Mariachi Design Collective - Monument Magazine Oct 09

 Mariachi Design Collective, as the name suggests, are a dynamic band of designers that have come together to collaborate, stimulate and support each other in what can be an isolating and highly competitive field. After graduating in 2006 from RMIT Furniture Design the group wanted to continue the momentum – extend the playfulness and energy that come from bouncing ideas around a room.

 Ravi Avasti, Michael Thornton, Justin Vecchio, Ky Starcevich and Lee Gratton  describe their collective as a meeting of minds. Michael Thornton explains

“We got on really well and rather than head off in our own separate directions we decided to stay together and encourage each other”

 Avasti is the ringleader by default. With his own flourishing practice and his democratic approach to the group dynamic it is easy to see why. Avasti is a little more self deprecating “I’m the nerd.  I spend the most time on the internet so I can get everyone together more easily”

 Ky Starcevich elaborates “We had a similar aesthetic and a mutual respect for each others craftsmanship”. This meant that while developing and maintaining their own practices they could come together and be experimental in thought and complimentary in design.

 Wood is the material that speaks to them most directly. Vecchio with his strong arts and crafts lines, Thornton with his simple shapes and cool finishes, Starcevich with his complex and surprising forms, Lee with his attention to detail and Avasti with his more robust approach.

 You can’t call them  ‘woodies’ in the traditional sense. “We don’t just concentrate on that joint here or there” says Avasti “We use beautiful materials to design things that are very fresh and clean”. 

Skill sets are all important. To use traditional techniques to create contemporary lines is the challenge “We are always looking and gaining more skills” Gratton says  “I took up upholstery to add another element to the work.”

 It all starts with the sketches. The design process is foremost. The group come together and reams of butcher paper fly. “That’s the fun part” says Avasti “to circle around each other and see who jumps in first. We are designers after call and we do have egos!”

 What could be a five headed monster is actually more five for the price of one. Clients are spoilt for ideas and energy and have the opportunity to become part of the collaborative process. The collective are interested in taking unexpected commissions. Whether it be an ‘Autobiographical Cd Cabinet’ for radio station 3PBS or working on a far grander scale as in the layout for the Saturday In Design event at the North Melbourne Meat Market in 2008. They are open to anything.

 The Collective aren’t interested in taking conventional routes to promote themselves. They’re not in the habit of engaging with the trade fair circuit which has a habit of swallowing small design group whole. Mariachi prefer a far more symbiotic relationship that flows between designers, materials and client. Once they’ve been sought out they are assured the client is like-minded. Ravi Avasti sees this as a great advantage “at the moment we are working on a piece that started with an artist reclaiming an old piano and some newel posts  from a church”. The client believed no one designer could tackle the brief making the Collective a perfect fit for this unusual commission.

Its these unconventional ideas that suit them most, that allow the group to stretch beyond the parameters of their own individual practices. And are they optimistic about the future of the collective?

“Very much so” says Avasti. The rest of the group concur “This is a playground” says Starcevich “We are only just starting the see what’s possible”.

Love You More Than Life

The art of Irene Grishin Selzer (catalogue essay)

There can be no doubt that the ultimate human emotion is love. The sculptural work of ceramic artist Irene Grishin Selzer explores not only our overwhelming desire to live in that other worldly state of being ‘in love’ but the ultimate consequence of living such a life – that death must follow and with it comes loss. As love transcends both time and mortality we can find comfort and beauty in our mourning and celebrate our euphoria in the living.

The teddy bear – long a symbol of innocence, affection, attachment – hangs uncharacteristically posed en masse – their gold hearts spilling out onto the walls and floor. Nothing is more precious than blood, except gold perhaps? Sad but strangely attractive these little bears can either repel or attract the viewer. Perhaps drawn to a single individual (what is its own particular heartache?) or be confronted by the sheer number of bears which can appear as if they are floating. The title ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ apart from the more obvious pop culture reference explores the idea of being torn between the temporal, or rational, and the divine. The firing of soft paste porcelain captures a poignant moment – the ‘little deaths’ of those who gave love.

Skulls are long time heroes of the art world and Grishin-Selzer has used the motif repeatedly since her masters in 2001 to reflect on the relationship between life love and death. In sculptural form these grinning visages are decorated with pretty decals of butterflies and flowers, images of fleeting but beautiful life, or riddled with heart cut outs.

The humour in the macabre is never too far away. Despite the seriousness of the subject Grishin-Selzer plays with the duality of darkness and light as a way of perhaps coping with the weightier aspects of her subject matter. She acknowledges a kind of self-conscious melodrama ever present in our/her musings on things that are beyond our control.

As a way of acknowledging the melodrama and cliché within the world of love and death the work also plays with elements of kitsch. From the pop culture title references, the familiarity of the stuffed bear and skull motif and (the ultimate cliché) the ornament. It honours our desire to mark both occasion and interior with representations of love and life by elevating them into objects of acute beauty. Their highly decorated and polished surfaces seducing us, making us fall in love all over again.

There are many threads that can be drawn together throughout the work – from Russian folklore, modern philosophy, the heartache found in a love song, interpretation of current events, even your own personal story of love and loss. As humans we have certain things in common, a fear of death, a desire to live, and the need to love. A life without love is not worth living.

Indeed without love what would we then mourn or celebrate?

The Contemporary Village

PUBLISHED IN OBJECT August 2007

Umoja=Unity

“When I was in a camp I made Baskets to buy clothes.Baskets were used to trade goods, 10 baskets=1goat” Mary Anwat Nimbol .

Ogun the African God of the Earth and Ezulie Freda,goddess of the celestial realms stood like strange totems in the Craft Victoria window.City workers gathered round with curiosity and awe, admiring the pressed beads and sequins that covered the simple polystyrene forms.A Metal Mermaid bedazzled and bewildered, while simple basket shapes and leather bags were more familiar with their simple colourways and shapes.

In partnership with the City of Maribyrnong and with the Support of Arts Victoria Artist and textile designer Sarah Thorn had conducted a series of workshops with Sudanese women (both from the North and South) inviting them to develop new designs based on traditional techniques.

The women brought with them not only traditional skill sets but stories of their migrant experience and a renewed commitment to both culture and community. Thorn’s long held fascination with African art and technique and her own experience as a designer allowed her to facilitate fresh ideas and encourage the participants to develop new ways of thinking about their own designs as well as giving the group the opportunity to connect and share their stories.

Viewing traditional craft of any kind can often be a challenge to the contemporary eye. Place these objects in the cool setting of the Craft Victoria street level window/exhibition space and they take on a different context. The city workers, unaware of the challenges faced by the makers, or the history associated with the craft they are able to appreciate the work simply as vibrant and energized craft. Perhaps in this way the work is closer to its original story- one of skill and commerce not just story and tribalism with which that are inextricably linked.

Raymond de Zwart: Portals and Night Vision

PUBLISHED IN CRAFT CULTURE July 2007

Bright and Shining Star

By Ramona Barry

Raymond de Zwart’s first major solo show Portals and Night Vision at Pieces of Eight Gallery opens up a whole new universe. Mysterious constellation patterns and nautical maps roll across gold, silver and ivory surfaces on necklaces, rings and brooches. Glittering bowls shimmer like a clear night sky.

In almost every jewelry exhibition there seems to be a ‘first’ piece. Often something quite small and quietly resolved that started the maker on a path that then opens up to reveal a broad body of work. In de Zwart’s case it’s a deceptively simple brooch silver round, engraved, cut beautifully finished. On closer examination it reveals that first step, the astrological and navigational reference in the etching, the sense of it being mechanical, able to whir into some kind of activity at any moment. The scale isn’t quite right, but the charm is all there and from such a little thing, big things certainly did seem to grow.

Some of the most interesting pieces in the show are fashioned from reclaimed ivory (piano keys a fellow jeweler picked up in Paris). The Portal Brooches are particularly bold with their angular cuts and silver backs. Their title suggest perhaps passages to another world and yet they are the most graphic pieces in the show. They perhaps indicate a way forward, a less cluttered surface allowing the shape to shine.

When looking at contemporary jewelry it is always a great pleasure to turn the pieces over, to seek out the makers stamp, to look at the details. No one can argue that de Zwart has mastered the roller clasp and his elegant curls of gold in the earrings are a pleasure to look at and I imagine to wear. He seems to have taken great care to see each piece through. He certainly has mastered the difficult craft of fine saw piercing – any flaws in the internal edges only add to the mysterious nature of the pieces. The mix of different chain links both in gauge and metal worked most effectively in a bold neckpiece with an almost baroque cut jet pendant. It looked weighty and feminine all at the same time, a nice juxtaposition that imbues the piece with a ‘talisman’ like feel.

Rings too were a feature of the show the most interesting displaying little universes within them. Set with blue and white sapphire, topaz gold and silver – with the ubiquitous constellation and navigational diagrams etched into the surface. At first they look a little heavy, almost too much information on such a small surface. But on the hand they sit well and have an almost magical charm. They are full of character but do not overwhelm or distract the wearer. They look as if they have a tale to tell and that can only be good.

Interestingly de Zwart has also turned his hand to vessels. A series of bronze bowls lined with silvery, starry tin stand alone in the centre of the space on a plinth and they certainly deserve consideration. Some are more successful than others its true, but they are so beautiful together shimmering, quivering almost despite their substantial weight. It’s always terrific when jewelers put on their metalsmith’s hat and fashion a vessel. Something for us to hold in both hands. To change their scale does pose challenges but the results are always interesting. De Zwart should pursue this course. The bowls are dynamic and it will be interesting to see how their scale and weight interplay with his wearable pieces in the future.

De Zwart certainly has his own style. It’s clearly a masculine voice concerned with making beautiful pieces and telling stories with each piece. Instantly the viewer/wearer thinks of clock mechanisms, astrological maps, constellations, silvery stars even time machines. H.G Wells would have liked these pieces as they would suit both past, present and future. If anything de Zwart seems to be a bit locked into what he describes as the connection between ‘the mechanical and the metaphysical’. Where he goes from here will be interesting to see, deeper into the complex universe or the more esoteric concern of scale and line?

To take one piece home would be hard but given a choice perhaps that very first pendant. Small and quiet yet containing a universe of possibilities.

Portals & Night Vision

Pieces of Eight Gallery

635 Brunswick Street

North Fitzroy

June 19 – July 14

for Craft Culture October 06

Into the colourfield: the craft practice of Mary Louise Edwards

Entering the studio of artist Mary Louise Edwards you are struck by organized chaos. It’s a small room that functions as the nerve centre for a practice that has spanned twenty years. Bowls overflow with small balls of color coded fabric. Thousands of cork disks fight for desk space amongst pins, matches, tools and the ubiquitous radio and cup of tea. It is her place of work, one that she attends daily.

Edwards is almost impossible to categorize ‘textile artist, installation artist, craftsperson, painter, maker’ are the closest tags for describing the complex visual world being constructed in the quiet suburban studio.

Perhaps Chaos Theory rather than pure chaos is a more appropriate phrase. Regardless of intent, patterns emerge, forms take shape, landscapes are constructed by ‘singles cells’ of sliced cork. Each piece unique but working to make a whole. It is the perfect example of ‘from little things big things grow’.

I first sat down with Edwards as work began for a major solo show at Craft Victoria held in May 2006. Originally planned as one large color field piece Edwards went through many concepts before adjusting the work within the dictates of this challenging space. Long and thin, a rough floor and a bank of windows, it is not the conventional cube the artist was used to.

But it did come with one new and stellar advantage. “Craft Victoria is primarily an object based gallery and so there was an opportunity to make objects which was exciting to me” said Edwards. Slightly adjusting her practice to approach the space flower motifs appeared as did wall mounted tree like columns and more significantly floor work that came to mark the beginning of a new journey in her practice.

In work that deals with multiples, the mundane (wine cork) is transformed into a kind of building block. Repeated motifs cause a pulse. Stitched together they evoke both the micro and the macro. At first the viewer sees quilts, flags, stitches, rhythms and then as the eye adjusts, landscapes emerge and then back again to basic DNA structures – theory in the chaos.

Edwards doesn’t get caught up in pattern explaining “It’s more organic than that. I’m happy with the unevenness of the material. I think that’s where the beauty lies, in its imperfect quality”.

She is keenly aware that the evidence of process is there. Cutting, sorting, categorizing are the basic tools for creating the work. Stitching cork disks to each other to form grids, each one slightly different, none completely square they echo the looseness of quilts she saw the tribal women of India creating which has had a long lasting effect on her work.

Edwards is no stranger to Craft Victoria. The previous year she had participated in the exhibition Ragged Edge that explored themes of recycling and preciousness. Edwards created a floor to ceiling installation of columns of chuck super wipes that had color graded fabric balls and cork slices attached.

Edwards was no stranger to the humble dishcloth, having created a masterful wall piece as part of the prestigious Cecily and Colin Rigg Award at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2004. But this was the first time Edwards had used cork as a material and it was to prove to be the beginning of what would become a major body of work.

Material of course is all important and is usually the starting point for the work. It may be colour, texture or mass but it is almost universally domestic. This is not to be read as proto feminist but it certainly stems from ‘home use and work’.

Cork was something that Edwards had wanted to work with for a long time. Having built up quite a collection and having slowly reached a point where she could see the possibilities in the material, she looked for ways for not only using it for decorative purposes. She used her instincts as a painter and her long standing interest in abstraction and minimalism. Edwards responded to the material as a tool. Cork disks as a new kind of brush to construct the image.

Exhibitions usually mark an end point for work. The Craft Victoria show was a crystallization of past ideas but also a public declaration of new intent. Almost as soon as the work was installed Edwards was looking ahead, problem solving and continuing on the journey “I began thinking about where the work could go from there” she said “It seemed open to so many possibilities, it was exciting.”

Like many makers it’s been a complex journey thus far. From art school, teaching, traveling and curating there is always been a keen engagement with the world.

Edwards faces her artistic future in a mindful way, tackling her Masters in 2007 while continuing to participate in group shows and the possibility of another solo show later in the year. It will be an opportunity to tease out the ideas that have informed the work over the past decade. Picking up where she left off from her art school training with ideas of landscape, exploring washes and marks and the history behind the dot (a potent marker in her work).

Edwards turned 40 this year and has marked it as a victory. Engaging with her practice full time and making the making her life priority. Self described as “a mid career artist” it seems clear that for Edwards, this is just the beginning.