Tag Archives: Illusion

making rainbow magic

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A completely remarkable thing happened. My dearest Tanya and I had been discussing a collaborative work – because FUN! when the inimitable Dr Mary Knights invited us to be part of her Arte Magra mini-festival of art wonders. We were given the cavernous AEAF gallery to work our wonders in, and it became obvious pretty quick that we were going to need the special and formidable skills of Alex to make the interactive collaborative magical world i saw a dream like this.
When it was all done, I cried. And then my university made a video. It’s cute! If you can get past the rampant publicity for said university. I’m not a sell-out, promise.

Every single one of those sparkly rocks is entirely unique and hand made by one of a team of creative volunteers spread over Western Australia and South Australia. We could not have done it without their glittery assistance. Thank you, thank you, lovely sparkly rock helpers ♥

Art Marathon: let’s make stuff together

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Instant Perspective Machine* opened on the 2nd of November 2012 at the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia’s Project Space. I am so happy to the response to the work so far :duck: It was fun, people were interested and friendly. Most people figured out the machine really quickly, but the people who didn’t get it quite right were really into it anyway!

By way of description here is a little snippet from the media release:

For Instant Perspective Machine, Aurelia Carbone converts The Project Space into an immersive optical illusion installation, complete with an analogue recording device in the form of a heavily modified instant (polaroid-type) camera. The illusion is a form of anamorphosis – a design that appears to float and only forms its intended shape from a particular view point. The work invites audiences to participate in an essential part of the machine’s operation – by walking through the space, by climbing steps and flipping switches, visitors will activate the machine which will then provide analogue photographic ‘evidence’.

Sundari and the Instant Perspective Machine

With the last exhibition opening of the year also being the annual Christmas Party, the event felt really festive – it was neat being able to contribute to that feeling by giving everyone a personalised “Polaroid” to take away with them. In fact, we blazed through 90 pieces of Fuji Instax Wide Film in 2 hours! Sundari sent me this iPhone snap of her ‘evidence’ with a view of the anamorphosis & the Machine console. I love this analogue/digital business!

Heidi & Amy Joy get transported … and who is that lurking in the sidelines?

How awesome is this one!? Instax to Instagram in less than 12 hours! Thank you Heidi and Amy Joy, this is absolute gold for my research and mad fun at the same time.

There is more to the exhibition than the machine – a new video piece and some enormous prints of my new work. My wonderful new catalogues (designed by Jessica Mathews 😀 ) didn’t arrive until after the opening 🙁 but perhaps that’s a gift for those who didn’t make it to the party.

I’d like to tell you more about the incredible custom modifications on the Instax camera that Alex Bishop-Thorpe coaxed together and the superb editing in the video work courtesy of Karen Lobban, but I’ve got to get to bed! All day hiking today with the Big O (we saw 2 baby koalas and their mums!), and an early start on the Marino boat launch tomorrow – superb Miss Delana is lending me a hand on that install, too. Night!

*best results obtained in bright colours

The Busy

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My head is still spinning @_@ my Northern Hemisphere Summer with the MFA Photo program at Parsons has been intense. It’s not my preference to make work at such an accelerated pace – I’m slow even by normal standards – but it was a superlative opportunity and I’m more than a bit sad that it’s over 🙁 I ♥ NY, I love Parsons, and I love the current MFA Photo students – it’s been a thrill to be surrounded by sensationally talented photographers.

I used the residency to experiment with something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m often being encouraged (by people I really should listen to) to make video or animations. I find that suggestion a bit overwhelming as I will need a whole new skill set, new equipment, and a clue about where to start. As a warm up to working with longer narratives I’ve made a new photocomic.





The space I was given to work with had some quirks that I used to start the story narrative. I’d been working on this little puppet for such a long time – but I really didn’t know what he was going to get up to. The pipes and the little hole in the wooden floor gave me my staring point, from there the story just …grew? (the pun princess strikes again!) It was a very fun project, especially working with multiple anamorphic shapes in one spot. It got a bit complex there for a few days, see:

I do have some ideas about we the story goes next, and some more characters to introduce. That will have to wait until we are back home in Australia.

After I’d finished shooting for the little project above I discovered that I really wanted to use the space for another image for the Honest Magic series. Lucky for me Orlando was keen to be involved again.

The Parsons Summer Open Studios also gave me an opportunity to try out something I’m very interested in: incorporating an anamorphic installation and viewpoint as part of an exhibition. I transformed an old enlarger lens (found at a flea market on West 59th street) into a peep-hole device for the void illusion in my studio. It was great! :duck: It’s given me some fantastic ideas for my Project Space show at CACSA in November 😀

Zo babe sure liked it.