Monday, December 13, 2010

Inspiration for Monday morning!

Whilst visiting Abigail Doan's wonderful blog this morning I found two article's I wanted to post on here. Read about her at the greenmuseum.org. She describes herself as:

"a writer and environmental fiber artist residing in NYC and Europe. 
My eco-textile and art farming projects are a means to create sustainable 
solutions and visual links to the global challenges we collectively face."

 This eco-art blog I like to visit for inspiration featured artist Kevin Inkawhich some time ago and the Seed Project which I'll focus on  as well.








'Kevin Inkawhich crafts the most heart palpitatingly natural mobiles. Using dried leaves, seeds, pods, branches, and delicate wire armatures, his floating sculptural pieces make any room or exhibition space flutter with organicism. They are lyrical, resourceful, and an homage of sorts to the fact that the best design is always, in essence, nature-based.'



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Kevin Inkawhich

 Also at Abigail's blog:



Ruth Asawa in her San Francisco studio via Community of Creatives

this article below on Abigail Doan is well worth a read:

Returning to and from THE LAND: Connectivity and Crafting Residency




ABIGAIL DOAN

THE LAND/an art site is located eighty miles southeast of Albuquerque in the
pinon and juniper-scented foothills of New Mexico's Manzano Mountains. The pueblo mission ruins of Salinas National Monument are situated nearby, as is the train-whistle-punctuated town of Mountainair, the former pinto-bean capital of the world and the now faded hub of the Santa Fe Railway. As THE LAND's September 2006 artist-in-residence, I prepared myself for an immersive week of surveying and studying the unique characteristics of this remote art and conservation site.










all images form the Land Views site.

also from Landviews:

Abigail Doan is an environmental artist and activist. Her work has been exhibited in conjunction with the United Nation's Environment Programme, Art into Action/The Natural World Museum, and in group exhibits worldwide. Abigail is a contributing editor to Supernaturale.com, where she writes about art farming, craft, and the use of fiber in the landscape. She recently exhibited her 'Crocheted Snow' series at Lafayette College's Williams Center Art Gallery, in an exhibit called, "On Ice". Her work appears on Greenmuseum.org, in periodicals such as Knit Knit, and in the recently published book, Craftivity. Her 'Tumbleweeds' will be exhibited this April in the show, "Stretched Threads", at The Atlantic Center for The Arts in Central Florida. For more information on Abigail's projects, go toabigaildoan.blogspot.com.


NOW... the next thing I wanted to share found at Abigail's blog was this:



http://abigaildoan.blogspot.com/2007/04/seed-project.html



SeedHeader4.gif
watch this one minute video!

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Matthew Gehring


Monica Hernadez







Joan Fitsimmons





Gina Fuentes Walker - apple seeds







The Seed project began in 2006 by David Cohen, an installation artist.


The Seed project engages people all over the world plant to plant seeds creatively, creating individual art projects. The growth is then documented digitally. The digital images are compiled and placed together to form a “Virtual Field”  that can be seen  online. The components of the actual field exist in many separate places at once; sort of a diaspora of plants.
The plants can be grown freely in any configuration the planter chooses and the images can express the individuality of the grower as well. Planters are also free to choose to grow whatever seeds they choose. The three criteria are that the plants must be:

1 non-spreading,
2 non-invasive and
3 grown legally.
When a person participates by planting the seeds they become connected to a collective group of artists and activists. There are opportunities to meet potential collaborators and work creatively on other projects separate from the Seed Project. The seed becomes symbolic of these new collectives. 





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School project





Anyone can join in this seed project!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

counting the inheritance...




'counting the inheritance' -close up.

'Counting the inheritance' is the title of a work from the recent show that I painted some time back. It seemed a fitting title to a work that was a gesture to the seed banking of australian species... and this image above is a section of that work. In the Lab there is considerable counting of one kind or another... weighing, measuring... data entries... processes that are all part of the work behind the scenes for the Seed lab. Counting the inheritance is also a play on that standard idea of what makes an inheritance -  it challenges ideas of what matters, what we want to leave behind... what is valuable in the first place.

In the recently published book ' Homage to the Seed' I included a section on the Seed Lab at Mt Coot-tha, part of the QLD 'Seeds for life' - UK Millennium Seed Bank joint project. These pages are from that book and may be read in a larger format by clicking on each image. This a tribute to the people I collaborated with around that project over the year!

See other posts for more information or alternatively you may email for details.











For the past 5 months I've been working from the studio below and I included this heart-felt thank you to my kind sponsor in the book!










Thursday, December 9, 2010

Homage to the Seed residency show at Herbarium, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha



The Herbarium at Mt Coot-tha was the setting for the December exhibition of the residency artwork in 'homage to the seed'.


ARTIST'S BOOK FOR SALE




The book contained material from across the year ... covering the role of the seed lab and the collaboration with Jason Halford from the lab.... as well as touching on various other aspects of public engagement carried out during the project. There was an overview on the ideas and passion behind the project going back many years and material was also included on the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity that  'homage to the seed' did in part respond to.  Journal pages as well as artworks were included in this book along with an essay written by Kevin Wilson, director of Artworkers Alliance (see end of post for essay).

The following piece is an overview of painting in 2010 during the residency written for the book.


OVERVIEW

fossil seeds




Eucalyptus seed capsule



seeds and pods of Leopard tree



fossil seeds






'and the world was made fruitful'





'and the world became bright'






'continuum'







'infinite'





'archaic, yet reverberating still I'



'archaic, yet reverberating still II'



'from the nothing the abundance'




Essay by Kevin Wilson on the exhibition:





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