Bedside Table - january

Chromophobia - David Bachelor
The Politics of Aesthetics - Jacques Ranciere
Coming up For Air - Craig Foltz & Shelton Walsmith
From Hand to Hand - Carole Guinard, Monica Gaspar, Liesbeth Den Besten
The Craftsman - Richard Sennett
Participation - Ed Claire Bishop
On Longing - Susan Stewart
A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture since 1980 - Ed Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer

Pocket Guide to New Zealand Jewelry

photo of A.Preston's kiwi via Velvet Da Vinci

The Pocket Guide to NZ Jewelery show opened this month in San Francisco.  Curated by Damian Skinner the show starts at Velvet Da Vinci and then travels to SOFA in Chicago.  I am very much hoping it makes a local loop once it returns.

"You're going to like New Zealand and its people. American troops that have preceded you have made plenty of firm friends and thereby paved the way for you. You'll soon feel at home, particularly if you remember from the beginning that you have plenty to learn, especially from New Zealanders themselves. No warnings are needed by any man of common sense and good will."  Pocket Guide 1943

The idea was to use the Pocket Guide given to US service men on R&R in New Zealand during WWII as the premise for a show to introduce NZ jewelry state side.  The 124-page catalog goes on to explain it in full.  If you are not lucky enough to be in SF at the moment, you can read some of Skinner's thoughts along similar lines here, and here and here on paua dreams,

The artists include are: Anna Wallis, Jane Dodd, Jason Hall, Peter Deckers, Fran Allison, Warwick Freeman, Areta Wilkinson, Alan Preston, Renee Bevan, Lisa Walker, Peter McKay, Lynn Kelly, Octavia Cook, Andrea Daly, Pauline Bern, Niki Hastings-McFall

Velvet Da Vinci, San Francisco

January 13 - February 28

biscuit packer's test

Santa is great for bringing me a Cabinet magazine subscription which included this postcard of the 'biscuit-packers test'.   I really like the looks of that.

This 'test' consists of a tray holding four wooden biscuit shapes, three thin strips of cardboard to wrap them with and a diagram showing the most efficient solution. Developed by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, tests such as these could help employers recruit manual workers who showed good aptitude to specific manual tasks.
- description care of the science museum

my architect

photo via Studio Gang

My lovely sister works for Studio Gang Architects.  The small firm headed by Jeanne Gang is carrying the torch for Chicago architecture and constantly working on amazing projects with a keen awareness of materials.  Their brick weave house is an award winning example of this.  I also loved this conversion of a ballroom to apartment

gisborne pecha kucha in review

The first inaugural Gisborne Pecha Kucha was fabulous, if I do say so myself.  Sarah, Darryl and Pene pulled off a great show and the Winemaker's Daughter was bursting at the seams. There were a huge range of  talks, all interesting and well done.  They spanned from dolphins, painting, photography and the state of the beaches, to poetry game shows and brooches.  

I couldn't resist wearing all of the brooches.  And the crowd really enjoyed hearing the wearers commentary on the brooches.  There were lots of laughs.  It is a really short time to talk about 12 brooches and explain the project, but I managed (thanks to the fragment sentance).  Someone commented that my project was really out there.  Yeah! 

I highly recommend this format as a great way to raise the profile of fun "out there" jewellery project.

Craig used his 6 minutes as a performance piece and played a fluxus game show.  He showed 20 slides of NZ and read his geographic focused poems.  The first person to guess the title aka the location or feature won the post card/poem.  It was wonderful, I have never seen people listen to a poem so intently.

In the news....

Here is a link to the Gisborne herald article about the Pecha Kucha.

Broach of the Month Club goes to Pecha Kucha

So if you are in Gisborne on the 13th of January, swing by.

My side project round-up 2009

Broach Of the Month Club: brooches in the form of a book club

August 2008 - September 2009

Closing Party: Raewyn Walsh and Pauline Bern

photo by Kiti Swanell

The first Broach of the Month Club finished successfully and I am dreaming up phase two and a documentation project of sorts.  I am in the process of purchasing the original BOM brooches from the makers, accosting people who look like they might be a book club willing to dabble in brooches and working on a manifesto for future clubs.  I miss the regular interaction I had with the wearers, they were a fabulous group. 
If you happen to be in Gisborne over the summer, I will be talking about the project at the pecha kucha there on 13th January.  The event organised by lovely wearer, Pene Walsh.

 Rare Fungal Behaviour: time-share brooches
July 2009 - ongoing

Chris Jones pictured with picture of pen pal Doug McEachern

This project kicked off with a fabulous auction in Auckland and mirror distribution in Brooklyn. The brooches were then worn by the NZ owners for the winter and have all been sent back to the Northern hemisphere to begin their winter life there. There were a few lost brooches and one that has gone missing. This project is much more fluid and slower than Broach of the Month Club, mimicking the ebb and flow of the seasons.  Many NZ co-owners got very creative with their parcels to the north, sending pictures of themselves wearing the brooch, or little gifts from Aotearoa.  It is shaping up to be a lovely exchange.

Jewellery on the Brink of a Relationship: Thank notes to in the form of jewellery
November 2009 - ongoing

jewellery on the brink installation

While still in its infancy, I am extremely excited about the potential of this project and I think it is shaping up well.  I have sent three items out and received two response back so far.  I am already breaking the rules I have set for myself.  For instance, there is a secret, second list of thank you notes that will push me over the original number of 26.   I am rethinking my initial delegation of items due to potential issue with customs laws regarding the shipment of plant products. I have decided to give myself and the hard working posties a Christmas holiday off before sending any other items out.  I will kick back into gear in mid-January.
I am still really excited about this body of work and continuing my explorations.