Marina Abromovic

Marina Abramovic is a New York-based Serbian artist who began her career in the early 1970s. The Museum of Modern Art in New York held a retrospective of the artist's work in 2010, including a new work titled 'The Artist is Present', where Marina sat for 3 months during exhibition times, and had more than 750, 000 people sit opposite her on a chair. I watched the documentary of this exhibition and performance on ABC's Iview yesterday and was completely captivated, enthralled and curious about this artist's life/work. 

Then I came across a book of portraits taken by photographer  Marco Anelli on the blog titled - Marina Abramovic Made Me Cry. Here are some of the portraits.....

““(...) Photography is about stillness. The work, ‘The Artist is Present’ is about stillness and immobility.
In stillness everything becomes so visible and so important.
Light crossing the room.
Shadow cast under the chair.
Color of the skin.
Position of the hands.
Wrinkles of the dress.
Even the molecules of the air somehow become visible.””

— Marina Abromovic

Beaver Gallery 'Small Works' Exhibition

The final show for 2012 at Beaver Galleries in Canberra is titled 'Small Works' and runs until the 23rd December 2012. The opening of the exhibition is at 6pm, 29th November at 81 Denison Street, Deakin, ACT. I am exhibiting 5 works in total; 3 wall pieces, and 2 sculptures. I will be exhibiting among 36 other artists of small works no larger than 25cm x 25cm.

Maxx and I packed up the dogs and artwork for a road trip to Canberra on Friday to deliver the work. It was a long trip. Especially with 2 hot pooches wanting to get out for a run and a drink every hour.

Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Opening

What a wait! After years of witnessing the site in Katoomba slowly transform into a new social space for creativity, learning and relaxing, the new Cultural Centre has opened to the public with the first curated exhibition in the Regional Gallery titled ' Picturing the Great Divide: Visions from Australia’s Blue Mountains'. The Cultural Centre web site says of this exhibition;

​Blue Mountains Cultural Centre

'The inaugural exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre will demonstrate the powerful impact the Blue Mountains region has had on the cultural life of the nation. The diverse works on display will identify and celebrate the extraordinary nature of this world heritage landscape. Further to this, the exhibition will trace the constant hold the Blue Mountains catchment has had on the imagination of visual artists since the early days of European settlement.'

The New Centre also has a new public library and a World Heritage Exhibition which is devoted to education about the distinctive environment, history and culture of the Blue Mountains region. This display is called 'Into The Blue' and is an interactive space to explore the diverse regions of the Blue Mountains.

In other news, the gallery which represents me in Katoomba has recently had a name change from 'Katoomba Fine Art' to 'Lost Bear Gallery'. The gallery won't be hard to miss as you travel down Lurline Street with the newly repositioned Ian Swift sculpture of a Bear as sentinel out front!

​Lost Bear Gallery

American Tintype

Tintype photos, as the name implies, were photos with the image on a metal surface, rather than on glass or paper.

This short film reveals the process and makes me nostalgic for a time where image making relied heavily on process and the element of surprise. 

Some of my fondest memories of art school were of being in the dark room developing film and sloshing chemicals around in a tray. Nowadays, tethering a digital camera to computer does not have the same romanticism but perhaps in 30 years I may feel different!