overpoweredbyobjects

A day at the castle in the study centre - it was good to show the work I have created so far - getting feedback – interesting to undertake a form of tutorial. The intention was to find the next step – to focus on the next objects to view by looking at what I had made after being exposed to the collection. The pleat, edges, thread and joining were highlighted and became the brief for the next stage. Ruth and Liz are very knowledgeable and understand the nuances of the collection and this project would obviously be less rich or would I say almost impossible without their input. They directed me to a leather corset - linking to the leather work at MEAL and through its construction the many connections I had made to thread and stitch.

I spend a while with a box containing sewing kits with their many pockets, folds and hidden spaces. This related to a lot of the structural work I have been making and connected to the similar structures I had found in some notebooks at MEAL and a journal of a poet/writer at the Suffolk Record Office.
I sat in on a presentation by Ruth to a WEA group on 18^th Century Dress which was really informative and gave me a chance to reflect on the project – to not be in charge – I came away thinking about structure and display and how to develop these ideas with the pieces paper I'm working on. 
The highlight for me was a box of lace pickings. Lace is obviously so laden with meaning around and about work and for me a signifier of class but these objects put the process and the workers at the centre of the story. Constructed from pricked velum and salvaged off cuts of cloth, poorly made with stitches showing, the objects are magical, transporting the handler to another time and connecting to makers - truly wonderful - I had to leave after spending time with them as they were so overpowering.

notesfromconversations

Looking at my notes that derive from conversations with people working within archives. 

A thing is just a thing without a story
Not knowing about an object is the most interesting part 
The rules of acquisition free one from guilt

Learning from making is something that I constantly tell the students I work with to think about and act on - this new body of work, where I have positioned myself outside my 'traditional' knowledge, requires me to learn skills and develop strategies to move my work forward. I feel that I am following the advice I give my students - an interesting position but/and it feels good!

It will be exciting to pull all this together but I am resisting this action so that I can let ideas flow as far as they possibly can before I rein them in.

A mid moment mission statement might come from a conversation with a student the other day - Creating work whose purpose is far greater than an object with dimensions.