Friday, October 18, 2013

Settlement and fragments


On Wednesday I was taken to a marvellous exhibition at the QUT gallery that is really worth a wander through should you work near there or be in the general vicinity. It is by a Phillipino husband and wife team, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan and was made with many collaborators including their five children and various community groups.
This show,"Fragments- Another Country",  has it all, my people. There is crochet, vintage everything, handmade objects, recycling, clutter and culling and a great deal of thought provoking loveliness.
It is about the ordeal of relocation and  immigration and what we humans think is important enough that we would keep in our  lives should we have to choose.

One room was filled with walls of intricately made aeroplanes all made using recycled and found objects like the rest f the exhibition.


The boys I went with were most taken with this lairy modded bus/car.


 These cupboards are made from a rare kind of oak only found in Queensland but packed with every imaginable bit of ephemera from the owners' past lives in the Phillipines. One boy pointed out a Sarah Vaughan CD. I was impressed that a fourteen year old even new who Sarah Vaughan was!


Then there was a colossal sculpture reminiscent of a ship or the barricade from Les Mis.


It filled an entire room with struts and sails made of crocheted rugs and vintage knitting needles. Yes! Vintage knitting needles! I was in Heaven, I tell you.


Then there were wonderful assemblages made of old cardboard and twigs. Pull yer socks up there, boys!


At the end we got to make our own special objet that we would choose to keep should we have to give up everything and leave our homes. The boys labelled them with names and where they were from and reasons why that was their chosen item. The twinettes were, as usual, chalk and cheese. One wanted to take his bed so that he could always have a comfortable night's sleep. The other made an abstract lucky charm molecule thing to bring luck in his new home. I made a ring to symbolize my family, because like most of us, that's what I value most.

Then we mailed them on a huge pile of treasures made by all the other visitors.


It gave food for thought about people who have to abandon homes and come here with nothing hoping for new lives and those who are already here and lose everything in sudden catastrophic events like the awful bush fires in New South Wales. May they be safe with their families too.



13 comments:

  1. That's very thought provoking ... also a bit close to home given the number of people in New South Wales who have lost everything. Burnt photos are more valuable than stainless steel appliances, for instance. I think it demonstrates the danger of attaching ourselves to 'things' ... though I am possibly an offender in that sense. I have just spent two days at as many Orientations for new schools next year ... I was taken aback at the modern approach to Catholicism in schools and the trend to focus on social justice issues rather than traditional moralistic teaching ... all the better I think for the future ... issues such as refugees and homelessness and walking in the shoes of the marginalised and making the most of what we have.

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    1. I think I like the new way too. It is more inclusive not exclusive. Unless you are Mrs Bouquet, (aka Bucket), exclusivity should be firmly relegated to the 20th century. As for stuff- I've been culling like a crazy woman the last twelve months. It feels GOOD! The grandchildren will have plenty of stuff- probably even more than this generation!

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  2. Having recently moved continents, I'm very aware of what we think we need to carry with us and what we really need. I just have to look in the boxes in my store to remind myself.

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    1. I still have boxes of art stuff stored under the house from when we moved here before the first babies!
      If I ever get an art space there will be a wondrous reopening. A lot of it will probably go in the bin!

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  3. this is just brilliant i love the interactive element of the cardboard piece! wow what would i take with me? thats a question! x

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    1. Do you still have your blue wig? A year ago it might have been my baldness beanie but now I'd take my phone. Photos from past and present and all that...

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    2. lol the wig wasnt a wig it was my own hair x

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  4. Don't you just love a good interactive exhibition that you can take the kiddos to? Even those big boys were in the zone making their little cardboard sculptures.

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  5. What a great exhibit. I love when the viewer gets to participate and/or become part of the exhibit.

    But the photo of the boys-in-uniform's legs steals the whole show. What a genius photo!

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    1. I loved that too. Priceless in their gawkiness. i have photos from when they are little of just their legs in shoes and socks too. It says so much about that age.

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  6. Fascinating stuff, particularly that shanty town boat :)

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    1. Beautiful isn't it. The detail in the construction is mesmerizing.

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  7. just to let you know i have linked you on Art-Stopping Sunday this week. Have a lovely Sunday xxx http://textgeorge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/art-stopping-sunday_27.html

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