Ya Big Softy- installation view

 Ya Big Softy. 2013. Vinyl, fabric, wire, foam, thread. 73x174x174cm. 

A few installation shots of Ya Big Softy from the exhibition Momentum at Belconnen Art Centre from earlier in the year.

 

Ya Big Softy

Ya Big Softy. 2013. Vinyl, fabric, wire, foam, thread. 73x174x174cm.

Photo: Brenton McGeachie.

 Ya Big Softy (detail) 2013. Vinyl, fabric, wire, foam, thread. 73x174x174cm.

Photo: Brenton McGeachie.

Ya Big Softy (detail) 2013. Vinyl, fabric, wire, foam, thread. 73x174x174cm.

Photo: Brenton McGeachie.

Fiona Veikkanen transforms industrially made, mass-produced objects into carefully considered handmade curiosities. Veikkanen creates unassuming objects that resonate with associations of home, personalisation and the urban environment. 

Often engaging with traditional craft techniques including quilting, crochet and pompom making, the unique and personal effects of the craft process transform objects that are typically man-made, industrial and impersonal. These altered objects, now detached from former function revel in newfound appreciation, yet retain hints of a previous use and life. 

Since the birth of my third son -Horatio -last October, I have had the absolute compulsion to create ‘The softest thing of my life’. 

Feeling strangely soft and vulnerable myself I wanted to create something that would speak of this profound softness, of malleability, private/public and self-consciousness. And of course it’s creation would be firmly based within the home. 

As well as the physical softness of an inflatable, the old blow up mattress has a particularly unpredictable and precarious nature. Subject to change, to deflate and disappoint, what more appropriate a material for the creation of this work-Ya Big Softy. 

Since graduating from the ANU School of Art in 2010 Fiona Veikkanen has exhibited with enthusiasm including two solo shows and numerous group exhibitions. Fiona has received several awards, grants and a residency at Canberra Contemporary Art Space. Most recently Fiona has exhibited in Blaze 6, a group exhibition at CCAS Gorman House, Creature Comforts, a solo show at CCAS Manuka and was included in the Australian National Capital Artist’s contemporary group show Material World.

 The Publication

Momentum (and sneak peak)

Tiny mustard coloured sneak peak of my latest making- bottom lower left!)

Hope you can make it along to the opening- next Thursday 28th March at 5:30pm at Belconnen Arts Centre. Exhibition continues until Sunday 14th April.

For more info check out the Belco Arts Centre site HERE

Soft

It all started with a find of old inflatables.

Well that, and the desire to create the softest thing I would ever make in my life.

I have been feeling an indescribably softness. so deeply inescapably soft.

 a softness that comes with the smell of sleep, milk, bodies held close. 

it is not particularly fit, and certainly not very charming.

it is something that cannot be kept.

it is unimpressive. 

it is private.

and beautiful.

My art making has never seen more interruptions and lack of solid focus. But I find myself not particularly minding. The sewing of a single seam tends to turn into a mass coordination of people, Play School, not to mention the manipulation of the material that writhes at the prospect of hurtling through the sewing machine.  

These things always take so much longer than expected. I really should know that by now.

 I hope it will be eye catching, funny, well made and beautiful -as well as inherently soft.

Corinbank and Chai

 I like the idea of my artworks existing in locations other than galleries, and it did just that a couple of weekends ago at Corinbank- a music and arts festival just south of Canberra.

 Festooning the Chai tent, these Woollen Blankets which you may (or may not) recognise from my solo show last year at The Front took on new weblike forms. Perhaps it is just me and my recent time spent vacuuming off the cobwebs from my ceilings, but I was genuinely excited about these! 

There is something about an intricate creation above your head which you usually don't even notice, an artwork that holds on tight to the ceiling or walls, drooping and moving with the breeze while you sip your cup of tea.

Corinbank Website with words of interest if you feel it too.

Model Citizens Exhibition

 Sleep In, 2011

Helani Laisk- Pile, 2012

Adam Veikkanen- Bananas, 2012.

 Warm Wool, 2011

You can find plenty more photos of the show on curator Chloe's website art on show.

Model Citizens, Wobble and Me.

Wobble Magazine centre fold.

This weekend is the exhibition Model Citizens- I have a couple of pieces in it including this one which is featured in local Canberra magazine Wobble!

This artwork- Sleep In - is something I made at the end of last year/ beginning of this year and then exhibited in Blaze at Gorman House. 

So I'm showing the same artwork again- which I felt a bit funny about.

But when it comes down to it, I am happy to. 

I still love this piece, and more than that even though it was made a bit ago it is still relevant. It is tactile and homely, familiar yet unexpected, laboured over and thought about- Sleep In still expresses what I want to say today. Not everyone made it to Blaze, and even if they did, here you go for a second viewing.

Yes, I have been more than usually busy with other things lately, but 

I'm still keen to make and exhibit the fresh and new, although I don't always have to.

There is something so satisfying about seeing my name in print!

The exhibition ‘Model Citizens’ of Apartment G09/G10 will open on Saturday 27 – 28 Sunday October, Kendall Lane, NewActon, Canberra. This pop-up exhibition is curated by Chloe Mandryk and supported by the multi-arts festival Art, Not Apart. 

 By the way, artist profiles are posted in the lead up to the show on the artonshow website.