winter symposium 2011....

Only a few days until I have to head off on my annual sojourn to university.... I know I shouldn't whine - I only have to take my body off to uni for a couple of days each year - it shouldn't be too onerous eh? welllllll I guess it wouldn't be, if only I liked leaving my creek home!!!!! (which I most definitely DO NOT!!!!)


ahhhh me!

I have been preparing small sections of my latest BIG booky project to keep my fingers busy in between all the presentations.... I think better when my fingers are kept busy....

This week I've been working on my presentation. I like to be VERY prepared.... so I have created a power point AND an i-photo album for i-pad  (this year I'm hoping to plug in either my i-pad or i-phone to the digi projector and take it from there). In order for my talk to seem quite fluid and natural, I don't write a formal speech as such, instead I practice what I want to say over and over again, refining the contents and then I write a few notes to use as prompts... The public speaking part of presenting actually doesn't faze me at all, but that's because I DO prepare so damn thoroughly!

I just wish there was a way for me to prepare for leaving my kidlins behind, or avoid the guilt factor of leaving my partner to shoulder a huge workload in my absence... and how to avoid the shocking homesickness I experience every time I leave my creek home...

I'm never going to be a worldly vagabond traveller...

I'm just a simple creek girl who doesn't like to be away from her creek home.....


....

piercing and binding

 I've started to pierce all the sections that have white spines....

I'm still cutting and folding and bundling encyclopaedia pages (so many yet to do) but I have hatched a cunning plan to start binding this monster.... as I will be commencing the binding with the sections that sport the purest white spines - I've got enough of these already stacked to let me start piercing and binding....

Today I start the binding....

ahead of me stretches months more of cutting and folding and bundling and sorting and piercing and sewing.....

slow work

...

still cutting, folding, bundling....

lots and lots of little bundles....

 

 roughly colour sorting as a cut and fold and bundle...

soon I will be able to start to pierce and bind.... 

the slow and quiet work continues

....

slow work...

long hours of quiet work...

cutting, folding, bundling, adding wood to the fire, cutting folding, bundling, watching old movies, listening to new podcasts, cutting, folding, bundling, helping with kiddies homework, listening to deadly trombone practice, cutting, folding bundling, moving lap cat,  cutting, folding, bundling, thinking, breathing, loving process....

cutting, folding, bundling...

changes....

I've recently got word that my super supervisor Susan Purdy is going on extended leave and as a result Rodney Forbes (head cheese of Art and Design at Gippsland) is taking over supervision of my research project..... so I expect a few hiccups in the transition...

oh and in a couple of weeks its time to head off to the annual winter symposium in Churchill.... time to get all my arty bits together (and give the car a service... its looooooong trip through the boonies..... and to get seek out some winter thermals.... it's mighty ccccccool in Churchill in June...)


I've started preparing encyclopaedia pages for an new (big) booky project -

hopefully I'll have enough bits prepared to take along to uni and, like last year, I'll be able to fill in my 'downtime' with a bit of binding.....


....

tumblr

I have just set up my little table in the tumblr universe for this research project...

my tumblr site is bookron



With this site I'm experimenting with the ways in which tumblr's micro-blogging (and in particular the reblogging of information that seems auxiliary to this project's focus) may operate within my arts practice. Blogging has long been something that I do as a natural extension of my life/art.... but I haven't found a way in which to fully exploit that for 'codex infinitum' - perhaps tumblr will be the way.....

I can imagine how my tumblr site might be understood as an art piece (of sorts) all on its own... operating as a curated showcase of book-information.... nicely presented to the public, for public perusal and dissemination.... and that's something I find very interesting. Likewise I have long held that a blog can be understood as a book (of sorts) - and the looping of information that occurs in tumblr certainly upholds the 'infinitum' part of my project title....


only trial and experimentation will show whether or not it may be included as part of my completed project...






...

sculpture on the edge speaking gig.... monumental v/s ephemeral.

I've just wheeled home from a talking gig at Sculpture on the Edge.... I was one of the key note speakers at the sculpture symposium and this years theme was 'Monumental v/s Ephemeral - the changing face of sculpture'

phew! them's fighting words!

I was invited by Jan Ireland (the force behind SotE) to speak - obviously representing team ephemeral... I thought it might be useful to jot down something of what I said (I did not present a completely formal 'paper' or closed speech - I tend to write a few notes to myself - to keep me on track and to highlight specific wordings that I fancy... so this is a slightly modified version of what I hope I presented! - including a few of the pics from my powerpoint that I used to highlight my cause.

My name is Rhonda Ayliffe... and just in case you suspect you are alone in are scratching your head and wondering what I might be doing talking about sculpture -  fear not - I'm surprised too. Generally, when asked I explain my art-making - I say I have an inter-disciplined practice (this way no one medium or arts practice has to take the blame for what I do!)

I'd like to start by briefly saying - I'm not convinced about the wording of this year's theme.... 'monumental VERSUS ephemeral'? 'the CHANGING face of sculpture'? really? I think this is something of a misnomer....

arguably humans have always made ephemeral art objects.... and ephemeral works have certainly existed alongside monumental, monolithic sculptural works... and long after monumental works are no longer viable, I suspect the ephemeral will carry on. There is nothing either new, nor changing about the ephemeral and today  I will be talking about an idea I'm currently exploring through making.... and how/where the ephemeral sits within my practice.

First - lets think about some definitions for the purpose of my chat.... 
monumental = BIG, (be that in size, scale, or money) permanent (think stone, metal, clay)
ephemeral = fleeting, impermanent... (oh and I'll add something else to this as we go on)...

for now I'd like you all to cast your minds back.... imagine eras/ages/civilisations/countries from long ago.... Egypt, Mesopotamia, Inca, Mayan Aztec, Ancient China, Greece and Rome... (do I need to go on?)

Now as I rattled each of these off, I'm sure that many had immediate visions ..... and I'll bet there has been some overlap with what I'm about to show
(ahhhhh enter an abundance of power-point images... of pyramids, the sphinx, large stone sculptures, stepped pyramids of the Mayans, Greek marble human forms.....)

I contend that monumental sculptural work (and I include here the ultimate monumental sculptural form - architecture) has gone hand in hand with the rise and rise of an empire... or what is considered civilisation.... so lets think of the pattern that has repeated itself in all these ages and geographic locations.... as military leaders or religions or economies have risen to power, with it gaining access to a wealth of resources... so we have seen the emergence and ascent or monumental sculpture. 


and what is the purpose of all this large, permanent monolithic structures? garden ornaments? 

hardly!

monumental sculpture made a monumental statement about power.... be that political, military, economic or cultural domination - make no mistake, dominant powers celebrated and consolidated and reflected their dominion through monolithic structures : monumental sculpture was part-propaganda, part-PR, but always ALL about power.

even as the Renaissance saw both the rise of the merchant class and the idea of the artists as individual genius, the monumental art game continued. On and on - unto the Industrial revolution (now the real game of colonisation on a grand scale could begin... and so to could artists quest for ever bigger hunks of metal) 

sculpture we can see became a tool of colonisation - and then globalisation, the icon of so-called 'taste' or 'class', the weapon of the wealthy, the spoils of the battle... 

monumental sculpture uses monumental amount of materials and money.... to make a monumental statement about - well...  monumental power and greed

given enough resources - heck an artist can even move mountains (think Turrell and Roden crater) - or create a fitting bauble for the bling-bling art collector...

BUT

just as monumental sculpture has been the centre-piece and sentinel of cultural domination... so too do they serve as monument and remnant of cultural demise. 

what then of the ephemeral?

first I'd like to put ephemeral into two piles - just because something is impermanent doesn't mean that it's not monumental in scale, resource-use or money....

Chirsto and Jean-Claude's wrapping of Little Bay is a spectacular example of what money, (arty) muscle and a bevvy of willing minions can accomplish.... go forth young people! dominate that landscape (bugger the crabs and little creatures!)

nope, I'm thinking about the other pile of ephemeral - I'm thinking about work that is less complicit in purpose and product than Christo and (puppy) Koons and co. with the dominant art paradigms

 I'm thinking about ...

* work that touches the earth lightly (Richard Long, Hamish Fulton and more)


* work that engages with the environment and creates a dialogue or sorts (Nash and more)

* work that exists beyond the gallery or museum (guerilla knitters and more)


* or extends into the practical (artist-as-family and chaco kato's compost cylinders from CERES)

 

all this provides fodder for my practice and is the leading edge of my thinking and making....

'closed book' circle - and installation of encyclopaedias, local rock, and brick... 

Bermagui headland - SotE 2011

 a flotilla of paper encyclopaedia boats - ephemeral art work,

(non-sanctioned SotE 'event')

Bemagui, 

Saturday March 5 2011

.......