Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Pieces of Eight, NRCG

Coming soon to Northern Rivers Community Gallery in Ballina is our new exhibition, 'Pieces of Eight' with Sue Fraser and Ruth Park. Inspired by the exotic history of the Spanish Silver Dollar, we have responded in different ways to the title of the show. In colonial Australia, the Spanish Silver dollar was brought in to replace rum as currency. The dollar was punched out, making both the Holey Dollar and the punch. The donut shape of the Holey Dollar is the same form as the Chinese 'bi disc', also a form of currency in ancient China. This was the starting point for my version of 'Pieces of Eight'. You can see in the image the turquoise glazed bi disc. Our launch event is on Thursday 28th August from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. NRC Gallery is open Wed - Fri 10.00am to 4.00pm and Saturday - Sunday 9.30am to 2.30pm.

woollahra small sculpture prize

Have entered this piece into the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. I'm interested in etymology. I have been learning Hungarian for the past nine months and it has heightened my awareness of my primary tongue, English. In this sculpture, words and numbers combine and transmute into more complex meaning. Unless you grow up in a culture, you can't really recognize the hidden implications in a simple phrase. The piece is called 'Ordinal', and the face is stamped with the word, BORN.