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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Peter McMahon Collection of Contemporary Australian & International Art
• Sale Date:
  06 Mar 2016 ~ 2.30pm
• Lot #:
  120
• Lot Description:
  Mari Funaki
  (1950-2010)
  Continuum Container 2003
  heat coloured mild steel
  29 cm high, 46 cm wide, 5 cm deep
• Provenance:
  Gallery Funaki, Melbourne 2006
• Exhibited:
  Space Between, Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, April 4 - 29, 2006; Mari Funaki: Objects, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, 6 August - 24 October, 2010; Artist in Focus, Mari Funaki, Works 1992 - 2009, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 27 June - 18 October 2009
• References:
  Robert Cook, ArtistÕs in Focus, Mari Funaki, Works 1992 - 2009, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 27 June - 18 October 2009, p. 13 (illus)
• Notes:
  The Japanese-born artist Mari Funaki established herself in Melbourne in 1979, initially studying painting at RMIT. The transformation to jewellery and object making came later with private tutorage from jeweller Viliama Grakalic. FunakiÕs practice flourished when she enrolled in the Gold and Silversmithing course at RMIT in 1988. It was during this time that Mari formed and developed the idea of Ôthe containerÕ while on a visit to Japan. Funaki observed her nephew capture a beetle and together they examined it, ÒIt was so beautiful and I held it in my hand and studied it, moving it around in my fingersÉÓ Mari had re-discovered the three dimensional world. ÒI suddenly saw it so differently. It was a secret little world. There was much expression, intricacy and unusual form in the beetle.Ó 1 Container 2006 is a structure both grand and minute, much like an insect enlarged to an abnormal size. The work reflects contradictory elements of strength and delicacy with an impenetrable black steel shell, while balancing on spindly legs. Yet FunakiÕs works also curtail elements of architecture, design, even calligraphy. The construction of them beckons one to look at the negative space surrounding and enclosing these containers just as much as the object itself. In this sense the objects turn ones gaze inwards, as Otto KŸnzli wrote; ÔOnce we open up they open up to us. We step in and engage. We entrust their spaces, caves and gaps with our thoughts, with our wishes, dreams and memories.Õ 2 In 2010 the National Gallery of Victoria held a retrospective of Mari FunakiÕs career following the artistÕs progression from wearable jewellery to purely sculptural forms. Mari is a two time winner of the Herbert Hofmann prize (1996 and 1999) and received an Australia Council Emeritus Prize in 2007. Her works are in the collection of numerous institutions across Australia, notably the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia and Queensland Art Gallery. 1 Robert Cook, Keeping the secretÕs secret, Artist's in Focus, Mari Funaki, Works 1992 - 2009, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2009, (note: quotations are from an interview in Perth at the AGWA with Mari Funaki, Marian Hosking and Robert Cook, February 20, 2009, p. 6; 2 Otto KŸnzli (translated by Johannes Hartfuss), Cubist Calligraphy?, Mari Funaki, Gallery Funaki, 2007, p. 5
• Estimate:
  A$15,000 - 20,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.