A twinkling of openings and a band of rare creatures.

{Playing Field opening night. (The exhibition is a part of Craft Victoria's annual festival Craft Cubed.)}

A band of rare creatures may not be an official collective noun and this post, like several sporadic posts previous, may not follow usual style, but nonetheless we thought you might be interested to see a few photos from the opening night of Playing Field, a group exhibition currently at Craft Victoria which features some of our new work. A twinkling of openings may be fictitious, but we think it can slide in comfortably here alongside drawn explorations of a troupe of acrobats (to come) and a cache of jewels.

These photos of said opening are not our own. They are taken by Lily Feng for Craft Victoria. In them you can see a little of our collaborative artists’ book, Sleeping during the day.

Openings are curious things. They pass quite quickly. They involve the pouring and subsequent swilling of wine. They involve speeches preferably economic in length. They involve crowds passing through, with luck, you hope. They see faces flush, shoulders brush, and some require the wearing of masks. Some become a colourful carousel and whirl about at speed. Yes, they pass quite quickly, in the blink of an eye. 8pm, all done. Hurrah! Rinse the glasses, turn out the lights, and head for home.














{All photos by Lily Feng. Thank you, Lily.}

Playing Field is an exhibition curated by Joe Pascoe, CEO & Artistic Director Craft Victoria, and it is on until Saturday 4th of September, 2010.

Galleries 1 + 2, Craft Victoria, 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

A suite of prints.

{A suite of prints, eight in total, with collages by Gracia Haby.}

The passage home was long.
A possible shortcut is considered.
A moment to hold close to the chest.
Looking for a way in.
A chance sighting.
One moonlit night with little to no prospect of success.
They had returned.
It was worth it if only to see the stars scuttle across the shore.

suite
Pronunciation:/swiːt/

noun

1. a set of rooms designated for one person‘s or family’s use or for a particular purpose


2. Music a set of instrumental compositions, originally in dance style, to be played in succession


3. a group of people in attendance on a monarch or other person of high rank


4. Computing a set of programs with a uniform design and the ability to share data


5.  Geology a group of minerals, rocks, or fossils occurring together and characteristic of a location or period


6. A suite of prints especially for you. There are eight in total, each an edition of fifteen, and you can find them in our online store listed under Works on Paper

Origin:
late 17th century: from French, from Anglo-Norman French siwte

(The potential for) A purse of winnings.

{Any favourites you can spot? (Click to enlarge, if it is easier.)}

I am printing six of my postcard collages as full-colur prints of roughly the same size as the original work. The prints will be 20cm X 16cm on Fabriano bright white 300gsm cotton paper. Only thing stopping the plates from being made and the ink rolling is my decision and I. Can you help me decide which six collages I should print. The prints will be an edition of ten. Above are a few for you to pick from, sixteen in fact. However, if you have a favourite postcard collage of mine not seen above, sing out and I will add it to the running tally.

For your help, I will be giving away three different prints to three different souls. Just leave a comment below or here (or both for twice the luck) with which work or works you think I should make into a print and you will go into the running.

Thank you, all of you, in advance.

(Normal collective noun posts will return sooner than you think. We promise.)

A library of books.

{(In loose sense only) A library of books.}

One book, one well-known classic tome, and three pairs of eyes; armed each with a copy, the three of us are reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace. We are all roughly thirty pages in.

Friends, here is to the journey. Better still, join us. It's not too late.

(The painting featured at collage heart is Three Princesses of the Underground Kingdom (1884) by Viktor Vasnetsov.)

After a pause.

{Are you the one for me? (2007)}

Could be...
A wisdom of owls.

Too forlorn is how this blog space looks. Lest it look like a limb of a tree that ought be cut for the goodness of the whole, I have decided to start posting here, sporadically, at best. Looking at a bundle of recent postcard collages I have created (many recently thanks owing to Kristi of Asphalt and Air), I note that any one of them could sit comfortable in a stable of collective nouns. Looking further back through archives of collages created, I spy any number that could fall under mantle of Collective Noun. For that object or purpose, until the pattern more regular resumes, here is an interval, if you will.


{It’s okay; your secret is safe with me. (2009)}
Could be...
A diligence of messengers.


{All were in attendance. (2008)}
Could be...
A rookery of seals.


{Donald’s tools and graphite. (2008)}
Could be...
A bunch of things.


{The cool breeze came at great cost to privacy. (2009)}
Could be...
A sleuth of bears.


{They were alll of them sure never to be lonely for. (2010)}
Could be... (at a stretch)
An anthology of stories.


{Who let it slip that we were hiding here? (2009)}
Could be...
A host of sparrows.


{It could all be made, in time. (2009)}
Could be...
An agenda of tasks.


{Kept in balance. (2009)}
Could be...
A collection of objects.

Can you come up with a collective noun for this motley gathering?

See what Louise (Elsewhere) and Elaine (Pasadena Mansions) are up to, and consider following us on Twitter, should 140 characters or less hold appeal.

G xo