Adiafa/Diyafa: Gifts of Exchange

Monday, October 31, 2011

Collaboration as Exchange workshop Saturday 5 November

Detail of process wall

Join us for our workshop next Saturday 5 November!

Gifts of Exchange sewing workshop will be held at the Cross Art Projects, 8 Llankelly Pl, Kings Cross. Join contemporary artists Nicole Barakat and Paula do Prado for a hands-on workshop with fabric, paper, stitching and handcutting, inspired by works in the current exhibition Adiafa/Diyafa: The Gifts of Exchange and Arabic and Latin American cultural traditions. Participants will take home their unique handmade gift and gain valuable insights into methods used by contemporary artist for collaborative projects.

Materials and tools will be provided but you are encouraged to bring in the following: a basic sewing kit, any gorgeous fabric scraps you are happy to donate for use in the workshop, and an object – such as a souvenir from your travels – to be used as a reference/inspiration in the workshop.
The workshop is limited to a maximum of 10-15 participants, so get in early as bookings are essential. Workshop runs from 3-5pm. Fee: $20, $15 (concession). Enquiries/bookings: info@crossart.com.au or 9357 2058.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Process

“Art comes from not knowing, from allowing a deeper truth to come forth. Touching, sensing, playing with what arises as a relationship unfolds. Art is the witness, the testimony of this exchange” Cecilia Vicuña

As part of our exhibition we have installed a 'process wall' including collected objects, gifts, materials, photographs, samples and experiments. It is not often that as part of an an exhibition we are able to see some of the process behind the resolved or finished artwork. Nicole and I approached the process wall as another collaborative aspect of our project. To install the wall, we first laid out a selection of the objects that had been informing our work and samples that had we had made along the way. We installed in silence, each taking turns to add an item to the wall. Our objects and samples hanging side by side, blurring the line between author and owner. Not all the items we laid out made it onto the process wall. We had decided to use tape and blu tack to attach the items to the wall before deciding on final positioning, but once we had concluded the install it seemed the masking tape should stay. The temporary and spontaneous nature of the process wall was something we wanted to celebrate, that it was not fixed or overly conceptualised - it was representative of what we had been doing all along throughout making the work for the exhibition, sensing and playing.

Exhibition now open!

Installation view

Our exhibition officially opened at Cross Art Projects on October 15th. Thank you to all those who came to our artist talk and all those who have since visited the gallery. The exhibition continues to 12 November and we are giving a workshop next Saturday 5th November (post on this soon).

Thanks to Fleur MacDonald for uploading a video of our exhibition opening.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

For the love of language

Paula do Prado, Scan of Adiafa/Diyafa Journal, 2011

One of the initial ideas for this project came from an interest in the way language contains evidence of cultural shifts whether through colonisation or popular culture. Because of my family heritage I was interested in the use of Castellano in Uruguay and was surprised to learn that many of the Spanish words used today are derived from Classic Arabic language. Throughout the process of developing work for the exhibition I have been making various lists of words. At the beginning I had focussed on common words between Arabic and Spanish. More recently I began to list words associated with the experience of borders and their crossing: trespass, force, occupy, frontier, protection, reunion, absence and gratitude.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Save the date: 15 October 2011

It's confirmed! Our exhibition Gifts of Exchange will open on Saturday the 15th of October 2011 at 3pm. The exhibition is at Cross Art Projects in Kings Cross.

Nicole and I had a mock install today. It's been just under 12 months of preparation for this exhibition and we are very excited by how the work has progressed.