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FOREWORD PENNED BY A DESPERATE WRITER OF FOREWORDS; A MASTER OF CEREMONIES PLAYING TO AN EMPTY ROOM IN THE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING AND WITH A DIMINISHING SUPPLY OF SUPPLIES… The sound of rain on a tin roof after the act of love on a lost afternoon... Yes, we all say we love it, but are we getting out and amongst it enough? Hmmm? So! No more lying back and thinking of England. We must ask ourselves if we are really doing all we can on the home front. Meanwhile, over on the front line, are we doing our bit for the grass roots we sprang from? If loose lips sink ships, does that mean lippy dissidents can’t put a stick in the ground? Is it time to batten down the hatches – but not seal the borders? All Quiet OR All Riot; we hope that it’s Alright on The Home Front wherever that is for you tonight. Ours is right here.
hs o ci ety i ds slan
Now, looking at this Threaded cover, you’ll notice that Aotearoa has been flipped around and shaken up a bit. It isn’t quite the same old place anymore. You might even find it vaguely familiar in a strangely normal way. For example, there’s an East and a West Island, and a town called Staunch somewhere in this undiscovered country.
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It is... important to point out this is not intended to be either a Paradise or a Dystopia: just an amusing and chat-provoking Alternative Reality. So get out amongst it and make the most of your stay.
Foreword by Scott Alexander Young
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02. THREADED
CONTENTS
06 Pigeon-Hole
10 Design In Crisis
16 How About A Bit?
04 Editorial
25 Call For Submissions
CONTENTS
26 Exhibition Alley
38 No Place Like Home
44 Home Front Layout 50 Treespotting
50. Treespotting
THREADED 03.
04. THREADED
editorial
Editor Fiona Grieve DESIGN Kyra Bradcock Art Direction Fiona Grieve Kyra Bradcock GUEST DESIGNERS Lucas Milner Chris Andrew Joanna Alpe Livia Lima Miles Langely Kurt Ensor Ross Liew PHOTOGRAPHY Erin McVeigh PRACTITIONER SHOWCASE We Love Inc Auckland Print Studio Cut Collective Draft FCB Monique Redmond Tanya Eccleston Student Showcase Robert Wallace Eva Kozub Lottie Schwerdtfeger Betty Woods Matt Malloy Raewyn Walsh Chris Andrew Tyrone Layne Leon White Kristin D’Agostino proofing All About Words ADVERTISING/SALES Ashton Henty ashton@threaded.co.nz SPONSORSHIP Unitec New Zealand Spicers Paper Limited PAPER SUPPLIER Spicers Paper Limited SUBMISSIONS We welcome contributions for Ed. 9 and submissions are now open for Exhibition Alley if you are an emerging creative Special thanks To Alberton for allowing us to shoot the contents and editorial pages at their beautiful historic venue PRODUCTION Threaded Media Limited PO Box 79 382 Royal Heights Waitakere City 0656 Auckland, New Zealand No part of this publication can be copied or reproduced in any way/form or by electronic means without written permission from Threaded Media Limited
FIONA GRIEVE
06. THREADED
PIGEON-HOLE
Founded on Collaboration Emerging Design Studio Scizzorface is founded on collaboration. Jess Moore, Amy Selby and Delwyn Rutley hit the wall of art school conformity and united around the concept of do-it-yourself-for-yourself. Scizzorface references a fascination with all things curious and ridiculous in everyday life. Inspired by animals, sexual innuendo, humour, hair, music and pop culture, the studio takes on a multi-disciplinary approach where a drawing can be transformed into anything – fashion, print, illustration, animation, jewellery or whatever takes their fancy. Scizzorface portrays and invents characters and scenarios which reference small but suggestive happenings and inside-jokes that provoke a range of reactions.
They have a loose and quirky approach to themes, which encourages experimentation in media, textures, juxtapositions and the exploitation of found imagery. As their Graduation Show approaches they are busy working on an illustrative project titled ‘Rom-Vom’ (inspired by the notion of ‘Romantic Vomit’) which will evolve into a zine, limited edition prints, moving image and a hand-printed T-shirt collection in collaboration with fellow New Zealand designer Terri Staples. The girls have recently launched their own website and a 100% sustainable organic T-shirt line. See their work at www.scizzorface.com or contact them for information on their next exhibition by emailing – hello@scizzorface.com
PIE PAPER 2008-2009
Pie Paper Pie Paper was started in Auckland, New Zealand, by Markus Hofko and Simon Oosterdijk in June 2008. Their joint fascination with nature, art and science led to the conception of Pie: a paper about everything weird and wonderful this world offers. No bad news, no dramas but plain info-tainment.
Media Kit
Ingredients
art, nature, science and other miscellaneous divisions of modern life a mental & creative exercise regime
arcane and commonplace wonders
bite sized pieces of goodness
coherent ingredients due to a framing theme
a childhood dream coming true on paper
produced seasonally
A mishmash of ideas, a hodgepodge of tastes and a grab bag artworks are all in the mix, as long as they fit into the specific theme. Pie offers an assortment of art, science and everyday beauty. Something like “The mad professor rides over the moon on his square-wheel-bike, hunted by an Uroboros, barely escaping the Large Hadron Collider”.
This medley is served as byte-sized pieces that are fun to digest and explore. Rather than telling the whole complex story Pie gives casual introductions to bigger ideas which can be consumed further at the readers discretion.
This medley is served as byte-sized pieces that are fun to digest and explore. Rather than telling the
for geeks and everyday people
a curious picturebook
Ingredients A mishmash of ideas, a hodgepodge of tastes and a grab bag of artworks are all in the mix, as long as they fit into the specific theme. Pie offers an assortment of art, science and everyday beauty. Something like ‘The mad professor rides over the moon on his square-wheel-bike, hunted by an Uroboros, barely escaping the Large Hadron Collider’.
about me, you, them and the others
Difference
PiePaper was
Their joint fascination with nature, art and science led to the conception of Pie.
Theme To avoid randomness and to keep
In a flood of magazines we asked ourselves if there is a need for another and we said “Yes!” as we felt tired of other superficial gloss publications. Pie is an affordable newspaper style magazine that cleverly mixes the nice things of the world.
Target Pie Paper is a general interest publication, hence we don't intend
whole complex story, Pie gives casual introductions to bigger ideas which can be consumed further at the reader’s discretion. Theme To avoid randomness and to keep all ingredients well together, each issue of Pie is about a specific theme. This narrows down the possibilities and activates creativity. The most banal topic is hiding the greatest curiosity. Pie uncovers these by exploring a subject in 360° from inside out. Target Pie Paper is a general interest publication, hence we don’t intend to pinpoint a specific person. Pie is filled with curious stories, magic pictures and glimpses into the unknown, in which anyone and everyone could be interested. It has the hmm-effect and makes the driest topic luscious and fun. It’s edu-tainment for the people. www.piepaper.com
PIGEON-HOLE
THREADED 07.
Arnoldini In a world where emphasis is increasingly on the value of the creative, the market is flooded with fresh new talent every year. Few manage to stand out of the crowd and generate a completely unique aesthetic, but Arnoldini manages to do just that. Arnoldini is an ideas person with an eclectic and enterprising creative history: from creating eccentric soft sculptures and working in the art departments of film to travelling the world researching creative cultures and publishing fanzines. Her latest love happens to also be her first – the simple and beautiful painted canvas.
ethereal way. She then utilises aging techniques developed over her years working in the film industry to push her works back in time, forcing them to accept their intrinsic nature of flux. Her subjects are often incongruous with mainstream aesthetics; she makes heroes and saints of today’s underdogs. The portraits are huge, so as one views them, one's reactions become amplified. At an Arnoldini exhibition, expect to enjoy the fine detail and curious serenity of the faces as the darkly humorous side of a work creeps up on you. Her work is a glimpse of what’s to come in New Zealand’s fine art world. She is a finalist in the Wallace Awards this year; she is selling more quickly than she can create and has some exceptional exhibitions planned for 2010.
Arnoldini explores the historical art of portraiture by choosing the most unlikely themes to link her faces, which Check out www.arnoldini.com are represented in a futuristic and
Historic Alberton
Alberton, at 100 Mt Albert Road, Auckland, is one of New Zealand’s architectural treasures. The house was built in 1863 as a farmhouse for Allan Kerr Taylor, who owned 500 acres of land in the Mt Albert area.
the house, contents and surrounding one acre of land to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 1973, to prevent it from being demolished. Since that time, over 400,000 people have visited and enjoyed viewing the 18 rooms within the house and the relaxing garden setting. Alberton is used on a regular basis for weddings, civil unions, wedding photos, functions, seminars and as a backdrop for film and photo shoots. Make the time to enjoy the delights of Alberton. It is open from Wednesday to Sunday. For further details, phone +64 9 846 7367.
The architect was Matthew Henderson. When the house was extended in 1872, to accommodate the large family of ten children, Mr Henderson incorporated Allan’s recollections of his formative years in India (1832–40). The addition of the stylised Indian turrets and veranda onto the house ensured a distinctive and unique combination of a colonial farmhouse and Indian Raj design. It was one of the children, Muriel Kerr Taylor, who bequeathed
The photo shoot for the contents and editorial pages of Threaded Ed. 8 ‘the home front’ issue was taken at Alberton and understates the rich heritage and atmosphere that this estate and collection offers to the community. Threaded Media has been based in Mt Albert for a couple of years and we hope you are not as slow as we have been in discovering this remarkable reminder of history and change.
ABOVE TOP: Manali, 48" x 48" Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas ABOVE BOTTOM: Roma, 48" x 48" Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas
08. THREADED
PIGEON-HOLE
presents his collections in Paris and Toni Maticevski has shown annually at New York Fashion Week since 2006. The Melbourne-based label, MaterialByProduct, show off-schedule in Paris and have been invited twice to present at Barcelona Fashion Week.
Together Alone By Laura Jocic Curator, Australian Fashion and Textiles NGV Australia National Gallery of Victoria
The exhibition Together Alone: Australian and New Zealand fashion, which opened at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on 1 October 2009, explores the common ground and distinctive influences that lie at the heart of eight independent fashion labels which have made their mark both locally and internationally. Four fashion houses from each country have been selected to stimulate discussion about the development of independent design over the last three decades in this part of the world. Represented from Australia are Akira, Toni Maticevski, MaterialByProduct and Romance Was Born and from New Zealand, Doris de Pont, Nom*D, World and Zambesi.
TOP LEFT: Nom*D, Dunedin fashion house. Margarita Robertson – designer TOP RIGHT: Akira, Sydney fashion house. Akira Isogawa – designer MIDDLE: Zambesi, Auckland fashion house. Elisabeth Findlay – designer BOTTOM: MaterialByProduct, Melbourne fashion house. Susan Dimasi – designer, Chantal McDonald – designer, Benjamin Ross decorator
With over 40 works included in the exhibition, dating from 1997 to 2009, the selection includes pieces from collections which launched Australian and New Zealand fashion to the world from the late 1990s. In 1997, four New Zealand fashion houses, including World and Zambesi exhibited for the first time, and to great acclaim, at the newly established Australian Fashion Week. This success was followed in 1999 when four New Zealand labels (Zambesi, World, Nom*D and Karen Walker) showed at London Fashion Week. Australian designers have also had success overseas. Today, Akira
The distinctive and diverse approaches to fashion represented through these eight fashion houses at once dispels the stereotyped references to the ‘casual and carefree’ nature of Australian fashions and the ‘dark and gothic’ label frequently attached to New Zealand design. The conceptually based practice of MaterialByProduct focuses on the interrogation of the fundamental design processes utilised in the making of a garment. Eschewing trend-driven seasons, MaterialByProduct aims to create new ways of cutting and constructing garments which address issues of sustainability and the minimisation of waste fabric endemic to the fashion industry. In contrast, the irreverent nature of World’s collections regularly reference the quirky and playful, and often challenge stereotypes within New Zealand culture, as seen in their creation of a floral men’s suit made of Sanderson furnishing fabric. Established in 1979, Zambesi is the longest-operating label represented in Together Alone. With its consistent design language and timeless quality, Zambesi has become one of the most recognisable independent New Zealand labels in Australia, with a flagship store in Melbourne. A relative newcomer is Sydney-based Romance Was Born. Established by Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales in 2005, the label was quickly recognised as a fresh and innovative design force. Their idiosyncratic and whimsical collections possess a theatrical quality that sits outside of mainstream fashion. Despite growing international recognition, the fashion houses represented in Together Alone have all kept their bases firmly in this part of the world, choosing to remain and contribute to the region’s design culture. As Australian and New Zealand fashion moves beyond regional boundaries, local designers will continue to influence how fashion from the area will be perceived by the rest of the world. Together Alone: Australian and New Zealand fashion The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia 1 October 2009 – 18 April 2010
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10. THREADED
DESIGN IN CRISIS
WE LOVE INC
WE LOVE INC
JOEGREENZ DESIGN IN CRISIS – ACHILLES HOUSE, AUCKLAND (8 COMMERCE ST) INTERESTING. GOOD CHAT WITH THE DEVELOPER. GREAT BUILDING REFURB @ACHILLESHOUSENZ JADE_TANGYFRUIT @JOEGREENZ: WOULD U RECOMMEND THE ‘DESIGN IN CRISIS’ EXHIBITION? I HEAR THE 16 FLIGHTS STAIRS ARE A LIL BIT OF AN OBSTACLE... JOEGREENZ @JADE_TANGYFRUIT: I WAS A LITTLE CONFUSED BY THE SHOW, BUT LIKED IT... AND I LIKE THE INITIATIVE JADE_TANGYFRUIT @JOEGREENZ: THANX, GOOD TO KNOW... ANY IDEA AS TO THE DURATION OF THE EXHIBITION? HOWVERYORIGINAL RT @ HANNAHMCARDLE: BLOGGED: DESIGN IN CRISIS HTTP://WWW.AYCHBLOG.COM HANNAHMCARDLE BLOGGED: DESIGN IN CRISIS HTTP://WWW.AYCHBLOG.COM INOUTAROUND WELL DONE @ KYLIEPHILLIPS ‘DESIGN IN CRISIS’ EXHIBITION OPENING NIGHT HTTP://TR.IM/ZQZ4 HTTP://TR.IM/ZQZ3 BUCKETREE @MILESNZ ITS ALL GOOD AS LONG AS WE CAN GET OUT TWEETS THROUGH EH ‘DESIGN IN CRISIS’ WAS WICKED MATE WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD TO HAVE U HERE CAMERON_DICKSON THIS AMAZING ART INSTALLATION FROM ‘DESIGN IN CRISIS’ IS AWESOME HTTP://BIT.LY/BSV71 MILESNZ @RICHJOHNSON HAHA... FULLY ONLINE TODAY. UPLOADING RESULTS FROM THE @WELOVEINC EXHIBITION CALLED @DESIGNINCRISIS. HTTP://BIT.LY/IVIF8 http://twitter.com/designincrisis
On 18 September 2009, 6.05pm, on the fifth floor of the beautifully renovated Achilles House (building for lease now) in downtown Auckland, the doors opened and people began arriving, guided by a sandwich board and street-level wayfinding signage (necessary due to a google-maps-crisis that resulted in the wrong address being advertised). Those dedicated tackled the stairs (due to a last-minute lift crisis) and were rewarded with an acknowledgment of their efforts by a sign stating “sometimes design in crisis means doing things the hard way, thanks for taking the stairs”, a glass of Fiasco Gewurztraminer (there in the nick of time after a courier crisis) and an awful lot of food for thought. We realised we had thrown people a curve ball; exhibitions of Graphic Design in New Zealand are seldom seen, especially work generated specifically for a concept show and not shown as a graduation show, in retrospect or as part of a portfolio show. The brief was our own, the work our response – a visual manifestation of research and ideas around the core question: what happens to design in a time of crisis? This was a presentation of our thoughts on something that was directly affecting us, our clients and the people around us. On 15 September 2008, the global financial services firm Lehman Brothers collapsed. This event, the largest bankruptcy in US history, among many other links in the chain, seemed to sound the charge for worldwide recession. We founded We Love Inc, the company that initiated the Design In Crisis project, within a fortnight of that announcement. Others represented in the show had found themselves in similar situations of transition, moving from jobs into careers, moving from education to industry. So the issue was something of which we all had a very real world experience and we were therefore keen to discuss it with the wider design community around us.
INTRODUCTION
THREADED 11.
12. THREADED
DESIGN IN CRISIS
WE LOVE INC
Livia Lima None of Our Business
Kylie Phillips Sell Out
Ralph Matthews Design By Numbers
he work was wide ranging, generated T after a period of personal research. Pieces like Kylie Phillips’ Sell Out had tongue implanted firmly in cheek with statements like “BUY ONE – TAKE MY SOUL FOR FREE”. A candid social commentary was offered using the conventions of the current retail market. Kylie invokes questions like:
Ralph Matthews cast a future vision of the design industry. Design By Numbers taps into and reflects the growing ‘DIY design accessibility’. Layout programmes like PowerPoint, Word and Publisher that give non-designers design capability will most likely evolve into products like the ones he proposes.
“ Are designers expected to offer the same slashed prices and cheap deals? By churning out mass-produced bargain basement material, will we ultimately be selling out?”
“ One such response to the current crisis is the prediction that the designers of the future will devise ‘design machines’. These machines will be an advanced form of interactive software, employing artificial intelligence in a manner that goes way beyond the scope of current software packages such as Adobe or Quark... a comparison of roles which echoes the stepup from tools to machines and from artisans to engineers that took place during the Industrial Revolution.”
ivia Lima’s work None of Our Business L highlights the order and chaos of the newspaper medium by crafting an exploded view of a randomly selected newspaper from April 2009, which is then compounded to create a new form. “ When the given information is reshuffled and recollated using new criteria, order is transformed into chaos and, likewise, some of the ordinarily chaotic elements of a newspaper gain a new sense of order.” She questions whether all the essential facts are being given to us and, most importantly, whether proper attention given to the facts that matter the most.
WE LOVE INC
THE WORK
THREADED 13.
Joanna Alpe Hello Future
Renée Lam Fight or Flight
Renée Lam took a more up-close-andpersonal tack – she looked at the dynamic of Fight or Flight. When the going gets tough, do you stand and fight, or flee the scene. “ The work acts as a commentary on both the entangled thought process that occurs in the mind of the young designer and the multiple routes/occurrences they may undertake if they choose to fight.”
Vincent Thornhill The News
Joanna Alpe’s work Hello Future uses the key supposition – that in a time of crisis we look critically forward. She interviews Robin Gunston, a Futurist with experience in government, business, oil and the movie industry (advising to the movie Minority Report). “ Designers are inherently and historically forerunners of visual trends and purveyors of the zeitgeist visual style. Trend spotting and forecasting are easy inclusions into design practice, but what if there were something more in-depth that could supercharge our insight into business and brand.” “ While Future Theory is already an inclusion into inter-national creative practice, this is one of the first times it has been raised in the context of New Zealand design. It covers the Futurists’ thoughts on economic recession, an introduction to what Future Theory is about and how this could relate to the design paradigm.
incent Thornhill takes a questioning V look at the news – the reporting of what is going on around us and how the information relating to the crisis has been presented to us. We are spoken to as consumers, rather than concerned citizens. “ All of these media carry with them an agenda, the objective of which is to deliver advertising to the audience. Therefore, the ‘news’ or information about a global crisis is packaged within a consumer context.”
14. THREADED
DESIGN IN CRISIS
WE LOVE INC
Joanna Alpe, Ralph Matthews & Luke Malcolm Storm of Inquiry
Livia Lima & Joanna Alpe Opening Night Poll
torm of Inquiry is a collaborative S interactive design project by Luke Malcolm, Ralph Matthews and Joanna Alpe. Innovation is something that has to come from a time of crisis and interactive design is one of the current technological innovations in the area of graphic design. This project focuses on engaging the audience through the interaction – providing a point of contact and a vehicle for response, rather than just a play piece.
Joanna Alpe and Livia Lima collaborated on Opening Night Poll. This work surveyed the exhibition crowd – asking them for their thoughts on crisis. The responses were extremely varied. Think focus group meets high school toilet door. To some, the recession was a fuss about nothing, a conspiracy, while to others, a harsh personal reality. It seemed clear that, unless you had personal experience with the crisis, it is merely an abstraction. The handwritten notes people contributed worked on the same user-generated level as did the interactive piece: acknowledging and involving the audience.
“ This work centres around the question ‘how does design change in a time of crisis?’ and the answers provided by the viewer help craft and shape the work into being.”
So why did we exhibit this work... why not just blog thoughts, write an article, post a series of posters, run an ad campaign or some other form of idea-broadcast? Because Context Is Everything. The gallery space, even a constructed one as ours was, provides presence. There is a three-dimensional aspect to the work that requires a different type of attention than it would if the ideas were written about only here, within these pages. The viewer has time and space to reflect, absorb, accept, reject and expand on the thoughts. Showcasing contemporary design issues in a gallery context is something we would love to see happen more, as it can only strengthen the New Zealand design community and further encourage design dialogue. Our intention is to continue to support and help facilitate this.
WE LOVE INC
Another reason our response to Design In Crisis became an exhibition – we think in images, not just in words. It is vital to our practice that we are able to manifest our thoughts as visually designed pieces. We have become increasingly interested in the ‘thinkers as makers, makers as thinkers’ discussion established by Amsterdambased based designers Experimental Jetset.1 We are keen to embrace this duality in our approach to design.
ur ethos is that as designers we O have a trifold responsibility – to the environment, to the people around us and to the progression of culture. But, likely the most important of these is people. Without them, we are talking to ourselves: redundant, self-focused, irrelevant. “ What you will find works is the age-old wisdom – he tangata, he tangata, he tangata – it is the people, the people, the people. People not only generate and store information, they process it to make it more relevant to the era they find themselves in.” 2
1 The designers as thinkers and designers as makers discussion comes from Experimental Jetset; you can read more about this at www.experimentaljetset.nl/archive/ sbook6interview 2 Robin Gunston: Abstract for the Design In Crisis catalogue September 2009
WRAP UP
THREADED 15.
We need to think in ecosystem terms, realising that we are not hierarchically codependent, existing as titled boxes in a governance flow chart, but rather we are interdependents who need each other to survive, respecting that fact. The exhibition came and went, as most do. People conquered the ‘16 flights of stairs’ and descended them again but we would hope the conversation keeps going. As designers, we should be determined to keep thinking, challenging, creating and acting. The New Zealand design landscape will only be better for it.
esign In Crisis exhibitors: Livia Lima, Joanna Alpe, Kylie D Phillips, Renée Lam, Vincent Thornhill and Ralph Matthews www.designincrisis.com & www.weloveinc.com
EXHIBITION ALLEY
xhiitio lley
26. THREADED
ROBERT WALLACE
EXHIBITION ALLEY
THREADED 27.
ROBERT WALLACE top left: The Delightful Infection L.P. ABOVE & RIGHT: Stills From Flesh Rots, Pip Sown RIGHT: Salient Cover, The Science Issue Robert Michael Wallace is a multi-disciplinary designer obsessed with a montage/motion theory of juxtaposition and adventure. “Design is the science”. Flesh Rots, Pip Sown is a self-initiated project using stop-motion, handmade objects and rotating gardens to visually communicate the themes of nostalgia and cycles in Bibio’s audio track ‘Flesh Rots, Pip Sown’. The Delightful Infection L.P. project is a compilation of fictious tracks which appear to be light and poppy on the surface, but have contrasting grim lyrical content. This juxtaposition is represented by bright and colourful illustrations of festering wounds and organs. Salient cover, The Science Issue was based on the United Nation’s celebration of science in 2009 that aimed to reignite younger generations’ interest in the subject. A collaboration with Emily Macrae. rob@parallelteeth.com www.parallelteeth.com
28. THREADED
EXHIBITION ALLEY
EVA kozub
EVA kozub ABOVE: Andrew TOP RIGHT: Brad BOTTOM RIGHT: James PROJECT: Beard Portraits Eva Kozub is a female photographer working in portraiture. In 2008, Kozub was awarded the Tony Nevan/Cyclone Memorial award as well as the Unitec Study Award. She recently exhibited as part of the Knowyounevermeetyou collaboration with South Georgia University, United States. In Beard Portraits, shirtless bearded boys gaze passively at the viewer. Influenced by Germaine Greer’s writing on the female gaze these detailed, anthropological images of boys and their beards explores themes of sexuality and masculinity from a female perspective. The strict methodology in which these images are created using the same lighting, camera
and lens, coupled with the sitters' passive expression establishes a neutrality in the images that aligns the work within the Deadpan mode seen in contemporary photography. This seeming uniformity of the images and the lack of emotional direction heightens the viewers’ attention to the nuances of each portrait and beard without being directed to an emotional outcome. Without an over signifier of emotion, the viewer is left to contemplate the connotations of the beard and its relationship with religious iconography, male sexuality and, ultimately, female sexuality. eva_koz@hotmail.com
Lottie Schwerdtfeger
EXHIBITION ALLEY
THREADED 29.
Lottie Schwerdtfeger
TOP: Untitled (Jesus gonna eat ya face), acrylic on canvas BOTTOM LEFT: Keeping Your Eggy Wegs Warm Time, wool BOTTOM RIGHT: Wintertime Bunny (Sylvilagus floridanus), wool
There are many theories floating around in time and space, but most people infer that Lottie (Mystic Star Micky) Schwerdtfeger has rainbows in her frontal lobes. The world is refracted through her mind like light through wet skies. It can be scary sometimes, but she be fearless. Mystic Star won’t retreat from the front of her eyes, or from yours for that matter (watch your back). She hails from the high seas of Melbourne town, Australia, attending to the task of revealing mystic truths at the Victorian College of the Arts. She is a punk of No Love Lost, a collective of similar minds nesting in Sydney, joining her in the quest to keep the dream alive through whatever means: collage, crochet, finger-painting, photography, standing on soap boxes, etc. She is friends with the friends in your head, concerned with the clandestine and the ruminations of regular absurdist, facing the logical with a tenacious sense of the holy illogical. She still believes in revolution. However, gentle viewer this is just the beginning; she asks you to come and play. Look closer – her teeth are capped with candy apples. hey_lottie@yahoo.com.au