Monday, 12 November 2018

Mapping a Sense of Place: the role of chance


On the  course with Matthew Harris 'You are Here' in Puglia ,  how we responded  to our 'space' on our fabric pieces to a series of prompts  was chosen by throwing a dice. The  order of the tasks we completed in painting, stitching and manipulation our work were selected in the same way.

An interesting , liberating ( and sometimes frustrating) approach,   it both  took  the pain out of deciding what to do  while also taking you outside your comfort zone.   It meant that everyone was doing the same activities  but in completely different  orders ( good for  seeing how others had responded and steal their ideas! ) .  Would  my cloth would have turned out differently if  it had been done in a  different order? Very probably.

The 'Space' Prompts ( and the order I did them )
1( 5th)  Shadow
2 (6th) Line
3 (1st) Repetition
4  (4th) Touch/Feel
5 (3rd) Shape (+ve/-ve)
6 ( 2nd) Construct ( build)

Repetition 

  Repetition 

Repetition 

 My first  prompt was ' Repetition'   so taking my  cloth  to my space I took rubbings   in graphite of the markings on a  metal drain cover; drew oak leaves with the prickly pear orange ink;  used drops of Paynes grey ink to represent the  black moss  ( and folded the cloth to get a print while it was still wet) 
 My second prompt  was ' Construct'  - I found a piece of wood with holes in and  referencing the  mosses and lichens ,  placed acorn cups in the hollow and stuck the( rather fragile ) stalks  of the acorn cups in the holes. Although the idea was to do it in situ, I took it back with me afterwards  to the studio and added some more  but forgot to take a photo.  It did look like  spore capsules of a moss or  ' pixie cup' of a lichen. 
Shape ( positive/negative) 

 The 3rd  Prompt  I tackled was shape ( positive / negative)  , drawing the gaps between the stones on the wall  with crayon.
Touch/Feel 


I didn't spend  long in my space for 'Touch/ Feel'  where I took a rubbing of the oak bark  as appropriately enough , I  managed  to brush past a large clump of 'Spanish Needles' ( Bidens pilosa) and had 100's of the hooked seeds attached to my trousers and socks! I went back to my room to change - it took half an hour  to remove them.  Next time I went to my space I made very sure I went nowhere near them! 
Shadow

 I used  cuts in the cloth for 'Shadow' , the 5th prompt, around the outline of the drawing of the oak leaves I'd done for 'repetition' . As well as recording the  lines cast by actual leaves, the cuts themselves cast interesting marks below . 

While I was there , I took photos  and did a drawing for the last prompt 'Lines'  as I wanted to do this on the cloth in stitch  in the comfort of the studio (  particularly as my subject - the holes in a rock that made up lines  was also where I sat  to draw while in my space!) 


Lines on cloth : paint and stitch 



 The 'Tasks'  ( and the order I did them)
1 (6th) Lay down blocks of colour ( large/small; transparent/opaque) Obliterate/ knock back different area ( a mixture of white emulsion with a hint of yellow to march the calico was used for  this )
2 ( 1st) Select a small detail and work with it on a larger scale ( and vice versa)
3 (2nd) Manipulation (stitch/cut, distort, pleat, cut into surface
4 (4th)  In one area  work  back to front, +ve to -ve,  Try wax resist and layering  colour on top , use stitch as a resist
5 (3rd) Collage with found material, cloth/paper/bundles of threads/paper in response to information already there ( attach with stitch/binding, not glue)
6 (5th) draw or mark  with pure stitch , different scales .


After the first couple of   trips to my 'space' sometimes  I combined  the activity/prompt     with the task (  saved throwing the dice, reusing the same number). As time  went on and the layers accumulated, it becomes a bit tricky to remember what I did  and when!  But then  the process  became more about responding to the cloth  itself and making changes - I'll show the evolution of some areas in another post  but meanwhile , the photos below  show some of the ways I interpreted the 'tasks'. 

T1  Add Colour

 
T1 Obliterate 

 T2  Change scale, T3 Manipulate 

T4   Wax Resist 

T5 Collage 


T6 Stitch 








1 comment:

Debbie said...

Interesting process, like the results very much, a good way of learning I would think