Ossuarium catalogue essay

Following on from yesterday's visual post on Julia's current exhibition, today CLOG presents her carefully-penned artist statement which includes a history of the ossuary. There seems to be a running theme here at CVHQ!

Julia deVille Ossuarium

Throughout the ages’ coffins, skeletons and deaths heads (the skull and cross-bones) have been used to symbolise the imminence of death and our own mortality.

The ancient Egyptians would present a miniature coffin containing an image of a corpse to each guest at their banquets, to remind them to enjoy the moment.

A marble funerary slab found in Rome dating back to the second century has a relief of a human skeleton and a Greek inscription translating to “Passer by, as you look at a fleshless corpse, can you say whether it was Hylas or Thersites?” Hylas, one of the Argonauts, was the epitome of male beauty, while Thersites was renowned in Mythology for his ugliness. This inscription is making fun of the vanity of both the living and the dead. The skeleton was a symbol of the fleeting nature of life and the need to enjoy each moment as it comes.

SELDEC OSSUARY IN KUTNA HORA

In 1278 the Cistercian abbot of Sedlec, travelled to Palestine and the ‘Holy Land’, bringing home a sample of earth from Golgotha, which was sprinkled over the grounds of his local cemetery upon his return. The grounds were immediately considered scared, and hence became a much sought after location for relatives to bury their dead. In the 14th century, the bubonic plague spread across Europe and now 30,000 bodies all wanted a resting place within the sacred grounds. Such vast numbers of dead bodies led to the creation of the ossuary in 1511 by a half-blind monk who gathered up the bones to be stacked up within the ossuary, making space for new corpses, which were soon taken up by more victims from 15th century Hussite Wars.

Frantisek Rint, wood carver and artist was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to imaginatively compose the bones into works of art; amongst his creations came the Schwarzenberg family’s coat of arms, and a chandelier containing every bone in the human body, composed of several bodies.

I am fascinated by the way the skeleton, especially the skull, has been used in history as such a powerful symbol of human mortality. I am also very interested in the way it has recently become a pop culture icon, which for me, has taken most of the impact out of its symbolism.

I am aware that some people may not be as comfortable with human remains as I am but I do not intend to shock or upset anyone. I have found that a real human skull still generates a strong emotional response in people and this is why I have chosen to use it.

I have used human bones in their original state along side ones that have been flocked or glittered as well as reproductions, with the intention to generate questions and discussion about why we are shocked by the thought of real human bones when the image/symbol of the same has lost all meaning.

All human remains have been legally obtained.

For further information, please email media@craftvic.asn.au

Julia deVille: Ossuarium

Here's a sneak peek into Julia deVille's exhibition Ossuarium currently on display in Gallery 1. Using a varied and resourceful range of materials, Julia's work demonstrates a startling beauty that one would not normally associate with taxidermied animals. Drawing inspiration from Memento Mori jewellery of the Victorian era, Ossuarium is a collection of jewellery, fashion, taxidermy and general amazing-ness.

A pricelist as well as more images are available on our website, but here's a few to whet your appetite. The exhibition is on till 29 November and is our penultimate show for the year, so do try to come on down!

Photography by Richard Brockett

Introducing... Irene Grishin-Selzer

Two features on two great makers! What a bumper week.

Keeping in tune with our extensive coverage, this week Introducing... presents a conversation with Irene regarding the work in her current exhibition Love You More Than Life. For those of you who have missed our earlier posts on the exhibition, be sure to have a read of the illuminating catalogue essay (authored by Ramona Barry), a peek at the various works (skulls and bears) on display, and don't forget to seek out the subtler details in the exhibition.

The exhibition Love You More Than Life centres around love and death, was there a particular catalyst to the theme, or was it a natural decision?
I’ve always been interested in the strange set up that we inherit- that of Life and death in general, and to me love is the stuff wedged in between both which makes life interesting and death perplexing.

Do you have a favourite piece in the exhibition?
I think the gold skull - Just Like Honey - because it was the hardest and most expensive to make. I wanted it to be super shiny but also textured and worn in places so it didn’t look mechanical. It was a huge relief when it came out of the kiln on its final firing.

When did you decide it was the right time to devote yourself full time to your label?
The right time to devote myself to my label didn’t really feel like a choice. I had a HECS debt and a Masters in art so I wasn’t qualified for any 'real jobs' and it was killing me doing uncreative work. It was hard to let go of my final part time job, but it just wasn’t practical to keep it anymore. It was also very hard when I had to do everything myself, but now I have really great people working with me I can be more creative. I still really enjoy the process of making new work and its very grounding making a business work day to day.

Iggy and Lou Lou has achieved such great success! What have some of the highlights been so far? Was it surreal seeing Nicole Ritchie in Nylon magazine decked out in one your necklaces?
Highlights are being able to travel and meet people who really get into my work on the other side of the world. Yes, its always a bit weird seeing people who are well known wear my work, it just shows how small the world really is. But somehow I still get more of a kick when I see someone wearing a piece when I’m just walking down the street. I feel like they are wearing it because they love it not just because someone has told them that its cool.

Do you differentiate between your jewellery range and sculptural pieces?
I see my sculptural work and jewellery as very different. Obviously just on a time scale, much more time goes into making a sculpture than a piece of jewellery. I often wish I didn’t have the need to make sculptures because they take so much time and effort emotionally and physically, but the desire to make them is always too strong to forget about.

When you were younger, what did you be when you grew up?
When I was little I wanted to be a scientist who made perfumes.

And where do you see yourself in five years?
I don’t try to see myself in 5 years, it feels weird.

Get Into Art! this Sunday

This Sunday 26 October, CVHQ will open its doors for the Get Into Art! open day organised by the Public Galleries Association of Victoria. We will be open from 11am to 4pm and Gallery 3 exhibitor Anna Davern will be giving a talk from 12pm. This talk is free and no bookings are required.

As part of the open day, CVHQ along with 5 other galleries in the CBD have joined forces to provide a cultural passport. Visit three of the participating venues, get your passport stamped and stand a chance to win a fabulous prize! You can come pick up a passport from CVHQ as well as the other galleries which are:

• City Museum at Old Treasury
• Ian Potter Museum of Art – University of Melbourne
• NGV International – 180 St Kilda Road
• The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia – Federation Square
• State Library of Victoria

Please note that we will only stamp your passport on Sunday. No requests for pre-emptive stamping please, and no bribing either! After all, we are Craft Victoria, not Crafty Victoria.

For full event details including information on events in regional galleries, please click here

Get into Art! open day is also your last opportunity to see the current exhibitions, so do try to pop in sometime soon and have a peek and see for yourself the wonderful work on display.

Fresh Goods: No bones about it

With the fabulous array of skulls in Gallery 1 at the moment, it's no wonder that yours truly is suddenly smitten with all things skeletal. We thought we'd round up a special skull and bones edition of Fresh Goods for your enjoyment (and ours too actually).


Perennial favourite Tim Fleming and his reversible perspex skulls - pink on one side and mirrored on the other. You might say they are 'two-faced', hehe!


A pair of Caracus earrings by Fiona Watkins (you can read more about this lovely lady here). Don't the little skulls remind of Día de los Muertos? (which is the Mexican holiday - Day of the Dead). The earrings are propped up on the aforementioned skull. Mmm... multi-functional.


New porcelain bones from Gregory Bone-asera. OK it's actually Gregory Bonasera, yours truly couldn't resist! Resting on them is an Iggy and LouLou skull pendant, and on the left a pair of complementary skull cufflinks.

And of course, Emerge leather skull keyrings carefully crafted by Emma Greenwood. You'll never lose your keys with these dangling off them. You won't want to!

Skull-king around

As promised, here are some images from Irene's lovely exhibition in Gallery 1. The show was recently featured in The Age's Good Weekend Saturday magazine - we do love a bit of attention! There are still a couple of weeks left till the end of the exhibition, so there's plenty of time to come have a look at these works in the flesh (pardon the pun).

Love You More Than Life (white), 2008

Just Like Honey, 2008

If We Get Much Closer I Could Lose Control, 2008

Come Down and Waste Away With Me, 2007

Ivy, 2008

Ivy (detail), 2008

When you do drop by, do have a peek inside the skulls as most of them have hidden decals in their interior. The detail above is a shot of the inside of Ivy, carefully taken by yours truly by taking the photograph through the eye socket. Crafty!

Irene Grishin-Selzer

For those of you not in the know (if so, see previous post!) we recently had an exhibition opening featuring three individuals very dear to CVHQ. First up in Gallery 1 we have Irene Grishin-Selzer whom many of you may recognise from her Iggy and Lou Lou jewellery and homewares range. In her current exhibition entitled Love You More Than Life, Irene takes on the skull and teddy bear motif, recreating them in her own special way.

So for all of you can't make it down here, here is the eloquent catalogue essay written by Ramona Barry to accompany Irene's exhibition. Don't forget to check back with us in a bit - we'll have images up and ready for your perusal soon. Can't have too much of a good thing all at once!

The art of Irene Grishin-Selzer

There can be no doubt that the ultimate human emotion is love. The sculptural work of ceramic artist Irene Grishin-Selzer explores not only our overwhelming desire to live in that other worldly state of being ‘in love’ but the ultimate consequence of living such a life – that death must follow and with it comes loss. As love transcends both time and mortality we can find comfort and beauty in our mourning and celebrate our euphoria in the living.

The teddy bear – long a symbol of innocence, affection, attachment – hangs uncharacteristically posed en masse – their gold hearts spilling out onto the walls and floor. Sad but strangely attractive these little bears can either repel or attract the viewer. Perhaps drawn to a single individual (what is its own particular heartache?) or be confronted by the sheer number of bears which can appear as if they are floating. The title ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ (aside from the more obvious pop culture reference) explores the idea of being torn between the temporal, or rational, and the divine. The firing of soft paste porcelain captures a poignant moment – the ‘little deaths’ of those who gave love.

Skulls are long time heroes of the art world and Grishin-Selzer has used the motif repeatedly since her masters in 2001 to reflect on the relationship between life, love and death. In sculptural form these grinning visages are decorated with pretty decals of butterflies and flowers, images of fleeting but beautiful life, or riddled with heart cut outs.

The humour in the macabre is never too far away. Despite the seriousness of the subject Grishin-Selzer plays with the duality of darkness and light as a way of perhaps coping with the weightier aspects of her subject matter. She acknowledges a kind of self-conscious melodrama ever present in her/our musings on things that are beyond our control.

As a way of acknowledging the melodrama and cliché within the world of love and death the work also plays with elements of kitsch. From the pop culture title references, the familiarity of the stuffed bear and skull motif and (the ultimate cliché) the ornament. It honours our desire to mark both occasion and interior with representations of love and life by elevating them into objects of acute beauty. Their highly decorated and polished surfaces seducing us, making us fall in love all over again.

There are many threads that can be drawn together throughout the work – from Russian folklore, modern philosophy, the heartache found in a love song, interpretation of current events, even your own personal story of love and loss. As humans we have certain things in common, a fear of death, a desire to live, and the need to love. A life without love is not worth living.

Indeed without love what would we then mourn or celebrate?