The forum begins on a larger scale in Australia and tutors then travel to New Zealand to complete the last five days of the forum at Whitireia. Boasting numerous international artists, workshops were facilitated by: Mary Hettmansperger (USA) ‘Woven Jewellery’, Glenys Mann (Aust) ‘Fibre as Metaphor’, Alexander Pilin (Russia) ‘Felt’, Pauline Verrinder (UK) with ‘Encrusted Surfaces’ and Catherine O’Leary (Aust) – creating ‘Unique Body Wraps’.

The workshops included felting, jewellery making, creative machine embroidery and dying. There was a strong focus on sustainability and renewable resources. Tutors not only taught techniques and projects, but encouraged creativity, process and individual direction.
“I thought the forum was a fantastic success.” Said first time attendee, Mary Beggs. “It opened up many new doors for all of us, from experienced felters to a total novice. What people achieved in the few days was very impressive.”

The forum is timed to coincide with the World of Wearable Art Awards (WOW) in Wellington –and with the move of the WOW event to Wellington, the Australian organisers - the Australian Forum for Textile Arts (TAFTA), have decided to move the forum from its home in Nelson for the past two years, to Wellington. Visual Arts Tutor Deb Donnelly invited the organisers to consider the Kapiti campus as a venue and forum co-ordinator Glenys Mann says, “I came out and had a look and found that the facilities and the support from the campus were amazing.”
“TAFTAs philosophy was to reach regional textiles communities; hence Kapiti was a ‘good fit’ with the admin staff efficient and well capable of hosting the forum in a semi rural setting.” Said Donnelly.
Donnelly said they had 75 participants this year. “It’s proven to be much more popular than last year.” Glenys said enrolments nine months out from the forum are double what they were in 2007. Market research undertaken by Donnelly during this years forum, promises a number of returnees and a growing interest in the event, from both students and tutors. TAFTA have made a commitment to run the event in New Zealand for five years.
Donnelly, who is travelling to International Shibori Symposium in France- theme ‘Textiles in Nature’ 30 October – 10 November to present a workshop on eco dyes on felt, has invited Yoshiko Wada - one of the world’s foremost researchers on Shibori techniques- to tutor at Textiles and Fibre Forum Aotearoa-New Zealand in 2009

Students came from all over New Zealand to participate, with five travelling from overseas to attend. Debbie Leung, Hong Kong Arts practitioner and Craft student, for Aotearoa Textiles; says she “learnt so much and met so many people that inspire my felting life, it is amazing. I would like to know more about next years' programme for the forum”.

An exhibition of the work produced, was held at the campus on the Sunday morning; open to the public to view and purchase products from the forum. “There were so many beautifully crafted original garments - jacket, wraps, hats, vests,” said Dean of Arts and Communications, Kaye Jujnovich.

ENDS

Aotearoa Textile Forum is working with the 2009 NZ Quilters Symposium Easter in Wellington www.quiltsymposiumnz.org

and 10th Southern Hemisphere Felters Convergence to be held at Copthorne Wairarapa set for 27 September – 2 October
www.feltmakersconvergence.blogspot.com

Deb Donnelly is attending the International Shibori Symposium in France. For details visit www.shibori.org

The world(s) in one place

by Logan Sisley

Like many of the best offerings at this year’s
Venice Biennale, the exhibitions by New
Zealand representatives Judy Millar and Francis
Upritchard engage with the city’s architecture.

Over the coming months, more than 300,000 visitors are expected to attend the 53rd International Art Exhibition of the Venice

Biennale, which offers artists – and viewers

– an opportunity to participate in an exhibition of exceptional scale and unparalleled history in extraordinary locations. The biennale comprises Making Worlds, an exhibition curated by Daniel

Birnbaum that provides the overall thematic

framework, as well as 77 national pavilions and a host of related events.

The Giardini, original home of the biennale, contains many of the national pavilions; more are found at the other main venue, the Arsenale (the city’s historic shipyard and naval base); others are

scattered across the city. New Zealand’s

representatives occupy two sites in the city

centre: Judy Millar’s Giraffe-Bottle-Gun,

curated by Leonhard Emmerling, fills the

church of La Maddalena; Francis Upritchard’s

Save Yourself, curated by Heather

Galbraith and Francesco Manacorda,

occupies the Fondazione Claudio Buziol

in the Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana.

Upritchard has created an installation

with strange diminutive sculpted figures.

They lie, sit, stand or dance; some seem

to gesture to the viewer, while others

appear indifferent, transfixed in states of

contemplation or arousal. Their gestures

may seem to offer some message – the

salvation demanded by the exhibition’s

title? – but they remain ambiguous.

The figures are painted so that they

seem at home in the multicoloured interiors,

as if they have emerged out of the

walls of the building. They also appear

out of time; although they allude to forms

found in northern European medieval

and renaissance art, there are other, more

modern reference points – from hippies

to Wedgwood. They are installed, along

with quirky lamps and painted trees, on

a series of hard-edged, over-sized tables

that contrast both with the handmade

sculptures and with the worn opulence

of the palazzo. The elements combine to

form tableaux that are at once enchanting

and bemusing.

While Upritchard employs miniaturisation,

Millar has scaled up. Her strong expressive paintings are reproduced on billboard fabric stretched on to large irregularly shaped frames. There’s a lot of competition for viewers in Venice, so Millar’s strategy of creating something

with immediate impact is a clever one,

but she has also produced a work that

rewards prolonged viewing.

She exploits the circular form of La

Maddalena to great effect. Beneath the

dome, a cylindrical painting draws the

viewer into the space; further canvases

are stacked around the perimeter, both

obscuring and revealing aspects of the

church. Though invasive, there are

moments when the canvases are surprisingly

harmonious with the existing

architecture, the colours and patterns of

Millar’s brushstrokes echoing those of the

marble walls.

In the use of technology to extend

the potential of painting, there are parallels

with the work of collaborative

duo GuytonWalker (included in Making

Worlds) and of German painter Michel

Majerus, though without their obvious

pop references. While GuytonWalker

have created a dishevelled environment

for Venice with scattered canvases and

crates, Millar has delivered a more carefully

choreographed installation that animates

its host building.

Both Millar and Upritchard have created

exhibitions that are sensitive and

responsive to where they are situated.

Many of the strongest offerings this year

are those that engage with the architecture

of Venice and the history and peculiarities

of the biennale.

In the Giardini, a number of artists

directly address the architecture of

their national pavilions. In the Austrian

pavilion, Dorit Margreiter presents

a film of the building itself, with strange

glimpses of staged human activity. Roman

Ondák has turned the pavilion of the

Czech and Slovak Republics inside out,

extending the gardens into the building – thus transforming it into a kind of folly.

British artist Liam Gillick, a surprising

choice to represent Germany, makes the

loaded history of that country’s Nazi-era

building the subject of his installation.

For the United Kingdom, Steve McQueen

screens an elegant film of the Giardini

in its off season when its pavilions are

boarded up and the crowds are absent.

In the Danish and Nordic pavilions,

Elmgreen and Dragset present work by

other artists in the context of an elaborate

and playful fiction. The pavilions are

presented as neighbouring houses. A For

Sale sign stands outside the Danish pavilion;

tours are given by guides in the guise

of estate agents, who explain the former

residents’ passion for art – and suspicious

departure. Meanwhile, the neighbour

in the Nordic pavilion now lies dead

in his swimming pool. His collection

of art and design (and young men who

lounge inside) remains as a portrait of the

deceased host. The gentle satire on collecting

and the art market won a special

mention from the biennale’s jury.

For the Netherlands, Fiona Tan presents

compelling video installations, including

Disorient, which combines excerpts

from The Travels by Venetian explorer

Marco Polo with two projections. One

film explores an interior filled with a

hoard of stuffed animals, spices, lanterns,

televisions, ceramics and textiles. The

other projection is a travelogue of sorts,

including archive and news footage. The

narration and images at times coincide;

at other times, they dramatically diverge,

disturbing perceptions of the pictures

presented and provoking questions about

how we know the world.

Birnbaum’s Making Worlds occupies

the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the

Giardini and much of the Arsenale.

Birnbaum views artworks as more than

just commodities. They embody world

views; the act of making art is also an act

of making worlds, physically and psychologically.

In conversation with American