Hello! We hope you are all keeping warm and cosy in this cold weather! If you would like to come and knit with us at the maritime museum please do! We will be making woolly jumpers for Prue and Boris the penguins… all welcome!! x x x
We’re excited to be part of Underbelly Arts again this year. With a move down the road to Chippendale comes the tantalising opportunity to explore the public domain some more. Filling in the Cracks is our new project that’s opening itself up to a group of new or emerging public artists who are interested in exploring the art in public space.
If you’re interested in taking part, download this application form and email it back to info [at] byreefknot.net once completed. We’ll be sorting through all the ideas over the next couple of weeks with a view to starting work with the final artists on or just before Monday 5 July. If you’ve got any questions, email us or leave a comment.
Download the Filling in the Cracks artist registration of interest form.
To follow the project online click here.
For more info on Underbelly Arts: Public Lab & Festival click here.
Last Saturday we gave a presentation at the first &Company exhibition. Held in the truly excellent new Gaffa complex just behind the QVB, we shared the bill with Oliver Smith (silversmith & designer) and Danielle Hairs (Object Gallery). A little peculiar to be paired in with such a design focussed bill but strangely we all seemed to arrive at the similar threads of collaboration, incorporation of environmental and sustainable practices and general resourcefulness. The day’s talks were loosely themed as ‘Thrills & Spills: here & now & then what?’ so were looking at current developments, trends and future possibilities for creativity and particularly its inter-relationship with community and social sub-groups. Particularly of interest for folks who like to take their creativity outdoors and to the community are Object’s upcoming Spring Series & Revolution program – keep an eye out as details go online.
We gave a bit of a guided history of Reef Knot from the early Knot Gallery themed group exhibitions / installations through to our most recent re-configurations of the knitting produced for last year’s Kings Cross project whilst giving an insight to the changing nature of collaboration and a few of the killer learning curves along the way. Well, that was the bulk of the content – the last few minutes was ultimately more interesting as we laid out some thoughts on the future of public art in Sydney.
Some of those thoughts?
- Infuse the permanent works with the same degree of community consultation and engagement as many temporary works possess.
- Up the public artist consultation on commercial design, architecture and urban planning jobs – the time spent on the front line talking with the public while installing work develops a wealth of first hand feedback on the role and value of public art
- With increasing opportunities for public art commissions is it not time to increase the amount of tertiary education centering on public art?
- How about commissioning the odd permanent work as part of annual festivals that feature temporary installations and sculptures?
- Let’s start to infuse some character in Sydney’s permanent public works. Sydney-siders love their landmarks and love to identify with things, but they’ve got to have a resonance with the community. Tending to this, our sense of identity can be helped along its way.
If you’re not familiar with Sydney’s public art have a look at Michelle’s ongoing enquiry into public art (in all its guises) in Sydney.
woodland forest
Once again we were invited by the lovely Brooke and Sarah at Finders Keepers to create the decor for their Sydney markets. They had come up with a ‘Woodland Forest’ theme to suit the Autumn atmosphere and so we created hundreds of fabric mushrooms and toadstools at working bees across the weekends in the lead up to the markets. We then collected some authentic tree-stumps (thanks to Jack), some bugs and caterpillars (thanks to Kirsty) and lots of dead leaves to be assembles into patches of magic throughout the markets.
As a stage backdrop we thought patching together some knitting to keep it warm and cosy was the way to go.
the knitted stage backdrop. Photograph by M. Venables
woodland forest
mushrooms and toadstools
woodland forest
Woodland Forest.. photo by M.Venables
woodland forest and the stage
woodland forest and the stage
woodland forest
knitted wall at fab.. photo by m.mccosker
knitted wall at fab - close up.. photo by m.mccosker
knitted wall at fab - close up.. photo by m.mccosker
fireplace wall at fab ... photo by m.mccosker
After the window box was done Zoe invited us to come back and knit up the inside of the cafe. It was pretty fun patching together the giant knits to make a 7 x 3m piece for the big wall and a wall hug for the fireplace.. complete with a knitted picture (thanks to Jade Waskewisch). A big special thanks to Kirsty McCosker for helping Michelle patch it all together and install it. Another big thanks to Bill and George artist studios in Redfern and to the parents McCosker for letting us use their big floors to lay it all out to sew.
knitted wall at fab ... photo by m.mccosker
fireplace wall at fab ... photo by m.mccosker
fireplace wall at fab ... photo by m.mccosker
fireplace wall at fab / close up ... photo by m.mccosker
fireplace wall at fab / close up ... photo by m.mccosker
We were invited by Zoe Mahony, from Forbes and Burton Cafe, to firstly install a knitted piece in the window box gallery. We decided to patch together all the knits that had been sent to us from Taiwan for the Kings Cross project.. (as alas they did not arrive in time to be part of that installation). Patched together by Michelle McCosker and knits by the lovely ladies in the Tawainese Knitting Group with special thanks to Grace Wu.
the knits from tawain patched together.. photo by m.mccosker
close up of the knitted window box.. photo by m.mccosker
We were invited this year by the lovely folk at Good Vibrations to knit up some trees and the large rocks in Centennial Park for the festival. Special thanks to our wonderful helpers Jamie Gerlach, Laura Pike, Jade Waskewisch, Kirsty McCosker and Tully Ward. Creative Direction by Michelle McCosker and Production Management by Tendril Productions. Commissioned by S. Grice for Good Vibrations Festival, 2010.
knitted rocks - photo courtesy m.mccosker
knitted rocks.. photo courtesy m.mccosker
reef knot signature... photo courtesy m.mccosker
knitted tree.. photo courtesy m.mccosker
rock knit... pic by m.mccosker
rock knit... pic by m.mccosker
rock knit... pic by m.mccosker
rock knit.... pic m.mccosker
rock knits ..... pic by m.mccosker
tree knit... pic by m.mccosker
knitted branches... pic by m.mccosker
knitted tree.. pic by m.mccosker
pink tree... pic by m.mccosker
pink tree... pic by m.mccosker
blue tree... pic by m.mccosker
blue tree... pic by m.mccosker
After two months with around 25 knitting circles and around 250 contributors our ‘I Heart Kings Cross’ project was installed in Fitzroy Gardens and surround from 10-25 October 2009. As well as putting irrepressible smiles on the faces of local residents, workers and tourists, we won the ‘Remixing the City’ category in FBI & Time Out Sydney’s 2009 SMAC Awards. Thanks to everyone who voted, City of Sydney for commissioning the project and particularly to everyone who took part.
Click here to visit the full I Heart Kings Cross blog.
'I Heart Kings Cross' – Fitzroy Gardens
And there you have it – a wonderfully exciting and colourful assortment of recycled, rediscovered and reloved objects from the last four decades. Vive la test pattern!
Well it was a fourteen hour installation with an extra few hours before opening time to tidy up around the edges and clean those monoxide-baked windows. Who’d've thought two people could spend a day with so little room to move.
