poster - melbourne art fair 2010

An update on the Jon Campbell work featured here in an earlier post. The Melbourne Art Fair poster features this work in progress image of the studio, that's Jon in the foreground moving a ladder.

It's great to see an action shot and the fold up format suits Jon's work. I'll try to get a stack to give away from the stores.

spacecraft film - Gertrude Street Projection Festival

Gertrude Street Projection Festival opens next friday and runs until the 18th of July.

As part of the festival we've made a short looped film sequence for the window of our Gertrude Street store.

Looks a bit dry from these two stills but there is a sort of punchline, which I guess you'll have to wait for. We'll be around at the store on Friday night, drop in if you are on the street. If it's as cold as last night that might be a good idea.

last day of printing wood

Today was the last day of printing the wood blocks, so I guess that means we are just about ready to release Artplay 3D. The boxes come tomorrow, so we're ahead of schedule, which is unusual for our product development, well done Marina !

The top image is Adam Stewart, the woodwork part of The Aesthetics of Saving project. I decided today that our State of Design exhibition opening party will be on Thursday 15th July.

details to follow.

We're planning to make the back room at the Malvern Road store into an events space, So I'll be and programming regular exhibitions from the studio and friends.

I think it might be a good idea to make the space available for other work, particularly from out of town. So if anyone is looking for a space and a billboard and has an interesting idea we would be happy to have a look.

printing a new set of soft cube panels

Hold up with the sections cut from old doors for the Artplay 3D production. Anyway, gave us a chance to start work on a new set of panels for a set of soft cubes. Aiming to have them ready for the Design Market, think that's Saturday 11th of July.

This will also be the first time anyone outside the studio has seen the new print of Inspector West from a 1963 John Creasey book cover, ( for the technical buffs, just printed the C and M left out the Y & K ).

artplay 3D - the wait is over !

Today marks the first day of production for the much anticipated artplay 3D. The fine tuning and production planning is over, the wood arrived early cut to size. The old paint colours from the doors were looking so good I almost didn't want to print on it.

Then Marina set up the Le Corbusier screens and started printing and everyone stood around watching the first few pieces come off. Then the sample box arrived, thanks James McAlister , for the contacts. Then Alvin finished the artwork for the hot stamp, then the panels John Blamey cut from the flooring of the recently demolished Lonsdale House arrived. Tom and Aymon are continuing the printing this evening. Can't wait to back to work tomorrow.

I know you always like the last thing you made, but...

Yuendumu artists visit

This visit marked an important milestone for our MCG Fellowship. Kate Daw and I were delighted to welcome artist and teacher's Cecily Granites and Elsie Granites down from Yuendumu. Chantelle Robertson and Nikitta Granites also came down courtesy of the excellent Mt. Theo project.

Cecily and Elsie were in town to discuss two ambitious temporary artworks planned for 2011.

Basil Sellers came through from Sydney to meet them and the National Sports Museum hosted a group of project supporters and friends of Cecily and Elsie at the MCG. It was a bit wet for free flowing footy and Liam Jurrah was still injured but great company - Chris McCauliffe, Cameron Schwab, Jon Campbell, Rupert Betheras, Ruth Bain, Simon Maidment, Bruce and Ria McKinnon...

The next stage is a trip to Yuendumu in August when Kate and I will be joined by MCG groundsman Tony Gordon and National Sports Museum curator Helen Walpole. Very excited !

State of Design project

First full studio day working on the State of Design project. We've been collecting abandoned furniture for a while as the starting point for an exhibition project.

So, today an impressive team assembled at the studio to start work. Must admit I was relieved when the ideas came easily and people just naturally teamed up. Then things happened like magic, like they always do. Don't know why I was worrying.

I'll post images as the transformations develop. Exhibition opens on the 14th of July.

Marina Breit, Clara Gladstone, Jonathan Keely, Jeannette Mayne, Adam Stewart and me.

Oh, we're running a practical studio workshop, ( also part of State of Design ) on Sat 17th of July. If you're interested in working at spacecraft studio for a day with amazing artisans, turning abandoned furniture into heirlooms contact the Hawksburn store on 03 9530 2530 and they'll sign you up. More info about the project on the State of Design website.

Full colour cushions.

After looking through some of our full colour screens in the studio we got quite excited about the possibility of these photographic cushions, made using the beautifully old school cyan, magenta and yellow process colours. The scenes came from some classic german photographic mags from the 1960's that Stewart brought out from his colossal collection.

Just about to be sent off to the cutters...

Washed out Fashion Shoot.

In April the studio was in the way of that big hail storm. We thought the studio had come through pretty much unscathed, but every week we find something that’s been damaged.

Today we found a box of damp photographs from an early fashion shoot. They wouldn’t be any good if you’d cooked this up with photoshop. I think Pierre Toussaint came down from Sydney to take the original photographs.

MCG residency.

Many of you will know that the Peter Norman project led on to Kate Daw and I becoming the inaugural recipients of the Basil Sellers Fellowship late last year.

That gave us an opportunity to work at the MCG based at the National Sports Museum. Later this week we hit an important milestone when two artists Elsie and Cecily Granites and two young mentorees come down from Yuendumu as our guests to discuss an ambitious project for two large scale temporary artworks. They’re representing Warlukurlangu Arts Centre and the Mt Theo project.

National Sports Museum will host the artists and a group of key project supporters at the Demons v Carlton match this Saturday. Can’t wait !

Jon Campbell at the Studio.

We had the pleasure of working with the great Jon Campbell for three days. As you can see, a fairly productive time. We’re big fans of Jon Campbell at spacecraft, been hoping we’d get a chance to do something like this for a while.

Jon and I had high hopes for what might be achievable, a bit relieved the results lived up to our high expectations.

Brook Andrew at the Studio.

Great to have Brook Andrew back in the studio.

We work with artists to test and extend ourselves and Brook Andrew projects certainly bring out the best in us technically. Clara and Marina embraced the new challenges, another significant body of work - looked amazing in the studio.

Hoping there will be an opportunity for people to see the work in Melbourne. Jan Minchin / Tolarno Gallery has taken the work straight to the Hong Kong International Artfair, I think today may be the last day.

Civic Twilight End.

Some of you will know about this public project which Kate Daw and I have been working on. Simon Maidment at Satellite commissioned the work for The Goods Shed North an historic building in Docklands developed by Equiset.

Our concept is an audio work, adding the sound of a bell to the audioscape in Docklands. Been working with Geoffrey Barton and Kai Chen at Lovell Chen on the development of a tower to house the bell. Just received Vic Urban approval for the tower design.

Will keep you posted.

Beginning a Studio Blog.

Well here we go! Decided to start by posting quite a few projects over the next couple of days. That should get us up to speed with what's happening at the studio. Then just the one highlight from each day.

The month of May saw the studio busy with art projects; Civil Twilight End reached an important milestone, Jon Campbell and Brook Andrew in the studio for major projects, and the MCG residency moves up a gear.