Valkyrie
A wearable artwork
August 2023
My latest wearable artwork “Valkyrie” debuted at the Australian Wearable Art Festival where I was selected as a finalist for the second year running. Modelled again by dancer/choreographer Fiona Jopp over three performances. Made from recycled materials, Valkyrie artfully blends steel Sapporo beer cans, velvet curtain remnants and trim, peacock feathers and antique seed pearls. The armour-like corset symbolises strength and pride, entwined with themes of death. This piece unites artistry and mythology, crafting a captivating symphony of beauty and meaning.
All images by Barry Alsop
In Process - Form and Function
Maleny Equestrian Arena,
Maleny Showgrounds
June 24th 2023
In Process invites you on an immersive journey where the studio becomes the stage.
In Process - Form and Function is an immersive live performance challenging the boundaries between product and process, studio, stage and gallery. It is a collaboration between David Bongiorno, figurative artist, Fiona Jopp, dancer and choreographer and Tobias Merz, singer and composer.
Described as something you would see in New York or Edinburgh festival, In Process 2022 by Fiona and David was inspired by deconstructing the human form and the self, performed at The Maleny Community Centre using the large floor space as both performance and audience arena.
In Process - Form and Function is an evolution introducing original music, live singing, a larger venue and newly developed approaches to mark making and a new improvised dance score that have developed as a response to the premiere.
As well as driving the pursuit of creative excellence, In Process as a concept gives the Sunshine Coast access to exceptional local artists who have spent a lifetime honing their skills and presenting their work internationally to critical acclaim. Performances of this calibre are rarely seen outside cities and festivals. It is even rarer to see creatives who have made their home in a regional area performing locally.
Principle Sponsor: De Deyne Family
In Process
Maleny Community Centre
November 4th 2022
A live performance work by Fiona Jopp and David Bongiorno.
In Process is a distillation and deconstruction of the human form described and performed in connected yet extremely different ways. David Bongiorno, a figurative artist whose body of work centres on the human form will create a series of drawn works in situ of contemporary dancer and choreographer, Fiona Jopp dancing an improvised score.
In Process aims to invoke a feeling of witnessing something that one doesn’t, or arguably shouldn’t see, a glimpse into the private exploration of artists at work. It also captures the dichotomy of the fleeting and lasting, the performance that exists only in that moment and the lasting physical depiction in the drawn works. We invite you into our performance space, a side stage view, a studio, a gallery, where you are free to move about the space during the performance.
Videography by Catherine and Richard Muldoon of Vivid Photography
Music curated and manipulated by Tobias Merz
Photography by Ketakii Jewson-Brown
Click here for an excerpt of the performance
Fowl Queen
Wearable Art
The ultimate artform of art for art’s sake. Wearable art fulfils every element of figurative art, including sculpture, design, beauty of form and of course the figure itself.
My award winning entry at the 2022 Australian Wearable Art Festival, Fowl Queen is an allegory for an archetypal deity, the Queen of Art and creativity. A muse.
The headpiece is somewhere between a crown, a halo and a bird of prey spreading its wings to take flight.
“The Claw” is her Torch of Victory against the darkness in the world. The egg holds the glowing spark of creation.
The garment is her beautiful plumage: bejewelled, regal.
As a figure artist I wanted to use the body as a framework that was an intrinsic element of the design. It’s foundation. It’s armature. It was very important that this artwork accentuated and enhanced the female form, not distorted or hid it.
The design draws the figure up, from the fluted hem of the skirt, through the bodice that supports and elongates the torso utilising boning and the feather motif and up through the scooped, fanned headpiece.
The skirt feathers were attached to bias binding before being stitched onto the skirt. All other feathers, linings and crystals were hand stitched. All other elements were handmade.
7000 moulted guinea fowl feathers
700 Swarovski crystals
Cotton drill corset
Recycled zip ties for boning
Cotton voile skirt fabric
Welded recycled steel armature for the claw (bucket handle, bicycle spokes and square section)
Polymer modelling clay
Harvested tropical birch twigs
Ostrich egg
String of 100 fairy lights
Modelled and dance choreography by contemporary dancer and choreographer Fiona Jopp
The Work consists of
