Origin Interactive: Crafting Space

Seven days to go before set up. I went into the garden and came across no less than ten huge spider's webs, obstructing my path through the space…It is the season to weave.

Am just back from an inspiring weekend course based on Joanna Macy's 'Work that reconnects' – she is a Buddhist, deep ecologist /activist/ philosopher with an expertise in 'self-organising systems'. There was a strong sense of the power of unity and interconnectedness in relation to our attitude to the earth and also to each other
I realised on the walk home through the autumn sun that this piece, once it makes its transition into the public domain on Oct 7th, will be a self-organising system. Poetically speaking, if Crafting Space is a living being, then; the steel mesh structure is the skeleton, the ribbons are its skin, the texts are its DNA and the public is its blood, its life force.
More on self-organising systems later! The final round of ribbon writing (tools, on the fifth tier of the roof) is the work to be done. Willow and her assistant have been sewing together double wall sections and roof sections to walls with wire, to minimise the work there is to do on the set-up weekend. By the end of wednesday, when we do our final session at Willows, the structure will be complete and poised for a second life.
www.joannamacy.net/html/deep.htm

LOOSE ENDS

There is always a point in the lead up to the opening of a project where it feels like my hands are full of loose threads and i am constantly trying to find the ends and clear my palms. I think it is because the bulk of the hard production work and decision making is done but there has still been a long list of small outstanding tasks to do, a lot of which Raphaella and i have got through in the last two days.

I also have to prepare the ribbons for the fifth (and final, lowest) tier of the roof arms. I realised they need to be neatly woven in to keep the beauty of the shape and also begin the colour transition from plain gold/white into what will be a varied palette chosen by the public from pale gold through to deep reds, sienna and dark blues.

Yet the actual fact of the passing of the work to the public is only just over three weeks away so the tone of energy has changed. There is a feeling of a period of intense transition and I am beginning (after a ten days of illness and exhaustion which knocked me sideways) to get very excited. I love the fact that we have created an object that will be a major player in a live experience that will impact a large number of people within a short period of time. The potential scale of participation in this project is a new step for me and i am curious as to how it will go and how the structure will look by the 19th of October.

There have been issues with Willow around crediting which we managed to resolve. The creation of the structure , which is the centerpiece of the project, really has been a collaboration. She has designed something based on an idea I had and done most of the hard work to bring it into existence. She has also been an important sounding board for other aspects of the space design and I understood it is important she is publicly credited for this where possible, as the project has some profile and this can make a difference to public access to her extraordinary work as a sculptor and designer.

Raphaella has been getting in emails from people wanting to volunteer who seem really interesting, (textile students, creative writers etc) and i realise that this project is so interdisciplinary that those working in the space will themselves have a diverse set of threads with which to connect with both each other and the public. I am keen for the team on site (myself, Raphaella, Lili and the volunteers) to be engaged in the making/growth of the piece as much as possible, eg writing/weaving experiences of Origin into the structure and consciously holding the space so it is as accessible as possible.

WEAVING WORDS

Weaving Words, it’s the essence of my work right now…Raphaella, Willow and I had a long session at Willow's studio pre-weaving the roof last friday. As with every aspect of this structure, we are -literally – crafting it into existence and it is long, labour intensive work that takes you out of your mind and into your hands and has its own time frame. Having said that, Willow has done most of the physical work and I am in awe of her capacity to work with such hard material (steel) in order to bond with my soft material (ribbon).

Needless to say we didn't finish but we got a long way. We have woven four our of five tiers of all eight roof arms. I am leaving the fifth for the team to work on during the first days of the show, to document what we find around us in Origin. Willow also pointed out that we need reference to tools, as well as materials and forms, so that will be woven in too. She says the Holy Trinity of the artwork is the artist, the tools and the viewer, with the artwork hanging somewhere between them…..

We also got to try a sample of the blue voile that Hattie sent over to see how the fabric wall will work in the background. It's beautiful, just need to see how the sewing and text printing tests come out now.

We realized while weaving it that the edges of the ribbon really need to be glued to the mesh edges in order to preserve the integrity and elegance of the roof’s shape. Willow has worked out a way of doing this that is as painless as possible but it will still be two days work for Raphaella and I to do over the next couple of weeks. But then it will be done!

The next job is to finalise the texts for the banners, design the postcard and focus on the furnishing of the space.

We have already received a few responses to our call on artsjobs for volunteers for the actual show, I am hoping it will attract a diverse range of people to get involved as it does cover so many bases – textile, writing, craft generally, architectural installation, socially engaged practice…

I realize that so much of my work lies in communication, invisible material really. Ramadan has begun and I have decided to make a short piece of work every morning before dawn to keep the ‘making’ energy going… I am not fasting as i am still feeding Moses, but it feels like this month, which finishes just before Origin opens, is a kind of preparation, an emptying out of unnecessary inner stuff.