Pachamama's Poncho

Cristina Palacios, Pachamama, 2011

Cristina Palacios, Pachamama's Poncho, 2009

Cristina Palacios will take you to another land, utilizing large-scale installations as her form of transport. Pachamama’s Poncho is where you will arrive, a place you can only imagine exists halfway between South America and Space. This exploration of the myth of Pachamama is compelling and riveting as it takes you through a journey of light, colour and form, whilst challenging preconceptions revolving around large-scale installations. Take a wander down the pathway to the Poncho’s – only until 26 November at Craft Victoria.

Craft Cubed featured event: The Signet Bureau 'Baby Steps and Favourite Dresses'

Baby Steps and Favourite Dresses is an installation presented by shoemakers/artisans Preston Zly and The Signet Bureau (munk and Robyn Black) that invites you to bring in to the store shoes from their childhood and favourite dresses to be included in the installation.

Our shoes are objects that define our childhood, merely by their size. One Preston Zly shoe in the centre of this exhibition will indicate the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Our childhood memories can also be linked to our favourite clothes and this retail exhibition will recognise the importance of fashion throughout our lives.

This installation is on until 4 September.

The Signet Bureau is located at 165 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy and is open Tue-Fri from 10am-6pm, Sat from 10am-5pm and Sun from 12-4pm.

Photography: Kim Brockett

Michael Doolan, Super Maker

Next time you're at Fed Square, make sure you look up to check out the most excellent and most awesome installation Once Upon a Time by Michael Doolan.

Commissioned by Craft Victoria, Super Maker is a large-scale, public artwork created by an established craft practitioner. Michael is our inaugural Super Maker and his work Once Upon a Time consists of a giant inflatable sculpture featuring a puffy teddy bear colliding head on with an equally puffy railway train.

This major installation is part of Craft Cubed and "with its hyper-crafted qualities and super-presence, it extends the realm on contemporary craft". In other words, it's super!

For a more articulate discussion of Once Upon a Time, click here to read Stuart Koop's essay High Drama.

And now for a word from Michael:

"While never intended to be wholly believable, the fairy tale contains sufficient sense to insure the audience understands its application in the real world”.

- Mike Ashley, The Encyclopaedia of Enchantment, Berkley, University of California press, 1984, p186.

Once Upon a Time is a large scale, cold air or helium filled, fairy-tale inspired sculpture that will be suspended above the viewer, deliberately sited to enable the observer to engage with the work as an active and intimate participator.

The aim is to capture and reveal in large scale the ‘essence of the childhood narrative’. This will be achieved through the utilisation of commonly drawn fairy tale motifs typically revealed within a woodland setting, such as the house, the tree and the talking animal.

This work will originate from the creation of a three dimensional hand-modelled prototype, achieved by exploiting the immediately responsive materiality of clay, and applying it to digital technology via a three dimensional scanning process and CAD cam software. From this digitally captured image the data will be re-scaled, deconstructed and programmed to design and create panel layouts. These fabric panels will then be employed to construct an up-scaled, light-weight; air filled three dimensional version of the original proto-type.

As with all fairy tale narratives, this work will also suggest the existence of perhaps a darker side, achieved through the employment of a ‘signal’ colouration or placement within a challenging setting, thus revealing a cautionary note to the viewer.

There is a deliberate intention with this new work to prompt forgotten memories of childhood, and question the way we perceive ourselves in the adult world, providing a new pathway for understanding how our childhood has impacted on and influences the way we behave as adults.

The work will be on a scale that competes with the world.

Michael Doolan



Joe Pascoe and Michael Doolan

Michael Doolan is represented by Melbourne's Karen Woodbury Gallery.

Awesome photography: Lily Feng

Oh what a night!

Thanks to all who came to Thursday evening's opening night shenanigans - you guys drank through 40 bottles of bubbly and white wine - an indicator of a good time if we ever heard of one!

Photos from the opening night will be up early next week on CLOG and on Facebook so keep checking back with us. Have a happy weekend everyone!

Thank you

Nathan Gray thanks you!

For turning up to his opening on Thursday evening.

We'd also like to extend a big thank you to everyone who made it down to the gallery last Thursday evening in spite of the frightful weather. We'll have images up on the blog and Facebook soon!

In the meantime, do check out Nathan's blog.

Emma Davies: fine art and fine food

Recently, Gallery 2 exhibitor Emma Davies's eye-catching polypropylene vessels have become part of the interior at fancy fine-dining eatery, No 35.

Located high up on level 35 at the Sofitel hotel in the Paris end of Collins Street, Emma's work will occupy the rarefied air shared by an illustrious roster of artists including Geoffrey Mance, Eduardo de Luca, Andrew Browne, Lara Merrett and fellow CV favourite Holly Grace.

No 35 currently has a fantastic ongoing program of involving artists in the fitout of the restaurant. Mmm... fine art and fine food. It doesn't get much better than that really!

Here are a few images of Emma's work in situ. Make sure you check it out the next time you pop by for some smoked Tasmanian eel linguine and a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc. Seriously though, the menu looks amazing. When our tax return comes in, that's where we'll be heading!

Installing 'Pitch Fall'

Late last week, gallery 1 exhibitor Simon Lloyd dropped by to install Pitch Fall. Consisting of a solid block of pitch (or tar) attached to a beam, Pitch Fall is a work in progress that will, over the remainder of the exhibition, slowly drip down to the ground like a black and possibly slightly gooey stalactite.

Stay tuned for not-so-frequent updates! (The tar is moving quite slowly)

PS. Do you like our animated gif image? It's very nifty isn't it! Anika our web genius did it using photos Simon took during the installation. Yours truly has been dilligently documenting the gradual drop so far, so you'll have something to look forward to come 13 June when Simon's exhibition ends...

Fresh! 2008

As promised, here are some images from current exhibition Fresh! for all of you who aren't able to make it down to CVHQ. Fresh! is also our last exhibition for the year and closes this Saturday, 20 December, so it's well worth dropping by for a gander!

For more images and information as well as a pricelist, click here.

Valissa Butterworth, Diploma of Arts (Ceramics), Holmesglen Institute of TAFE

Paddy Melons, black porcelain, nylon rope

Functionalitea series, porcelain

Stephanie Martin, Diploma of Arts (Furniture Design), RMIT University

Skirted Seating, sheet aluminium and leather

Alyshia Boddenberg, Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), VCA, University of Melbourne

Untitled (3 works using a variety of materials such as blu-tack, carpet, pins, paper clips, rubber bands and bandaids)

Crystal Dunn, Bachelor of Design (Fashion), RMIT University

Imagine Luxury (Part of Lifestyling Project), Supre singlets and book

Ka Ho Li, Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design), RMIT University

White Widow Jewellery Collection, teflon tape and silver

Robert Dumaresq, Bachelor of Industrial Design, Monash University

Switch Commuter Bike, aluminium and carbon fibre (it folds to a third its size in under a minute!)

Amanda McKenzie, Bachelor of Fine Art (Glass), Monash University

Stilled Life 1 and Polemic, cast glass

Kate Vivian, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), University of Ballarat

Modified Landscape

Aly Aitken, Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art - Painting), RMIT University

Tobi Clark, Bachelor of Design (Fashion) (Honours), RMIT University

Tyvek garments

Chloe McColl, Bachelor of Visual Arts (Metal and Jewellery), Monash University

Untitled, found porcelain

Tim Smullen, Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art - Gold and Silversmithing), RMIT University

Sarah Deed, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture), RMIT University

From left: Resin Duck, Wax Bunny, Plaster Kitty, Bronze Bunny, Wax Kitty