Temporal Artefacts
Temporal Artefacts Temporal Artefacts celebrates the work of five artists who are pushing the field of craft forward, exemplifying how handcrafted practice is being pursued within contemporary art. Working across diverse disciplines, each artist uses skilled, labour-intensive processes to transform materials into art works which highlight the craft they have devoted their lives to mastering, reinterpreting ancient traditions and reviving centuries-old skills and knowledge. Reflecting contemporary values of sustainability and the mindful use of resources, the artists consider a range of time-related ideas and concepts through their work, including natural ecologies and environmental impacts, consumerism and mass production, the reinterpretation of traditional cultural practices and the nature of impermanence. Highly accomplished, each artist within Temporal Artefacts approaches her work in new and unexpected ways, demonstrating strong use of materials, innovative processes, and conceptual and physical rigour. Each artist works in a single material - fibre, clay, metal, wood or plastic – which they masterfully transform through the embodied knowledge that comes from years of practice and experimentation. For Yindjibarndi textile artist Katie West, each piece of dyed fabric represents a fragment of Country, an ecosystem rich with the cultural knowledge of the land’s traditional owners. Joungmee Do’s beautiful metal jewellery and objects reflect a mastery of jjoeumipsa, the precise, highly skilled craft of Korean metal inlay. Nora Thamthanakorn’s ceramics are meditations on the temporary nature of all things, fleeting and vanishing with time. Pennie Jagiello transforms anthropogenic waste found in the natural environment into objects of desire to encourage others to consider how even small changes can contribute to a sustainable future. Makiko Ryujin blends contemporary woodworking techniques with ancient cultural practices to create significant pieces which are marked with a deep character and transcendent elegance. Temporal Artefacts showcases a new generation of artists who merge traditional knowledge and practices together with their concerns for the future, representing the frontier of contemporary craft practice today.
Bryony Nainby, Curator 2021
/Katie West Being an artist is the way I am carving a path home, working toward the moment where it will feel as if I am simply resuming the work of those before me. Working at the pace of our old people and tending to good relations with non‑human kin is where I wish to dwell. Katie West, 2018 1 Katie West belongs to the Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara tablelands in Western Australia and lives on Ballardong Noongar Country in York east of Perth. Primarily working with naturally dyed textile installations, her interdisciplinary practice also incorporates video, text and social engagement. Her sensitive, quiet work raises questions about the place and history of human connections within the natural environment. Underpinning West’s art making is the meditative practice of naturally dyeing fabric. Her process of gathering materials involves walking the land and noticing the plants which live there and change over the seasons. The seasons, in turn, determine the process she will use to dye her fabrics. In Yindjibarndi language the cool season is known as muhlu and the warm is garwarrn. During muhlu, West works with a hot dyeing process, wrapping leaves, flowers and bark in calico or silk and boiling the bundles in a pot of water over fire. During garwarrn, when it is too hot for a fire, she uses the slower process of solar dying, placing the wrapped bundles in jars of water and leaving them in the sun. In both processes the tannins in the plants are dissolved in the solution and released into the fabric fibres, leaving marks, stains and traces in a muted palette of soft colours. Each piece of her dyed fabric represents a fragment of Country, an ecosystem rich with the cultural knowledge of the land’s traditional owners. In 2018 West said of her practice: ‘Through the fabric’s cotton fibres and the plant dye carried in these fibres, the canvases are a continuation of country. These works have no edges.’
1. Katie West, ‘Katie West: Living Well’, Artlink June 2018. https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4685/katiewest-living-well/
Images: Katie West, Clearing 2019 (installation view), Suspended fabric: silk dyed with eucalyptus and wattles collected from area around Maroondah Dam. Cushions: silk dyed with eucalyptus leaves and bark; muslin dyed with puff ball fungus; calico dyed with eucalyptus leaves and bark and puff ball fungus; all filled with wool and cotton wadding. Texts by Kerry Arabena, Bruce Pascoe, Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, and Uncle David Wandin in partnership with Yarra Ranges Council, Dixon’s Creek Primary School, Ralph Hume, Victor Steffensen and Brett Ellis.
/ Joungmee Do Sometimes I question myself why I have chosen such a labour intensive technique as jjoeumipsa in my work. It takes so much time to finish one piece and requires diligent practice to maintain my dexterity. If I don’t practice even for a day, my hands tell me I have been lazy. Even if I’m not making particular pieces, I still need to practice chiseling to avoid losing the flexibility of my hands. However, I must admit that I like doing this as when I concentrate, I forget all the burdens of life. Joungmee Do 1 Joungmee Do is one of the foremost Korean metal craft practitioners in Australia today, creating richly worked sculpture and jewellery which fuses her traditional Korean heritage and contemporary Australian influences. Do was born in Korea and studied at Kookmin University in Korea in the 1980s. She came to Australia to further her studies in gold and silversmithing and graduated with a Master of Arts (Fine Art) from RMIT, Melbourne, in 1999. She has made her home in Australia since 2003. She works in the spirit of the Korean jang-in, dedicated artisans who for centuries have devoted their lives to mastering a particular craft. Her practice is intensely laborious, building skills from repetitive practice and understanding materials through experiencing their essential nature. Many of Do’s intensely decorated surfaces are inspired by traditional Korean textile patterns such as the patchwork of bojagi cloths. Bojagi are used to wrap, cover and carry both ordinary and precious items of personal, religious or ceremonial significance. To create these pieces Do has worked for years to master jjoeumipsa (or iybsa), the precise, highly skilled craft of Korean metal inlay. Ipsa is an ancient Korean technique that involves chiseling the surface of steel in four directions to create a finely textured ground into which gold, silver or copper wire or foil can be inlaid. The visual imagery employed in her Mountain series integrates traditional Korean symbolic motifs representing the source of yang energy and the promise of a long, happy life with experiences from her adopted country of Australia. Other works, such as Reflection, are laden with beautiful patterns and symbols of happiness including fish, flowers and the yin yang symbol representing the dual forces of nature. 1. Min-Jung Kim, ‘Joungmee Do’s Spirit of Jang-in’, Garland Magazine November 2015. https://garlandmag.com/ article/joungmee-dos-spirit-of-jang-in/
Images: Joungmee Do, Mountain II 2019, fine gold, steel. Image courtesy the artist. Photographer Terence Bogue
/ Nora Thamthanakorn My ceramic practice is a reflection on the relationship between attachment and impermanence… I bring capacities of ephemerality into visibility, examining the notion of change and how it occupies our experiences. Nora Thamthanakorn, 2020 Nora Thamthanakorn describes her practice as a reflection on the relationship between attachment and evanescence, a state of being that evaporates like mist or fades away like a dream. Her works initially evolved from the Buddhist notion of impermanence but, regardless of religion, they all share similar understandings of temporariness, of all things being fleeting and vanishing with time. Thamthanakorn began her career as a pastry chef and studied pottery part-time, enjoying the mystery and surprises inherent in the process of transforming the raw material of clay. Shaping clay provides her with a sense of consciousness and physical connection to her surroundings, and a process for representing the movement of her thoughts. Based in Bangkok, her studio is a place of solitude and calm, and she embraces failure as well as the unexpected outcomes that emerge from the kiln – a random and imprecise environment leading to idiosyncratic forms and textures. She works with locally sourced earthenware clay and experiments with different techniques such as smoke firing and by adding unorthodox materials such as coffee grounds to the clay. Through her works she reflects on the impermanent nature of our experiences with tangible objects, memories and emotions, and our attachments to these things because of the sense of stability and comfort they offer. Imbued with the tension between the flexible nature of clay and the durable character of ceramics, pieces such as the Time Body and To Memory series are expressions of physical deterioration as well as the transience of our memory and state of mind.
Image: Nora Thamthanakorn, To Memory 2 2019-20, earthenware clay. Image courtesy the artist.
/ Pennie Jagiello Wearing our waste functions as a constant dialogue and mirror on our consumerist society providing a platform that identifies unsustainable lifestyles and practices of our existence. Pennie Jagiello 1 Pennie Jagiello is an artist and jeweller whose dedication to her practice is grounded in a profound commitment to environmental ethics. Initially trained in sculpture, she became interested in the potential for wearing sculptural pieces and the body as a site for expression. Immersing herself within Melbourne’s dynamic contemporary jewellery community in an informal apprenticeship, Jagiello expanded the skills and knowledge gained at art school to begin honing her craft as a jeweller. During a visit to the Solomon Islands in 2012 Jagiello was alarmed by the amount of waste accumulated on the beaches and streets there. This experience marked a turning point in her practice and she began investigating how the debris of environmental pollutants – plastic, fibre and metal - scattered on the shores and country across Australia could be used as materials within her work. Over the past decade this research has led to her using only anthropogenic debris recovered from the environment, and she has trialed and perfected a range of techniques for transforming the detritus into exquisitely crafted forms. Jagiello aims to raise awareness about the lasting and devastating impact these materials have on ecosystems and to draw attention to the role each individual plays through the choices they make as consumers. Her jewellery is an encouragement to others to consider how even small changes can make a positive contribution to a sustainable future. Adopting a zero waste, minimal impact approach, her practice extends to the methods and tools used in the creation of each piece. Using techniques employed by artisans for millenia, Jagiello painstakingly carves, etches, knots, shapes and assembles each piece by hand without the use of power tools, carefully retrieving any fragments she generates to repurpose in later works. Jagiello’s Sea Pensive and Expended Heirloom pieces are fine examples of this artist’s work. Constructed from plastic pen casings and rope found on a beach, aluminium cans and fishing line, these materials have all been transformed through the artist’s skill and dedication into objects of desire. 1. Australian Design Centre, ‘Pennie Jagiello’, Made/Worn education kit 2020. https://australiandesigncentre. com/madeworncontemporaryjewellery/
Image: Pennie Jagiello, Sea Pensive 2018 (detail), hand carved discarded pens. Image courtesy the artist. Photographer: Ruby Aitchison
/ Makiko Ryujin The fire assists the wood in transcending beyond what an artist can do and pulls nature back into the creative process. Makiko Ryujin 1 Melbourne based artist Makiko Ryujin was born in Japan and grew up in Takasaki, a city famous for Daruma doll ritual burning ceremonies held at temples. After moving to Australia in 1999, Ryujin studied and worked as a photographer but was strongly drawn to woodworking. She initially studied parttime with the Victorian Woodworkers Association, gradually building her skills and shifting her focus fulltime as she became increasingly inspired by the creative possibilities of working with wood. Ryujin’s vessels display her talent for creating exquisite forms and compositions. Her innovative approach to blending contemporary woodworking techniques with ancient cultural practices create significant pieces which are marked with a deep character and transcendent elegance. Ryujin’s practice draws deeply on her Japanese heritage, bringing together influences such as the Daruma burning ceremonies she witnessed as a child, Buddhist philosophy and material culture. The proportions and design of her Shinki (Burning Series) vessels (‘Shin’ meaning God and ‘Ki’ vessel) reference traditional curved Japanese objects based on the forms of sacred temple vessels. For these pieces the artist carefully turns the wood on a lathe to create high-sided bowls, urns and platters. Her more recent sculptural work such as LOOP 2021 is inspired by traditional Japanese lanterns found in Buddhist temples which encourage spiritual awareness and reflection. The labour-intensive process of turning the wood is followed by a long airdrying process during which the forms begin to shift and warp as the green wood loses moisture. For the final stage, Ryujin uses the process of shou sugi ban, the traditional craft of preserving wood by scorching it with flames. A dramatic transformation takes place as the timber chars and splits during the unpredictable burning process, creating an opportunity for the forces of nature to further influence the finished work.
1. Craft Victoria, ‘Makiko Ryujin’, Future Remains exhibition catalogue, August 2021. https://issuu.com/ craftvictoria/docs
Craft Victoria respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the place now called Victoria, and all First Peoples living and working on this land. We celebrate the history and contemporary creativity of the world’s oldest living culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. Temporal Artefacts is presented by Craft Victoria in partnership with Benalla Art Gallery. This exhibition forms part of the 2021 Craft Contemporary Festival Program. Exhibition dates: October 8 - December 12, 2021
Craft Contemporary showcases new approaches, ideas and experimentation by today’s makers through exhibitions and events. Programs explore how contemporary ideas are being expressed by today’s makers with skill and creative innovation, whether using new technologies or centuries old techniques. For more details on Craft Contemporary, visit: Craft.org.au/whats-on/2021-craft-contemporary/
CRAFT VICTORIA Watson Place (off Flinders Lane) Melbourne VIC 3000 03 9650 7775
BENALLA ART GALLERY Botanical Gardens Bridge Street Benalla VIC 3672 03 5760 2619
craft.org.au
benallaartgallery.com.au
Craft Victoria is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. Craft Victoria is also assisted by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments; and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Above: Joungmee Do, Bowl, brass, fine silver, fine silver plated. Photographer Terence Bogue. Cover: Pennie Jagiello, Expended heirloom, Pilbara ‘Worn Land’ series 2015, hand carved found tins and fishing line. Photographer: Ruby Aitchison