The Sound Playground

Video footage of performances from The Sound Playground, a BUS Projects x Craft Victoria exhibition in 2010.

Featuring commissioned work by Rowan McNaught, Ros Bandt & Albert Mishriki, Rod Cooper and Emma Lashmar and performances by Sam Szoke-Burke, Nicholas Jones (artist / sculptor) and Adam Sherry (A Dead Forest Index).

Curated by Amelia Douglas and Nella Themelios.

'Oomph Trajectories' by Michaela Bruton

Currently exhibiting at the lobby of the Sofitel Melbourne is 2009 Fresh! winner Michaela Bruton's debut solo exhibition, Oomph Trajectories. Showcasing new drawings and fine metalwork by Michaela, an Honour graduates from RMIT's Fine Art program, Oomph Trajectories is a tightly edited exhibition of 2 drawings and 1 scuplture.

We highly encourage you to have a look at this beautiful show! It's just across the road from Craft Vic and is on until 1 March.

Oomph Trajectories is located at the Lobby of the Sofitel Melbourne, Level 1, 25 Collins Street.

To view more images, please click here.

Photography: Kim Brockett

Sneaky peek: Vanessa Lucas 'Pearl, Shell, Bone and Stone'

Hey everyone, have you had a look at Vanessa Lucas' ceramic potscapes?

Truly wondrous and a wonderful way to begin our 2011 enCOUNTER exhibitions!

Pearl, Shell, Bone and Stone is on until 6 Feb.

(and we also have Vanessa's work in the shop if you'd like to have a touch.)

It's easy being green

We forgot to mention that in 2010, Craft Victoria was a State finalist in the CitySwitch National Awards and although we didn't win, we were the only cultural institution to be named across the Awards! Toot toot! (What's the sound of that? Why it's the sound of us tooting our horn!)

Anyway, this is super exciting for us as we all took steps to reduce our energy consumption in 2010. In fact, we were so effective that we cut our consumption by a whopping 27% compared to 2009! It's all thanks to the small stuff like switching off appliances that aren't in use, making sure the heater/air conditioner was being used effectively and turning off the lights. To learn more about our Green Policy, click here.

In 2011, we're hoping to better this by reducing our consumption even further - this year we're going to take it down by 10%! To kickstart things we've started sending out payslips by email rather than mail, and we're also looking into greener lighting options.

It'll be tricky, but we think we can do it... with your help! So here's a callout to all of our readers for green tips that we can implement in the office.

PS. CitySwitch also wrote a case study on our green awesomeness which outlines the steps we took in 2010, and you can read that here.

Artist talks this Saturday at 2pm!

Susan Robey, Untitled (overhang pair), 2009

Susan Robey, Inhabit
Inhabit considers issues of architectural space and investigates ways that movement, gesture and character may be represented. Manipulating structural elements such as walls, windows and columns, Robey uses paper thin clay slabs to construct small idiosyncratic architectural forms. The works explore the tension between the inert quality of ‘architecturalness’ and the animation of living beings.

Elfrun Lach, Corollary
Corollary explores the history and ongoing symbolic function of red coral, one of the oldest traditionally used materials in gold and silver-smithing. Despite the rarity of coral, its application within jewellery practice has persisted over time due to a belief in its talismanic qualities. Combining actual and simulated forms of this precious material, the works in Corollary aim to raise questions about ethical supply and usage.

Gerry Wedd, In the Woods
In the Woods takes its cue from the concept of the ‘Australian Gothic’, a construction of the Australian landscape as both a bountiful utopia and a hellish place where nature seems uncannily strange or hostile. Like most figurines, the work sets up a complex relationship between audience and object: on the one hand the viewer is drawn into the interior world of the miniature, on the other they are in control of a scenario where the figurines assume the characteristics of a toy.

Date: Saturday 22 January, 2pm
Cost: Free

Wednesday ogling: Katherine Bowman house tour on The Design Files

Katherine's lounge room; photograph by Lucy Feagins

We're so delighted to see jeweller Katherine Bowman's home featured on one of our favourite-est blogs in the whole wide web, The Design Files! Expertly photographed by Lucy Feagins of TDF, it's such a visual feast with oh-so-many sumptuous details to drink up!

Katherine's home features heaps of cameo appearances of artwork from fellow artists (and Craft Vic pals!) including Anna Davern, Ilka White and Emma Davies. So lucky!

There's also a sneaky peek at a preliminary drawing for Katherine's upcoming solo exhibition at Craft Victoria this year - the dates are 8 Sept to 15 Oct.

photograph by Lucy Feagins

Thanks Lucy for putting together such a great post! To check it out for yourself, please click here.

...and we're back!

Hello everyone and happy new year!

Now that the presents have been opened (maybe even returned?! not if they were bought from us we hope) and we've recovered from our respective food comas, Craft Victoria is raring and ready to go in 2011!

Our first round of exhibitions for 2011 will open next Thursday 20 Jan from 6-8pm and features solo exhibitions by ceramacist Susan Robey in Gallery 1, jeweller (and current blog header star!) Elfrun Lach in Gallery 2 and ceramacist Gerry Wedd (pictured) in Gallery 3.

CLOG will also be back to our regular posts soon, so stay tuned for that!