Studio Shots from Hel

Thought you might like that title Hele, given our recent conversation about why your name shouldn't be shortened and in light of your recent blog troubles.

Here are the images from Hel: Some of our teatowels on our studio line-up, lovingly adorned with all manner of artistic embellishment or intervention...

Those luscious lips belong to Clifton Bieundurry, a souvenir teatowel from a NOMAD (click on link to see) exhibition dinner in New York. The photograph was taken of Cliffy by photographer Russell James. In the Nomad exhibition Cliffy imparts a layer of traditional Bieundurry-style Kimberley dot painting over Rusty's photographs on a massive scale. On the teatowel, Virginia - so inspired by Mr Bieundurry - has domesticated Cliffy's dots (interpreted here as buttons) forming the word 'c l e a n s e' in historical reference to ugly past policies brushed under the carpet. Not to forget the role of the teatowel - wet, dry, wet, dry =  cleanliness is next to Godliness!

FROM THE V.C. ARCHIVES: Here you can see a sample of  Leonardo DaVinci's Vitruvian Man Virginia Da Cunningham's Vitruvian Bratz doll sacred tea towel manuscript. Naturally she is in absolute perfect proportion - no feet to run away, massive head to hold such intellectual ponderings as what one might wear to the mall tomorrow (what else is there to ponder in life????) AND not to mention the zones of special importance neatly squared away for future slut-virginity fetishizers. NOTE: she is neatly encapsulated (one might say 'packaged') in the egg, ready to hatch fully formed and is celebrated in accompanying mirror-left script to the chorus of our staunch radical feminist lady Gaga 'I wanna take a ride on your disco stick'.

Germaine Greer would be proud of this Female Eunuch. Virginia thinks it is quite a spectacularly cunning stunt disguised as 'empowerment' especially since this limited edition archival tea towel manuscript is used in the rare and sacred ritual of dish-wiping.

It didn't!!!

Where oh where is the photo uploading symbol? Is there anyone out there who can tell me. I have photos waiting to go and no where to send them!

UP LOADING PICTURES

Why does everything to do with computer technology have to be so difficult with a 60 year old brain!! I can't see the photo symbol on my toolbar! Perhaps if I post then it will appear???????????????????????????

TEAT OWLING

I heard a really lousy joke the other day and I think I will treat you all to it.
here goes:

WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON OWL IN AUSTRALIA?

THE TEAT (OWL)

he he he he he......................told you it was lousy!


My teat owls are coming along quite quickly now. I have finished 33 of my (100) share of Virginia's 300. It is quite challenging doing 100 small art works in such a short time and also a challenge working on the other virginia's designs. With my own I know where I am coming from (then again, not always) but with the others my brain has to travel to distant places not known before. Always tricky!!

I am a virgin Virginia Blogger

My first Blog!!! Hip hip hooray - at last another Virginia gets her act together and does a post!!

The tea towels are rolling in and a big thankyou to everyone who has donated their family heirlooms, dusters, scraps from the bottom of the linen cupboard as well as the carefully saved souvenirs.

I am off on the Awesome Arts Residency Challenge late May and early June. It's Leonora this year and my fellow artist is a young man from NSW. All of this means of course that most of my 100 share of Virginia's teatowels will have to be completed before I go!! Yikes, the heat is on and I am sewing, printing, embellishing, embroidering and sewing the found objects just as fast as I can.

Better get back to it!
Helen

SPIN CYCLE MANIFESTO

Some of you may not be aware of Virginia's intention for the BRAG Showcase exhibition this July so here is the manifesto that guides us:


SPIN CYCLE

(INSTALLATION & PERFORMANCE)

Pre-wash
Wet
Dry


Pre-wash

The Tea Towel is forever in a spin. Wet. Dry. Wet. Dry. Wet… Always rubbing and polishing, shining and wiping, busy servicing our needs. Greetings from SANDFIRE ROADHOUSE. Often gifted out to friend and family as a ‘great time’ souvenir, the resilient Tea Towel is caught in a cycle, trapped in the machinations of the machine, tangled with the tights, slapped taught then hung out to dry.

The Souvenir Tea Towel, related to the common variety Tea Towel, is the rarer and more desirable form within the Tea Towel genus. Her plumage is gaudy and cheaply printed with pictures and anecdotes of a conquering past. WITTENOOM W.A. Caught in a game of Captain Cook she is bought and sold, given and received as a flag-type symbol of ‘we was here’ reinforcing the colonization cycle: Wet; dry; wet…

The Great Australian Roadhouse; small-town general store; tourist bureau; Wombat Lodge or your altruistic fundraising charity distribution chain (CWA, P&C) are the preferred habitat for the Souvenir Tea Towel. She is desired by the panicked traveler sans imagination, the sensible shoe brigade and the astute collector oblivious to the inherent values embedded in the object itself and it’s covering decoration. CARNARVON WA jostles for provenance with MADE IN CHINA.

The Tea Towel ends up on the line. She is hoisted up dripping and bleached by the Australian sun until rigid. Pulled down she is roughly folded then jammed third drawer down on top of the Souvenir Tea Towel. Too good to use and too sentimental to throw away, she languishes nibbled by silverfish until recycled by the local Red Cross. I swam with the dolphins at BUNBURY WA.



Wet

An examination of the production and use of the Souvenir Tea Towel will be the focus of exploration for this exhibition. It will be examined as a metaphor for and symbol of culture, society and the individual.

The Tea Towel is a signifier of our colonial past and an icon of colonial conquest. The origins of tea and ‘tea time’ rituals indeed come into question here as loaded meanings inherent in the Tea Towel itself. These will be explored further in the exhibition.

In addition the Tea Towel is stamped and marked with other meanings creating a layered effect, like culture over culture. This will be interrogated in the creation of a new range of Tea Towels which will be produced (BUNBURY,WA); gifted (we was here); used (wet, dry, wet…) and recycled into exhibition (spin cycle).

Dry

The exhibition is cyclic in nature and will constantly change.

The audience will encounter a quiet, still laundry room caught mid-cycle. Tea Towels were laundered on washing day. They now hang, filling the space; a moist, laundered scent mixed with the fetid odour of a thousand roast dinners will fill the space. Piles of tea towels are strewn on the floor.

Several days later, the tea towels are miraculously transformed. They are folded, crisp and dry. They are ironed in-situ once a week as part of the laundry cycle, a performance element of the installation.

The fresh Tea Towels are sent out for use as the next batch arrives to be strung up. This installation is designed to evolve to emphasise the cycle of production and use; supply and demand; wet and dry. Laundry is always getting done yet is never actually done.

The audience will notice that each Tea Towel is a unique response to the multiple meanings embedded in the Souvenir Tea-Towel (see pre wash, above) and how this layering reflects a false sense of Australian culture.


Spin Cycle reminds us to look closely at those things we take for granted and have forgotten to see.

It is a reflection of the false values we allow into our homes stamped on a tea towel that become normalized and overlooked over time.

The performance element of the exhibition emphasizes the endless Groundhog Day of daily ongoing rituals that give meaning but in themselves become meaningless. Silent endeavour.

The installation will be a unique “creeping” style exhibition where the viewer experiences a different exhibition each time they visit.

This exhibition promises to reach beyond the realm of the typical exhibition experience in the South West in that it will be a large-scale conceptual installation. These types of exhibitions are rare – even in Perth – and establish a sense of art as beyond the object or the process itself encouraging discussion and debate.

Climbing the BRAG Summit

Helen and Naomie participated in the Summit held at the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries on Saturday.

Interesting to hear David Bromfield and Pippa Tandy's approach to selecting works for the 2010 survey. The set about subscribing a meta-narrative to the studio visit process and resulting exhibition to speak of  how a sense of place infuses each individual artist's practice thereby creating a unifying whole. At least a whole for a sensible critique of a collection of works.

In many ways the artists of the south west region are no different from most other areas in that it can be a bit like herding cats without a central narrative core of focus to drive or dispel artistic purpose. For this reason one felt that any overarching theme applied to artists of this region extremely hazardous. There is no doubt, from a writer's point of view that to generalise or link commonalities across practice presents a nice package to write around and perspective to critique from. 'Tis our human nature to want to categorise and generalise to make sense of experience so one cannot be too harsh - perhaps the sheer diversity of the region has more to do with artist background, time lived in the region and purpose for being here... but one quibbles statistical analysis, not necessarily the purpose? 

I wonder how the results would differ had P & D the opportunity to do similar projects in other areas?

Nevertheless, opportunity to exhibit, connection with other artists, organised networking and critical writing were the general themes that seemed to present themselves as much-needed in our area. (no longer is it kosher to be a 'regional artist' or a 'south west artist' - apparently these terms are somewhat prescriptive and limiting... the play with semantics continues... you may consider us artists from the south west or living in a regional context however)  Some great ideas were tossed about in the south west artist salad, oh, excuse moi, the salad tossed by the artists who happen to live in the south west but may not necessarily be south west artists! haha ha! Anyone seen MOnty Python lately?

More on tea towel production next...