LOVE FLOWER

A different angle

John and I giving an idea of scale

Night view with the lights on

Hello all,

Well, it's been quite an eventful week, culminating in the official unveiling of the sculpture, Love Flower, with which I have been involved.

Below is the media release which describes the project better than I can.

New Public Sculpture: Southern Way McClelland Commission

Melbourne’s cultural landscape has an exciting new addition. The next instalment of the $250,000 Southern Way McClelland biennial sculpture commission has been revealed. Artist John Meade, with Emily Karanikolopolous, was awarded the commission for his elegant and enchanting sculpture, Love Flower, which is based on an Ikebana flower arrangement design. The sculpture has replaced Gregor Kregar’s Reflective Lullaby that was located at Cranbourne Road, on the Langwarrin exit ramp close to McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery.

Love Flower is sited along the Peninsula Link freeway in Melbourne’s South East as part of a unique and award-winning commitment to public art. Established in 2013 as a Public Private Partnership between Southern Way and McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, this ongoing program of iconic artworks has established the Mornington Peninsula as an internationally significant hub for public art and contemporary sculpture. The series alternates every two years between sites at Skye Road and Cranbourne Road along Peninsula Link, which will result in 14 commissions over a 25-year period to 2037. Southern Way generously donates funding for the sculptures. After four years on public display the commissions become part of McClelland’s permanent sculpture collection in its 8-hectare sculpture park in Langwarrin.

“The fifth in this highly regarded series of Southern Way McClelland Commissions, Love Flower is beautiful and awe inspiring. As public sculpture this work engages in ways with the aesthetics of nature, as well as being an absolutely magical sight for all who pass by,” says Lisa Byrne, Director, McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery.

Simon Lawrie, The Balnaves Curator of Australian Sculpture at McClelland, says “As iconic public artworks, these sculptures enliven our community and our daily commute, and encourage discussion about art and ideas – Love Flower is bound to enchant locals and visitors to the Mornington Peninsula alike.’

The Southern Way McClelland Commission 2018 received 65 submissions from local, interstate and international artists. The commission judging panel was Lisa Byrne, Director, McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery, Maudie Palmer AO, former inaugural Director of Heide Museum of Modern Art and TarraWarra Museum of Art; and artist Lisa Roet.

John Meade is a renowned contemporary Australian sculptor, whose practice draws relations, often humorous and unexpected, between the metaphysical and surreal in the experience of contemporary life and domestic culture. He was born in Ballarat in 1956 and currently lives and working in Melbourne. Meade has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and his work is held in major private and public collections throughout Australia. He is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.

Emily Karanikolopoulos is an Australian artist who is a teacher and practitioner of the Japanese floral arrangement art of Sogetsu Ikebana. She is an active member of the Ikebana community of Australia, and she has attained the highest possible Ikebana accreditation outside Japan.

Lisa Byrne, Director, McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park and Simon Lawrie, The Balnaves Curator of Australian Sculpture are available for interview, as are the artists.

                                                                                                                                                                    

McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery, 390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin.

Media information: Simon Lawrie, slawrie@mcclellandgallery.com, 03 9789 1671 (104)

And just a brief history of how it came about.

In January, 2016 I received an email from from John Meade, an artist of some repute and lecturer at Monash University. He had seen one of my arrangements on the Sogetsu website and was curious about the material I had used.

I explained that they were dried agapanthus flower heads that had been sprayed. I was under the impression that he wanted to know how to grow the curved stems himself. I was wrong. John contacted me later and we met, got to know each other and, long story short, he asked me if I would be interested in collaborating with him in a sculpture that he wanted to make in the shape of an agapanthus. Well, of course I was! But, seriously, not in my wildest dreams did I think that we would end up with a sculpture ten metres high. This was all John's vision.

I have a very large patch of agapanthus and when they are in flower, they are magnificent. I've been experimenting with manipulating their growth and creating interesting, curved shapes of the stems. I choose a young flower head whilst it is still soft and malleable and bend it, holding it down with a fork. Then nature takes over, with the flower wanting to grow towards the sun, thus creating  the curves.

I grew one such flower over a bent wire to create a kind of spiral shape. This took an entire growing season and then we had to wait for the flower to dry on the plant, otherwise it would rot. Neither John nor I was happy with the result, so we ditched it and started looking through my horde of dried flower heads. When I took out two such flowers that I had used together in an arrangement, we both said a resounding "YES". This was to be our shape. As for the name, 'agapanthus' is Greek for love flower.

When John contacted me telling me that he thought we should apply for a $250,000 Southern Way McClelland commission, I thought it was ambitious but 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'. Imagine my surprise and delight when he told me we were front runners!

John was an excellent project manager, overseeing the many different aspects of the whole project and bringing it to fruition.  Friday was a great day and will remain as a real highlight in my life. The channel 9 News crew were there and it was featured in Friday's evening news. For those, who may want to see that segment, I have included the link, below.
https://www.facebook.com/9NewsMelbourne/videos/love-flower/788350124917897/


After the unveiling, those of us who were closely involved with this project were invited to a sumptuous lunch at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. In my desire to contribute to the festivities, I volunteered to make some ikebana arrangements to be displayed at the gallery, to tie in with the original concept of the sculpture.

Referencing Love Flower at the entry of the Gallery

Below is a board with 5 miniatures, which were placed on the Reception Bench. It has been my experience that people love miniatures, creating discussion and often picking a favourite.

This next, very strong arrangement was placed at the far end of the Reception Desk.

The arrangement, below was placed on a table at the entrance of the Cafe.

The next two large arrangements were on plinths in the Function Room, where we had our lunch and, which became conversation pieces.

Pine (Pinus Radiata) and viburnum opulus in ceramic vase

Strelitzia nicolai and silk fabric in two heavy containers, necessary to hold
the very heavy flowers.

During this whole process I had, on more than one occasion, mentioned McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery and was most surprised at how few people had heard of it, let alone visited it. I can recommend it very highly for a morning or afternoon visit. It is a 16 hectare property with a collection of 2,700 significant works of art including more than 100 sculptures in the park. It also has a popular cafe, where you can enjoy a good cup of coffee or delicious lunch. I believe if you visit it once, you are bound to return.

https://www.mcclellandgallery.com/https://www.mcclellandgallery.com/

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

Each spring I like to play with arum lilies by bending their stems and creating interesting curves. The above arrangement was made with such curved stems in my self made container.

Last Saturday I ran a workshop for our Sogetsu group with the theme 'Tsubo vases' from Book 5. A tsubo vase is described in the book as being a vase which has a narrow opening and wider, round body. The book describes three different techniques for fastening  branch material in a tsubo vase without the use of a kenzan. I demonstrated the techniques and had three examples ready. In the first arrangement I used the Fixing by crossing' method but, since I only had one stem of the wisteria, I used a stick to cross with the wisteria stem and cut it short, thus hiding it in the vase. It held up the wisteria very securely. I fitted the rhododendron stems in between the split stems of the wisteria. The vase is a self made one.

In this next arrangement I used only two branches of the white lilac and fixed them together by the 'Fixing by crossing' method. The smell of lilacs transports me back to my childhood in a little village in Greece. Outside the front door of our very humble home was a lilac tree which flowered around Easter time. Mum knew how much I loved lilacs so went out and bought me one about 20 years ago.

The tsubo vase exercise lends itself best to naturalistic arrangements because branch materials are used that require splitting in some way. I challenged myself to find a way to make a more modern arrangement in a tsubo vase. Below is the result. I used the 'Fixing by crossing and nailing' method to hold the main stems of the Siberian dogwood with which I had created different sized triangles. I, then, fitted the smaller stems and the arum lily leaves in between. The solid blue coloured vase worked well for a modern arrangement.

Jenny Loo made the next arrangement. She used apple branches, strelitzia reginae flowers and marmalade bush (Streptosolen jamesonii) In a glass vase. Photographed at home.

Vicky's arrangement, below was very wide and difficult to photograph at the workshop, so she photographed it at home. She used Siberian dogwood and Asiatic lilies.

When I brought my arrangements home after the workshop I set them up again but did not have surfaces free for all of them. So I reworked the one with wisteria into a wall arrangement.

For class last week I set the advanced students the exercise of 'Only one kind of material' but in a nageire vase. I wanted them to revise the mechanics we use in nageire arrangements.

Jenny used just strelitzia reginae flowers and their stems in a beautiful Paul Davis vase.

Nicole used hawthorn branches in flower in a ceramic vase, a gift from Lucy.

I made three arrangements with this theme because, quite frankly, sometimes I don't know when to stop. The truth is that I have wonderful material and feel compelled to use it.

As I'm looking at the photographs of my arrangements, however, I realize that I have used self made vases in all three. This was not intentional.

Viburnum opulus

Rhododendron

Having done two naturalistic arrangements, again I wanted to try something modern. I used umbrella grass stems only and not their flowers.  I had been quite strict with the students, insisting that they don't use leaves and flowers of the same plant but sticking to only one part of the plant. Naturally, I had to follow suit.

I leave you with this 'Vertical Arrangement' by Lei Wang, who has just started Book 3. She used bull rushes, Green Goddess lilies and arum lily leaves.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

Is there anything more unashamedly showy than a clematis? The large flower in the above arrangement measures 20 cm in diameter. It is a deciduous, climbing plant, whose stems are very thin and, in winter when it is bare of leaves, it can be mistaken for a dead vine. Then, in spring, it brings out these gorgeous, large flowers and leaves that curl to attach themselves onto anything they can find. And, finally, the seed heads are swirls of feathery, silky threads, delightful in their own way. Any wonder clematis are so popular?

I made the arrangement, below, nine weeks ago, when we did a workshop on kiwi vine. When the Green Goddess lilies died I had removed them but left the kiwi vine in the vase. In the mean time, nature did its thing and the vine that reached the water produced fresh vines with leaves. So, I added a cymbidium orchid, that I have been nurturing, to make a new arrangement. You may notice that the arrangement is now facing the opposite direction. That's because the leaves of the vine were growing facing the window.

It was Japanese day at our recent Ikebana International meeting and, as part of celebrating things Japanese, we had a demonstration on Wagashi (Japanese sweets). Our demonstrator was Minako Asai, the owner and creator of MinnieSweets. I found it quite fascinating to watch Minnie create these delightful sweets from bean paste and colouring. And the bonus was the tasting.

The members were asked to make arrangements with Wagashi or Chabana (Tea ceremony flowers) in mind. I made a chabana in a small lacquered container I bought in Japan. I used a twig from my Contorted Hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta'), which is just starting to bring leaves. I used a single Dutch iris to complete the chabana.

Actually, I had three chabana arrangements to choose from. Below are the two that were rejected. I had treated the bamboo by placing it in boiling, salted water before arranging. This has helped to keep them from curling up. Now, one week later, they still look fresh.

Please go to Ikebana International Melbourne for more photographs from the meeting.


Below are two views of a simplified arrangement which came about from the dismantling of a previous one. The strelitzia was still looking lovely when the rest of the material had died and I rested it on the vase until I could decide what to do with it next. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it. So, I left it alone.

I leave you with this simple wall arrangement. What makes it special for me is the yellow clivia, which has flowered for the first time. Also, the colours of the Siberian Dogwood. This time of year the stems are still quite red and contrast beautifully with the new, lime green leaves and white flowers.

A close-up of the coloured stems

Oh, and an update on the Gymea flowers. They're getting closer to opening fully.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

The above arrangement was done using strelitzia nicolai after all the petals had died and left this very strong and sculptural material. It took some doing to secure them in that position as they are very heavy and have a very short stem.

Below is a photograph of my poor, long suffering husband, Sam trying to cut the strelitzias through the upstairs bathroom window. The plant is more than two stories high and the flowers are always towards the top. I had removed the fly wire screen from the bathroom window, unscrewed the sash window winder and removed it in order to open the window fully. Then Sam tried using the extendable cutter to get the flowers. Alas, it din't work and all our efforts were for naught. We reverted to using the ladder and, with great effort on Sam's part, we got the flower. The things we do!

For last lesson I had set a combined theme for the senior students 'Seasonal Materials' and 'A Variety of Materials'. This is a difficult exercise but the students rose to the challenge. I, too made an arrangement using seven spring materials but forgot to photograph it.

Bredenia used white japonica, lilac and karume azalia

Nicole used wisteria, azalea, apple blossoms, Japanese iris and blue bells

Jenny used wisteria, jasmine, daisies, Japanese maple and cherry blossoms

Shaneen's lesson was 'Intertwining Plant Materials'.

Shaneen used bamboo, grasses, an almost black tulip
called "Queen of the Night' and arum lily leaves

I've been enjoying all the wonderful spring material in my garden but my favourite one is this white flag iris, which has produced four gorgeous stems. There are very specific rules for arranging iris which requires many leaves but I'm reluctant to cut too many because it will weaken the rhizome. So I cut one or two per plant. Every time I make this arrangement I remember Teresa Faile, who has, sadly passed away and who demonstrated this method for us every spring.

This is he front view

And this is the side view, showing how the leaves and flowers
are arranged

More beautiful spring material. Viburnum opulus and clivias

Bye for now,
Emily