Essays
A selection of essays by Margaret West.
Views and Vignettes
A catalogue essay that explores some of the themes and motifs which run through works exhibited in Scenes from Still Life, at Penrith Regional Gallery, 2008. The works, which are represented in GALLERIES (Memos; Past Imperfect; Still Life: natura mortua; The Last Afternoon Tea) are diverse, though located liberally within the Still Life genre.
Solid Things and Slippery Words
A paper presented at Awkward Objects Symposium, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney, during Sydney Design Week 2009, proposing that, although things and words occupy different terrain and may appear incommensurable, the place where they can meet most congenially is the poetic realm.
A Poetics of Taxonomy
http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/library/review.php?id=poetics_of_taxonomy
Karin Findeis' exhibition samples (A Taxonomy of Objects) exhibited in 2008 at the Macleay Museum in Sydney was outstanding in it's concept, production and presentation. Findeis' work draws upon the Museum's collections and Margaret West responds to the exhibition, introducing us to this beautiful body of work.
Mercury re P: on Location
http://basement.craftaustralia.org.au/research/20060227.php
Craft Australia Research Centre
The keynote address, delivered by Margaret West given as part of the on Location: Making Stories: siting, citing, sighting JMGA 2006 conference in Sydney in February, 2006.
The Flower in the Wound: Situations & Reflections
http://basement.craftaustralia.org.au/research/20050125.php
Craft Australia Research Centre
In 2004 contemporary Australian jeweller Margaret West was the guest artist-in-resident at the International Artists Studio Program in Sweden (IASPIS). During her residency West presented this paper The Flower in the Wound: Situations & Reflections as part of the IASPIS Craft in Dialogue program.
The Feminine: Five Patterns
An intimate look at the work of five contemporary artists: Susan Cohn; Rowena Gough; Gwyn Hanssen Piggot; Catherine Truman; Liz Williamson. Published in Object 4/98, Centre for Contemporary Craft, Sydney 1989. Originally commissioned by Peter Dormer.
View Through a Loupe
http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/library/review.php?id=view_through_a_loupe
Renowned jeweller and Master of Australian Craft Margaret West reflects on 40 years of practice in studio jewellery in Australia. She states that to be a studio jeweller is to be both a dreamer and a maker. Poet and engineer. Simultaneously or alternately to be lost in imaginative reverie. This article was commissioned in 2010 by Craft Australia to celebrate 40 years of innovation in the Australian studio craft movement.