I’m breathing new life into this blog as I have been making a body of new work for the shape of things group show at the Flow Gallery in September (Sept 10th – Nov 6th) and I realise that a lot has come out of making The Gifts that is having an impact. These smaller works, that are helping me define my visual language of textile sculpture-come-poetic object , are a real joy to work on and I am so relieved at the headspace they give me and the opportunity to work very intuitively over a number of hours in a kind of dialogue with objects I find. The starting point is normally a poem that suggests wrapping an object or an object that calls to mind a poem. The poems are always either from Rumi or Hafiz, so far..and I use extracts and bind them around on bias binding, like a three dimensional ode.
I’m working/blogging in parallel on an installation commission for The National Portrait Gallery , part of which will be based on The Gifts (1-99). I’ve developed it into a three part work to correspond to the three groups being portrayed, and using objects not just from the past but from the present and future. I am loving the balance between work on a large scale, public work which has involved intense encounters with others -and this slower, more intimate encounter with myself through object, text and material. I’m posting some images here to show what I am creating, some of which will be part of the Flow show.
It’s been a long time since i made work for sale in this way and the pricing is something i have to feel my way into..I am curious to see if it has commercial appeal but mainly i am revelling in making the work and how grounding it feels to do it and how it brings up other ideas for a next piece, like following a trail further and further into a forest of treasures..
I also have some interest in The Gifts being shown again next year, which, if it becomes a concrete possibility, i will write about next month. This is on my big wish list, along with it being purchased into a public /private collection so that it is cared for, and I believe it can happen. When it does, I will have crossed a bridge and a whole new vista will emerge of what’s possible with this work , in terms of its legacy and wider impact beyond the timeframe of engagement and initial display.
