Open Studios Kaye Johnston, Reiko Hashimoto, Sue Johnson Prescott & David Prescott October Long Weekend

Yellow Dog

                                                                          fibreglass over timber armature    
                                                                         exhibited at Kangaroo Valley Arts Festival Sold

Biomorphic Sculptures

Biomorphic Sculptures

I have been developing biological-like sculptures based on research into plants

More Biomorphic Sculpture

Images

Red Plaques

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The Animal Within

2014

It seems that clothes for women with animal references are fashionable again. I have seen materials with leopard and ocelot spots, various animal stripes (Zebra) and reptile patterns (stretched snake or lizard skin patterns). Are these our Jungle clothes, for the ‘Woman on the Prowl’ as Good Weekend Mag says? (March 2011) My hairdresser informed me that “On the catwalk this autumn (in Hong Kong) 80s

fashions are back in.” She told me that 80’s hairdos have lots of soft curls, she didn’t mention animal prints. Another magazine told me that women have to release the animal within on another page tame the animal within. I was also told I could go on safari wearing animal print clothes!

Spots and stripes are common but why not insect patterns? Lady Bird spots, red on black is very sexy. Not just in clothing for children or children’s furniture. What about Bronze Orange Bug, they are very colourful (also toxic)? What about cockroaches? They are also very sexy with their black segmented armour-like body parts. There could be very sheer fabric sewn between the plates for cooling purposes.

Why not consider using ideas from spiders? Their hairy appendages could be used in appealing animal–like patterns. Imagine a large floor covering with the spider’s hairy legs used as the pattern and a naked female lying on it. Prowling! Or jumping spiders with their luminescent colours and many shiny bright eyes, they would make lovely coloured patterned designs for clothing.

How about marsupial-influenced clothes with pouches and long tails attached to clothing? The pouches would be very useful for shopping and errands. I had a friend in England (when we were young Ozzies doing our motherland tour) who used to tell the Poms that we all had pet kangaroos back home in Australia to do the shopping for us. She’d say “we put a note and some money in their pouch and send them off to the

shops”. A large pouch built into our modern clothes would be very useful. The pouch could be attached across the breast area and human young could be carried in the pouch and be able to access its milk supply whilst the mother is on the prowl. Just like marsupials!

Foot and claw prints (from dinosaurs) on clothing would be good, or teeth prints fromvarious animals. Shark mouths with pink and white colouring, with a little bit of red could work. Snake mouths with the bifurcated tongue and the blue tongues of Blue Tongue lizards would be interesting. Or horse’s mouths with green grass between the teeth would surely bring out the animal from within. How about a lion’s mane across the chest area of a summer frock?

 It was an International Women’s Day function at the local museum. There was the usual mix of women from a small community. There were old ladies who helped out at the museum, women from the CWA, View club and Zonta, all women’s service organisations. And there were women from the Women’s Refuge, the Women’s Health Centre and women’s education courses at TAFE. There were middle class women and the others. There were women dressed up and others who dressed down. There were heterosexual women and lesbians, a cross section of the community. And there were two women on the prowl. They weren’t young but they had their jungle clothes on.

 One of the women wore spots and the other wore animal–like patches (perhaps giraffe) and lots of gold jewellery. The gold jewellery seemed like a contradiction. How can a woman, when on the prowl be animal-like when adorned with bright minerals? Imagine soldiers in camouflage gear and gold. They would be soon picked off by the enemy. Imagine women on the prowl with their animal print clothing and heavy gold jewellery crawling through waist high grasses.

I also wondered at the purpose of being on the prowl at an IWD function! There were very few men present (or none) so were they on the prowl for women?

What is ‘On the Prowl’? What do women do ‘On the Prowl’? Is it part of our biological destiny, instinct, urge to capture a mate and perform a mating ritual? So currently (and it obviously changes in the minds of designers in different seasons) these prowling behaviours need animal-like (other than human) references to be successful. Am I missing something, is it really about men being attracted to animals? So it is the print he is attracted to not the person underneath the clothes!   

Personally, I need clothes for a woman who lives in the 21^st century, not in caves or in prehistoric times. I don’t want to be knocked on the head by an animal-bone club by some Freddy Flintstone. And I want clothes that are made from natural organic fibres that breathe in hot climates and that are comfortable to wear. I want to be loved and communicated to through my brain not my ‘animal within’. I want my jungle to consist of books and politically aware, caring, people who are interested in ideas and how to change the world, not what chemical you put on your body. And, I don’t want to be manipulated by an advertising company on behalf of some other commercial interest about what the correct thing is to wear!

The women ‘on the prowl’ were exposing their ‘animal within’ with a little touch of glitter and bling. Were they on the lookout for tall, dark, handsome and loaded?  But there were no men. It was International Women’s Day and all the men were at home working; washing, cleaning, dusting and bending over double putting the rubbish out. It was a lost cause. They must be confused, they had come to the wrong jungle. 

© Kaye Johnston 2014

Just Launched Kaye's Bug Book!!!!!

Buy one now $10 + postage $1.20 AU

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very limited edition.

42 A5 pages bound with plastic combs. Pigment inkjet printed (achival)

More Biomorphic Sculpture 'Viruses'

Images Virus-like sculptures

'Red Virus' 'Blue Virus'

More Biomorphic Sculpture 'Filaments Small'

Images

'Filaments Small' x 9

'Group of

Filaments Small x17 and Flowers'

Biomorphic Sculptures 'Filaments'

I have been developing biological-like sculptures based on research into plants, seeds, fungi, fish, microscopic plankton, viruses and bacteria. They are constructed from found sticks and pruned wood, plastic lawn trimmer cord, glue and oil paint. I use traditional mortise and tenon joinery method.

Images: Biomorph Sculpture 'Filaments'

Dog Sculptures

Dog Sculptures

In my local environment I am surrounded by the bush and wildlife. The environment, forests, animals, insects and my lifestyle have all been included in my artworks over time. Dogs have always been part of my life. My sculpture method is construction where I use traditional mortise & tenon joinery, dowelling and glue. The three dogs are made from found Eucalyptus branches and sticks and prunings of domestic trees such as nectarine.

Images: 'Brown Dog', 'Small Brown Dog', 'Black Dog'

Photography 'Barbitars'

Photography is a new medium that I have been working in. I have been taking photographs of Barbie dolls and other dolls and toys in strange juxtapositions. The dolls have been manipulated by removing their clothes, cutting hair and spraying them different colours. I started by spraying them blue because every other colour had some symbolic meaning but then a film came out where the characters were all blue. Then I tried purple, green and finally fluro pink. Image 'Babaganoosh'

Alien Culture: Hairdressers, Clothing & Cultural Discrepancies etc.

Alien Culture SEP/DEC/2008 Draft

Hairdressers, Clothing & Culture Discrepancies etc.

Hairdresser

I visit the hairdressers in Nowra every 6 weeks. It is always a chore and I’m always apprehensive. It is at this point in my life that I stop and look at myself, look around and realise they are all different to me. The women working there are always changing, new young women all the time. They wear weird clothes, shoes, hairdos, have weird attitudes and culture.

From the moment I enter the shop I feel my demeanour diminish. The receptionist leans towards me, screws her face up, and starts using a childish voice “can I help you?” (they haven’t started to yell at me yet). It is as if I am some old wino who has just crawled out of a wheely bin. “I have an appointment to have my hair cut” she looks around …“Kersten-Anne (or similar) is still with her client. Please take a seat and read a magazine. Would you like tea or coffee?”

Read a magazine!! The magazines are non-readable celebrity shit, advertising crap or magazines of weird-o hair styles.

The place has been recently renovated to accommodate more people to get their hair done. The comfortable chairs have gone. There are now boxes which have been built to store stuff as well as sit on. These have thin cushions minimally attached to the tops. Correct proportions have not been considered and the effect is that the boxes are too high so that you sit perched on top swinging your feet like a kid sitting on a toy box.

Part of the renovations include a ‘wall of water fountain’ that flows down an entire wall spilling out of its gutter and onto the floor across the length of the wall. Mildew should soon ensure. Environmental or energy costs have not been considered. The ceiling is now ablaze with numerous 50 watt down lights. You could think you were under a night sky.

Kersten-Anne appears and I am taken over to a new wall-less cubicle. It only consists of a 45cms wide long, floor to ceiling mirror, a shelf to put your glasses on (30x15cms) and a chair. They start the process by throwing an old black curtain (from an undertakers?) over my shoulders. On top she places a lead shoulder control pad (some throw away item from an x ray dept?) to keep you still, or to prevent escape?

I sit waiting for the hairdresser to start. I listen and look at the other customers. I watch as a woman is removed from her hairdryer/converter?? Her head is covered in aluminium sheeting. Her head looks as if it has a huge Xmas chook on it which has just been taken out the oven. I can almost smell the fumes. Wow a ‘Chook-on-Head’ hair-do!

I watch the hairdresser pulling another customer’s long hair through steaming tongs and an older woman is having her hair permed. I say to my hairdresser who has turned up “people with straight hair come here to have it permed and those with curly to have it straightened and those with grey hair have it dyed”. “Yes” She asks me have I ever thought of having my hair dyed (as it is almost totally grey/white) “no I wouldn’t put any of those poisons through my liver” She stops and stares at me for a moment.

The hairdressing salon is really a disaster waiting to happen. Occupational health & safety issues abound. The air is full of hairspray lacquer. When I was at TAFE learning to draw with pastels we were taught not to spray in a confined space because the fixative/laquer (same as hairspray) was a health hazard. The dyes and other chemicals that are used will one day be seen as a toxic recipe for ill health & death in workers and customers. Where is the green hairdresser (not the green-dyed hairdresser)?

My hairdresser has bright red straight hair with a black diagonal stripe across the right front. There is a part down her left side. The hair is cut in a jagged manner with big VVVV’s across her cheeks and her forehead. She has some shiny object in her chin and she is of slight build. Her dress is salon designed t-shirt, with salon logo, and tight black short skirt. On her feet unbelievably she wears very pointy small heeled shoes. Her feet must get sore walking in these all day.

I have seen the pointy-toed shoe before this. There must be at least 5cms of space to be filled with spakfiller or the like or the pointy end would just crumple back onto the foot. They must get in the way of doing things and a real danger near lift doors. I have even seen them worn by men. They are common in a horrible pale colour of animal-like appearance (pretend scales).

Shopping Maul

Market town in Leichhardt was established in the 70’s. It was owned? by Italians and most shops were managed & staffed by Italians. Since then the place has considerably changed as has the local clientele. It has changed by the recent racial mix of Sydney (mostly Asian and middle eastern).

When I go to Sydney to visit my friend and visit art galleries I always go to Market Town to buy Italian bread, cheese and coffee as a treat. On a recent visit I discovered the last Italian delicatessen had disappeared. There is still a coffee shop which wafts fresh coffee aroma into the mall. Unfortunately a new shop next door is in competition for the quiveration of your nostrils. It is a Nail shop. Not as in hardware but as in pedicure and manicure. The last time I was there I could not believe my eyes. I stood for some moments staring in at a marvellous sight. Before me were a number of bed like-contraptions, where women (all women but men could go there too, I suppose) laying down feet in a bath each, with a small Asian worker cleaning & polishing their toes. (They looked like old fashioned shoe polishers). The smell of acetone and nail varnish mixed in my nostrils unhealthily with the nearby coffee aroma until I sneezed. The first time I saw this, the workers wore no nasal or breathing protection. (‘occ health and safety’ issue).

I came upon another salon ‘Professional Nail’ at Shellharbour Square where I obtained a flyer with prices etc. Gel nails full set $60, Gel Infill $35, Forever French/Backfill $40 (not a landscaping term) etc. The workers here were wearing masks as protection. I think this is definitely Alien world stuff but on close examination of the flyer I see reference to hundreds of these salons around the world!

Bedspreads

I recently tried to purchase a bedspread. I was in a shop and I had asked an assistant for a bed spread. She looked at me puzzled. She was trying to analyse my sentence and my language. We both spoke English, I thought. “We have cover-lets and comforters” She replied pointing to their location. I knew when I found them that it was pointless continuing on to ask if they had ‘Chenelle’ (or candle wick) cover-lets/comforters. I found out later that Chenelle bedspreads can be found on E bay under under bedspread category and are called vintage bedspreads.

TV

I watch all commercial TV when the advertisements come on with the sound turned off. I do live in an alien world. One ad has chidren with eyes on stalks on the top of there heads. Alien children!

(Draft not finished) Kaye Johnston©2008