Art Studio Week 3 - 3-7 Aug, 2020

Rōpū Crit session, Anti Static Flat Earth workshop, mold making workshop, and Anti Static Artist Talk

1. ROPU CRIT

This is my exhibition for crit week using the new exhibition spaces in T24. It was well received and I appreciated how engaged everyone was. These are some of the comments -

• to see all the creatures together like cockroaches seems grotesque

• texture induces horror - think of them all moving

• imagine sound

• insects that live for a day or two

• hive mind thing - hexagonal

• some are quite pale and translucent and others have gold

• want to touch and rearrange them

• childhood summer memories of cicadas - all NZers

• 2 materials work well together

• the gold leaf moves - fragility engaging, fragile like the shell

• they appear gold wrapped and seem edible (in Mexico we eat crickets)

• contrast of gold with molted shells - the value we give to things, whats valuable and whats discarded

• gold - heavy but delicate

• mastaba - shape is cool

• story of cicadas in Egyptian mythology - people turned into insects that must sing

• on floor in middle of room, all sitting around it like a bonfire

• drawn to the light

• colours reflective

• when you see what it is you engage differently - repulsion? curiosity?

• raises curiosity towards insect

2. ANTI STATIC FLAT EARTH WORKSHOP

Anna and Kelly Pendergrast from Antistatic, led us in a collaborative slide making workshop using Google Slides. They use this approach in their day-to-day artist practice and say, "shared slide decks are great for collaboratively recording thoughts from a particular time, or over time. Add your ideas to other people’s content, move things around, plant a seed and let it grow. What starts as a half-baked idea can quickly morph into new and unexpected forms through combining a range of experiences and viewpoints."

Here are the results of the workshop which I thought was a great way to collect ideas and share with others. It was fast too.

3. 2-PART MOLD MAKING WORKSHOP

Caitlin led us in a 2-part mold making workshop using Pinky Silk and plaster of paris.

4. FLAT EARTH ANTI-STATIC ARTIST TALK Raewyn Martyn and Martin Patrick introduced a Zoom discussion between 2 American artists and friends (names??) who share a collaborative practice based on role playing, where one is the oppressor and the other the oppressed. A third person acted as interviewer. The discussion explore why they adopted this approach, what it has given to their act practice (opportunity to step outside one's perspective of their world) and their response to current and historical events.

It is both an unusual approach to artmaking and response to colonialism, as it appears a first glance to reinforce colonialist roles of dominance and subjugation. It enabled issues to be explored within a broader framework and multiple voices to be heard, however I was left wondering who proposed the idea and if they reversed roles. Thought provoking.