When all else fails…. go back to an earlier abandoned project ……
Today, in frustration, I dug out a project I had been working on earlier this summer. I had used paper wings for an installation at Metal, Liverpool and again in Norway but I wanted to make them more ‘sturdy’, so I coated a few of them in resin. I was semi pleased with the result, but once I’d done it, I wasn’t really sure where to go next.
Combining the wings with the last few days of experimenting with words, seem to work quite well. It’s a less complicated idea than the works I’d been stressing out over recently , so maybe that’s where I should be going?
I have had an achingly bad day in attempting to produce anything worthwhile today. I think maybe it’s because I don’t have a proper plan and I’m just experimenting with things in the hope that they work…. but they haven’t.
I had filled delicate shell type objects with anything from alginate to resin in the hope that it would make them strong enough to be handled a lot, but I noticed this afternoon that two had smashed anyway.
Making the most of the heat, I thought I would gloss and varnish some other things, but they too ended up a mess.
I don’t want to give up because I have so little time to work on these things, but I think for today anyway, I need to walk away from all this and try again tomorrow.
Maybe tonight I should jot down a plan of action?
An interesting development has occurred in the last few days…. Despite never being known for my bookmaking skills, I’ve been asked to be involved in a book fair.
A wave of panic went over me when I thought about attempting to make some delicate object that somebody might want to own, while desperately trying to recall the rudimentary steps from the book course I attended a few months ago.
Why on earth would anyone ask me to do this??
Emailing back to say I couldn’t do it, I got this reply:
( after a reference to the works I already make with paper and words )..
Books of course are the theme, but any sort of paper craft would be just as wonderful….. Interpret the Fair how you see it… experiment …….
Experiment? Ha! OK. So let me get out of my head that I am making something for sale. If I actually finish anything, my books are to be viewed as ‘experiments’.
So today, I experimented. Watch this space!
My work ‘Declaration’ is now safely in Leeds and hopefully already on the wall. The wood was quite fragile and I was worried that if I kept drilling holes into it, it would shatter completely. Therefore before it went on its travels, I coated the back of the top layer of wood with a thick coating of PVA and stuck a rectangle of cloth to it. I was hoping the textile would give the piece some flexibility while also holding it in place.
I don’t often work with wood, so it’s all a learning process.
If you happen to be in Leeds from tomorrow, please look up the Basement Arts Project in Beeston.
http://ageofprohibition.wordpress.com/
The 100 paper houses in this artwork represent a possible solution to the regeneration of derelict terraces in parts of Liverpool.
The demolition of these buildings is highly contentious, with many residents taking the view that the houses are ‘fundamentally sound’ and that ‘renovation would be preferable and cheaper.’
With arts funding cuts greatly effecting public artworks , a question of how we can sustain the level of art visibility – which has grown immensely due to the popularity of the Liverpool Biennials, with the funds needed for the regeneration of the area.
Each house in this installation is covered with a reproduction of an artwork, including my own work.
Most of the images were cut out from discarded magazines, so the idea of recycling and reusing is very much part of the thought process behind this work.
I am still working on how the houses should be displayed, so the images are of just 50 of them.
