Tuesday 9 March 2010

on alphabetical order and introductions

Graeme Base, A, from Letterheads

Well, I guess I get to start things off, given the a-zi nature of this whole affair. I'm Amelia, the 'A' of this blog, also known as Meels. Ever since I was little, I've always liked that my name started with the very first letter of the alphabet, especially when teachers put us in lines or read out the roll (although pesky Alexandras over the years did spoil my fun somewhat). At risk of sounding supremely nerdy, I like how the letter a looks - both the symmetry of its capital form, and the hat-like arc of its typed, lowercase form - both of which are beautifully captured in Graeme Base's contribution to the recent Letterheads exhibition (more on that later though).

A is also good for me because a is for art, and frankly, art is what I am about. I am currently completing my honours in Art History at Melbourne University - writing a thesis on Italian Futurism, (not sure quite what that is? start by getting an eyeful here) and doing a coursework subject on Old Masters prints, both of which will likely crop up in my posts and preoccupations - and, whilst not doing that, trying to immerse myself in as much art as possible. That said, I'm not an artist myself, although I do dabble in a bit of amateur photography. Upon meeting new people, the conversation tends to go "Oh, art history? So you're a painter then?" No, folks, HISTORY of art. But I digress. 

I think my theoretical background helps me to approach new (and old) art with a critical eye. Each new thing I see gets assessed as to how it functions as a continuation of theoretical paradigms, how it draws on  and redefines these longstanding artistic traditions and lines of  inquiry. That may seem a little dry and scholarly, but for me it means I get to enjoy the way individual works of art bouce off each other in a neverending cycle throughout history. Nerdy, but fun! My mum is a product designer, now teaching high school design, so as a result I also have a soft spot for clever, original and eyecatching design, both at a graphic and 3D level. As someone who just waxed lyrical about how much she enjoys the appearence of her own initial, it's clear I love typogaphy too. 

So that's me, and those are the areas of interest I'll be bringing to this blog. The idea behind from a to zi is to bridge the physical distance (Melbourne and Malaysia) between two like minded friends (Amelia and Zi) through sharing creative inspiration and intelligent observation. Wow. Now that's out of my head and on the screen it's a fairly ambitious manifesto. But now it's out there - no going back. For now I leave you in Zi's capable hands.

1 comment:

  1. Sheer genius, ladies! I'm looking forward to many happy times reading your insightful, creative dialogue.

    ReplyDelete

Followers


 

Copyright 2006| Blogger Templates by GeckoandFly modified and converted to Blogger Beta by Blogcrowds.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.