CRASH

Hi all, 

just to let you know I have been incapacitated for some time as I was involved in a car accident. I'll be back soon with more updates on my work.

Work Ethic

Back in January I was lucky enough to be chosen to take part in the Work Ethic exposition. It brought together a group of undergraduate Fine Art and Creative Art students from across disciplines who engage with ‘process’ as an integral part of their practice. Instead of an exhibition that presents a collection of finished works the intention was to present a space in which the artists’ journey was made visible.

With 'making' as a central theme the show explored the artists' relationship to work. For the duration of the two week exhibition the audience were presented with a space filled with the sights and sounds of production. They witnessed 'process' live and in a constant state of change.

Work in progress, Jan 2012

We used blackboards as a way of charting their daily activity. We clocked in and out by recording the hours our work and by keeping a log of our actions. I enjoyed exchanges with interested visitors about the working process, and the motivations behind my work. Also discussing some peoples relationship with their work; and fascinating anecdotes about doilies.

  

In my original proposal I had put forward that I wanted to work on a textile mixed media project. It was a work in progress and is a piece that explores the changes in the gender roles apparent in todays society and in the influences of iconic figures in the modern era.

Final Piece, Jan 2012

At the private view the piece was brought to life with performance, my son "slept" while the audience engaged with the work. This brought attention to the piece and provoked reactions and discussions regarding it's meaning. 

While working on the quilt, I felt that it was successful in some areas. I needed to pare down and choose one aspect to focus on. After the show I dropped the printed images and concentrated on just using the crocheted doilies as a means to highlight womens redefined position. The revised piece was put into a subsequent show, 'We're here, where are you' which I'll talk about next time.

Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something.-James Laver

We have a rich heritage of textile artists with icons of the field such as Sheila Hicks, Michael Brennand-Wood and Sonia Delaunay. I have always been a great admirer of Louise Bourgeois, who used a wide range of medium throughout her expansive career. She dealt with highly emotive, personal issues, a pioneer in confessional art that has become more popular in recent times with artists such as Tracey Emin. In this piece, a detail from her Cell series she used garments to represent the family unit, an aspect that was prominent in her work.

Louise Bourgeois, interior of Cell VII, 1998.

To quote writer and artist Quentin Bell  “Our clothes are too much a part of us for most of us ever to me entirely indifferent to their condition: it is as though the fabric where indeed a natural extension of the body, or even the soul.

This emphasises the potent quality that clothes can bring to art, heavily laden with metaphor they offer the artist an excellent medium with which to convey their ideas.

Looking again at the wonderful Guerra de la Paz, a collaborative I wrote about previously in 'The use of Fabric in Art'.

Guerra de la Paz, Pieta, 2005.

This piece, an appropriation of Michaelangelo’s masterpiece Pieta refers to the futility of war.

Their recurring themes reference classic imagery in a critical, contemporary light. They believe that their work has universal meaning. It speaks of life, its cyclical patterns and dichotomies.

Unidentified, 2011.

 

In 'Unidentified' the barbed wire topped fence is packed with found clothing that fittingly represents the oppressed masses. The garments are a resounding metaphor of people they represent – encaged within, as in a prison, or a death camp. Political awareness is resonant throughout their work, requiring little explanation.

It is important to the artists that the essence of the clothing used be as evident as the concept, whether it is incorporated as a whole or deconstructed. They stated that they started using clothing as a medium as there was an overwhelming abundance of it ….

‘the colour, texture, flexibility and archaeological quality defines a time-a place-the person who wore them-the society they come from……..

It brings the energy they embody which often directs us as how the garment is to be used.’

Manto (detail), 2011.

This picture is a detail from a recent piece, a large installation with an interactive performance. Its theme is matriarchal, using feminine lacy garments in whites and ivory tones. The visitor is welcomed in by an ambiguous figure to gently dance and then the figure falls onto the cushioned floor, to rise elegantly, ready to dance again. The cyclical, feminine theme attracted me as it parallels what I’m hoping to evoke in my current work.

In the recent exhibition ‘Material Actions’ I was introduced to the work of Lucy Brown. She makes sculptural textiles using deconstructed underwear and vintage costumes. Using the historic background of the garments to create works that explore and comment on femininity, identity, and body politics.

Lucy Brown, Limbo (detail), 2009.

With Limbo, using her signature undergarments, Brown highlights an aspect of the human condition. The piece is rather abstracted, with the clothing used as yarn to weave a piece that is evocative rather than representational.

She states ‘the work explores narratives around the absence and the presence of the body, clothing and unclothed, and issues surrounding female identity.

The garments history is an important factor to imbuing meaning into her work. This aspect  resonates with the choices I make in my own work.

  

My artistic practice has changed greatly since starting my degree course, previously I was happy painting in an abstract expressive manner BUT felt that I wanted to convey more socially aware, political messages in my work. I have discovered the most incredible artists over the last two years, especially those working with textiles and have found that this medium is particularly powerful in intimating meaning.

While we sleep, Clare Tigoglu, 2012.

In a recent piece of work 'While we sleep', an interdisciplinary installation, I used doilies en masse to comment on the changing gender roles apparent in society today.

I feel acutely aware of the need to recycle the fabrics that are available to us, for obvious ecological reasons and for my own means to utilise their anthropological sub-content to enhance concepts in my work.

I am starting a new film project using underwear to explore my own personal body politics.........just working out the logistics.

Doilies

Doilies , crocheted in a spiral structure, growing out from a central point whilst firmly anchored by the integral structure to this core. Delicate and strong reflecting the females who made them, representing the cyclical time by which women are governed by. Evoking memories of expectations…..

Dyed black, subverting the concept deeply rooted in their origins of innocence to create a bold statement, celebrating their beauty, indicative of the death and reincarnation of women’s role in society.

While we sleep……

Blackfoot's Dream

The Kiitokii society from the Blackfoot tribe are historically known to have revered the bird, the story goes that a young tribesman was visited in a dream by a chicken, who asked why he had killed him…..he replied that he did so in order to feed his family, the chicken replied that he would spare his life if he promised to teach everyone the chicken dance. From there on the tribe celebrated the chicken as a vital provider of life.

The live chicken has often been represented in art throughout history, linked to fertility and abundance. Through the subversion of portraying it as a consumable product I am hoping open up discussion on society’s attitude to the chicken. Furthermore I am seeking to use the ‘ready to cook’ chicken as a motif representing vulnerability and to celebrate and venerate this.

My interest lies in the symbolic use of animals throughout various religions and cultures, and the design similarities that are apparent across the world. The chicken as a totem animal in native America holds the meaning of ‘the sacred spiral’ indicating the cyclical nature of life.