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.
