Feeling Festive...

I decided to recycle the ribbons and paper from christmas presents and incorporate them into my chicken wire sample experiments...

Reflection...

Something i found really unexpected is as i have started to develop on a piece of research I had (Richard Tuttle's - The Place in the Window) , I have also been setting up the Visible Mending Project at UCA, and currently also have my woven diary samples, at Jo Aylwin's Gallery in Farnham (where i originally found The Visible Mending Project), is Carol's inspiration for the project came from a broken shed window, which she repaired by using chicken wire and various materials to darn the gaps, stopping the wind from entering her studio. This was something i didn't know until i had read her artist statement, after setting up the project and starting my own chicken wire samples.

These movements, that have come together in the last month, were all very different pieces of research, done over different periods of time, some right at the beginning of this project, others as development as the project has gone on, and now they have all come together to create a juxtaposition of different ideas and concepts... it seemed like a really good time to reflect and prove that what was just a few ideas has become interwoven in place, context and concept... all things i think a diary holds.

"The Place in the Window"

When i first looked at Richard Tuttle's book 'I don't know the weave of textile language', it was his work at the turbine hall that attracted me to his book, and how his evaluation of text and textile represents weave as language. Our everyday life can be interwoven, or sequential with the choices we make and routines we follow... but this piece stood out, as when i completed my samples, I tried weaving very freely, not thinking too much of an outcome, but trying to be instinctive and just do or create whatever i felt that day. But reflecting weave still requires a lot of structure, you have to set up a warp (vertical threads) before you can weave anything through it, so although i was trying to be very liberal, i was preparing and thinking a lot more than i realised, and this piece inspired me to think about grids, or structures that are already available.

Tuttle has used pulp on top of chicken wire, but what if you could weave through the mesh, create tassels and movement, but also texture, the contrast between metal and fabric...

Here are some initial experiments, with the same approach as the diary samples, just selecting yarns that stood out to me, and weaving very freely.

My Visible Mending Postcards...

I found it quiet hard to choose what to design for my entry to the Visible Mending Project.

I wanted it to relate to the project and researching diaries, but be personal to me.

I chose these two postcards, as i felt they document the Journey i have been on to get to where i am today. Also thinking about media, i wanted to add Textiles in but also make them mixed media to show my development from Textiles to Fine Art.

Now my postcards are done, I feel quiet sad that i wont get to keep them, but it's become quiet therapeutic, to make something so personal and then send it on to be seen by others, but letting go of old feelings and emotions... I also like the idea that one day i might come across them again, but in a different chapter of my life, these will be something that i can reflect on.

Carol Parker - Visible Mending Artist Statement.

Artist Statement's: 

Day Two - The Visible Mending Project.

This exhibition will be at UCA Canterbury from:

(11th December 2015 - 25th January 2016)

Day One - Visible Mending Project

Experimenting with some initial ideas of how to present this exhibition...

Visible Mending continued...

The Visible Mending Project has Arrived!!!

To see more about Carol's work with the Visible Mending Exhbition:

Blog: http://artrovings.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cuinamo

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/carol.parker.5872

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/socengage/

Visible Mending Project

Progressing from Post Secret, I came across an exhibition at Jo Aylwin's Gallery in Farnham last year, called the 'Visible Mending Project', the project is a series of Postcards that people have altered and sent (to Carol Parker, who created the exhibition), which tours, each stop people add to the collection and then it sent on to the next person...

... I love this idea as it combines looking into Diaries as Art, but incorporating Textiles and also Text, which has become something i am trying to develop in my own samples... I am very excited as speaking to Carol about her work, she has agreed for me to have this exhibition over Christmas & New Year, to get people involved and help with my research.

Post Secret - Frank Warren

I decided to include Post Secret, as to me this Movement is a great representation of a Diary, it also tests both themes of being Private and Public. People send in there post cards anonymously, but then they are put together in a series of books, that anyone can buy and read, Post Secret also developed as an App, where people could submit digital 'Secrets' and others could see and respond, but it was taken down after just 3 months.

Here are some of the Secrets i selected from two of Frank's books, "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives" & "The World of PostSecret".

http://postsecret.com

Susan Fletcher in dialogue with Alain Urritia - Artist Statement

Artist Statement:

Susan Fletcher in dialogue with Alain Urrutia

I recently came across this exhibition at the Herbert Read Gallery, at UCA Canterbury. What i found appealing was the use of space, but also the simplicity the deck chairs created with the red yarn draped down... from a distance it makes quiet a bold statement, but up close its actually very fragile and the deck chairs look worn, with holes punched through the canvas, they have become transparent, and the yarn almost looks too heavy, against this tired chair.

Once i read the Artist Statement, the two words highlighted were "Display" & "Fragments" this really resonated with me, as display is something i am trying to observe and also experiment with, having a series of woven samples they can become lost, in the white space, a gallery offers, but the word fragment... Fragments being just pieces of something, for example a broken window, has fragments of glass...  This was something i found really related to my concept of a Diary and is something i would like to take into consideration when developing all my research into a final outcome piece.

http://www.suefletcher.co.uk

http://www.alainurrutia.com

'Dear Diary' at Jo Aylwin Studio & Gallery - Farnham

‘Dear Diary’

04/12/2015 – 04/01/2016

This project is a fun and experimental approach on a traditional Textile Craft; Weave. This series of samples represents each day over the period of a month (5^th October – 5^th November 2015), and was woven very freely, not thinking about application or purpose, just what yarns or colours stood out to me on that day, these samples are part of a bigger project looking into Diaries as Art and/or Textiles, for my final year studying Fine Art, but collaborating what I have previously learnt studying Textiles for Fashion & Interiors.

I have a blog that runs alongside this project, which has my research and ideas, as well as photo’s of these samples in various locations.

Narrativediary.blogspot.co.uk

Please also feel free to write in my guestbook.

http://www.joaylwin.co.uk