BERLIN ART LINK - First Year Anniversary Party at Babettes

I have started working with an arts consultancy business called BERLIN ART LINK (BAL) and last night was their first year anniversary party hosted at art industry bar Babettes. BAL was founded by Monica Salazar and Anna Russ and describes itself as “The city's go-to platform for viewing the best of emerging contemporary art in Berlin and abroad”. Australian video artist Devon Elise Atkins produced an original video installation utilizing the unique glass architecture of Babette and Andy No Andy from Theives Like Us DJ’d. It was a great night!

BERLIN ART LINK is a Berlin-based online platform for contemporary art which highlights the best of the contemporary art scene in Berlin and abroad. With a focus on documented studio visits, the site also includes insightful interviews, articles, selected weekly event listings and a blog. Updated daily by a distinguished international roster of photographers, artists, critics, curators, BERLIN ART LINK diligently extracts and presents the most exciting facets of the city’s dynamic art scene. With an expansive network throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East and extensive knowledge of these regional art markets, BERLIN ART LINK realizes art events, projects and media content through connecting individuals, corporations and non-profit organizations with a network of international art professionals and creative resources

ART CONNECT BERLIN Networking Breakfast

This morning I went to a networking breakfast organized by ART CONNECT BERLIN http://artconnectberlin.com hosted at the NODE Centre for Curatorial Studies http://www.nodecenter.org in Kreuzberg. As the title suggests, you eat breakfast whilst chatting and meeting new people, after which time there is a presentation by artists, curators, writers or whoever wants to share information about their creative practice or upcoming project. The presenters today were Australian curator George Ironside whom spoke about her experience in curating and working within street art in Berlin and Melbourne, including the development of her artist agency IronartTOURS http://ironsideart.de. The second presenter was Finnish artist Saana Inari who showed a video work and spoke about some upcoming projects. Saana’s work was particularly beautiful; she uses animals as a metaphor for transformation and combines animation with video and performance. Check out her work on her website www.saana-inari.net

Und.....Berlin Schnee!

Recently Seen / Distinct Ambiguity - GRAFT Architects at Haus am Waldsee

Recently I saw an exhibition at an art space out of Berlin at Haus am Waldsee www.hausamwaldsee.de. The exhibition Distinct Ambiguity profiled a series of projects completed by GRAFT Architects www.graftlab.com. Based in Berlin, Los Angeles and Beijing, GRAFT “creates architectural hybrids which take up current cultures of taste and debates on method and reflect on political as well as aesthetic issues”. The exhibition consisted of a variety of components, from architectural models, plans, videos, installations, prints, objects etc demonstrating the creative processes involved from inception to outcome. There is an overwhelming amount of work is on display, however one project which stood out was PINK in collaboration with Brad Pitt (ofcourse!) in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina. Check out this clip below about the PINK Project.

Though the series of projects are diverse in scale, outcome and clients, the thread of continuity is GRAFTs’ ability to elegantly combine innovative design with a social conscience and an environmentally sensitive approach of cross disciplinary excellence. I loved it.

The rear of the building which backs onto a lake.

And some cool apartment you can rent at the back of the gallery

Haus am Waldsee

WONDERLAND: New Contemporary Art from Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan

I am pleased to announce that I will be showing several sculptures from the Revolutions series www.elizabethdelfs.com/gallery_12.html in a group show entitled WONDERLAND: New Contemporary Art from Australia at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taiwan curated by Antoanetta Ivanova, Associate Senior Curator, International Art, MOCA Taipei. 

As the title suggests the show is a survey of contemporary practionners from Australia, and accompanying the exhibition will be a 200 page colour catalogue in English and Chinese. The exhibition will go from the 10^th of February to the 8^th of April 2012. If you are interested in purchasing a catalogue email me at info@elizabethdelfs.com and I will let you know how you can do this.

You can download a free copy of the catalogue which accompanied the Revolutions exhibition at Freerange Gallery www.freerange.org.au  in Perth, Western Australia here www.elizabethdelfs.com/pdf/rev_cat.pdf

Other WONDERLAND artists are Kristy Boyle, Bindi Cole, Daniel Crooks, Anna Davern, Alex Davies, Julie Dowling, Matthew Gardiner, Matthew Gingold, Chris Henschke, George Khut, Fiona Lowry, Jasmine Targett, Jess MacNeil, Jon McCormack, Cath Robinson, Julie Ryder, Kuuki (Priscilla Bracks, Gavin Sade), Kylie Stillman, Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski, Martin Walch and Yvette Coyle.

For more information about MOCA Taipei check out their website www.mocataipei.org.tw

A good start to 2012! Now all I want is some snow in Berlin! 

CODA Studio / Foundation Housing Public Art / Preview

Over the past year I have been in the process of completing my first public art work in a team of 4 artists for a project by CODA Studio www.coda-studio.com for the Housing Foundation through the Western Australian Percent for Art Scheme. The other three Western Australian artists involved are Jennie Nayton, Olga Cironis and Penny Bovell. Each artist was invited to choose a site in which to execute their work. The multi-purpose building will be composed of commercial business on the street level with housing on the upper levels.

My contribution has now, after many months (in fact over two years!) of planning finally installed and below are a few preview shots of the installation.  The work is made from perforated aluminum by the team at C-Tech Engineering www.ctechengineering.com.au in O’Connor WA.

For more information about the project please visit http://elizabethdelfs.com/gallery_08.html

Thanks to David Johnson of CODA Studio for the images of the work installed. I’ll post some professional documentation of the work once the building has been complete in early 2012. 

Digital rendering of the work

And finally it's up!

Australian House and Garden / Top 50 Rooms / Magazine Coverage

The October issue of Australian House & Garden featured an article which was a survey of the Top 50 Rooms of the best of interior design in private homes in 2011. Page 113 featured a room by interior designer Miriam Fanning of Mim Designs for a private residence in which a work of mine features. The sculpture is located in the entry of the east Melbourne residence - below is a scan of the article. If you would like a PFD of the article please email me at info@elizabethdelfs.com

Design Installation - Mitte, Berlin

The last couple of weeks I worked on a design installation at a new Japanese restaurant in Mitte due to open in December. The installation consists of 15, 000 suspended chopsticks hanging from the ceiling creating a kinetic topography. The work is constructed by threading fishing line through a series of canvases (100cm x 100cm) on which a grid is created and the surface is pierced. Fishing line is secured on the back of the canvas with a bead. The canvas is then suspended with the surface parallel to the floor and the chopsticks are measured and tied, all by hand, creating a wave pattern that will be formed once all of the canvases have been suspended.

Below are some shots of the work in progress – I will post photos of the entire install once it has been completed. The work is by two American designers who are based in Berlin, I'll post more about them at a later date also!