Dawn Tan

Hi! I'm Dawn. I live in Melbourne. I spend a lot of my time eating and cooking. I love food so much, it makes me make art out of it.

I create drawings and soft sculptures out of fabrics, choosing packaging I'm drawn to. But ultimately, the reason for creating food related art, comes from my intrigue with how packaged food is taking over natural, organic food. The idea of consumption becoming obsessive, how traditional made-from-scratch meals are now replaced often by instant colourful packaged food, serves as a basis for much of the work I create

Poly Verity

http://www.polyscene.com/

Joana Vasconcelos

 

http://www.joanavasconcelos.com/ 

Born in Paris in 1971.  Lives and works in Lisbon.  

Artist Statement

The site-specific interventions in the public art domain assume special relevance in the artist's work.  Some of Joana Vasconcelos' most important public art interventions are: La Theiere, Le Royal Monceau, Paris (2010); Sr.Vinho, Mercado Municipal de Torres Vedras, Torres Vedras (2010); Jardim Bordallo Pinheiro, Jadim do Museu da Cidade, Lisbon (2008); Vitrine, Rua do Alecrim, no. 12, Lisbon (2008); Varina, Ponte D. Luis I, Porto (2008); The Jewel of the Tagus, Tower of Belem, Lisbon (2008); Donzela, Castelo de Santa Maria da Feira, Santa Maria da Feira (2007); Cactus, Forum Almada, Almada (2002).

The nature of Joana Vasconcelos' creative process is based on the appropriation, decontectualisation and subversion of pre-existent objects and everyday realities.  Sculptures and installations, which are revealing of an acute sense of scale and mastery of colour, as well as the recourse to performances and video or photographic records, all combine in the materialization of concepts which challenge the pre-arranged routines of the quotidian.  Starting out from ingenious operations of displacement, a reminiscence of the Ready-Made and the grammars of Nouveau Realisme and Pop, the artist offers us a complicit vision, but one which is at the same time critical of contemporary society and several features which serve the enunciations of collective identity, especially those that concern the status of women, class distinction or national identity.  From this process there derives a speech which is attentive to comtemporary idiosyncrasies, where the usual dichotomies of hand-crafted/industrial, private/public, tradition/modernity and popular culture/erudite culture are imbued with affinities that are apt to renovate the usual fluxes of signification which are characteristics of contemporaneity.

Guerra de la Paz

http://www.guerradelapaz.com/

Guerra de la Paz is the composite name that represents the creative team efforts of Cuban born artists, Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz- who live and work in Miami, Florida - and have been consistantly producing collaboratively since 1996. 

Artist Statement

Our work is based on a combination of traditional disciplines and experimentation with dimension and the use of unconventional materials.  It is inspired by an essential familiarity with the ready made and the archeological qualities that found objects possess.  Encapsulating an energy that reveals underlying meanings and depicts the significance of mass produced refuse on our society.

Through a common aesthetic, we create work with a universal message.  Using recycled objects as our medium and the guidance of the unrelenting amounts of information that fuels todays mass consciousness and it's subversive parallels.  Allowing us ways to reinvent historic themes and classic icons while still commenting on contemporary culture.

Our close proximity to the Pepe businesses that once thrived in Little Haiti has been a major source of inspiration.  Gaining access to an overubundance of discarded clothing - relics that once helped define an individual's personality and communally speak of environmental issues, mass consumption and disposability - opened the doors for us to working with garments as a material.  We often see ourselves as vehicles guided by their essence and silent histories.

Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor

http://www.elisabethhigginsoconnor.com/index.html

Jared Steffensen

http://www.jaredsteffensen.com/work.html

Jo Deeley

http://www.jodeeley.com/

UK based textile artist who studied Multi-Media Textile Design.

Artist Statement

I work with different textures and methods to create sculptural shapes and designs. I am particularly interested in making three dimensional fabrics using traditional methods, weaving, knitting, plaiting and knotting as well as more untraditional methods by folding and pressing fabric.

My ideas develop and change over different projects and are reactions to images seen and research built up in my sketchbooks. Pieces are often driven by the process or technique I am using, but I am also inspired by patterns and structures in nature as well as man-made buildings and constructions. I also use museums as a great source of information and learning which informs my work.

Kate Just

http://www.katejustart.blogspot.com/

Kate Just is an American-born Australian artist known for her process-based and tactile art practice involving knitted sculpture, mixed media sculpture, collage, digital print, and video.

In earlier, nature-inspired works, Just created elaborate, knitted figurative sculptures and environments to explore mythology and her own personal experiences. These included a tree with human arms and head, a woman descending into her backyard lawn, a corn field growing from a bed, and a woman turning into a laurel bush. In each, the seemingly appealing, vivid scene also communicated themes such as loss, transformation and the affinity of women with nature.

In more recent installations of mixed media sculpture and photo-collage works, Just mines archaeology, art history, symbology and religion to present viewers with a range of archetypal objects representing women's links with bodily space. These include a giant black egg hatching an ominous branch, a pink-tongued lotus plant, a triangular spider web, a group of glass vessels, collages of fictional surgical tools and a series of over-scaled clay-modelled, black keys.

Fiona Hall

http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/fionahall/

 
(b. 1953) is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists.

She first emerged in the 1970s as a photographer, but during the 1980s transitioned to using a diverse range of art forms.  Hall's choice of material, and the way she uses it, is critical to her art. Hall deliberately transforms ordinary everyday objects to address a range of contemporary issues such as globalisation, consumerism, colonialism and natural history.
 

In 1994, Hall's Biodata explored the social and political implications of trade. For Medicine bundle for the non-born child (1994), she knitted a baby's matinee jacket, bonnet and bootees from shredded Coca-Cola cans, attended by a six-pack of Coke cans with rubber nipples. It addresses notions of nurturing within our consumer society.

Catherine Hearse

http://www.leggegallery.com/HEARSE/Hearse2.html

Nick Cave

http://oddstrument.com/nick-caves-sound-suits/

Nick Cave, an artist and educator working out of Chicago, is the creator of full body “soundsuits” which are made from layers of metal, plastic, fabric, hair, found objects, and other things that rub together to make noise. Many of Cave’s soundsuits are politically/socially inspired and have deeper meanings than just looking fantastic and making rustle sounds.

Emily Bartletta

http://emilybarletta.com/home.html

American based artist who obtained a B.F.A. in Fibre Arts from The Maryland Institute College of Art 2003

Artist's Statement

 

My art began as a way to filter pain out of my body through my hands. The tedious and meditative processes of crochet and embroidery helped me to be mindful and present while carrying on. Since then each day has become a project in counting the hours and my artwork has become a record for the passage of time and events that occurred therein.
The repetitive gestures, marks, and shape building techniques accumulated and combined in mass create larger works. However I try to focus on the individual movement as it is happening and not plan what a piece will look like in the end. The materials have a way they want to naturally move and grow. It is futile to try and work against them by planning. I view each object I make as a physical container instilled with the memories and experiences that occurred while it was being made. Through my art I create imaginary machines that organically grow and pattern to reference flesh, blood, muscles, cells, plants, topography, molds, and diseases.
These artworks attempt to evoke emotions relating to pain, love, loneliness, and endurance. They attempt to dislodge and find comfort in the things you cannot recover from; the things that are waiting in the dark when the quiet nighttime comes rushing in.

Levi Van Veluw

http://www.levivanveluw.nl/

Lucy McRae

http://www.lucymcrae.net/

Bart Hess

http://www.barthess.nl/

Rachel De Joode

http://www.racheldejoode.com/art.html

Jade Pegler

http://www.jadepegler.net/


Wollongong, Australia
She works with paper and textiles combining a range of techniques including papiermache, bookbinding, hand and machine stitching, collage and origami.

Anja Maris

http://www.anjamarais.com/Anja_Marais_Sculptor.html

Jane Balsgaard

http://www.balsgaard.dk/

Simryn Gill

http://www.heide.com.au/Exhibitions/Simryn_Gill_Gathering