Opening Night October 1, running until October 29

unnatural, naturally – Lauren Simeoni and Melinda Young
With a delight in finding expressions of the ‘natural’ in the ‘unnatural’ (and vice versa), Simeoni and Young exploit the potential of found objects in their work, playing with colour and materiality. The conceptual ideas for this exhibition have been developed using a shared sketchbook, which migrates back and forth between their studios. The exhibition features work with a focus on botany and the body – re-presenting and re-configuring natural forms via artificial conduits. Creating, utilising and manipulating non-specific artificial objects: changing the unnatural to the natural, the artists have developed playful bodies of new work which speak to each other through an excited engagement of ideas and material sensibility.

Lauren Simeoni (Adelaide) and Melinda Young (Sydney) create work that is a homage to the senses – a wearable passport to a whimsical ‘other’ reality. Exploring the potential for unexpected narrative, their works often have a sly subversive humour. Finding the beautiful and seductive in what is otherwise thought of as mundane, toying with mass-production processes and reconfiguring mass-produced objects to create wearables of seductive beauty. Simeoni has a Bachelor of Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) from Canberra School of Art and undertook a Design Associateship at the JamFactory in Adelaide. Young has a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts. Both artists exhibit widely in Australia and overseas.

http://www.metalab.com.au

8th-30th May 2009

metalab1: Phoebe Porter with Location Devices
In 2005 Phoebe relocated from Canberra to live and work in Melbourne. That experience generated this body of work. It was an experience she came to define as being about connectdness; about finding her way in a new city, as well as staying in touch with the place she had left.

metalab2: Gilbert Riedelbauch with Highlights
As much as the mind links an idea with a design solution, the hand connects design to the making process. Making becomes the extension of design and forms the essence of craft.

New technologies play an ever increasing part in Riedelbauch’s working practice. The skillful manipulation of tools and process – the basis of making – is equally important for digital work and require an experienced hand. These augment and expand all aspects from the sketching to the making and assisted by digital technologies.. Using the old together with the new calls for new design solutions and informs the resulting objects. Traditional silversmithing techniques interact with rapid prototyping parts and the virtual 3d space of the CAD program acts like an extension to the workshop.

Riedelbauch’s solo exhibition, Highlights displays a series of exquisitely constructed and designed lights. From applied to sculptural, his work playfully explores
the possibilities of LEDs (light emitting diodes). These highly energy
efficient components are combined with natural and artificial materials
using manual and computer aided making processes. The collection of such materials and processes crafts sculptural objects with distinct personalities.

http://www.metalab.com.au

Opening 2nd April, 6pm to 8pm
metalab1
Linda van Niekerk
Balance

Thinking of herself as a conceiver of wearable sculpture rather than a jeweller van Niekerk’s work is bold, visually striking and deceptively simple.

In this body of work van Niekerk explores the fundamentals of ‘Balance’ in several of its guises; shape, proportion, material, colour, texture and context to create informal, elegant sculptural pieces.

The Forest and Ikebana series borrow from the concept of Freeform Ikebana, which seeks to balance the elements of Heaven, Earth and Man. Her interpretation uses two materials: metal to represent Heaven and natural materials to represent Earth. The third element is added when the piece is worn and is thus complete.

Although van Niekerk’s work often reflects a contemporary western interpretation of the aesthetic of her birth place, Africa. She finds herself increasingly seduced by the incredible natural beauty of her new home in the beautiful Huon Valley in Tasmania’s south.

metalab2
Meghann Jones
Wear It

We are saturated in a world we have modified.

Meghann Jones’ work begins in a jumble of thought – the juxtaposition of humanity with progress and development; with structure, hierarchy, power and control…and finally, subversion. Here is where the beauty grows, where refuse becomes precious and unyielding material is rendered flexible with the complex rhythm & ultimately powerful potential, of choice.

In the past three years alone Jones has been involved in workshops with Springboard (Entrepreneurial Designers program), invited to Design Island, undertaken a F!NK residency, studied in Italy, trained as a JamFactory Metal Studio Associate, became a QANTAS SOYA finalist and won the Starve Dog Lane Magnum Design Competition as well as the Italian Centre Design Award.

Metalab ; 6th March – 29th March 2009

Recent graduate from the Design Centre Enmore and recipient of The Jewellery and Object Design Award, Sonya Scott makes a strong, bold entrance onto the silversmithing scene in her first solo exhibition.

Improvisation is the response to a musical score, played in the studio with the artist while making, forging in Sterling Silver. The forms replicating the peaks and troughs of pitch and pace to create wearable sculptural forms, loose and fluid.

Metalab

10B Fitzroy Place, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
Australia

ph: +61 2 8354 1398

e: info@metalab.com.au

Opening hours

Wed – Fri 11am – 6pm

Sat 11am-5pm

metalab1
Sim Luttin
Hint of a Memory

metalab2
Michelle Kelly
Fifth Kingdom

En ce début d’année, Community Chest (ayant déjà organisé 4 SLCamps) se joint à nouveau à la communauté francophone en participant au Bar Camp qui aura lieu les 24 et 25 janvier prochains. L’opération sera hébergé sur le Metalab d’Hugobiwan Zolnir et aura cette fois-ci la particularité de se dérouler entièrement en français et exclusivement dans Second Life, si bien que toute la communauté francophone, passionnés et experts, auront l’opportunité d’échanger autour de thèmes définis au préalable. Vous pourrez avoir une idée des thèmes abordés ou d’en proposer sur le site du BarCamp.

Le SLCamp commencera à partir de 18h00 sur la sim île-de-France dont voici le SLurl. Pour d’autres d’informations sur l’événement nous vous invitons à vous rendre sur les blogs de Mascottus Phlox, Pierre-Olivier Carles, Daneel Ariantho, et de consulter l’événement Facebook posté par Philippe Couzon.

SL Metalab, Paris IleDeFrance

D’ici là, vous pouvez toujours découvrir ou retourner sur le premier Etat virtuel francophone de Second Life Liberta, et flâner sur les terres de Community Chest. Enfin, le BarCamp peut à nouveau compter sur nos réseaux d’affichage Webia pour promouvoir l’événement.

PS : BarCamp in SL les 24 et 25 janvier à partir de 18h00. Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant sur le site BarCamp.

We couldn’t make Roboexotica in Vienna, Austria this year (check out last year’s coverage), so we asked [Bre Pettis] to act as our liaison.

Last night was the opening party of Roboexotica, the worldwide gathering of cocktail robots. It was a blast! Pictured above is Robovox, a 40 foot high robot that you can text message to and it will say what you text to it!

I was running my robot arms as a competition, armatron style, to get cherries into a shot glass.

The Reprap that Marius, Philipp, and the gang over at Metalab made last year that failed was revived and cranked out shot glasses all night!

Here are my photos. More photos tagged Roboexotica are coming in all the time, stay tuned!

Hier die Folien des Vortrags von Goesta Smekal im Metalab vom 26.11.2008 veranstaltet von der Linux User Group Austria. Kurzfassung des Vortrages:

Einkaufen, Arbeiten, Behördenwege, unsere Freizeit gestalten – längst sind wir gewohnt wesentliche Aspekte des täglichen Lebens mit Computerunterstützung zu erledigen. Stimmzettel werden nach Wahlen hierzulande immer noch von Hand ausgezählt.

Wie kommt das? Was sind die rechtlichen Grundlagen für die Abwicklung von Wahlen in Österreich? Welche Rahmenbedingungen sind für eine demokratische Stimmabgabe wichtig? Was kann ein elektronisches System hier leisten und welchen Anforderungen muss es gerecht werden?

Der Vortragende ist von juristischem Fachwissen unbelastet, wagt aber dennoch als interessierter Laie einen Blick hinter die Kulissen der Demokratie.

Ausgehend davon, wie freie, demokratische Wahlen grundlegend funktionieren wollen wir uns letztlich fragen, wie ein e-Voting System aufgebaut sein muss um das zu leisten, was der Souverän in einer Demokratie von ihm erwartet.

Der Vortrag geht nach etwa einer Stunde hoffentlich in eine angeregte Diskussion über …

Metalab – Jewellery, Objects, Design Studio Gallery

Contemporary jewellery designer Mark Vaarwerk will be showcasing his new works at Metalab in his first solo exhibition. Mark has established an iconic and ever expanding collection of work. Transforming base materials such as shopping bags, orange juice bottles, milk containers and even hand cream bottles, these discarded elements of everyday consumerism become creative and colourful adornment for the body, juxtaposed with precious metals of silver and gold. The application and fusion of these recycled materials with traditional silver smithing and hand-spun fibre techniques has become an obvious design trademark of his work

Vaarwerk ensures his work has a ‘re-use and recirculation’ history through the transformation and reinvention of these materials into innovative jewellery and object pieces.

Metalab

http://www.metalab.com.au

Rhys Hall, Jamie Fergus and Jason Tweedie – Metalab

Folllowing the runaway success of their first Australian show at Metalab in 2007, Jason Tweedie, Rhys Hall and Jamie Fergus of the Coast-garde collective return to Sydney in September 2008 to present their latest works highlighting their diverse and exciting approaches to the ancient art of stone-working.

Each in the group has followed their own idiosyncratic path while exploring the possibilities of carving. Their individual choice of materials dramatically influence the development of each carvers style as they strive to release the potential within a particular stone.
Whether delicate, translucent and embellished or weighty, earthy and raw, they draw together stone from New Zealand, Australia and around the globe in intruiging and evocative combinations.

Jade, Agate, precious stones and humble beach pebbles are married with components of Silver, Gold, Damascus Steel, Glass, Silk and Nylon to create strikingly beautiful, wearable jewellery ; each piece a unique hand-crafted collaboration between artist and material which speaks both of its elemental origins and the modern world into which it was born.

Thanks to Metalab for this post.

Metalab

www.metalab.com.au

JASON TWEEDIE

sculptor | graphic designer

tweedie3d@yahoo.com
www.artworkers.org

Born in New Zealand, currently residing in Australia, with several years traveling in Asia, Central America and New Zealand. Jason Tweedie produces sculpture, jewellery and functional objects using semi-precious hard stones and exotic wood species as the medium. His background in graphic design and a life-long passion to create has seen a progression through various creative disciplines to end in the realm of sculpture and three-dimensional form. The designs have a contemporary edge, combining simple and complex organic forms inspired by the landscape, flora, fauna and indigenous cultures with their connection to the land and the mystic.

The underlying essence of the work is an exploration of the environment and the universal energies of life and death…growth and decay with the intention to capture natural rhythm and movement. Working in a “truth to the material” way, invokes a sense of connection to the earth through the natural shape and beauty of the stone or wood. This often guides the creative journey with unpredictable results.

Sydneysiders have been lucky enough to have experienced a multitude of exhibitions of contemporary metalsmiths, jewellers and object designers at Surry Hills studio-gallery Metalab over the last few years. Metalab was opened in 2004 by ANU School of Art graduate Cesar Cueva (above centre and right). Now, their sister store Courtesy of the Artist is about to reach it’s two year anniversary.

Courtesy stocks a wide range of contemporary wearables and objects from many Australian and international designers and artists like Cinnamon Lee, Mark Vaarwerk, Vanessa Samuels (above left) and F!NK. The vivacous Nina Cueva, owner of the store, hand picks the objects and artists. Nina’s vast amount of experience and craft knowledge ensures her range is not only fresh and innovative, but of superior handmade quality.

Courtesy is located at 547 Bourke St, Surry Hills, NSW. Definitely one for the inner-city-gallery crawl.