Birdwatching (and the art of listening)

Here’s a sneak peek at one of my pieces in the up and coming Form Gallery Reconstruction/Deconstruction Exhibition.  And a wee bit of a blurb about the origins of the piece.

Birdwatching (and the art of listening)

On September 4^th 2010 I put some rice out on the
lawn as I often do for the birds.
Sometime during the day I remember becoming frustrated at the amount of
rice that was being tracked through the house onto the carpet….usually the
rice is gone within half an hour……

 

A couple of weeks after the September quake my Mother just
happened to say to me “did you notice, before the quake, that the birds had
disappeared…”

Reconstruction/Deconstruction – Form Gallery Home Edition

Final re construction invite

There’s a very special event coming up………..10 Christchurch Jewellery artists will be exhibiting at the Form Gallery Home Edition show Reconstruction/Deconstruction.  It will be held at 59d Bowenvale Ave, Cashmere, Christchurch.  30th July 1-4pm/31st July-2nd August 10am-5pm.  For all of those art starved Christchurch residents it’s a good place to go and have a look…………for out of towners you can check it out on the form website www.form.co.nz.

stolen jewels

Just a quick mention…………I had two pieces of jewelley stolen from an exhibition at a central Auckland Gallery…  They are very destinctive.  The ring is just one of two like it…….and the pendant in a one off…….the only one in existence.  So if you see anyone wearing them you have my permission to hit them with the hairy eyeball……….and put a curse on their house……………

If you happen to be in Wellington this weekend coming up (2nd + 3rd July 2011) you should come down to the ASB Arena and check out the Handsup Wellington Exhibition……….a chance for quake hit Christchurch businesses to trade in Wellington for a couple of days.  Thanks everyone for their hard work organising the event and all of the donated $$$, services and man power.

Also I’ve been convinced that I must go on facebook by the powers that be………so, providing I can work out how to do it, you will beable to find me there sometime in the future……………..

Death of a Gallery

Hiho

Thought that I would put in a couple of wee pics of the new improved ConneXion Gallery at the Arts Centre.  ConneXion Gallery the 1st was condemned in the earthquake of September 2010……and the new improved gallery was shut down, after only two and a half weeks of trading, with the earthquake of February 2011.  But I just stumbled across these pics of the gallery and how lovely and pristine it was too……..thought that I would share them with you.

There’s the end of an era……………………

Post Quake Ponderings

After losing my gallery, at the Arts Centre here in Christchurch, twice within six months due to earthquakes I am left feeling…..lucky…to have survived (especially considering what is going on in Japan at the moment with their earthquake situation) But also exhausted and very much in limbo……Life can take you so many places that you never ever thought you would go. How interesting it is….suddenly I find that I know all about earthquakes and liquefaction and digging long drops and the insides of other peoples showers and taking every day as it comes.
For there is no other choice when all you have known is suddenly gone and you realise, really realise, that nothing will ever be the same…….and that you are powerless……You realise that that is the truth for every one of us here on this planet….and there’s something freeing in that….believe it or not….

So here’s the start of me ‘getting on with it’
If any one of you is in Auckland and would like to see some of my work in the flesh I am taking part in a group show at HOUSE OF HEDONE (5b High St, in the basement). I am not sure how long it is on for…but it began on the 26th March 2011…I’ll keep you posted.

At the moment I am working away in my studio (albeit very slowly) on some exciting new designs involving crows….which I am probably going to keep on the down low until the NZ Jewellery show in Wellington in September…..But if anyone’s interested in having a sneak peek there might just be something popping up here in the coming months.

Also please take note that I have changed my email address.

crucifixion and other tid bits

This is a rare occasion…me putting something new on this thing.  But I am trying…  Recently I have been really excited by a new commission I have had….my very first crucifix!  Hopefully the first of many as I really enjoyed making it.  Thanks Lynn….I hope your husband loved his birthday present.  My favourite part was making the tiny crown of thorns….you can’t really see it in the picture all that well unfortunately…but it’s there and it’s thorny.

Also I have had a lot of success recently with my work in an exhibition at ConneXion Gallery at the Christchurch Arts Centre called ‘Prophecy’…..see picture of ‘Silent Night’ pendant below.  There’s only two piecesof mine  left of the series so if you are in town and you are interested get along and see it.  It closes at the end of August.

‘Prophecy’ features the work of accomplished jewellery artist Monique Connell.  Brought up in Akaroa but now living in Woolston Monique concentrates on creating pieces which often have a spiritual or esoteric tone and work with multilayered themes.

Moniques pieces in prophecy are about that calm quiet space that people need to return to that allows them to hear the voice of the divine.  “Nature offers that chance…to rebalance ourselves, to listen, to breathe.  It’s a hard place to get to thesedays where everything that surrounds us is telling us to go go go.  To get more, to do more, to take more.  The whole thing is exhausting.

So I tried in my ‘Silent Night’ series in ‘Prophecy’ to express that.  A place of quiet, a place of contemplation.  Sinuous winter trees, full of the potential of the coming spring, reaching out over the dark waters.  The silent night and the silent earth standing magestic in the distance.  It’s like a meditation…”

2010 FORM GALLERY EXHIBITION

 

Ok…so a very exciting time has come.  I am taking part in an exhibition at Form Gallery that opens on the 5th of may…..so very soon.  I feel very privaledged to be part of a show containing works by the likes of Jane Dodd and the wonderful Peter Mckay……Form Gallery (incase any of you don’t know it) is a beautiful gallery situated on the side of the big main Christchurch Art Gallery.  It specialises in jewellery, ceramics and glass artworks….all locally made….it is really worth a visit.

With a theme of ‘Once Upon a Time’ I suppose most people would think ‘fairytales’…..but no, no that’s not dark enough for me…I had to go ‘pastlife regression’.  It fits in well with my interest in ancient cultures….and allows me to play around with some other ideas I’ve been harbouring.  Somehow symbols reverberate – have a vibration that they can carry through time.  For instance there’s always something quietly mysterious about a boat to me.  And I know may cultures have had this feeling too.  As they have been used as ‘carriers of the soul’ through many ages.  My research for this exhibtion took me all the way back to Mesopotamia….and is just the beginning of something…I can feel it!

I hope that if any of you are in town (Christchurch) during the rest of May you’ll take the time to come and have a look at my exhibition at Form Gallery…..or you can take a look at my website as I have posted the exhibition there too for all of you out of towners.  Enjoy!

ARTISTS STATEMENT FOR ‘ONCE UPON A TIME’ EXHIBITION

In ‘Once Upon A Time’ Moniques work seeks to explore the foundations of her own mythology using symbols that take the viewer on a journey through time and.  Medieval towers, grounded in the earth, stretching far up into the heavens, hint at the connection between realms.  Boats, the carriers of the soul, glide between worlds with their cargo.  Etheric beings, offer guidance and protection.

“What if the soul lives on after we die?  What if the soul has lived many times before its incarnation in the here and now?  We all have eras in time, places in history, where we feel some sort of affinity.  What if those are sign posts, gate ways, to the richness and depth of our own story – our own ‘Once Upon a Time’.”

Evocation

As above, so below

‘As Above So Below’
An exhibition of unique, hand crafted, locally made jewellery
Featuring the strong, unique designs of Monique Connell
October @ ConneXion Gallery at The Arts Centre

‘As above so below’ is an ancient hermetic philosophical + religious belief dating back through the ages to Ancient Egypt. A phrase which was believed to hold the key to all mysteries by exploring  the ‘dynamic interconnectedness’ of all things.   Central to the concept is the study of the microcosm (ones self/human consciousness) and the macrocosm (God/the universe) .  It is understood that within each lies the other and that the purpose of being is to unite the two.

“I am always looking for a connection with the Ancient in my work…often referring to my works  as ‘Contemporary Relics’.  To me this interconnectedness has a quiet, mysterious significance about it,  allowing time and space to move with fluidity.  My pieces in ‘As Above So Below’ are a series of works based on the form of an early medieval round tower.  In the pendant ‘Evocation’ for example the tower stands firmly rooted to the ground whilst at the same time reaching far up into the heavens.  What would the person who had been locked up in that tower have seen?…what would have become their world? Around the outer wall is printed words from the ‘gayatri’, an ancient prayer to the sun, and a powerful meditation.  Perhaps to her, trapped in the tower, how gracious the sun… “   Monique connell
“you who are the source of all power
Whose rays illuminate the whole world.
Illuminate also my heart
So that I may do your work” … (Gayatri)

What I’m working on now

At the moment I can’t stop making castles and towers.