Flotilla: an Installion with Video Art by Robert Crisp, Michelle Hall & Jo Lankester

Flotilla
Robert Crisp, Michelle Hall & Jo Lankester 
Strand Ephemera 2013, 30 August - 8 September

Flotilla at Dawn

Our most recent collaboration was Flotilla for Strand Ephemera 2013, this time with a digital projection extending the collaborative process to include video artist Robert Crisp.

Flotilla explores notions of loss and anonymity experienced during chaotic times. Textile forms suggestive of ghosts have been printed with boat forms. The appearance of the work shifts with nightfall as an atmospheric projection acts as a storm on which the ghost boats float.

Strand Ephemera 2013 was located on the picturesque Townsville Strand, the event was held coincidentally at an incredibly windy time. In anticipation of the wind we intently installed our work to the lower hanging branches from only one anchor point so that the wind would not totally destroy our print assemblages.

Flotilla could be view over 24hrs with each significant part of the day contributing to the dramatics of the piece, and playing a very important role in conveying our interpretation of a long journey at sea. Dawn brought a sense of calm, a time to reflect an opportunity to assess the damage from the storm the night before. Midday was the transition time of the sails filling with wind and uncertainty of what was to come. Dusk brought strong wind, tension, and vulnerability. Night brought uncertainty and fear. The cycle was repeated each day with the installation taking on the physical effects of the elements.

Flotilla at Midday

Flotilla on Dusk

Flotilla at Night

We would like to thank Gallery Services and Townsville City Council for their support in going beyond normal expectations to accommodate our digital projection

Custom Frames by Brush & Press @ Artisans on Flinders, Townsville

At Brush & Press we specialise in making custom frames for prints and works on paper. As artists ourselves we understand your framing needs.

We use a blond Australian timber moulding, Quandong, and Plexiglass to make our frames, and pride ourselves on purchasing materials locally supporting Townsville small business.

Jo Lankester, Message to the Living, Linocut, Artisans on Flinders

Window Display of Prints and Greeting Cards at Artisans on Flinders

Wing Tip Vortice an Installation by Michlle Hall & Jo Lankester @ Cell Artspace Cairns

 Wing Tip Vortice: A Comedy of Events

Wing Tip Vortice by Michelle Hall & Jo Lankester was on display at Cell Artspace Cairns, from 3 August until 31 August 2013.

 

Wing Tip Vortice, Cell Artspace, Cairns

Michelle & I hit the road at 4.30 am Saturday 3 August for a 5 hour road trip to Cairns to install Wing Tip Vortice at Cell Art Space.  The previous day we organised with Pack & Send Townsville to make a traveling cardboard crate to transport the Wings to Cairns. The box was 2m L x 85cm W x 45cm H. Pack & Send provided strapping to go around the width of the box to keep the lid contained. Michelle and I were very proud of our traveling crate and commented how sexy our box looked.

Carefully packing the artworks made of etchings printed on vintage pattern paper, bamboo sticks and wall paper paste, into the box we then strapped the box to the roof of my car. This is where the calamity, now comedy, begins. On the drive home I kept saying to myself remember the box on the roof, remember the box on the roof, it soon became a mantra. I pulled into the driveway stopping before entering under the house as the car would not fit with the box strapped to the roof. 

I then received a text from one of my colleagues at Artisans on Flinders informing me of all the sales for that day, and being a Friday evening I knew I would have to restock the shop for the weekend as Sunday is one of our busiest days with the Cotters Markets. After a short stop at home I got back in the car at 6pm and started repeating the mantra ‘remember the box on the roof’, in hind sight I should have taken the box off and left it at home. I spent the next 3 hours restocking the shop and proceeded home remembering the box on the rook right up until I pass my house and pull into the driveway. There’s my son rushing to the gate to help me in, I spot a cigarette in his hand and loose my train of thought yelling what’s that in your hand, you know I don’t want to see you smoking’ I’m saying this as I pull in the drive way and crunch the sexy box into the raised garage door!

 

The damage looked like this

I quickly reverse the car and jump out hyperventilating. My world just imploded as I thought I had destroyed the artwork that was to be installed in Cairns the following day. Holden was great; he kept telling me to calm down and helped me take the box off the rook to inspect the damage. To my great relief and surprise the artwork was not damaged the box and artwork just lifted and changed shape. I cannot express my relief in words. Holden helped me mend the box and repack the work. He even got up at 4am to help strap the box back onto the car roof. Thank you, Holden.

I pick Michelle up from her house and begin our road trip to Cairns, I told her my horror story of the night before and she took it well, we had a little laugh but it was pure tension release on my behalf and relived that she took it well. 2 hrs down the road as the sun started to rise we were driving through Cardwell. We pulled over for a toilet break.  Along the way we had some light rain and at that point thought it would have been a good idea to wrap the box in plastic in case of rain. The rain wasn’t too heavy and we convinced ourselves that the box would be fine. When we go out of the car we saw that the lid of the box had lifted to where one of the straps was exposing the artwork to both wind and rain. You can image the disastrous thoughts running though my head. Mind you we pulled up in front of a tool box talk for the roadwork crew which was a bit intimidating to say the least. We took our box off the roof and inspected the damage. Once again there was no damage to the artwork. The wind had shifted the artworks to the back of the box compacting the wings to sit flat. There were quite a few bugs in there but no damage. FEW!

 

After repairs to the box in Cardwell

After re-strapping the box length ways to prevent the lid lifting again, we took off to Cairns and still in front of the road crew which meant no lengthy stops along the way.  We arrived ½ an hour before install at 10am.

 

No damage on arrival. FEW!

Michelle Hall & Jo Lankester

Wing Tip Vortice

Michelle Hall

We would like to thank Townsville City Council for supporting our project through the Grants for Excellence in Cultural Development in assisting us in making this exhibition possible, and to Cell Art Space for proving Michelle and I with the opportunity to grow our audience outside of Townsville.

We would also like to thank Sammy for demounting the exhibition and returning the not so sexy box to us in Townsville. X

About Place an Exhibition of Prints by Jo Lankester, Zelma Schulten & Rhonda Stevens

About Place an exhibition of prints and print sculptures by Jo Lankester, Zelma Schulten & Rhonda Stevens telling a visual story About Place, Townsville. The exhibition Opened at 12pm on Sunday 16th June 2013 as part of the Celebrate Townsville Festival.

Location: Brush & Press Studio @ Artisans on Flinders, 354 Flinders St, Townsville
10am-4.30pm Mon-Fri
9.30am-1.30pm Sat & Sun

Exhibition duration: 9 June until 14 July 2013

Jo Lankester 
Artist Statement

The Landscape has always been of interest in my work. I am inspired by the colours, textures, natural rock and land formations, insects, trees, and the esoteric nature of place.
I believe the landscape depicts its own story to be told. I draw inspiration in the solitude of drawing on location. The process I go through to create my pictures is that I start to see and draw the landscape in the distance and then gradually focus on subjects in closer proximity until I start to see and interpret the essential character of place.
These Monotype is reflective of winter in the dry tropics which I have interpreted to be the essential character of Queensland.

Jo Lankester, MT Stuart IV, Monotype, 2012, 76 x 56cm, $545 framed

Jo Lankester,  MT, Stuart Grass Trees II, 2012, Monotype, 76 x 56cm, $545 Framed

Zelma Schulten
Artist Statement

Life’s journey
“Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths” J.W. Goethe (1749-1832)
I have used Townsville’s picturesque landscapes as symbols to portray my journey through life. Local paths, bridges, waterways and mountains represents voyages, crossings of tribulations, decision making, challenges, failures and triumphs.
Even though we share life and the landscape, you as the viewer, will have your own unique connection to some very familiar Townsville scenes. So too will we all experience life differently as individuals and will make our own unique decisions with different outcomes.
The landscape, similar to our life, is constantly changing: new seedlings will sprout, streams will redirect, harsh changes will be made by nature’s forces, roads will be closed, but still the journey will continue

Zelma Schulten, Kissing Point’s Path, Zink plate Etching, 20 x 25, 2012 cm, Edition 30, $295.00 framed

Zelma Schulten, Wooden Bridge over Creek, Zink plate Etching, 20 x 24,6 cm,2012, Edition 30, $295.00 framed

Zelma Schulten, Ross River from Riverside Gardens II, Copper plate Etching and Drypoint, 32 x 26 cm, 2012, $295.00 framed

Zelma Schulten, My Castle II, Zink plate Etching and Drypoint, 20 x 16,5 cm, 2012, $295.00 framed

Rhonda Stevens
Artist statement

Rhonda Stevens lives and works on Magnetic Island and her natural environment remains a constant source of inspiration with the myriad complexities of humanity, particularly the disparate interconnectedness of peoples and things
 After following her love of sculpture from studying at Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne she has moved into the magical multi leveled world of printmaking and seeks to explore both in the developing of her art.
Is place caught in the shadows, the reflections, the echoes, or is it “about place” where we are in time trammeled in the continuous flux of the mix of life?
The very nature of Place is its always shifting let us keep exploring everywhere with our natural sense of wonder not blinkered by the material world

Rhonda Stevens,Tickle, Etched Aluminium & Charbonnel Ink, 2013, 55 x 36 cm, $295.00

Rhonda Stevens, Auguries on the Sea Shore, Etched Aluminium & Charbonnel Ink, 2013, 55 x 36 cm, $295.00

Rhonda Stevens, Shadows on the Wall 1, Etched Aluminium & Charbonnel Ink, 2013, 55 x 36 cms, $295.00

Rhonda Stevens, Shadows on the Wall 2, Etched Aluminium & Charbonnel Ink, 2013, 55 x 36 cm, $295.00

To find out more about Celebrate Townsville Click Here

P.S. To purchase any of the prints and prints sculptures featured please contact me directly or come into Artisans on Flinders, 345 Flinders St, Townsville

Flying Arts Artiz@townsville: Monotype Printmaking Workshops

This week Flying Arts held their annual Townsville programs for Teachers and North Queensland Students, ARTIZ @ Townsville. I facilitated a professional development workshop for teachers and two student workshops on monotype printing at Umbrella Studio of Contemporary Arts.  There were teachers from Proserpine, Mnt Isa, Charters Towers, and Townsville. I was very pleased to find that all the schools represented had etching presses in their art departments.

Flying Arts, Artiz@Townsville 2013, Teachers PD Monotype Printmaking Workshop

Flying Arts, Artiz@Townsville 2013, Teachers PD Monotype Printmaking Workshop

Flying Arts, Artiz@Townsville 2013, Teachers PD Monotype Printmaking Workshop

Flying Arts, Artiz@Townsville 2013, Student Monotype Printmaking Workshop

Flying Arts, Artiz@Townsville 2013, Student Monotype Printmaking Workshop

Flying Arts, Artiz@Townsville 2013, Student Monotype Printmaking Workshop

Introduction to Monotype Printmaking with Jo Lankester

Introduction to Monotypes was a great workshop with some fantastic prints created. I started with a demonstration on how to roll etching ink evenly on a perspex plate for a variety of monotype techniques and processes including direct drawing, reductive, additive, and multi-coloured layering. Monotypes are most commonly created using and combing drawing and painting. Information can be developed in both additive and reductive approaches, much the same way as marks can be drawn or erased in a drawing.We experimented with printing by hand and using an etching press.  

The workshop consisted of absolute beginners and intermediate artists. I must admit I just love the expressions on the faces of absolute beginners when they pull their first successful print; it is very satisfying as a teacher to see this.

We were blessed to have Lydia Fegan a visiting artist from Warringa Print Studio attend the workshop. She made a stunning two colour monotype using a combination of both reductive and additive approach.

This is the third and final introduction printmaking workshop as part of May Month of Learning organised by City Libraries, Townsvile City Council. The workshops were held at Umbrella Studio of Contemporary Arts.

Yellow Ochre & Transparency Etching ink

Jo Lankester rolling up with Etching Ink.

Applying a reductive Monotype process.

Demonstrating rolling etching ink out evenly on the perspex plate

Mixing a transparent black

Jo Lankester, MT Stuart Grass Trees lV, Layering Monotype

 Photography by Angela Cheung