Being school holidays meant that there were many projects on the go this week. The hml intern (age 12) went into design mode and sewed these excellent skirts (orders have been taken around the office!) the finishing touch was definitely the covered buttons...
Let's just say that the krispy kreme donut, despite wickedly retro delicious packaging does not live up to the hype. HML would also like to report that they in no way resemble any part of the food pyramid we're currently familiar with. 
It was during one of these windy walks (hot air from us and from the northwest!) that we discovered this prime example of outsider souvenier craft. Now as you know we love a bit of op shoppy craft object aesthetic and maybe we are the only ones. But to be left by the side of the road seemed just cruel. Or maybe, just maybe the craft gods left it there for us. Not only were we taken with the Shell Art (Beck has quite the collection) but on closer inspection we were thrilled by the photographic vignettes circa 1978. We thought you'd enjoy our contribution to the Fringe Festival!
This week sees the official launch of the Melbourne Fringe Festival here in Melbourne. What does that mean for the ladies of HML? Lots of running around trying to cram ten exhibitions into one day (we've done it before and we can do it again). There are 39 visual arts events in the programme and some of them are definitely of the crafty persuasion.
Skepsi on Swanston is also getting in on the Fringe with a great show by wonderous ceramic artist Janet Korakas. If you haven't seen her work it is a real treat -
Self Portraits... It can become hypnotic. Watching the Flickr page of the self portrait Tuesday group is like turning the pages of some weird human family album. There are nearly 6000 photos and so you can go into a wee bit of a trance - but it is quite beguiling. We spend most of our flickr time looking at things people made and stressing out that we aren't making enough ourselves.
Sometimes it's nice just to look out of the computer and see the crowd. Those of us that spend inordinate amounts of time noodling around on the computer. Finally we get the feeling the internet is being used for what we always hoped - community, inspiration, support, information and fun.
We become so obsessed with objects that sometimes we lose sight of the fact there are people behind them. And we look at craft as a kind of self portrait anyway. That's why you don't see lots of phots of us on hml. Well that's not wholly true - we just don't like photos of us really. As you can see by the above staff pic we are quite goofy lookin! So we though you might like some more 'craft self portraits' below.
Rebecca has long been extolling the virtues of the vegetable and while I struggle each day to make them a side dish to my various carnivore meals I can say that I share her love of the humble spud.
Yes there are the obvious reasons - mash, chip, bake etc but for our favorite application you'd have to go back to primary school art class. Swedes are good too - and I'm not talkin Abba or Bjorn Borg (love em but can't mash em) - they make perfect circles.
What are we doing at hml hq? Well you may ask! Let's just say when it comes to Thursdays 'we made it ourselves' entry we may actually be able to show you something new!
The ladies of hml will be heading beachside this week for an exciting show on at Uber Gallery in St Kilda. Always fans of the Self Portrait (think Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo) we are very keen to see YennY's photography and Vipoo Srivilasa's ceramics in My Self: My Other.
Both artists explore the nature of self protraiture in very different ways. Yenny has crafted a series of photographs in hotel rooms, creating different personas in the guise of beautiful but ultimately tragic women.
Those of you lucky to have met Vipoo will already understand that his exuberent ceramics are a true reflection of his wonderful and cheeky personality. The catalogue states that his mermaid is in fact his alter ego. We are not suprised at all as Vipoo has always struck us as a glamorous and mysterious maker we much admire.
MySelf: My Other Uber Gallery 52 Fitzroy Street St Kilda until October 8.
Currently Vanila's new exhibition TENSILE STRUTS is on show at Arc One Gallery... and people let us tell you she is the real deal. Her photographs act as portals into the world of the clinically absurd, a very welcome relief from the chaos of HML headquarters.
little rugged red rocking roof, 2004
Vanila, apart from having a most excellent name and being a kick ass photographer, was born in 1963, in Salvador, Brazil. She arrived in Australia in 1987 and "She creates photographic scenarios inspired by architecture, design and science fiction. Her practice explores the depth of the relationship between pleasure and austerity in the context of today’s excessive consumption and waste production."
she also won this years Archibald photography prize.
Killer, Vanila!
Vanila Netta Tensile Struts until October 7, Arc One Gallery, 45 Flinders Lane Melbourne
With this week being all about the craft of photography, and after our gen x reminiscing about our polaroid pasts , we decided to look to the polaroid camera of the 'new' generation and dedicate today to all things LOMO
BECK:I've always loved my polaroid cameras, and while I may not have managed to hang onto my childhood version, over the years I have given a guernsey to the varieties available at the local oppy to mixed success. While the pinstriped white 70's version boasts my favourite styling the 80's 636 model I currently favour has been just tops when it comes to picture taking. It was with this partikeler camera that I once started an overly ambitious (and hideously expensive) project aiming to take a polaroid picture a day for a whole year ... I think I got about halfway through February when I realised I could have afforded a new digital camera with what i'd spent on film so far... still there's nothing quite as exciting as the buzz and whirr of a polaroid photo as it exits your camera and I remain a big fan, if not also a big cheapskate.
RAMONA: I'm still using the same polaroid Sun 600 I got for my 13th birthday and despite being loaded down with all manner of new technology it was my trusty polaroid that I took on a solo walk through Venice a couple of years ago. Now remember I am not a good photographer and everything you point at there looks amazing but even I still consider these some of my 'best work' - maybe I am better off being square after all?
The Centre for Contemporary Photography may not be the first place you expect to find the ladies of HML but reguler readers will know that we are regualr shutterbugs. Beck in fact is an ace photographer, Ramona is more of a thumb across the lense kinda gal. We are intrigued by the current show 'Family Resemblance' which includes well known textile artists Tim Gresham and Renee So. Here is a bit of the blurb from the ccp press release:
"Family Resemblance presents the work of three artists whose work bares the traces of photography in other mediums. From snapshots, found images and collage, to formalist photography, these artists both enhance and deteriorate photographic images, ‘reproducing’ them via weaving, knitting and painting. Tim Gresham’s formalist photographs of city buildings become rhythmic patterns via the loom; Renee So’s travel photographs become knitted ‘positives’ of a China, lost and found; and Michelle Ussher renders her visit to Vietnam as a collection of 4x6, watercolour ‘snapshots’. Through a process of addition and reduction these artists’ work can be seen as a kind of post-photography, indicating a strength in the pervasive nature of photography"
We'll hopalong and let you know what it's like. Now we're off to dust our polaroid camera and take some arty photos of clouds....not.
Family Resemblance
TIM GRESHAM, RENEE SO AND MICHELLE USSHER. CURATOR REBECCA CHEW
08.09.2006—21.10.2006 Gallery 2 CCP 404 George St Fitzroy
And this was my ode to Mr Squiggle the Man From the Moon...
Say what you like about the new Thom Yorke cd (Beck: "Brilliant!" Ramona: "Depressing!") we don't think anyone can argue with the beauty of the cover art by UK printmaker Stanley Donwood. His website Slowly Downward: a Manufactory is a magical tour of his latest work as well as an amazing shopfront where you can pick up this print 'The Cnut' for a cool 400 pounds. There is also a 'Library' department where you can read some of his bleak little stories. No wonder he and Thom got on like, well like London on Fire...
Painter, printmaker sculptor Dean Bowen shows new work at Axia Modern Art Gallery this week. Hml are big fans of Bowen's energised and colourful images and have used him as inspiration for this weeks theme 'The Print'. There is much for the crafts person at a show like this, Bowen is an amazing colourist (doesn't the painting above evoke fantastic old quilts?) and seems to get great joy out of the everyday.
BEASTIES runs til September 30 Port Jackson Press Print Room 59 Smith St Collingwood
Dean Bowen: Urban Heartland runs tilSeptember 15 Axia Modern Art 1010 Hight St Armadale
South Australian ceramicist Gerry Wedd. His work blows me away. I wish I could afford a big blue thing!
Treasures from Irene Grishin Selzer (Iggy & LouLou). Baroque, encrusted, opulent, elegant and at the same time robust enough to use:
A gift from Beck (the greatest gift giver I have ever known). A small pot by Marianne Huhn:
Two pieces by Biggi Spiro. So delicate I can't believe I haven't broken them yet! Biggi is so consistently interesting and her use of colour is very dynamic even on such small vessels:
My most treasured object. My small blue house by architect and ceramicist Susan Robey. This is my 'save one object from the fire'. A poem.
