Now we are six. Looking back at the month of June. Big month.
The magic cortisone injection into the shoulder took place early June. It took a couple of weeks to settle down, but it enabled me to get some sleep, and reduce my painkiller intake.
Estela Saez Masterclass, 02 June 2021 #2
Michelle, Antonia, Maca, and I had a meeting with Estela for our 2nd meeting. She had sent us some links to different videos to watch and we were also to watch Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’. I think I’ve seen it before, but I watched in again. It’s so sparse but carries so much weight.
We were asked to make a 2nd version of the first 5 minute video assignment. It was interesting shooting a video with more time. I realised how particular I am about framing which comes from years of taking photographs for myself that don’t need editing. I dragged my fence outside and rolled it down the grass and shot it in slo-mo which I’ve never done before. I had no idea the slo-mo represented about 3x or 4x the length of video and I was attempting to shoot 30secs to follow the brief. So then I had to sit down and learn how to cut it. It took quite some time, but I finally worked out how to do what I wanted to achieve.
We had been asked to send at least 15 links to her of things we liked (on instagram or otherwise) and buy some whitish masking tape. The links I sent.
https://ubu.com/film/nauman_perimeter.html
https://ubu.com/film/creed_thinking.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVNArDxcdVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igof7jUIaaE&t=21s
https://www.instagram.com/p/B35EqsehgrF/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKIfhOuDw0J/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CJWFvXCBVjd/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEvsUYYn3E5/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuZDhOUF97g/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/CL6SpsCliaQ/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXwIv_ZHlT8/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYE2odmHOTd/?utm_medium=share_sheet
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTa6QNYAvpS/?utm_medium=share_sheet
We were tasked to make an intervention with the masking tape, that represented our jewellery. Ooh, I find that challenging. It’s still up. Bridging two monuments behind me. A tripod and a chest of drawers. I can’t explain it yet. It looks like a fence, my current found material. I like the subtle reflection on the wall.
Pot Luck/Pin Swap/Drinks @ Objectspace 04 June 2021
To celebrate the launch of Lisa Walker’s exhibition opening at Te Uru of ‘I want to go to my bedroom but I can’t be bothered’, (which I had seen in Wellington at Te Papa), Objectspace hosted an evening of jewellers. I struggle with these things, because I always think, well, I’m not really a jeweller. Being involved in HS6 is keeping me plugged in long enough to help me ‘believe’. Never too late to blossom.
So I turned up, and it was a very large gathering. We had gorgeous food together on large tables (Objectspace do it so well), and then Alan Preston kicked off the pin swap. I was helping, so was one of the first and I got a lovely delicate Cindy Tan brooch. Strangely the pin I made was the last to be chosen. But worn with a bit of encouragement, by John Miller. It’s a plastic smiley.
Lisa Walker talk + Workshop at Te Uru 12 June, 13 June
There were a lot of people there, and it was really great to see the exhibition in a different place, with a different layout. I found this version of the show a lot more accessible than the one at Te Papa. It was easier to get closer to the work. Friendlier. And always a pleasure to be delighted with her use of colour.
The next day, I was lucky enough to go to my first ever Lisa Walker workshop downstairs. I left it until the last minute as usual, threw together some bits and pieces and arrived late. We introduced ourselves and got on with it. A day of play for me and liberating to be using my shoulder (fingers crossed). She encouraged us to really look at our objects and see if they liked each other but to work with speed. I was pleased with what I did that day…mostly because it enabled me to work work work, on a white bench, with space. It’s a lovely room down there in the education bit at Te Uru. Nice windows and space. Thoroughly enjoyable. She came around a gave us a crit…she suggested I might like to use my spring and plastic ring, as a photograph of jewellery, as jewellery (bottom right). I also used my cardboard lunchbox of the day and plastic blinds cord…I see a pattern emerging. Film, photography as a medium. Hmmmm…I need to ponder this.
Attai Chen, 15 June 2021
I did not have much for Attai to look at apart from the gatherings at the Lisa Walker workshop, and in my shoulder pain, I had been threading small pieces of plastic onto a cord. It reminded me a lot of a coral necklace. It’s delicate but rough. I’m going to try to heat it slightly to see if I can soften the edges. I am not interested in making a coral necklace, nor imitating it. I am interested in why it looks like one and why we always try and emulate nature. Is that jewelleryness?
Attai said
• why coral necklace?
• try different lengths of the plastic
• examine the relationship between this and what you’ve been doing
• get back on track
He is so patient with me.
Estela Saez, 16 June 2021 #3
Masterclass #3 with all of us. Zoom zoom. All wearing red, Estela had asked us to make an underwater video advertising an event, showing no jewellery. I had made a swirling pool of orange plastic and other assorted attempts to get something interesting. I don’t know how to shoot underwater and my phone has a crack in the screen because I inherited it from a friend. I improvised in a very ludite way and shot through plastic. We watched them all, and she gave us excellent crits. I’m on my third version of the underwater film and really enjoying playing with the possibilities.
Judy Darragh ‘Competitive Plastics’ opening at Objectspace, 18 June 2021
A real testimony to Judy and her work, it was a huge gathering. The text for the show is necessary – she refers to French philosopher Catherine Malabou who is ‘investigating the plasticity of the brain, tackling neuroscience, looking at the inner machinery of the brain as the organ of thought’. The perfect organic organ for advertising and consumerism and change.
https://purple.fr/magazine/the-brain-issue-33/philosophy-with-catherine-malabou/
Pitopito korero at Te Uru, 19 June 2021
Another talk at Te Uru in association with Lisa Walkers retrospective exhibition. Speakers were Julia Marin, Haley Lowe, Eloiza Montana, Workshop6, Fa’amele Etuale, Kim Whalen. Pecha-kucha style. Thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring. Kim Whalen a stand-out. Showcasing local jewellery in all its very different forms. A few of us Auckland Handshakers were there.
Estela Saez, 30 June 2021 #4
Masterclass #4 just Michelle and I this time. We showed our ‘having a show on Mars’ 30 sec video, showing a piece of jewellery. This one was challenging also. What, Mars? Other-worldly, said someone. That helped enormously, and Michelle likened my video to Ray Harryhausen who was born in 1920! I will read his Wiki. I had imagined using packaging, because that’s what I seem to always have lying around, and I’m finally getting bravier editing, so it was heaps of fun. I think Estela liked it but wanted me to work on? Not sure…might edit the title. All a bit glitzy.