Angela Nordlinger has just sent through this image of Dean Bowen’s Little Big Man, which is apparently destined for a berth outside the new library in Civic. All 3 tonne of it is on its way up from Melbourne as we speak…
It’s going to miss its lovely bush setting.
Postscript: we’ve just been told it’s already up, and in the shopping precinct…
Driving home through Candelo late yesterday arvo we came across the most exciting sight – preparations for today’s local culture extravaganza, the 1st Candelo Village Festival. What a tragedy we’ll be wending our way to the ‘Berra instead.
Judging from the program it’s going be a beauty; a busload of local acts, Melbourne band Trouble in the Kitchen and…our absolute faves…the Fuelers!! What a total bummer. We can’t believe we’re missing it.
Ah well, we’ll just have to look forward to the 2nd Candelo Village Festival. It’s only a year away…
While the Gang was up in Sydders last week we swung past Sabbia to check out Scotto’s solo exhibition, An Antipodean Journal – which, we must confess, having been privy to various conversations post his lecture at the Ausglass conference in January, we were very curious to see. (We didn’t attend the conference program, and even if we had we would’ve missed Scotto’s presentation in any case – courtesy of that pesky business of doubling up on lectures, his talk was on at the same time as Luna’s…)
It’s certainly an interesting show, and a huge shift – which shouldn’t be surprising given that he’s (semi-permanently, at least) transplanted himself to Europe. His signature fused and blown vessels have transmogrified into a kind of cryonic encapsulation; large semi-cylindrical ‘tablets’ hot cast for posterity. (Each one anything from 40-80 kgs, Anna was telling us – seriously weighty work.) They still hold the ‘my life as a cartoon’ narrative edge, but now with an ‘I’m living in a fishbowl’ twist. Given that the works “tell a story that often reflects key moments in Scott’s life, or issues close to his heart” the fishbowl analogy is somewhat apt.
But the biggest departure is the new line of large blown and sandblasted vessels which he designed and had manufactured in Czechoslovakia. These ‘vases’ are slick and pop, and carry a sweep of art-‘n-craft historic references that deliver an immediate sense of comfortable familiarity and connection. Black and white and cobalt blue (the classic ‘buy me’ button, as we all know!!), these pieces are extraordinarily ‘interior designer’ friendly. And they obviously hit the right note with the punters – the room was awash with red dots.
It’s rather fascinating, this growing return to ‘the factory floor’, don’t you think? It’s almost as though the studio glass movement has gone full circle – artists are becoming increasingly sophisticated and removing themselves from the making process entirely; handing it back, as it were, to specialized European glassworks. This is by no means intended as a criticism, it’s merely an observation. The trend, after all, is de rigeur across the international contemporary art scene – particularly in the stratospheric stakes (ie Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, et al.) You only have to look at the ‘biennale industry’ to know that the artist has evolved into the auteur.
Anyhoo, we enjoyed the exhibition and we’re looking forward to having a good chin-wag with Scotto across the ether – about life, glass and the universe – in the not too distant future…
For a squizz at the show go to…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/sets/72157604274659260/
Meanwhile, Sabbia’s site is…
http://www.sabbiagallery.com/exhibition.php?ref=scottchaseling_08&exh=upcoming
(above) our fave photo of Tevita from the Hunks photoshoot.
For those of you who’ve been asking ‘hey, where’s the article on the Hunks show?’, never fear. There definitely is one coming – Megsie just keeps getting side tracked by other things….
Watch this space. It will turn up eventually!!
Sammy Jo’s been a bit slack about sending postcards – but this one pretty much makes up for it. (So much for all that army training, darl…!)
There’s always a ray of sunshine down here, my friends…!!
(above) Lene at the early March opening of her exhibition in Oslo.
The Gang’s just received a lovely postcard from Lene Lunde, who is actually over in Black Diamond, Canada (35 minutes south of Calvary), putting in some concentrated hotshop time for Canadian glass duo Julia Reimer and Tyler Rock (who’s head of the glass program at the Alberta College of Art and Design – where, incidently, our old pal Natali Rodrigues works.) [Hi, Nat!! n(Ed)]
Lene, who will be working in Canada up until mid June, has just spent the Easter holiday weekend with Nat and her family (okay guys, where are the happy snaps…?) and it sounds as if she’s having a fabulous time all round.
Meanwhile she’s sent through some images of the work from her recent Oslo show – a wonderful excercise in serious playfulness if ever there was. Actually, we’re rather amazed – and frankly charmed – by the current, and entirely unconnected, synchronistic move by a number of artists towards varying degrees of toy inclusion. Perhaps it’s a healthy and perfectly natural reaction to the Establishment mob’s dreary practice of taking themselves so faffing seriously. [We live in hope… n(Ed)]
Poor Lene did her back in the day before the exhibition opened, so was feeling horribly peaky at the launch. But she’s okay now, thank goodness, and throwing herself once more into the fray…we look forward to some cool Canadian pics…
For images of the work go to…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/sets/72157604239829379/
Easter Sunday went off with its usual bang at Wyndham – and all those cute ‘n fluffy little duckies and bunnies were front and centre on the luncheon table (and we’re not talkin’ the chocolate variety.) Megsie whipped up some ‘hot cross bunnies’, aka rabbit calzone, and Keithie put on the most luscious duck and cherry terrine we’ve chowed down on for a long time – and that was just for starters! Over-indulgence was the order of the day, and everybody put in a sterling effort to comply – well done, chaps.
Grover won the Easter bonnet parade, followed very closely by Izzy. And in the oldies stakes, honorable mention went to Marcus’s ‘egg warmer’ (above) and Corker’s eco-conscious recycled Easter basket. Highlight of the afternoon was, of course, the continuation of the blokes’ perennial frisbee tournament (extra kudos for those who make it through the entire game drink still in hand.)
The ladies, of course, remained sensibly languid.
Happy snaps at…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/sets/72157604221435120/
Friday night saw the opening of the Cuttagee Artists exhibition at Bermagui (well, just south thereof to be more precise) – which meant, of course, our first sighting of Dira’s finished mosaic. It was also the Gang’s first outing to this annual bush event and we were quite amazed by the size of the crowd – mind you, it is a mere stroll down the track from the Four Winds concert…
Anyhoo, regardless of the hideous parking, it turned out to be a very arty-farty little scene indeed, with a veritable press of wannabe collectors and no shortage of the readies (we are reliably informed!) So here’s hoping this will translate into a sale for our mate Dira before the cognoscente leave town. We did notice that her piece was attracting a great deal of covetous attention, which does bode well…
And yep, you guessed it, not a shard of studio glass to be seen. [Hey Klausie, reminds me of Hamburg back in the mid 1960’s! n(Ed)]
A smattering of snaps at…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/sets/72157604201580810/
(above) a real tough-titty kind of view.
Ginger, Graham and the Gang are just back from an action packed culture-in-the-fast-lane Sydderesque sojourn – a little something for everyone; high-brow, low-brow…and even some mono-brow tossed in for good measure.
We had exited the ‘Berra fairly early and made a beeline for Oxford St – for a strong morning coffee and meander down to Scott Chaseling’s latest solo exhibition, An Antipodean Journal, at Sabbia Gallery (which Megsie was checking out for an article she might be doing a little later in the year.) Pretty interesting show actually, but more of that later in the week…we’ve whacked in a teaser snap for now, and a couple of favourite ‘others’ that we spied over in Sabbia’s ‘corner-shop’ section; a couple of Tom Moore’s pieces of pure joy and a set of Wendy Fairclough vessels. [It must be about time Wendy won the guernsey at the Ranamok, we reckon…n(Ed)]
Then we dashed across to Fox Studio to meet our little bro (Phil) who’s out here working on the latest Wolverine movie. Serious excitement, of course – but as cameras are strictly verboten on the set, and confidentiality an enforced by-law, we can’t tell you anything about the scenes they were filming, or the storyline (otherwise we’d have to kill you…straight after Phil had killed us…) Suffice to say it was all super cool. So anyhoo we watched some filming, had the yummiest lunch with the crew (crikey, those buggers eat well), watched a little more filming, and then left Ginger there – in total Hugh Jackman heaven! – for the rest of the day/night’s shoot while we high-tailed it over to the hotel to get tarted up for our big night out with…Ozzy Osbourne! Yep, Ozzy was on tour and the Gang was suitably pumped!!
Phil had booked us a room at the Shangri La with a view to die for, so we tossed down a pre-concert primer or four, and literally ogled the iconic panorama – Harbour Bridge, Opera House and, directly below, an incredible (colonial)archaeological dig. Can’t imagine it comes any better than that…
Ozzy, meanwhile, was playing out at Olympic Stadium so we heeded prevailing advice and caught a train – and headed towards what essentially morphed into a crowd scene from Mad Max. It was an absolute scream actually, although Ozzy himself was disappointingly inoffensive…no anti-social behavior to speak of whatsoever (no biting off bat heads and spitting them into the audience, nothin’…) But the music was great and the overall experience hugely entertaining (from an anthropological point of view, particularly!) We loved it.
And then we trained it back to the Shangri La for an after-concert-bevie-and-goss-session with Ginger and Phil, in his temporary (3 months or so!) home away from home, two floors up/same eat-ya-heart-out view…tough titties.
We had started the trip with all sorts of good intentions, ie. catching the Archibald and/or doing the MCA the following morning before heading back down the Hume (because we had to be back mid-afternoon for Graham to prep dinner at the Green Herring, of course…) But in the end we thought – stuff it, how often do we get an opportunity to eyeball Max Cullen and Hugh/Logan/Wolfie in action…huh? And how rarely do we get to see our little bro these days? So we sensibly opted for another serve of Wolverine and Phil instead! As you do.
Happy snaps at…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/sets/72157604191731292/
glass central canberra 