Entries Tagged 'Alumni biz' ↓

is the title of Pam Lofts’ Alice Prize entry. To be announced tonight…

…recent MPhil graduate of the ANU School of Art Pam Lofts is showing with Helen Maxwell Gallery at Silvershot, in Melbourne.

Visit Megan’s blog and see what ANU School of Art postgraduate alumna Natali Rodrigues has been up to… (Saves me all that assembly!)

Lia was an MPhil graduate (in Ceramics, obviously) in 2006. This piece (from the ‘Nudibranch series’, mid-fire porcelain, 2006, photo by ANU photography) is characteristic of the work she did in the program, and is currently in the border, an exhibition at CraftACT. Lia gives the following account of her motivation in works such as this:

Aesthetically, the visual inspirations for the work are natural forms including plants, coral and sea creatures. This work does not set out to replicate the specifics of particular organic forms but seeks to capitalize on the strange, complex, richly patterned and brightly coloured beauty of the natural world. That said, there are elements of the work that are often confused with actual organic things, and in this way act as a kind of mimesis or an imitation of nature. This creates confusion between representations and the real.

The nudibranch or sea slug is a delightfully strange and weird looking thing. I am drawn to its flamboyance and extravagance – why is a sea slug so ornate? It seems like a fine thing to try to combine with an object that alludes to function in that it acts as a setting off point between the understandable reality of a functional object (vase) and something beyond easy understanding –the animate and inanimate together.

Congratulations to two ex postgrads Catherine Woo (Painting) and Ken Yonetani (Ceramics) who’ve been selected for Handle with Care: 2008 Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, currently on show as part of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Ken’s work is featured on the cover of the Broadsheet, Catherine gets a rave in Sebastian Smee’s review (Weekend Australian Review, p18-19). Ken will also be profiled on the ABC program ‘Sunday Arts” feature story, on air between 5:00pm and 6:00pm on Sunday.

“Sweet Barrier Reef” ‘Handle with Care’ The 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Contemporary Art, 3.6mx12.5m, Sugar, Icing Sugar, Polystyrene foam, Ceramics with a performance by 2 costumed girls serving edible sculptures (coral shaped cakes).

Ken gives the following account of the work: Sweet Barrier Reef focuses on the event of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching refers to the process leading to coral death. River waters containing high levels of suspended sediment cause coral death and bleaching. This sediment often comes from harvesting sugarcane, and is known to be one factor leading to bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. Many large sugarcane fields are located beside coral reefs, leading to coral damage across the globe. In this project, I focus on the connections between consumption and human impact on the environment by creating a reef out of sugar. Here, I do not focus only on the impact of the sugarcane industry; rather sugar is used as a much larger metaphor for our desire to consume and its environmental impact. Sugar becomes a metaphor of human desire. It is also strongly connected to processes of “colonization”, “modernisation” and “consumerism”.