Reduce, Reuse, Relax at Queensland Museum’s bespoke 60’s celebration

The Queensland Museum’s Collectors Café will transform into a 60s haven featuring 60s inspired furniture and salvaged signs, projections, music and vintage fashion models at the bespoke launch on Friday 24 August from 5:30pm.

Created by Brisbane's iconic hive of salvaged materials, Reverse Garbage, this unique furniture showcase highlights that one person's trash really is another person's treasure.

The bespoke designer space will also feature the bold work of artist Al James, who produces poetic textual assemblages composed from salvaged scrap road signs. 

The unique and sustainable furniture on display has been handmade using materials salvaged from Brisbane's waste stream. Every piece used to make the furniture has a story.

Reverse Garbage designers Brooke Nelson and Bill Ennals said they were committed to using as much salvaged material as possible in their designs, promoting re-use through giving unwanted and discarded material a new lease on life, and, a new story to tell.

Al James said his wordy artworks spring from a love of the iconography and vernacular of signage and public language at large.

“They celebrate the visual and verbal elegance, the inherent beauty and wisdom—or otherwise—of the humble sign,” Al said.

The bespoke opening night will also showcase one-of-a-kind work by esteemed designer Richard Park from Blok Furniture featuring fabric designed by Queensland’s own Florence Broadhurst.

The August bespoke installation runs until 24 September and celebrates the iconic 1960s Brisbane designer Gwen Gillam, showcased in a new exhibition on show at Queensland Museum from 2 August. For more information go to: www.gwengillam.qm.qld.gov.au

Every month, bespoke showcases unique locally designed furniture crafted from sustainable or reclaimed materials. Visitors are encouraged to use the furniture, relax and discover the diverse stories of Queensland furniture design embedded within the bespoke space.

Designers interested in being involved can contact 07 3840 7554 or email pr@qm.qld.gov.au

Melbourne exhibition: Kindness/Urdata: Australia-India Cultural Exchange

Those in Melbourne are invited to drop by the RMIT Gallery to see Kindness/Udarta: Australia-India Cultural Exchange.
 
117 artists and writers have contributed to this exhibition, which celebrates 20 years of Australia-India Council Cultural Projects. The exhibition is currently on display and closes on August 5.
 
An evening of literature, visual art, and music will be held on 2 August 6-8pm to celebrate 20 years of the Australia–India Council’s cultural program (details below). Please RSVP to (03) 9925 1717 or rmit.gallery@rmit.edu.au.

Artist Mandy Ridley says: "The invitation to contribute to Kindness / Udarta: Australia-India Cultural Exchange was the catalyst to making new work and became an opportunity to reflect upon the great kindness I have been gifted whilst in India." There is more information about Mandy's experiences in India in the attached link: http://www.melbournereview.com.au/read/515/.

{ART} WRITE Program

The {ART} WRITE program is a series of free talks on art writing presented by Eyeline Publishing and the QUT Art Museum. There are three sessions remaining - RSVPs are essential.

{ART} WRITE #3

The pitch: Pitching to magazines and working with editors

Tuesday 21 August, 6–7 pm

QUT Art Museum

Free

Join industry professionals Louise Martin-Chew (mc/k art consulting) and Sarah Follent (Eyeline Magazine) as they reveal their methodologies of pitching an idea or article to publications and working with editors.

RSVP essential 07 3138 5370 or artmuseum@qut.edu.au

 

{ART} WRITE #4

#SM&B: Social media and blogging in the arts

Tuesday 4 September, 6–7 pm

QUT Art Museum

Free

Join industry professionals Tess Maunder (The Maximilian) and Fiona Crawford (A Girl Called Fred) in sharing their knowledge and experience of blogging and social media in the arts, how to use it wisely, and its importance in the way we consume and promote the arts.

RSVP essential 07 3138 5370 or artmuseum@qut.edu.au

 

{ART} WRITE #5

Copyright: Copyright for writers and artists

Tuesday 23 October, 6–7 pm

QUT Art Museum

Free

Are you a budding artist or writer? It is important to know what your intellectual property rights are and also how to be sure you aren't infringing on other's rights. Join industry professionals, Anne Fitzgerald (The Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic QUT) and the Australian Copyright Council, to discuss these issues.

RSVP essential 07 3138 5370 or artmuseum@qut.edu.au

Melbourne exhibition: 'Wearable Cities' by Blanche Tilden

Wearable cities is a solo exhibition by Blanche Tilden. The exhibition will be launched on July 31 at Gallery Funaki in Melbourne from 6-8pm.

Modernism’s dreams of the future may have become the stuff of our past, but through her jewellery, Blanche Tilden recognises in its most utopian moments an idea which still has the power to enchant us: that of a building made of glass. Her pieces are not emptily nostalgic objects, however. Rather, we might read in them a new idea about our relationship with built spaces: her structures reverse the traditional idea of a building as an envelope for bodies and instead, propose a relationship in which the body carries her structures with it, a sort of talisman for a contemporary nomadic life in which the webs of glass and silver create small prisms of light, not quite material, and resonant with our own dreams of other possible futures.
Anne Brennan
Artist, writer & Head of Art Theory Workshop, ANU School of Art.
2010

Clayton Utz Launch Art Award

Clayton Utz is proud to support the Arts through the Clayton Utz LAUNCH Art Award. The Award offers a $10,000 winner's prize and exhibition space for the finalists and is awarded to Queensland-based artists or artists with a strong connection to Queensland.

Entries close on 24 August, with finalists announced on 10 September. The winner will be announced on 4 October.

This year's judge will be multi award winning artist Michael Zavros.

Visit the website www.claytonutzartaward.com.au  for full details and online entry.

2012 MBFF 'Behind the Seams' Tour

Artisan in conjunction with Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival is delighted to announce the return of the Behind the Seams studio tour evening.

Behind the Seams is a guided tour of Queensland’s leading fashion studios where attendees have the opportunity to see designers in their working environment first-hand.

Designers participating in this year’s Behind the Seams include:

• George Wu
• Ash to Gold
• Ruby and Prankster
• The Stitchery Collective

Date: Tuesday, 28th August 2012

Location: artisan, 381 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley

(The tour will begin and end at artisan's Fortitude Valley design store)

Tickets: $65 per person (includes drinks, light dinner and transportation) To book your tickets, email info@artisan.org.au or call (07) 3215 0800.

See the invitation to the 2012 Behind the Seams tour here

Click here to download the Behind the Seams itinerary

Click here to visit the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival website

For more information on the designers, visit our website.

Profile: The Cathy Freeman Foundation

The Converse Blank Canvas Project auction of Converse Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers customized by leading Australian artists and designers will run at www.32auctions.com/BlankCanvas until 26 July. All proceeds of the auction will go to the Cathy Freeman Foundation. 

Established by Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman in 2007, the Cathy Freeman Foundation aims to ensure that young Indigenous Australians have the same opportunities and education as other young Australians.

The 2005 Australian Bureau of Statistics Report ‘The Health and Welfare of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ found a strong correlation between Aboriginal education, employment, and health. This supports the Foundation’s focus on education as a crucial intervention point.

The Foundation works with the Palm Island community, one of Australia’s largest Indigenous communities and the birthplace of Cathy Freeman’s mother and grandparents. The island population of about 3,800 includes approximately 1,000 school-aged Indigenous children. Challenges faced by the community include unemployment, poor literacy, truancy, and low graduation rates.

The Cathy Freeman Foundation believes that by working with the community and key partners to improve educational opportunities and outcomes, the problems within the Palm Island community can be overcome.

Funding from corporations, trusts, foundations, and donations are vital to the ongoing positive contributions by the Cathy Freeman Foundation to the Palm Island community.

By becoming a winning bidder on any of the Converse Blank Canvas Project shoes, your money will help the Foundation, and in turn the residents of Palm Island, to continue to close the education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children.

You can read more about the Cathy Freeman Foundation at the website  - http://www.cathyfreemanfoundation.org.au/.

The Regional Arts Worker's Directory

Are you an artist or art worker who is willing to work in regional Queensland, either now or in the future?

The Regional Arts Worker's Directory has been developed to enable people living in regional Queensland to choose from a variety of skilled arts workers when arts workshops or programs are required in their community.

It is hoped that this resource will also promote employment opportunities for all Queensland arts workers across all art forms, including music, dance, theatre, and visual arts, and raise the profile of their important an specialised skills.

The first Regional Arts Worker's Directory was produced in May 2012 as an A5 booklet. The second edition will be produced by the end of October 2012. The directory will also be available on the Artslink Queensland website in November.

If you are interested in being included in the next edition of the Regional Arts Worker's Directory, email Valeska Wood on Valeska.Wood@artslinkqld.com.au to request an Expression of Interest form.

Queensland Regional Art Awards 2012

A quick reminder.....

If you haven't already entered, there is not much time left:

  

Closing 13 July -  Queensland Regional Art Awards 2012

The Queensland Regional Art Awards is an annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland. The program aims to highlight the wealth of creative talent located outside the capital city and provide a platform for further professional development.

The theme for 2012 is ‘the essential character of Queensland’. Artists can choose to reflect or reinterpret the State’s icons, which may include aspects of its diverse and distinct landscape or a depiction of unique individuals, places or landmarks that are significant to a community or the state. Artists may also choose to explore the theme by responding to recent or historic events that have shaped the State, including man-made and natural events.

Awards

• The Wayne Kratzmann Art Prize $7000 total value, Incl. $5000 cash prize, acquisitive, plus a two week residency in Brisbane
• Xstrata Young Artist Development Award* $5000 cash award; non-acquisitive
• Art Shed Brisbane People’s Choice Prize $750 art supplies
• AFTA Textile Prize value $1200 prize package Incl. scholarship and airfare to attend the annual TAFTA forum
• Digital Art Award* $2500 value Incl. two weeks fully funded residency at ‘The Edge’ Brisbane

Exhibition

All entries will feature in the Flying Arts online gallery and be eligible for the People’s Choice Prize. The judging panel will view all entries and shortlisted works will be freighted to Brisbane for final judging. The prizes will be awarded and a selection of works will be chosen by the curator to tour throughout Queensland in 2013.

ENTRIES CLOSE 13 July

For more information and entry forms CLICK HERE

Or contact the Program Coordinator. Email: projects@flyingarts.org.au Phone: 3216 1322

Reboot feature: the 2011 NIKE MAG

In September 2011, Nike released a very special limited edition shoe. Only 1500 pairs were released for public purchase. The shoe was the Nike Mag, a replica of the one made famous in 1989's Back to the Future Part II. 

The 1500 pairs were sold by eBay auction and raised over $4 million, which went to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

In the movie, the shoes were worn by Marty McFly in the way-off future of...2015. These ones might be a few years early, but we're glad they landed in time for Reboot: Function, Fashion and the Sneaker. 

You can visit them at the artisan gallery until August 16. Here they are taking a spin on opening night.

Photographs and video taken by Leon Fitzpatrick.