Australian politics is currently on a knife edge, as we are still yet to determine which of the two major parties will form government after a tie in the general election. The inability of the ALP to win its second term, after great success in dealing with the GFC, is partly due to the leadership [...]
Posts under ‘Australia’
Melbourne Charm School: Luck at the bottom of the world
What really is a ‘lucky country’? And how can we nurture that luck for the future? Local inspiration has long been a focus of craft practice, and now increasingly design. The default source in many cases is landscape: often a prominent natural feature such as mountain or a unique material like mineral or flora. But [...]
Every brooch has a catch
The other day, a curator from Papua New Guinea was telling me about a particular custom of hospitality she grew up with called ‘hamal’. In certain circumstances, if a visitor expresses a liking for something that you possess, you are then obliged to give it to them. Clearly, this is a custom suited more to [...]
Upcoming Charm Schools
‘Luck is believing you’re lucky.’ Tennessee Williams image Luck is not something that sits well with a modern way of life. Modernity is largely defined against superstitious practices of the past. Magical folk remedies have been replaced by far more reliable medical science. We no longer make sacrifices to rain gods; we have more responsible [...]
Tegan Empson, Idol Moments by Christine Nicholls
Tegan Empson, Idol Moments, at Gallery 2, The JamFactory, Adelaide, 13 October – 29 November 2009 Reviewed for World Sculpture News by Christine Nicholls Glass artist Tegan Empson’s solo exhibition, Idol Moments, on show in Adelaide’s prestigious JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design’s Gallery 2 in late 2009, deservedly garnered a good deal of public attention. [...]
Carbon Issue: Sustainability in Craft & Design
Here’s a call for an upcoming issue of a new craft journal that I’m involved in. I hope it brings together some new and thoughtful perspectives on the way designing and making engage with the re-valuation of the planet’s resources. clip_image002 CALL FOR PAPERS Carbon Issue: Sustainability in Craft & Design craft + design enquiry [...]
27 Light years
Helen Light has retired from the Jewish Museum of Australia after 27 years (!). She was its inaugural director and created a remarkable string of exhibitions including the Judaica series, which invited craftspersons to make contemporary versions of ritual artefacts. For her, the purpose of the museum was to demonstrate how a minority culture could [...]
Craft out of the cage – Wanda Gillespie’s marvellous discoveries
Wanda Gillespie is an Australian artist who discovered the Indonesian craft of bird cages during a residency with Asialink. While there she worked with the artisans to create a series of works based on the fictional scenario of an island that exists only in her imagination (and the now the art gallery). This island of [...]
Missionaries – the end of after
We had the last of the After the Missionaries discussions last night. The conversation first started at the beginning of a dark and stormy winter. It ended in what has proven to be Melbourne’s warmest winter on record. It seemed a fitting context for a discussion about art and the Kyoto Protocol at the Institute [...]
Sara Thorn – handmade in Indian cities
image Individual designers have been travelling to traditional craft communities for decades in order to develop product using the skills they so admire. But as more rural villagers move to the city, there is a fear that these skills will vanish. However, there are signs that they are re-appearing in urban workshops and factories. [...]
