Katsuyo Aoki

Check out this link from Hilary:

http://katsuyoaoki.s1.bindsite.jp/

Wanaka Jude on the move.

Hi there Folks,

I have been making driftwood sculptures on the beach in front of my house at Tapu. It seemed to inspire a lot of interest and activity on the beach after a monstrous storm we had.

I am on the move - in October I am off to Wanaka. I have bought a house, and am looking forward to loving life in the south.

I was honoured to be the subject of a portrait by my friend Bruno, an artist from the Coromandel.

Ai Wei Wei at Somerset House

It's been awhile and I'm conscious of losing momentum with the blog. Hint, hint for the rest of you Urban Archaeologists!

I haven't managed to get around to much more art events since I last posted, (life just seems to be so busy here) however I did catch Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads installation at Somerset House a little while back.

They are huge cast bronze heads of each of the 12 anuimals of the Zodiac. They had great presence and were beautifully finished. I thought there were some inconsistencies, some were very realistic looking with some nice stylised treatment, while others such as the Monkey and Snake looked almost cartoonish yet the Dragon was presented very realistically. It made them interesting to look at though, comparing the different treatments.

I was fascinated by the video showing the process of their making and installation, which a large team of people were involved in. The cost to produce, ship and install these would have been phenomenal!

I mentioned they were large, which they definately were, however so is Somerset House and I kept trying to imagine the amazing imapct they could have had in a different, smaller scale setting. If you stumbled across these in the street, they would have blown you away!

I would have loved to have seen these out in the 'real' public arena, where more everyday people could have interacted with them, I think then, their meaning and presence would have come into their own. However, nothing really ever totally pleases me! And regardless, these are amazingly beautiful works, which belie the politics and publicity surrounding Ai Wei Wei and seem to stand for something more intrinsic.

I'm off to Amsterdam this weekend, and I promise to post some more things up shortly!
Louise

Collect

What rarefied air they must breathe with entry fees like that! Good work Louise, loved Catrin Howard's dog (a blue heeler???)

'Collect' Exhibition - Saatchi Gallery, London May 2011

I thought I'd kick this blog off with a report from 'Collect', the International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects hosted by the Crafts Council and held annually at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

The fair took place in early May and the format was typical of an art fair; a host of dealer galleries rented stalls and showcased the work of key artists on their books.

The good: the stalls and work were well spaced, easy to navigate, well lit and a good range of disciplines were represented.

The not so good: the ticket price - 15 pounds on the door (that’s nearly 30 NZD!) and the catalogue was a further 12 pounds – who can afford that?! 

Highlights for me included the glass work of Steffen Dam, whose beautiful blown glass was hard to look away from. 

Steffen Dam

Artist Matt Durran displayed some great experiments with Obsidian, black volcanic glass he had hand-mined in Hungary, melted and then recast. Interestingly, once the obsidian has been re-melted in the kiln it becomes buoyant and the pieces he displayed were floating. Read more in an interview with him here. 

Matt Durran

The jewellery at the show catered for every taste and the mastery was evident. I liked the work of Karl Fritsch who had teamed up with Francis Upritchard – the works they had on display were similar the image below.

Karl Fritsch and Francis Upritchard

As for the ceramics... There were some amazing blow-me-away sculptural pieces, a slew of delicate porcelain vessels and handsome Leechesque pots, and some real crap as well (as is to be expected).

A real highlight was an installation of wall pieces by Catrin Howell, sitting away from the wall, the pieces cast shadows that gave a real sense of movement and drama when viewed in a group.

Catrin Howell

I was drawn to the texture and form of these pieces by Carl Richard Soderstrom 

Carl Richard Soderstrom

Some trends were evident too:

Barbro-Johansson (left)                        Annie Turner (right)

The installation by Katharine Morling is very striking (and bares interesting similarities to the work of New Zealand artist Martin Poppelwell), the objects are life-sized, and feel dangerously delicate. She has a really interesting portfolio of work – take a look at her website.

Katharine Morling

I have to say that overall I felt a little bit disappointed with the ceramics I saw, mainly for the fact that it didn’t seem as boundary pushing as what was going on in the other mediums – but then I remind myself that this is not necessarily a representation of what is going on in the ceramics scene. The object fair is a commercial exercise (remember the entry fee!), the audience is targeted and the displays are market driven. I have no idea what the galleries paid to have a stall, but I can’t imagine it came cheap – there was red carpet laid out the front of the gallery the day I went for god’s sake!

I came away with two main thoughts in regards to the ceramics; 1. It was underpriced compared to similar objects in other disciplines, 2. The work of my fellow ceramicists in NZ would easily hold their own in a show like this – I mean easily, and would probably show the others a thing or two as well.

Hope you enjoyed the inaugural post, look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.

- Louise, Urban Archaeology UK rep!