Thursday, May 16, 2013

I Want to be Your Shadow

Kat Teede's lovely exhibition 'I want to be your shadow' opening last night at Hand Held.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Next up at Hand Held

16 May – 8 June 2013

I Want to be Your Shadow is the latest exhibition from Melbourne based artist Kat Teede, which continues her intrigue of the duality present within life and within ourselves and in the tension that arises when oppositions meet. Light and its Shadow.

“I Want to be Your Shadow” is a statement that was once made known to me and has stayed in my memory for the tension that it creates between intimacy and suffocation. Appearing as an endearing declaration of love, “I Want to Be Your Shadow” can also be viewed as a burdening entrapment… Within this exhibition, small-scale sculpture and text combine in considering this tension, together with the recollection of our memories of past relationships. As with this statement, the works within I Want to be Your Shadow are both beautiful and intimate though oppressive and haunting.

Opening Thursday 16th May, 6-8pm

 

Monday, April 29, 2013

Chances and Changes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Baran and Diane Longley's exhibition 'Chances and Changes' showcases work old and new. On display until May 11.

 

Friday, April 5, 2013

Meet the artist

Jenny will be in town from Wednesday 10th - Saturday 13th if you would like to drop and see the show. We will run a meet the artist session at 2pm on Saturday 13th (with tea and cake) if you would like to meet her in person and discuss this fascinating work.

 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Found Maps, lost places ...

 

Jenny Bolhofner's intricate, layered, sewn and stained maps direct the viewers thoughts inwards. Towards islands of the unknown, inlets of uncertainty, isolated harbours, misguided passages and undefined destinations. These are Maps to Nowhere but they are reflective of everywhere, and everyone.

Navigate your way into Hand Held before April 13th.

 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Map to Nowhere

Jenny Bolhofner's exhibition 'A Map to Nowhere' opens at Hand Held next week.

Jenny has sent this beautiful exhibition over from America for her first solo show outside of the US.

Jenn will be in Melbourne from Wed 10th to Saturday 13th and we'd love for you to meet her.

Well schedule a meet the artist afternoon on the 13th and hopefully lots of you will be able to drop in and say hi.

 

"A Map to Nowhere"

Maps are supposed to tell us where we are. They show us how to go from point A to point B. Maps reveal relationships. They represent space and orientation. But I always wondered what a map of isolation would look like. How do you show space without anything in that space? How do you depict something without having anything nearby to determine scale, location, or relation? How do you make a map to nowhere? A life changing move to Guam, a tiny island in the Pacific, left me examining this idea. Suspended there, insignificant in the vast sea, I experienced feelings foreign to me- feelings of isolation and detachment. In this body of work, I wanted to explore these feelings through research and attempt to translate my emotions into something more calculated and scientific. I turned to Charles Darwin's studies on nature, geographical isolation and evolution to help symbolize my own feelings of severance. His work provides relevant theories on the creation and extinction of plant and animal species in areas isolated by geographic barriers. Living on an island, I could relate to these ideas of natural selection and allopatry (the process by which a population of species becomes separated by a physical barrier and divides into two different species). Collecting plant life around Guam, I incorporated them into my work to represent my own feelings of separation. Aesthetically, I used topographic imagery to attempt to connect personal feelings to something more tangible and universal. While emotions are ambiguous and hard to pinpoint, I feel that maps provide a platform in which the viewer can relate. Likewise, the use of repetition in imagery and process (i.e. layers of sewing) were integrated to connect the viewer to the concept of the mundane. Each stitch mimics the continuity and monotony of isolated living.

 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Life as a Solo

Renuka Rajiv's stunning drawings, artist sketchbooks and quirky paper mache sculptures are on display at Hand Held as part of her 'Life As A Solo' exhibition - on until March 16th.