Sleeves (2020), Detail Cotton, thread, binding.
Sleeves (2020), Detail.
Sleeves (2020), Detail.
Sleeves (2020), Detail.
Sheet (2020), sheet, thread.
Would you do the HS6 again? 100% yes!
Looking back through these images of early HS6 work with fresh eyes; everything at the time was very overwhelming and I felt tightly bound by MY own self doubt. This self-doubt smothered any pathway for my ideas, let alone medium to expand and as I briefly discussed in my last blog morphed or transmuted into what I could call good work, which as Iris would say needs to house and hold all the intention. I thought I was making sentimental melancholy work about my ancestors (who are my hands), but in hindsight I was making work about my lack of confidence: hands lost in shrouds, not to covid, but to stage fright, bound up, not to restrict breath but the exhale of expression!
It has taken patience, practice and persistence to arrive where I now feel confident to create and allow work to speak without me or an alibi next to it. It can stand alone and that is what the Handshake has done for my practice alongside Iris’s mentoring (and workshop), Renne Bevan’s and Estella’s workshops, and our strong supportive group, not just of Handshake 6 but of all Handshake whanau. It is with thanks, love and gratitude to Peter and Hilda for their endless energy in running this project and funding from CANZ. The project has opened up opportunities for me to travel next year to an artist’s residency with Iris and to continue to open up the network of possibilities which the future holds…. once again dear friends, time to fly…
Much love, and thank you
Fran xox
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