Lower visibility
With several works in progress and none of them resolved, I find myself forgetting what has already been achieved and concerning myself with what hasn’t yet! Easily done, especially when these works in progress all live in different places: scattered around sunlit spaces in the house, lying out on the verandah and of course, in and around the studio. I am beginning to realise how vulnerable things are when left outside, even in this highly predictable climate. After a couple of disasters caused by freak gusts of wind which left smashed glass strewn across the studio courtyard I took a few things into the safety of my home. My partner is a sympathetic soul and treads carefully around the arrangements.
I begin a work this week using some high vis shirts and a plastic washing basket, all from the tip. Ever since I can remember, in my house, many of my friends’ houses and my family home, the washing basket overflows. I wanted something that, much like the puzzle, tends to be left alone for some time before tending to it. The washing basket stuffed with clothing seemed to be a good example. Packing my newly acquired baby blue number with dirty washing including the high vis clothing, I leave it out in the sun hoping that a stencil of the spokes and holes in hte basket will transfer onto the fluorescent fabric as the sun causes it to fade.
I like the idea of the shirt being an indication of somebody who is perhaps no longer around, yet has left traces of their former presence. I will return to this work soon, although I have a feeling this is a ‘long haul’ piece so to speak, as the fabric will probably fade at a much slower rate than the paper I’ve been using.
Rolling forward
After more days of collecting, assembling and scribbling down ideas, I arrive at a solution for a work. Having spent the last five months or so travelling and working in Australia, the process of settling in a place, throwing together a life there and moving on in a matter of months or even weeks has been very much on my mind. It is amazing how swiftly a place can begin to feel like a home.
The work consists of a roll of newsprint paper partly unrolled across the floor in a sunlit space. A rubber doormat is left on top of the paper, leaving a discoloured stencil of it’s patterned gaps caused by sunlight. The mat is rolled over to leave a further stencil, and so on along the length of the newspaper creating a succession of ‘prints’. In this work I want to express the idea of a temporary home and give a sense of a continual process of moving, settling and uprooting.
I have also begun the tedious process of completing a 1000 piece jigsaw with a limited palette of murky tones. Whilst this may seem like the ultimate procrastination, the jigsaw is accompanied by Vague Plan so have faith, this is not a complete waste of time just yet. I want to complete the puzzle laid over a piece of card during the next month or so, leaving it in sunlight in between sessions. The finished work will show only the card that was underneath the pieces, telling a story of the jigsaw’s slow completion in subtly lightening shades. The puzzle (nabbed from the tip of course) shows a painting by George Lambert, an Australian artist known principally as a war artist during WW1. This work is entitled ‘Weighing The Fleece’ (1921) and depicts farmers in a sheering shed doing just that. I am interested in the idea of this classic rural scene being referred to perhaps in the title of the work withough being visually discernable. More on this later.
I arrive at the studio early and mornings pass quickly and peacefully. By 1pm I begin to roast (it is a tin shed after all) and activity slows down as the heat sends me into a dim and drowsy stupor. I wonder at how best to avoid my daily incineration. Ice blocks in front of fan? A second fan? Portable fridge to stick head in at intervals? Earlier starts? Content with the last two solutions I vow to shift my routine forward a few hours and go to bed earlier.
