Tag Archives: nests

Artsbox Residency

For the month of April I was in residence at the City of Maribyrnong Artsbox.

Where I continued my exploration of clay and rope, discovering new ways they can interrelate. I invited visitors to make a pinch pot from clay and to share their clay stories. These pots and stories were woven into an installation that emerged over the four weeks of the residency.

I had a steady stream of people popping in.
Everyone was keen to get their hands dirty
Most had a story or previous experience of clay. From traditional vessels and practices in Vietnam and Nepal,a  fathers who was potter and have left a stash of clay for his daughter to use…. to schools experiences, art therapy experiences and just playing in the mud experiences…

Artsbox Residency

 

 

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

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nest… upcoming installation

Today is the 1st of August… I have 17 days until …
Nest
Stories in rope and clay
“Today I bring inside the heavy brown rope and start to pull it apart
    It is thick with dirt, dust and oil. It holds a story of work.
    It is rugged and strong, like an old farmer who has spent his life in the fields…”
 
These nests have been woven from rope and formed in clay.
 
Fragile containers for hope: 
an invocation for 
shelter, security and safety
for all. 
 
This work is my response to her experiences as a community artist, bearing witness to stories of trauma that flow from or lead to the loss of a home, a safe space, a community.
 
 “If only rebuilding a home, a community, a future was as simple as twisting some found rope and reclaimed copper…”
 
Hope is a fragile thing, so easily lost sight of in the barrage of media and world events. But it is “the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” (Emily Dickinson)
 
 
Opening     Wednesday 17th August 6 – 9pm    
Runs          17th August – 3rd September    
Hours         Wed – Sat 12 – 5pm     
 
at
Rubicon ARI
Level 1/ 309
Queensberry Street
North Melbourne
VIC 3051 Australia
Please come and join me at the opening on Wednesday 17th August 6 – 9 pm
This work was developed in a Creative Spaces managed studio.
Creative Spaces is a program of Arts Melbourne at the City of Melbourne
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A sketch

I am currently working towards an installation in August at Rubicon Gallery.

I have a vision for a wall of clay nests
I hung up the few that I had in my Studio last week

 

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I think its going to work!
Now to make the next 50 – 70 …

Scenes on the Yarra

I sent a lovely day yesterday in Williamstown as apart of the final Scenes on the Yarra guided performance/installation  celebrating the Yarra River, created by Jeminah Reidy.

I installed a collection of nests in trees along Nelson Parade and highlighted them with a sound scape created by Dean Lombard.  The soundscape include a song that he had written in response to one of the nests I had made from rope found washed up on the newport breakwater.

The long tails of the nests reached down to the footpath. As I sat and waited for the performance to pass through I got to watch the general public interact with the installation. It was so delightful. People on bikes negotiating the tails, walkers caught by sounds , stopping and looking, curious minds trying to workout where the sound came from….pulling the tails of the nests or waving their hands around thinking they were activated by their presence (unfortunately not just sparse sounds randomly emerging)

Only two people found the need to tell me it was dangerous…everyone else enjoyed it, so many smiles,so much curiosity. It really was such a joy to experience others experiencing it.

 

Its hard to capture the the experience with the camera ….

The Dirty Dozen Christmas Window

There are better photos coming…and more words

but for now a quick glimpse of my finale piece for 2015….installed in Campbell Arcade (or the Degraves underpass as I call it)

I was one of 12 selected by the City of Melbourne to create this installation for “Urban Forest” showing until the end of January

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The Village….. part 2

So quickly it happens….

The Village has gone up, and been taken done and now rests in a box in the studio.
Except the shipping rope which is still sitting in the back of the car waiting for that extra person to be available to help us lift it out!

Thanks to all of those who made it to have a look.

I received a lot of positive feedback and have the vision for the next one….

Here are some photos from the opening….

The Village is up and open…..

On Monday I installed The Village at Trocadero Gallery In Footscray.

Paul Blackman, an old friend and fabulous artist with a great eye for installation helped.

getting the shipping rope up the stairs was a challenge but totally worth it.

This exhibition will be open from September 2nd – 19th
Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5pm
The opening is on Saturday 5th 4 – 6 pm

These are just a few of the photos I snapped after the installation…. there will be more!

Today i made this…..

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Still working the the notion/form of the nest

a little obssesed with clay

Inspired by last terms teacher challenge –  to make a nest in clay by thinking like a bird

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I up scale…

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Its my first attempt at working with clay outside a class situation…. so the test will be in the firing…

have i made the paper clay right?…
Will the mix of clays i have used work?
Whoops i forgot to run a wire underneath the second one…will i get it off the board

all those great learning questions…