The exhibition last weekend went very well. It had a good turn out and many positive feedback. Thank you for those who came along. Here are some images of my work - an installation of porcelain lilypads and a film projected onto muslin screen...
For those who may be interested, this is a brief background. This exhibition was one assignment of my degree study, which was to work in collaboration with a local art dealer and gallery owner. The project was to make work in response to the wonderful 1820 Georgian house where he and his family live.
I focused on two aspects of the house that fascinated me from my initial visit; one is a story of a fish pond, and other is beautiful patterns throughout the house. It was explained that the state of house & garden was quite run down when he first bought it. Due to over grown plants, he did not even realise there was a fish pond in the garden first, then he even found a fish ALIVE! (and still is today!) No one knows how long this fish has been living there, to which I thought the fish may have never seen any light. I was instantly intrigued by the story and made a short film about fish point of view. Similarly, as the restoration continued, the beautiful original feature of the house appeared, such as floor tiles and wall paper. Both fish pond and those patterns were undiscovered and untouched for a long time. I felt a sense of revealing ‘hidden beauty’ in both elements, which is what my work is all about.
Those lilypads are all in unglazed porcelain, which I have never worked with before, certainly not thrown. It was quite a challenge for me, but enjoyed a whole new experience. Screen print design was all hand-drawn first. (you can see the process here) My favourite was pierced ones. (you can see the process here)
Hope you enjoyed. (and so did a dog!?) x m
These are beautiful! I am very intrigued by the pierced ones too!
ReplyDeleteMaki this is beautiful! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteAh ah ah ah ah ah aaaaaaaaaaaah! Gorgeous!!! And beautifully presented as well Maki.
ReplyDeleteMaki...these are truly wonderful. I love the way you have taken the ideas from the house and yet the work is so very definitely Japanese...hope you don't mind me saying so...I love it!
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't mind it at all. In fact it is quite nice hearing that, as it means that the cultural influence comes naturally so I am pleased. Thank you Gerry. x m
DeleteMaki
ReplyDeleteSo utterly lovely, and original, your ideas and work here.
The pierced dishes are perfection! And the connection to the floor patterns, the lily pad shapes and the fish in the dark very intriguing. Is the filtered light that shines through the pierced dishes how you interpret how the fish would see light through the plants on the pond?
xx
Julie
Thank you Julie. My interpretation of fish point of view was actually on the film, but I used my lilypads for filiming it actually, so the images came out like you said. I know it's not real but thinking about if lilypad could show through the light, that would be fascinating! Don't you think? x m
Deleteamazing! wonderful, beautiful work, congratulations :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks perfect!
ReplyDeleteJust beautiful and yes I agree, I like the pierced ones best as wel.Hope you do well.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for your lovely messages! Glad you liked them :) x m
ReplyDeleteAmazing, delicate work. I really love the way you integrated two aspects into one lily pad. I will be sharing a link to this in an upcoming post on my blog.
ReplyDeleteThese are really beautiful, the pattern is quite bold bu the way it is used is not at all over bearing! Absolutely lovely work, congratulations! I also love the links to how the decorations were made.
ReplyDeletei think i love it! ...very nice to find you!
ReplyDeleteMaki - this looks quite quite beautiful!
ReplyDelete