finding the words to sum up my quilt making

Stumbled across Californian artist Anne Von Mertens today, through a review of By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art from The Journal of Modern Craft , Volume 1, Number 1, March 2008 , pp. 161-163(3)

Her artist statement from her web site:

I use the stitch as a marker of time, to consider our oblique relationship to the past, present, and future, and ways to forge a relationship with this shifting terrain. I use the stitch as an orientation marker, a way of siting where one has been and where one is going.

- that is my stitch EXACTLY in my English piercing work

Alexandra Fountain

Back to routine the festival is over and I am home - early morning and returning to my neglected blog.

Over the festival I spent no time in the studio (or the gym/kitchen/at home etc) but I did see a lot of art and I spent a lot of time time thinking about a Little Lady Like Tinkling and Smearing coming up at Craft Victoria in November.

A saw work ranging from installation, dance, performance and photography - a strong theme that came to me time and time again was nature, instinct and the animal and its relationship to humans and the animal within us.

show such as
The Puma, the Stranger and the Mountain
Just Filling In
2020!
Six Minute Soul Mate
Night Club 1 at the Gentle Men's Club

Lyndal Jones body of work at ACCA also connects to all of this.

I think I have finally grounded my ideas - and that is upon this fountain - sitting in the centre of Bendigo. Sourced from here and here a few lines on the history of the fountain.

The Alexandra Fountain, Charing Cross, Bendigo, was designed by local architect, W. C. Vahland and erected by local craftsman. It was named after Alexandra, Princess of Wales whose sons, Princes Albert and George, attended the opening ceremony on 5 July 1881.

Constructed using over 20 tonnes of Harcourt granite. It was presented to the city of Bendigo as a gift from George Lansell the 'Quartz King' of Victoria. George built up an impressive personal fortune from gold mining and speculation during the gold rush era.

The fountain is a landmark in Bendigo situated centrally on the most prominent intersection in the city. Built as a symbol of the rapid development and consequent wealth of Bendigo as a result of the successful gold fields during the second half of the nineteenth century, Alexandra Fountain is a good example of late Victorian ornamental exuberance. The design of the fountain, like many other late Victorian ornamental structures, has a strong classical influence in the composition and detailing.

The Alexandra Fountain is of aesthetic and historical importance to the state of Victoria.

The Alexandra Fountain is aesthetically important as one of the largest and most ornate municipal fountains in regional Victoria. The fountain is a very good example of late Victorian ornamental public art influenced by classical models. The fountain has historical importance as a manifestation of the enormous financial success of the central goldfields and of the consequent prosperity of Bendigo, one of the largest gold mining centres in the state. I am interested in the fountain because of the women and their naked breasts. The fountain isnt far from the Queen Victoria monument - which I have used many times in my work before.



The fountain will be embroidered onto a large scale horse hair canvas pannel (approx 4m x 4m ) and also in the exhibiting space will be a cubby-like structure that I have been imagining in my head.

It is kind of like a cubby that I use to make as a child and that my children make now - however it is also like a birthing nest (here I will elaborate further with Michael Odents writing later) where a women comes to hide and return to her primal being to prepare her body for birth.

Hiding herself from the man-made world and into an animal.

The cubby will be made out of again horse hair canvas stitched together - but with also lace work and small structures made out of life style magazines teatering on the stop - this all will be sitting ontop of wodden furniture - chairs, tables etc...




Inside the cubby I will use small projection works. During the festival it was really refreshing to see artists using black and white line drawing projection works and also shaddow works - a relief to not see it all designed up and wizz bang - I am wanting to portray the hand, mistakes, the joy, the person, rather than the machine and the removal of the person.

This is an exciting break through for me and somewhat distant from my first proposal - but not too far off the mark - now for reading and drawing.