Rachelle's travels

ARMENIA

2011-05-08T15:41:00.001+02:00

Leaving for Yerevan on Tuesday May 10. Time to revamp the blog!

ELSEWHERE

2009-07-27T00:41:00.002+02:00

From July 23 - Aug 18 2009 I'm an artist in residence at ELSEWHERE in Greensboro, North Carolina. The ELSEWHERE folks are really big on the blog thing and have set me up a separate one for use during the residency, so for the next few weeks - check out this other one... http://rachelleviaderknowles.vox.com

Cardiff

2009-05-25T11:54:00.000+02:00

Home for a few days to do laundry, re-group and catch up on some work things.

Budapest

2009-05-21T11:03:00.003+02:00

Today:

So fun. We started with a steep uphill ride on a cog railway... where we joined 'the Children's Railway', a training school for kids to learn on-the-job skills. Its a real railway, run by kids, that runs through the Buda Hills. It is magical and damn funny. Lots of uniforms and saluting... After that, a hike up to the highest lookout point over Budapest and stunning views for miles around. An empty chair-lift took us down, down down, then we zigzagged our way across Buda to the Bela Bartok house just in time for a guided tour. Pictured here is his quite study and if you look closely at his portrait you can see two bullet holes...

We ended the day relaxing in thermal waters... then out for a pizza. A truly memorable, fantastic day.

Yesterday:

Morning - shopping for food at the Central Market. A feast for all the senses.

Afternoon - we went to the Gellert baths and relaxed in the healing waters...

Evening - big home cooked meal, washed down with fine Hungarian wine and concluded with Unicum! (And caught up with downloads of TV shows, Corrie and Flashpoint...)

Vienna

2009-05-17T10:53:00.003+02:00

After two fabulous, intense weeks at the Gottweig Monastery, a few well deserved R + R days in Vienna! Saw the Rachel Whiteread Jewish Memorial. Went to the Nam June Paik show at the MUMOK yesterday, followed by a peppy little show called The Porn Identity at the Kunsthalle. Not every day you get to see full-on porn in a gallery and from the looks of the gallery goers (a higher than usual percentage of shifty looking unkempt older men...) the gallery did a great job of reaching new audiences! As well as objects and installations, there were lots of screens showing films including Richard Kern's Fingered, one of my personal favourites... and a lovely 'film intervention' piece by Martin Arnold. And at the other end of the spectrum we have Ron Jeremy, 'the hardest working guy in showbiz', looking a bit orange, a bit hairy and a bit greasy, having sex with scarily realistic, corpse-like, rubber sex dolls. Yumm. BTW, in the googling i did to find out exactly what material these hyper realistic dolls are made of (rubber? silicone?) I found a site with tips for homemade sex toys... Tip one includes melons and microwaves... eeew.

Austria....

2009-05-06T12:34:00.001+02:00

Writing this from Gottweig Monastery, back in Austria for the final module of the Media Art Histories MA programme. Todays lecture is by curator Nat Muller.

The Louvre

2009-03-13T13:21:00.004+01:00

Two things I did not know about the Louvre.

Firstly, its build on the site of a medieval castle, the foundations of which were excavated when they built the glass pyramid. I'm a fan of the glass pyramid btw, it is holding up rather nicely, it still looks fresh and exciting and at night it glows like a gem.

Secondly, there are several contemporary projects around the place, including currently an installation of pieces by Anselm Keifer.

Walls

2009-03-12T16:42:00.004+01:00

My initial obsession in Paris was cakes. Eat a different one every day and try like hell to walk it off. Now instead I seem to be obsessed with the walls, the delicate colours of the lime stone, the visual consistency of the city. I am teetering on the brink of taking alot of seriously boring photographs of Paris.... here are a few of my current faves, of course I love them! What a minimalist I have become... The most perceptive of you will see in these photographs the special glow of early spring light. I even saw blossom yesterday. Patrick, not sure if walls can ward off - 30 C winter blah, but hope these are helping!

Old bones

2009-03-12T16:21:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I went to the Natural History Museum and it was totally fab. I forget just how happy being in a room full of wood, metal, glass and bones can make me feel. I'm an installation artist at heart, I'm inspired by spaces, and these sort of spaces make me tingle. In my mind, the best type of NHM is slightly shabby, maybe even a bit dusty, big and grand, wore bare stairs. Flecking paint is a bonus. This one in Paris is a beauty, all skeletons and gross pinky grey things in jars. A cabinet of livers, a cabinet of colons and best of all, a cabinet of deformed things. In the central hall, all the animal skeleton face in the same direction, sizing you up as you enter the space. Its like a crazy Noah Ark, all these miscellaneous species forced to get along, side by side, one in front of the other, all hues of milky pale yellows like Paris its self.

Daniel Buren project at the Picasso Museum

2009-03-06T11:49:00.005+01:00

Site-specific installation 'La Coupure'. Given the grandness of this huge, mirrored, optical gesture, its hard to 'see'. The building is basically sliced through by black and mirror panels....

VIDES

2009-03-05T00:26:00.004+01:00

On Monday I had a most fun day out with artists Prayas Abhinav and Renee Ridgway. After lunch in a Vietnamese place, we headed to the Pompidou centre to see the new 'void' show, a retrospective of artists projects that have involved showing empty spaces.... Who knew a show with nothing in it could generate such a lively afternoon! If you know anyone who really despises conceptual art, take them to this show!

104

2009-03-05T00:05:00.004+01:00

On Sunday I went to the arts complex '104' to check out the activities there and see a film of Georges Perec's short novel 'A Man Asleep'. 104 is way up in the north east of Paris, a series of renovated old buildings turned into studios, performance spaces, screening spaces etc. Formally a funeral parlour, the space is stunningly impressive and the whole place is a thriving hub of activities at the weekends when the doors are open to the public. I went to see a film but managed to also bumble firstly into a large scale gardening installation and secondly into a highly energetic, kooky performance piece. The film was wonderful and being Paris very well attended and followed by an intense and lively discussion, hosted by a local film magazine.

http://www.104.fr

pictures!

2009-02-10T13:15:00.003+01:00

Seems like my ability to post pictures has returned! So to start with, a few images for orientation... where I sleep and the noisy view from my window... plus a full moon Tour Eiffel.

Beautiful Orly airport

2009-02-10T09:54:00.002+01:00

storm

2009-02-10T09:51:00.001+01:00

Howling winds last night and all the airports were closed.... its still grey and gusty outside. Off to French class...

Krakow, Berlin

2009-02-02T11:26:00.001+01:00

Writing this from Tegel Airport in Berlin, en-route back to Paris. Spent a few days in Krakow, the took a night train to Berlin for Transmediale. My head is finally filling up with images of new projects....

MORE PARIS~!

2009-01-13T14:23:00.001+01:00

For reasons unknown, I don't seem to be able to upload images to this blog. At first, it seemed that the problem was that the internet service I have here did not allow uploads over a certain size... I have now subscribed to a different service but it does not seemed to have fixed the problem. I try to upload images, but the 'uploading routine' never comes to a conclusion. Any suggestions welcome!

Problems aside, things are great. Loving getting to know Paris. Have been on some long long walks and had the two other artists here from Canada over for dinner last night. I am taking french classes twice a week and am slowly getting to know other artists and musicians in the building. My studio is a bit noisy, its facing a main road, but the plus side is that there is lots of life to watch right outside my window.

PARIS!

2009-01-07T13:48:00.000+01:00

Arrived last night by Eurostar from London. Its damn cold here! I know, compared to Regina its small potatoes but its a wet cold here and its biting. Spent the evening and this morning settling in, bought some basic groceries, moved the furniture around, unpacked. I'm sat at my new desk looking out the window at the Seine... hows that for digs. Off out to explore a bit...

New Years Day walk

2009-01-03T23:04:00.001+01:00

Started 2009 with a bracing walk in Merthyr Mawr! Fascinating landscape.... sand-dunes that sit about 2 miles inland. It was a damn cold day but a real delight. Six adults, two dogs, one kid. I like this tradition of long walks on New Years day... last year we hiked around Caerphilly Mountain so it was great to do something like that again this year.

Tropea

2009-01-02T16:08:00.000+01:00

After Naples, we took the train south to the small town of Tropea, perched on a cliff in the Calabria region of southern Italy. We stayed in an cave-like apartment in a former convent, with beautiful balconies overlooking the sea and the Aeolian Islands. Needless to say, we ate some stunning food and drank a whole lot of Limoncello... I have fallen in love with capers!

NAPLES

2008-12-23T23:12:00.000+01:00

Step two of the Italy adventure consisted of two main ingredients: pizza and Pompeii.

ROME

2008-12-23T23:00:00.000+01:00

Stage one in the Italy adventure was a night train from Munich to Rome then a blur of a day rushing from site to site to site. Beautiful. Loved it. Lots of rain, thunder, lightening, but we narrowly avoided the flooding. Bling old and new, fountains everywhere, fabulous creamy risotto...

Italy to Wales

2008-12-20T11:01:00.000+01:00

Hello from Lamezia Airport in the south of Italy! Once to get to Wales I will do a FULL update! Internet access has been non-existant in the small town of Tropea where I have been living for the last week... but just as a taster, here is a picture of the island of Stromboli as seen from the beach...

ZKM

2008-12-08T09:09:00.000+01:00

After a mildly harrowing night train ride from Vienna to Karlsruhe, we spent 3 days at ZKM centre for media art which is housed in an old ammunitions factory. This was my first visit to ZKM having heard about it for years and I was damn impressed... the scale both physically and the amount of exhibitions, art works and catalogues they generate is incredible... I saw three shows, Medium Religion, YOU_ser and Bit all of which were very interesting. We had a tour of Bit with curator Darko Fritz, just a stunning show. I'm posting 3 images: the robot bible-writer is from Medium Religion (beautiful, so delicate), the big light wall is an installation in the ZKM main foyer by Rosalie, and an image from ZKM from the outside. The glass cube building contains studios for the Music and Acoustics department....

heaven

2008-12-08T08:54:00.000+01:00

Finally, bed, coffee and wireless, my idea of ....... The last few days have been a busy blur of traveling of being programed round the clock, hence the silence. So will try and catch up. First... THE LIGHT LAB. We took a visit to this very cool space at the Department of Building and Environment at Danube University. The lab is a dome made of lights that can be controlled to represent the exact lighting conditions of any time of year, any time of year, bright or overcast - where you can test what the interior lighting will be of a building. You make a scale model of your proposed building, put it in the middle of the dome, adjust the settings and hey presto. Aside from its general usefulness as a tool, for an installation artist its just a very interesting and unusual space!

Krems: things on buildings and a nice door

2008-11-30T12:47:00.000+01:00

Krems

2008-11-29T16:33:00.000+01:00

Todays's lecture with Slavko Kacunko was at the Krem's campus so we took the train from Furth Palt to Krems, and walked through the town to get to campus.

Print collection at Gottweig

2008-11-28T11:15:00.000+01:00

The monastery has Austria's largest private collection of historical graphical art. The collection has over 20,000 pieces and dates back to the first reported acquisition in 1621. A digitization project is underway and many pieces are now available for view in an online database - and can also be ordered as beautiful reproduction prints! Get your orders in for Christmas!

University of the Danube, Austria

2008-11-27T12:18:00.000+01:00

I'm here in Austria for my third module in the Media Arts Histories program which runs between two locations: the main University campus in Krems and the Gottweig Monastery in Furth. Yesterday and today we have lectures with Erkki Huhtamo from UCLA on a variety of topics related to media archeology. Lectures at the monastery involve a 30 minute hike!

2008-11-21T22:32:00.000+01:00

Safely arrived in Cardiff, Wales. In the bosom of family.

2008-11-21T01:28:00.000+01:00

traveling again...

2008-11-21T01:25:00.000+01:00

After 6 days in Regina I am on my way again, this time to the UK for 2 days and then on to Austria for 2 weeks.... Currently in Calgary airport.

2008-11-12T15:18:00.001+01:00

Apologies for the total lack of post over the last two weeks, I have been consumed with art making... Check out my show at:

http://uregina.ca/rvk/residencia_corazon.html

Dinner last night - Restaurant Edgargo

2008-10-26T22:28:00.000+01:00

An indescribable La Plata institution... and yes, those are indeed shrunken heads.

The Zoo

2008-10-26T16:38:00.000+01:00

Yes, Zoo's are bad but unfortunately they remain a guilty pleasure. I actually set out to visit the Le Corbusier house (one of only 2 in the Americas) but it was closed and the Zoo was near by so... I did meet a bunch of free animals wandering around, all of who were persistently friendly and kept following me. The duck and the capabara (?) I had to really shake. Other than these new pals, and given the original plan for the afternoon, I was more enamored with the zoo architecture than their inhabitants. The condor cage is a HUGE metal structure that is basically an oversized bird-cage, really striking as a piece of sculpture. But yes, some of the animals seemed utterly depressed and I couldn't even bare to look at the tiger.

some buildings...

2008-10-24T19:02:00.001+02:00

Football

2008-10-22T18:19:00.000+02:00

Estudiantes de La Plata won 2-0! Incredible stadium, overwhelming soundscape, electric atmosphere. Loved it!

Residencia Corazon

2008-10-21T19:28:00.001+02:00

Storm and Festi Freak

2008-10-21T18:41:00.000+02:00

I was woken up this morning by the most almighty thunderstorm, torrential rain, gallery flooded. Quite the drama. 6 hours later and its still raining, still rumbling... I'm staying in bed, reading Pablo Neruda poems.

I watched two screenings at the Festi Freak Festival last night, the first an excellent experimental documentary by Andres Denegri called Lujan that I found extremely engaging, and the second a series of animated shorts, of which my favourite was El Empleo by Santiago Graso.

Museum of Dolls

2008-10-20T22:50:00.001+02:00

random things I have eaten lately

2008-10-20T22:35:00.000+02:00

La Republica de los Ninos

2008-10-20T21:56:00.000+02:00

Pretty up there in terms of full on weird places I have visited, this kids theme park is said to have been one of the inspirations for Disneyland. Started in 1949 and opened in 1951, its a large park with both 'urban' and 'rural' areas, a lake, sports areas, a church etc and a rather wonderful Museum of Dolls. Its a 14 peso cab ride from La Plata.

Festi Freak

2008-10-19T19:36:00.000+02:00

The international independent film festival is now underway in La Plata. Its big and expansive and there is no end of screenings. Check out the website: http://festifreak.com.ar

Its all happening at the main cultural centre downtown, a beautiful old former train station that houses a host of cultural organizations, community spaces, galleries and a municipal cinema etc.

more graffiti and murals...

2008-10-18T19:24:00.000+02:00

I'm still totally blown away by the stenciling and murals, I'm trying to document all the ones I come across - here are some current favourites, but there are plenty more to come... I'm thinking there will be an element of stenciling in the show I am going to make but still have to figure out exactly how they do it. There was mention of X-Ray film, so I am certainly missing something...

Visit to the Faculty of Fine Arts

2008-10-18T19:01:00.000+02:00

We had a really interesting tour around the Ceramics area at the Faculty of Fine Arts here in La Plata. Class sizes are huge - sometimes up to 70 students in a studio class, but Prof's team teach so the ratio of teacher to student is about the same as in Canada. Education is free and anyone can take classes in Fine Arts so people just do not get turned away. We had a great chat about all sorts of aspects of teaching and the kind of works that the students make. After the introductory technique class, students all work on self-directed projects, primarily making sculptural pieces as galleries will show ceramic work if its 'sculpture' but not if its craft, ie. functional ware.

Highlight - some seriously beautiful foot-powered throwing wheels...

Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires

2008-10-13T18:50:00.000+02:00

Back from a weekend in Buenos Aires, walking around, getting to know the city. Its huge. The bus from La Plata costs 7 pesos and takes about an hour. Spent a delightful hour in the Recoleta cemetery...

I took the elevator up the tower of Jesus

2008-10-10T23:29:00.000+02:00

Fardou (the other artist resident here) and I visited the Cathedral today, the largest cathedral in Argentina. It has two towers: the tower of Jesus and the tower of Mary. The tower of Jesus has an elevator to the top (yep). (Its the one on the left in the picture.) Good views all round but particularly good views of the ducks on the tower of Mary... apparently ducks are more Argentine than gargoyles...

more walking around

2008-10-10T15:13:00.000+02:00

More walking around. Walk walk walk... did a tour of the north-east section of the city, residential and pretty. Went to two more of the big plazas. Of particular note are the variety of rubbish containers that people have outside their houses... all a bit different, very sculptural. I noticed several cars with yellow plastic bottles on top... I later learnt this means the car is for sale! On the subject of cars, I have been seeing alot of old Fiats, (500? 600? Seat?) and remembering how much I love this car - we had one when I was a kid and its the car my mum passed her driving test in when pregnant with me...

The pond is in Parque Saavedra, the water looked pretty skanky but kids were swimming in it... from there I turned into Calle 12 where the 'fancy' shops are... and if I get the urge to buy a fridge, this is where I will buy it....

day one

2008-10-09T17:02:00.000+02:00

Spent the day walking around, getting to know the city and the basics - grocery store etc. Two immediate first impressions: the amount of political graffiti on the streets is overwhelming and there are big stray dogs everywhere.

Opening at Pisouno Artediseno

2008-10-09T15:56:00.000+02:00

Thursday night we went to an opening at a really beautiful commercial gallery of a show by ceramic artist Veronica Dillon.

http://www.pisounoarte.com.ar

Veronica teaches ceramics at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University here and I'm hoping to get a tour around the faculty next week.

The gallerist is also a jeweler and, of course, I came away with a beautiful new ring...

Juan Pablo and Rodrigo, my hosts at Residencia Corazon in La Plata Argentina

2008-10-08T15:10:00.000+02:00