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. 

We need a “Great Addition Theory”: A response to Christchurch- We need to confront the idea that cultural contact is a zero-sum game.

Manami Aoki ✿ Kushi-ireru-ki (hair of wood)- Our laurel for March 2019 goes to emerging Tokyo jeweller Manami Aoki for her work "Hair of wood".

Ancient Now – Creative dialogues with contemporary China: 22 June 2019- Notice of upcoming forum on current and future creative pathways to China.

Arigato Japan- We offer some brief glimpses of the launches of our 生きている工芸 Ikiteiru kōgei (Living craft) issue across Japan.

Sandra Alfoldy ✿ Global Peace Through Craft: The Formation of the World Crafts Council- Sandra Alfoldy tells the story of the World Crafts Council and the confrontation between ethnography and modernism.

A tactile collaboration from Brazil ✿ Ernesto Neto and Ibã Sales- In solidarity with Brazil's Indigenous peoples, facing a repressive new government, we share a story of an artistic collaboration between a Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto and Huni Kuin artist Ibã Sales.

余韻 (yo-in) / afterglow – Japanese ceramics in Melbourne- Compared to the KonMari "spark", the ceramic artist Yoko Ozawa has offers us more enduring and subtle light, the 余韻 (yo-in) afterglow, in which to view the resonant works she has gathered from Japan

Toru Kuwakawa ✿ String theory- Curator Tomohiro Daicho writes about the artist's quest to give expression to "savage math" of clay. 

Shlomit Bauman & Abed ElJaabari ✿ The earth we share- Our February laurel goes to Israeli artist Shlomit Bauman for her collaboration with Palestinian potter, Abed ElJaabari. Their combination of traditional pots and cast modern goods is a compelling use of clay as a common language.

Baskets for lemurs ✿ An epic challenge- Our second article by Wendy Golden describes an epic fibre construction for the new lemur enclosure at Melbourne Zoo. The needs of these primates from Madagascar are met by one of the largest basket projects in Australia. 

Reza Safavi ✿ from Conference of the Birds- A new work of calligraphy from Reza Safavi reflects one of Iran's classic spiritual texts. 

Kuniji Tsubaki ✿ Hinraku, c’est bon!- If you want to get real about de-cluttering, embrace the spirit of hinraku, as in the portable tea room by architect Tsubaki Kuniji.

Wanda Gillespie ✿ Abacus- Our January laurel goes to Wanda Gillespie's gorgeous abacus. She takes mathematics on a detour.

The limits of KonMari ✿ Fewer, better, older things- The famous decluttering method of Marie Kondo lacks some key Japanese values.

Let the objects speak! Impressions of CRAFTIVISM- Oliver Raymond finds Buddhist and Hindu resonance in the contemporary oppositional works presented at Shepparton Art Museum.

Sydney to Shigaraki and back again ✿ Merran Esson- Merran Esson, Malcolm Greenwood and Simon Reece enjoy wood-firing in the ceramic village of Shigaraki, with old and new generations.

Male: The act of flowers- Krishan Rajapakshe pays homage to the garland-makers of Indian with his camera.

Baskets for spider monkeys ✿ Wendy Golden- Wendy Golden describes the commission to make feeding baskets for spider monkeys at the Melbourne Zoo, inspired by the teardrop nests of Oropendola birds.

Mike Nicholls ✿ Finds a bird in the tree- In his latest video, Mark Newbound ventures beyond the studio to witness the sculptor Mike Nichols transform a cypress tree into a gannet. 

Tracing fragments ✿ Mosaic Tile Museum- We continue our series on the Mosaic Tile Museum with a preview of a bold project to match their epic tile collection to new designs.

For earlier posts, see here.