Craft Contemporary, an annual festival comprising events, projects, open studios, exhibitions and more, celebrating craft practice today, is on from 1 to 31 October across multiple venues throughout Victoria.
Exhibition highlights include Of Earth and Ether (Flowers never bend) by Louise Meuwissen at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, which manifests elements of the ineffable. This exhibition centres around themes of transience and permanence, ideas of keepsake and arresting time. Adopting motifs of the arch, florals, and vessels of containment, Meuwissen draws upon historical and mythological representations of these symbolic objects as manifestations of emotional holding, ritual, power, and as anchors for memory and belief. And Occupying Space at Craft considers spatiality and contemporary textile practice as artists – Georgie Brunmayr, Sonja Carmichael, Elisa Jane “Leecee” Carmichael, Rebecca Diele, and Nadia Hernández – explore three-dimensionality in a series of fibre-based sculptural installations. The works are assertive and bold in their manipulation of fibre and thread; transformed into dynamic structures of mass and volume.
Louise Meuwissen with work in progress, The Flower it Gleams, 2023. Photograph: Joanna Kitto. Courtesy the artist and Bundoora Homestead Art Centre
Online projects include Who Ate My Seat by Gyungju Chyon and Yu Nong Khew, where a set of mycelium stools placed in different locations are observed as they reintegrate into the natural world; and Uncommon Threads, a collaborative group exhibition presented by fortyfivedownstairs and Tamara Russell, sees textile artists exploring the limitlessness of fibre art.
On 14 October, Meridian Sculpture hosts an open studio event – tour the Fitzroy sculpture foundry and learn about the craft of bronze casting. Additional events include a series of clay and upcycling workshops, artist talks and seminars, and Craft Contemporary’s Annual Benefit + Auction, which will be held on 21 October.
More online.
