Fragile Ladders 1 - Collage

This is my visual interpretation of a piece of music by New Zealand based group Pitch Black titled Fragile Ladders......
I have selected images (largely from newspaper) that indicate structure - scaffolding, maps, tide-chart, skeleton, snow-covered trees...
I have overlaid this with an organic-like yet chicken-wire type pastel form which is intented to tie the structural aspects together and indicate the tone and flow of the piece.
Hope you like it!!!

Blue Oyster Gallery - The Grad Show

Well, how do I respond to this without sounding completely ignorant... Please forgive the uneducated!!!
It was friday afternoon, Feb 22. I took myself on a wee art-trip. First stop - Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Fell in love with the work of Elizabeth Thomson and Sigmar Polke... Second stop - Blue Oyster Gallery.... It was a warm afternoon, but as soon as I stepped into the gallery and straight into the installation, I felt oddly cold and ill-at-ease. Cardboard boxes, that looked to me as either the shelters of homeless people, or the aftermath of war. Inside the shelters were TV screens playing pictures of fires burning...on the wall, a projected film of just the upper face of what looked to me like middle-eastern woman. I guess this could confirm my initial recognition of the set up to represent ravages of war???? though, I am not sure. The noise was loud and discomforting that I was urged to move through to the next section of the gallery. Perhaps I should have studied the TV screens and projected images for longer (to try to work out the message), but the atmosphere drove me on. I am therefore not a hundred percent sure of the meaning of this installation, however can be sure that it had a strong emotional impact. I have a suspicion that this was the intended outcome.
Thinking I had made it to safety in the next section of the gallery, I came upon 3 TV monitors all showing women, in varying levels of distress. I donned the headphones of one - a teenage girl was recounting a misunderstanding and fall out with a friend. She was in tears and pretty distressed looking. My uncomfortable feeling was not leaving me!!! I looked at the next monitor and read the subtitles for some time. A woman, from middle east?, looking less disturbed than the first, was telling the story of her gang-rape. I was amazed and saddened at how she spoke so calmly, like the event itself had stolen all zest from her spirit... her story totally trivialised that of the distressed teen... I was now feeling less uncomfortable and more ill... I was the only one there and the low ceiling and dim lighting was making me feel increasingly claustrophobic. I quickly left via the lower gallery and unfortunately had only a cursory glance at the exhibition of work therein... I just needed to get out.
So, was the Grad Show a success? Well, if the intent was to move people to the edge (and beyond) of their comfort, to shock and to disturb one's sense of scale of misfortune and hardship... then it was most definitely. Did I enjoy the experience? Sorry, but no, not in the slightest. I felt like a small child who thinks s/he has woken in the night and is making their way down the hall to the bathroom, only to find they have woken into a nightmare!!!
I think I would like to revisit with a tour-guide to explain it a little more to me....

Liminal Engagement

In Painting class last week, Michael Greaves talked to me about my work. He actually attributed to it a much deeper (and really thought provoking) meaning than I had actually originally intended (for which I am gratedful!!!). In fact he used a term that I (rather embarrassingly) admit I have never heard before. "Liminal". He talked about my subject matter (the wall and stairs at St Clair) as being a liminal space, a frontier or threshold. The upward angle draws the viewer into the page and up the stairs (is inviting) as well as giving the viewing platform the appearance of a speaker's podium for a large-scale public gathering. Michael felt the painting created a number of questions: where do the stairs go? what is up there? why is the viewer being invited up? who belongs on the podium? what does the wall keep in / or keep out? He talked to me a little about liminal space - a place which is not dwelt in or lived in, only passed through. Through which people move to get from one place to another. Threshold. This has really appealed to me and has opened the door to a host of potential ideas for me to explore.
My initial step was to look up liminal in the dictionary!!! In summary - liminal is pertaining to the threshold of physiological and psychological response.
My next step was to search the net for this word in conjunction with 'art' and I discovered this site: http://www.liminality.org/about/whatisliminality/
An enlightening and interesting read (I have printed a copy - its 8 pages!!!).
Through a search of images under "attribution licence" in Flickr, I came across a number of images of clearly the same installation work, titled "Liminal Engagement", interested in both the appearance and title of the installation, I then google searched "Liminal Engagement" and found a youtube clip about this particular work. Engagement... I like that. The viewer becomes participant.... is invited (drawn) to engage with the installation in the liminal space... the installation work itself can be seen as a liminal space, a series of arches / a canopy / a cave/ mountans / seafoam / the fence at a ballpark... a threshold. I really enjoyed viewing this... hope you do too!!!

Interpretation of Graphical Score

Hmmm... interesting. I am not so sure that wee Sofia is actually conscious of the claims that are made about her musical ability. Intriguing to watch, nonetheless. Looking at the graphical score itself, I wonder if Sofia too was responsible for them as well? Talented child!!! Must be the name.... titter..titter!!!