Wow, that week between blogs turned into a month. There is nothing like ill children and my own flu to slow down the train of life. I began to enjoy the headspace being unwell created and in the meantime a lot has been developing.
The other day I was in the Brighton Museum and came across some samples from the James Green textile collection, in particular ‘sazigyo’. – Burmese textile texts. These were used to bind manuscripts and the texts woven into these beautiful tapes bore incantations and declaration on the merit of the giver. It struck me that this is very connected to what I have been creating in my work – first with the loom project textile, then with Crafting Space and now with my smaller scale Gifts of the Departed series. I have also proposed using this as part of my Shape of Things collective ‘wrapping/binding’ installation project (I got shortlisted and am going to a selection panel/workshop in Januaryin Bristol, which I am excited about).
I have always planned that my R+D would involve working directly with groups of displaced people, co-creating an intimate and transformative ritual/ceremony-influenced artwork together that in itself was nomadic and would move around and grow as it passed from hand to hand.
After completing the Origin/Crafting Space piece where I realized that (1) my work can be scaled up and still keep it’s intimacy and integrity and (2) creating an occupied space from materials and texts used is a powerful act and metaphor, especially in relation to a sense of place and belonging. So it is my intention now to begin a textile text, a piece of tape which will begin with me and my experiences and travel from hand to hand as I work with people. This text will eventually form the skin of an occupied space, an installation which will act as metaphor for an internal sense of home. Somewhere where the loss of homeland, culture and relationships connected to these can be articulated by individuals within a collective process and then woven together to create a point of contact with a present home, culture, relationship network, anew.
Now that I have a clear point of departure, it is time to begin making contact with the people I have identified may want to take this journey with me. Saj Fareed is working with me on this, mapping how we can trace a path through the region as well as partner up with relevant organizations who can facilitate sessions etc. We will be running sessions together and seeing where we can take the project.
