Monday, August 4, 2008

Art Fair Faves

Well the Art Fair is pretty much all packed up now, a brief but frenzied weekend of show and tell. We visited on Saturday, and actually managed to spend two hours there, not a bad effort on behalf of the three year old!
Here are two of my favourite pieces/artists, there are probably so many more that I could include (Fiona Hall, Louise Weaver) but these really made me smile. I like a bit of humour with my art.


Kaori Kato, 'Drawing Machine', 2007
This was a cut and paste piece of genius. Small children gathered around in appreciation of its Meccano-like assemblage. Adults were likewise enthralled.
The whole thing was powered by an electric fan, which blew onto two small childrens' windmills. As these spun, they rotated the big cogs at the top of this picture, which led onto other cogs, finally resulting in one end of the machine drawing, and the other moving the paper along, creating the long tubular drawing you can see here.
The entire machine was made from cardboard, small timber struts, and coloured pencils, all held together with hot glue. Genius, recycling, humorous.



Penny Byrne, 'George and Laura simply adore the War on Terror', 2008
This lady takes the cake for me. She is a ceramicist and ceramics conservator, who has obviously got a lot to say, and in such a wry, decorative way!
Again I love the genius, the humour, and the recycled component. As someone who lives in a house strewn with toys, it's great to know that they can be re-used in this way, I wonder if she gets all the action man accessories in those big bags from Savers?
I mentioned to someone that I loved her work, and they asked, "But don't you find it a bit too 'crafty'?" It was like waving a red flag at a bull!
Have a look at her gallery, Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art for more examples of her work.
All of her pieces were sold a number of times over, she will no doubt be busy for years, scouring the second hand shops for figurines. I'm sure she has her contacts.

2 comments:

pen said...

i want a drawing machine!
fan-tastic!
sorry i didn't get to see it.
was Leo still blowing raspberries?

Unknown said...

Leo blew the biggest raspberries ever, at many posh interstate curators! It's a good icebreaker, well I'll keep telling myself that.....