Preamble
This blogspot contains posts of artworks that have featured in my curated international exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. For your convenience I have listed these posts below.
ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions (Marie-Therese Wisniowski - Curator's Talk)
Sequestration of CO2 (Engaging New Visions) M-T. Wisniowski
Sacred Planet I (Engaging New Visions) J. Dunnewold
Under Pressure (Engaging New Visions) L.A. Beehler
lo Rising II & Giza (Engaging New Visions) R. Benson
Etruscan Relic (Engaging New Vision) J. Raffer Beck
Catch The Light 1 & 2 (Engaging New Visions) J. Schulze
Emerge (Engaging New Visions) J. Truckenbrod
Breathe Deeply (Engaging New Visions) C. Benn
Die Gedanken Sind Frei 3 & 4 (Engaging New Visions) C. Helmer
Black Birds I & II (Engaging New Visions) C. Holmes
Razing/Raising Walls, Warsaw (Engaging New Visions) N. Starszakowna
Quite Alone Oasis… (Engaging New Visions) J. Urbiene
Nothing Is The Same I & II (Engaging New Visions) E. van Baarle
Discharge Thundercloud (Engaging New Visions) K. Kagajo
Shroud Of Ancient Echoes I & II (Engaging New Visions) S. Fell-McLean
Cane Toad Narrative (Engaging New Visions) H. Lancaster
Visionary and Eclipse (Engaging New Vision) J. Ryder
Untitled ArtWorks (Engaging New Vision) Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley and Tjunkaya Tapaya
Treescape (Engaging New Vision) A. Trevillian
Introduction
Here are the weekly contributions by the Europeans to ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
The catalog of the exhibition is far more detailed in terms of opening addresses and artist’s biographies, curriculum vitae and statements etc. and moreover, is a holistic record of the exhibition itself.
Synopsis of Artwork: Autumn Visions I & II
Among all techniques I prefer natural dyeing on silk to chemical ones. There are about 80 dyeing plants in Lithuania and I have been using exceptionally these dyes for several years now. Dominating gamut consists of yellow ranging to brown, sometimes greenish brown mixed with gray. Various reagents allow to obtain different hues. I am excited working with iron rust, which provides unexpected results when combined with natural dyes.
In my work - Autumn Visions I & II - black currants were used in order to obtain grey color. For yellow I use Yellow Chamomile. For dark violet I introduced brasil wood dyes (imported ones) this time as well. For background I used Mokume Shibori (Japanese resist dyeing) to create an impression of vibrancy, something similar to wood crust or grass. Autumn colors range from yellow to dark violet and symbolizes changes in nature in this time of year. A lot of sun, yellow color of late autumn flowers during the time of Indian summer and later on plenty of darkness and preparedness for sleep.
Techniques
Mokume Shibori, natural dyeing on silk.
Size: 130 cm (width) x 300 cm (length) for each artwork.
(a) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(b) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) dyptich artwork on right (see earlier posts for other artworks).
Orange Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(c) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) dyptich artwork on right (see earlier posts for other artworks).
Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(d) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) dyptich artwork on right (see earlier posts for other artworks).
Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(e) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) - full view.
(f) Autumn Visions I (Jurate Petruskeviciene) - detailed view.
(g) Autumn Visions II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) - detailed view.
Preamble
This blogspot contains posts of artworks that have featured in my curated international exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. For your convenience I have listed these posts below.
ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions (Marie-Therese Wisniowski - Curator's Talk)
Sequestration of CO2 (Engaging New Visions) M-T. Wisniowski
Sacred Planet I (Engaging New Visions) J. Dunnewold
Under Pressure (Engaging New Visions) L.A. Beehler
lo Rising II & Giza (Engaging New Visions) R. Benson
Etruscan Relic (Engaging New Vision) J. Raffer Beck
Catch The Light 1 & 2 (Engaging New Visions) J. Schulze
Emerge (Engaging New Visions) J. Truckenbrod
Breathe Deeply (Engaging New Visions) C. Benn
Die Gedanken Sind Frei 3 & 4 (Engaging New Visions) C. Helmer
Autumn Visions I & II (Engaging New Visions) J. Petruskeviciene
Razing/Raising Walls, Warsaw (Engaging New Visions) N. Starszakowna
Quite Alone Oasis… (Engaging New Visions) J. Urbiene
Nothing Is The Same I & II (Engaging New Visions) E. van Baarle
Discharge Thundercloud (Engaging New Visions) K. Kagajo
Shroud Of Ancient Echoes I & II (Engaging New Visions) S. Fell-McLean
Cane Toad Narrative (Engaging New Visions) H. Lancaster
Visionary and Eclipse (Engaging New Vision) J. Ryder
Untitled ArtWorks (Engaging New Vision) Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley and Tjunkaya Tapaya
Treescape (Engaging New Vision) A. Trevillian
Introduction
We shall return weekly to the European contribution to ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
The catalog of the exhibition is far more detailed in terms of opening addresses and artist’s biographies, curriculum vitae and statements etc. and moreover, is a holistic record of the exhibition itself.
Synopsis of Artwork: Black Birds I and II
I like to use discarded items, waste material no longer considered useful. The ambiguity of external references combine with personal experience, places visited, stories of my grandmother lead me in new directions. Recycled materials, old and forgotten textiles and waste have a history’. These I break down, tear, and cut, until they are re-assembled to create something more meaningful. Fragments and layers mark the passing of time, the rituals of making (cutting paper, gathering materials, machining, sewing) acting as part of the narrative of the work.
I am interested in the open landscape, the shadows of marks made by man in the earth, the reflections in water and flooded fields, gardens and seasons changing. I grew up in the wind-swept fenland water and woods of Norfolk. Crows, ravens, magpies the 'black birds' familiar to that landscape picking the wheat and foraging in the farmlands are the subject of this piece. The land is rich because it often floods. The impressive physical changes to the landscape raises issues about our fragile relationship with the local and national environment.
My training is in Fine Art and I work between two disciplines, painting and mixed media textiles, I layer text, images and cloth using glue and paste methods. I scrape away to reveal under layers. Applique and quilting is often used to add colour or texture. The stitched mark becomes a line ‘of drawing, dye becomes my paint. The use of stitch is imperative to how the work holds together the ambiguous found surfaces including old sheeting buried and stained by the earth and paper waste used in this piece. I have been drawn to the unconscious mark making of the stitches and layers not normally seen.
Techniques
Print, paint, dye and stitch. Layering with paste.
Media: Cold water dyes, acrylics, conservation paper, assorted muslin and cotton fabrics, wax rubbings, ink.
Cloth Type: Found fabrics and papers.
Size: 60 cm (width) x 300 cm (length) for each artwork.
(a) Black Birds I and II (Cas Holmes) second dyptich artwork from left (see earlier and future posts for other artworks ).
Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Cedric Boudjema, Director, Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery.
(b) Black Birds I and II (Cas Holmes) dyptich artwork from left (see earlier and future posts for other artworks).
Orange Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(c) Black Birds I and II (Cas Holmes) dyptich artwork.
Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Karen Tyler, Director. Photography by Al Sim.
(d) Black Birds I and II (Cas Holmes) dyptich artwork on the right (see future post for Els van Baarle's dyptich on the left).
Wangaratta Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(e) Black Birds I and II (Cas Holmes) - full view.
(f) Black Birds I and II (Cas Holmes) - detailed view.
Preamble
This blogspot contains posts of artworks that have featured in my curated international exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. For your convenience I have listed these posts below.
ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions (Marie-Therese Wisniowski - Curator's Talk)
Sequestration of CO2 (Engaging New Visions) M-T. Wisniowski
Sacred Planet I (Engaging New Visions) J. Dunnewold
Under Pressure (Engaging New Visions) L.A. Beehler
lo Rising II & Giza (Engaging New Visions) R. Benson
Etruscan Relic (Engaging New Vision) J. Raffer Beck
Catch The Light 1 & 2 (Engaging New Visions) J. Schulze
Emerge (Engaging New Visions) J. Truckenbrod
Breathe Deeply (Engaging New Visions) C. Benn
Black Birds I & II (Engaging New Visions) C. Holmes
Autumn Visions I & II (Engaging New Visions) J. Petruskeviciene
Razing/Raising Walls, Warsaw (Engaging New Visions) N. Starszakowna
Quite Alone Oasis… (Engaging New Visions) J. Urbiene
Nothing Is The Same I & II (Engaging New Visions) E. van Baarle
Discharge Thundercloud (Engaging New Visions) K. Kagajo
Shroud Of Ancient Echoes I & II (Engaging New Visions) S. Fell-McLean
Cane Toad Narrative (Engaging New Visions) H. Lancaster
Visionary and Eclipse (Engaging New Vision) J. Ryder
Untitled ArtWorks (Engaging New Vision) Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley and Tjunkaya Tapaya
Treescape (Engaging New Vision) A. Trevillian
Introduction
We shall return weekly to the European contribution to ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
The catalog of the exhibition is far more detailed in terms of opening addresses and artist’s biographies, curriculum vitae and statements etc. and moreover, is a holistic record of the exhibition itself.
Synopsis of Artwork: Die Gedanken Sind Frei 3 & 4
I listen all day long when I’m working as a psychoanalyst. I have to stay focused on words. Sometimes looking behind them to fathom what patients are really saying. Sometimes searching for the feelings that underpin the words.
In human development, words come fairly late as a way of expressing our feelings – we learn other methods first; laughing, smiling, crying, howling, dancing, hitting, hugging, shouting gibberish. Words are symbols and if you can find the right words to express yourself, some ‘inner work’ has already taken place in the quest for understanding. But, because they are symbols, we need to acknowledge that words can often have different meanings for different people.
Because words play such a large role in my professional life, it’s important for me to have other ways of expressing myself. This is why I find the activity of working with cloth - and producing art from it - so important. That’s not to say that I avoid words. I will always be fascinated by what goes on inside the head of a human being. Poetry and song lyrics are inspiring and fascinating as they provide a glimpse into the mind of another person. I often use words in my art… but I also want to explore visual devices to communicate my ideas – and each idea is a ‘new vision’.
Die Gedanken sind Frei is an example of how words trigger ideas. It is the title of an old German song about freedom, in the sense that you can be imprisoned and have everything taken away from you, but you will always have the freedom of your thoughts. One can by locked up in a real prison, but we are all capable of building our own ‘inner prisons’. I chose keys as visual symbols for prison because they are the mechanism for capture and release. The red pathway represents the journey for understanding and freedom. Whilst red can be a negative colour (blood, anger, aggression), it is also a colour of passion and excitement. Roses are also symbolic in that they have great softness and beauty, but they also have thorns that can wound and hurt.
(a) Die Gedanken sind Frei (Claudia Helmer) left and right artwork (centre artwork by Ken Kagajo - see future post).
Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Cedric Boudjema, Director, Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery.
(b) Die Gedanken sind Frei (Claudia Helmer) left artworks (see earlier and future posts for artworks on right).
Orange Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Alan Sisley, Director, Orange Regional Art Gallery.
(c) Die Gedanken sind Frei (Claudia Helmer) second from right artworks (see earlier and future posts for other artworks ).
Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.
Photograph courtesy Karen Tyler, Director. Photography by Al Sim.
(d) Die Gedanken Sind Frei 3 - full view.
(e) Die Gedanken Sind Frei 3 - detailed view.
(f) Die Gedanken Sind Frei 4 - full view.
(g) Die Gedanken Sind Frei 4 - detailed view.
Preamble
This blogspot contains posts of artworks that have featured in my curated international exhibition - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. For your convenience I have listed these posts below.
ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions (Marie-Therese Wisniowski - Curator's Talk)
Sequestration of CO2 (Engaging New Visions) M-T. Wisniowski
Sacred Planet I (Engaging New Visions) J. Dunnewold
Under Pressure (Engaging New Visions) L.A. Beehler
lo Rising II & Giza (Engaging New Visions) R. Benson
Etruscan Relic (Engaging New Vision) J. Raffer Beck
Catch The Light 1 & 2 (Engaging New Visions) J. Schulze
Emerge (Engaging New Visions) J. Truckenbrod
Die Gedanken Sind Frei 3 & 4 (Engaging New Visions) C. Helmer
Black Birds I & II (Engaging New Visions) C. Holmes
Autumn Visions I & II (Engaging New Visions) J. Petruskeviciene
Razing/Raising Walls, Warsaw (Engaging New Visions) N. Starszakowna
Quite Alone Oasis… (Engaging New Visions) J. Urbiene
Nothing Is The Same I & II (Engaging New Visions) E. van Baarle
Discharge Thundercloud (Engaging New Visions) K. Kagajo
Shroud Of Ancient Echoes I & II (Engaging New Visions) S. Fell-McLean
Cane Toad Narrative (Engaging New Visions) H. Lancaster
Visionary and Eclipse (Engaging New Vision) J. Ryder
Untitled ArtWorks (Engaging New Vision) Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley and Tjunkaya Tapaya
Treescape (Engaging New Vision) A. Trevillian
Introduction
After a two-week interlude with workshop outputs, we shall return to the European contribution to ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.
The catalog of the exhibition is far more detailed in terms of opening addresses and artist’s biographies, curriculum vitae and statements etc. and moreover, is a holistic record of the exhibition itself.
Synopsis of Artwork: Breathe Deeply
I am a busy person. Always have been and probably always will be. Work, kids, the house, the garden, the kitchen, the grandchildren. But I’m classified as a human being, not a human doing. What happened to the ‘being’ bit?
In 2001 I was approaching burn out in my professional working life. Deciding to let go and actually letting go of the work I’d been doing for the past 10 years (and the money I was earning) was difficult, as much of my identity was tied up in my job. Going part-time didn’t help – it felt like standing on one leg - unbalancing. I sought guidance through a coach/therapist and eventually severed myself from my old working life. I drifted for a while, kept occupied by a re-building project on the house. But I continued to do inner work, and eventually felt confident enough to believe it was okay to focus my future life around textiles.
I’ve been working with cloth since 1995. Time at the print bench is time when I lose myself, and yet find myself. Time when I can ‘be’ – even though I’m doing. A sense of inner peace and inner space is now hugely important to me and I find it when I’m working in the studio. Creating abstract work that is simple - yet complex - and which communicates a sense of space has been the goal for my work in the last few years. For me, space is a vast horizon, a deep pool. A place of stillness, silence and peace. It is nothing and everything.
So how to convey that? My external source of inspiration is the wilderness; landscapes with nothing – but everything – in them. Places where the horizon is vast and the sky huge. Places such as Patagonia, or the southern desert of Morocco. The middle of the ocean the long view down the garden into the rural landscape beyond. The sky. Places that are almost monochromatic, but never dull. Places that make you realise just how insignificant you are… and just how awesome nature is. Places you can breathe in.
Eyes closed and eyes open, meditation are inner sources of inspiration. Activities that enable me to take a sip of stillness and silence - de-clutter my mind and help me see more clearly. Yoga helps with the search to balance body, mind and spirit and helps me to breathe.
Breathe Deeply is both an expression of what I seek, and a reminder to try and live what I seek. A big space, a deep pool. Turbulence is present but behind it is the reminder to breathe and use the turbulence to carry me through. Dry-brushing the background to ‘Deeply’ was a meditative activity - nineteen passes with dye paints across the entire length of cloth to create the deep pool. You have to work slow and you have to flow. Repeated screen-printing of the single word ‘breathe’ was a meditative activity. Hand printing the turbulence was a meditative activity. My hope is that viewers will respond to the request: breathe deeply and find a space of stillness.
Does Breathe Deeply engage with new visions? In one sense, no - my vision has been around for several years. But in another sense, yes, as every time I approach a piece of cloth, I engage with a new vision.
Techniques
Dry brushing, screen printing, hand painting, scraping employing fibre-reactive MX dye paints and water-based screen inks on silk broadcloth, backed with fusible interfacing.
Size: 100 cm (width) x 290 cm (length).
(a) Breathe Deeply (Claire Benn) centre artwork.
Orange Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy of Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
(b) Breathe Deeply (Claire Benn) artwork second from left.
Orange Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
Photograph courtesy of Alan Sisley, Director, Orange Regional Art Gallery.
(c) Breathe Deeply (Claire Benn) centre artwork.
Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.
Photograph courtesy of Karen Tyler, Director. Photography by Al Sim.
(d) Breathe Deeply (Claire Benn) - full view.
(e) Breathe Deeply (Claire Benn) - detailed view.
(a) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.
(b) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) dyptich artwork on right (see earlier posts for other artworks).
(c) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) dyptich artwork on right (see earlier posts for other artworks).
(d) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) dyptich artwork on right (see earlier posts for other artworks).
(e) Autumn Visions I & II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) - full view.
(f) Autumn Visions I (Jurate Petruskeviciene) - detailed view.
(g) Autumn Visions II (Jurate Petruskeviciene) - detailed view.
