art crush- Eric Yahnker

Foreigner Corner, 2010

REVIEW: Rock Solid- Pieces of Eight

Pieces of Eight describes itself as a contemporary jewellery and artist made object store. Contemporary jewellery means that there is no Tiffany here, just a Melanie, Melanie Katsalidis who is the creative captain at the helm of Pieces of Eight and she’s boldly sailing into 2011 with a store hosted exhibition: Rock Solid. Katsalidis has called on Meredith Turnbull to curate a band of artists for Rock Solid who include: Dan Bell, James Deutsher, Anna Ephraim, Bianca Hester, Christopher L G Hill, Leah Jackson, Susan Jacobs, Madeline Kidd, Dylan Martorell, Rob McHaffie and Masato Takasaka.

Each artist has delved into their practice and reproduced their ideas and forms at a wearable scale. One of the best examples of this is Christopher LG Hill’s reinvention of a material he uses quite often, plastic bags, being reformed into bracelets. The finished product is a nod to a material that he utilises in his own arts practice, but not a replication of his usual treatment of the material. Pieces of Eight also recognised Hill’s astute connection with his materials and have provided a blog post on the exploration of his connection to the matter: http://piecesofeightgallery.blogspot.com/2011/03/piece-of-day-plastic-fantastic.html

Takasaka has also contributed to the exhibition by constructing an installation of his patented forms of angular colored card, paper and tape in the Pieces of Eight storefront windows above in and around the entrance.

This exhibition is an affirming salute to the artists involved and their ability to adapt and construct their ideas in new ways and forms. Respect to Kasalidis and Turnbull for also hosting floor talks and uploading the talks (http://piecesofeightgallery.blogspot.com/2011/03/floor-talk-meredith-turnbull-curator-of.html ) to Pieces of Eights blog, this action, and their effort, is very much appreciated and helps add another, more informative layer to the project and exhibition. Thank you Pieces of Eight for your generosity.

Not only is Rock Solid a strong exhibition thanks to critical curation and the artists own intimate connections with their practices but also because of the wealth of support material and documentation available online. Kudos are much deserved.

http://piecesofeight.com.au/

art crush- Dylan Difalco