Angela Valamanesh: About Being Here
Angela Valamanesh: About Being Here, is a book on the artist Angela Valamanesh, who expresses her curiosity about human, animal and organic forms through clay sculpture.
The reader is taken on a journey through Angela Valamanesh’s art practice, introducing the various organic and scientific inspirations in her ceramic forms, as well as commenting on the prominent public art commissions Angela Valamanesh has completed with her husband Hossein, like the well known water feature located prominently in front of the Museum of South Australia.
The book begins with a wonderful description of Angela Valamanesh’s life and the development of her art practice. It allows the reader to refer to the gallery of photographs of her art practice as well as her Bibliography and Curriculum Vitae, which conclude the book, for more specific details.
While this book is primarily focused on the studio practice of Angela Valamanesh, it also provides an insight into the development of the art and craft culture in South Australia, for example mentioning the several locations of the South Australian School of Art (now located in the University of South Australia’s city campus in Adelaide), as well as interweaving details of other prominent South Australian based ceramic artists like Gerry Wedd and his ironic ceramic thongs, or Milton Moon with his strong eastern influences.
Angela Valamanesh’s artwork draws inspiration from organic forms with roots in the minimalist ceramic traditions, suggestive of early eastern ceramics. The gallery of artwork featured in this book follows her art practice from her early ceramic pots of the 1980’s through her developing style until present. The reader can see her changing and developing ceramics, progressing from singular glazed bowls to sequential unglazed vessels in clay, coloured in earthy tones. Her later pieces featured, are conceptual based sculptures, drawing on organic and in some cases protozoic forms. The gallery concludes with her more recent investigations in the Natural History Collection.
This book is engaging not only for the informative content of Angela Valamanesh herself but also for the plethora of information it provides in addition to her art practice. It is well laid out and large colour images bring the artworks to life. It is easy yet informative, and the reader can refer to the art mentioned in the text, easily. The release of Angela Valamanesh: About Being Here coincides with the opening of the (SALA) South Australian Living Artists Festival on 7 August 2009.
Cath Kenneally is a poet, novelist, journalist and broadcaster who has won awards for her five collections of poems. She holds a PhD and MA and has been published in many journals and news papers. Angela Valamanesh: About Being Here is published by Wakefield Press and is due for release in August 2009.
Angela Valamanesh: About Being Here
Author: Cath Kenneally
Genre: Non-Fiction: art
Publisher: Wakefield Press
ISSN: 9781862548497
RRP: $45.00 AUD
