The presses being loaded on to the truck at the Grange Studio...

And the new Studio!  Complete with outdoor work area (almost done except for the landscaping!).

Inclement weather had us a bit worried,

But it fined up just in time for Shelley (above) and Helga (below) to be unloaded.

The delicate art of moving a Heidelberg into position and 'hey presto!' - new studio fitted out and now decked out.

The new studio space is smaller (although this is compensated for by a bigger darkroom) and we will no longer be showing gallery exhibitions (although there will still be preview nights of new work!).  But, workshops will be coming on-line again with our first one, Introductory Printmaking with Jay Dee Dearness, starting on the 21st/22nd of January at the Brisbane Institute of Art.  And expect some changes to the website/shop in the near future - 2012 is going to be a year of surprises we think!

Thank you to everyone who has been able to make it along so far to see 'Cross Currents', our latest joint exhibition with Ashley Oostdyck and Jay Dee Dearness.  As the exhibition draws to a close, we are very pleased to announce that we have the new Myrtle Street Studio Online Shop now open!  And that the works from 'Cross Currents' are now also available via the shop for purchasing.

If you would like to view the exhibition itself, it's not too late!  We are open for our final day tomorrow from 10am till 4pm - hope to see you there.

After some downtime we are very pleased to be getting back into our exhibition program with this next photography/printmaking show by artists Ashley Oostdyck (the lovely lady who does the photography and graphics for MSS's website) and Jay Dee Dearness (printer extroardinaire and studio owner!).  This is definitely an exhibition to 'save the date' for!

Firstly, thank you to everyone who was able to make it over to the studio last weekend in time to check out Bronia Iwanczak's 'Rice/Ice/Horse/Water' exhibition before it finished.  This was Bronia's first solo in Queensland and a new experience for her.

It's been all quiet on the studio front since the exhibition as we had a little bit of a hiccup (I got accute appendicitis just before the show opening and had to be rushed in for emergency surgery!).  So apologies to those of you who were looking forward to catching up with me on the opening night as I was fresh out of hospital.  Am mending slowly at the moment but it has caused a few alterations in this month's schedule at the studio.

Namely that we have had to change the date for the Introductory Fabric Printing workshop from Saturday the 16th of August to Saturday the 24th of September.  This may actually suite some interested participants - please book soon if you wish to get in though as two places are now filled for that new date.

Also, the shop will be closed on Saturday's at the moment while I recuperate.  Am hoping to be able to re-open again later in August so please stay tuned as we will announce this on the blog.  If you would like to come through and check out our space or the work available for sale we are still taking appointments, just contact us!

Don't forget, our latest exhibition by Bronia Iwanczak - 'Rice/Ice/Horse/Water' is now open!  Come and visit us Friday - 12noon to 6pm or Saturday - 10am to 4pm.  Bronia will be available on Saturday if you wish to speak with her about her work too!

Don't forget!  Bronia Iwanczak's exhibition 'Rice/Ice/Horse/Water' opens to the public tomorrow from 10am to 4pm.  Come and meet the artist in person and take this opportunity to peruse some lovely artist books!

Our upcoming exhibition - 'Rice/Ice/Horse/Water', features the books and photographs of Bronia Iwanczak and continues her exploration of the artist book medium and enquiry into the acquisition of language.  As promised, the following sheds light on the creation of this body of work:

In this quartet of books and photographs, Iwanczak makes an enquiry into the acquisition of language.  She examines the act of "naming" and its relationship to embodiment, exploring the experience of "being" in the world, as defined by the coordinates of language with which we create conscious meaning.

The act, or art of naming, arose from the land, it had an agricultural function, where there was a need for our ancestors to give names to "those things and creatures that endangered and nourished them".  (Melvyn Bragg, History of English).  Through naming, we bring things and creatures inside our sphere of understanding, into our realm of existence.  Naming remains central to social and cultural ritual.  In most cultures the naming of children is an important, often sacred ritual - still today in many faiths and in the secular world (naming ceremony), where the act of naming signifies that the child has become a member of community, of society.  In Hindu faith it is called Namkaran Sanskar, and when adults are also inducted/accepted into the faith, they too go through a version of this ritual which requires the convert to write his/her name in a tray of uncooked rice.

When we speak of lanuage in relation to Iwanczak's work we are referring to a holistic system of graphemic expression and application, where the written (la langue) and spoken (la parole) dimensions are not separated from each other, no hierarchy is imposed, there is no exclusion of gesture, but where the physicality of language is embraced.

Early linguistic theories building on Cartesian origins saw language as a code for representing things in the perceived world but which was separable from the world.  Swiss Linguist, Saussure, who defined the terms "la langue" and "la parole" and who made the distinction between them, saw la langue, the system of terminological, syntactic and semantic rules (i.e. language) as an organic living system, an "interdependent matrix, a webwork wherein each term has meaning only by virtue of its relation to other terms within the system".  French philosopher, Merleau-Ponty expanded this and brought back the physical act of speech (la parole) into defining language, he instead conceives of it as "a carnal medium woven in the depths of our perceptual participation with the things and beings around us and this is constantly evolving".

Merleau-Ponty's theories argues that "The event of perception unfolds as a reciprocal exchange between the living body and the animate word that surrounds it... meaning sprouts in the very depths of the sensory world, in the heat of meeting, encounters, participation".

"We thus learn our native language not mentally but bodily.  We appropriate new words and phrases first through their expressive tonality and texture, the way they feel in the mouth... the taste of a word, of a phrase, and the way it influences.. the body" - its this felt significance that Merleau-Ponty argues provides the "fertile, polyvalent source for all the more refined and rarefied meanings which the term may come to have for us".  The meaning of words "must be finally induced by the words themselves,... their conceptual meaning must be formed by a kind of subtraction from gestural meaning, which is immanent in speech".

To understand how this relates to the works shown, please join us on Saturday as we open the exhibition to the public!

Impressions 6!  Local printmaking group, Impress Printmaker's Studio is now showing their annual members exhibition which finishes up at 4pm this Wednesday.  Support their move to Kedron Park Substation and gain yourself some of the best prints in Queensland for very reasonable prices!  Work from Myrtle Street Studio by Jay Dee Dearness is included in the exhibition.

Just a few reminders!  Bronia Iwanczaks' 'Rice/Ice/Horse/Water' exhibition starts next Saturday the 25th of June.  This conceptual work is of a very high calibre and if you have never seen an artist book before there are some great examples on show in this exhibition.  We will have more info up on the exhibition itself next week on the blog.

In the meantime, don't forget that the Myrtle Street Studio shop is now open for business on Saturdays!  We hope you can make it in to browse some of the great fine art print and paper works on display and for sale.  See you there and thank you to the lovely people who were able to make it in for a visit last Saturday despite the weather!

Our upcoming exhibition - 'Rice/Ice/Horse/Water', features the books and photographs of Bronia Iwanczak and continues her exploration of the artist book medium and enquiry into the acquisition of language.  The following is an introduction to Bronia for the curious:

Bronia Iwanczak has a mixed media practise, including photography, film, and sculptural installation that conceptually explores the intrapsychic relationships between spirituality and psychology.  The more recent focus of her work relates to issues of embodiment and trauma in the built environment.  She holds a degree in visual communications - graphic design, and a masters of fine arts.  She has been the recipient of grants including both the Australian Council's residency programs for Los Angeles and New York.  Since 2006 she has been the director of the project 'Openletter'an ongoing curatorial program for the presentation of artist books and text multiples.  Other curatorial activities have included the co-directorship of an online based international project ICOLS - The International Corporation of Lost Structures.  She has exhibited nationally and internationally.  Among the collections that her work is held by are the Tate Gallery Library, Samstag - SA University and the Penelope Seidler Collection.

Next week we will be revealing a little more on the exhibition itself!