Dowd adventures in Bologna: Corte Isolani

martedì 2 ottobre 2012

Corte Isolani

After a wonderful opportunity to exhibit in Villa Spada in late June, l was offered the space in Corte Isolani. It is a hugh brick wall about 20 meters high and 10 meters wide. The work was the "Bologna" series l had at Villa Spada, but instead of a round room 5 meters wide and 8 meters high, l was given this. The only thing l had to think about was the weather, as the wall is exposed inside the court. So l simply wrapped them in high grade plastic, to protect them from the rain and wind. this is the problem you have when you work in cardboard!
So after a nervous hang up a 8 meter ladder, drilling the pictures to the wall, while Jayne and Angelica held the ladder, what l hoped would take about 2 hours took the whole day, but finally it was up and looked rather good. I must say l like the plastic wrapping , it gave the work another dimension and sence of viewing Bologna through a different way. The work has been up now for nearly a month, in that time it has rained rather heavily, but not a drop has got through, and thankfully, no one has seen the need to press a cigarette into the plastic.
We are having an opening on October 11th, which will be good, and in the meantime, many hundreds of people have walked by and seen it. During this time l have been busy back in the studio, after a month not working in Australia, and l am on a roll. I have a few shows coming up, a group show in Hong Kong, and a solo show in Wangaratta , Victoria. And of course my monthly or so exhibitions in La Picccola Galleria.
The boys have been rather exhausting lately, maybe from coming back from Australia, or maybe because they can be!
Jaynes Italian moves along well as ever, and mine has moments of clarity, like yesterday, when a artist called Alessandro knocked on the studio door to have a look, he was passing by and saw the picture and me working on a woodcut print. So between his broken English and my shameful Italian we conversed, and l must say, l was surprised how much we spoke, l think it helped with his Italian being slow and him being from the north.
The boys and l have lunch every tue, wed, thur and it is working out well, so far no rainy days. The problem will be when it rains and the school policy not allowing us to eat a meal inside the school , unless it is provided by the caterers. But l may be able to swing a deal with the art teacher to eat in the art room.
So now l will stop, with Jayne continuing to practice piano with Ewan, who seems to not want to play piano, but other days he does, Hunter is just hanging around, bored and annoying all of us. This is after he suggested we join DOJO, a teacher/ student motivational program, giving points for good and bad things. Unfortunetly, he gets upset when he gets a bad point, and therefore losses more points. This of course leads from his gambling habit, and needing to win at all cost. He is now at the computer hassling me and making me laugh at the same time, better go.