“All in together girls, never mind the weather girls…”
The Salon des femmes are a coterie of passionate artists, all alumni from the Dunedin School of Art, who get together in community collaboration and exhibitions.
Check out the website for our latest collaboration.
Salon des femmes is a group of like-minded alumni from the Dunedin School of Art who seek to actively engage in group collaboration and exhibitions. Hellcats was their inaugural show held at the Dowling St Studios, November 2013
For more information on the artists involved and their shows see the website.
other echoes at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens
‘other echoes’ – a group show curated by Jamie Hanton in association with the Blue Oyster Art Project Space with support from the Dunedin Botanic Gardens and the Dunedin City Council.
The artists involved in the show created interventions within chosen spaces of the Gardens. Cath Cocker’s ‘playful’ Watershed was situated near the children’s playground while Clare Fleming chose the Eucalyptus tree section to comment on her trans Tasman connections. Charlotte Parallel introduced mini man-made mineral laboratories able to withstand arid conditions in the rock garden, while the information centre was inhabited with the ornithological study of a ‘rare’ bird by Nina van der Voorn.
My work, Midden life crisis, was situated inside the herb garden. A one metre, circular pit was dug out and filled with the gasified, charcoal remains of seeds. For the duration of the show, the pit was constantly monitored and topped up with the cyclic harvest and charcoal making of more seeds as they came to fruition. The herb garden allows for sampling and so I expected some seeds would be taken away or would be subjected to the elements. Their delicate composition meant they also crushed easily. The two month long exhibition made me acutely aware of the changing seasons in being on the constant lookout for ripened seeds. I saw this work as a sustainable project that reflects on human dependence and finite use of fossil fuels and the desperate need to take action in seeking alternative energy sources.
Installation in the herb garden
Midden life crisis, 2013. The week after the opening
On the opening day of the exhibition which coincided with the Garden’s 150th celebrations, I held a charcoal drawing workshop with my home made charcoal. It was a fun day with messy, black fingers everywhere!
Midden life crisis (detail)
Midden life crisis, 2013
Group show of artist and scientist collaborations
The Brain Health Centre, Hunter Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin – 22 July – 9 August 2013
A collaboration along with scientist Dr Lucia Schoderbock and artist Kristin Peren
Slide 1
Baby’s first steps…or the scent of jonquils as a harbinger of spring… these are memories we treasure in life that connect our past to the present and define our identity. But what happens when memories fade – seized through brain injury or disease and get frozen in time? Both Kristin and Marion grew up in a period when family slide shows were a nostalgic reminder of days gone by. The Slide series revisions the slide format with manipulated images sourced from Lucia’s research on adult neurogenesis in memory formation and retrieval.
Our senses were filled with wonder, free to wander, to imagine.
Slide 4 in mount
Images 46 x 69cm digitally printed on Hahnemeule paper. Edition of five. Framed 100 x 100 cm
Lucia gave us the opportunity to photograph her laboratory slides through the microscope. These images relate to her research on the rescue of memory after brain injury. The encounter was both insightful and hopeful. This was a fascinating and surreal experience resulting in a printed series of manipulated images.
A detail of Lucia’s slide showing neurons in the brain
See the EyeContact review.
Traversing interdisciplinary boundaries each artist in BOY BAND has employed a suitcase to encapsulate a poignant idea or moment in their candidature. Though distinct the art works meld together in the vitrine and emphasise the cohabitation and collaboration required during this interment but also suggests the singular and isolating nature of participating in a master’s program. – Rachel Allan
BOY BAND – Self Titled Album is situated within the diminutive V-Space, in Otago University’s Robertson Library that, for me, expands on Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise (Box in a Valise). Working with found objects, each artist has in some way responded to the use of a suitcase that suggests that their research is not terminated at the end of their programme but has the capacity to venture into further fields of discovery.
Boy Band Self Titled Album
News of the World is a response to the News International phone hacking controversy that exposed corruption and bribery in the British press and the consequent closure of the ‘News of the World’ publication after 168 years in print. Carbon and the dust jacket are all that remains of the book titled ‘Journalism’. The carbonised book rests on the Yellow Pages which mirrors the colours of the dustjacket slipped into the pocket of the briefcase. White collar, professional journalism is in the business of investigating and reporting and of holding others to account – The News of the World failed when it came to itself.
News of the World – detail
News of the World, 2013
Carbonised book, dust jacket, Yellow Pages, briefcase
In April 2013, senior students and staff from the DSA Print Laboratory took off for a camping experience and print workshop to my rustic ‘Goatshed’ crib in Kyeburn Diggings, Central Otago. I had recently completed my Masters so it was a good distraction while I awaited my results.
Large scale collagraphs were produced using backing boards rescued from the closure of the Trents spice, herb and baking goods processing plant in Dunedin and recycled cardboard. Day one out on the lawn was sunny and warm so good progress was made on assembling the collagraphs. The temperature turned and down came the rain that evening so day two was spent printing on top of the pool table inside to great results. Thanks go to Neil Emmerson for organising the project and Steev Peyroux for his technical support.
Art Heroes 2013, collagraphs printed on cotton fabric, 120 x 100 cm
The prints were displayed hanging from a clothesline at the DSA Print Studio and at the ‘Audacious’ event, Sargood Centre. The works have been sewn together into a large banner and have been sent to MIT, Auckland for another showing.
Images below of the workshop in action. Featuring, in descending order, collagraphs by Georgia Shearer-Schultz, Tom Ellison (FHDW), Steev Peyroux, Lynn Taylor and Sophie Prinselaar-Smith
The surrealist cut
This is not a pipe
Monet captures the light
Jeanette Winterson ponders another world.
Andy Warhol ‘between the sheets’
‘Art Heroes’ installation view with the Audacious team
‘Art Heroes’ installation view
The ‘Art Heroes’ project installation at the Sargood Centre, formerly the Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Marion Wassenaar 