This newest Changeling has gone through a multitude of mutations, some of which worked on paper but not made. I crocheted, unravelled, crocheted, unravelled... Curses were uttered, tantri were thrown. In the end I wanted it as simple as possible (last I threw out a little tuft of something), decided to trust the shape.I have said here before that I consider my pieces inhabited/inhabitable and am asking myself why I make work that evokes a possible body, instead of work that shows the body, like my paper figures (although of course it's always about more than physicality). What I like is the subtlety: my pieces hint at bodies/beings, but there is so much space around them for one's imagination, even though the work is small and intimate.
A while ago I read one luminous chapter in Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space, about shells. My brain is like a sieve and I can't recall the details, but it was about how molluscs grow these intricate, beautiful shells around them, kind of exude them. I see my pieces a bit like that, being exuded from the bodies they would fit. All the forces that work on us, in us, affect how we see ourselves, are being seen - my changelings' garments are attempts to make some of that visible.
Materials: crocheted from Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk. Dimensions: 30 cm x 38 cm
3 comments:
I think that works then, because to me the garments also seem to be denying the potential body, anyway, that is how I interpret the closed necks of these. Or the body could be welcomed inside the garment, but the head has no place, denied. How could we interpret head/body? Intellect/heart, thinking/doing, adultness/childness? I felt really uncomfortable with your first changeling piece. I couldn't understand what you were saying, but over the months I have come to love them dearly and look forward to the next one. I live WAY too much in my head, so maybe that explains my initial resistance? I don't know, I am just in awe and envy how you can make one small crocheted garment say so much. You are my Yoda!
man Marjojo how do you always know how to talk about your work?? is it because you understand it well that you can write about it like that? i guess also because you are just a good writer to begin with...!
i really like what you wrote about the subtlety of evoking a sense of the body rather than showing the body to leave more space for one's imagination. i love that about your work, especially with the series of Changeling. each piece is so alive to me.
this new one is sweet and playful, love how it works upside down too. reminds me of little kids bending over to do that peekaboo thing.
Love your work! The ribbons on the shoes falling down to the floor and gathered there. Yes, so intimate clothing is. You have captured some mystery.
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