Gaps. Holes. Transitions.

Following the path of my experiments and research into faith I have reached a slightly odd place.
I am starting to look at holes.

Holes are interesting things, in the context that I am investigating, I find that holes are areas where there is a void... yes... but also holes can let things through.
Light.
Movement.
Space.
Looking for visual hooks I found some beautiful images, and a few other artists who work with holes.
Enjoy :)

Amy Friend is a photographer working with vintage photographs. Dare Alla Luce is a project where the artist re-works vintage photographs, manipulating them by poking tiny holes in them.

Her work reminds me of a series I did (years ago now) of jewellery working with constellations.

Cygnus Cross - Pendant (own work) 2007

 In fact, Friend's work has been compared to constellations...
I think here though, the holes also speak of fragility... of memory, of time, of place, of life.

Art work by Amy Friend.

Évelie Mouila is a French Jeweller and Graphic Designer. She's done a wonderful photographic series featuring thread on the human body, which she has then worked further by starting to drill tiny holes through the images. The "beads" of light form part of the jewellery on the body.

Photograph by Evelie Mouila

The works are very simple, and beautiful... sensual, and not just for being shot on the naked body. I think of them as sensual because of the way they wrap around the form of the model's body so well.

Mihoko Ogaki makes these beautiful sculptures of human forms, that act as projectors for light.

Mihoko Ogaki - from the Milky Ways series

Finding slippage.

Wrestling with philosophical concepts, and trying to figure out how to bring these into my new work is making me feel a bit like I am lost in a maze...
A few posts ago, I said that I would be sharing images and artists that may be influencing the next phase of my work. What is the next phase?
Foolishly, perhaps, I am endeavoring to explore ideas surrounding religion and science.
What?
Yeah.
This is such a wide subject, and as I mentioned in my last post, it's super easy to get distracted!

Science is so fascinating and so diverse, that each area I investigate seems to take me down a new rabbit hole.

This image, of a part of the Milky Way really needs to be viewed large scale to full get a sense of what you are looking at. The Hubble site is full of utterly amazing images of space that serve to illustrate how unbelievably tiny we are.
Talk about macro / micro ideas.... (phwoah!)

The ideas of religion and faith are controversial, beautiful and nostalgic, and while I personally am of a secular, scientific bent, I am also influenced by my love of magic, fairy tales and cultural traditions. And I love the visual material generated by religious festivals and icons...

This crucifix, loaded with crudely set gems, is labled: Ardennenkreuz (croce processionale), francia del nord o germania occ.le, 825-850 ca.  This is also typical of the style of work that I always imagined making as a child, and indeed, today I still cherish the thought that I might be able to create some form of talisman as weighty as this!

The things that I am trying to maintain a focus on are the personal, internal tensions created by a religious upbringing, and a scientific understanding (or at least, acceptance) of the universe.
The slippage between faith or a belief in something "other" and in the secular, scientific nature of the universe.

Timothy Horn is a sculptor who works with the idea of slippage. His work looks at "the meeting point between the natural and constructed worlds" (to quote from his Bio).

Gorgonia (detail) 2010, mirrored blown glass, nickel-plated bronze, 84 x 60 x 6 1/2 inches.
Private collection, La Jolla, CA

Building a fabbo website for the circus!

Being a creative in Wellington, New Zealand is a pretty good life.
Cold and windy though it may be for some of the time, the last few days have been pearlers! Dolphins hanging out the harbour adds to the charm...

I hope to use this blog to track some of the projects I am working on.
In this "current financial climate" (what a catch phrase - uttered with a sense of impending doom by the artists in the community around me) I really feel a need to focus on the positives of my life style, which, though it may not include a lot of cash, is culturally rich and incredibly satisfying and interesting.

So - to the world at large, I am very proud of this website that I put together for my partner's circus company Fuse Circus.
Check it out, it's real pretty! www.fusecircus.co.nz

If you don't know me, you need to know that I am not a carnie - a circus performer... I am jeweller.
It's been an interesting journey building a website. My personal skills are very detail focussed, so the code and the little things have been fine.

Currently I am working half and half on my own jewellery projects, and on the Fuse circus marketing... it's a balancing act in itself (that's not meant to be a pun) trying to keep a reasonable level of energy in both areas. The Circus stuff is like a never ending deadline of things to do, funding and sponsorship applications to make and media releases to put out.

My jewellery studio - Workspace Studios - is based in the Wellington Arts Centre. Its a great little comunity of artists, our studio has 7 people based in it currently, which makes for a busy place at times.

The circus is definately an inspiration for my own work, as I enjoy making work that is not your average jewellery... its more sculpture, or playful objects...

I am making work for Christmas sales at the moment, and planning a body of work for 2009 which is more sculpture and diorama-based. I hope to put up some images soon as I take them.

This one is a sculpture - called Reynard Rabbit -
he is made from antique fox fur and has little wooden arms... he is posed with "Magnetic Memory" - a necklace with magnetic iron sand, magnets and a magnifying lens.

Good fun!