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-may every living being be safe & free, developing series, 2017-ongoing
-Off the Wall, developing series, 2010-2018
-Contradictions, developing series, 2017-2018
-I've Loved You So Long, 2017
-Gold Curtain (pre-life), 2013
-Paired Gold, 2012
-may every living being be safe & free, developing series, 2017-ongoing
-Off the Wall, developing series, 2010-2018
-Contradictions, developing series, 2017-2018
-I've Loved You So Long, 2017
-Gold Curtain (pre-life), 2013
-Paired Gold, 2012
may every living being be safe & free, t-shirts, billboard, gold letters, plan, insertion in NYC, 2017-2018
Off the Wall, photographs, plans, digital drawings, 2010-2018
Initially, to begin the series, Off the Wall, I took photographs of myself performing gestures such as -listening, reflecting and pressing my body into a graffiti filled wall in a playground in Sydney where I was living at the time, in 2010. With these gestures I wanted to unite with the environment I was in and communicate private moments in a public space. Off the Wall, continues my focus on the relationship between art and architecture, public and private spaces, intimacy, and self/other, transparency, a minimal use of materials to be almost not there - and instead be a screen that light goes through and that people can see through.
My body merged with the wall through the rays of color that emanated from it. The graffiti already present on the wall created and activation and is further activated through the merging of my body and the wall. Photographic drawings and plans are being developed into large-scale screens for insertion in interior and public spaces.
The photographic screens have a filmic quality when they are hung in front of windows, since they will be made of transparent mesh fabric, silk, or transparent film. They can also act as a window treatment that will allow sunlight to shine through because of the transparent nature of the fabric used. In this way they are art and non-art.
Buckminster Fuller said, 99% of who you are is invisible and untouchable. With this is mind I make visible the desire to be open in a public space.
The photographic screens have a filmic quality when they are hung in front of windows, since they will be made of transparent mesh fabric, silk, or transparent film. They can also act as a window treatment that will allow sunlight to shine through because of the transparent nature of the fabric used. In this way they are art and non-art.
Buckminster Fuller said, 99% of who you are is invisible and untouchable. With this is mind I make visible the desire to be open in a public space.
As an artist who teaches in architecture programs I was inspired by how architects use their proposal drawings for competitions in their portfolios. Initially, I though it was odd because artists do not use a failed application to represent their work. I was curious and decided to give myself license and create plans and insert my work in various public and private sites. Instead of the plans being the result of a submission for a competition, as they are for architects. I decided to make my own briefs/plans, as artists do. Thinking through these kind of plans that may or may not be built also made it clear how important failure is in the creative process.
A drawing or plan is a commitment to an idea or vision. Yet, it may or may not be built, like the history of paper architecture, or Cedric Price, who built very little yet had a profound impact on the discipline of architecture. I see Price and drawing/planning, with this strategy, as a way to play and push my creative vision further.
A drawing or plan is a commitment to an idea or vision. Yet, it may or may not be built, like the history of paper architecture, or Cedric Price, who built very little yet had a profound impact on the discipline of architecture. I see Price and drawing/planning, with this strategy, as a way to play and push my creative vision further.
Kimberly Connerton, Off the Wall (Being Open #1), digital photograph, 2010-2017
Contradictions, screens, digital drawings, 2017-2018
The Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, said, "It is more desirable to be in a state of mind where contradictions are not resolved."
I will look at contradictory situations in this new series. In, WE, art museum design and turtles, 2017, I focus on the recently opened Louvre Abu Dhabi designed by Jean Nouvel and the turtle nests that once thrived on the site the art museum was built on. As creators, artists and architects, want to design their dream works. Yet, everything that is created has an impact. There will always be contradictions. In this case, building an art museum damaged sea life already on the brink of extinction. Thinking beyond binaries - a few open ended questions the work engages with are - What are the right decisions? Who is really deciding? Are agency and integrity possible?
I will look at contradictory situations in this new series. In, WE, art museum design and turtles, 2017, I focus on the recently opened Louvre Abu Dhabi designed by Jean Nouvel and the turtle nests that once thrived on the site the art museum was built on. As creators, artists and architects, want to design their dream works. Yet, everything that is created has an impact. There will always be contradictions. In this case, building an art museum damaged sea life already on the brink of extinction. Thinking beyond binaries - a few open ended questions the work engages with are - What are the right decisions? Who is really deciding? Are agency and integrity possible?
I've Loved You So Long, gold spray paint at Graffiti Pier, Philadelphia, 2017
I've Loved You So Long, is a guerrilla style public art work. The title is written with gold spray paint on walls and ground spaces at Graffiti Pier in Philadelphia. In this series, Untitled, 2017, I draw from titles of French films, like I've Loved You So Long, dir. Philippe Claudel, 2008, various books, and phrases that are about love.
The focus is on the atmosphere of love and obsessions and intimate relationships (personal, romantic, memories, spatial) in public and social spaces.
The surfaces of the wall and ground space were already activated from the many people who spray painted and inhabited Graffiti Pier over the course of several years.
The existing surfaces are layered over with gold spray painted words--to add a level of intimacy and warmth. The phrase, I've Loved You So Long, inserted a romantic notion to consider about love and longing. The gritty and decaying pier contradicts the phrase and also echoes the obsession present in loving someone, since at off peak times junkies come and shoot up chasing that first high. Chasing a high is like chasing the feelings of obsessional types of love.
The focus is on the atmosphere of love and obsessions and intimate relationships (personal, romantic, memories, spatial) in public and social spaces.
The surfaces of the wall and ground space were already activated from the many people who spray painted and inhabited Graffiti Pier over the course of several years.
The existing surfaces are layered over with gold spray painted words--to add a level of intimacy and warmth. The phrase, I've Loved You So Long, inserted a romantic notion to consider about love and longing. The gritty and decaying pier contradicts the phrase and also echoes the obsession present in loving someone, since at off peak times junkies come and shoot up chasing that first high. Chasing a high is like chasing the feelings of obsessional types of love.
GOLD CURTAIN (pre-life), installation, gold emergency blanket, 2013, Verge gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney
PAIRED GOLD, Art & About, City of Sydney, public art award, winning proposal, 2012, Central Business District, Sydney
Paired Gold, original concept drawing, Stephen Collier, Kimberly Connerton, & David Janson
Gold
Testing Materials
Testing Materials
(Left Image) material tests in outdoor area; showing light reflective qualities
(Right Image) closer photo of material tests. (left): imitation gold leaf (right): mylar plastic gold sheet
(Right Image) closer photo of material tests. (left): imitation gold leaf (right): mylar plastic gold sheet
More Gold
Testing Durability of Materials and Glues-applied to outdoor wall
Testing Durability of Materials and Glues-applied to outdoor wall
Day 1 Day 1 Day 1 Day 1
Thermal Blanket Thermal Blanket Imitation Gold Imitation Gold
Gold Size Adhesive PVA Glue Adhesive Gold Size Adhesive PVA Gold Adhesive
Thermal Blanket Thermal Blanket Imitation Gold Imitation Gold
Gold Size Adhesive PVA Glue Adhesive Gold Size Adhesive PVA Gold Adhesive
Day 15 Day 15 Day 15 Day 15
Thermal Blanket Thermal Blanket Imitation Gold Imitation Gold
Gold Size Adhesive PVA Adhesive Gold Size Adhesive PVA Adhesive
We choose Thermal Blanket for its less harmful effect, non-flaking solidness, and affordability
Thermal Blanket Thermal Blanket Imitation Gold Imitation Gold
Gold Size Adhesive PVA Adhesive Gold Size Adhesive PVA Adhesive
We choose Thermal Blanket for its less harmful effect, non-flaking solidness, and affordability
Why Gold?
Paired Gold Statement
The installation we propose for, Laneways 2012, titled, “Paired Gold”, will be a place of beauty to dream, rest, to regain energy and to challenge. Beauty is a motivating force in many people’s lives. We want to transform Wilmot Street* by adhering gold mylar sheeting the entire length of the walls and street. This will provide a space for people to reflect on the fleeting nature of beauty (in their own private lives as well as the public space of the street).
“Paired Gold”: Pairings are signified by the way gold leaf is both permanent (in the context of the installation) and metaphysical; the experiential brilliance of gold in a noisy urban space; the way that passersby are paired with the installation in both a physical (reflective) and metaphysical sense (of memories). The material properties of gold leaf signify our concept, and its ephemeral nature, while indicating the unique and special qualities of its origin and use in Western art. This elaborates on how easy it is to forget to remember beautiful moments in our lives.
Historically, gold leaf has been used in Western art to highlight something valuable and permanent in high art and to represent the divine. Conversely, the faux gold leaf we will use in contemporary Sydney, and the way we will install it on the architecture and urban fabric (walls and streets) instead of on a canvas or on sections of a representational mural as in the Renaissance, departs from the historical precedent of gold leaf. The gold mylar sheeting used in our installation signifies beauty, while also being subjected to weather, traffic, pollution and the rigors of urban use (graffiti, people peeling it off, weekend revelers throwing up on it etc.). The gold mylar is a cheap material that is not precious. The public will damage it by walking and driving over it. In this sense, our concept of “Paired Gold” matches the faux gold that we will use to construct the installation, in that it points to something that is both imperfect and beautiful.
Imperfectness and impermanence are important in “Paired Gold” and are similar to the Japanese Zen principle of wabi sabi: a cosmic world view that seeks beauty in imperfection. The term suggests qualities of “impermanence, humility, asymmetry and imperfection. These principles are diametrically opposed to those of their western counterparts, whose values
are rooted in a Hellenic worldview that values permanence, grandeur, symmetry and perfection.” Openness to one’s own experiences of beauty and the acceptance concur with the principles of wabi sabi. Humility lines the perceptual world and will imbue the atmosphere in “Paired Gold”. In the same way, the sheets of gold leaf that face the walls and the street will produce a physical and emotive space to reflect on beauty.
Text by Kimberly Connerton & Stephen Collier
The installation we propose for, Laneways 2012, titled, “Paired Gold”, will be a place of beauty to dream, rest, to regain energy and to challenge. Beauty is a motivating force in many people’s lives. We want to transform Wilmot Street* by adhering gold mylar sheeting the entire length of the walls and street. This will provide a space for people to reflect on the fleeting nature of beauty (in their own private lives as well as the public space of the street).
“Paired Gold”: Pairings are signified by the way gold leaf is both permanent (in the context of the installation) and metaphysical; the experiential brilliance of gold in a noisy urban space; the way that passersby are paired with the installation in both a physical (reflective) and metaphysical sense (of memories). The material properties of gold leaf signify our concept, and its ephemeral nature, while indicating the unique and special qualities of its origin and use in Western art. This elaborates on how easy it is to forget to remember beautiful moments in our lives.
Historically, gold leaf has been used in Western art to highlight something valuable and permanent in high art and to represent the divine. Conversely, the faux gold leaf we will use in contemporary Sydney, and the way we will install it on the architecture and urban fabric (walls and streets) instead of on a canvas or on sections of a representational mural as in the Renaissance, departs from the historical precedent of gold leaf. The gold mylar sheeting used in our installation signifies beauty, while also being subjected to weather, traffic, pollution and the rigors of urban use (graffiti, people peeling it off, weekend revelers throwing up on it etc.). The gold mylar is a cheap material that is not precious. The public will damage it by walking and driving over it. In this sense, our concept of “Paired Gold” matches the faux gold that we will use to construct the installation, in that it points to something that is both imperfect and beautiful.
Imperfectness and impermanence are important in “Paired Gold” and are similar to the Japanese Zen principle of wabi sabi: a cosmic world view that seeks beauty in imperfection. The term suggests qualities of “impermanence, humility, asymmetry and imperfection. These principles are diametrically opposed to those of their western counterparts, whose values
are rooted in a Hellenic worldview that values permanence, grandeur, symmetry and perfection.” Openness to one’s own experiences of beauty and the acceptance concur with the principles of wabi sabi. Humility lines the perceptual world and will imbue the atmosphere in “Paired Gold”. In the same way, the sheets of gold leaf that face the walls and the street will produce a physical and emotive space to reflect on beauty.
Text by Kimberly Connerton & Stephen Collier
Copyright Kimberly Connerton 2015-2021