This past month we have moved beyond full lockdown, after the dissolution of my bubble I shifted back to my flat and set up my home studio again. Now I am able to get back into my shared workshop. Manon and I had our first face to face meeting via Zoom two days ago, I found it energising and much easier to relate within a conversation. The human connection is important.
In preparation for our meeting I set up a temporary exhibition in the living room using cardboard boxes as ‘vitrines’, grouping related experiments and collected objects. My screen tour highlighted the challenges of online exhibitions, the window glare and poor quality video hampering visibility. The exercise did help me to see the relationships between objects and may be a good temporary solution for my lack of wall space.
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I am still pushing outwards, beginning to embrace the solace working can give me rather than the unsettled blocked feeling filtering through these uncertain times. We discussed an older ’Ocean braid’ brooch made from hearing aid wire Manon had spotted on my instagram. The material has good potential for my investigations into connection/disconnection.
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During weaving experiments I’ve been focusing on tension and the recording of something within the process. I made a DIY loom weaving during an online workshop with Kathryn Tsui thanks to the Dowse, enjoying the process of using cardboard and tape and whatever fibre was at hand to try out some weaving patterns. I can make whatever loom shape and formation I want this way.
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I see weaving everywhere, spiderwebs, branch and leaf patterns, wave formation, blood vessels. I’m looking at books and resources for technical instruction, anatomy, reading articles on the psychology of connection and disconnection, continuing to look at artists working in the realm of weaving, wrapping, knotting, and making an archive of my travels and weaving inspiration to date. I am thinking of objects as wayfinders, maps, diagrams; looking back to move forward.
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These feel like tokens of this time. Perhaps delving deeper and pushing further I can move beyond mere symbolism (or tokenism?) to make objects that convey something more personal and felt.