Hand Held Gallery: A Map to Nowhere

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Map to Nowhere

Jenny Bolhofner's exhibition 'A Map to Nowhere' opens at Hand Held next week.

Jenny has sent this beautiful exhibition over from America for her first solo show outside of the US.

Jenn will be in Melbourne from Wed 10th to Saturday 13th and we'd love for you to meet her.

Well schedule a meet the artist afternoon on the 13th and hopefully lots of you will be able to drop in and say hi.

"A Map to Nowhere"

Maps are supposed to tell us where we are. They show us how to go from point A to point B. Maps reveal relationships. They represent space and orientation. But I always wondered what a map of isolation would look like. How do you show space without anything in that space? How do you depict something without having anything nearby to determine scale, location, or relation? How do you make a map to nowhere? A life changing move to Guam, a tiny island in the Pacific, left me examining this idea. Suspended there, insignificant in the vast sea, I experienced feelings foreign to me- feelings of isolation and detachment. In this body of work, I wanted to explore these feelings through research and attempt to translate my emotions into something more calculated and scientific. I turned to Charles Darwin's studies on nature, geographical isolation and evolution to help symbolize my own feelings of severance. His work provides relevant theories on the creation and extinction of plant and animal species in areas isolated by geographic barriers. Living on an island, I could relate to these ideas of natural selection and allopatry (the process by which a population of species becomes separated by a physical barrier and divides into two different species). Collecting plant life around Guam, I incorporated them into my work to represent my own feelings of separation. Aesthetically, I used topographic imagery to attempt to connect personal feelings to something more tangible and universal. While emotions are ambiguous and hard to pinpoint, I feel that maps provide a platform in which the viewer can relate. Likewise, the use of repetition in imagery and process (i.e. layers of sewing) were integrated to connect the viewer to the concept of the mundane. Each stitch mimics the continuity and monotony of isolated living.

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Exhibitions Jan - June 2013

January 24 to February 16, Sampler, small woven tapestries by Mardi Nowak
February 21 to March 16, Renuka Rajiv. For this exhibition opportunity I would like to come up with a collection of zines and artist books. They will work across observational and imaginative drawing, with some being handmade while others are photocopy reproductions. What I would like to express through this is a need to keep drawing, as well as making little collections through books.
March 21 to April 13, Jenny Bolhofner, 'A Map to Nowhere' . Maps are supposed to tell us where we are. They show us how to go from point A to point B. Maps reveal relationships. They represent space and orientation. But I always wondered what a map of isolation would look like. How do you show space without anything in that space? How do you depict something without having anything nearby to determine scale, location, or relation? How do you make a map to nowhere?
April 18 to May 11, Susan Baran and Diane Longley. 'Chances and Changes'. an exhibition of prints, artist books, encaustic panels, and porcelain works. This eclectic mix of works by Susan Baran and Dianne Longley has been selected to complement the remarkable and intimate space of Hand Held Gallery. Enjoy having a close and even closer look at these small and beautifully crafted works..
May 16 to June 8, Kat Teede, 'I Want to be Your Shadow'. “I Want to be Your Shadow” is a statement that was once made known to me and has stayed in my memory for the tension that it creates between intimacy and suffocation. Appearing as an endearing declaration of love, “I Want to Be Your Shadow” can also be viewed as a burdening entrapment… Within this exhibition, small-scale sculpture and text combine in considering this tension, together with the recollection of our memories of past relationships. As with this statement, the works within I Want to be Your Shadow are both beautiful and intimate though haunting.
June 13 to July 6, Deborah Klein, 'Tall Tales'. unique artist books and painted miniatures. Check out some sneak peaks of Deb's work for the show at her Moth Woman Press blogspot. www.mothwomanpress.blogspot.com

Past Exhibitions July - Dec 2012

August 23 - September 15, Megan Herring, 'Tea Party',Exploring the fragility of tradition, the loss of simple ceremony and the degradation of the importance of heirloom objects. Tea bag books and objects.
September 20 - October 20, 'Vignette/Vitrine', a group exhibition of objects and illustrations but Paul Compton, Deborah Klein, Priscilla Ambroscini, Sheridan Jones, Bonnie Hanlon and Megan Herring.
October 25 - November 17, Priscilla Ambroscini
November 22-Dec 15, MELT by Jill Herman's and Chloe McColl. Melt Unpredictable things can happen when a material is heated. A transition takes place - structures collapse and reform, separate units bond together, the internal structure contracts or expands, colours can develop and fade, shapes melt and textures are formed or transformed. The response of the material changes. In their separate practices Chloe McColl and Jill Hermans use heat as a means of creation. Through these transitions they hope to tell a deeper truth about the essential qualities of their materials. Chloe McColl aims to simultaneously question and intensify the viewer’s relationship with discarded consumer products. Through her work she provides a new perception of the strange, wondrous and aesthetic forms, which we interact with daily; to offer the viewer ‘new eyes’ for a new discovery of the familiar. Jill Hermans’ practice is material and process driven, utilizing and uniting elements of unpredictability and chance with carefully considered pattern and repetition. Heat plays an essential part in the making process, and the variable nature of the metal when introduced to heat helps to determine the shape and colour. This collaboration between metal, flame and the hand of the artist is essential in forming the works.
December 20-Jan 19, BAZE book art and zine exhibition featuring 35 artist book and zine makers from around Australia.

past exhibitions Jan-July 2012

July 26 - August 18, Brydie Dyson, 'Peg is 40', A collection of works from Brydie Dyson’s solo developments, and community collaboration: embroidered silk text panels and handkerchiefs, silver cast seedpods, botanical plant matter, soundscapes.'
May - Sheridan Jones, 'The Hunter and the Hawker'. We’re headed back out on an expedition, back into the exquisite detail of the natural world. The world of jars, vials, cloches, becomes a world of exploration, of discovery, of beauty and awe. Together through the medium of print we can once again discover the intricacy, delicacy and beauty of even the smallest elements nature has to offer.
31st May - 23rd June - Kate Gorringe-Smith, ‘Fly Me to the Moon' The Bar-tailed Godwit, a migratory shorebird, journeys annually from the northern to the southern hemisphere and back, chasing the sun across the globe. On its journey, it can fly for up to eight days without stopping, a flight that covers over 11,000 kilometres. Over the course of a lifetime, individual birds have been known to fly the equivalent distance as from the earth to the moon. My work is inspired by these tiny navigators: the miracle and mystery of their journeys, their beauty, and the way they embody our own hopes and dreams.
June 28th to July 21st - Paul Compton, 'Domestic Disturbance'. Domestic Disturbance suggests the underbelly of an imagined Victorian era house through depictions of uninhabited rooms and curious portraits. The drawings, prints, handmade books and zines in this exhibition hint at narratives of strange places, deaths, secrets and peculiar activities that go on behind closed doors.

Past Exhibitions

5th to 28th April - Janet Neilson, 'Close to home' My immediate environment is a constant source of inspiration. I am amused and intrigued by the daily activities of people in my neighbourhood, and I cherish the moments when our lives intersect. I am buoyed by some chance encounters that have developed into special relationships. George lives nearby, he peddles his delicious amber honey around our streets; a shopping trolley is his mobile store. The gift of a tall, gangly ginkgo tree came from Bill; we walked it home through the laneways from his place to ours. Over the road lives a truly fine weaver, she has crafted me a scarf on her loom upstairs. This work reflects some of my day to day observations, interactions and experiences; using various printmaking techniques to create small books, my aim is to interpret some aspects of the extraordinary lives being lived around me.
8th to 31st March - Ngaio Lenz, “A room in time” celebrates an aesthetic of imperfection, of the well worn surface and the imagined history of an object. I have always been drawn to decaying surfaces, rooms and buildings, as they offer fodder for my imaginings of the lives of past inhabitants. Clues to lives long past, providing some understanding and connection, while appreciating the beauty of a surface well worn, or an object well used. Through the building up and taking away of layers, using paint, vintage papers, letters, stamps and wallpapers, I have explored the recreation of the surfaces I love, while restoring a connection with the past. The process of de-collage has been a way of expressing my intention to portray the fragments of the past as a visual narrative.
9th February to 3rd March - Bonnie Hanlon, 'For Want of a Better Bird'.The works in the show are formed by the idea that freedom is hindered by desire and looks at affluence, beauty and mortality from a slightly sardonic angle. Featuring Paintings and Jewelry this show anthropomorphizes the humble house sparrow by adorning him with jewels and other human symbols of wealth, beauty and status.
January - Sarah Eve Deaman, 'Truth to the Tales'. I am interested in and wish to explore the origins of fairy tales. The most commonly known fairy tales are the ones with the more surprising histories. I find this of interest how we tell children such stories but over time they have been dressed up with lies, sugar coated with the ‘happily ever after’ finish. From this exploration I will translate and modernize the original story into today's day and age.
December 1 - 24, Suse Scholem 'Abject Object'. A exhibition of uncanny and sensual jewellery pieces by emerging artist Suse Scholem. Unusual jewellery forms evoke the imagination, intriguing yet perhaps a little disconcerting in their composition and aesthetic. Inspired by materials such as glass, bone, latex and silver, Scholem combines these with found objects and processes of glass blowing and electro-forming for the dynamic series Abject Object. Aesthically Scholem challenges polite forms of adornment, whilst thematically drawn by the social potential of Contemporary Jewellery. Our bodies are social spaces which interact with all around them. Jewellery's close relationship with the body provides a unique platform for personal, social and emotional interpretation. This exhibition houses wearable pieces which convey both distinct and ephemeral moments, objects alluding yet subjective
November 3 - 26, Group exhibition - 'In Suspence'. Artists are invited to submit small scale objects that are designed to be suspended (or not)and for which the act of suspension enhances or subverts their reading.
November 3 - 26, Group exhibition - 'In Suspence'. Artists are invited to submit small scale objects that are designed to be suspended (or not)and for which the act of suspension enhances or subverts their reading.
October 6 - 29, Fiona Dempster and Barry Smith. ‘Light and Lines’. Barry Smith, a sculptural, assemblage and metal work artist, and Fiona Dempster, a calligraphic and book artist create a joint exhibition exploring the themes of light and lines, bringing together Barry’s small sculptural assemblage and foldformed metal pieces with Fiona’s calligraphic, print and book arts responses.
September 8 - Oct 1, Dolls House Project 'Inside Out / Outside In', Rebecca Mayo, Raquel Ormella, Richard Harding, Heather Hesterman. The starting point and working title for this exhibition draws upon the relationship between the Dolls House’s usual location, within a shop window and viewed through glass from the pavement, and its proposed location at Hand Held Gallery, where it will become a gallery within a gallery. While a gallery space provides greater intimacy, a shop window offers the viewer anonymity and as a consequence a less self-conscious viewing position. With this increased intimacy and loss of anonymity each artist will install work within one of the rooms. The work will explore an aspect of Inside Out / Outside In as it relates to their own practice and to print(making) and the multiple.
August 18 -September 4. Little red fish and Billy Ball little, 'Post-its, teabags and lightbulbs'. An exhibition inspired by moments of inspiration, sudden jolts, impulsive jottings and the many cups of tea that some may call procrastination.
July 25 - August 13. 'The Change Exchange' (30 US artists) 'The Change Exchange was born through my personal need for reconnection. Last year, I graduated, moved halfway around the world, and for the first time in my life, found myself out of school and work. I was away from nearly everything and everyone I knew. As change became the only constant in my life, I began to wonder how the people I left behind were affected by change. The collaborative drawing project was thus created to give an outlet for fellow artists to swap ideas and express how change was impacting them' - Jenny Bolhofner (Curator)..
June 30 - July 23, Camila Galez. 'An Ideal Half' Through a visual exploration of the shapes, colours and social lives of Melbourne’s pigeons, Camila Galaz’s first solo exhibition examines how our love/hate relationship with these populous birds highlights our many human flaws. Galaz creates a delicate world in watercolour, pencil and photography where the common pigeon can be analysed and idealised. Often gone unnoticed or disregarded, the pigeon is revealed as our multifaceted counterpart in the city.
June 2 -25: Sharon Margaret Russell, 'Collection'. Delicate new stitched works by Sharon Margaret are made using strands of human hair as thread. Collecting hair from friends, family and her own hairbrush then stitching into a range of materials, Sharon has embraced her innate capacity for hoarding, love of unconventional materials and enjoyment of process based, repetitive work.A desire to collect coupled with a love of provoking visceral disgust is what drives this new body of work. The contrast to Sharon's work with larger needles for knitting serves to make these delicate workings with hair all the more intimate
May 5 - May 28: Sheridan Jones. A series of etchings relating to what we might find delicately preserved inside the glass cabinets of the museum, two and three dimensional paper pieces that have the volume and substance of the creatures they depict. A glimmer of personal joy with those things that represent the past, present and future in our history and environment.
April 7 - April 30: Paul Compton/Priscilla Ambrosini. 'Lost Is Found'. Lost, forgotten or dejected objects bring back memories, tell stories, create mysteries and they can also hold secrets. An old photograph can be a looking glass to another world. Objects can outlive people and if they are passed on to another owner, the objects past life may never be truly known or regained. In Lost Is Found, artists Priscilla Ambrosini and Paul Compton, look at the theme of rediscovery and re-enchantment through the use of found objects, drawing, embroidery, books and assemblage. Objects and subjects that have been lost/found, given or discarded by others are re-interpreted and given new lives. For Lost Is Found, Priscilla Ambrosini's work incorporates book making and drawing using embroidery thread and embellishments. Paul Compton's new pieces take the form of handmade books and zines as well as incorporating his drawings with found/recycled objects and scrap papers. Lost Is Found brings together a lot of different elements to create a playful and motley collection of pieces that encourage people to interact with the works and the environment of the gallery space itself. As two individual artists Ambrosini and Compton's works are united by whimsical and illustrative elements but also by a love of objects and a belief in the power objects hold over memory.
March 10 - April 2: Lizzy Sampson. Lizzy presents an exhibition of collages and artist books made from stamps, envelopes, postmarks and other written correspondence. This exhibition continues her use of philatelic materials and celebrates the pale greens, blues and browns of distant times while exploring notions of frugality, collecting, hoarding and sorting.
Feb 10 - March 5: Eddy Carroll, Hand made objects become tangible emotions. Personal, they belong to everyone - Something to hold on to while letting go. A collection of work made during a painful series of major transitions and changes - works made from needle and thread.
Jan 13 - Feb 5: Kathy Fahey, 'To Penang and Back'. An exhibition of artist books, paper sculptures and drawings inspired by a month spent as artist-in-residence in Penang earlier in the year. The work questions the notion that something has to be large to be powerful, rather that something as small as ten centimetres can capture a big experience or emotion. My works suggest that by creating hand held objects one can somehow hold on to and share the experiene that inspired the creation.
December 9 - Jan 8; Chloe Vallance and Melissa Cameron, 'Measuring the Space Between'. A collaborative exhibition inspired by a shared fascination for space. The tension between the figure and its location within an environment captivates Vallance, while for Cameron, the creation of space and forming spatial hierarchies is an enduring concept within her objects. When coming togehter for this collaborative exhibition an investigation of space is to be both theme and practice
November 4 - Dec 4 2010; Sandra Winkworth 'Sleeping Beauties', Altered books and objects. Sleeping Beauties focuses on the bird and the unwanted book exploring issues concerning loss and denial. I collect, forage, assemble discarded ephemera and old books then rework them to hold images of bird studyskins sourced from a 19th century collection at the University of Sydney’s Macleay Museum. Here the bird is out of context, outside of nature and perhaps is a reminder of our tenuous connections with the natural world.
September 30 - October 30 2010; 'Tiny Peeks' Michael P Fikaris curates an exhibition of one page comics reflecting on the everyday. Artists in no particular order are: Pip Stafford, Amber Carvan, Tim Molloy, James James, Ben Hutchings, Jase Harper, Mandy Ord, Mel Roswell, Anthony Woodward, Tom O'hern, Kirsty Madden, Michael Hawkins, Richard Butler-Bowden, Ghostpatrol, M.P.Fikaris, Jo Waite, Athonk, Phoenix, Ha - Ha, Cut, Rena Littleson, No Frills Art, Toni Ann, Tim Danko, Indira Neville, Daniel Reed, Anna Brown, John Weeks, Alice Mrongovius.
September 2 - 25 2010; Sarah Ritchie, 'Select'. Select considers the act of collection and display. Small objects and book works are presented as pseudo-museum cabinets in miniature. Personal and intimate in stature and material they may be folded closed at will, safely hidden and secreted away, limited in view. The miniature cabinets are constructed from digitally and traditionally printed papers and allude to replicas and models, perhaps samples for theatre designs and sets. Small worlds of ambiguous objects are contained within each fragile paper cabinet –anatomical viscera or unnamed biological specimens? With reference to historical medical imaging, cabinets of curiosity as well as classical architecture, Select reflects on the potent relationship between the frame and the object contained within.
August 16-29 2010: 'Blackboard' an evolving exhibition of chalkboard drawings by multiple artists featuring: Mon 16 Thom Holland Tue 17 'As you were saying’ group Wed 18 Marie Connole Thu 19 Adrian Lawson Fri 20 Paul Compton Sat 21 Ayano Takeuchi and Zoe Meager Mon 23 Margaret Manchee & Yasemin Sabuncu Tue 24 Michael P Fikaris + friends Wed 25 Caroline Meathrel Thu 26 Fri 27 Quenton Miller Sat 28 Caroline McCurdy
July 29 - August 14 2010, a group exhibition exploring cutting in metal and paper
June:3rd - 26th June 2010; Glen Skien, 'Oh Bird'. " I'm not certain what came first the bird or the tobacco tin but somehow they seem to meet in the studio one morning along with fragments of etchings, piano keys, shoe tacs, old photographs, and other things on the studio shelves... perhaps what they now contain is that space between the reflective moment and endless possibilities.." Assemblage, collage, box and book objects
May: 6th - 29th May 2010; Paul Compton, 'Houses of Blood and Rapture'. Houses of Blood & Ratpure uses drawing and handmade books to represent the mystery, charm and duality of Australian houses. I am intrigued by the idea that what goes on in a house impacts on people's perception of the house as an inanimate object. A house can be seen as quaint and charming but if a terrible murder should occur there it will develop an air of menace and become more negatively charged in the suburban conscious regardless of its outward appearance. It may even become thought of as haunted. Every one recalls hearing about or seeing a house that is considered haunted; sometimes a house may not look particularly forbidding but the stories associated with its past occurences make it cursed in our minds.
March: 11th march - 3rd April 2010; 'Hidden Facets', collaborative exhibition by Abby Seymour and Katherine Wheeler. Jewellery, hollow ware, artist books and installation. The work evolves from the body and identity of self mixing the recognisable with the unknown. 'The aim of the exhibition is to take the viewer on an oppulant journey in which the capasity for seeing the human body and mind as complex and multifaceted is possible and alluring'.
February: 11th Feb - 6th March 2010; Selena de Carvalho. More Rogue Ideas... The wild and unpredictable weather patterns, El Nino and La Nino; are both devastating and humbling in their temperament. El Nino translates from spanish as boy child & La Nina as girl child. By personifying these elemental attributes of destruction and enchantment in the form of children I am creating a poetic narrative that reflects on human interaction with our environment. I am reminded of the deeply mysterious world we inhabit. I resonate with the soulful nature of gleaned materials that have experienced their own sense of life. Inspired by the invisible histories these objects carry I see my role as having the sensitivity to redefine their relationship with articulated placement in my work; exploring a range of mediums with a distinctively rugged visual diet from the Dream mUSEum of Selena de Carvalho
January: 14th Jan - 6th Feb 2010; Chloe Vallance, 'Step Ligthly Between the Branches', an exhibition of small colour pencil drawings and oil paintings, was developed from Chloe’s travels through Europe in 2009. “My travels led me to consider the tension between human figures and their environmental context.”
November 5- Dec 5th 2009: Jules Chapple; 'Tangent Man Turns Left'. Pictographic dairy entries from recent travels. Exhibition and Zine launch. Also; 'Travel Notes', a collection of artist books, altered books, sketch books and travel journals.
October: 1st-31st 2009, Opening October 1st 6-8pm: Claire O'Halloran.'Keepsakes'. Jewellery and objects commemorating the local, quirky and mundane.
September 3rd-26th 2009, Opening September 3rd 6-8pm: Jane Simon. 'Shutter, sill, blind'. A series of photographic objects documenting window frames, dusty glass, shutters, and views inside and beyond. The exhibition will include an artists’ book based on the series, and a collection of the artist’s other small books.
August 6th- 29th 2009, Opening August 6th 6-8pm: We celebrate our first birthday with 'Palm Reader'. Object, book, paper and textile artists are asked to interpret the term 'Palm Reader'. $20 Entry fee to successful applicants. Peoples choice award will win 2010 exhibition at Hand Held.
July 2nd- August 1st 2009, Opening August 2nd 6-8pm: Melanie Wolfe and Lenni Morkel-Kingsbury; Axioms/Idioms: a mapping of language/culture; history/memory; emotion/truth… a collection of individual and collaborative artist books and charts which utilise the metaphor of mapping as a means of exploration of the subjective nature of language.
May 28th- June 27th 2009, Opening 28th May 6-8pm: Mike Harrison: Stasis: Defined as an artifical pause, the installation explores an emotional point in time observed by a son of his father's post-war trauma; the idea of life moving forward while an emotional conscious is left behind.
April 30th- May 23rd 2009, Opening April 30th 6-8pm: Paul Compton;Tender Things . An exhibition that playfully explores the inherent fragility of objects, illusions and human lives. This collection of handmade books, objects and drawings combines droll cynicism with sincere empathy and hints at themes of the outsider, animism and nostalgia.
April 2nd-25th 2009, Opening April 2nd, 6-8pm: Adrian Lawson; Ladders. Simple symbolic forms. Painting and Installation
8th to 31st March - Ngaio Lenz, “A room in time” celebrates an aesthetic of imperfection, of the well worn surface and the imagined history of an object. I have always been drawn to decaying surfaces, rooms and buildings, as they offer fodder for my imaginings of the lives of past inhabitants. Clues to lives long past, providing some understanding and connection, while appreciating the beauty of a surface well worn, or an object well used. Through the building up and taking away of layers, using paint, vintage papers, letters, stamps and wallpapers, I have explored the recreation of the surfaces I love, while restoring a connection with the past. The process of de-collage has been a way of expressing my intention to portray the fragments of the past as a visual narrative.
8th to 31st March - Ngaio Lenz, “A room in time” celebrates an aesthetic of imperfection, of the well worn surface and the imagined history of an object. I have always been drawn to decaying surfaces, rooms and buildings, as they offer fodder for my imaginings of the lives of past inhabitants. Clues to lives long past, providing some understanding and connection, while appreciating the beauty of a surface well worn, or an object well used. Through the building up and taking away of layers, using paint, vintage papers, letters, stamps and wallpapers, I have explored the recreation of the surfaces I love, while restoring a connection with the past. The process of de-collage has been a way of expressing my intention to portray the fragments of the past as a visual narrative.

Hand Held Gallery

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Map to Nowhere

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Exhibitions Jan - June 2013