The Exchange Blog

Good Medicine: Christine Imlay-McLean

christineimlay — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:57:11 +0000

I guess it is kind of telling that I have posted all my A-F’s on the same day – right at the project’s end…

Great to have it done and dusted though.

Double brooch connected by cords can be inverted and worn as a necklace.

Materials: Plastic, 925 silver, fabric, copper, paint, capsule, cotton thread, mesh

GOOD MEDICINE

End-Point Statement: Christine Imlay-McLean

christineimlay — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:06:31 +0000

‘PERSEVERANCE BRINGS A SMILE IN THE END’.

This project with all it’s potential for fun and hilarity has been a real struggle for moi! Several attempts at quirky interpretation fell off the wagon and had me almost reaching for the happy pills. True.

Whats more, the smiley face began to haunt me with a twisted vengeance and began to pop up all over my visual diary grinning benignly on almost every page! Aaaaargh!!!

One day, by my hands but not of my own volition, I found myself cutting out a smiley face from 925 silver. I was somewhat disgusted at the blatant waste of precious material but now I was committed and in fact had just created a brooch back of sorts…

My piece evolved using deconstructed flora, reconstructed with the addition of plastic and silver which I reticulated to recreate the texture of real petals. The brooch became two, connected by lengths of plastic tube and when pinned to a form, the smiley was in evidence with garish grin, yet again!

More haunting...

The final result definitely had me grinning – loving the plastic and living the smile!

Thank you Helen and thank you Yung-huei.

Mid-point Statement: Christine Imlay-McLean

christineimlay — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:10:20 +0000

I am struggling to find meaning in the phrase ‘Smile for Life’ right now.

I keep thinking of those gender-specific ads for a certain type of medication with the catchphrase ‘Sex for Life’!

The plastic bits aren’t doing it for me either at the moment. I was all set to use them – even drilled a hole in one to mount/set something into but all the creative flow has departed from my address. No series of plastic yellow smiles I’m afraid. I need to look at something pretty – YES, PRETTY!

Beginning statement: Christine Imlay-McLean

christineimlay — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:38:34 +0000

It is infinitely intriguing how the combining of two entities can create in the mind of the recipient, something potentially so far removed from the original meanings of each individual entity…

For instance I take my exchange material and add to it my text and I am instantly confronted with PLASTIC YELLOW SMILES!

For some reason…

Material to Christine Imlay-McLean from Yung-huei Chao

christineimlay — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:22:24 +0000

Plastic - FANTASTIC!

What are they? I really have no idea.

How do I feel about plastic right now?

There are 6 of them – a potential brooch series…?

Text from Helen Mok to Christine Imlay-McLean

christineimlay — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:08:39 +0000

End Statement: Jewellery Has Become Secularized

rottenrui — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:18:50 +0000

A piece of material travelled all the way from where my idol Lisa Walker lives, New Zealand to Australia, Sydney College of Arts.

I saw a zip lock bag with my name misspelt sitting amongst my accumulated junk. When I picked it up to see what I have received, I saw straight away what it was.

It was a plastic label from a fashion retail store.

And then laughed at the hypocrisy of receiving this from a jeweller.

But it all came together with the text that I received which was:

Fortify or Disintegrate?

Contort or unravel?

Radiate or Mute?

This text was always lingering inside my head and came out cleanly when I asked my self:

Handmade or Machine made?

I thought it might be interesting to make a piece of jewellery that sits in the ambiguous realm of not being able to be to classify it handmade or machine made. In other words, I wanted to investigate the concept of ‘what makes something genuine?’

Jewellery today, sold at fashion retail stores doesn’t care about the longevity of the jewellery. It targets consumers who are looking for cheap alternative to match their winter outfit. The title of this work Jewellery Has Become Secularized comes from Roland Barthes’s “The Language of Fashion”. Barthes addresses the shift in values in society where jewellery we see today no longer made from material found in earth’s soil but imitations of precious metal and gemstones. The secularization of jewellery has visibly affected the very substance of jewellery. However I don’t think this is a bad thing, since it signifies that jewellery has become democratic. No longer is jewellery for the rich.

The final piece was in reference to the first shock I got from the material I received from Whitieria. And I am proud to say I am a jeweller, who shamelessly used brought jewellery in hypocritical way. This project changed my perspective on material, rather than pushing the boundaries of the actual material I looked at jewellery on the rack as a material similar to Duchamp readymade.

Is it the end or just the beginning?

sungibson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:04:18 +0000

(front) Pearl Plan Brooch-Sunni final piece

So times up, once again I’m about to head off to meet Kelly down at the same coffee shop for the hand over, this time of the finished piece. It seems like only moments ago we were in the same spot in Newtown (Wellington) handing over pearls and text and now exchanging them back in an entirely new form. The exchange project has been an absolute joy to work on.

My response to the actual material (the unwavering desire to crush it into a powder) was amusing to observe, the initialidea to scatter the powdered pearl onto the surface of the enamel was given up for what felt like a far more appropriate relevant site on the reverse of the brooch, in a small hollow sweetly representative the ‘scientific’ miracle that is the growth of a pearl. The illustration in pencil on the front is a pattern for a spherical paper pearl (one side of, when folded according to lines and tabs etc) and is reflective of the material, the text and the packaging both items arrived in. Thank you Sydney, enjoy..

Pearl Plan Brooch

Mid point statement

sungibson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:16:24 +0000

For some reason my initial response to the pearls was to crush them, this compulsion would not go away no matter how many times I took them out to examine, play with etc. As I was building up to crushing the little beauties I was lucky enough to have an encounter with a gentleman (known for their resistance to the kind of contemporary jewellery we choose to deal with) who proudly informed me that messing with the material value of the pearls was, in his words ‘bullshit’, a beautiful moment and one I will savor for ever and a reaction I saw as a huge success to the work in progress. I am also very excited about the additional bits and pieces that traveled with my material; the bubble wrap, the shape and size of the package, the overall stark whiteness of both the material and the packaging, the pencil names on the front. The text is simply dreamy, I have been ‘note-booking’ my thoughts and building a strong relationship with the word ‘physics’

Physics; Science, matter, energy,

mechanics, heat, light-radiation,

sound,

electricity, magnetism, atoms. – The physical properties and phenomena of somethin.

The making process has been great fun, I have loved having an excuse to revisit the amazing workshop at Whitireia and so glad I decided to do the making of the piece on site where I was able to examine everyone else’s materials and hear recitals of pieces of text.. delightful.I have decided to take direction from not only the pearls and the text but from the pencil used to catalogue the outside of the package, the bubble wrap, the monochromatic packaging and material, the drizzle of white paint used to ‘seal’ the bottle and the shape of the package as I received it.

Rainy Morning in Newtown (Wellington)

sungibson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:13:34 +0000

As a graduate of Whitireia my process and experience of The Exchange Project is already looking a little different to the rest of the participants. For a start this morning I had the pleasure of rolling down the hill from my cosy house in the pouring ran (we call it the Wellington sub tropical monsoon season) to meet Kelly for the hand over of my material and text from Sydney. Very exciting event, concluded with a coffee and catch up with Kelly and father in law and the highly anticipated opening of one tightly bound, bubble wrapped material and nicely folded piece of text.
I was stunned to find not only a beautiful and thoroughly magnificent material in my hands (Pearls!) but pieces of wrapping and labeling that I found equally gorgeous and exciting (bubble wrap, traces of white paint, clear sellotape, cork, glass, hand written pencil address). The text I was lucky enough to receive is as subtle, glowing and appealing as the pearls, what luck these two exchanges seem to be made for each other…