The clay nests installed as imagined…
At the Yarra Sculpture Gallery end of year exhibition…Bonanza…
Tag Archives: nest
Please Touch
During the installation of this work I had been determined to place the clay nests on the wall, as I had originally imagined them. But it just didn’t work.(I really did keep trying to make it work!!)
I finally allowed myself to listen to both the work, and my friends, whose advice I had asked for and placed all of the nests on the floor.
In the action of doing this, Paul Blackman and I discussed how lovely it was to hold them.
The clay nests have a warmth about them.
From this we decided to invite the audience to
Pick up a ceramic nest
And hold it in your hands
Take a moment to feel its weight
Its shape, its purpose
Then place it back in the space
Wherever you like…
I am very excited about this discovery. I love that the viewer is invited to engage with the work. That they can place themselves in it and experience it. I love that the gallery space and the work loses its preciousness; nests may get broken. (One did, but that one fell off the wall in the set up!!) Mostly I love that the work could be experienced sensually and kinaesthetically. It became about having an experience rather than about a concept.
Maybe its my dance and theatre background influencing my work, a desire to break down the fourth wall…maybe its my community arts practice and a desire to connect with people, maybe it was easier to let the audience design the space…it was certainly interesting and delightful to witness the flow of the nests through the space.
Nest
A review and images from my installation at Rubicon ARI, Queensbury St, Melbourne August 2016
“Very cool to drop in on Stefanie Robinsons installation at Rubicon ARI today……we walk into a white space, walls , floor and ceiling . Hanging from the roof detritus ropes, sun worn ,ocean swept , sometimes unravelled and frayed . At intermittent points the ropes flair out into beautifully woven nests before being drawn back to follow gravity and continue to the floor where some coil , frayed ends tickle the floor, a minute nest, the essence of intimacy and well being , nestles in the fraying…Where rope meets floor a heaviness of clay nests ground it all and their weight and earthiness are such a wonderful counterpoint to the lightness of the suspended elements of the work. Roughly modelled and fired their earth colour combined with the subtle hues of ropes, hemp and the weaving create this exquisite and reflective environment….I just sat down and dreamed away. you can touch !….Texture ! I moved through and just a gentle bump to set it all in slight motion and the weight of the earth elements holding us firm. Anyway I think it’s really bloody groovy and quite literally hangs together really well…twenty stars ! 309 Queensberry street, We’d to Sat…12 to 5 PM, until 31 St August…oh and it’s a side entrance around the corner.”
Simon Fisher
rag rugs
Today i got give a box of hand dyed cotton that has been prepared for making a rag rugs…..
Rag rugs are a traditional rug made here in the early 1800’s by the monarchy, and this tradition slowly trickled down to the farming folk.
Linen, then cotton as it became more common and less expensive , was recycled, torn into strips, and woven into rugs…
Rag Rugs were made to adorn the floors of the important rooms. As the traditional took hold, the rugs began to tell the stories/history of the people, as the cloth used held the memories of its former use.
and now i have a box of hand dyed cotton balls with which to make from….
this is my first response……
Forest……..
Its been a month (or so)
since Forest was installed iIn the Little Red Train at Ceres Environment Park…..
All in all it was a success.
A friend suggested that the measure of success was… did you like it in the space?
Yes
and
Would you do it again…
Yes
below are a few of my favourite images
For more images and comments go to….. FOREST
Standing in the space and just… listening
beautiful Stef!
(Mischa)
A wonderful travelling journey
woven and dense
with memory and transience
I think of the train
clicketty clack
of my own journey’s and restlessness
and the constructions i have about settling in one place
so much movement woven into each empty nest
Extra ordinary
Thank you
Forest
is an installation of nests and Textured Paper Drops
that i am currently building in the Little Red Train at CERES Environment Part in
East Brunswick , Melbourne.
This installation has evolved out of 4 years of gentle development that started in the Solo Residency I undertook at Victoria University.
I thought it was going to be a dance piece
a textural poem that moved through the seasons telling a story of a tree and the bird woman who weaves nests…..
but it seems it is an installation.
the tree is woven through the space and will be echoed in the paper drops,
the bird woman it seems is me,
I still hope to make movement for it and create a performance in the Forest.
When i look back through my books, my ideas about fragility, weaving, nests, seasons, growth and death all have accumulated in this work
It’s exciting to see and feel this.
The art has taken me on its journey..
and .my first solo exhibition.
I am having so much fun at the moment weaving the roof of the train in cane.
The weaving started as a mechanism to hang the paper and nests from, but it has taken over and become a thing in its self, and slowly the train transforms….
i am looking forward to beginning to hang the paper and the nests……
I would like to do this again……
in another gallery…
in another city…..
on another country……
the meditation of doing
Today my head is full of
how to
why to
what to
who to do it with
why
how
what
why
and this continues
as the energy waxes and wanes
and
confidence grows and dissipates
with every success and failure
and
i finally sit
pick up the needle and rope
and start
sewing tight stitches
tighter than usual
neat precise stitches
that turn a rope found
into a nest bound
and to each stitch is attached one of these thoughts and questions
and i find
some of the whys disappear as i remember why
and
some of the hows get answered
and others possibly pruned
although i’m yet to draw the knife across them
but mostly the angst settles
the teeth stop grinding
the mind stops whirling
and sometimes
my mind
simply goes blank
as my hands do the work
and it all becomes peaceful
and i remember why
and some of the hows get answered…………………..
Stefanie Robinson 
