Venice art binge

I came. I saw. I drank it ALL in.

Venice every two years becomes an art lovers paradise - and if you're lucky enough to experience the pleasures of Venice while completely draped with art from across the world then you are a truly lucky person indeed.

This year I was able to spend five days walking, thinking, exploring and playing in Venice...

and have to say it was truly amazing.

The 56th Venice Biennale curated by Okwui Enwezo entitled All the Worlds Futures was a smorgasbord of colours, ideologies, textures and technologies - and it took me two days to fully devour it all. Some of my favourite National pavilions in The Giardini were the Australian, the Japanese, the French, the English and the Dutch. And Ive got a few photos of those pavilions to share. 

But what I truly loved was all the off site shows that were scattered around the city like gold dust. You needed a map and alot of energy and patience to see them all - and believe me - I only managed to find a handful of them. But the hunt was worth the effort. Each time Id find an exhibition down a dark alleyway I always felt like I had achieved a tiny victory... and that the complicated network of Venetian streets hadnt beaten me!

Two other non Biennale exhibitions that I loved were Paradise : a solo exhibition of Cy Twombly's work, and Proportio: an incredibly detailed and poetic group show that was exhibited in the Palazzo Fortuny. Both left me completely inspired and excited, as they were so special and so incredibly unique. 

I know we are lucky enough to have some great galleries and exhibitions here in Australia but seeing these shows in a city like Venice felt like a gift. 

I hope you enjoy these few photos I have from my trip in June...

Chiharu Shiota, The Key in the Hand, installation, Japanese Pavillion

Fiona Hall, Wrong Way Time, installation, Australian Pavillion 

Woven pieces by The Tjampi Desert Weavers
- part of Fiona Hall's artwork installation in the Australian Pavillion 

Revolutions by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot in the French Pavillion

One of two amazing sculptural pieces by Jaume Plensa (Barcelona) entitled Together
that was installed in the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore on the Island of San Giorgio

This was the second sculpture by Jaume Plensa that was in the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore.
This steel hand looked like it was floating about the Nave

The first room of the Proportio exhibition in the Palazzo Fortuny -
curated by Axel Vervoordt & Daniela Ferretti.
Blew my mind!!

Anish Kapoor installation

Lucia Bru installation entitled Aerocubes (2015)

Art and wall textures merge!
Painting by Kees Goudzwaard called Build Up (2014)

Two beautiful Cy Twombly paintings
from his solo exhibition at Ca' Pesaro Museo in Venice. 

Posters line the streets of Venice letting you know that you are surrounded by art art art!!

colour heaven // Sydney Biennale 2012

Wind chimes by Tiffany Singh...
all in sync and looking like a school of sea creatures hung out to dry! 

So this is my final post on the 18th Sydney Biennale 

and I thought Id end on a colourful and textural note. 

I have to - some of my favourite moments were captured in these photos. 

For example - I loved walking into this open courtyard and seeing this amazing display of wooden wind chimes by Tiffany Singh, that were singing and swaying to the beat of the wind on Cockatoo Island.

Wind Chimes decorated by the public and installed as another artwork...
at Cockatoo Island.

Above is an image of Tiffany's wind chimes that were originally part of her installation at Pier 2/3. She asked the public to take one and decorate it at home, or at schools across the city, before catching a ferry ride to the Island and installing it as part of another artwork. 

Now that is what you call collaboration! 

I love that the work was completely organic and that no one knew what each wind chime was going to look like. 

Li Hongbo, Ocean of Flowers, 2012, Cockatoo Island

This work by Li Hongbo by was probably one of the most photographed in the Biennale!
How could it not be?!
It was an artwork of folded paper flowers in every colour possible!
When you walked into the room you immediately felt happy and excited to walk around and marvel at all the work and attention to detail!

Cecilia Vicuna from Chile and her work Quipu Austral, 2012

From the happy to the sombre.

This work created a quiet and reflective mood as it spoke of connection and communication  through a system of knots and chords in fabric. Kind of like morse code in fabric form. 

People in The Andes used this system to connect and communicate for more than five thousands before The Conquest.

And as they swayed in the wind these textural and colourful strands of felt seemed to be saying something to us - something that Im sure was interesting - but I wasnt able to translate!

The biggest painting!! In the most amazing shape!
Its by Adam Cvijanovic and its called The River, 2012

 this work by Lee Mingwei at the MCA looked like a form of wall Braille when I saw it!
They are spools of cotton thread mounted on the wall...

Mit Jai Inn, and his work ... NO 112, 2002/12, which is somewhere between
a sculpture and a painting. The textures that he built up on the canvas
were beautiful and I nearly climbed onto the plinth to get a closer look.

Tiffany Singh's colourful installation at Pier 2/3...

And finally to Pier 2/3 and where the wind chimes all began.
This where the public could take a chime and decorate it... before going to Cockatoo Island and displaying it!
I love this artwork for so many reason...
The colour, the sounds, the collaboration, the decoration, the size of it and the way it lead you on a journey... from one part of the Biennale to another. It was clever and it truly reflected the theme of this years festival which was all about connections, threads and how we create and relate together...
Perfect.

creative influence : Iris Apfel

Iris Apfel, Style Icon

When you talk about fashion style icons there are a myriad of people that would automatically spring to mind... Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Jacki Kennedy-Onassis, and possibly Kate Moss. 

For me it's always got to be someone who is not afraid of colour... likes to take pattern + texture and mix it all up.... and someone who looks at clothing as an extension of their true personality and creative self expression. Oh... and they have to have some fun with it all! 

In this context their are only a few people that I love...

Jenny Kee is definitely on my list. I talked about a few months ago as she was featured in The Sun-Herald's Sunday Life Magazine. It was so great to see her creative spirit on the cover a big newspaper with such a wide readership as it gave a nod of encouragement to all the other artistic characters out there who like to see some originality in the wider community.... 

Last Sunday it was the turn of another one of my favourite fashion icons to grace the cover of Sunday Life Magazine. And it may be a person of whom you have never heard of....

Her name: Iris Apfel.  Her profession : Interior Stylist and co founder of Old World Weavers textile house. Her age : 90 years old. And her life has never been busier. 

In 2005 an exhibition of her extravagant wardrobe called  Rara Avis opened to a huge audience at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, and it has been touring ever since. She calls herself a 'geriatric starlet' but I believe her to be a true individual and creative free spirit who believes that life is to be enjoyed...

Here are a few great quotes from Iris:

Clothes are not frippery. Properly done, they can be an art form. 

Throughout history clothes represented who you were; they are a great vehicle for explaining who you are. During the Ching dynasty, for example, 

what you wore and how it was made reflected your status in society.

People could literally read your clothes like a book, just by its colour and how it was embroidered.

Fashion really is women’s liberation in a lot of ways. Look at how many women in this country are depressed about how they look and how they think they have to look! 

It’s really sad. And it’s not about money. 

People with a lot of money don’t dress as well as people who have to make do, who have to be inventive. Those are the people who are always more interestingly dressed, I think. Everything I do, I do with gut instinct. If I think too much, it won’t come out right.

I mix up everything. A museum curator once said to me that there is a great Jazz

component to the way I do things because good jazz is improvisation and draws

elements from all different cultures. 

Iris with her husband Carl Apfel

Talk about a true style icon! 

Credits: Article 'The Big Apfel' by Helena De Bertodano, The Sun-Herald Sunday Life Magazine, pg14. 
Photos Chester Higgins Jr, The New York Times. 

transience wins!

Oh im happy about this....

The Turner 2009 Prize has been announced at the Tate Britain in London and the winner this year is Glasgow-based Richard Wright (49) with his wall drawing, seen above...

Well... I say drawing but the work is like Renaissance fresco, as Richard has made an impression on the wall and then gone over it with glue size and stuck gold leaf ontop of it. The work is made specifically for the space and has been designed from Richard's feelings and thoughts while in the moment of conception. The cannot be taken off the wall and so after the show it is destroyed and painted over with white paint, in readiness for the next exhibition....

There is something so so beautiful in that concept.

It is an impression, made in the moment and then it disappears...

It kind of reminds me of a beautiful walk on Belongil beach at dusk...

I was walking along the beach and things were disappearing and then reappearing...

People walking on the beach ahead of me,

tiny crabs moved in and out of their little hidey holes in the sand,

the remains of trees and roots on the shoreline...

and then I saw a figure hidden in a little make shift cubby house within the tree line...

He waved

I waved

and then I kept walking...

Just one moment and then it was over.

Congrats to Richard though!

It was his last year to enter the prize as next year he would be too old to compete!

The work is so beautiful, so historic in tone and of such a lovely nature that it had to be a winner!

the domino effect.

As im still catching up with info and ideas from being away, I thought id post up another entry today otherwise the backlog will stare at me from my hard drive forever!! Well.... that's alittle dramatic but you know what I mean...

I don't know about you but this week seemed to be to be about 'cleaning up!' Shifting old tasks and chores that have been staring at me for months and just getting on with it and completing them!! I think its a sign that Im starting to look and feel like myself again, after exactly one year of rejuvenation and recovery from my operations and poor health late last year!! So without knowing it or consciously thinking about all these unfinished projects around me were suddenly being completed! Very liberating I must say....

So the image I wanted to show you is from Berlin and the the massive Domino installation that was created for the 2oth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall... I found it in the paper on the 9 Nov, while I was away, and I just had to rip it out and show you as I just thought it was a brilliant project for the people and the city!

The concept, the intent, the drama..it was all there... and I loved it!!

In a stroke of symmetry I found a similar work in the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition the other week... The work called Recession was by Michael Lipman and it was just as imposing and dramatic as how I imagined the work in Berlin to have been ...

The only problem I had is that it was too literal and black whereas the installation in Berlin was all about colour and participation, as children from all over the world were asked to paint each of the 1000 styrofoam domino pieces, to create a beautiful multicoloured effect that was all about energy and celebration!! And that was the best bit!

{If you would like to see more check out a great video of all the painted pieces on youtube here....}

Anyway...

I hope you enjoy your weekend wherever you may be... And that your schedules start to fall by the wayside and that you open up your world to a few curve balls and surprises!

ask + you shall receive...

the eerie morning light

And that is exactly what has happened to me, as I asked for a storm yesterday and that is what we got last night! But they also say - be careful what you wish for - and maybe I should have been alittle more specific when I said 'storm', as early this morning we received a huge dust storm that felt apocalyptic!! Funny that a few days ago I posted that beautiful image of a huddle of women shying away from a dust storm in India... Little did I know that I was predicting a future event! Crazy...

on the harbour image from ninemsn

Waking up to a room of red....then orange..then yellow - would have been hauntingly beautiful if not for the fact that it was alittle unsettling... Great Southern Land indeed! I guess in the city we can easily forget that the majority of this huge country consists of red earth... And after i got over the shock I could smell the dry dust that brought back memories of being a tiny kid on my nana+pops farm in Downside NSW smelling the dry and dusty air!

Funny to be doing it again on a run of the mill Wednesday morning in the city...

The colour of the sky...

A true blood red....

is also a major theme for a HUGE exhibition that is just about to open at the Royal Academy of Arts in London... by artist Anish Kapoor. Anish is a truly amazing artist known for creating monumental sculptural works that test the viewers notions of time+space.... And this new show he takes us on another journey, breaking traditional 'academic' rules along the way... Starting with some unseen works from the 80s, these sculptural pigment pieces lead us into a world that is full of vibrancy and life. Beautiful pyramids of red and yellow sit on the floor - testing the viewer to NOT come and play...

A hard test indeed!

Anish Kapoor As if to celebrate I discovered 1981

In an aesthetic sense the idea of PLAY seems to be a big theme of this show... as seen by the work... 'Shooting into the corner 2009'.... a mammoth work that comprises of a cannon and alot of sticky waxy red paintballs that are fired every 20 minutes onto one of the gallery walls!

It is a brilliant idea... giving colour, life, energy, and texture... all at the same time!! I would love to see it in the flesh! Knowing what that pretentious gallery in London is like - it must be exhilarating to see it being 'blown up!'

All hail colour+fun!!