Fran Allison

Fran Allison is a contemporary New Zealand jeweller. She is also a lecturer in jewellery at the Manukau Institute of Technology.
Her most recent jewellery, addresses ideas of re-formatting and past histories. Up close they draw the viewer to "reminisce of long summer days in the garden, of making daisy chains, and of times gone by".






The inspiration for her work comes from many areas, including a fascination with the connotations associated with found and/or discarded objects. She cites Julian Schnabel: 'I work with things left over from other things' as a source for this exploration:

On Collaboration and Collective...

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor [that is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus... Or as Richard Loveless may put it - "Collaborations become great only when everyone in them is free to do his or her absolute best — and is committed to seeing other members do their best as well".

An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management - towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the needs of the artist, this can range from purchasing bulk materials, sharing equipment, space or materials, through to following shared ideologies, aesthetic and political views or even living and working together as an extended family.
Sharing of ownership, risk, benefits, and status is implied, as opposed to other, more common business structures with an explicit hierarchy of ownership such as an association or a company.

Fran described how a collaboration raises questions about ‘ownership’ over the finished work - I can understand how this aspect of it could become an obstacle, especially when several proud artists come together and want the credit of the hard work they put in. Collaborative efforts also involve those who employ the skills of others, from disciplines outside of their own, to execute or improve an idea, Like in the collaboration work I talk about below - often friends helping out other friends because they have differing technical skills that are in need. Collaboration allows artists to be risky/experimental - they may not have the skills/idea's own their own. It seems a collective is a group of artists working beside, and being influenced by each other, and a collaboration is people using a collective intelligence and working together to produce a specific outcome.
A successful collaboration relies on equality among the artists involved, no one person’s role is more ‘important’ than any others.


Fran is a member of Weeds (a group of New Zealand artists involved in Object or Jewellery making). They were all collectively ‘pissed off’ by a 'Bone Stone and Shell' lecture which suggested these materials and this traditional style as being definitive of New Zealand jewellery practise. So...Fran got together with Andrea Daly, Shelley Norton and Lisa Walker, to change things.

Fran’s works are often made from found items or appropriated, domestic materials, such as handkerchiefs, doilies, pins, fabric etc. The objects made by all four artists involved in Weeds all have an aesthetic which is far from traditional ‘bone, stone and shell’ which they were rebelling against, it is more domestic and hand-made because of the ‘craft’ materials, symbols and techniques, such as crochet and assemblages. "My work at present consists of reformatted doilies, embroidered handkerchiefs, children's clothes and crockery. I like to use pre-existing objects in my work that come with an already established language. Then I like to mess with that reading in some way. The objects start off as decorative in one sense or in one environment and end up on the body as decorative jewellery pieces. A challenge for me is to reconfigure these 'found' fragments so that they still possess aspects of their original attractiveness" - says Fran.

“For me ‘Weeds’ is a platform for experimentation. Each ‘weed’ is different from the one before, and each could be cultivated into a body of work. Each piece is a new beginning, an exploration into new materials sourced from the domestic urban environment. The pieces explore the decorative possibilities of op shop discoveries, all containing previous histories and meanings. The added advantage of working in this way is that any discards become compost….”



Another example of Collabarative work is "Paula Cunniffe" - A NZ artist who did collaborative work with Nic Foster...It was a Six day residency at The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatu – 1-6 June 2004, named "Art Practices revealed". The statement Nic made was "Making art about ones physical surroundings, the immediate culture and the artists emotional capacity or state of mind within those surroundings is the phenomena that needs to be unraveled when an exhibition is being presented." In this work we see two different creative people bringing different sets of skills together to create one idea.

http://www.masterworksgallery.com/index.cfm?action=artists&page=profile&artist_id=86

http://www.fingers.co.nz/exhibitors/Allison_weeds_05.htm

http://www.quoil.co.nz/artists/fran_allison/

http://www.form.co.nz/exhibition_landg.htm

What is Deborah Crowe’s “One Idea” made up from and how does it keep recurring in various ways?

Deborah Crowe was originally from Dundee, Scotland. She immegrated to New Zealand over twenty years ago. This is visible in some of her works.

What ever this 'one idea' of Deborah's is she uses bridges, weaving, space, interdisciplinary, containment, construction, architecture, recyling works and textures as reccuring themes in her work.
I think one main Idea she has explored is exploring space, and the way we perceive space.

One of the works she did 'Beneath the surface', Deborah looked into the "contained body" (as she states), the idea of how women 'contain' their bodies , and in a way torture themselves. She also looked into 'torture' as a part of her work - putting people in the room with objects - creating space in their mind and imaginations.




'Beneath the surface', 1997.




Adina…This was another work where Deborah looks at women 'containing themselves'. The Idea of how we percieve space shows in the way she has used a material that we can see through, but also looks very painful to wear. Creating a space in which the viewer can feel 'torture'.

Another important aspect Deborah uses to portray ideas is her planning and drafting process. At the show she did in Te Tuhi (below), the 'edges and Ideas in how we plan and draft things' became the actual drawing process.




Contilever, 2006,




Dunedin public art gallery, how it intercepts with a building, responding to natural space. Art gallery in octagon.,




shift 2000:This is interesting because it shows how fabric can express weight, the reminiscence of people. The contrast between the light airy object and an object tht actually has weight. It is interesting also this work that Deborah didn't realise until later on what it was that influenced her in the making of this work, she states it was her mothers death. She also talked about how the shadow can be a symbolic element, the shadow can re represent ourselves, and act as a medium that moves between two-dimensional and three-dimensional.




One artist Deborah was influenced by was Caroline Broadhead a british maker trained in jewellery, she also made work in textile- she shifts betweeen disciplines. This work created a space in which the body was contained by a neck veil.






Collared – In 1999 Deborah suddenly became a jeweller, although she didn’t think of herself as a jeweller, instead she preferred to think of it as 'work of the body'.

At Fingers shot (gallery but sometimes like a shop) she had done all research on corsets, she found out when men used to wear them It used to cut their necks - (hahah) implied the torture in her work. She worked out of nylon and copper wire, emulating fabrics - but made them into harder surfaces… fine stainless steel gauze (from inside the tap) - a cool way of exploring materials and their potential…




IN her colab with Kim Fraser, at supreme smokefree fashion awards in 1997 they designed a garment 'for the future' (to be 2004)...She said the inspiration was 'On making a safe space for yourself… to hide away from technology… a visor on the front, related to architectural structure'… Using copper to conduct energy - creating space to escape from technology. Looked like it was closing the body in, but the model stated it was infact quite easy to move about in.

they started afashion label called 'FRASER CROWE', lots of inspiration came from the corset, and reflective tape to look like a line drawing in space…

She is also interested in how things fit together, weaving and how tiny little differences can 'make a difference'. SHe has done a lot of resource gathering at britomart, looking into construction vs. fabric - cloth and buildings how they are both constructed in a similar fashion. She said she was interested in people looking at it and thinking what might actually be behind the wall…she would take tiny details and blow them up, in one instance Deborah made work 3m tall from tiny piece in other works.




Catalogue mark Kirby, one type of work seems to mimik something else,





Warp: is also term for vertical threads in woven fabric…to make this work she used fishing line that was dyed. Her palette became what she hand dyed, looked like modernist paintings, it wasn’t deliberate.




Another artist that really influenced her work was BRIDGET RILEY…(shown is Chant 1967)… amazing about how colour works together.. No painter has ever made us more aware of our eyes than Bridget riley… became like this, with study of colours, when putting together the threads..


Her 'one idea' came uo also in the work she made for Hokianga art gallery. It was a 'Little bit like a labyrinth or maze, creating space of what u might be contained in', Deborah claims… Exposing people to 'what was real and what wasn't real'.
This was perhaps along the line of her 'one idea'. Playing on what was 'real and what wasn't real'. Through this using all the above manipulations to do so.

Other aspects/artists that have influenced Deborah Crowe include:


The Bridge - one of her favourite structures…

Janet Laurence and her work at the Sydney biennale aug 20 - 'qualities in her work that are so 'brilliantly, architectural yet expressive'.

The film Inception (2010) - influenced her in visiting Dubai 2010, making images and turning them on their sides.

Paul Pfeiffer - the saints, 2010,

Luc Besson.,

film “In the Loop”…. she was influenced in this when making work made of fabric to contradict what is sewn on it (Oxymorons, something that has a contradiction).

Nahem tevet, seven walks Dundee, www.tevet.com

Claire Barclay, a Scottish artist, she sculptured objects, Crowe states "there is an oddness in her work that I really wanted to have in my work but didn’t manage".


SO, the one idea... playing on what was real and what wasn't real. Using many different ways to do so.
Ciao :)