The Why We Create Launch

Guests start to arrive for the launch of the Why We Create series within TRACE at Pin-Up Project Space, Melbourne. Photography James Braund.

Invited guests from a diverse range of fields including Art, Design, IT, Engineering, Law, Media and Education joined the How We Create team for the Lunchtime Launch of the Why We Create Series.

The Why We Create initiative (founded by How We Create and I) seeks to spark a wider conversation about the process and value of design-led thinking in Australia. Interviews, discussions and public forums are occurring parallel to events that will take place across Australia over the next 12 months. The Launch of this series was held within TRACE at Pin-Up Project Space in Melbourne, on 16 May 2012, and marked the close of the exhibition.

Yes that’s me passionately speaking at the event. Photography James Braund.

Norman Johnson from How We Create and Palamont: art in manufacturing launched the series. I gave an intimate presentation into why I create, and the importance of creatives engaging with the wider business community.

Nicholas Rogers (Parameter Space) and Alexi Freeman (Alexi Freeman). Photography James Braund.

Fleur Watson in conversation (Pin-Up Project Space). Photography James Braund.

Gini Lee (Melbourne University) through Scale Screen. Photography James Braund.

Matt Ward with Martyn Hook (background). Photography James Braund.

Joanna Bosse, Gini Lee (Back) and Christina Waterson. Photography James Braund.

Simone LeAmon in focus. Photography James Braund.

Patricia Lee (Back)( Palamont), Alexi Freeman (Alexi Freeman), Norman Johnson (Back) (Palamont and How We Create) and Nicholas Rogers (Parameter Space). Photography James Braund.

Guests enjoyed good conversation and a beautiful selection of light tastes created by our special local friends Cibi (head, hands, heart) accompanied by refreshing organic apple juice and Pimms cocktails all served by the fabulous Boys and Girls team.

Special Thanks to Melbourne based photographer James Braund who documented the event exquisitely and of course to the team at How We Create.

TRACE BID Details

TRACE The Work = Where We Live

Thread Screen 2009. Photography by Tobias Titz. This screen was inspired by the pattern of western light passing through foliage, lattice, across a verandah finally resting on a speckled glass window pane.

Mapping Occupation 2009. Photography by Jon Linkins. It is a record of the occupation of a verandah over the course of a day.

These two works included in Trace at Pin-Up Project Space were selected from the Where We Live Collection, made with the assistance of a 2008/2009 Creative Sparks Grant. These studies aimed to capture the qualities that enrich our lives in Brisbane and define the special places where we live. Many were informed by our unique light and use of space specific to our climate, views and places within the city.

TRACE FLASHBACK

A large part of the initial research for the  Where We Live project was photographic. In all, seven different places or ‘typologies’ were selected and researched for the project including ‘Up High’, ‘By the River,  ’In the Centre’ and ‘Living Rough’. Only one of these ‘Living at the Edge’ was selected for final exhibition at Raw Space Gallery.

A Sister Work to Thread Screen is Light Study 2009. Photography by Christina Waterson.

Where We Live Installation at Raw Space Gallery 2010. Photography by Jon Linkins.

Raw Space Gallery located on Melbourne Street (South Brisbane) allowed 24 hour viewing of the works. This meant they were readily accessible to a wide diversity of people who both worked and passed through the area on a daily basis.

Both Thread Screen and Mapping Occupation 2009 were selected for TRACE because they are yet to be realised to their true potential. They are in waiting to still evolve and become fully.

Where We Live was a Creative Sparks Grant Project. Creative Sparks is a joint initiative of Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Where We Live at Raw Space Gallery was an Official Associated Event of 2010 Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific.

Brisbane Insiders

Brisbane Insider

With Brisbane Indesign (BID) only 53 Days away, creatives all ’round town are abuzz with planning, making, and collaborating to ensure it is an event to remember!

I was invited by Indesign to be a Brisbane Insider, that is, share my personal experience of Brisbane including places I like to snack, hangout etc. in a cool one page format.

I especially liked Designer Surya Graf's Insider Substation love...I often run into him at Cup...

... I enjoyed the perspective of Interior Designer Erin Dore (I would like to meet Erin...Maybe at BID!)...

...and always Architect Robert Riddel's eloquence and beautiful handwriting.

RESPECT!

Check out all of the Brisbane Insiders and their unique insights at Brisbane Indesign!

TRACE The Work = Studies

The Studies 1996 - 2012. Photography by Tobias Titz

I feel all of my work is in a state of becoming. In this way each is a sketch or study for something larger, smaller, in a different material for a different function or simply to be enjoyed in a new way. Cameron Bruhn (the now Editorial Director of Architecture Media) succinctly described my process in his review of my very first solo exhibition RECENT in 2002 in the following way:

FORMS WERE GENERATED UNCONSCIOUSLY BY Waterson’s engagement with the techniques and material of her craft. Like the architect Louis Kahn, she asked the brick what it wanted to be. Waterson’s process answered the question. She probed the physical limits of her materials through a study of structural forces, repetition, spatial manipulation, and scale. She probed the metaphoric through association, subversion, and memory.

extract from The Architecture of Being by Cameron Bruhn 01/02 Artichoke

The small studies pictured above are a selection of my firsts. They are a special record of the very first time my feelings came into being through materials. They are a constant link to the essential ideas, qualities and forces that inform my process and, like a ribbon on my finger, remind me of why I make.

Within the range of studies displayed in TRACE are models for Array 2007 (that became the 20 x 30 metre RAIA Ceiling Installation for the Queensland Architecture Awards) and also little constructions for future works, maybe to become jewellery, screens, ceilings or lights… or all of the above.

Trace 2012. My quick photography as we installed the exhibition. They are so beautiful!

All of the studies are hand-made except one related set Trace 2012 and Crown 2010. They are my first experiments using SLS and 3D Printing. I worked with architect Domenic Mesiti to ‘trace’ Crown (Part of the Komodo Series),  simplifying the parts down to a continuous surface; like draping a soft material or skin over the bones of the original form. Trace at the presented scale is close to the size of a bracelet – but could be scaled up or down. Patricia Lee, Talented Product Design Officer at Palamont, prototyped TRACE bracelet for the exhibition.

Special thank you to Domenic Mesiti and Patricia Lee for their amazing skill, expertise and professionalism.

Norman Johnson (How We Create and Manager of Palamont) and Patricia Lee (Talented Product Design Officer at Palamont) prototyped TRACE bracelet for the exhibition. Photography by Tobias Titz.

TRACE The Opening

Trace Opening Speeches: Norman Johnson (How We Create and Palamont), Fleur Watson (Pin-Up Project Space) and yes that's cheeky me. Photography by Tobias Titz.

Pin Up Project Space. Photography Tobias Titz.

I was so excited to finally share the works in Trace at Pin-Up Architecture and Design Project Space, Melbourne.  This opportunity to exhibit was made possible through the team at Pin-Up Project space. The generous support of How We Create (in mentorship, feedback, prototyping and sponsorship) ensured an amazing exhibition that is truly my best and most inspirational to date. After completing Official Duties I was able to enjoy catching up with the guests who attended the Trace opening.

Dear friends and colleagues Pawel Zab and Brett Duke. Photography by Tobias Titz.

New Scale Screen in the foreground was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Photography by Tobias Titz.

Norman Johnson (How We Create and Manager of Palamont) and Patricia Lee (Talented Product Design Officer at Palamont) also prototyped TRACE bracelet for the exhibition...Stay Tuned for details! Photography by Tobias Titz.

The beautiful Amy Hoffman (Light Project) with Simone Steel (Pin-up) who assisted in the lighting and installation of Trace respectively. Photography by Tobias Titz.

Ewan McEoin (Studio Propeller), Kate Rhodes (RMIT Design Hub) and Laura Sullivan (Pin Up). Photography by Tobias Titz.

Looking back through the space. Photography by Tobias Titz.

A very special thank you to Tobias Titz who captured the opening Night beautifully. Please see more of Tobias’ great work at his website.

TRACE Installation

We Begin

We unpacked the works and laid them out within the substantial space of the gallery. Some of the works were very very new and so it was the first time I had witnessed the parts together.

Kate Riggs follows my set out drawing of the NEW work Scale Screen.

It took us three intensive days and a few late nights to install TRACE. 

At the end of a late night Martyn Hook surveys the progress. My hands shake as I take this photo. I am so tired.

The works in the exhibition ranged from very small to quite large. A team of people worked with me to complete the installation. They included Kate Riggs (RMIT Architecture Student/Pin-up Student Assistant), Simone Steel (Pin-Up In-turn), The Martyn Hook ( Pin-Up co-Founder/Architect and Melbourne Editor of AR Magazine), Fleur Watson (Pin-Up co-Founder/Curator/Former Editor of Monument Magazine), and my dear friend and jeweller; the beautiful Anna Varendorff.

THANK YOU so Much!!!

Nearly Finished...

NEED TO KNOW!!!

TRACE invite

I hit the ground running on my return to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Meetings….Studio Work… Submitting my Winston Churchill Fellowship Report… Working with Pin-Up… Receiving awesome sponsorship from How We Create…THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN!!!

Playing with Rubber… asking myself Who am I? Who do I think I am after all of the experiences with amazing people from all over the globe… And of course, Lots and Lots of MAKING…

Well the last few weeks I have not blogged much. That’s because I have been in full prep mode for my SOLO exhibition TRACE at Pin-Up Project Space in Melbourne Australia…

TRACE maps and connects the underlying conceptual ideas that thread through the practice of Brisbane based architect and artist Christina Waterson. By physically surveying the origins of her work, the new collection embodies a 3-dimensional ‘trace’, sketch or echo of past trajectories. A softening of material and a simplification of line results in Waterson’s return to essential forms and qualities. Like a stone smoothed by the tidal waters of the ocean, sharp lines soften to tactile curves and arabesques. A palette of materials that range from rubber, leather and felt resonate with a return to artisan values within the traditions of leather work, sewing, beading and macramé.

A collection of work within the exhibition is informed by Waterson’s recent Winston Churchill Fellowship Research experiences.

I am so excited about the new work I may explode at any moment! Stay Tuned!!!

Owen Jones Research

Original Drawings by Owen Jones within the V&A Museum Collection

Back in London…. on to research at The V&A Museum. Architect and Designer, Owen Jones is celebrated for his detailed documentation and reproduction of mosaics and tile work patterns from around the world. He carried this work out during mid 19th Century. Detailed publications and original drawings for color plates of his work are part of the V&A Collection and include ‘Drawing of tiles at the Alhambra’ and ‘Original drawings for The Grammar of Ornament’ published in 1856.

I was fortunate to spend time within The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Prints Room to view first hand Owen Jones’ original drawings. His methodical care and attention to document the patterns was striking. He drew them in a way that allowed the individual elements, their repetition and the underlying structure of the pattern to be understood. There was just enough information and color to understand the very complex patterns, without too much to confuse and overload the page and the eye.

The V&A Library and Reading Room

In the V&A’s Library I viewed the published copies of Owen Jones’ ‘The Grammar of Ornament’, that they hold in their collection. The plates within the book were half the size of the original drawings but still retained the clarity, color and quality of the originals. It was great to see his work at this time. It was made all the more valuable and meaningful by my first hand experience of patterns within each of the places I had just visited through my Winston Churchill Fellowship Research.

Owen Jones' Chinese Patterns No 01 from The Grammar of Ornament , The V&A

Owen Jones' Persian Patterns No 01 from The Grammar of Ornament, The V&A

Istanbul Modern

Istanbul Modern Entry (Yes that is a Cruise Liner in the left of the photo). Unfortunately no photos were allowed to be taken inside The Istanbul Modern.

I visited The Istanbul Modern on several occasions to enjoy their extensive collection and see the Istanbul Biennial. The Istanbul Modern, through its collection, exhibition and discussion of work via extensive public programmes, shares Turkey’s Cultural Identity (both contemporary and historical) within the context of International art, design architecture, new media and film. I saw artworks (installations, sculpture and moving image) by artists including Inci Eviner, Kuzgun Acar, Osman Dinc, Olufur Eliasson, and Canan Dagdelen.

Olufur Eliasson’s work was meditative as it enabled me to feel the space with the transformation of light radiating through his geometric form and the void of space, to cast shadows on the surrounding walls.

Inci Eviner’s work was really interesting in the context of my research, as it questioned attitudes about traditional representations (especially those used in Ottoman tiles). She aimed to make evident the motif and pattern’s role to relay political meaning. She replaced elements within traditional European wallpapers with personal ideograms and symbols found within traditional patterns; also incorporating the moving image into the compositions.