I have three pieces that will be represented in the upcoming exhibition unnatural acts curated by Lauren Simeoni and Melinda Young at Craft this October.
The collection Somewhere there exists... was first exhibited in Unnatural Acts at Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco, USA, and will feature in the second instalment at Craft (formerly Craft Victoria), opening on 18 October from 6-8pm.
Other Australian artists featured in the exhibition include Anna Davern, Caz Guiney, Kath Inglis, Bridget Kennedy, Peta Kruger, Natalia Milosz-Piekarska and Mark Vaarwerk.
This is what I wrote about my collection: "Contrary to the ordinary course of nature, the series Somewhere there exists… does. Exist I mean. Where once there was merely a collection of artificial bits-and-bobs (having received them in the mail), there now exists a collection of jewellery pieces that would never otherwise have existed. If it weren’t for the project unnatural acts, I would not have been lead down a garden path of imagination and promise: to create a new, small collection of work in response to a bag of colourful unnatural plant-like forms, for an international group exhibition. Somewhere there exists… is a visual bite of a bigger idea that is slowly evolving. Not dissimilar to several smaller pieces I created in my 2007-08 piece-a-day project The Temporary Nature of Things, this series is, however, a slight departure from recent work. While continuing to inform the overarching theme of my current exploration Melancholy Series, this collection is much more playful. Melancholy Series has a darker tone: it poetically explores notions of beauty, nostalgia and passing time, questioning how the creation of objects can guide or replace memory. While,Melancholy Series alludes to forms found in nature, deliberately abstracting them to de-familiarise the familiar, this series explores the imaginary by creating new, unnatural jewellery from silver, wood and plastic. Essentially these are objects of frippery and decoration, born in response to thinking “somewhere there exists...”.
unnatural acts runs concurrently with Simeoni and Young's exhibition unnatural tendencies in Gallery One at Craft, 31 Flinders Lane Melbourne.
FREE PUBLIC PROGRAM
Sat 20 Oct 2012 from 2pmA 'show and tell' session showcasing nine artists speaking about their inspiration and techniques. With Anna Davern, Caz Guiney, Lucy James, Sim Luttin, Natalia Milosz-Piekarska, Lauren Simeoni, Melinda Young, Phoebe Porter (15 minutes per speaker - session times to be provided).
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Craft