So here’s some of the ‘Ideas for the artwork’ section of my proposal:
‘Having worked extensively with combining both objects and texts to communicate individual narratives within installation contexts (see The Loom: from Text to Textile (2005), Crafting Space (2008) and The Gifts (2010), I would like to explore how the nine mother tongues of the groups involved – mediated by the tenth, English – may be used to presence the individuals within an artwork and communicate a sense of internal self that provides a deeper dimension to the idea of straight portraiture. This would involve written material generated with the collective and edited and could extend to recorded sound which could be integrated into the installation.
‘I would also like to use personal objects that can communicate aspects of personality and meaningful life experiences and introduce my cloth-wrapping practices into the process, to encourage a sense of ritual and connection between the participants and myself and form part of the piece. This idea of concealing objects in order to presence individual narratives relates to the overall concept of presencing the Unseen. Combining wrapped objects with texts, and/or using multi -lingual texts written and inscribed on the floor or onto surfaces that are then mirrored and multiplied to fill the room three-dimensionally would be a framework for the finished idea to be developed into.’
With these ideas in mind, Louise, the (excellent) project manager and I have spent a couple of days with three specialists at NPG (Claire, Marc and Robin) who know the collections well, attempting to find works which connect with the project and may interest the participants.
This is challenging when the focus is on representation as so much of the work (apart from the more contemporary work) is predominantly white, powerful men -and a few women, well mainly Elizabeth 1. In the Tudor rooms, we looked at everything but the faces for clues – since object wrapped in cloth and texts are going to be the main medium, the idea of ‘reading’ cloth to understand the value system and tastes of the sitter brought our focus on the sumptuous presence of Middle Eastern (predominantly Turkish) rugs in portraits like that of Catherine Parr (I love the way her hands sit and that long rosary of mini-portraits she holds) by Master John and Queen Elizabeth 1 wearing her cloth of gold…
More on this to come tomorow as i try to decipher my notes taken in the galleries, time for sleep right now..
