I was all set to start blogging about my quest to trace the cotton supply chain of Morris & Co during William Morris’ lifetime, but I am finding myself caught up in my first last-minute panic. It’s another 3 weeks till the work has to be delivered to the William Morris Gallery so why ‘last-minute panic’ now? 3 weeks should be fine to finish my last two pieces.
The thing is, we’re getting the exhibition guide ready to print now and the guide has a section on every work in the show, so it meant writing about pieces I’m still working on. One is an embroidery piece that is all planned out so it’s just a question of putting the hours in, no problem. The challenge is with the other one, the one about Gandhi, the Lancashire mill workers and India’s struggle for independence (see previous post). I thought I knew what I was doing but now I’m not so sure. Adding block-printed wheels from the Indian flag still seems a great idea in theory, but I’m now questioning whether this would actually add anything in terms of form and composition of the overall piece. Of course I’ve been there before and I know how to resolve this: try out different things (print outs of an image of the work in progress are a great help with questions of composition), maybe let the work sit for a bit and do something else, and a solution will turn up – quite possibly while I’m running round Lloyd Park or brushing my teeth or something. Except now, I’m running out of time: if I’m introducing new media and a new element to the story of the work, this should really be mentioned in the exhibition guide – which will go off to the printers next week, so I’ve only got a couple of days to do trials and wait for inspiration. Fingers crossed!
