8.23.2011

Behind the Scenes...

Yesterday we had a photo shoot evening.

Photography:   Daniel Rose
Model:               Lovely Lena Walsh
Hair:                  Andre Ranieri: http://www.zinc-hairdressing.com/
Make up:           Claire Ellery

I look forward to seeing some professional images. In the mean time heres some behind the scenes shots captured by me using hipstamatic.















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8.21.2011

WELLINGTONS V GUMBOOTS

What ever you call them Wellington, Welly, Gumboot, Gummies or as i've heard my father refer to them as shitkickers... I LOVE THEM..


Ever since I could walk Ive had a pair, and on entering a shoe store as a child I would throw off my shoes  and try to leave wearing a much preferred pair of wellingtons.


Growing up In Scotland I wore Wellies often.
Now living New Zealand where they are called Gumboots 'Gummies'. I own a Cranberry coloured  pair of Hunter Wellies, which because I live in Sunny Nelson have little use for lately, until earlier this week...


It was just like Christmas time in Scotland, but no it was August in New Zealand, fantastic. 
                                              @ Hanmer Springs 2011
Oh and some of my most fun artwork, I made when I had first received my Hunters and chose to wear them in the sunshine anyway. (take a closer look).







My point is ...Well there isnt one, I just wanted to share along with sticky tape, my passion for the Welly. Or as I now refer to them 'Gummies'.



fashion images taken from http://www.hunter-boot.com/

8.17.2011

Damien

Gow Langsford Gallery
The dead and The Souls

http://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/exhibitions/pastexhibitions/2011/damienhirst.asp

Go and see Damiens Hirst at Gow Langsford, or at least visit the website. What ever you may think of Hirst theres something incredibly uplifting about these works; foil block on 300gsm Arches 88 archival paper. Signed and numbered 720 x 510mm 2010.

We wondered if Hirst had any hand in making them at all, or if he simply signed them, (maybe he didnt even do that). Regardless  we both thought they were possibly the best work we had seen all weekend, and chose the 3 we would take home, if we had the tens of thousands it would cost to buy them.

We then walked round the corner to Parsons and found an interesting book on that very conversation...

http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/new/spring11/523882.htm


AUCKLAND ART FAIR


Chockablock wall to wall art from New Zealand and Australia, Auckland art fair was the place to see what’s contemporary.


Here is just a taste of what my highlights were.
Images used may vary from what was present at the fair. Some artists maybe represented by more than just one gallery. 

Octavia Cook – Anna Miles Gallery Auckland

Im not a wearer of much Bling, and really only wear a handful of  NZ jewellery of which most are brooches.

A Gallery staff member was wearing a stunning piece similar to the one below left, My favourite are Cooks new range of murder weapons.

                             Octavia Cook Parrot Came, Skull Cameo. 2003 Photo Haru Sameshima
                                                    Anna Miles Gallery Auckland

                                          girly gun brooch

Venerable Heirlooms from the Cook & Co Coffers, 2007

“I see myself as a jeweller because all my work is jewellery or relates to ideas about jewellery.  I’m interested in the perception of value – both monetary and sentimental – and how interchanging the real with the fake and the precious with the inconsequential can alter that.”
Octavia Cook, 2007
http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/news/releases/2007/11/21/139/


KUSHANA BUSH- BRETT MCDOWELL GALLERIES



            L Motion, Gouache and Pencil on Paper, 700 x 500mm


Taking on the role of 'artist as anthropologist', Kushana Bush makes paintings that are erotic, amusing, disturbing and beautiful, but ultimately their content remains absolutely mysterious. Virginia Were 

Kushana Bush explores the unresolved tensions between pleasure and logic, and public and private identities through imagery of bedroom interiors of couples acting out, or seeking to realise sexual pleasures while trapped by anxieties and apprehension. Bush's work draws upon contemporary cinema, expressionist traditions of painting, feminist painting and politics. It also maintains a critical acceptance of these conventions just as it seems to dissect and reveal the personalities of those individuals that inhabit the picture plane.
Dame Paula Rego - BRETT MCDOWELL GALLERIES

On the same stand was an Etching and aquatint by Paula Rego called 'Fame'.


Her paintings and pastel drawings are fantastic and didn't immediately recognise this work as one of hers. I havent I have seen any of her work up close before so I was delighted

Paula Rego 1994, pastel on canvas 120 x 160cm
                                               
Inspired by a story a friend had written for her, Paula Rego draws her Dog Woman in pastels, referencing the raw physicality of Degas’ drawings. “To be a dog woman is not necessarily to be downtrodden; that has very little to do with it,” She explained, “In these pictures every woman's a dog woman, not downtrodden, but powerful. To be bestial is good. It's physical. Eating, snarling, all activities to do with sensation are positive. To picture a woman as a dog is utterly believable."



                           
Patrick Hartigan - Darren Knight Gallery
http://www.artfair.co.nz/enews/2011/e-bulletin08.htm
The work 'Untitled' below by Hartigan certainly stood out and hung amongst what was my favourite stand in terms of display.
http://www.darrenknightgallery.com/Group%20Shows/2011/Auck1.htm  


                                                                        untitled (woman on cliff) 2010 oil on linen 645 x 485mm






I could have quite happily moved my couch in. The framing of the works were spot on and the monochromatic works by artists represented worked amazingly well, we all agreed.

Patrick Hartigan, 'Untitled (man holding cat)', oil on card, 2009
"It's a strange relationship I've got in my head. My interest is more a psychological one. I have a fascination with the way we humans go about, at times obsessively, trying to understand and live in the world."
taken from an interview with Hartigan, in the  Otago Daily Times
http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/16582/water-and-light-tools-artist039s-trade




Sally Smart – Greenaway Art Gallery
http://www.greenaway.com.au/
Sally Smart, perform #1, 2011 mixed media on paper 760 x 560 mm image courtesy of  the artist and Greenaway Art Gallery 

                                                 SALLY SMART - Decoy NestInstallation 


Australian artist Sally Smart is known for her large-scale collage installations applied directly to the gallery wall. She works with a range of media, including painted felt cut-outs, painted canvas, photographic elements, and printed fabric. The pins and joins that connect her work remain exposed to the viewer, emphasizing the performative process Smart undergoes in the collection, cutting, drawing, assembly, and installation of her work. The complexity and detail of each formal element engage the viewer in a search for recognizable elements and meaning.
http://dailyserving.com/2008/09/sally-smart/


Heather Straka Page Blackie Gallery
http://www.pageblackiegallery.co.nz/


                                                   (Life) Still no. 13, 2008


Cornelia Parker Two Rooms
http://tworooms.co.nz/

Two rooms weren't showing any of Parkers work, but I wanted to share the video below of the work doubtful sound, at the BALTIC in Gateshead one of my all time favourite galleries.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2010/jun/23/cornelia-parker-art-baltic


Mark Rodda

In Mark Rodda's works no two pictures are painted using the same rules. The application of any dogmatic or systematic framework is avoided. However, among these allegorical works and uncouth abstracts are hints of recurrent themes. Romantic landscapes, oversaturated colour schemes and fantastical creatures are uniting factors within these works: where dark but comforting worlds are evoked. Rodda’s diverse interests and abilities as an artist are evidenced across his painting, film, animation and photographic works. With his painting, he shifts effortlessly between precise geometric works to loose, figurative pictorial planes.

http://artstudiovisit.blogspot.com/2011/04/mark-rodda.html#more


                                                               

Josephine Cachemaille - Sanderson Contemporary Art
http://www.sanderson.co.nz/
Last but by no means least as I turned the corner on the last stand of the show it was great to see Nelson artist Josephine Cachemaille. 
Cachemaille lives down the road from me and seeing her installation makes for  some reason getting representation by a dealer gallery a wee bit more obtainable. 


Across her diverse art practice, Josephine Cachemaille uses ruminations on insecurity, anxiety and personal psychology to describe collective shared conditions and experiences. Whether through figurative painting or three-dimensional work, she remains interested in the tensions between the personal and the universal, the individual and the collective. 


I can change mixed media



Josephine Cachemaille 

"I come from a family who make things all the time. If you want to make something, you work out a way to do it using whatever skills and materials you have. This is how I work. I like the challenge of taking an idea and turning it into something. I don't always want to be masterful, I want there to be evidence of the process, the mistakes, the successes."

http://www.redartgallery.com/show_artist_profile_28.html


Many more artist had the most fantastic work be sure to view the Art Fair Website
http://www.artfair.co.nz/

8.13.2011

I Love Sticky Tape


Its no surprise to anyone that I love sticky tape and use it at any opportunity. So of course a favorite blog of mine is http://ilovestickytape.blogspot.com/

I was delighted when Jacqui interviewed me recently for her blog. Check it out, and have a browse at some of the amazing work created by other artists, using the medium tape.

8.11.2011

Trouble and Fox Boutique

Banjo Bijou wears

After my trip to Auckland art fair, it was time to create what I have been wanting to do for some time; collaborating with the wonderful Liberty Greig at Trouble and Fox.


Trouble and Fox is a boutique in the heart of Nelson on Bank Lane. An eclectic wonder-room of clothing, jewellery and accessories. https://www.facebook.com/troubleandfox

Over 3 days, I borrowed clothes, styled, illustrated, and painted the first of a series of window displays for the boutique window.

Heres the first: Banjo Bijou wears...