Rosebud
a collaboration between Kate Daw and the weavers of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop
262-266 Park Street Sth Melbourne, May 2006
installation view
At the opening of ‘Rosebud’ I probably paid more attention to the workshop than the exhibition. There were hundreds of spools of thread, many half finished works, all accompanied by a small print out or photocopy of the original they were replicating. Or reproducing. Or interpreting. Whichever you like. I wanted to touch everything.
Fabrics and threads do that, where paintings and drawings don’t really. They’re tactile. I think when you touch things (or when a feeling comes over you that you want to really badly), it’s far more intimate. And you remember those sensations. My grandma’s silk cushions in her living room. The floor of my dad’s house rubbing the soles of my feet. Even my bed sheets.
I bought new ones a bit back and I couldn’t really sleep at all the first night. They didn’t feel right. I decided to ease myself into it, like a small child. I had to stick with the new linen, but I got to keep my old, hole ridden pillow case until I could learn to let it go. I’m sure it sounds abit silly, but it was quite an adjustment for me at the time. And then I moved house. The trials and tribulations of attempting to make everything that was unfamiliar feel like home. And then I thought to myself (or realised), that I probably just care too much.
Jade Venus
262-266 Park Street Sth Melbourne, May 2006
installation view
At the opening of ‘Rosebud’ I probably paid more attention to the workshop than the exhibition. There were hundreds of spools of thread, many half finished works, all accompanied by a small print out or photocopy of the original they were replicating. Or reproducing. Or interpreting. Whichever you like. I wanted to touch everything.
Fabrics and threads do that, where paintings and drawings don’t really. They’re tactile. I think when you touch things (or when a feeling comes over you that you want to really badly), it’s far more intimate. And you remember those sensations. My grandma’s silk cushions in her living room. The floor of my dad’s house rubbing the soles of my feet. Even my bed sheets.
I bought new ones a bit back and I couldn’t really sleep at all the first night. They didn’t feel right. I decided to ease myself into it, like a small child. I had to stick with the new linen, but I got to keep my old, hole ridden pillow case until I could learn to let it go. I’m sure it sounds abit silly, but it was quite an adjustment for me at the time. And then I moved house. The trials and tribulations of attempting to make everything that was unfamiliar feel like home. And then I thought to myself (or realised), that I probably just care too much.
Jade Venus
posted by speech at 8:45 PM
4 Comments:
Rosebud… Just a flower?
By. Sam Loo
With an emphasis on flowers, the rose in particular, the ‘rosebud gallery’ shows works of art in which the majority deal with the telling of aspects of a story, a story about Citizen Kane.
The word ‘Rosebud’ is seemingly present through this story/movie, providing confusion and mystery on its actual meaning in terms of the context of the story. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary the definition of ‘Rosebud’ is stated as “bud of a rose, things resembling it (rosebud mouth), pretty girl”. It can be seen that the intertwining of the following two aspects of rosebuds definition, “bud of a rose” and “pretty girl” is present among numerous amounts of art pieces.
A piece that displays these features of using a combination of themes is Kate Derum’s oil on paper painting, ‘Through a Glass Darkly (1-6)’ (2006). Kate displays 6 various contrasting pictures to portray a woman through different perspectives and views while rosebuds are shown in the background.
One scene shows a woman through the perspective of a camera man, while another from a 3rd person view capturing the whole event of a woman being photographed by several cameramen while on a red carpet walkway. There is also a scene that just the focuses on the cameraman himself. These all present the same scene in different perspectives and consequently the use of a wide spectrum of colors on the woman, cameramen, flowers and background help to achieve this.
While it cannot be said that one piece will tell a great deal of this ‘story’ it does show an aspect. An aspect in which slowly reveals a piece of the plot in which requires the analysis of further art pieces to piece together the puzzle of the ‘rosebud’.
Entering the building I didn’t really feel like I was going into a gallery, but it was nice to see the weavers. This made me expect larger, grander things as some of the weavers work in the rooms before were awesome. After seeing these first rooms I was less impressed by the actual show. The show really reminded me a lot of a high school art room, a real mish-mash of all different things. I know it was all based around the same theme, but it all felt a little too different. I did really like the tapestries that looked like they were being burned. I never realized you could make that effect. I thought that the room was nice and bright, and the pink writing on the wall really caught my eye.
When I went to the Rosebud exhibition I was actually most interested by the rooms going through to the gallery. I thought that it was really interesting to see the large looms, and to watch people using them. It was also nice to see the large tapestries that they were working on. The actual show was a little less impressive. First off it was in a tiny space, and didn’t seem to have anything that made it very special. I enjoyed looking at some of the art, but felt it would be much more effective in a larger space with more artists.
I am interested in the comments made by people who attended the opening of 'Rosebud'. I was one of the participants in the exhibition, (I made the six watercolours in the middle of the wall). I think it is worth mentioning that hardly anyone in that exhibition is a practising artist. I have regular shows, but for the majority of weavers at the VTW this was the first opportunity to publicly show for a very long time. This may not have been made clear on the night. I am by no means excusing any of the work or the reactions to it.
I too thought it was a bit of a mish-mash, but some how that did not seem to be the point, for the weavers it really was about participation. And to have some kind of 'other' presence at the VTW. This of course, is all kind of back story, and may not be relevant to the viewer.
Post a Comment
<< Home