Friday 28 August 2015

Spring has sprung...

Sculptures byt Sai-Wai Foo Pleatybunny by Miss FOO
New sculptures by Sai-Wai Foo 
Spring heralds the return of my personality, over Winter months I turn into a grey lump of misery. I'm not made for wintery conditions, it's genetic programming I am much happier in tropical climates. Even more so if I'm on a hammock with someone bring me food, but I digress. 
Spring also heralds a new project, I'm taking part in Craft's Window Walk. The Window Walk is a new addition to the Craft Cubed Festival. It is a collaboration between 17 venues and makers to present window displays and is an extension of Craft’s very coveted Window Space 24/7 at Craft's HQ. The program self-guided tour of the city, and the venues are vary from stores in laneways, studios as well as more prominent locations. The bulk of the walk is localised in Flinders Lane precinct. 
Craft's Window Walk Map, I'm location 13!
Il Papiro Melbourne are my very lovely hosts, I was super chuffed to be allocated this beautiful store the backdrop for my paper sculptures. It's a little piece of Italy in Degraves Street, purveyors of high quality handmade and block printed papers, leather bound journals, boxes, nibs, inks and all manner of goodies that line the walls of this delightful store. 

"Feast of Spring" is a collection of mixed media and pleated paper works that celebrate the new season in a flurry pleated papers, pins, botanical illustrations and tarnished silverware. In this selection of sculptures I've included some new works. Some of which include the beautiful hand block printed papers that are sold made the talented artisans at Il Papiro in Florence

Sculptures byt Sai-Wai Foo Pleatybunny by Miss FOO
A small sculpture upon a marbled
throne!
"Feast of Spring" is on display 1-21 September 2015 More here and the installation on display 24 hours

Il Papiro 
Melbourne, Victoria

Contact details
Phone: 9654 0955
ciao@ilpapirofirenze.com.au
www.ilpapirofirenze.com.au

Opening hours
Mon to Fri: 10am – 6pm
Sat: 10am – 5pm

So pick a Spring day, go exploring and Enjoy!
Love Miss FOO xxx

Sculptures byt Sai-Wai Foo Pleatybunny by Miss FOO
A view of some of the works 










Tuesday 17 February 2015

Goats and shiny things....

Image of the big daddy goat before his sparkles were added
On Thursday it is the start of a New Lunar New Year and the animal symbol for the year is the goat. I am the first to admit I am an utterly, unrestrained dag when it comes to Chinese New Year. I love it for so many reasons, as with all festivals there is a strong links to Chinese traditions and family and as always it's all about the food too!
First Marquette
My favourite memories of my childhood are tied in to this festival.  I was brought up not celebrating Christmas so New Year was a big thing for me. Plus the red packets of money, new clothes and shoes were an added bonus. There were trips into Chinatown to see the big dragon or "Dai Loong", the lion dancers and fire crackers, of course these events were punctuated with a family for Yum Cha session. (Yes again food, my family are Chinese from Malaysia. Malaysian-Chinese are perhaps the most food obsessed people in the world)
In October last year I was approached by CPS (creative production services) to design a Lunar New Year display for the Atrium at Crown Melbourne. Fittingly for the year for the Wood goat I was asked to reference Chinese paper cutting as a starting point for my designs. It's a really simple folk art and are beautifully hand cut images that were traditionally used decorate windows and doors during festive periods.

Just after installation before all the shiny bits got added




I knew I didn't want to do the typical red and gold that is everywhere during new year festival; rather embrace the over the top, bright, slightly kitsch colour palettes of Chinese folk art, a little of the naivety and fun of my own childhood. New Year is a Spring festival so the decorations are all tied in with this, the symbolism of the various elements are really important as they reflect good luck and fortune. If you want to read more about this go to this link.
I had a recon trip to Crown, I have walked through this space before but I never really taken notice of the sheer scale and cavernous proportions of the Atrium, this is where I began to panic. (The finished piece measures approx 5x5 meters high and about 1.2 meters deep) I really didn't need to worry as once I had completed the design all my sketches, art work and scale Marquettes were handed over to an engineer and a construction team that basically made my model ten times bigger. This amazing team sorted out how it was going to work, then welded, cut, clad, built and painted it, all I had to do were the finishing touches - lots of shiny stuff & staple gunning. 
It was a real experience to just hand something over and wait to see the results, plus there was the added bonus of having people to direct. Again an interesting experience, yelling out instructions to your glitter wranglers, when the are several meters above you on a scissor lift, also does not help that it was an ungodly hour of the morning and I was having trouble articulating left, right, up and down.
So after months of work it is finally installed and completed really happy to be able to show the process of getting from a sketch to a finished larger than life installation.
The piece is on view in the Atrium of Crown Melbourne throughout the Lunar New Year Festival until the end of February 2015. Hope you enjoy looking at the process of getting to the finished installation. If you do go & grab a snapshot of it post it on instagram with #pleatybunny or #pleatybunnybymissfoo or tag me @pleatybunny it has been fun seeing the photos on Insta!

Gong Xi Fatt Choi 
Love Miss FOO xxx

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Supergraph and a super start to the year

Hi there! 
It's been awhile since I have posted on my blog but I'm a back. I've had a pretty amazing start to the year with lots of projects and exciting things happening, largely involving lots of glue, shiny things and paint, but more on that later. 

At the end of this week I will be exhibiting at Supergraph a contemporary graphic art fair focusing on design, print and illustration. I will have a Pleatybunny by Miss FOO booth and I'm bring a selection of illustrations, small scale paper sculptures, prints and of course bunnies. There will also be Supergraph "super specials" and items that I have made especially for the event. Prices start at $15 for prints, so no matter what your budget you can get a bit of Miss FOO lovin' in your life! 

Supergraph will be held at the  Royal Exhibition Building more details on the Supergraph facebook event page!








HOURS
OPENING NIGHT! Friday 13th - 6pm - 10pm
Saturday 14th - 10am - 6pm
Sunday 15th - 10am - 6pm


ENTRY 
Adults $8/$5 concession 
Kids under 12 Free


Hope to see you there! 
Love Miss FOO xxx


Monday 16 September 2013

Books pleats.... getting lost in the pages

It's that time of year again the gorgeous team at Artisan are holding their Annual Artist Book Show again. I am there will bells on. I'm looking forward to taking part again, based on the range of work, quality of the submissions from last year I have my work cut out for me!
Lost in the Pages by Sai-Wai Foo

With my entry this year I decided to explore what I love about books. I like to develop ideas based on a theme or on a thought. This time I wanted to look at the immersive elements of reading, the simple joy of getting lost in the text and pages. Nothing nicer than losing yourself in great writing combine that with a cup of tea and I'm really a very happy girl!



Here's a few work In progress shots of the piece. It's titled "lost in the pages" and is a small scale paper and mixed media sculpture. A enamel painted doll's head is engulfed by pleated book pages, the book binding is super soft distressed leather that I have been using on & off for awhile. I love the aged patina & marks on the leather.



I currently have some other work at Artisan in the cabinets, so if you happen to be in the area duck by & have a look.

If you are on the hunt for a craft, art or fashion book this is a great store. The staff are really knowledgeable, friendly and will do their best to help you track out a hard to find book! The show runs from 14th September to the 12th October  and details below!

Love Miss Foo XXX


159 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy Victoria  3065
AUSTRALIA
Hours:
Mon-Fri: 10.00-17.30
Sat: 11.00-16.30