Dawn Whitehand: Visual Artist
Archive for October 2011
Sawdust Black Firing: Results
Following are images of the sawdust black firing I did yesterday, luckily I squeezed it in between rain downpours. The rain began again about 2 hours after I unloaded the pit. I am happy with the results, and hopefully the pit firing will go equally as well, as the top part of these sculptures are the pit fired components, which you can check out in the Works in Progress category.
Also loaded the kiln for a glaze firing tomorrow, also works for the exhibition, so fingers crossed.
Sawdust Black Firing: Slideshow
Today is Thursday… Last Sunday I was preparing to do a pit firing which included works for an upcoming exhibition to be held in 1 1/2 weeks. As part of my preparations I wrap some works in scourer wire. I was pulling apart some scourer wire, using a fair bit of strength… my gloves were on the workbench, not on my hands… when I found out just how sharp these fine wires actually are!! I garroted my finger and thank goodness for the bone getting in the way of the wire and saving my finger from being completely cut off!!
Within minutes I was in the car on the way to the hospital… blood pouring everywhere. Triage rushed me straight through emergency, and as it turned out I had cut an artery, hence all the gushing gore.
Because I had been in the process of doing a pit firing, I happened to have my camera around my shoulders for documentary purposes. Once I cut my finger the camera remained as grabbed my finger and would not let go! Once the doctor pried my hand free my partner commandeered the camera and began taking happy snaps. I will spare you those photos, although the ones taken once the finger had been torniqued are not too gorey!
Anyway 6 stitches later, and quite a few pain killers, cut to today:
Garroted finger or not, the show must go on, meaning the exhibition in 1.5 weeks!! So following is a slideshow of the sawdust firing I did today. The results will not be known until tomorrow, although there was lots of smoke billowing from the pit, which is a good sign. The idea is to obtain black smoked surfaces on the bases of some of the sculptures which you can check out in the “works in progress” category… enjoy!!
Studio Chaos
Well, the day started out nicely…. bit of a sleep-in, cooked breaky & out to the studio. Am planning to do a pit firing tomorrow, so turned the kiln on to do a low bisque firing and began cleaning out the pit: was a bit weedy & the brick wall that I use to alter the size of the pit depending on the amount of work to be fired, had collapsed. BUT, a couple of hours later the clouds started rolling in, big thick heavy black clouds. The thunder began as a distant grumble, and slowly but surely grew to a rumble and then a roar accompanied by flashes of lightning. Suddenly the downpour began, mixed with hail the size of marbles. Lasting for about 15-20 minutes the driveway turned into a voracious stream of water, hell bent on flooding my studio. It succeeded.
But mother nature was not yet sated. About 20 minutes later another storm rolled through producing even bigger hail (the vegie garden is looking sorry). In order to drain the water from my studio I had to open the side door. And what is a few meters outside my side studio door? The pit! Weeded and looking all pristine for tomorrows pit firing it soon assumed the qualities of a swimming pool. Even if the water drains away the ground will still be extremely wet tomorrow.
And tomorrow’s forecast? A shower or two during the day, possibly heavy in the afternoon. Chance of a thunderstorm…. ho hum!!
And the following video exposes the culprit behind my angst… but here is no such thing as global warming!!
Stelarc Performance at the Lorne Sculpture Show: Slideshow
Stelarc is an Australian internationally known performance artist who performed at the Lorne Sculpture show this year. His performance was based around his Ear On Arm project, a project which has evolved over the past decade. Stelarc has grafted a replicate ear on his left forearm, which will eventually be able to hear and respond. More information about his project can be found here:
http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242
Much of Stelarc’s past work has centered around “the body”… its use, how it can or cannot be modified, bodily identity, what the body can or cannot withstand and similar such themes.
I enjoyed this performance. From my perspective Stelarc’s laying on an oversized sculpture of his “Ear on Arm” and being painted with white clay slip, enabled him to merge with the sculpture, signifying his becoming ‘one’ with the decade long project, which has been problematic at times… finally his identity merged with the altered , yet (in the future) functional ear on arm: a mutual acceptance.
But are there larger societal questions at stake here? The introduced ear is foreign to the arm… it doesn’t belong… it looks “different”, “funny”…yet Stelarc presents a scenario where each accepts the other, but under what conditions? A passive merging … a homogenisation? In the context of globalisation such questioning of acceptance, on personal, social, economic and political levels, are crucial. This is now evident with the mass revolutionary movements that are occurring worldwide.
But I will get off my soapbox now & just say that it was great to see so many families wandering around the show on the weekend, because the young kids that are getting exposed to wide and varied art at a young age will be those revolutionary thinkers of the future… we hope!! (oops, soapboxing again!!) Enjoy the slideshow!!
The Ballarat Independent. Local Ballarat Artist Back from South Korea.
This is an article about my recent trip to South Korea where I exhibited and demonstrated at a ceramics festival in Gangjin. More images of the festival and ceramic tour can be found on my Facebook page
Lorne Sculpture Show: Slideshow
The Lorne Sculpture Show was great… Large outdoor sculpture, small indoor sculpture, performance art, artists making sculpture on the day so that the general public could watch, interact and ask questions and children’s workshops to engage kids and introduce them to new ideas, mediums and 3D concepts.
The following slideshow are photos I took of some of my favourite works. They are all outdoor works as it was too difficult to photograph the indoor works as they were all in the shop windows along the promenade, and reflections from shop windows are hideous to work with!!
I will post some photos of the performances and other happenings of interest over the next few days.
If you live in Victoria or are lucky enough to be on holiday here it is well worth a visit to Lorne to check out the show.
Lorne Sculpture Show
This is the artwork I have in the small works category of the Lorne Sculpture Show, which opens this weekend. The Lorne Sculpture Show began in 2007, and has grown as an international sculpture event. The show runs from the 16th October-6th November and consists of large scale & ephemeral outdoor artworks along the Victorian coastal shore & small sulptures in the shop windows of the adjacent boulevard. On both weekends of the exhibition’s duration there are numerous artist & workshop events, including children’s sculpture workshops, one of which I am conducting on Sunday 16th October. More information about the exhibition & related events can be found on the Lorne Sculpture Show Event Guide.
Results of a recent Woodfiring.
Happy with these nice earthy tones and textures. The forms work really well in a woodfiring, capturing some nice ash deposits…
Another finished clay sculpture
Almost have enough greenware to fire the kiln: if only it would hurry up and dry!!
New Work in Progess: just needs firing & glazing!!
Completed today & am happy: A ball within a ball on a pedestal… what will I call the final artwork?? The possibilities are endless: I am thinking so many social/economic/political/personal/ analogies here!!! Well, will post when I figure it out I guess… after firing & glazing & more firing…
This work by Dawn Whitehand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
