Tag Archives: installation

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 ♥

getting to know the enemy: Pip & Pop

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There’s something Very Extremely Special on in Adelaide this week and next (until the 12th of June, 2013). Australian installation artist Tanya Schultz who exhibits her work under the pseudonym Pip & Pop has installed a glittery, magical world inside a little shop on Gawler Place in the city.


These photographs, hastily snapped with my phone in the wee small hours of the morning, are a slight reflection of the magic instilled into the little olde Shop 7, 38 Gawler Place, Adelaide. Think of this as a present to yourself, because it is. You are going to love it like nothing else you’ve seen this year, or maybe ever. You can view the work through the shop window anytime day or night, and visitors will be invited at random into the space for a closer look. It is entirely worth a pilgrimage to the city, even if you’ve no other reason to go.

I had a very special opportunity to “get to know the enemy” this time. Carclew Youth Arts put out a call for 5 Adelaide artists to assist Tanya with the creation of this project, I was lucky to be one of the extremely fortunate 5. I’ve had a girl crush on Tanya since I met her briefly when she exhibited at SASA gallery in 2012, and after getting the opportunity to work with and learn from her over the epic 2 week install of “supernatural tasks and magic objects” I now have an Extreme Girl Crush. It’s ok, she knows. :bunny:

Not only is Tanya Schultz crush-worthy and adorable, she’s extremely generous with her techniques and methods. She also works very, very hard, with enthusiasm, grace and an earnestness that shines through in her work. In this example the shining happens quite literally as we embedded each sugar island with twinkling, colour changing crystals and small mechanical marvels – spinning geodes, pirouetting flowers, magic objects.

Tanya often references old folk tales and creation stories from around the world when building a concept for a space. The words that flew around with the most animation in our ongoing installation discussions were “cosmic egg” “floating island” and “rotating” and extremely “rainbow”. It was joyous being part of building new worlds with such a delightful group of people under Tanya’s guidance.

The good people at the thousands also gave this installation a little wrap, its a great website to find out about other Fun Things to do in Adelaide.

Art Marathon: sparkles & sunburn

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Up early and all set up just in time for … rain! But not too much to cancel our big install day (this was third time lucky, after all) so we drank cups of tea and devoured the weather forecast websites while we sat in the car and waited for the rain to pass.

Seeing the project in negative made us excited for the next step…

Finally, painting!

Today we got the first and most important layer of the project down on the concrete. Just a little more finessing to do on Saturday, along with the all important task of marking the right spot to stand. After that we can all sit back and watch what the Japanese refer to as wabi-sabi in effect – time and the tide will change and beautify what we’ve made. The tide will wash away the moon incrementally – it will slowly wane from a full moon down to a little crescent moon, and then wash away entirely.

Today I was able to use a new (to me) material I’ve been really curious about – special glass beads made for road applications. I have several sacks of tiny round sparkles that road workers throw into still wet paint to make signs & lines reflective. We have used them in this anamorphic piece, so if you make it down to see the moon – check out how sparkly it is! Rainbow moon! ♥

Lots of people stopped to say hello and ask questions – apparently this artwork has been eagerly (and I suspect trepiditiously) anticipated by many of the local residents. I honestly didn’t realise so many people love that spot as much as I do.

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