Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Alastair Heseltine's "Salix Iterum" willow sculpture, 'Touch Wood Sculpture Exhibition', VanDusen Gardens

Salix Iterum

 
Touch Wood Sculpture Exhibition at the VanDusen Gardens – June 20 – Sept 30, 2013.
Working on Master Weaver, Alastair Heseltine’s massive willow sculpture in the VanDusen Gardens was the highlight of my summer. 

Alastair’s sculpture was based on the Fibonacci Scale (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc.), each new number being the addition of the previous 2 numbers.  We wove sections of willow according to these numbers that also link in with the idea of the mathematics found in nature through the Golden Ratio.  

Alastair Heseltine http://www.alastairheseltine.com/  and Ken Clarke  http://hungrythumbs.com/ were the core and key components for the heavier weaving and erecting of the sculpture.  Although I was in a volunteer capacity I was constant and consistent in my participation and eventually was able to instruct others in the weaving procedure.


Salix Iterum (Repeating Willow) is part of the ‘Touch Wood’ exhibition that ends on September 30th but it will remain on site for 18 months, depending on how it survives the winter elements.  The eventual intention is for the sculpture to be composted back into the earth.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Ekphrasis - AddDress




http://ekphrasis.info/annmilligan



 AddDress
A dog-eared personal address book has instigated this investigation into my own memory. 
I decided to contact people from my ‘forgotten’ past despite a strong aversion to stirring up an uncomfortably, relevant or irrelevant nostalgia. I’ve compulsively kept these names and addresses for thirty years, or so.  Why?  Am I expecting some sort of elucidation?
I’m interested in the discordance of memory that creates a distrust, or a betrayal in the everyday experience. This ‘hard cover’ book is now outdated and has been virtually shape-shifted by a technology that will become just as obsolete, in the future past. We are a culture obsessed with the idea of remembering everything and dually fearful of not remembering anything at all.  How do memories create our identity and what happens when that identity starts to disintegrate? If we lose our memory will someone else be able to piece together our lives from what we have recorded, collected? Can we revisit a past that may never have happened and remember what can’t be remembered? Who will really care? Does a disturbance in the present that is delegated from the past not come with its own set of responsibilities and consequences?  Ones that can possibly even affect the future?
It is these relationships that are starting to be forgotten that intrigue me. I see these spaces of memory lapses as new entryways for alternative interpretations and investigations through attempting a reconstruction of the past through a present that has already become disassociated. 










sound, installation
March 26 -
April 6, 2013

Libro - The Liberation of the Book - January 2013

http://www.ecuad.ca/about/events/267545 



http://librotheliberationofthebook.tumblr.com/ 


If you find this book open, wrap it up into the plastic screen cover and fasten the suction button into the flat metal button hole.
Then open it again.         


If you find the book is closed, unbutton the suction cup through the flat metal button hole.

Open the hard cover of the book to reveal the metal spine coil and press ici to play happy birthday song. It may, or may not, be your birthday.

Flip pages of book and read in any order that makes sense to you.  If you find some loose pages you may put them in another order that makes more sense to you.  You may add things to this book, as well.
Can you find the two humming birds resting in these pages?  Please don’t disturb them if you do.


You may disturb other things in the book but don’t try to put anything away in your pockets.
This book is meant to be enjoyed by others, so leave its spine in place. 

It can be left open or closed but is best left unlocked for easy access.
Of the brain.