Wednesday 20 July 2011

Two favourites from the Art Express exhibition

Back to our visit to Art Express, an exhibition of the best of last year's Higher School Certificate works. One of my favourite works was an astonishing drawing, worked in graphite on recycled library books.
Regretfully, I didn't get a photo of the work in its entirety. It was displayed at knee level and was roughly a metre square. Discarded library books were pieced together to form a 'recycled' dimensional canvas.
The artist purposely illuminated sentences from the books. Her drawings were beautiful, especially considering her chosen canvas. It is hard to believe these works are done by 17-year-olds. Amazing talent!
A second of my favourite pieces was 'The Good Wife's Guide'. This one made me smile! It is a clever series of photographs inspired by a set of 'housewife's rules' that the artist found in a 1955 issue of 'Housekeeping Monthly'.
From the artist: "These rules, placed on women by women, are my way of representing the impossibility of perfection and, through humour, deconstructing our futile struggle to achieve it."
The artist must have had a ball dressing up as a '50's housewife for the photographs. Although each image is so carefully composed and detailed that it must have take her an eternity. She also prepared a poignant video to accompany the stills. I have included a few of the panels for you to see. If you click on each image, it should be large enough for you to read. Enjoy!




10 comments:

  1. When my children was in year 12 I was amazed at the students artwork. They are so lucky to have the encouragement and support to pursue their dreams. It was a so different back when I went to school girls were nurses, teachers, secretaries. I went to school in the country and we didn't even have an art teacher.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for posting all of these. Amazing. Love the sketching! ...And glad I wasn't a wife in the 1950's....does make you smile

    ReplyDelete
  3. Must go and find my feather boa and hula hoop for when hubby gets home! :-) These artworks are amazing...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing art work. Those housewife's rules explain a lot about the person I was married to. The rather remind me of a geisha girl whose only job in life is to serve as handmaiden to men. Cherrie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for showing these, Bloom - they are truly wonderful. I have a secretarial manual from the 1950's that is written in a similar vein, eg always ensure your manager's ashtray is emptied before his day commences etc.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I took my Kidlets to see this in Dubbo....Just breath taking...skie's the limits!!!
    Cheers Nic

    ReplyDelete
  7. The artwork is beautiful! The drawings on the books are just amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my gosh, how would you even think of old books as a drawing surface, let alone produce such wonderful drawings on it? Love both of these. The housewife one is interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Those are some talented young adults! The book drawing piece is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That second set looks like it's by Dottie Attie (sp) - she's fantastic!!

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Blogging tips