Loop

“Everywhere it’s the same, and everywhere it’s different: two hands with five fingers each (and other body parts), and a continuous loop of string”

Over time, Garland is gathering a creative community across the Indo-Pacific. This page is where you can stay in the loop with updates from our Friends and Circle. See here if you would like to be featured in this Loop.

Liziqi ✿ China’s craft princess - "Nowadays time goes by so quickly that we yearn for Li Ziqi’s lifestyle." The story of Liziqi tells us much about the wave of interest in China's traditional culture today.

Central Asia awakes! The Festival of Handcrafters, Kokand, Uzbekistan - A festival in Uzbekistan marks the awakening of Central Asia as a driving force in the global "craft renaissance".

Black bamboo furniture from Mer inspired by dance masks - The NGV continues a series of design projects with Indigenous communities. Following the works developed with leis in South Pacific and Torres Strait, the attention now turns to bamboo furniture in the island of Mer.

Zoë Veness ✿ Wayfaring - As our September Laurel, Zoë Veness applies the most delicate of muslin textile to hard metal and produces a texture of trails that weaves a landscape in brass.

Ceramics for the Autumn Takayama Festival (Hachiman Matsuri) - For the upcoming Autumn Takayama Festival, Gallery VOICE is presenting work by six ceramic artists and the golden lacquer art called Shunkei.

Luo Wanxing ✿ A life’s hard labour for sweet reward - Our China correspondent, Xue XIA, offers a recent homage to the end of a once-thriving trade in China - brown sugar making.

Melissa Cameron ✿ Jewellery at our feet - The use of found materials can focus our minds on the world at our feet. Melissa Cameron's new work, Marfa TX, turns this moment into singular jewellery.

Al Sadu ✿ A craft tradition goes solar - Is this a future for craft traditions? Interwoven is a Chinese proposition to design a solar system that reflects the design traditions of the Al Sadu tribal rug.

Mikio Toki ✿ Edo kites keep hope afloat - Our pursuit of beautiful and thoughtful objects can take us far beyond the gallery. From kite-maker Mikio Toki, we learn that art taken to the skies can be a powerful way of giving thanks.

Rough translation: The language of materials in three exhibitions - Brian Parkes reflects on the material translations that occur across three exhibitions at CraftACT.

Rong Design Library ✿ Deconstructing craft for design - The Rong Design library "deconstructs" crafts for contemporary designers. It shows respect for traditional Chinese crafts, but what about the artisans who have cared for this knowledge?

Philip Noakes ✿ Silver from the West - The history of West Australian jewellery is well served by Dorothy Erickson, who has just published another substantial book on one of its leading exponents.

Beijing Shadow Show Troupe combats “electric shadows” - You might expect that puppetry has been superceded by the electronic screen, which is more spectacular and efficient in delivery of stories. But the human involvement of puppets can be enduring appeal.

Kukuli Velarde ✿ A mi vida - Our August laurel goes to Peruvian-born ceramic artist Kukuli Velarde for her poignant effigy, A mi vida. This object reflects the culture of her birth, her maternal love and concern for child victims of anti-immigrant campaigns.

Lecture: Garland at University of Santiago – August 14 - The current Garland journey will conclude in South America, December 2020. In preparation, a lecture in collaboration with Fundación Wechoyen will be presented describing the journey thus far.

Khushbu Mathur ✿ Sowing seeds of friendship between sister and brother - A new member of the Garland team writes about the seed rakhi, which helps shares the love between brother and sister with mother nature.

Maggie Baxter ✿ Peeling walls and tattered ledgers - Maggie Baxter shares new works that use embroidery to evoke the textures of time she has found in India.

Holly Grace ✿ The Shangri-La of the Jagungal Wilderness - Holly Grace's latest show introduces a theatrical background giving expression to the historical context that underpins her work.

Annika Ekdahl ✿ From still to slow life - The winner of the Kate Derum Award for Small Tapestry, the Swedish artist Annika Ekdahl, translates the history of Vanitas painting into fibre.

Becoming blind to climate change: An age-old Japanese solution - This is a time when we might look to traditional crafts which offered offline means of staying cool, such as the paper fan and these Japanese screens.

For earlier posts, see here.