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Glass exhibition in Joburg

Notice of another exhibition on during the South gathering:

Hot Earth, marks a new body of work by Jeannette Unite. Her continued fascination with mining and minerals including copper, diamonds and platinum are the focus of this solo exhibition; a collection of distinctive molten glass works, drawings and paintings on mining within South Africa. Her unique take on using oxides, minerals and sands from various mining sites in her work has rendered her art a conceptual yet vastly tactile journey.  Glass installations on view incorporate colour derived from minerals ‘frozen’ into luminous and opaque textures through intense heat. 

Gallery:                      The Thompson Gallery
Address:                     78 Third Avenue, Melville, Johannesburg, Gauteng
Gallery Hours:            10:30-17:00, Tues-Sat
Exhibition Dates:       14 October until 3 November 2007

The case of Esther Mahlangu

Esther Maglangu is a Ndebele artist who has progressed from decorating houses to commissions such as the BMW car you can see in the video below. It’s an interesting case for thinking about ways in which the rural-based crafter might develop other opportunities. Is she selling out in creating an object that is never likely to be found in the place she comes from?

Urban art blooms in Chicago

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DSCF2293

At the entrance to the Chicago Institute of Art there’s a curious found installation. Some rather dangerous wires are growing like roots from the ceiling. And alongside a clump of weeds are emerging from the ground around a wood panel. This is a temporary structure associated with building works, but the coordinated growth from above and below nicely counters the construction around it.

I’m in Chicago for a series associated with the publication The Object of Labor: Art, Cloth, and Cultural Production which is edited by Joan Livingston and John Ploof from the Fibre Department. It’s a substantial publication that explores the link between the industrial and artistic worlds from many different perspectives. During my stay, there’s been much fiery discussion about the relevance of relational art to craft and the emerging genre of ‘world craft’.

I’m pleased to say that there seems be have been a resurgence of interest in the material arts, with growth of demand for courses in ceramics and weaving. Students seem to come from around the states to the Institute partly because its a hub of activity and also because Chicago is seen as a city that is open to newcomers (as opposed to New York).

Tupelo workshops

Based on the Triangle Arts Trust, Tupelo Cape Town are staging a workshop that brings together artists and craftspersons 1-15 December 2007.

We invite established visual artists and crafters who would like to extend their skills, exchange ideas and techniques to apply to work in this dynamic, stimulating two week workshop where discussion and interaction between artists and crafters will be encouraged and debated. Applications in all medium will be accepted and arrangements for equipment and materials can be discussed if the application is successful. Crafters will be encouraged to bring their own machines and tools.

There isn’t much information about the rationale for the workshop, but it would be interesting to see what emerges and compare it to what happens in Soweto. More information here.

Colonisation of silence

An article by Andrew Waggoner titled ‘The Colonization of Silence’ discusses the increasing intrusion of manufactured sound into daily life. He argues that silence plays a critical role in our appreciation of the sound environment. Silence is important for what he calls the ‘noiseless recalibration of the soul’.

Here’s what he says about the composer Morton Feldman:

Feldman’s view was equally rich and evocative, colored as it was by his friendship with Cage, though expressed in more workaday terms (he once remarked that like a tailor, he was a craftsman, committed to quality of detail; “the suit fits better” he said.)

First results from Pedernal


Design students from Valparaiso University showed the first results from their workshop with residents of Pedernal. These are early days, as the students explore how products might be developed that relate to life in this remote village and also activity engage the residents in their production. The next phase is the response of the residents themselves. Let’s see what unfolds. Given the interruptions due to the closure of the university for 50 days, the results are quite remarkable.
The images also include some recent shots from Santiago and can be seen in full here. This includes the ironic exhibition Hecho en Chine (Made in China) by Chilean painter Bruna Truffi and the Museum of Shadows, otherwise known as the Museo de Artes Decorativas in Santiago.

Patricia Gunther – working with the Hilanderas of Colliguay

yolandayandres

yolandayandres

Hilado de fantasía realizado por Yolanda (Hilandera), a partir del hilado tosco, con un diseño propuesto por Andrés (Alumno de Diseño).

Patricia Gunther is a lecturer at the University of Valparaiso. Her students feature elsewhere in this blog. She is part of a very interesting push to make craft applicable to the otherwise remote communities. They are just beginning to negotiate how their skills might be of use far from the urban centre.

Las HILANDERAS DE COLLIGUAY poseen la tradición de hilar bellamente la lana de oveja y tejen productos tradicionales de muy buena calidad. Cuando intentan realizar nuevos productos, estos no logran la misma belleza y calidad, haciendo difícil o nula la venta de los mismos.

La ESCUELA DE DISEÑO de la UNIVERSIDAD DE VALPARAÍSO ha desarrollado varias experiencias académicas relacionando el diseño con la artesanía tradicional con efectos de trascendencia para los alumnos pero no para los artesanos, quienes no hacían uso de los resultados de aquellas experiencias.

En la experiencia 2006, se está realizando una relación sostenida y constante, de mucha interacción entre artesanas y alumnos, provocando a la fecha inquietud en el grupo de artesanas de Colliguay que evalúan las propuestas de los alumnos y los resultados obtenidos, y plantean nuevas propuestas en base a lo experimentado. No se trata de que repliquen las propuestas de los alumnos sino que descubran lo nuevo que ellas mismas pueden crear.

El Taller y Práctica posterior académicos, se han desarrollado aplicando la experiencia de dos talleres anteriores (2000 y 2004) y rescatando como puntos de partida en la búsqueda de nuevos productos, los recursos propios de la artesanía textil de Colliguay: el payado que es su manera de dibujar en los tejidos, el hilado tosco usado para objetos de inferior calidad, el ponpón utilizado solo para dar terminaciones a los bolsos, el vellón usado como tramas decorativas, el mimbre utilizado por un artesano vecino que ha hecho los muebles de toda la comunidad y que las hilanderas jamás habrían tejido.

The Hilanderas of Colliguay have the tradition to spin beautifully the ewe wool and tile traditional products of very good quality. When they try to make new products, these do not achieve the same beauty and quality, making it difficult and hard to sell.
The School of Design of the University of Valparaiso has developed several academic experiences relating the design to the traditional crafts with effects of importance for the students but it does not stop the craftsmen, who did not make use of the results of those experiences.

During 2006, a regular relationship is being developed, with interaction between craftswomen and students. This energises the group of craftswomen of Colliguay, who given their evaluations of the resulting proposals of the students, and make new proposals on the basis of the experimented thing. It is not just that they respond to the proposals of the students, but they discover what’s new that they themselves can create.

The academic Workshop and later Practice, have been developed applying the experience of two previous workshop (2000 and 2004) and maintaining outcome possibilities in the search of new products, the own resources of the textile crafts of Colliguay: the payado one that is its way to draw in the weaves, the used coarse spinning for objects of inferior quality, ponpón is used singlly to give completions to the purses, vellón used as decorativas plots, the wicker used by a neighbouring craftsman that have made the furniture of all the community and that the Hilanderas never would have woven.

Paola Moreno – the weave notion

“Imperdibles”, 2006, 3 superficies de 30 x 30 centímetros, construidas con imperdibles (ganchos de seguridad) metálicos.

It’s been a while since we had the meeting in Valparaiso where we brought craft practitioners from across the south. There was far too much to show, and too little time to hear it all. Afterwards, I asked some of the local artists to provide me with an image and text of their work. I’ll post this material here, hoping that it might gather some interesting possibilities.

Artist statement in Spanish:

Cursé estudios universitarios en diseño hace dos décadas y, desde ese momento, mis actividades han estado relacionadas con las artes visuales a través del textil. El objeto central de mi investigación está enfocado en las preguntas derivadas de la noción de tejido. Como artista y docente, mi compromiso reside en acercar el textil a aquellos nuevos ámbitos que ofrecen las artes contemporáneas, desplazando operaciones tradicionales hacia derivas más experimentales. Todo esto, se refleja en tres conceptos que forman y dan sentido a mi trabajo. La transformación de los materiales, lograda a través de la integración y coherencia formal en la construcción de las piezas. La reiteración, entendida como elemento narrativo que el tejido permite para la formación de superficies. Y, finalmente, la exposición de la fragilidad que existe en los procedimientos manuales y sus productos, sean estos complejos o simples.

Artist statement in English:

I studied design at university two decades ago and, from that moment, my activities been have related to the visual arts through textile. The central object of my investigation is focused in the questions derived from the weave notion. As artist and teacher, my commitment resides in approaching the textile with the new spheres that emerge from the contemporary arts, moving traditional operations towards more experimental drifts. All this, is reflected in three concepts that form and give sense to my work. The transformation of the materials, obtained through integration and formal coherence in the construction of the pieces. The reiteration, understood like narrative element that the weave allows for the formation of surfaces. And, finally, the exhibition of the fragility that exists in the manual procedures and their products, be these complex or simple.

Mining Glass

The Museum of Glass in Washington celebrates is fifth anniversary with an exhibition of glass used by artists including Wim Delvoye, Teresita Fernández, Mona Hatoum, Maya Lin, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Kiki Smith, Fred Wilson, and the late Chen Zhen.

By moving through the themes of artifice, boundaries, desire, enchantment, excess, identity, intersections, and landscape, the exhibition concentrates on the deeper issues that concern artists, allowing the meaning of the work to take precedence over the technique of how it has been executed.

Much is made of the way these artists defy the merely decorative appeal of glass. But the way the exhibition is presented doesn’t suggest that there is an engagement with glass and its process beyond the simple expression of a concept.