Refigured / refined

refigured / refined: introduction

The vibrant arts community spread throughout the Adelaide Hills is one of the region’s hidden treasures. For many artists, living in the Hills is a rich source of inspiration. Being part of a community that celebrates creativity and innovation gives the artists the freedom to experiment and explore. This sense of camaraderie defines an important element within the culture of the Hills. refigured/refined is a slice of that culture.

The Hahndorf Academy is excited to be partnering with Craftsouth to present an exhibition of its members, artists and craft practitioners, who live and work in the Hills. We are proud of the work of the artists in our region and are thrilled at this opportunity to show their works during the 2008 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

The Hahndorf Academy is delighted that this project is supported by both the Adelaide Hills Council and the District Council of Mount Barker. The talents and opportunities in this region extend across borders and present exciting opportunities to collaborate, build, refigure and refine strong, creative communities.

Melinda Rankin
Director, Hahndorf Academy

Craftsouth is the peak industry organisation in South Australia for craft, design and visual arts practitioners. Through the delivery of services which support professional and sustainable practice, Cratsouth acts as a catalyst for innovation and excellence.

Craftsouth generates audience development opportunities for its members and in braoder terms, the South Australian craft, design and visual arts community. A significant number of Craftsouth’s members are based in the Adelaide Hills and therefigured / refined exhibition at the Hahndorf Academy offers the perfect opportunity to celebrate the contribution that these artists make to the cultural identity of the Adelaide Hills region.

Niki Vouis
Membership Services & Projects Manager, Craftsouth

refigured / refined: the artists

Jane Burbidge (Ceramics)

I produce various ranges of wheel thrown domestic ware, mainly in porcelain, for supply to galleries and retail outlets, as well as exhibition work. Through my exhibition work I tend to be a story teller, embedding multiple layers of information within a piece to develop a sequential story line for the viewer. Previous works have been related to the aging, decaying, weathering processes and the layers and stories these contribute over time. Work for this exhibition still relies on layering of information but relates more to the present, and our current environmental and weather concerns. This work is made by laminating hand drawn images between 3mm thick sheets of porcelain which are high fired to 1280° celcius. The porcelain form is then incorporated into the base which is handbuilt from stoneware clay fired to 1280° celcius.

Karen Cunningham (Glass)

Since first being exposed to glass in my Visual Arts Degree, I’ve endeavoured to expand my knowledge of glass by finishing an Honours degree and recently completing a two year intensive training program at JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design. In addition to attending and participating in numerous workshops and demonstrations including those held in Germany and Turkey, I was awarded a scholarship from JamFactory/Arts SA to attend a workshop at Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. Working with hot molten glass is challenging and exciting and I totally enjoy the physical environment of the hot glass studio. In its working state glass has incredible movement and versatility. These pieces reflect the playfulness and fluidity of glass.

Céline Donegan (Visual Art)

Céline is an expressionist style painter whose inspiration is predominantly inspired from the colours and designs in nature. Her paintings have been exhibited in South Australian galleries since 2002 and are in collections in Australia and Manchester, England. In 2007, Céline completed a study trip to New York, Canada and Europe. “I see beauty everywhere from the large to small scale. I photograph locally and when I travel as a starting point and then do quick, spontaneous swatches to get a sense of the overall colour combinations, design and composition of my works. In contrast my oil paintings take time – utilising the richness of oils to maximise the interplay of colour, impasto, glazing, texture, drawing and palate knife techniques, all of which give a three dimensional quality to the surface of the canvas. Creating a painting for me involves a balance between letting go to the organic process of working with my imagination and intuition and marrying the more formal elements of colour combinations, design and mark-making as the painting emerges over time.”

Corinna Freytag (Jewellery)

“The form without emotion, is not beautiful; it is purely a natural event. Neither does beauty belong to emotivity but only to emotion as formed.” Arthur Berndtson. I endeavour to make objects that – while on the one hand push boundaries of culture and concepts of wearability – bring beauty to my audience. Man-made beauty inspires faith in the inherently positive forces in humanity and the universe in me. I would love to share this experience. I enjoy working with natural materials such as wool. But considerations of texture and colour also play a part. Incorporating items from my daily life, such as my swimming cap and my children’s balloons, connects my work to other aspects of my life and culture.

Gerry King (Glass)

While living in Tokyo in the 1970s I saw a Yukata drying on a washing pole. The horizontal line of the pole impressed as being dramatically and culturally different from the curve of the clothesline common to my childhood. The work in this exhibition is part of the Maximal Semblance Series, which is an extension of an earlier body of work exploring the Yukata form. The doubling of the height from the original series is a great technical challenge necessitating an increase of the blowing team to five members. Aesthetically, the work in refigured / refined is a reconsideration of the visual impact of the components of the form, a rebalancing of the elements. Gerry King is represented in SA by Aptos Cruz Galleries.

Pamela Kouwenhoven (Visual Art)

Pamela Kouwenhoven is a South Australian artist who has consistently, and over many years, used unlikely discarded materials to construct sculptural works, assemblages and installations. Her earlier works used discarded cemetery memorabilia [taken from bins] to create works that spoke about memory and loss. More recently, works constructed entirely from decaying and shattered battery cases, relate to a breakdown of power and reckless spending of natural resources. Kouwenhoven’s current work utilises discarded malthoid, a bituminous- based waterproofing material which she scrapes from the bottom of old rainwater tanks. The malthoid’s long and close physical connection to the land, and its earthy appearance, make it the perfect metaphor for exploring environmental issues, such as climate change and global warming that presently loom large over our planet.

Tis Milner-Nichols (Visual Art & Jewellery)

Milner-Nichols selects materials for their inherent qualities and operates from the premise that ideas expressed creatively can transcend the rational conscious mind to renew connections with the world around us. The resultant sculptural language develops a narrative to explore the gap between encounter and perception. Society seems focused upon outcomes and is increasingly obsessed with time. “How are you?”…”Busy” is a common greeting. The ubiquitous teapot is an icon of taking time out and savouring conversation. A series of brooches and pendants of teapots, constructed from either old book covers or metal pieces snug in crochet cosies, refer to information sharing, catching up with friends and making time for reflection or reading.

Mirjana Neshich (Digital Prints)

This work is part of a series of abstract works that revolve around the creative play of montaging images, rendering arrangements and patterned configurations. Much of this series of work has been influenced by fractal photography, kaleidoscopic patterns, and artists such as Victor Vasarely and Maurits C Escher.

Chris Ormerod (Metal)

I am an Adelaide based sculptor with over 30 years experience working with various types of metal. Our understanding of the natural world and man’s place in that world has been a life long interest. This interest has led me in particular to two mathematical theories. The first is the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. The sequence works by adding the previous number to the current one starting from 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89 and so on to infinity. The second is PHI or the “Golden Ratio”. This is the ratio of 1:618 which occurs in the make up of minute life forms to the formation of solar systems. My work as a sculptor combines these theories with skills I have learned and developed over many years working with metal to hopefully produce works that have a natural feel or quality about them. I find working with metal brings me great joy and allows me to maintain and preserve a link with past generations of metal workers from many cultures.

Luna Parrish (Mosaic)

I was born in the UK, raised in NZ and now live in Australia. I’ve lived quite a nomadic life and my journey in art has often reflected a need for the freedom of exploration. I majored in painting and sculpture at art school, but for the past two years I have focused on mosaics. It is a wonderfully tactile medium, combining both colour and texture. My work is essentially quite feminine, a bit eclectic, with a slightly quirky element and a desire to be just a little bit different. To this end, I am now beginning to incorporate more mixed media in my work, including found objects and hand-made, personalised pieces.

Jenny Pedlar (Glass)

Since graduating with Honours from the University of South Australia in March 2007, the focus of my art has been concerned with the interpretation of ideas through the medium of blown glass. Nature has been a major influence, particularly the correlation between the human form and trees. To date the focus has been the similarity between tree bark and human skin during the ageing process, interpreted through colour, form and surface texture. The current series is influenced by memories of childhood family gatherings influenced by recent travel to my homeland. These designs are the subconscious manifestation of the gentle English countryside triggered by childhood memory.

Monica Prichard (Glass)

Is reality the illusion or the illusion reality? By using the unique qualities of glass, my work explores the tenuous balance between the opposites, reality and illusion. I believe it is this balance which creates ones own individual way of perceiving the world, making the world full of an amazing amount of possibilities.

Jane Robertson (Ceramics)

I grew up in London and Florence, Italy and settled in the Adelaide Hills in the 1990s where the rocky landscape and the changing light through the seasons is a compelling source of my inspiration. My work is made from ideas around bird’s nests and eggs symbolising nurture, and reflects the abundant bird life and rich landscape that surrounds my home. I seek to express these ideas by using different clay bodies and a Shino type glaze from a Japanese glaze tradition where any imperfection is part of each object’s individual beauty. I encourage these imperfections in the firing where the flame is part of the alchemy, and any asymmetry or distortion reflects life’s challenges. In the act of making this work I am expressing a search for quiet and reflection.

Regine Schwarzer (Jewellery)

Living in Australia has influenced my work profoundly. I discovered my passion for rocks and minerals which occur in abundance here. For a number of years I have been processing and cutting the stones I use in my work myself. I am inspired by the colours of the stones which I frequently use in my work. While I have a strong background in technical processes, I experiment with these, to apply them in new ways. Cutting a stone is like unveiling the unpredictable and embracing the unexpected. Stones with impurities classified as of minor quality inspire me to use them as a design element and feature them in the finished piece.

Tim Shaw (Glass)

My Slash and Cut series takes traditional blown forms that I slash and cut with my diamond saw to carve and sculpt the surface. The holes in the pieces serve to challenge the viewers’ concept of the vessel, as well as allowing the object to be viewed simultaneously from within and without. This process is dangerous and exhilarating at the same time. Whilst I start with a vague plan of attack, the piece often dictates the carving process, and all too often the vessel ceases to exist because I overstep the line, and end up with a pile of broken glass! This radical approach to carving glass results in works that are steeped in raw energy, yet possess a refined elegance. This balance between form and fragility, coupled with the pieces’ transparency, colour and surface texture allow me to create objects that are uniquely beautiful.

Tim Thomson (Metal)

I am a sculptor with varied interests and a diverse background. I have been a jeweller, jade carver and stone sculptor before finally settling on bronze as my main medium. I use the lost wax process to produce my own work and provide a casting service for other artists. With my figurative work I am always looking for a way of working that has a sketch-like quality that has the maker’s marks on it, and a freshness, that in fact is the antithesis of the bronze casting process. A recurrent theme for me is the way we communicate through gesture and posture. I am fascinated by the hardwired and unconscious responses we all have to varied situations we find ourselves in.

Julia Wakefield (Visual Art)

Although I trained as a visual artist and printmaker, I am continually fascinated by the interaction between words and pictures. I teach drawing to people who need to tap into the right side of their brains and I teach English as a second language in order to exercise the left side of my own brain. We live in a multilingual society and we use other languages that are purely visual or tactile. I have combined Australian Sign Language (Auslan), Braille, Chinese characters, Arabic script and the written form of the Kaurna language (as it was approximated with Roman letters by Lutheran missionaries), to convey four universally significant concepts. I have also added a sixth language: the language of pictorial symbols.

Copyright of the text remains with the individual authors / artists.