec and its air of insane asylum and wahine written on the toilet door. oh and the catalogue.... it was ll green!! it did look cool but i can understand why people were poo poo about it, why have it green when its a showcase of technical photography? What about the poor guy that spends hours getting colours right only to see it apple green and white in the catalogue???

Dust 1.2- AUT Gallery
Stopped in here passing by, there was a thing made from pig stomachs which i found FOUL, little shrivelled gloves made from piggy insides, no thank you.

'aren't these great?!'
'oh, the little globes inside the glass houses, yeah.'
'what do you like about them?'
'ummm, the glass is cut really nicely, it can be hard to cut glass straight'
(thinking back to cut feet in first year)

'aren't these great?!'
'no, they're shit. The paint job on those globes looks ridiculous, and the glass houses look manufactured they are so perfect'
'what do you like about them'
'nothing, it's a one liner... much like the inverse dog house from Site06'
*shit eating polite grin*

Gallery Visits

I spent a day in town last week looking around galleries in the central city and there were some amazing exhibitions on.
John Ward Knox 'Toward a still Life' was showing at the Tim Melville Gallery and was outstanding for me. I remember his work from one of the graduate catalog, that little ripple in the linoleum, so subtle that I didn't see it at the show!! When I walked in to the gallery I thought he had painted fabric on to the wall but it is actually carved straight from the wall. READ ALL ABOUT IT and see photos on his BLOG<----(click it) His drawings with biro pens are stunning!! dreamy detailed feathery not all there blobby fluffy strokes. yums. I visited Fingers and saw a lot of the same jewellers I had seen at the NZ jewellers show a couple of months ago. Maybe its just me but I always see a lot of NZ influence in jewellery, maybe its just this gallery and every other gallery I have visited but the influence seems to be very strong. There were some things i liked but I've lost the piece of paper I wrote the artists names on. fork. There were some really nice embroidered pieces and things that used a lot of textiles and sewing techniques which was good to see. Amanda likes this. Sandra Bushby is one of these artists, i love her embroidery and felt work! You can see some of her photos on the fingers website, I'm too scared to post pictures of NZ artists work because it's probably breaching copyright and it won't harm you people to click the link.

Oedipus Rex Gallery.. well, i loved the paintings in the second room, not to say I didn't enjoy the paintings in the first BUT the second room reminded me of Emma Catastrophic so naturally I was drawn to that. The Paintings were by Lorene Taurerewa and are muted colours and very simple figures. The empty space around them gives them an eerie ethereal feeling.Lorene Taurerewa

Story 3 (Detail)
Oil on canvas 122 x 122 cm

listening to kasabian and its so frickin sweet

I posted on Stitchin Fingers asking for help making lace and got responses within a couple of hours! The ladies are all so helpful and encouraging :) Here are a few tips i picked up
-Use jewellery crimps and wire for the spangles
-Use hat pins for separating bobbins when not in use
-Print the prickings on to light blue paper and cover with clear contact
-12 bobbins is not enough! I need 24-30
-A round pillow of 18-24" is the ideal size, and can be made from polyethylene, felt, wadding (old woolen blankets) and cotton with a plywood base