Getting back into the studio
I had my first afternoon in the studio on Wednesday since having my baby and I really enjoyed having a play with materials. I also needed to buy some props to start building my lo-tech set for In the Making…Who knew it was so difficult to buy bamboo sticks, apparently they are going out of season. Although I did manage to find long plant pots, these will provide a base for my bamboo structure. Instead of using soil in the pots I sourced white material cushion filling that is fine and dense. It is important that all my props are mono. Inside my bamboo structure I want to nestle cotton bud forms which I quickly made from cosmetic cotton balls and wooden pegs. My props are very simple, although its how they are performed which builds the complexity in the piece. I filmed myself making the fake cotton buds. The making is a simple task but enough to keep your attention as I softly hold and shape the cotton together. I have been considering whether to use the image of the collapsed Primark factory in Bangladesh. Will people watching the performance know what the image is? Does it really matter? It is clear that the image is of some sort of disaster. I really want to emphasise the link between shopping and disasters, seems flippant right? Although I do feel that this is how people can be with absolutely no idea as to where or how things are made anymore. This includes myself. I need to create enough of a spectacle to get peoples attention by styling and dressing my set like a shop window. I recently had the idea of using shopping baskets instead of plant pots. I wanted to use a roll of paper to document viewer’s responses to the performance. I have now changed my mind and think large tags would work better as they can be tied onto the bamboo structure.
Planning and Proposing
My next Re:view meetings are in Coventry and I need to arrange a date to see Martin Roberts, Senior Curator at the Herbert Gallery and performer Pru Porretta (http://www.theherbert.org). It may seem a bit off the beaten track but I think it will be good for me to research outside of Manchester. Part of the attraction of visiting Coventry was to see all the artworks of Lady Godiva around the city and how her legend is extensively depicted in artworks. In art there are many idealised images of women even though we know they are not true. Nothing much has changed really when we think of how women are represented in the media today. Without really knowing until now this is something I refer to in previous performances and comes up again in the images I have been looking at of women working in the mills. I have never been to Coventry before and would love to find out more about the contemporary art scene there. While I am there I would like to visit Coventry Artspace (http://www.coventry-artspace.co.uk).
I have made a first draft of a proposal for Hazard this year (http://www.wordofwarning.org/hab/hazard/). So far I am happy with it although the only bit I am unsure of is the photocopied image as it is quite a political statement, which I never use in my work. I could broaden the appeal by using illustrations of the ‘how to’ cotton flowering process. Or am I just over complicating things and should just use an image of the idealised woman at work? Is that enough of a statement in the performance? I need to give this more thought.
Practical synopsis:
A woman moves around a set of three props appearing to be making things from cotton. Prop 1. A wall of sticks and cotton being pruned which are set in long plant pots. Prop 2. A woman sits on a chair and spins cotton from a large cluster of raw cotton. Prop 3. She paints red marks on small sections of an A1 photocopied image. The woman will complete all three tasks as one sequence and continue repeating.
Why
Predominantly my research has been carried out on the Internet and in the museum. From the found imagery I have viewed online it is easy to make assumptions of what you are looking at. The process of growing cotton is magical, with the end flowering process making actual cotton on the stalk. Paintings of the woman at work weaving thread are mostly idealised images set in a domestic setting or in clean working conditions. This is a far cry from the reality of working in some of the Mills in Manchester, which could be dirty, dangerous places. Today cotton garments are still made by hand although most products are made in China or India due to cheap labor. Most recently a factory making Primark garments collapsed in Bangladesh killing 450 people. In my performance I want to present the clean and dirty side of the cotton industry instead of a romantic ideal. I want to present my work in progress and get feedback from the audience at the event to see what they think the work is about. I will provide a roll of paper for people to write their comments about the work. From this feedback I will use it to develop the work further.
How
In my performance I want to create the illusion of making. I intend to achieve this by using found Internet imagery of the cotton making process and re-create them in a performance. I will make actions for each image for example. Prop 1/Action. A set of three long, rectangular plant pots have sticks of bamboo making a simple structure for the cotton pods to nestle in. I use chopsticks to prune the cotton on the stalks. Prop 2/Action. I pull at a large clump of raw cotton. I pull ready-made thread from a hidden reel inside the material. I then cradle the cotton on my hand and wrap around a bobbin. Prop 3/Action. On the floor lay an A1 black and white photocopy with a small pot of red paint and brush. I sit on the floor on my knees and fill in small sections of the image with red dots of paint.
