Something a little bit different (2)

It's complete! I wasn't sure to start with whether I wanted to have the piece introduced in my last post on its own, esp. as the second piece proved rather more difficult, but now that it's found its form I see they are good together. (You can't quite discern from the photograph that there's no opening for a head to push through, that I've made little pockets where the armpits would be and that the straps have been crocheted as tubes.)
It's more clear to me now too how much this piece is about puberty, that time-span when our bodies seem to hurtle from one change to another and we can't quite keep up, when we are torn between wanting to throw ourselves into life and its contingencies and hiding in our bedrooms, between boldness and brassiness and excruciating embarrassment, between thinking we know it all and being utterly flummoxed by being in the world.
A friend of mine who popped in this week burst out laughing when she saw the piece. She remembered menstrual pads the size of aircraft runways and so do I (yes, we're of that age!), pads which weighed heavily in our pants and felt as inconspicuous as if a dayglow arrow was hovering in front of us and pointing at our shame. Yes, shame is the instrumental word. The only good thing was to be exempt from PE once per month and allowed to sit on a bench at the side instead of being bullied by the teacher. I'm sad for us in retrospect but also wonder how much things have changed. Smaller pads, tampons, yes, but menstruation still has to be invisible. And scentless. The funny thing is it's something I hadn't thought of at all when I made the piece: my starting point was a more general feeling of awkwardness - the strangeness of being embodied (at all times, but especially during puberty), but I'm delighted that M. was thrown into recall and took me along with her.
I also think there's more to be seen in the piece, but leave that up to you!

Growing pains

Dimensions: 25 cm x 50 cm and 24.5 cm x 44 cm
Materials: crocheted from a virgin wool/polyester mixture

Something a little bit different (1)

For someone who runs out of steps before she gets to the corner and hasn’t worn her hiking books in years a little callus is a splendid thing. I’ve got one on the tip of my left middle-ringer: not from poking it into the dense autumn sky, but from crocheting! Which is after all my most consistently maintained activity...
I’m trying to write a better artist’s statement and have been thinking about the formal aspects of my work, which I find much more difficult to formulate than speaking about its meaning. It made me more conscious of the fact that most of my pieces go flat on the wall, to be viewed frontally, like a painting: I’m reaching to find images, not sculptural forms. Which may or may not be a contradiction to claiming that my pieces are inhabited.
Isn’t this wool gorgeous? I bought it a year ago but did not how best to use it until the shape of this new piece literally demanded it. Compared to the muted colours I usually work with it has an almost garish aspect, brash, loud. Then there is the excess of form, which is strangely in opposition to and contained by the neat tightness of the crochet. Something here pulls and pulses and yet holds perfectly still. A bit like a teenager’s rollercoaster states of being: not quite sure of what one is becoming, trying to hide in the shadows and wanting to be in the lime-light. Standing there, bathed in anxiety, or is it the chemical glow of mutation?

Dimensions: 25 cm x 50 cm
Materials: crocheted from a virgin wool/polyester mixture

And by the by, but immensely cheering, read this: there's news from Norway regarding recent research into the aetiology of M.E., which is wonderful, but what really amazed me is the apology to M.E. patients that was given by a politician.

KAUNAS TEXTILE BIENNIAL '11 in Lithuania is in full swing. If you'd like to get an impression of REWIND PERSONAL STORY, have a look at Andrea Milde's blog, who photographed what is a great variety of beautiful, vibrant, interesting work. My participation has become a bit of a challenged and anxious affair. I was distressed to see from Andrea's photographs that one of my changelings had been placed upside down - it should be corrected by now. There's also a mistake in my text on the biennial's website, someone made a change without checking with me first, and got it wrong. Hope that will be corrected too. The whole thing raises questions for me about sending one's work off to be exhibited and how to best deal with the loss of control that brings as to its presentation. Still, my work was selected, and is there, and I'm learning a lot.
Moving on. What about making art? Mostly I've been unravelling work lately. During the last few months almost all of my not very plentiful energies were spent on what I call arts-organisation and the actual art-making went on the back-burner, alas. It is not enough to produce one's work - we need to write statements, applications, help with press-releases, organise (and usually pay for) the transport of work to and from exhibitions… Never mind things like keeping our web-sites updated (long overdue and next on the list), maintaining real and virtual networks, etc. etc. and of course doing it all really well.
Still - there's a new piece. I think I prefer it folded. For now it's called Say my name! Say my name!

Materials: wool and cotton, doll's wig
Dimensions: stretched out to its full length 27 cm x 75 cm

PS. Had good news this morning. The exhibition at PSL in Leeds was reviewed in Aesthetica Magazine and my work especially highlighted.

Wish I was there, I think.

Tonight is the opening of KAUNAS TEXTILE BIENNIAL '11 in Lithuania. My work is travelling further afield and my longing to be out there with it getting ever stronger. I asked for my Changelings to be presented laid out on a surface and am keen to know how it was done. Andrea Milde, one of the exhibitors, promised to take a few snaps for me, can't wait to see them, but am also apprehensive. My diminutive Changelings will have quite a task of standing up (while lying down, we share that!) for themselves, and for this artist. It is such a big event, with a European Textile Network-conference, themed exhibitions, performances, presentations, showcasing artists from all over the world, many of whom are in the middle of a successful career. Oh, I want to see it all. But how do I fit in there? Just think: Yinka Shonibare is one of the UK-artists invited for a different part of the exhibition. I feel like a tiny, if aged fledling, cheeping panic-stricken on the edge of a nest. Will my wings work? Part of me is so proud to have my work selected, but another part, rather more noisy just now, can't quite believe it and is waiting for notification that a mistake was made. Even writing this feels presumptuous. Looks like I need to grow to keep up with my art.
If all goes well (knock on wood!) my pieces will hold their own in the exhibition titled REWIND PERSONAL STORY, which explores narrative art, set beside a piece of writing by each artist. My story has my memory of my cousin Edith/Edith's shoes as its starting point; if you'd like to know where it leads me click on my name under the above link.

My work is at KAUNAS TEXTILE BIENNIAL '11!
The exhibition is open until 10 December 2011.

I'm not there, but my work is...

Tonight is the private view at PSL and I'll be projecting myself there in spirit, as for reasons of ill-health I'm presently unable to travel up to Leeds. I would have loved to meet the other artists, to see their work, and for that matter mine with theirs, but it will have to wait. In the mean-time my art will have to represent me. I confess I'm almost jealous of my pieces, out in the world to start their conversations, to form or refuse relationships, make new stories.

PEERING SIDEWAYS
Three group shows by artists from London, Manchester and
members of the Art House in Wakefield

10 September - 10 December 2011
PRIVATE VIEW Friday 9 September 2011, 6-8pm

Open Wed-Sat 12-5pm or by appointment
Free entry

PSL [Project Space Leeds]
Whitehall Waterfront
2 Riverside Way
Leeds LS1 4EH

Hair, hair, hair

Come and see my Five perfect maidens and other hair-selves at HAIR, a new exhibition at PORTICO Gallery in West Norwood, London. All being well I'll be there for the opening.

Private View
Saturday 10th September 6pm – 9pm.

With
Anna Gartsu Nova, Cath Dupuy, Charlotte E Padgham, Christopher Clack, Claire Briggs, Clare Misselbrook, Emma Bagley, Emma Fenelon, Ewa Obrochta, Georgina Moir, Harriet Muller, Ingrid Andrew, Jackie Brown, James Marshall, Kelly Averis, Marion Michell, Michael Wilson CBE, Sue Cox.

The exhibition is open from 10th September – 26th September
Thursdays 12 – 8pm. Saturday 10am – 5pm.
Or by arrangement (call 0208 761 7612)

PORTICO Gallery
23a Knights Hill
West Norwood
London
SE27 0HS

Regression blues

This is a little thing with a big name. Just now only time and energy for little things as I've been busy packing up work to send off to exhibitions. Needed to learn about 'proper' packing actually, important, it's not like I'm sending a piece or two, more six or seven, a small body of work, and they are going further afield, which makes me anxious until I know the pieces have arrived safely. Five pieces are in Brighton now, next my Changelings will go off to Lithuania for the Kaunas Biennial TEXTILE 11: REWIND-PLAY-FORWARD, and a couple of other things are in the pipeline which need attending to in tiny energetic bouts. I'm esp. sad that I can't go to Lithuania myself, meet other artists, see the work, attend the conference, am half-tempted to fall into the cardboard box and send myself of too. No money coming in, I never sell, alas; loads going out, for boxes, couriers, etc. My mom chipping in, bless her. Social life (incl. blogging), small as it is, shrinking towards 0, but needs must, I'm trying to build myself a professional future and while I'm lying on the floor my art flies into the world, a bit like a glorious kite, to which I'm the tail that trails along merrily.
Materials: crocheted from cotton thread. Dimensions: 25 cm x 37 cm