Have finally got a chance to upload photos of my rats and mice at the Carbon Black exhibition. Most works have appeared in previously in this blog however it was good to see them in a new space and they seemed to sit well amongst works exploring gritty industrial urbanism. This show finished a few weeks ago but the gallery focuses on interesting work by emerging artists and is worth a visit.
Special thanks to all who attended on Wednesday night and to Daniel Barfoot for these excellent crowd photos.
Some overall photos of the exhibition. (They look a little blurry small. They are much much clearer if you click on them.)
I’ll post some pics of last nights opening in the next few days.
Studies for new piece.
After a brief hiatus I am back in the studio.
Am working towards a new show in early February and will post some images of how that is going soon. In the interum I have pieces from earlier this year in a couple of group shows. My feet shoes (For the love of shoes…) will be exhibited in the Brunswick Street Gallery’s Small Works Prize 2010. The show opens Friday 10th December, 6pm. The gallery is located upstairs at 322 Brunswick St, Fitzroy. See http://bsgart.com.au/ for more information.
Also the ‘itty bitty kitty machine’ and one of the ‘lucky cat’ statuettes are included in the Linden Gallery’s post card show early next year. This show opens 1pm-5pm Saturday 5 February 2011. The Linden gallery is situated at 26 Acland Street, St Kilda. See http://www.lindenarts.org/ for more information.
My first solo shows opens in 2 weeks at Red gallery, Fitzroy North.
Subtitled ‘mice running wild in the hall of the cats‘ the show includes the felines and rodents I have been making. Most of the pieces are kinetic is some way or other (mice that fly and run in wheels, rats with wobble guts and cats with waving fists).
There are also 2 other shows opening on the same night (Phil Roubin and Judith Cobb ). More information on these exhibitions can be seen on the Red Gallery website.
I made these rats because I loved the look of the winged mice lying on their backs with their innards on display.
These guys are best when they are also on their backs with their tails hanging over the edge. They have wavy, mulit-coloured gizzards (hanging below their bellies in these photos) which wriggle when you turn the key.
For anyone in Darwin, the Togart 2010 exhbition opened last week.
It is in the newly developed Chan building opposite parliament house. The exhibition includes a diverse selection of indigenous, traditional and contemporary works including my piece ‘For the love of shoes…‘ .
A bit more detail…
Heads for the flying mice squadron.
What happened while I wasn’t looking?
Suddenly my whole family are selling shoes.
I don’t much like shoes.
I don’t mind my feet.
They are flat and fat and hairy and strange. They keep me from falling over (most of the time) and they are a good endpoint for my legs. Unfortunately most shoes make them hurt or blister or smell.
Mine are feet for wiggling in the sand not mincing 6 inches from the ground.
My feet make it hard to understand the vocational choices around me.
But, ugly and proud up on their podium, these odd feet-shoes celebrate the gumption and nerve needed to pursue something new.
This work has been short-listed in the upcoming Togart 10 Contemporary Art Award.
Photos by Erica Lauthier
From ‘The AGE’ 16 June, 2010
The bodies of the dancers are made from broken blades found along the sides of major streets. They are fixed together with wire and solder.
Brightly coloured alco-pop (and beer) packaging has been used for the tutus. The graphics are already designed to grab people’s attention and stand-out in the drinks fridge. The printed face has been used on the underside of the skirts where the multiple layers confuse and intensify the gaudy colours. It is all excitement and froth as the dancers kick their legs, jump and turn.
The brown top layer makes the ballerinas appear demure and graceful just like all good ballerinas should be.
This piece was short-listed for the BSG Prize 09 and was also exhibited at the Sydney Opera House as a part of the Avant Card ‘We love 3D‘ program.
Blanketed in their endorsed skins this odd couple are united as members of one tribe; an odd-ball gang; a strange aquatic squad. Instead of individual details of claws, fins, lips, wheels and heads one sees amorphous colour and pattern.
… extra, imported be .. from mexic, .5% alc/vo, empaque, 4 x new 330 ml, distil 48 using onsumer, lder of bottle, importa….
I share a house with a lot of fish and a turtle called Spencer.
A while ago Spencer was run over after she’d escaped from the pond. It was summer, it was hot and our turtle was looking for love. Luckily she was found and taken to the vet who wired togther her shell. Spencer then had to spend 8 months recovering in a hospital tank in our lounge room. This gave me plenty of time to model her.
This work was short-listed in the Togart 09 Contemporary Art Award.
This small scale cardboard sculpture depicts one of my most treasured experiences.
This memory combines nostalgia, a love of the emptiness of Australia and an easy, sisterly companionship.
It also involves my car.
My car, a 1964 Ford Falcon XM sedan, is a dream of chrome and stream-lining but it is old and it is slow.
In 2000, in an episode of defiance, against good sense, distance and physics, my sister and I drove this car across Australia and back to surprise our mum for her 50th birthday. As kids our family would regularly make the trek up and down the Stuart Highway. These early trips were about speed and getting to our destination. We were car bound for 15 hours a day; meals were prepacked and toilet stops timed to coincide with refuelling. My sister and I were well trained in efficient road travel.
My car was not.
The old engine and small radiator meant we motored at a gentle 50 mile /hr and, every 3 – 4 hours, the car needed to cool down. So, a couple of times a day, with a thermos of coffee and a couple of camping chairs, we waited. In the vast, red, empty space we waited like grand dames of the interior. With the bonnet popped, on the side of the road we were characters in our own Merchant Ivory production.
With a different car, the mood might have been ‘Mad Max’ or ‘Vanishing Point’ or there may have been no need to stop in the middle of nowhere at all.
Some of these photos are by Erica Lauthier.
For Togart 09 catalogues click here
A work in progress photographed at Lee Point Beach, Darwin.
Thought I might have a go at a couple of stencils for the Melbourne stencil festival.
So I started with an old piece:
And cut some layers. (I used my current favourite beer packaging for each of the stencils – maybe not the best idea I have ever had.)
And because really the part I like most is cutting out, I decided to try 2 stencils:
And decided I needed a mega-sized met card top layer:
And, well the results are mixed. Decided not to enter them in the festival. Will have another go when I get some spare time. Did quite a bit of air-brushing at school and so feel determined to master this… later.
Exhibited in the group show of architectural models ‘Abundant’ at the Australia Stand,Venice Biennale, Italy, 2008.
This sculpture focuses on the fabric of building and the ritual of habitation. Traditional architectural model making techniques were combined with domestic and bush crafts, using materials both new (gold wire and boxboard) and recycled (street sweeper blades and beer boxes).
The show was sponsored by Austral bricks.
Kirsty loves cardboard 
