Sydney Crochet Coral Reef

Image courtesy of Institute for figuring

Not long ago I wrote about the Museum presenting the Sydney Crochet Coral Reef</a> as part of Ultimo Science Festival in August.

Well the Institches Collective will be in the museum this Sunday March 29 from 3-5pm running a workshop.  Wether you are an experienced crocheter who wants to be part of this global phenomena or an inexperienced crocheter, the workshop will cater for you.

To take part simply turn up at the Powerhouse on Sunday, normal Museum entry applies but this will also let you come back to workshops each month and into the exhibition in August.

All workshop participants will have the opportunity to submit completed coral pieces for possible inclusion in the exhibition.

Future workshops

April 26, May 31, June 29, July 30
3-5pm
Powerhouse Museum
Free with Museum entry

August 8th
Exhibition 10-2pm
Workshop 12-2pm
Powerhouse Discovery Centre
Cost:  TBC

Re-use, collaboration and cultural activism from Indonesia

Image: Duto Hardono, Untitled (detail), 2006. Collage, acrylic, mixed media. Courtesy of the artist.

Currently showing at UTS gallery is an exhibition of artworks created from other people’s rubbish. Ranging from childlike drawings on discarded used envelopes to a life-size skull constructed from bent nails, SISA helps us consider waste, art and social impacts.

Sisa is the Indonesian word for ‘remains’ or ‘leftovers.’ Located somewhere between folk art, design, and public intervention, much of this work generates new forms of expression from the rejection of hyper-consumption and over-development.

This an exhibition of diverse pieces that would not be out of place in any museum exhibiting on sustainability, or the art activism boundary. I was moved by the complexity and effort that had gone into turning $0 scrap into intricate and often beautiful figures and images.

As a practitioner I often wonder why we don’t see more of this in galleries and museums – something that web 2.0 practitioners, Cath and others often write about here and other places. The social or self-made museum.

An audience with Australia’s first pregnant man

The Powerhouse played host to a theatre piece for our recent Ultimo Science Festival, titled ‘An audience with Australia’s first pregnant man’. A staged press conference with a character actor playing Adam Jones, a pregnant man, the piece is designed to explore the possibilities offered by science and to allow the audience to informally question the ethical dilemmas raised by those possibilities.

The piece involved a 20-minute interview of our pregnant man by an education officer at the museum, in which Adam explained why he became pregnant, how it was possible, the public reaction and the complications posed by the procedure. Then the audience had an opportunity to ask Adam questions.

There were a number of surprising outcomes from this program:

• Firstly, the audience was completely accepting of the possibility of science enabling a man to carry a baby. I had expected at least some people to have a problem with the concept on moral or ethical grounds, but no.
• Secondly, the audience went far further with this piece of theatre than I had expected, to the point where the questions from the audience really challenged our poor actor whose script – though well researched – didn’t cover things like… How would he explain the procedure to the child as it grew up? Could/would he breastfeed the baby? What about his maleness after the procedure?
• Thirdly, people had difficulty separating fact and fiction. Although not explicitly stated during or before the performance, we had asssumed that people would know this was theatre. But in each session there were a number of people who eventually piped up with the question – is this real?

These observations have raised what I think are important questions that we could consider here at Assembly:

• How careful need we be with the fiction/fact boundary in the museum setting? Should we have stated that this was an actor playing a part before the show – or after the show?
• How much prior knowledge can we assume for our audience? How much should we let the content interfere with people’s interaction with a program as a piece of theatre? After one audience – in which the fact/fiction boundary had been explained to the best of our ability and elderly man walking out the door walked up to our actor and wished him all the best with the imminent birth.

We never knew quite where people were at between belief and suspension of disbelief, as thespians say.

Does any of this matter?

Thanks to Spectrum Theatre UK who first developed this piece for roving performances at the Science Museum, London.

A question from New Zealand

Here’s a post on behalf of Susan Abasa, a lecturer in museum studies in New Zealand. I hope an Assembler (Assemblee?) can answer her question!

I am trying to track down some details which concern a recent PhD thesis on art museum education, University of Melbourne:

Bedford, Elizabeth (2003). An examination of how Australian art gallery educators perceive their role: two case studies.

The University of Melbourne will not lend the thesis on interloan. The Library has offered an option to purchase. However, without further details, it makes it quite hard to make a judgement about the wisdom of purchasing.

Does anyone know of this thesis? Or which art museums contributed to the field study? Or does anyone know the author?

I’d be most grateful for any advice.

Susan Abasa
Lecturer in Museum Studies
School of Maori Studies
Massey University
Palmerston North
NEW ZEALAND

Wondrous art – workshop

Donna Ong, 2006, Secret, interiors: chrysalis

This artwork makes me wonder. Is it a childish experiment, like giving your doll a haircut, not knowing that in her case it’s forever? Or is it more sinister – a cruel act of punishment, played out on dolls in lieu of a real adversary? Or could the act of pickling represent preservation, even protection?

For me, its ambiguity is appealing.

How do you respond to it? And what would the art educators among us say about it, or would it depend on the audience?

I’d love to see a series of posts where we collectively workshop what something means, how it means what it means, and how we figure out how it means what it means. Get the picture?

Stone art on the beach

World beach is a project of the V&A Museum, in which people on beaches all over the world are invited to make a drawing in stone and photograph the result, the people who made it, and the beach itself.

Read how it started, and keep up with where it’s headed at Concealed, Discovered, Revealed, the blog of artist-in-residence Sue Lawty.

[wondering when I can next get to the beach...]

Sites of Communication 3

7 & 8 September

National Gallery of Victoria

The Sites of Communication Symposia series has sought to investigate the ever-evolving role of the art museum and provide a forum for art museum professionals to discuss contemporary issues.

The 2007 symposium will seek to continue this dialogue. Speakers, presentations and forums will investigate and debate the role of new technologies, theories of learning, partnerships and collaborations and the spatial dialectics of art museums.

Enquiries and bookings

Telephone

Email sites@ngv.vic.gov.au

Web www.ngv.vic.gov.au/sites

Performance imitates art

Some people in Beloit, Wisconsin, have gathered on the riverfront to recreate Georges Seurat’s painting ‘Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’. See the photos. Sounds like it was great fun – and an excellent way to do a close reading of a painting.

Art swallows building in Paris

Indigenous Australian artists have been commissioned to embed artwork into the fabric of a new museum in Paris. Walls, ceilings and glass will contain – or be contained by – artworks. Artist Judy Watson has said it is as if the artists are “swallowing” the building. For more, see the Sydney Morning Herald report.

Impact of arts on young people

Next January, France will host a symposium on research evaluating the impact of arts and cultural education on children and young people. It’ll be at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 10–12 January 2007. For details, see the symposium website or email Charlotte Fesneau.