Tag: Art Installation Curator

Uncategorized

Art Is A Many Labelled Thing

carolyncordon

When I used to say I was a writer, I didn’t also consider myself to be an artist, wrongly so, as it turns out. Because of course, writing is indeed an Art, the Art of Literature.

The book pictured above is one made up of writing, both poetry and prose, from people connected to my writing group, and I am proud of each one of them!

It is filled with responses to writing prompts given at our various events held, and the book is certainly correctly labelled as literature, such is the quality of the chosen pieces.

I am as proud to be connected with this book as I am of my own personal published books I have. But a couple of years ago, I took my first steps to another form of Art, that of Visual Art. I took up the idea of perhaps writing and actually illustrating children’s picture books.

And to do that, I would naturally need to actually draw the pictures to go in the picture book, right? Right! Well that idea, while a fun change for a while, didn’t really take off in my mind, and while I’m still open to the idea one day happening, it is off my list of things to to NOW!

But the idea of being a Visual Artist as well as being involved in Literature stuck in my head, and I decided it was somethng I had to do, and how I was going to do it was to take something I’d already been doing for a bit of fun, and treat it in a much more serious way.

I am a dog owner, and as my husband and I have been walking our dog (Lenny, a Greyhound, retired from racing), well I’d been picking up bits and pieces of rusty “rubbish” and putting them on our fence.

Over time, there were more and more things there, and as the fence itself is made of iron, and much of it has rusted. I thought about it all, and decided I would put it all together, thinking of the many important contexts touched on by what I was doing.

In the image above are some of the items that make up this Art Installation, a tiny section, some given to me, some found, but all of them either rusty, found or both rusty and found. That chicken now has a name, Chicky Chook, and she may well be the ‘star’ of a picture book, using photos rather than drawings … My mind comes up with so many different ideas!

Anyway, back to the Art Installation:
Obviously, recycling and reimagining items otherwise looked on as trash, and now considered as items put on display, and so assist in the creation of the “Redbanks Rust and Found Art Installation”, all went toward my thinking on what I was doing as Art.

Initially I was Creating an Art Installation, and now, having more than 750 individual items on display, with more awaiting placement, and of course more found every week, I am thinking more closely about what I am doing, and where the best place may be for each item to be put on display.

Previously I would just put things anywhere, now I consider the most effective way to place each item, filling gaps in the display, to make it more visually appealing to onlookers …

So yes I am indeed a Visual Artist, as well as being involved in literature. I in fact have been bringing the two Art forms together, and intend publishing a collection of written responses to this Art Installation, and launch it at a Festival put on by my writing group.

Writing will always be a much loved aspect of my Art, but Visual Art is becoming more and more important to me as well!

Those two frogs were giving to me by a friend who’d had some rearrangement in her garden and no longer needed them, and she automatically thought of me! I’m becoming famous about this Art Installation, in my immediate community anyway, and am thinking about ways to extend my breadth of connections regarding this, and turn both it, and my other Creative things I do into a paying business!

Exciting times, and I am gathering as many supporters together to assist in making this installation into a fun and interesting place for tourists, whether they’re intrastare, interstate, or overseas visitors. This idea is taking up much of my thinking at the moment, and I truly feel it may actually work!

I don’t need thousands of visitors, I just need enough visitors committed to what I have to present, and happy to pay for it. I’ll be working at making my site one for not fust looking and walking on, but getting involved in what is on presentation, as a form of Experiential Tourism.

This is really appealing to me, and I hope it will be of interest to many others as well. If anyone is interested in knowing more, feel free to contact me, I’d love to tell you about it! And tell your friends too!

Uncategorized

I Am Many Things, But Art Installation Curator Is A Favourite Label For Sure!

carolyncordon

When I was at school and was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, Art Installation Curator was certainly not a career would have professed to be interested in, that’s for sure!

If someone had suggested it as a possibility, I would have had no idea of what it was! And to be honest, up until recently I’d never heard of such a thing, and would never have thought it might be a thing I may do.

But life does odd things at times, and here I am, the Curator of the Redbanks Rust and Found Art Installation! It may be a little visited site, this Art Installation, but there is certainly much traffic driving past it every day. And if I were to actually promote it and have a sign up indicating what it is that traffic is driving past, that may assist in visitor numbers …

In the photo below are the goodies found along the road when I stopped on my way to Gawler to check out something I’d noticed previously on an earlier drive to Gawler from my place. They’re not on display yet, but oh my, they will be sometime soon!

So yes, I’m enjoying the gatherng of interesting (to me anyway!) items and then thinking about them, and putting them on display!

The title of Art Installation Curator feels so much like my kind of thing now, and remembering my love of collecting unicorns, perhaps this is actually something in my DNA. I certainly remember when we had to sell off my father’s things from his big shed attached to his stables, when he had to move to an aged care facility.

He had things going back a long way back in time … and my mother had her own issues regarding keeping things too as my brother and I discovered when we had to organize all of her items that made up her estate when she passed away earlier this year. My mother’s items were kept in a much neater way than my father’s items had been, but there were still many old items in her cupboards and drawers that had to be disposed of, or kept as appropriate in the clearing out of her things, from her home.

So with my parents being fond of keeping things, is it any wonder I’m so much enjoying the finding and keeping of these various metal things, most of which are iron and rusty?! I’m not hiding my interest (or was that obsession?), with all of the items on display at this Art Installation!

With more than 700 individual items as a part of this display, I’m hardly in a position to criticize anyone who likes to hold onto things from their past, am I? I would actually love to have these items counted to find how close I am to the correct number.

There may be a way of having students come along and do this for me. I’ll look into that after this Festive season is over, and students are back at their relevants schools.I am far more of a words kind of person, rather than a numbers person!

So that will take some time before it will happen, but you can bet my attention will continue to be snared by rusty treasures! Curator, collector, crazy? Maybe all three! But I’m enjoying myself, and that’s important in life, to do the things you enjoy doing!