The art of miniature

I've been fangirling over artist Lori Nix for a number of years (in fact I'm very tempted to say "since we exhibited together at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York", even though she was in the actual exhibition and I was in the online gallery add-on, Small Realities. So not really in the same league at all, even though I made it onto the Small Realities front page).

I bought the book that goes with the exhibition back in 2011 (the year the exhibition happened) but have been after a copy of Lori Nix's book The City ever since.

Alas it went out of print very quickly and the second-hand market soon had it into the hundreds of dollars (possibly due to a fairly constant flow of media attention), and thus well beyond my budget.

I'd pretty much resigned myself to never having a copy of the book, but still occasionally checked out Booko to see how stupidly expensive it was.

And then, one day in April this year, something amazing happened: I found a copy for under $100! And in Sydney, no less!

I snapped it up as an early birthday present, fully expecting to get the 'Oh sorry, it's not actually in stock' email, but instead getting the 'We just shipped it to you' email. I was gobsmacked at my luck.

(Of course, nothing birthday present-related will beat the buying of my first home, settlement of which just happened to land on the day before my birthday this year).

As part of the preparation for my shift, I realised there were some things in my life (and my home) that I could no longer justify.

Sadly, one of these was bette Noir, which had sat in my front hall for almost two and a half years before heading to its new home.

I was feeling bad about my lack of action during that time until I was reminded that it was destined for the tip before it came to me: so perhaps I was only ever supposed to be its caretaker, not its owner.

And when I discovered that its new owner (caretaker) was in the studio next to one of its creators, I was happy.

Gallery guide

One of the things I love to do when travelling is visit the local gallery/ies to see what's on exhibition.

The first gallery we visit has an exhibition called ROUND HOLE squared:

There's this pop-up gallery: (I hear that they do guerrilla dining events between exhibitions, but we're not here at the right time...) 

 The local woodwork gallery has an amazing shop (never mind the exhibitions!)

And we caught bette NOIR gallery between exhibitions.

The locals are still talking about the Call of the Small exhibition, which was quite some time ago now, but obviously memorable. It sounds amazing.

An exciting delivery (and a new project)

It's been a bit quiet around here: most of my energy has been focused on a six-month contract that I started at the beginning of last week.

I've been getting used to a new rhythm to my days, learning as much as I can in the new role and I've been getting home at night exhausted, which means no brain space to think—let alone do anything—miniature.

I'm working in the city for a change, and on Wednesday night I was pleased to be able to trot down the road from work to the opening of Ampersand Duck's latest exhibition (long-time readers might remember she was part of the Call of the Small exhibition I curated at Craft ACT way back in 2010.)

At the exhibition we chatted about what our plans were for 2016, and I mentioned that I wanted to build and manage a teeny tiny gallery, or a chain of teeny tiny galleries (something I've been talking about and working towards since the close of Call of the Small), and had been talking to a couple of people about places for it to live.

And she said 'I've got Bette Noir in my studio: perhaps that would work for you?' And I had to admit I had no idea what she was talking about. She explained it was a miniature gallery that was well-known in the Canberra arts scene many years ago and that she'd been given custodianship of some time ago and hadn't had the time to devote to because of other commitments.

'I'm clearing out my studio this weekend', she continued. 'Would you like to become its curator?'

And so it came to pass that my assistant Wendy is, once again, assessing a gallery space.

And I've had to find room (temporarily) for another (large) miniature in my flat

(And space in my schedule for a pile of research on its history...)

Gascoigne at Goulburn Gallery was great!

In the Canberra Times art magazine a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that there was a Rosalie Gascoigne exhibition on at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, which is a mere hour up the road.

I love me some Rosalie Gascoigne about as much as I love me some Alex Asch, so of course I had to go. And since I have no job, I could go any time I wanted :-D

Today was the day, and friend Tina joined me for the trip. And, being such mature grown-up people, our first stop in town was a selfie in front of the bum of The Big Merino

(which I shared on Facebook with the title 'Yum yum, sheep's bum, road trips are great fun!'). Yep: completely adult.

Seriously though, I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition

 (especially as we'd drive past Lake George to get there. And had the place to ourselves...)

The day got better when I discovered the children's room at the end of the gallery, which invited us to 'create your own Rosalie Gascoigne inspired [sic] collage and add it to our group work'.

As we read, our plans to visit the local op shops before we had to return home faded away.

 I decided to photograph my pieces with the works that inspired them...

 And, finally, I just had to make a miniature-sized work

which I had to play with once I got home.

The first thing I spotted in the stash when I started looking for inspiration for the scene (because one more 'desk and stuff' or 'sofa and stuff' scene would probably put me to sleep) was this chair from Minisx2:

And, as sometimes happens, the whole story for the scene fell into place. It was a gallery shop, of course! (And what a long time since I've done a gallery...)

And, as happens, things seemed to just jump out of various storage spaces, demanding to join in the fun:

new things. Old things. And things that have been waiting in stash for a while for the perfect setting.

 They all suddenly working. Perfectly.

 If I had money, I'd shop here.

 Wouldn't you?

Editions

A new gallery just opened in town.

(Owned by the same folk who own Limited)

(Credits: Chair by In the Twelfth Scale, vintage table from eBay, rug made by me. 'Art' made from some bits found in a $2 bag of plastic toys from the op shop. Spray painted silver and black.)

The opening...

The inspiration:
* New black painted floorboards
* A set of glam decorative accents sent to me back in February by Mini Dork (like them? She's having a giveaway!)
* Attending three friend's openings yesterday

The goods:

* Aforementioned flooring
* My standard sheet of Precision Products' plastic brick
* Mini plinths from Craft ACT's Call of the Small exhibition
* Mini Dork's pieces and a couple more from my collection
* My P-touch labelling machine for the exhibition title

The time taken:

* About 20 minutes, including time taken to try and convince the piece at the back to balance on one point!