Janet Echelman

As you know I have been pursuing some textile sculpture ideas of late.. mainly those that have to do with the manipulation of a single thread. I have come across this rather amazing lady from the US who is just.. well.. inspiring to say the least. Most of her work uses the public environment as a canvas on which to imprint her incredible textile forms and with the use of light at night and, sometimes manipulating the physical environment, there's a lil' bit of magic that occurs.
Structurally speaking the thread is netted together, similar to that of a dream-catcher, and suspended in numerous ways usually with the aid of large metal circular shapes within the pieces and huge supports strategically placed around the outside. Have a look.... and, if you are as in love as I am, have a watch of the interview with Janet at the end.
Peace. xxxxx

sydney based artist: junky

Fabulous guerilla artist Junky tags around and about the city and the country-side with these little people. soooooo cute!!!!! I've seen a couple in the flesh... can't wait to discover some more. Great urban name too.... very apt!! HuzzaH!! x x x

here there everywhere

Hello..! So this week I am putting up some randoms. Mostly Sydney based and some permanent pieces, though with a few other delicious treats thrown in.

Interesting... Al (my Reef Knot cohort) and I gave a little talk last week at the &Company design exhibition at Gaffa Gallery ( a FABULOUS show might I add). Our talk was titled 'Making Art to Engage the Public' and something we touched on was the potential or need for more permanent Public Art-making opportunities for artists who are going through the temporary motions available, like Art and About, Sculpture by the Sea, Sydney Festival, Festivals in general etc... These opportunities are educational for people wanting to practise Public Art as their chosen field of art and the next logical step is to go on to permanent pieces. Hmm. So that's a bit of my 2 cents for the mo.... !!!!! Anyway, here are some permanent pieces that Sydney has to offer.

Above is The Sunflowers (or I think that's what they're called). I can't find the name of the artist who created this piece so please feel free to enlighten me!!

This is kinda cool.. I feel like its a bit hidden though... or not partioculary sensitive to where it is. It would be great with a bit more space around it, so that the sense of things being precariously piled on top of each other ,about to wobble or fall, could be exaggerated.

The piece pictured above here is the lovely sound sculpture installation Wireless House. A collaboration between City of Sydney Council, sonic artist Nigel Helyer and the NFSA. This piece draws on the local history of the area in Glebe and how this house used to actually a wireless house!!A unique place for the community to enjoy listening to daily radio programmes, it operated from 1934 until the early fifties.

A Rubik's Cube sculpture on Maroubra beach. This is a piece of guerilla public art.... YEEEEEAY!!!!! Read more about this piece here... it's fabulous! http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/01/rubiks-cube-by/

This was really clever. An advertisement for Ella Bache skin products, a play on 'peaches and cream' complexions I am supposing, it was down outside the MCA on the grass. I know, I know, its an ad, and its commercial and NO! NO! NO! a sell out! a sell out! But hey! Artists should be able to make a bit of moolla sometimes right? And its a good piece. Its engaging. It's a naked lady.

Ahhhh. Guerilla Gardners... my heros. This is (half of) the best peice I believe they have done to date. Its still there, on the median strip at Cleveland and South Dowling Sts. Viva la revolution!!

“Think Globally Act Locally” mural, 1984. (Geoff Klem courtesy Public Art Squad)

I don't exactly know what this is but it's in North Sydney. It's not the most amazing thing I've ever seen, but for some reason I feel compelled to include it. hmmm. Maybe its the ice-creamy vibe... it looks a bit like sundaes-with-sprinkles mock-towers and is slightly surreal. This is potentially an over-flattering photo, but who know's ay? Something to expand upon anyway, if anything!


This was a cardboard planetarium made by my beautiful friend Kirsten Bradley and was part of a series About Above in early 2008. She installed them in parks around the Sydney CBD and even put one near the Sydney Observatory!! You could stick your head inside, look up and observe a constellation from the Sydney night sky. mwah. It was so beautiful! And in her own words solar powered... BA HA HA HA!! get it? get it? the sun shone through the holes to make the starlights.

Jeff Koon's Puppy. Who didn't love it?? It was just so sad it had to come down. See what I mean? MORE PERMANENT PIECES!! Lets fall in love with stuff that can stay!

I found this while having a Google.... it was in the Customs House forecourt and I think its really beautiful. Kind of like a walkway-massive ribcage-treehouse.




Here she is....!!!!! The one permanent piece most Sydney-siders will go.... "I love it!" Brett Whitely's Matches outside the Art AGllery of NSW. And they bloody are lovely aren't they?

The best public art around. heh heh heh. ahhhhh.

Now here we have some things I have been sent by lovely folks. Below was sent over from New York by my wonderful friend Victoria (Hi Vic). She is passionate about Public works that effect social change.. wow. This is an example of just such a piece by Clark.

Here's some info she sent me Clark's stuff. If you would like to know more go to http://www.thevillager.com/villager_270/gettingthemessage.html.

"In April, Clark created “VOTE” stencils in Riverside Park near W. 135th St. MIDDLE: Posing as tourists, two months ago, Clark and a sidekick managed to quickly graffiti this “VOTE” stencil directly across from the Times Square police stationhouse."

Til next time Gadgets. xxx

art and about

"Produced by the City of Sydney, Art & About is already Sydney's biggest public art festival," said Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP.


Ok.. so warning!warning! this is a massive post!!!! I thought maybe I should break it up.. but nah! It's all lovely images so if you haven't got more than 30 seconds come back and view this later with a lovely cup of tea.

Now, every year the City of Sydney puts on and event called Art and About. This has bascially become the largest public art festival in Sydney and is always full of a mixture of innovation, creativity, traditional art as well as the avante-guard and performance.

Some quotes which I have found from Art and About artists are as follows:

What is the Role of public art festivals?
"They create a sense of community, and allow people to be involved in the creativity of the community they live in. They connect art and society, and people have so much to gain from being exposed to new ideas and art."
-Petrina Hicks won Sydney Life in 2004, and has since gone on to exhibit in Australia and overseas.
Right on sister! (editors note)

What does a festival like Art & About mean to you?
"The festival benefits the city and community greatly. It makes Sydney feel alive and in my experience it forces people to look up from their everyday life and see six hot pink dinosaurs roaming around the inner city. Now, that is surely a good thing."
- Jasper Knight’s hot pink dinosaurs resided in the Customs House Forecourt during Art & About 2006.

So basically what we are looking at here are many many interpretations of impermanent public art in Sydney.. in fact a veritable feast! Art and About really tries very hard to engage both traditional and non-traditional art audiences, which is the absolute point of public art anywhere. So, enjoy these snippets of Art and About from the past few years! xxx

Live Lanes, By George! is now in its 4th year running, kicking off in 2007 and growing steadily every year. The aim is to enliven Sydney's laneways that run off or near George St by means of re-invention. The callout for artists is spread far and wide and so far there have been SO many different approaches and methods. These are pics of some of my faves... bear in mind I am completely biased!!!!! (above is Urban Barcode, by Maix Mayer, Hanah Tribe + Damian Hadley, 2008, in Abercrombie Lane)

The Sky is Falling!
Reef Knot, 2008
Angel Place

One More Go, One more Go
Gaffa, 2008
Abercrombie Lane

Tank
Adam Norton for Peloton, 2008
roving installation.

Windows to Imaginary Places
curated by Reef Knot, 2007
Albion Place Window Boxes

Infinity Forest
Matthew Chan, Isabelle Cordeiro + Katie Hepworth, 2009
Hosking + Penfold Place

7m Bar
artist Richard Goodwin, landscape architect Adrian McGregor and programmer Russell Lowe, 2009
Underwood St

The Stables
Community Project + installation

The Stables was a lovely lovely project.!! The brainchild of Annie Kennedy and commissioned by the City of Sydney council to be part of Art and About 2008. The role of horses and stables in Erskinville's history and community life were heavily referenced and interpreted by all walks of life, including children, at workshops. The results were displayed in shopfronts and as projections.

I Heart Kings Cross, 2009
Community Project + installation

I Heart Kings Cross was a community based project commissioned by the Council and orchestrated by Reef Knot (which is half me and half Alasdair Nicol... no invested interests here!!!!!) All these amazing pictures were taken by my friend Matthew Venables.
I hope more projects like this happen as part of Art and About... their ability to invoke 'pride of place' is quite amazing. Something we wanted to do was transform the 'everyday' into something magical and precious as well as make real the idea of the 'social fabric' of a place. We invited everyone to come and knit with us... which they did. We had over 200 knitters!!!! For more on this go to http://iheartkx.wordpress.com

Unravel by Louisa Dawson 2009
An associated installation at Taylor Square

Live Green House, 2009

The Live Green House was included in last years Art and About at Taylor Square... it basically displayed as a walk-through sculpture-model of a sustainable house, with wonderful practical ideas for inner-city dwellers. A much needed source of information and very cleverly communicated.

The annual Sydney Life exhibition

A Sydney Life entry by Jasmine Poole
Roslyn Sharp's entry from last year,Theresa outside her Darlinghurst home, ... the subject of her work (Theresa) was at the opening dancing in front of the image dressed in a pink satin bo-peep dress with a pink parasol. lovely!!
Sydney Life: An exhibition of photographs that use 'Sydney Life' as their stimulas. The images, enlarged to something like 2m x 3m, are displayed along the footpath in Hyde Park. Above is last years winner, Tamara Dean, while below is an image by George Voulgaropoulos. Again... bringing art to a pededstrian environment.

The Open Air Gallery

The Open Air Gallery is one of my favorite parts of Art and About. It is such a brilliant and simple idea: allowing artists who work in 2D mediums such as painting or drawing, usually relegated to display in private galleries / indoor spaces, to have their work line the streets of sydney on flagpoles. Brilliant! The image above is one of my all-time favourites and is by Louise Hearman , part of Art and About 2007.

Love TV: part of Art and About 2008.

Love TV: people watching as the lovely lady Aprhrodite is televised interviewing all-sorts (including the Lord Mayor) from Oxford St about Love.