gluttony and the gourmand

Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery

the NUMAN

You are invited to witness the birth of a new man.

The Numan is a dependent creature designed to induce empathy, by promoting an examination of what it means to be human.

Complete with interchangeable body parts, The Numan exists as a human-shaped vessel for textile, ceramic and electronic components, crafted in an electro-gothic style*.

Designed by Rohani Osman (knitting and crochet), Brittany Veitch (felt and soft sculpture) and Katie Jacobs (ceramics), The Numan is an art exhibition that allows you to play God.

How we treat our most vulnerable members of society can be seen as a measure of society as a whole. Similarly, how you choose to use The Numan will illustrate complex questions about action and consequences, and about the inter-dependency of humanity.

Choose wisely…




Exhibition dates - Thursday 23rd June to Sunday 10th July 2011

Location - c3 Contemporary Artspace, Abbotsford Convent, 1 St. Heliers Street, Abbotsford, Victoria 3070

Gallery hours Wednesday to Sunday, 10am - 5pm

*This self-authored style is a union between traditional Gothic or grotesque leitmotifs and a 1980’s new wave and electronic music aesthetic. The Numan is gender neutral, influenced by the androgyny of David Bowie and Grace Jones.

Tassie

For Beardo,
Beards Down Under,
Map of Tassie....say no to deforestation

CRAFTICIZE exhibition

The elective i co-lectured at RMIT, Crafticize- make something that means something- is having an exhibition.

Come and see the students work this Thursday 28th, at RMIT building 88 level 5, 440 Elizabeth street.

We've set up a nook lined with vintage sewing patterns, leds and bunting!
image of Ben in progress of installation

swan

Spoonbill (in progress)

The Spoonbill head so far.
It still needs the pupil added to the eyes and the backing mount board.
Also i'm considering adding the mating season plumage to his head....

Animal Heads

Secondary to animals as food we have mounted heads, the following are a few I have been thinking about. Reptile, Bird, Aquatic mammal, flying mammal.
The ghost bat and boyd's dragon are endemic to Australia, while the spoonbill can also be found in NZ, PNG and Tonga. The Dugong's conservation status is vulnerable and although it has a large range in Indo-Pacific waters, Australia has the largest population with groups of around 10,000.

Mounted heads:
Boyd's Forest Dragon (Hypsilurus boydii) From Tropical Queensland
Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia)
Dugong (Dugong dugon)moreton bay, shark bay largest population.
Ghost Bat (Macroderma gigas)

homework day

I spent yesterday catching up on some exhibition homework and made somoe real headway *yay*
One of the problems i was having is it's all fineand dandy choosing cute little possums and bandicoots, but how do you make them into a food dish and still have them recognisable?? Meat looks like meat doesn't it. Then, a moment of inspiration.
I have been at this from the wrong direction. Maintain distinguishable features; tail, beak, colour, covering.
-Pygmy possum tails as napkin rings

-Cake/dessert items 'iced' with Bogong moths and/or blue mountain butterflies. I saw a picture of the moths clustered together like a shingled roof.

- 4+ 20 black bird pie. in Oz we have a meat pie brand four and twenty, and i thought the blackbird componant could be currawongs and magpies. feet protruding from a pie crust, with the pie presented on a feather lined plate.

-In place of the traditional roast turkey/goose/chicken a black swan, served a la henry 8th with the skin/feathers pulled back over the cooked flesh.

- Echidna, display for food jammed on its spikes. It's tacky, reminds me of cheese cubes and bits of sausage on tooth picks

- Marbled emu eggs

- Emu or heron or spoonbill feet done like chicken feet.

- and possible have small creatures like spinifex mouse and dunnarts appearing in floral arrangements or near the foot of the table, as a reference to the english furniture style where mice/dormouse were carved on table legs, edges, etc.

Behold the chicken scratch doodles

Malarus Cyaneus

This idea came about from an exhibition proposal with Katie Jacobs and Rohani Osman entitle New Holland (Veni Vidi Vici)

It is a mounted head of a superb fairy wren on a slice of pine.
The body is bits of hand made felt sewn together with a vivid blue thread. It has been nuno felted on to black silk using alpaca fleece, suri locks and gold silk fibres.
The mount is a piece of pine i found around the farm. It has been sanded, has a few coats of shellac and topped with gloss.

I ended up giving this to a friend for their birthday.

New Holland (veni vidi vici)

A couple of other craftster girls and myself are working on the preparations for our proposed exhibition.

Outline snippet:
Australian aboriginals lived off the land for thousands of years, using native flora and fauna for food, building materials, medicine and clothing. By using these plants and animals to represent a traditional European custom, that is Christmas dinner, we seek to stimulate discussion on the place of nature and culture in a European colonised country, while also questioning ideas of patriotism and environmentalism.

Super excited to make things. I am thinking of hand dying fleece tops using natural dyes from Australian plants. I'm intrigued by making my own dyes from native fauna on our farm.