2017 - a hectic year of TRYING

Wow, how is it already December!?

Apologies to my sadly neglected blog but this year has been a heck of a ride.

In looking back over all the things I've done and struggled with this year, I suddenly had a (mildly incensed) urge to write it all down and make sense of it before another year rolls around.

Let me paint a picture of the hectic year just gone.

→ I dyed a commissioned noren (split curtain) for an Australian Tea-master who lives up in Newcastle with his own tatami-floored tea-room. It's a homage to spring with magpies, which also happen to be the emblem of the area where he studied Tea.

privately commissioned Noren featuring Australian magpies

→ I started making textile jewellery that I've called tameshi, using trial dye samples and un-used edges from dyed works. These have been proving popular and I feel good about the fact that they are mini artworks in themselves and re-use fabrics that I would have thrown away or put in a box somewhere.

Tameshi jewellery - tameshi means sample or test. Available through stockists in Canberra and on my etsy store https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/someru

→ I sent work to a group show by dyeing artists in New York. As the only artist out of the group who wasn't Japanese, apparently people said mine looked the most Japanese! With all the deadlines for later in the year, I didn't manage to get to go the US to see the show but still, it felt like an achievement.

My series of 6 yuzen/katazome dyed works on display as part of "Wafting II" at Medialia Gallery in New York, June-July 2017

→ I participated in a four-day residency out at Tidbinbilla nature reserve thanks to Craft ACT. Four of us selected artists got to stay in a newly renovated cottage inside the reserve and spent four lovely sunny days at the tail-end of winter hiking in the bush, sketching, writing and sharing tales over cheese and wine.

The delights of early spring at Tidbinbilla - Gibraltar Peak, Early Nancy, Flame Robin.

→ I travelled to Japan and held a solo exhibition in Galerie H20 in Kyoto. My first solo show there in 4 and a half years, always a joy to be there and to catch up with so many friends and new connections.

entryway and Japanese garden at Galerie H20 in downtown Kyoto

view of solo show at Galerie h20, October 2017

→ Whilst in Japan I made time to visit and interview a bunch of great humans, friends new and old who are doing innovative and interesting dye-work. The plan is to write up a series of interviews from all the meetings and I've created a new project Somé 20:20 to house them and to move forward with. It's a reference to being able to see clearly - without acknowledging tradition how do we move forward? and how will dyeing art survive into the future, 2020 is just around the corner. A work in progress, my new website for the project is over at some-20-20.com

the wonderful people who agreed to be interviewed for my Somé 20:20 project.

→ I came back and setup another solo show at ANCA gallery in Canberra! The theme of my works this year have been "beautiful weeds", and I managed to create some new works that are really where I've been wanting to head for a while now; layered and sheer works that are a new form of collaged landscape.

Solo Exhibition "Naturescapes" at ANCA Gallery & Studios, Canberra, Oct-Nov 2017

detail of "The Beautiful Weeds of Canberra" series, on show at ANCA Gallery, Canberra

→ I ran workshops and demonstrations in dyeing at the 2017 Canberra-Nara Candle Festival. For the demonstrations, I dyed a massive 9 metre length of resist-printed cotton in one go while a crowd watched and revealed pattern and birds and text as I went. The workshops saw nearly 100 people dye their own kata-yuzen bookmark using pigments and stencils.

Kata-yuzen workshops and Hikizome demonstration at the Canberra Nara Candle Festival, October 28, 2017

→ I ran another afternoon of workshops on the last day of my exhibition, dyeing katazome postcards. Participants could dye pre-printed washi and wash away the paste to reveal the patterns. We had great warm weather and it was a lovely bunch of enthusiastic people who came along.

wonderful postcards dyed by participants, drying on the outside windows at ANCA

→ I even had an article published in the Kyoto Journal, on katagami stencils.

Kyoto Journal, a volunteer-run publication, making a return to print from this issue.
It's great! you can get your hands on a copy here

PHEW!

What this run-sheet doesn't show is the sleep-deprivation, self-doubt, expenses, rejection letters, missed deadlines, extensive preparations, hours spent at a day-job and the constant juggle.

On paper, (or in digital text, I suppose) this looks like a hugely successful year. In a sense it was.
But it was also really, really hard.
I don't think this level of productivity is sustainable, or even very enjoyable.
I also didn't really sell much art. Not through exhibitions.
Where I really made progress and, to some extent, a profit, was through connecting with like-minded people, through making custom pieces, through sharing affordable things, and through trying to promote the unique genre of Somé.
Which has me re-thinking my approach to all of this.

Given that my work places me in a sort of odd position in between ART, CRAFT & RESEARCH, (odd in the sense that I don't fall neatly into funding categories or job titles) I'm thinking that instead of struggling against that and trying to slot myself into prescribed categories, why not embrace it?

Can I be a CRAFTISAN?
Can I be a RESEARCHIST?
Can I be a CRAFTIST?

I'm tired of feeling like my specialties (being able to dye pictorial textiles, being interested in craft, being knowledgeable about tradition, having Japanese abilities -though not bilingual by any means, being interested in smaller, affordable art) are a liability, or something I need to adjust so I can be in the same game as everyone else. And of feeling like my particular set of skills don't add up to anything. When in fact they do! and they are a killer combination despite what the grants categories, arts bodies, or professional membership organisations would have me think.

So consider this my personal passion project for 2018; finding a way to be my own kind of craftisan, pursuing research and researching through making.

Thank you for putting up with the silence on this blog but do feel free to check in over at my website and project site to see what things I get up to in 2018.

Solo Exhibition Coming up soon! Somé: Dyeing the Australian Landscape

"Somé: Dyeing the Australian Environment" will be on show at the Japan Foundation Gallery in Sydney from August 13 to September 17!!

It's a large space to work with and it means I can show some of my older works alongside new ones - all incorporating varying ratios of Australian imagery x Japanese dyeing techniques. 

I titled the show "Somé : Dyeing the Australian Environment" to emphasise a few things.

One is that I've been coming more and more to the conclusion that the term Textiles, in the manner that it exists in Australia, doesn't fully explain the work I do. I don't mean that in an arrogant way like "I'm so unique, the categories don't apply to me". I mean that the term Textiles in a bit misleading. I don't think just saying "dyeing" comes across the right way either. Especially with the surge of popularity in Natural dyeing and "eco-dyeing" in the last few years, perhaps the wrong image of simmering fabric in a pot is what people will think.

Somé (pronounced so, as in socks and me as in melinda)
means "dye" or "dyed work" and in Japan that is understood to include all manner of dyeing work - wax resist, paste resist, dip dyeing, natural dyes, hand painted dyes - plus more.
Textiles in Australia tends more to refer to woven, embroidered, printed and sculptural fibre-work. Though there are plenty of artists using dyeing as their medium in Australia, I don't know that the term Textiles alone describes pictoral dyed textiles.

It would be a whole lot easier if the term somé just existed in English!
There are already plenty of Japanese words bouncing around in everyday English. How about karate, sushi, manga, tempura, wabi-Sabi, bokeh and lately even Kaizen and Kintsugi! Why not add a new concept to the import list? After all sometimes a word in another language just does a feeling or concept better justice. 

So I titled the exhibition to reflect that aspect of textile work that doesn't tend to feature for Australians.

Also, it's about the Australian environment - and more broadly, imagery of Australian nature. When I first started learning katazome, my first urge was to mix in some Aussie influence - parrots, english lettering, rusty orange and bright blues. I think I went a bit too far in those early works on the "cheesy scale" but the same intent still remains: I want to show what the techniques can do when turned toward a whole new set of imagery and cultural connotations. 

Instead of plum blossoms and sparrows or cranes and pine trees, my works depict Rainbow Lorikeets and Banksias, Cockatoos and Gumtrees. In place of subdued landscapes with bamboo or chrysanthemums, I'm dyeing vibrant colours of wild-flowers and dry grasses.

I'm excited to be showing so much of my work all at once in Australia, especially in Sydney where I've never had the chance to do so before. I've also been lucky enough to get a grant from ArtsACT which means I can be present at the opening and run a couple of workshops too!

You can see the information about the exhibition here:
http://www.jpf.org.au/jpfevents/16-some/index.html

International Exhibition of Art and Design + New Work 国際交流総合展＋新作

This past 6 days, I had my latest artwork on show as part of a large group exhibition called the "International Exhibition of Art and Design". It was held in the Annex Building of the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. While the title (albeit vague) may perhaps conjure up images of grandeur and shiny display cases, don't let your imagination get carried away for the reality is that was a much more humble, honest display put on by a bunch of genuinely nice Artists from Japan and Abroad.
この６日間、新作が京都市美術館の別館で行われた「国際交流総合展」に展示していました。日本の作家と色んな国から来た作家による展覧会でした。

Group shows are by nature, a display by a very diverse group of people. In this case, there were many different techniques, countries and ages represented. Textiles, Sculpture, Illustration, Painting, Ink-work; Australia, Great-Britain, the US, Finland, Japan, China, Venezuela...to name a few. You can see work from the artists here. During the set-up we tried to make sure that works looked okay next to each other but whether you can make so many different artworks look good together, I'm not so sure.  There were also some works where you go, "errr, okay..?" but the majority of works were really impressive and well-done.
グループ展というのは色んな人によるもので、今回も結構幅広いジャンルや国や年齢の方が参加しました。染織、立体、イラスト、絵、墨の作品などもありました。参加した作家さんはたくさんの国から来た人で、ここで作品の例が見えます。

view of the exhibition. My work was next to a roketsu wax-resist work by Kobayashi Shoko.

It's a group show like so many others in Kyoto; run by some kind of art organisation with submissions mostly from regular members but with fresh faces each year. However, unlike others, this group encourages foreigners to participate and seeks to encourage the exchange of ideas and cultures between Japanese and International artists.
京都ではこういう大型グループ展が毎週行われています。ほとんど同じ感じの展覧会（何かのアート団体が行うもので、毎年出品している人が居るけど、毎回初めて出品する人もいるっていうような展覧会）ですが、この展覧会は特に海外の作家を呼んで、国際交流も目指しているものです。

looking towards the back of the exhibition. On the middle panel at the back is my friend Kiyomi's wax-resist work. The motif and colours are similar to the one shown here

gallery view

This year was my first year to be involved and it was a great experience. It was a good opportunity to meet artists working in totally different techniques and to hear what they had to say about my work and to form some new connections with International and Japanese artists working in and around Kyoto. 今年初めて出品しました。全然違うジャンルで作業している作家と話ができて、京都と周りの地域で作業している人と出会えていい経験でした。

gallery view

gallery view.

Without further ado, let me show you the work that I exhibited! It's called "Going, going, gone" which is an explanation of the three parrot species depicted in the artwork; from right to left they are the Swift Parrot (Conservation Status is ENDANGERED), the Orange-bellied Parrot (Status: CRITICALLY ENDANGERED) and finally the Paradise Parrot (EXTINCT).
では！展示した新作を紹介します！「Ｇｏｉｎｇ，　ｇｏｉｎｇ，　ｇｏｎe」というタイトルの意味は、「無くなっている、無くなっている、無くなった」のです。右から左へ行くと、描写してある三種類のインコは、オトメインコ（絶滅危惧)、アカハラワカバインコ（絶滅寸前）とゴクラクインコ（絶滅）。つまり、このインコはgoing, going, goneですね。

"Going, Going, Gone" 2013. 180x200cm Silk, Yuzen Resist, Chemical Dyes

Here's some of the Endangered Swift Parrots on the middle layer. You can see how it's partly see-through. 絶滅危惧種のオトメインコです。透明感のある生地を使いました。

These are Critically Endangered Orange-bellied Parrots. You can see the small sections of stylized text here which I`ll explain below. 絶滅寸前のアカハラワカバインコです。背景に文章が見えますね。下に説明します。

Here's a female and male Paradise Parrot, thought to have become extinct around the 1930's.
１９３０年代ぐらいに絶滅したゴクラクインコです。

In this piece, I used three different layers of silk fabric, beginning with a heavy silk at the back, then a lighter georgette silk, and finally a very transparent organza at the front. I wanted to create depth as well as give the impression of the birds coming in and out of focus; appearing and disappearing. Also, the flight from right to left is taken from the tendency to show the flow of time in Japanese paintings as running from right to left.　
今回初めて透明感のある絹を使ってみました。作品は３レヤーになっています。後ろにはしっかりしているちりめんと紬で、間中に半分透明のジョージェットを使って、一番前に薄くて透明なオルガンジを使いました。透明生地を使うのは、奥行きを表現したかったし、鳥が出たり隠されたりするのを見せたかったです。

"Going, going, gone" (detail) Here you can see from right to left, Swift, Orange-bellied and Paradise Parrots. 右から：オトメインコ、アカハラワカバインコ、ゴクラクインコ。

You may be able to see the texture in the work behind the birds? This is fragments of text from writings by ornithologist John Gould (1804-1881). He was an Englishman but spent several years in Australia (mostly in Tasmania) observing and writing about Australian birds. His writings are very descriptive and I love the flowery language he used. The tragic thing is when Gould wrote about these they were still common (well, the Paradise Parrot was already on his way out) but now they are in serious danger of disappearing. 

鳥の裏に文章が見えるでしょうか？それは１９世紀の鳥類学者ジョン・グルドがこの三種類のインコについて書いた文章から取った部分です。彼の英語がとても華やかで面白いです。悲しいのグルドが書いたときにオトメインコとアカハラワカバインコはまだ多かったけど今はもう消える可能性があります。

I was really glad to see that my work was moving slightly in the gallery space, as people walked by or just in the air-conditioning. ギャラリーで作品が下のようにちょっと動いていてとてもよかったです。鳥が本当に飛んでいるのを感じさせます！

my work moving in the breeze

And so it's onward to the next exhibition!! Coming up so soon it's frightening is this group exhibition I am a part of with the 5 other Textiles Master's course students, "How How". It runs November 12-19 in Kyoto and more information can be found here. On that note, time to go get back to work!!

次の展覧会ももうすぐです！京都精華の大学院染織コースの６人による「ＨｏｗＨｏｗ」というグループ展です！京都にいらっしゃる方、ぜひみに来てください！

では、制作しなきゃ～！

What a whirlwind : First Solo Show @ Gallery h2o Kyoto. 初個展が無事に終わりました。

It's been a week or so since my first solo exhibition wrapped up at h2o Gallery in Kyoto. What an incredible two weeks it was! I spent most of the time at the gallery, talking with visitors, explaining my work and just generally speaking a lot of Japanese!

ギャラリーh2oでの初個展が無事に終わってからほぼ一週間が過ぎました。素敵な経験でした。期間中、大体在廊して、客さんと喋ったり、作品を説明したり、すごい日本語の勉強になりました！

The entrance to Gallery h2o leads onto a long corridor. The gallery's  trademark is to hang a different noren curtain each time they are holding an exhibition. This was the first time they'd had an artist who dyed their own noren!

ギャラリーh2oは展覧会を開いている時、いつも違うのれんを掛けます。せっかく染織作家ので、自分ののれんを作りました。自分ののれんを染めた作家って始めてそうです。

View of the main gallery space. 

All the works were completed in the last 2 years whilst a Research Student
全部の作品はこの二年間（研究生だった間）に作ったものです。

I also had washi postcards and fans out for sale. I sold the majority of them!
染めたハガキや団扇も販売していました。結構売りました！

The Japanese-style room off to one side was perfect for this scroll piece and the Lorikeet Lacquerware platter that I've shown you before.　茶室の床の間に作品がぴったり入りました。掛軸のような作品と前に紹介した漆器。 

Lots of people actually showed up for the opening that was organised very last minute, yay! オープニングに沢山の友達や学生が来てくれてうれしかった！

Look who else came along! My Dad happened to be in Japan on a bicycle touring adventure of sorts and was in Kyoto just in time for the opening. It was so nice to have him there. それでこの人も！父です。ちょうど自転車の旅行で日本に来ていて、京都に居るにあわせてオープニングパーティーをしました。父さんが来れてなんて嬉しかったです。

This is a little teaser! crew from MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting) came to film me and my exhibition. More details soon!!
これはティーザーです。MBSの人が展覧会の様子を取材に来て、インタビューもしたんです。近いうちに詳しいことをアップするので、楽しみにしてください！

The experience of talking to all different kinds of people about my work was very rewarding. I took away all sorts of interesting comments and ideas and I feel like my work was very well received. I think most people grasped what I was trying to achieve which is very encouraging. It gives me the enthusiasm to regroup and start making new work all over again!

My artist profile video

Last week, I was invited to have an artist profile video made by the 3F Project Room in Kyoto. I was part of a group show there in February which was a really great experience. I got to meet some lovely like-minded people and it gave me a chance to show some large works that I hadn't exhibited before. The Gallery space is very spacious and well equipped, it's also one of the cheaper galleries to hire in Kyoto. If you are interested, check out their webpage here: http://www.3-gai.com/

先週お世話になっている3F Project Roomというギャラリーでアーティスト・プロフィルの動画を作ってもらいました。2月3F Project Roomでグループ展に参加したのがとてもいい経験でした。まだ展覧会で出していない大きな作品が展示できて、色々な人と出会えてよかったです。ギャラリー自体は広々、京都の都心にある貸しギャラリーとして安いですよ。興味があれば、どうぞこのページに見てくださいhttp://www.3-gai.com/

And without further ado, here is my face, talking on youtube.
それでは、Ｙｏｕｔｕｂｅで話している私です: