Invitation to Online Premiere and Artist’s Talk | An Instruction Manual on How to be Lucky
AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL ON HOW TO BE LUCKY
Thank you to the City of Melbourne for funding me with a Covid 19 Quick Response Grant. In amongst the delirium of isolation I have been busy creating a video which will premiere online with an accompanying artists talk in mind-June. Please stay posted as anyone in the world will be able to attend this online event.
Emergency Responses
Emergency Responses opens today at First Site Gallery, RMIT. This is a colloborative exhibition with Victoria Jost, which explores how individuals create systems in order to make sense of an unpredictable and chaotic universe.
Victoria’s work looks at the creative act as essential to survival, using fantasy and imagination as an approach, her ten metre drawing questions the distinctions between the real and the unreal, fiction and reality. Victoria’s systems use the four elements as a starting point, as the most basic matter of the universe, to create a diagram of the world.
Carolina’s work looks at impulse towards systematization as a paradoxical attempt to use find freedom through the imposition rules and constraints. Her series of drawings and her short film consider the tension that arises from creating systems, structures that simultaneously broaden and narrow our perspectives and ways of understanding of the world.
Both the artists in their works have pushed the idea of systems to the point where they break from of being systems and become redundant structures, that have lost their functionality and become absurd, Victoria’s through the use of scale and Carolina’s through the intentional use of flawed logic.
At this show you will see a film I have made with the assistance of Tim Sharp
The Three Great Gods in the Sky
I have arrived at the seventh art, cinema, a new space where distinct elements can be combined: sound, motion, image, potentially virtual reality.
For the last few months I have been collaborating with Cian Holt on The Treasure Hunt, an exploratory work exploring the cultural impact of mining in Western Australia. This is my first experience at making a truly collaborative work and our first attempt at a film.
The Three Great Gods in the Sky (2017)
There seems to be a strong focus amongst Perth artists on landscape and place, something natural given the problematic colonial history and the uncomfortable feeling that Perth is, or at least until recently has been, a culturally uninteresting, socially conservative place and certainly not a place where art is appreciated, and so it is best to move to Melbourne. There have been a string of mining booms throughout Western Australia’s history which have been influential on the local culture, both directly and indirectly making us who we are today
As the figure depicted above looks out over the marshes, up at the Three Great Gods in the Sky, is she questioning the future, asking for guidance? are the gold objects in the basket an offering or have they been stolen? Is it a guilty glance towards the looming gods, or an act of defiance? Why the cape? Is this our hero or is it our villain?
Open Your Eyes
Below is a short film I made on the sheer terror of existence. Make sure you turn up the volume.
Raku Firing
Macica (2017) 10cm x 17 cm, Raku-fired Ceramic
Below are some photos from the Raku-firing process, which is a technique of placing glazed ceramics in a kiln for a relatively short period (approximately 1.5 hours) and then throwing them mercilessly into sawdust, which creates interesting patterns and textures.
Unexpected Encounters in the Desert
Unexpected Encounters in the Desert (2017) 30 x 40 cm Metal Etching on Paper
I have finished another semester at TAFE. I particularly enjoyed my printmaking course, this time learning both intaglio and relief printmaking techniques. The print above has been created using a metal etching technique. A metal plate is coated with bitumen, then a design is scratched into it to and the plate is placed in acid. The acid eats into the exposed metal where the bitumen has been scratched away, thus etching lines. Larger tonal surfaces can be achieved by a similar technique of painting bitumen onto the plate. To create the print, ink is rubbed into the plate and it is then placed facing upwards on the press, with wet paper placed over it, before running it through the printing press. This technique is known as “intaglio” printmaking.
Lost and Found | An Exhibition by Carolina Arsenii
Carolina Arsenii’s solo exhibition Lost and Found presents a series of aporias encountered by figures in contradictory spaces. Through composition, colour and pattern, the works create an internal dialogue between characters, objects and landscapes. The figures that populate the landscapes at times appear in multiplicities, at times oblivious to phenomena outside of their sphere and their subconscious discourse with it, at times to their own agency. Landscapes are strewn with precious objects, fabulous plants, an idealised yet sinister space, often watched over by familiar edifices. Works within Lost and Found seek to explore different aspects of interconnectedness between self and world, and hence the complexity of the situations in which these figures seem to find themselves.
All are most welcome to my upcoming exhibition, which is open to the public.
Opening Night: Friday 23 June 2017, 6:30pm
Opening Times: Saturday 24 June 2017 – Thursday 29 June 2017 (11am – 6pm)
Location: City Arts Space, cnr James and Lake Street under the big screen, Perth, Western Australia
Further Information: https://www.facebook.com/events/135991480283191
Go West
It’s gold and glittery…
Go West (2017) 19 x 27 cm, Woodblock Print and Posca Paint Marker on paper
I have been entered the fantastic world of woodblock printing. The print above depicts my hometown Perth, Western Australia. I have added topographical lines and golden shading to the printed image using posca paint markers.
I initially intended to use the woodblock below for the topographical patterns, but found that due to the thickness of the lines it works better as a separate image.
Ceramic Archetypes – A Good Omen
Un Buen Augurio ( A Good Omen)
I am taking great delight in my ceramics course and creating some 3-dimensional archetypes with clay. The “Good Omen” heralds the birth of a new artistic direction and the coming of Easter.
The above images show porcelain ceramics which are drying prior to the initial bisque firing (1000 degrees) after which they will be glazed and then again fired to stoneware quality (1360 degrees). The archetypal individuals have been placed in archetypal arrangements: “the archetypal philosophy circle” and “the archetypal power struggle”.
A New Studio ….
Exciting things ahead this semester, including Lithography and Ceramics
Welcome, Year of the Rooster
Happy Chinese New Year. After a year of mischief from the monkey, the time has come for good fortune and prosperity in the form of a Rooster.
Happy Chinese New Year 2017 25 x 21 cm, Pen Pencil and Gouache on Paper
Pen and Gouache on paper 21 x 25 cm
Jacob’s Ladder
Jacob’s Ladder 96 x 96 cm, collage and mixed media on MDF panels
Currently Exhibiting – “Matilda Bay”
Matilda Bay, Perth, Western Australia (2015) Acrylic on Canvas 120cm x 90cm
I have been chosen as a finalist for the Town of Claremont Art Awards. Exhibition Dates: 20 August – 28 August 2016 in the Claremont Quarter, top floor
Suburban Landscape
Suburban Landscape (if you live in a house – the house will not fall)
“Suburban Landscape” 81 x 65 cm Mixed Media on canvas. On display at the City of Belmont Community Art Exhibition over the next two weeks.
I warmly invite you to my upcoming exhibition…
DISSECTIONS
An exhibition of Drawings and Paintings by Carolina Arsenii.
OPENING NIGHT 1 February 2016 at 6PM
THE BIRD 181 William St, Northbridge, Western Australia 6003
https://www.facebook.com/events/1089521187735432/
Artist v the Free Market – Beaufort Street Festival 2015
I will be trying to make a profit from my art, by selling it, at the Beaufort Street Festival, this 14 November 2015 in Perth. Similar endeavours have been undertaken by countless artists over the centuries and in most cases lead to failure (to make any money). Despite the unlikelihood of a profitable day, I am using this as an occasion to work on some smaller drawings and show them off on the day.
Below is my little drawing triptych “think good thoughts” inspired by the Zoroastrian creed “think good thoughts, speak good words, do good deeds”….
Think good thoughts