Tamlin Blake Explained

Tamlin Blake
Birth Date:	1974
Birth Place:	Johannesburg
Nationality:	South African

Tamlin Blake (born 1974) is a South African mixed media artist living and working in Riebeeck West. The major themes of Blake's work revolve around cross-cultural South African symbols of wealth and status and, more recently, what constitutes and underpins each individuals sense of belonging.^[1] Her sculptural pieces often transcend boundaries between illustration, craft, and art, using weaving, beading, and drawing, amongst other media.^[2]

The main body of Blake's beaded art works took the form of South African stamps finely woven using glass seed beads.^{[3] [4]} “By replicating these original stamps in a traditional craft idiom that has such a strong association with indigenous African cultures, Blake offers a genteel but acerbic reference to [South Africa’s] troubled past.”(Innes 2012: pg20).

While working on her own bead art Blake helped Jeanetta Blignaut,^[5] to establish a bead studio which today exists as the Qubeka Bead Studio,^[6] a collaborative owned by the bead artists themselves.

After this Tamlin used a variety of different media including three-dimensional pieces in felt and beads to explore the use of farm animals as valued commodities and symbols of wealth and status across the boundaries of race and culture.^{[7] [8]}

Blake's more recent work consists of tapestries woven out of recycled and hand-spun newspaper ^[9] a collection of which were bought by The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection ^[10]

Career

Education

Blake received a master's degree in Fine Art from the University of Stellenbosch in 2001.^[11] Blake majored in sculpture during her undergraduate studies, and then specialised in botanical art.^[12]

Select group exhibitions

• Brett Kebble Art Awards, Merit Award, Cape Town (2003)
• Synergy, exhibition of contemporary bead art at Iziko Michaelis Collection, Cape Town (2005–2006)
• South African Art: Signs, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava (2007)
• Skin-toSkin: Challenging Textile Art, Kaunas Art Biennial TEXTILE 07 in Lithuania (2007)
• Spier Contemporary Exhibition, Cape Town (2007–2008)
• South African Pavilion, World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China (2010)
• Tamlin Blake, presented at the Spier Booth at the FNB Joburg Art Fair (2012)Spier presents Tamlin Blake at the 2012 Joburg Art Fair

Collections

• Contemporary Collection for The New Hollard House at Villa Arcadia Hollard Insurance
• The Spier Holdings Contemporary Art Collection Spier
• South African Breweries
• Meulensteen Collection, Slovakia
• Nandos (UK) Nandos
• Water Colour Society of Ireland at the University of Limerick (Ireland)^[13]
• Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University (USA)^[14]
• Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia

Works

Inherited Space

Mural at the Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.

Awards

• Merit Award, Brett Kebble Art Awards, Cape Town (2003)
• Silver medal, Kirstenbosch Biennale, Kirstenbosch Gardens, South Africa (2002)
• Silver-Gilt medal, Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show, RHS, London (2002)
• Top graduate student of the year, Department of Fine Art, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

External links

• Altered Yarns
• Private Spaces

Notes and References

1. Web site: Profile. Tamlin Blake. 23 April 2012.
2. Web site: Cape Listings. ArtThrob. 23 April 2012.
3. Web site: Journey / Change of Address / Wildenboer . 17 December 2012 . 5 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160305221137/http://ava.co.za/journey-change-of-address-wildenboer/ . dead .
4. Web site: IOL | News that Connects South Africans. 30 May 2024.
5. http://www.jeanettablignaut.com/ Jeanetta Blignaut
6. http://www.qubeka.co.za/ Qubeka Bead Studio
7. http://bell-roberts.com/?exhibition=104 Exhibition
8. Web site: Previous . 17 December 2012 . 8 October 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111008200716/http://www.blankprojects.com/0510-blake.php . dead .
9. Web site: Tamlin Blake -.
10. Web site: 亚洲有无码Av在线播放,肉体裸交137日本大胆摄影,综合激情丁香久久狠狠,亚洲欧美春色校园另类小说.
11. Web site: "Private Spaces" by Tamlin Blake. Cape Town Today. 23 April 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110917230416/http://www.capetowntoday.co.za/Art/CWF/Private-Spaces-Tamlin-Blake.htm. 17 September 2011.
12. Web site: Inherited Space. Spier Arts Academy. 23 April 2012.
13. Web site: Ireland. 8 January 2014.
14. http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/HI-PDF/Bulletin-16-2.pdf Bulletin