The Crafter’s Way 171 – artisan Exhibitions

This week's Messenger column.

artisan is continuing their eclectic program with their first two exhibitions for 2011; Rock’n’Roll Photography is the New Trainspotting and Beautiful Beast.
Rock’n’Roll Photography is the New Trainspotting is a selection from 30 years of Rock Photography by Tony Mott. In his youth, Tony Mott was a trainspotter; collecting locomotive numbers was his hobby. When he arrived in Australia, having emigrated from England he began collecting as many photographs of rock stars as he could. The move to professional photography was made when the Divinyl’s Manager used one of his photographs as a tour poster.
By the late 1980’s Tony Mott had been the tour photographer for the Who’s Who of Rock ‘n’ Roll, having toured with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Fleetwood Mac. With more than 30 000 photographs published Tony Mott’s work has been featured on CD covers, posters, books and magazine covers.
The exhibition, comprising sixty photographs, represents the latest in a series of exhibitions that artisan has presented looking at the correlations between art, craft, design and music.
The second exhibition is Simone Tops’ Beautiful Beast. Simone Tops is a Brisbane based artist who works mostly with glass. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and now works for her studio at the Metro Arts Norman Park Substation. In this exhibition Simone has used glass and ceramics to create strange beasts representing the world of obsession and collecting.
Both exhibitions continue until the 19^th March at artisan, 381 Brunswick St. Fortitude Valley. Make sure you allow some extra time to have a browse through their gift shop at the same address. Alternatively if you are enjoying some time out at Southbank, artisan has now opened a second gift shop at the Southbank precinct.