With nature
Kuulua vuohmaan: Belonging to a mire - Ida Isak Westerberg returns to the queer space of mire in order to recover their Tornedalian identity, imprinting their tapestries with its colours.
Avi Amesbury ✿ Our material home - Julie Bartholomew reviews a sensory exhibition of ceramics that connects us to sand, seaweed, ash and other planetary materials.
Biomater: Life hanging by a thread - Catalina Mena reflects on the exhibition in Chile by Clarisa Menteguiaga, Liliana Ojeda, and Paulina Villalobos, which witnesses the beauty of decay in the gallery.
The forest on my flesh - Priyanka Jain draws on ancient Sanskrit poetry and Indian miniatures to reflect a contemporary appreciation of our microbial desires.
Humans as a custodial species - Tyson Yunkaporta explains how humans became a custodial species and their role to increase the connections within the world.
Heron story - Ilka White is inspired to make work in response to the bird on behalf of whom she speaks.
Chinese landscape cut-out over time - Pamela See charts the evolution of Chinese papercutting from its Daoist roots to the influence of Western landscape. From Poverty to Prosperity: Landmark Landscape Exhibition at the Huaxia Papercutting Museum in Changsha, Hunan Province, Explores the Rise of a Proletariat and their Visual Language. Over the past decade and a half, I have observed a transition in the papercuts that line the streets during the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year. Hand-cutting was supplanted by laser-cutting. Paper has been replaced with plastic. In addition to the methods of mechanical reproduction, I witnessed the position of papercutting evolve from folk to high art. Irrespective, they continue to play an integral role in this most significant of calendar observances. Introduction: From Craft to […]
Ode to Waratah: Designing mythology - Through a series of objects based on the waratah flower and its relationship to its pollinator, the honeyeater, Elliat Rich creates a mythology for understanding the poetic nature of creation.
Nature hooks - Jes John writes about earrings made by Jill Hermans for adorning yourself with a beautiful fallen leaf.
Ayvu Rapyta ✿ A selection - Andrea Ferrari presents a part of her translation of Ayvu Rapyta, the sacred myth of the Mbya people of South America, compiled in the twentieth century by Leon Cadogan This story has been shared with permission of the Mbya, as represented by the community of Yasi Pora. Elsewhere in Garland, you can read about the background of this project and the experience of translation by Andrea Ferrari. This project is based on the principles of circular knowledge. ✿ from Chapter I Chapter 1 speaks of Creation, and how Ñamandu Ru Papa Tenondé springs from darkness into being, as a hummingbird flutters around his head and feeds him. Maino´i 1.T.N.: Maino´i: Hummingbird; some identify the species named as Thalurania glaucopis, (Violet-cappedwoodnymph) […]
Sophie Carnell ✿ Gnat orchid - Our December laurel goes to a jeweller based in Bruny Island, Tasmania, for a silver sculpture inspired by the gnat orchid, whose elegant form clings to the land.
long water: fibre stories - Freja Carmichael reflects on artists whose work provides a conduit for the spirit of fresh and salt water.
The case for wood - Guy Keulemans advocates for the use of timber, particularly with new technologies that preserve the structural integrity of the wood.
Bridget Kennedy ✿ A fragile beauty between the ashes - Our February Laurel goes to Sydney jeweller Bridget Kennedy, for a ring that reflects the tragedy that engulfs Australia in 2019-2020. The ring evokes the geometrical beauty of the beehive, while acknowledging the devastation wrought on the climate by use of fossil fuels.
Alice Whish ✿ Works from the Understory - Helen Wyatt describes some of the learnings revealed in the stunning new jewellery series by Alice Whish whose work was inspired by her Bundanon residency.
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.
Julie Ryder ✿ Hidden Sex - Canberra textile artist Julie Ryder shares her series of beautiful works that reveal the subterfuge of sea plants and parallel hidden place of women in scientific history.
Canberra’s birds in hand - Isabelle Mackay-Sim heralds a new Canberra exhibition inspired by the precious life of birds.
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.
Louisean King ✿ Solis - Roger Saddington explores the exhibition by Louisanne King whose sculptural fabrications reflect a mourning for the loss of nature.
Craft classic: Jawun - We learn from Abe Muriata about the making of the “Jawun”, a bicornual basket, which is a handsome object made from cane found in the rainforest and revered icon of Australian material culture. We also hear from Brisbane architect Christina Waterson what it is like to live with a jawun.
Nature and beyond – the artistic fashion of Grace Lillian Lee - Australian artist and designer Grace Lillian Lee’s work is inspired by ‘prawn-weaving’, a craft technique central to her Torres Strait Islander heritage. Body Sculpture is her newest collection of work centered on the technique is at the Cairns Regional Gallery as part of the Cairns Indigenous Art Far 2016
Nature craft - The traditional story of craft as an art of civilisation involves controlling nature. Fibre is spun, wood is carved, metal is cast, glass is blown and clay is thrown. Making seems to involve an improvement in the otherwise formless quality of materials found in the environment. Natural substances are mastered in order to manipulate them into forms of useful beauty.
Nature craft – call for works - To help extend the dialogue across the Asia Pacific and beyond, each issue of Garland features an online exhibition. This will include images of works related to a particular theme sourced from a diversity of locations. The works will be sourced by a call-out through Garland and editorial board network. In return, it is hoped that artists find this a useful way to promote their work and be engaged in a transnational dialogue. The third issue of Garland will coincide with the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair in July 2016. Nature craft The modernist Western view of nature is of a realm that needs to be controlled. What is human is defined against the wild and unregulated force of nature. “Only […]