Garland magazine

20/12/2024

Kate Baker ✿ Difficult knowledge
Our December laurel goes to Kate Baker for an installation in Shanghai combining animation and glass reflecting the anxieties of children.
https://garlandmag.com/kate-baker/

19/12/2024

Too serious

Mark du Potiers remembers his mother's work in a Chinese textile factory as he sews together a personal temple.
https://garlandmag.com/article/too-serious/

✿ Excerpts:

In this context of merging the past with the present, it’s no wonder that together, the gallery, the building, and its location remind me of a temple.

I remembered my mother having worked in textile manufacturing back in Guangzhou, China. Because of this, she was and still is a master at sewing. I’ve often joked that her hand-sewing skills could put factory machines out of a job.

My mum was on holiday when she met dad. And she stayed—for love, courageously starting a new life in Australia whilst giving up life elsewhere and missing out on opportunity, connection, comfort, and familiarity in the hope of gaining more. I don’t want to feel I’m wasting her sacrifice. So, I’ll continue to think deeply as I learn how to sew… and maybe this is why I’m so serious.

18/12/2024

It was inspiring to hear the contributors to our Temple & Gallery issue. They have such remarkable stories of cultural renewal.

You can read our December issue of Garland here: https://garlandmag.com/issue-37/

17/12/2024

Why craft matters...

The inaugural report on the Value of Craft argues that craft plays a critical role in addressing the challenges of our time.
👉 https://garlandmag.com/what-is-the-value-of-craft/

17/12/2024

Michael Williams uncovers a rich material heritage from communal buildings used by Chinese migrants.

Michael Williams uncovers a rich material heritage from communal buildings used by Chinese migrants.

16/12/2024

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion: The work of a thousand hands
https://garlandmag.com/article/the-great-stupa-of-compassion/

Deep in the Whipstick forest is a Buddhist wonder for all to enjoy.

✿ Excerpts:

The Kalachakra Mandala is a circular illuminated multilayer relief for the ceiling. Eventually, it will cover the 20 x 20m ceiling with 100 different pieces. Twelve artists from Bendigo, Castlemaine, Kyneton and Melbourne have volunteered their time to paint the mandala. They are ably assisted by Garrey and Krissy Foulkes, who are based in Queensland and have a long history of thang’ka painting. The mandala is now 60% complete, with installation due in August 2025, followed by initiation in September 2025. Guy Lawson, one of the volunteers, notes, “It frees the mind… Time vanishes. You just get absolutely transfixed by the whole process.”

The most precious statue in the stupa is the Jade Buddha, carved from a rare jade boulder known as “Polar Pride,” discovered in Canada in 2000 and worth $1 million. This stone promised to realise Rinpoche’s vision of a Buddha that would “… illuminate the world and bring inconceivable peace and happiness and help prevent the destruction that is happening so much in the world, including war.” This dream was finally realised under the supervision of Ian Green. Master carvers in Thailand created the statue, which is 2.7 metres high and weighs four tons. Mementos were carved from offcuts to raise funds. It was formally consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 2009 and now sits on an alabaster throne.

13/12/2024

Sky Temple

Helen Vivian reflects on that re-wilding project that enabled a garden to grow a temple
https://garlandmag.com/article/sky-temple/

✿ Excerpts:

I am a curator (of contemporary art). Curator is also the title given to the creator of a garden. However, the big difference with a garden is that the curator is also the maker. That and the element of time. To make a garden, you have to be able to imagine what it will be like in 100 years time: the story it will tell to visitors.

I met Sister Chan, a Vietnamese Buddhist nun, walking in the garden three years ago.

Sister Chan had been sent to establish a Temple and Zen meditation centre in Mildura and was looking for some land. So, I offered her a portion of the newly landscaped second block, now known as the Temple Garden.

the temple is not named for the garden, it is named for Thich Nhat Hanh: Hanh (xanh) means blue sky in Vietnamese.

12/12/2024

Messages in rice: From table to grave
https://garlandmag.com/article/messages-in-rice-from-table-to-grave/

Angela Sim explains the significance of the Teochew ritual of rice drawing that is still practised in Singapore's temples.

✿ Excerpts:

This phrase “Millet like rain falls from the sky, and ghosts weep at night” can be seen as a poetic expression of a world in turmoil.

In the Teochew ritual *關燈科儀* of rice table drawings *米桌* or *幽冥圖*, a skilled Master uses raw rice grains to create freehand drawings and inscriptions on a cloth tapestry laid out on a sacrificial table. These large-scale artworks, which can exceed the size of an adult human, can take over eight hours to complete.

Master Francis Tan Kwee Chye, in Singapore, is one such craftsman who is still practising this art form. He works tirelessly with sacks of raw rice grains and draws large-scale drawings executed from memory, without the use of patterns.

Imagine spending over eight hours meticulously drawing a detailed picture using rice, guided only by Master Francis’s left hand. Then, in a fleeting moment, all that effort is erased in just minutes. At the end of the ritual, the Master gently sweeps the rice into a mound, dissolving the intricate designs and marking the end of a profound, symbolic act.

11/12/2024

Lucky Charms: The temple returns to the gallery

Jacky Cheng traces the woven Joss paper objects in her Indian Ocean Craft Triennial exhibition back to Malaysia and her fraught role as a dutiful daughter.

https://garlandmag.com/article/lucky-charms/

✿ Excerpts:

I was predominantly tasked with folding Joss papers because that was the easiest task. So that was my understanding of making art because that was the only time that I actually got to use my hands to make something and sit very still.

My dad said, “I will not invest in you because you will lose the surname one day.”

The work was inspired by my grandmother and her moon blocks. Moon blocks are for contacting spirits, either ancestral or celestial. But my grandmother also used them as a very important decision-making tool.

The work challenges the ideas of Joss paper as something taboo. So, I recomposed the material into a different object.

I think temples are very much of a sensory thing. I wanted to simulate exactly what the intentional placement of all the works meant. You feel a sense of attentiveness, inquisitiveness, and also a private surveillance of objects, much like a private temple.

The traditions gradually decline. They get smaller. The time spent is less and less. So if you’re in the midst of it, perhaps it’s not noticeable.

“I want to investigate this notion of the afterlife, or even the end of life, of preparing for it because it’s a very beautiful notion.

10/12/2024

A temple without walls

David Cheah works with the monks of the Lao temple Wat Siphoutthabaht to produce an outdoor installation for the festival of Boun Ok Phansa.
https://garlandmag.com/article/a-temple-without-walls/

✿ Excerpts:

A few years ago, Tiao Nith started training monks to stencil. When Wat Siphoutthabaht Thippharam was undergoing renovations, he took the opportunity to design a mural for the monks’ dining area. Rather than using traditional patterns, he cut stencils depicting the life of the monks from the morning almsgiving to the daily chores and even down to the detail of the dogs and cats living in the compound.

My favourite time to visit Luang Prabang is during the light festival *Boun Ok Phansa* which is then followed by the fire boat parade festival, *Boun Lai Heua Fai, which* marks the end of a three-month rains retreat for monks. It is a magical experience because the temple grounds are lit up. More than a visual feast, for me it is like a little pilgrimage walking from temple to temple up side streets and cobbled laneways with the delicate scent of the tree jasmine adrift on the night breeze. At the temples, the air is suffused with the scent of beeswax from hundreds of candles and tealights while I am lulled by the evening chanting of monks.

The murals themselves are based on the *Phra Lak Phra Lam*, a Lao adaptation of Indian *Ramayana* stories just like the window and door panels in the installation. Thus, the idea for the outdoor installation *Temple without walls* evolved from the history of intercultural openness and connection at Wat Siphoutthabaht.

Carved banana stalks were used to construct the boats and offering “altars”. This skill was taught to the monks by a Thai master who feared the art form would die out in his homeland. These were adorned with wax flowers and recycled wax candles which reference the old practice of wax offerings to monks for candle making before the advent of electricity.

05/12/2024

Viraj Khanna, Garden area of a Michelin-star restaurant, 2024

This Indian embroiderer is currently showing his expressionist textile works at Design Miami with Rajiv Menon Contemporary.

"This time, I have experimented with new materials such as artificial leather, artificial leaves, and grass as embroidery mediums. The idea is to explore the myriad possibilities of the medium and initiate a conversation about how we are represented by an 'image' in society," says Viraj Khanna

20/11/2024

Congratulations Li Letitia Shen and Gail Hunt from Gold & Silversmithing and Celine Babet from Ceramics (pictured with workshop head Kris Coad) at the RMIT Graduate Show. They are winners of the Garland Prize for Innovative Storied Object. We look forward to sharing their inspiring stories next year.

19/11/2024

Afghan weaves from clay to wool

Alexandra Copeland shares her journey from ceramics to carpet weaving via Afghanistan.

https://garlandmag.com/afghan-weaves/

✿ Excerpts:

I also need to make my carpets relevant to people in Australia. Every house in Melbourne needs a hall runner. I’ve settled on 300 x 75cm, but will probably design longer ones at some point. My largest room-size carpet designs are about 270x180cm. Because the carpets are handwoven on basic horizontal looms the sizes vary slightly. With colour and size variations I currently have 24 designs.

Because the wool needs to be dyed in economical batches I start with an order of four of each design. The carpets might have up to eight different colours. The carpets are not made in “limited editions” but the time involved in making a carpet means that the numbers woven are very limited. It can take around four to six months to weave a carpet, with one or two weavers working on each carpet.

This article also includes a report from Faridoon about the weavers in Afghanistan.

17/11/2024

Elizabeth Okeyele-Olatunji shares her passion for teaching African children knitting and crochet for their economic welfare and creative pleasure.

Elizabeth Okeyele-Olatunji shares her passion for teaching African children knitting and crochet for their economic welfare and creative pleasure.

15/11/2024

On moonlit nights, the fairies take their flight,
Among the moonflowers, silver-winged and bright.
Dervishes dance, their spirits light and free,
The garden's magic binds them all, you see.
From whispering leaves to chirping birdsong's glee,
The garden breathes, a living symphony.

From Muhammad Mazharuddin Ibn Nishati's PhulBan (Flower garden) in 1656

Enjoy today's full moon 🌕

14/11/2024

A conversation with an important African ceramicist about her creative work and the challenge of being a clay artist in Nigeria.

A conversation with an important African ceramicist about her creative work and the challenge of being a clay artist in Nigeria.

13/11/2024

We talk with venerable arts consultant June Moorhouse about the lessons she's learned working with small arts organisations.

We talk with venerable arts consultant June Moorhouse about the lessons she's learned working with small arts organisations.