Saatchi Photos...

Found these little gems whilst having a sort through iphotie. 

They fit in excellently with what I am looking at. 

1. BIG

2. SPACE

3. STRANGE

4. THE COLOURS!

Great Stuff. 

The scale is something to pick up on.

I have decided, I am not working on anything smaller than A2. 

Possibly a little problematic whilst still sampling in my dyefibre workshop, and also bigger=more fabric=more money. But hey ho, bigger dye samples could be more interesting to see how things look BIG. 

Photo blitz.

I went crazy and dyed everything, and took loads of photos, and changed everything. Trying to bring together a bit about what I have been thinking about and just experimenting.

So, thinking about surfaces, making forms and colours... The colours are not quite right, so hopefully the dye workshop can sort that out for me.

Instead of hanging thread, for no reason (other than just suggesting space and scale) I am going to stop that for the time being, maybe, and instead make cords! And think about the actual surfaces, so using the pintucking again, the tailors tack and cording -for surfaces and hanging... and of course, handstitch and wrapping! Hopefully with hand dyed yarn and what-not. 

'The Everyday'

A book about the use of 'the everyday' in art, about what is 'the everyday'? Mundane, boring? Day to day activities, which are...?

The book comments and illustrates how some artists have 'a desire to bring these uneventful and overlooked aspects of lived experience into visibility'.

Annette Messager is referred to someone who explores this theme. Her work surrounds ideas of feminism, and so fits in with the 'everyday' as some of her practice 'shines an ambiguous half-light' on predominantly 'womens' activities; sewing, washing, cooking, cleaning. Even though it is about feminism, its also about looking at the everyday, or what is to be assumed as everyday.

It made me think about removing and reinventing the 'everyday' of textiles.

Or working with the everyday of textiles.

And whatever the everyday is, I quite like it.

Space and place...

From the lectures I have been thinking a lot about space and place and I have read a lot of things that I have found intersting. Work of artists, working to bring together about a sense of place ; a jeweller in holland, exploring this concept by creating a public art piece (with some relation to jewellery) in an empty space, which everyone could contribute towards, therefore making something where people had a connection to, an association with...meaning it was now a place.  Had a sense of community.  Also what I found interesting was the fact that he believed, because he was a jeweller, his idea was accessible as jewellery has a connection to the body -people wear it.

Textiles? association of 'cloth' with people? 

Textiles is familiar; as in the material of objects and things around us; clothes; warmth; wrapping; sewing and repairing.

Thinking about working towards textiles pieces that go in a space or a place.

A place can be defined as - an intangible, mythical web of memories and association

A space can be defined as - abstract and unidentified (unless it is known mathematically, eg. boudaries, spaces under tables, a measure of a gap...)

So to think about turning a space into a place, putting things into spaces to make places- putting textile sculptures or forms (like the cotton buds and cocoons and other shapes and things)  

Because of the familiarity of cloth they could create a sense of place and familiarity, but if they were strange forms/placed differently/ coloured differently and 'unheimliche' they may even create a feeling of 'fragility' (something I am still thinking about).

It had been a very thoughtful past few days, to say the least.

Drawing

I have been doing a few drawings, thinking about grounds, lines and fragility...

It was initially one big drawing, but I decided to cut it into 3, this part being the one I think feels the best...

Wrapped...

Little-big cotton bud like things... My little attempt at trying to put things in a space...could go on to think about stitching and connecting spaces...

Evaluation...

My project has been about curiosities, form and creating things that are ‘robust and fragile’ in one way or another.  When I started the project, I didn't really know where it was going to go, but I wanted to experiment with more materials and processes, and colour, use more handstitch and become more fluent in my methods. 

 As I like to ‘make’ first, I thought hand processes would be best, and it is where I have been able to get my ideas together and experiment with different materials and objects, and do lots of stitching, wrapping and arranging. The workshop has  proved to be a starting point in project where I have gone on to look at meaning and forms. Through reviewing my work, I have found composition and ground are important, as well as things being linear and repetitive. So using lots of hand and machine stitch together works well as I think it has made my work more personal and interesting.

I want to go on experimenting, definitely more colour as this has come through in the latter part of this project and is something I am going to develop. I want to look at preparing surfaces with things like gesso, wax and wire, take the forms of the all stitching as well as the processes and think about the scale of them! I think I should have experimented more with scale and space so, next time, I am going to take things out into spaces, seeing how things look in different places. The kinder surprise task really helped me think about this possible experimentation- I can imagine all that bright plastic and paper turned into fabric/plaster/wire in muted colours could look quite different. So thoughtful experiment and scale is next!

 Notes, notes and more notes! I use my sketchbook a lot to document, especially as there have been a few changes in direction. I find this is as an integral part of my working as it’s easier to see what I have done and may do next; think, do drawings and little samples and notes on artists and ideas to move it along. I think my need to document everything is a little bit obsessive! I like recording everything down; I do like looking at collections and artifacts, so maybe I’m trying to make my work become my own little collection…

Looking at artists has been very helpful with drawing and making and developing content. For example, a changing point was when I looked at colour, then went on to look at Mark Rothko, it really made me think about the project in a different light; creating a feeling, so something being physically less robust or fragile, thinking about it more conceptually. This is something I really want to expand on the next part of the project.

What has really been helpful is the tutorials within workshops and tutor groups. I have found it really useful to constantly be reviewing my work and see what others are doing. I like to see if other peoples work is similar in terms of context or forms and so its really useful to find out how they are using workshops and developing their project, e.g. I realised the ‘dyefibrecloth’ workshop would be the next and best step for me! I  can always pick up something from listening to other people about their work, even if it is completely different to mine, it could just be a word or an artist, so I always keep looking and listening…

                                      

Louise Bourgeois

'I've always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle, to repair the damage'

Again, I really love the simplicity of her works, I think there is lots to take about colour, shape and form. Her work is very personal and sometimes quite unerving, two qualities I quite like...

Hanne Darboven, Agnes Martin.

Hanne Darboven

I really really like the whole simplicity, layout, colour scheme and form of this work. It's so detailed everything crammed in at the same time, yet it still seems peacefull...Makes me think about machine stitching...

Agnes Martin

These drawings make me very happy. I love the order, repetition and colour. I really love how it's so linear, but they are not boring or anything uninteresting at all. I really do loved order and lines and simplicity so this is really inspiring me to think about building on these ideas...

More samples...

I have spent time making a few more samples that I quite like, they have a bit more of a nicer 'ground' lots of stitch, machine and hand.

So I decided to put some more together: trailing stringy bits; lines; contrasting stitching/colours; piling them up!

I think since the sampling task, I have been much more thoughtful about what exactly I am making, still a few more things to do; more colours (grey,blue and white things) and couching things...all things to carry on doing over the weekend and in the next half of the project!