Sandra Winkworth

Sandra Winkworth - Sleeping Beauties - seen here

I met Sandra Winkworth through this blog, and when she came to visit Wales from Australia earlier in the year, she came with a friend to visit Oriel Myrddin Gallery and we had lunch together - I hope I can get over to Oz sometime soon and learn more about the art/craft scene down-under. I like Sandra's work very much, and her latest show, Sleeping Beauties is at Hand Held Gallery in Melbourne. Here's Sandra's gallery information about the show: "Sleeping Beauties focuses on the bird and the unwanted book exploring issues concerning loss and denial. I collect, forage, assemble discarded ephemera and old books then rework them to hold images of bird studyskins sourced from a 19th century collection at the University of Sydney’s Macleay Museum. Here the bird is out of context, outside of nature and perhaps is a reminder of our tenuous connections with the natural world."

Sandra Winkworth - Sleeping Beauties - seen here

Sandra Winkworth - Sleeping Beauties - seen here

Ffotogallery Book Art Fayre

I hope I might get down to Cardiff on 17 April to go along to Ffotogallery's Book Arts Fayre. It looks like it will be fun with stands for all sorts of publishing and artists' books. Here's a link to the blog which lists all those paticipating.

Ffotogallery Arts Book Fayre - seen here

Sandra Winkworth - Sleeping Beauties

Sandra Winkworth - seen here

I like this new work by Australian artist Sandra Winkworth. She has recently been working with the collections of bird 'studyskins' kept in the Macleay Museum in the University of Sydney and has made a series of paintings called Sleeping Beauties.

Sandra Winkworth - seen here

Sandra Winkworth - seen here

Steffan Jones-Hughes

Steffan Jones-Hughes - Narrative, 2008 - seen here

I mentioned Steffan Jones-Hughes as part of the show A Winter's Tale at Oriel Myrddin Gallery recently, and the more I get acquainted with his work the more I enjoy it. This little video is about a new body of work that he is working on called Perhaps Sometimes Magic Happens.


Steffan Jones-Hughes - Fragility, 2008 - seen here

Steffan Jones-Hughes - Lost and Found, 2008 - seen here

Steffan uses different media to make work; print and book works, found objects, drawings, paintings, installations. The images are folkloric, slightly dark, slightly disturbing. Language infuses everything.


Steffan Jones-Hughes - Tarnished, 2008 - seen here

Sandra Winkworth

Sandra Winkworth - Pick Me - seen here

I really like these beautiful book works by Australian artist/print maker Sandra Winkworth. Pick Me is a concertina book of tender drawings showing eight Australian marsupials often overlooked by urban folk. Their imploring eyes look out from the pages which can be arranged in an intense little circle or arranged into a 'leaf litter' pile. Drawn with Biro onto recycled prints and book pages, the piece uses the everyday practice of doodling and sketching on scraps and oddments to draw attention to the everyday wildlife we take for granted.

Another series called Lost and Found uses similar techniques of pen on found papers.

Sandra Winkworth - Lost and Found - seen here

Emily Speed

Inhabitant - Emily Speed - seen here

One of the speakers at yesterday's seminar at Chapter - The Centre Is Here - was Emily Speed. Emily spoke to us about the way she uses blogging to talk about her practice, but also to raise issues of interest to artists through entries on a-n magazine and her blog Getting Paid.

When I came home I had a look at her work - about which she was very modest in her talk. Fragile, vulnerable, in between existing and not existing, temporary - her work explores ideas about transience and often makes reference to architecture and shelters, hiding places and spaces. Sensitive - almost unbearably so, she makes sculptural installation works, artists books, drawings; more recent work has involved performance also.

Emily Speed - My Humble Abode - seen here

"More a multiple than a bookwork, this piece involved 21 envelopes, each with a different scene inside the window. An exploration of how where we live shapes us as people, each scene sits in the place of an address."

Emily Speed - seen here