View it online: Martha McDonald's 'Weeping Dress' performance

For all of you who missed the real thing, gallery 2 exhibitor Martha McDonald's performance The Weeping Dress is now viewable online!

Martha McDonald: The Weeping Dress from Craft Victoria on Vimeo.

For more about The Weeping Dress including a SYN FM interview with Martha, click here.

The Sound Playground: performances

Nicholas Jones and Adam Sherry (A Dead Forest Index)



Nicholas Jones



Rowan McNaught & Sam Szoke-Burke



Rowan McNaught & Sam Szoke-Burke



Rod Cooper



Rod Cooper

For more performance images, click here.

Photography: Lily Feng

The Sound Playground

The Sound Playground was an exhibition and performance series co-curated by Amelia Douglas (Bus Projects) and Nella Themelios (Craft Victoria) as part of Liquid Architecture Festival of Sound Arts 2010. Taking place at fortyfivedownstairs between 6-17 July, The Sound Playground explored the unique relationship between craft and sound.

The Sound Playground featured newly commissioned experimental instruments, sound sculptures and sonic installations by Ros Bandt & Albert Mishriki, Rod Cooper, Emma Lashmar and Rowan McNaught. Many of the works were interactive and available for visitors to play during the exhibition, and the entire show was also performed live in a series special concerts in the gallery by the artists and special guests Nicholas Jones, Adam Sherry (A Dead Forest Index) and Sam Szoke-Burke.

Rod Cooper presented a new series of ‘sonic portraits’ in which donated items of clothing cast in plaster became the armature for the aural conjuring of well-known personalities in the Australian sound scene. Emma Lashmar's room-sized string instrument with hand-blown glass components was designed to be bowed and plucked. Ros Bandt and Albert Mishriki's original music box grotto placed the focus on disguise and gesture in the construction of sound, whilst Rowan McNaught’s interactive Manifon offered a new take on an ancient instrument.

The Sound Playground was co-presented by Craft Victoria and Bus Projects, and generously supported by the City of Melbourne.

To read the accompanying exhibition essay, click here.

Rod Cooper



Rod Cooper



Emma Lashmar



Rod Cooper



Rod Cooper





Rod Cooper





Rowan McNaught



Ros Bandt & Albert Mishriki



Ros Bandt & Albert Mishriki



For more images, click here.

Photography: Kim Brockett

Thanks everyone

A big thank you to all who came to last night performance/closing party, there was a great turnout and we couldn't have had a more fitting end to Nathan's exhibition.

A special thank you to Jess and Jarrod of Free Choice Duo for playing last night, to Esther for taking photos, and most of all a big thank you to Sam our cleaner for making all those beer bottles disappear (strange because we weren't serving drinks last night - where there's a will there's a way...)

Free Choice Duo

The French

Photos of Nathan's show will be up soon. Hold tight!

Photography by Kim Brockett

Dylan Martorell vs. Chicks on Speed

Last Friday evening, Dylan Martorell dropped by with some of his homemade instruments for a session with Alex and Melissa of Chicks on Speed. The magical spinning device some of you may remember from Dylan's exhibition last year made a reappearance, as did some new fangled devices like aerosol cans and aluminium tubes tied onto the spokes of a wheel, a stack of rattan hats, a smoke machine (!) and a twig. Visual stimulation was presented via a projecter screen and alternated between Dylan's work and some rather cheeky footage of the Chicks (inside joke!).

The crew from the Sunday Arts program were filming the performance. If you missed out, you can view exclusive footage of the event on Sunday 5 April at 5pm on ABC1 and 7.30pm on ABC2

The performance was short and sweet. The first half consisted of an artist talk, which was followed by a brief intermission (gotta let the heavy stuff sink in!), before Dylan and the Chicks launched into a 45 minute long set of amazing experimental music.

We've just uploaded more images onto our Facebook account so be sure to check it.

Opening night shenanigans

On Thursday night CVHQ opened its doors to throngs of keen art appreciators, crafty afficionados, fans and the thirsty. With a median age of 25, it was great to see so many fresh new faces! The above picture is of the queue that formed in the minutes prior to opening. The line extends from the staircase and down the length of enCOUNTER!

As expected, it was really packed but we had a great system of letting people in only when people left. Simple, but effective.

There's also currently a large piece of fabric waiting to be embroidered by anyone and everyone. Next time you're in the area, do drop by and be a part of it!

Happy revellers.

To all who came, thank you and we hope you had as great a time as we did! More pictures of the performance and event will be up on CLOG later in the week and on Facebook, so keep an eye out.

MATERIALBYPRODUCT In House Show!

On Thursday evening, MATERIALBYPRODUCT conducted their in-house show at Craft Victoria. The show lasted for about half an hour and presented their latest collection, Template (SS/09) to the soundtrack of CVHQ's iPod on shuffle. Using one model (Crystal Dunn, who incidentally is also part of the Fresh! exhibition), Chantal and Susan would undress and redress her after each outfit. A truly stunning performance, yours truly will leave you with some images from the show rather than blather on about how amazing it was...

And the closing outfit: an amazing dress featuring beautiful draping detail, skilled craftsmanship and great taste!

Admiring the dress.

For more details, contact Chantal or Susan from MATERIALBYPRODUCT by emailing info@materialbyproduct.com If you missed the show last week (how unfortunate!), fret not as MBP will be conducting another in house show at Milly Sleeping in Carlton. For more details, visit their website

MATERIALBYPRODUCT In House Show @ Craft Victoria

(click to enlarge)

This Thursday 11 December, respected Melbourne designers Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald of MATERIALBYPRODUCT will be conducting In House Show, an intimate performance that will showcase their Spring/Summer 09 collection Template.

This is a wonderful opportunity to be present at one of MBP's amazing shows. Known for their consistently innovative mode of presentation, past MBP shows include models emerging from a wooden box as seen in the SOFT HARD 07 launch at Assin Boutique and the SOFT HARD 07 In House Show which was staged in the backyard of McDonald's in Prahran.

The performance will run from 6pm to 7pm and guests will have the opportunity to place private orders after the viewing. To be on the guest list for the MATERIALBYPRODUCT In House Show at Craft Victoria, an RSVP is essential. Please register by email at rsvp@craftvic.asn.au

Visualising Air Phase 1

How exactly does one visualise air? On Thursday night Malte Wagenfield explored the process of rendering air visible through the use of a scanning laser and smoke. The result was breathtaking - as the smoke passed through the lasers the movement of the air was coloured by the green laser, highlighting the swirls and patterns. Think less 'rave cave', more 'ethereal experience'.

Phase 1 was divided into three 10-15 minute performances. After each performance, the space was cleared up of smoke. Performers were orchestrated by Malte to interact with the smoke in a number of ways such as walking, sprinting, breathing, skipping and cartwheeling. After the choreographed performances, the audience was invited to join in and play with the smoke. By the end of it all, the sceptical were converted ("so you really can see air!") and the enthusiastic were, well, more enthusiastic ("that was amazing!")

Yours truly is rather diminutive so this happened a lot...

Towards the end, the laser was made vertical so that a 'wall' of air was formed.

Running through the air.

Spinning through the air. You can just make out Malte (the blue light is his flashlight!)

For those who missed it, don't fret! Visualising Air Phase 2 will be happening next Saturday 20 September from 6.30pm to 8pm.