Sculpture by the Sea 2011

I went to see Sculpture by the sea at Bondi last week (in the rain!) and was blown away by “Toads on Tour” by Hannah Kidd.

I honestly thought that it would get the people’s choice prize it was attracting so much attention. Well, I voted for it but it didn’t so I thought I would post the images I took of it as a tribute.

Great aren’t they!

I’m also really taken with the technique, using scrap metal riveted together not least because, in sculptural terms, it is relatively cheap.

Although I love working with clay, I have always wanted to be able to cast some of my stuff in metal but the cost, even for “cold casting” is just prohibitive so maybe this would be the way to go.

Another sculpture, “Two dogs in a house on a boat in the water”, by Daniel Clemmett, also used a similar technique to achieve quite a large sculpture with great success and greater size is also something I would like to achieve.

Not sure what happened to the dogs thoughJ

Proposal for HIDDEN 2011

This picture is of the work that I proposed for HIDDEN, the annual sculpture exhibition that is held in Rookwood cemetery. This year it was to be situated amongst the graves in a very old part of the cemetery.

The sculpture that I proposed was intended to be interpreted on more than one level, the central element being a headstone in wood bearing the epitaph, R.I.P., not however as in “Requiescat In Pace” or “Rest In Peace” but rather “Rabbit In Peace” surrounded by ceramic rabbits,  the meaning being that rabbits are at peace in Rookwood, not in the sense of being deceased but rather that Rookwood represents a beautiful peaceful haven for all sorts of wildlife in the middle of urban Sydney.

The headstone has at its base a reclining rabbit reminiscent of the reclining effigies seen in churches from medieval times but lying on the grass thus introducing an element of ambiguity.  Is the rabbit simply resting?

Surrounding the headstone, climbing it, leaning on it, peering over and around it, will be other rabbits, unquestionably “alive”. Additional rabbits will be frolicking in the grass surrounding the headstone thus embracing the viewer’s space as a celebration of the continuation of life. The idea was that the spectators would be free the rearrange the rabbits adding a kinetic element to the whole sculpture

 Unfortunately my proposal was not accepted but I still liked the idea and completed it anyway :)

My take on hung parliament!

Get it?

Formatted my blog - finally!

 Well I finally managed to apply a template to change my blog format from totally boring to a bit more colourful if not exactly very unique! It would have helped a lot if the help information on blogger.com had been up to date. I spent ages looking for the (non existent) "template" and "layout" tabs. Eventually found out that they have been replaced by "Design"! Not a good start:(

If it takes me this long to add a stock standard template, I've got a feeling that customising my own design is going to prove a bit of a challenge. I thought this blogging was meant to be an idiot proof method of easily updating web content. I could have redesigned half of my web page by now. 

Maybe I should take back that last remark. I just updated my home page, www.ronasissons.com, to add a link to my blog and it just wouldn’t appear. Finally figured out that Chrome, the browser that I have only recently started using (because IE kept crashing on me), doesn’t easily refresh frames. Sigh! 

Have had enough of computers for one day!

My very own blog

I've decided that it's time I got to grips with this blogging thing:) It seems a really good way to communicate and receive feed back... so here goes......................!