There was a mesmerising exhibition at the Palacio de Moneda of artifacts from the Arica region in the north of Chile. Among the wonderful works of basketry, weaving, jewellery and carving from the ancient cultures of the north are the fabled Chinchorro mummies. These predate the Egyptian mummies, originating back as far as 5,000 BC. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Chile’
The low craft in Santiago
Jo! is a new radical craft shop in the Santiago suburb of Bellavista, which is usually throbbing at night with street life. The objects within have mostly been made quickly out of recycled materials. I picked up a brooch made from keyboard keys for $2 Australian. The owner is originally from the ‘provinces’ and remembers [...]
Craft contamination
The workshop series at MAVI finished with a day-long session looking at the various elements in putting together a craft exhibition. I was quite surprised by the experimental approach that was taken by participants. We had three quite basic tables to work with. One group started piling other furniture on top. Another used [...]
The audacity of craft
It was a relief to see with the second day of the workshop another good crowd. There does seem to be an interest here in doing something more with craft. I wonder sometimes whether coming from a foreign culture like Australia I am in danger of contaminating a more traditional craft scene such as in [...]
The Andes is revealed
I am in Santiago for a little while presenting a series of lectures and workshops on the theme of ‘craft as art’. The presentation is organised by Raiz Diseno and supported by ONA in partnership with MAVI. The series basically involves outlining the practice of ‘contemporary craft’ as practiced in countries like Australia, and seeing [...]
Wellington I wonder
Damian Skinner and I continued our jewellery journey down to Wellington principally to see the objects that featured in the Bone, Stone and Shell exhibition that toured Australia in 1988. While Te Papa had collected this exhibition as a historic moment in New Zealand culture, we found it scattered across the museum in different displays, [...]
Craft across the Pacific
In cooperation with Raiz Diseño, ONA and MAVI (Museum of Visual Art), we will be presenting a workshop in Santiago Chile on 16-18 October to explore ways of exhibiting craft in art galleries. This is a wonderful opportunity to extend the dialogue between contemporary craft in Australia and Latin America and will coincide with the [...]
Dark forces in the sunshine state
While the rest of Brisbane was roaring for its state rugby team tonight, a ‘quiet revolution’ was taking place at the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum. Catriona Brown (left) had curated an exhibition Craft Revolution, which featured work from strongly located contemporary craftspersons and proud craft guilds. At a panel with Kylie Johnson (centre) [...]
Tim Winton: a tradesman of the ordinary
Carmen Lawrence reviews Tim Winton’s new novel Breath for the Australian Literary Review. There are two points that seem worth noting. First, she describes Winton as a ‘tradesman’: Winton has often said that he regards himself as a tradesman rather than an artist; in Breath he confirms his status as a consummate wordsmith who can [...]
The past re-stitched
Towards the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Chilean poet and communist Pablo Neruda organised a boat to enable endangered by the political to the right in Spain to find exile in Chile. Among the refugees in the Winnipeg was Madrid artist Roser Bru. She became actively involved in the Allende period and was [...]
