Tag: Art Installation

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Curious Collect Create Curate

carolyncordon

The Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation began as something far more simple than an extensive Art piece with over 700 individual pieces on display, as it is now.

But as they say, from little things big things grow, and yes, they sure have! It all started a couple of years ago, when I began picking up small bits and pieces of metal, usually beer bottle caps, and putting them on the front fence of ‘our place’, which is the home of my husband and I, in Redbanks South Australia.

Redbanks is a small township, in rural SA, in the Adelaide Plains Council area. There is a commnity Hall fallen into disrepair, and there are houses on small blocks, and there are farming land all around. We’ve lived here since 1988, and love our move from suburbia!

And while we love it out in the country, there is not a lot of community feeling in Redbanks, for that you need to go to Mallala, the closest town to our place, or Gawler, which is a good bit bigger than Mallala.

We moved out to the Adelaide Plains to breed pure bred show dogs, but now have moved away from that world, and simply have a pet dog, a Greyhound, Lenny. Lenny is an important part of this story, because many of the found objects found/collected when taking Lenny for a walk, are now on display in this Art Installation!

The creation aspect has come more recently, when someone I’ve been talking with someone about what I was doing, and it became clear to me this was much more than just a fence, with bits and pieces stuck on it, or leant against it! And as the Creation aspect moved along, the ideas regarding what I was doing grew conceptually, and before I knew it, I was an Art Installation Curator, presenting a literature-based viewing and then writing workshop.

And now, to take that aspect further, there is an anthology planned to be published and launched in the new year! The more I think about this project, the more I can see could happen with it, and at the moment, I’m in the process of readying various items from this Art Installation for a viewing at another site during SALA (SA Living Artist) Festival in August this year!

How Exciting is this? Very exciting, is what I say, and I’m loving being the Curator of an Art Installation!

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Exciting Times Are Coming Soon

carolyncordon

As a poet writer of many, many years with nine books published, I consider myself to have been a hobbyist for most of those years, and while I’d more recently thrown off the hobbyist tag, I haven’t really thought of my writing as being a business.

But as a creative person, with ideas frequently popping into my mind, and with some of these ideas while still Creative things, they’re a large step on and up, far beyond being a poet and writer. And with these new ideas I have, I can see much more opportunities in terms of actually making money, more than occasionally selling one of my books.

I am looking to bring together all of my Creative things I do, and doing all of them as aspects of the business ‘Carolyn Cordon Creative’. I am poet and writer, yes, but I will also be and Art Installation Curator, and a Stand Up Comedian/Performer too. And while I will still be doing the various creative writing group and workshops I currently do for free, I will also be putting my name out as a Performer and Presenter, and also the person running a Tourism business.

I’ll have lanyards for this and that, so many of them I’ll have to be careful not to choke myself! Haha. One tag will do – Carolyn Cordon Creative!

The turnaround in my thoughts about all of this came, I feel, when I realised what I did at my own home had possibilities for Tourists to visit, and also my most recent creative writing workshops are proving to be worthwhile to others, and fun to me as well.

And while I won’t be starting to charge for those particular workshops, I feel the world is my oyster regarding any more such opportunities that come along.

And having this new website, where I have brought all of these aspects of myself together, and having paid money for it, rather that doing the basic websites by myself, well, it feels much more business-like to me. I’ve been talking with people, getting assistance, and I know who to talk to in the future to get all of this business thing up and running, soon, soon, soon!

I’ve put a note on my calendar (which I’m now using in a more business-like manner these days), to get a haircut if and when needed, and for me that is definitely a sign of new things on the way. Usually my next hair cut is months overdue before I get around to doing anything about it!

I have meetings that will be relevant to me in my new business happening soon, I’ve got a milion ideas in my head, and I am so excited to be doing this. I know there are many things I don’t know yet that I don’t know, but the idea of the new learning required makes me even more excited, not worried!

I have two books on the way, with both of them to be launched later this calendar year, and I am going to have a fine time wehn both of htese new books are launched into the world – book launches are so much fun, I love them, and when the book being launched is one of mine, Woah, even better!

There is a poetry collection, about the pond at our place, and the turtle who lives in that pond. This should be easy to get ready, most of it is already written, and it’s mostly poetry that is already more or less collected together, and ready to be made into a book.

The other book to be published is another poetry related book, with some prose as well though, and photographs as there too. Hmm thinking about it, perhaps that book may need to wait a longer time. Unless … Ahh, the decisions that need to be made, I can do this!

I’ve had the thought that perhaps the idea that I move up from self-publisheing my work and actually become a publisher, may be useful, and profitable … Who knows how that might go. It’s certainly relevant to everything else I do!

At the moment having this business is feeling like a big bundle of fun things, wrapped up together with the possibility of getting money for doing what I love to do. How awesome would that be? Extremely Awesome!

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Oh My What On Earth Am I Going To Do Next?!

carolyncordon

Haha, watch and you’ll find out, it will be more of the same, but bigger and better, and who knows it might even add up to a real job, like growned up peoples have!

If you want to now more, check this out, it will give a good hint at what at least some of what I may be doing next might be. But you never know when something shiny and new (or rusty and old) might attract my attention, and I may go toward something else entirely!

In the meantime, what’s on my mind at the moment? Well, I’ve been considering the idea of actually getting a real job, and earn proper money, instead of the dribs and drabs of the stuff most of us poets are reduced to scrabbling for …

On the other writing platform I use, and use more often that this one, to be honest, but shh, don’t tell WordPress!, well on that other platform, Medium, I posted a piece about this working thing, as in doing a job for real money instead of enough for a cup of coffee, and if I’m luck a blueberry muffin too.

If you’re interested in reading about this working thing take a look here https://medium.com/@kittycordo/unique-ideas-i-have-a-few-3a778806efb6 and I hope you’ll find it interesting!

The article has a photo of me being a curator of the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation, not dressed up neat and tidy but getting stuck into the reality of it, putting on display rusty dusty stuff found out there, along the road I live on perhaps …

You can never know what I might do next, because I’m not sure about it myself, unless it’s on my phone calendar, and I remember to check what it says!

Thanks for being here, come back soon, there may be something new!

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Creating Then Curating, Getting It As Good As I Can!

carolyncordon

When I decided to make something of what I was doing with the various rusty, or metal anyway, bits and pieces of ‘stuff’ I picked up as I was going for walks, I had no thought of it being anything much at all.

The image above is a small section of what is now the “Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation”, which is what those random bits and pieces, displayed on the front fence have become.

What began as some beer bottle caps and some wheel hubs/covers, has become bigger and better as the months go on, having now been going for around a year now.

It began on the front gate, and a small section of the front fence, but now takes in all of the front fence, which is over 75 metres!

There are over 700 individual pieces of Rusty and/or Found objects, some small, some, as can be seen in the image, much larger than those beer bottle caps. Signs, wire, and a variety of preloved items fallen from trucks, utes, and who knows where else …

All found, examined, thought about, and put on display, showing the variety of ways metal is used in our society, whether alone, or combined with a variety of other man-made substances. Rubber, plastic, and who knows what else.

That sign for instance, surely it once did an excellent job at keeping the traffic under control, when the workers were working, so why was it seemingly dumped off to the side of the road, where it was soon covered in dust and dirt from the passing traffic, only to eventually be found by me, and brought to my home, to finally be useful again, in a quite different way.

No longer a sign to direct traffic, but now an item in this Art Installation, to direct thoughts and ideas, then becoming something quite different to what had first been thought it may ever be.

I’m directing the thoughts traffic, helping others to think about these things too, as happening when I hosted an Ekphrastic Creative Writing event, where attendees viewed the Art Installation, then we all retired to a a place nearby (In country terms), the Mallala Cafe, just 6 or so kilometres to the north, where some fine coffee and food was consumed, and fine words written.

These words once submitted will be considered for inclusion in chap book, which will then be made available to those submitting their words, and also for purchase by others.

I intend writing a book about this project too, considering the range of thoughts and ideas that lead to this project almost taking over my life, in a good way, and also giving people the chance to have their words published.

There’s history, social sciences, actual science too, and environmental issues considerd, as well as my own thoughts concerned with the curating procews, one quite new to me. I’m a writer and poet, not an Art Installation Curator. But no, I am infact one of those – untutored, but learning by doing it, and doing it quite well, I feel, as others too feel.

And it all started bt picking up bits and pieces when walking our dog Lenny! From such an ordinary thing, something much more interesting has come into being!

The image below shows a small part of our fence. A solid iron gate, with wire and bard wire, with star droppers, with that ever increasing number of items on display. I have a small cadre of folk who have been inspired, or at least are interested, in this project and have donated items they too have found, whether when out walking, or ‘found’ in their front or backyards, as some of the items on display also been found, then put on display.

Our property was once part of a farm, and I suspect some of the various bits and pieces I’ve found around our place likely were once attached to farming equipment, whether horse-powered or pulled by a truck. Nails, random bits of wire, nuts and bolts, and so many other things, some I have know idea the use for, other bits more recognisable.

I’m having so much fun with this project, and I suspect others involved are enjoying it too! And the fact of its importance been recognised by the Adelaide Plains Mayor was a boost to my thoughts about it how relevant this Art Installation is to current days, in looking bavk at former times.

The Mayor actually opened the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation back in May last year, when he spoke entertainingly about rabbits, and donated a lovely rusty old rabbit trap which is now on display as part of the Art Installation!

Fun times, with family, friends, and important people. I love it!

Arts

On Curating An Art Installation

carolyncordon

The Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation was home to another event today, with a reasonable crowd present, to look carefully what was there, and then move to another venue nearby to write about what they’d seen.

The metal creature on the left hand side hadn’t actually been on display this time, and while the metal chicken was veiwable, she was no longer in such a prominent position. As it turned out though, Chikkie Chook still attracted quite a bit of attention, with several creative writing pieces created on the day mentioning her!

I get the feeling the Anthology being published related to this particular event will do well to include that funny chicken creature in it! I may do a photo shoot with her, to gather a variety of photos to choos from for the front cover of the book!

The putting on of events, and creating promotional material as well as written material, regarding the Artwork itself are all parts of the role of being an Art Installation Curator, a role I have gladly taken on, after the completion of the Creation of this particular installation.

I may not have known what I was doing at the beginning, but given the remarks from today’s event, I seem to have produced a worthy Art Installation, one that may become an item of interest for Arts minded visitors to the region.

I have other plans regarding the point, and certainly while this particular Arts Installation is personal to me, there are other Arts venues of interest too, one very close in fact, and I can see a role for myself in the future as a promoter of interest regarding both of these, plus other Arts venues in this immediate area.

It may be that most Arts Installationists don’t have ‘cleaning up of bird poop’ in their list of regular tasks to perform, but this one is certainly one I undertake at least a little bit every week. Clearing out of water from rectacles is another big one for me, another perhaps unusual one in the realm of Art Installation curation …

This Art Installation is an open air one, consisting of a gate and fence, as well as a nearby section of the property where the Installation is sited. So, open air means both the birds and rain, and so the poop and collected water, all need to be dealt with, if not on a daily basis, then at the very least weekly.

I’m not at all cross about having to do such tasks, walking the length of this Installation, and getting ‘up close and personal’ with the various pieces and sections of it, mean I’m getting an even better feel and understanding of what there is, and how it may be better displayed.

And as an added bonus, the walking required is good for both body and mind! And of course connecting with interested others is good for the soul too, so yes, being an Arts Installationist is something I’m very much enjoying doing!