finishednessstitch

Started to bind some of the textile pieces, building a number finished works by ‘finalising them’ – the work is a combination of ideas that come from rethinking stab book binding techniques and the way in which the fans are held in the archive at the costume archive. Laying out the sublimation/smocking pieces onto their box structures they resemble coffins shrouded with flags – possibly of a very colourful nation!  

threadspaces

Working on a number of ideas around connecting materials – attempting to celebrate the thread and stitch whilst also focusing on the space between the materials. reminded of a piece of white work I saw at MEAL.

insideoutside

As a result of the work undertaken so far with the heat press I've been creating a large piece. The folding, binding and sewing take quite a time. Eventually it is all to be undone and the only evidence of the time taken is embedded within the work. It becomes a meditative activity - The pleat is to reduce, to diminish, and to withdraw. Unfolding is to increase, to grow to gain volume.

A dialogue is set up between the inside and outside, dark and the light, the negative and the positive but nothing is fixed, the work appears to be in a constant flow from the outside to the inside and back again.

foldingprocess

Working on binding the Vylene fabric – using book binding techniques and gathering stitches – then using sublimation printing with the heat press to transfer colour and mark making onto the work whilst it is bound –the piece is then unbound to reveal the folds and the trace of what was once there. The process is revealed and rebuilt in the mind – its history is unpicked – the pieces are a hybrid of sculpture and process neither one nor the other but a middle point alluding to both.

These pieces will be folded and become pages in a bookwork – I've been looking at how to document the work – using both natural and man made light from an overhead projector changes the tone of the work – the images are interesting on their own and could become large prints.   

productioncontrol

The issue of control. Over many years of reflecting on my work previous to this project I had come to know that my practice had the concept of control at its core - the use of fabric has forced me release a degree of control in the work I've been making within this project – paper and card ‘move’ less. The inherent quality of materials one works with is apparent and embedded within every decision. The fabric feels alien and too open. Meanwhile the usual ‘production line’ that I create within a project has happened with the ‘ghost deed’ piece.

memorieswithinskin

I was looking at my hands whilst sewing today and I thought about the creases in the skin, the folding and pleating of the body. The wrinkled surface of skin on the outside of body and the folding of the inside – the brain a wrinkled mass holding/hiding memories, folding in on itself. Ideas like flattening out a human skin and unravelling ones inside spring to mind – 

startingwithoutanend

A full day of folding and stitching - the work is going well - I find myself working on a number of pieces at once, which has its own issues in that there is a feeling of not accomplishing anything  but when reflecting on the day one realises that there are about 8-9 pieces at various stages of near completion.
Deciding to make work that has no definite ending in terms of what it should be or even look like and to embark on new ways of actually making is exciting, although a little worrying – a good state to be in.