Spring blitz in the park across the road from our flat
I was lucky enough to have a little break in New York over Easter. I'm not that good at this holiday in New York business. Maybe because while I am there I fall in love with the place and tell myself: 'I'll be working here soon . . . I don't need these obvious 'tourist' attractions . . . they'll soon be part of my lunchtime routine.' And so I put of aside all of the 'proper' big gallery visits for the minor delights of vietnamese pork rolls and shopping in Brooklyn. As soon as I am back in London for a few weeks, the idea seems less appealing: I like the amount of floor space I have here, there's more than one park, plus my pals and a strong drinking culture. So it seems I may have made a tactical error.
Jennifer Bartlett, Primary Combinations, 1971
The error I feel most guilty about is missing out on the show currently on at MOMA called: Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today. Now this is my lost dream—instead I have to settle for the website. I love colour. I believe flicking through 500 pages of swatches of CMYK breakdowns is a great way to lift one's mood.
A serigraph of a Jimmy Pike painting, not unlike my shorts at all
My first pair of Desert Designs (a western australian company started in the mid-1980s that used the work of indigenous artist Jimmy Pike for its textile designs) shorts was the turning point. An amazing swirling design of pattern and colour that made me feel giddy with love every time I wore them.
Yam Dreaming-Awelye, Emily Kngwarreye, 1995
The experience of standing in front of the vibratingly astounding work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye at her posthumous show at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1999 still rates as my greatest art experience ever. The confidence of her colour allows the work's meaning to swirl and dance in front of your eyes (kind of like listening to dirty three at their very, very, very best).
Out of all the different elements of design I use in my work—I still feel most strongly drawn to the use of colour as the primary consideration. And so I use this entry to begin a semi-irregular theme of thinking and talking about colour.
3 comments:
hmmmm. take this how you want:
when i was 5 or 6 - my father took me to sydney and we stayed in the rocks.. father/son time etc. He took me to the MoCA and there we saw a Sol LeWitt installation.
I was in awe of an entire gallery space painted black - and within the blackness, he'd painted a giant geometric arc - in black.
I was in love.
You know a funny thing. I was just reading about the influence of Kngwarreye on Sol LeWitt. It was in response to him seeing the same retrospective that I am talking about while he was there for the show that you saw! We live in a very wonderful world.
I am so thrilled that you're doing this my dear girl, and I look forward to much more dazzling reading to come. And I also look forward to the time when we're both back in NYC.(You know, on that subject, there are at least TWO parks that I know of, you have heaps of friends there, and I'm pretty sure I remember a couple of places where they sell alcohol. You're right about the floor space though, I'm sorry.)
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