Project 3 - example

Week 9

In my research I've found an article by James E. Young called The Counter-Monument: Memory Against Itself in Germany Today (www.janetzweig.com/risdpdfpublicart/young_countermonument.pdf). He writes about the debates that have occurred in Germany around the contested area of memorials and monuments. Because Germany was the perpetrator of so many atrocities in the Nazi/WWII period, to many people it does not seem appropriate for the state to erect monuments to the victims of those atrocities. The debates have led to a memorialising trope that Young calls the counter-monument - "brazen, painfully self-conscious memorial spaces conceived to challenge the very premises of their being."

The counter-monument is the opposite of the grand, imposing, solid memorial we are familiar with from WWI memorials. It is diffuse, decentralised, impermanent. The conceptual concerns usually echo the material forms that make up such memorials, and those remembered or celebrated differ from the soldiers and statesmen of traditional state memorials. Many artworks can be considered counter-monuments because of their lack of permanent physical location, their impermanent materials, and their personal rather than public focus.

Week 10

I've decided to concentrate on the use of names in a work which echoes the names of a traditional memorial, but with the conceptual concerns of the counter-monument. I've been using hair in my work, and I think I'll collect hair from people and use the names of the donors somehow in the final piece.

This is a sample of a twill weave made with a human-hair yarn. I could use different coloured hair from people to differentiate the people. I'm not sure how I'll incorporate the names yet. This work will continue my interest in groups and individuals. The individuals will be differentiated by the colours, but they'll all be joined together in a group. I've explored this relation in works in the past, and how groups are made of individuals, but also shape those individuals into a group mentality.

Week 11

I've been experimenting with writing names, and incorporating them into my artwork. I started with using carbon paper tracing on card. I think the results have a strong uniformity combined with a hand-drawn quality, but not sure how that would look with the earthy hair tones.

I've also typed names onto ribbon. I think this is also successful because of the neatness of the letters, but the ribbon gets a little scrunched when woven as a supplementary weft.

I've had some success with my weaving and have decided on a long strip of hair fabric as my memorial. A simple stripe in the twill pattern easily differentiates the donors of the hair.

Week 12

Six Degrees


Six Degrees is a long rectangular hair weaving with the names of the donors of
the hair written above it. Each person’s hair is distinguishable from the next
by its colour, yet permanently woven together. The series developed from an
earlier body of work, Memento Vivere, 2002, in which I produced hand-made
paper sheets, each embedded with the hair of an individual. Each square of
paper in the 9-piece by 18-piece grid was a “portrait” of the person whose hair it
contained. Although Memento Vivere was presented as a group, each piece
could be moved or separated from the rest. With Six Degrees, each person’s
place is set, their place in the group permanent and indissoluble.
As with Memento Vivere, the hair in Six Degrees stands for the donor, and is a
portrait of that person. The genre of the portrait, however, emphasises the
individual subject. “The portrayed person’s subjectivity is… defined in its
uniqueness and originality, rather than in its social connections…. The subject’s
continuity or discontinuity with others is denied in order to present the subject as
personality.”41 With Six Degrees, the “uniqueness and originality” of the subjects
is still evident, but their inclusion in a group is unmistakable. Here is an example
of symbolic communitas, with each individual an essential part of the makeup of
the group, but no one person being more important than another. The individual
is defined, but connected to the rest of the group.

Group Discussion Critique

The first task is to comment on the group presentation itself. I want you to think of one positive and one negative critique for the speed-dating style presentation. I don't want you to say whether or not you liked it - was it useful? Was it productive? Did you get any advantage from giving your presentation 6 times? Is it more useful presenting in a large group? A small group? To one person? Why? How do you think it could be better? What do you think you missed out on by doing it the way we did it? What disadvantages did this technique have?

Libby

For my creative deconstruction project, I am working with natural dyes and rust. I have been experimenting with different ways to destroy fabric including burning, wearing and staining. My sampling has led me to use rusted cloth with berry stains as they create a nice combination of colours and show destruction of the fabric. On top of my dyeing, I have started to work in holes and wear using burning and sanding. In terms of the creation component of the project, I am using the fabric to make a 3D form. The form will be layered with different types and thicknesses of cloth to created different depths of layering. It will likely take a spherical form although I don’t want to restrict myself too early. I intend to put some form of light inside my form. The light itself will be deconstructed by the varying fabric thicknesses and patterns. Rust can be used to create light brown shades or deep blacks so I want to utilize these colours along with the fabric thickness to control the amount of light let out of the form. I am considering using a light bulb or a candle but I will have to experiment to see which of these is the most suitable.

Georgie

[Bottom to top] number 1) jumper taken apart, burnt, then put back together. 2) stained samples which have been buried for a week. 3) some stained samples, red wine, tea and coffee. 4) paper sampla, top was left outside for a week, the yellow was stained with tumeric and gumleaves and the last one is whats left of paper afte its been buried for a week. 5) the dress so far. 

All through this project I have thought of nothing else but clothes. It occurred to me that creative destruction is basically what we do to our clothes over a long period of time. We buy them or make them, and then we wear them out. Over time clothes begin to accumulate a history, they take on our identities and in turn grow their own. This is the beginning and I have look at some different ways of destruction, firstly after some advice from cathryn (thanks cathryn), I began with ready-made (second hand) clothing. I pulled them apart, did a bit of destruction and attempted to sew them back together. The results were surprisingly impressive.

This destruction was all well and good, however I knew that I wanted to achieve something a little more meaningful then simple destruction. My plan is to create a dress and put it through four separate stages 1) staining: tea, coffee and red wine. 2) Run over by a car on a gravel driveway. 3) Buried with rust. 4) Finally after all this ill-treatment the dress will be bleached and washed. The outfit will do a full circle from new and pristine, to stained, bedraggled and buried and finally back to clean. Not only am I destroying the dress but I am then destroying all the work I’ve put into ruining it.

The dress is essentially the main character in a story about, possibly, the worst night out ever. The entre work is a narrative with a beginning, middle and an end.    

Erin

 

Alex

 

Seep

silk, lichen, dye, silk threads,

This silk cloth is a layering of meditative techniques - Stained over a period of weeks with wet lichen, carefully dripped with diluted dye, worn away with sand paper, repaired and detailed with silk threads. Each layer is a response to the layer before, marks echoed and overlapping.

We are all in a dance of constant restructuring, integrating what we see, feel and learn with what already exists. Imagine if each new thought left a visible stain or if each sadness wore away threads, creating a hole, marking our cloth.

Rebecca

For this project, I started experimenting with burning, using candles and burning different types of materials – silk chiffon, silk organza, calico, lace and paper. I really liked the effect of burning the calico, however found it a hard material to scorch and took longer for it to work compared to the silk fabrics. I also really liked the results of burning paper and the pieces of ashes that were created. My ideas for this project then developed into using these ashes and creating a new piece of fabric, then using the fabric to create another piece which either would be a wall-hanging or garment. I did have some technical concerns with the construction of the ash fabric, and is continuing to experiment with ways to create this – using vlisofix, pva glue and more. My conceptual concerns are more related with end product and how it would relate to the materials I have deconstructed. 

Michelle

Sample 1: Rafia Pillows Visible and sculptural becomes geomtric rather than free form
Sample 2: A detail of the lace like effect of stitching against the net
Sample 3: Attempt at organic dye how can i progess this?
Sample 4:laminting hair and layering wax

Steph

I have experimented with a variety of techniques in the first stages of my deconstruction. I started with a pure white piece of 100% woolen cloth. I chose this fabric because I like the way that wool smolders instead of burns and I was interested in experimenting with that technique. First of all I made a dye bath of yellow mustard powder and dyed the cloth. I was unhappy with the yellowness of the dye and I thought that the colour lacked the depth and richness that I wanted to achieve. I then made a second dye bath of black tea and experimented with folds, which was very effective. I then rolled the fabric up and wrapped a thin metal string around the material. I then burnt the wool. I repeated this at both ends of the fabric. Originally the heat produced a very interesting pattern as the metal string divided the burn marks. I used the stovetop to burn the fabric as I found that it gave an even and controlled burn. After I burnt the fabric I then tried to create variation with the tea colour by using bleach and refolding the fabric resulting in the black burn marks to be washed off. The next stage in the deconstruction of the cloth will once again be to burn the material and hope that it will produce the same interesting black marks that it originally did. I then steam bundled the cloth with berries to add a new dimension, which I think is very interesting as I didn’t removed the pulp of the berries after I steamed the wool, so now the fabric has the seeds and pulp residues over it. This has added an interesting dimension and texture. I will look at experimenting with beeswax and plaster in the reconstruction process but at this present time I have no particular vision of what the end product will be.

Megan

Out of all my samples these 10 are the ones I like so far. I am still in the process of sampling. I am still tossing up ideasabout my final piece. At this stage I am thinking it will be a tapestry that has been rubbed back and then also burnt, if I decide to use wool. I did ask to borrow a weaving loom but there were none available so that is why I have gone totapestry. I much prefer to do something that changes the structure of the fabric instead of staining and mark making.In my samples I have used cotton, silk/cotton, crepe bandage, bark from a palm tree which I have tried burning, rusting,rubbing back, bleaching. The tapestry samples I have bleached, burnt and rubbed back with a broken brick.In other samples I have not included here have been cotton buried in mud for 1 week and 2 weeks, Other bleachings,rubbings, tearing and I also got my kids to draw on some fabric. Other ones include cleaning the kitchen floor with a piece of cotton plus a curry stained piece and and ink stained piece. What I had in mind if I was to destroy first and then create was to twine the fabric into a vessel. The issue was that the destruction could not be really seen when the fabricwas twisted around or was then too fragile to do so.

Jess

For the project Creative Destruction I am considering the effects of fire on the landscape and how sometimes nature can be its own worst enemy. I am concerned with aerial perspectives of nature and how when it’s viewed from a distance its shapes become simplified down to dots and smudges on the landscape.

I like the idea of exploring fire because of its spontaneous and unpredictable nature. The patterns are controlled by the power of the flame.

This theme fits appropriately with the title of the project because fire creates beauty and destruction simultaneously. It’s a tragedy on the landscape when a bush fire erupts and destroys the natural environment however the effects of these fires change the appearance of the land and eventually re-generate new plantation which blossoms into new life.

For the two-part process of this project I have started by experimenting with some natural dye and using restraints to create patterns on silk. I have manipulated the patterns by using string ties, paper clips, bulldog clips and rubber bands to create a contrast in colours. I have then burnt holes through the silk using matches and incense sticks to make small incisions into the fabric. This is a very delicate process as fire burns through silk very quickly and I only want to make small holes so I need to have as much control as I can.

The creation side of this experiment is the dying of the silk and the shapes that I have cut and the destruction element is the burning of the fabric.

Inspirational artists include: Shena Meadowcroft, Kate and Laura Mulleavy and Toshikatsu Endo who all incorporate destruction into their artworks either through burning, shredding, tearing or distressing.

Emma

So far I have done plenty of experiments and will combine some of them together to make my final piece for next week. I came straight from the inspiration I found in Norma Starszakowna’s works and wanted to work in a very initial way, making it messy but poetic. I have created samples using red onion dyes and they didn’t turn out very strong but I will still use them. I have also burnt material, as I know that Starszakowna’s work eludes this effect. These samples actually turned out really interesting. Starszakowna has also inspired me to experiment with paper pulp and it really didn’t work out and I won’t be taking these experiments any further. Starszakowna’s work also inspired me to use couching in my samples and I actually really liked this work and will want to explore it further. Finally, I wanted to explore layering in my works. I have used both black, beige and grey material made of cotton, silk and chiffon. This way of working was really simple an also very effective. I defiantly want to continue using this technique.

Doing this project has been fun. It is rare for me to experiment in an unstructured way that involves the ‘unknown’. I want to use this direction much further in other projects.

Ellie

Dominika

My favourite (and best) sample from the previous assignment was a mini quilted painted silk piece. From this, I was reminded of the boro tradition in Japanese culture and how much I've always been attracted to the haphazard beauty of these pieces made from necessity. I decided to create my own boro style quilt, however subverting the tradition of the use of cheap and readily available hemp fabric, by creating it from silk. The other reason for choosing silk was the fact that I wanted to use a number of eco dye techniques and silk is the best material for this. I created a number of dyed samples, which were then buried in the mud for just under a fortnight. There were also samples that I left unburied to create a contrast between the fabrics. I stitched these all together in an intentionally misaligned way, and then buried the completed piece in some mud. The next step will be to intentionally destroy the piece, creating holes and tears that require patching, and then to patch it up using brighter, more colourful silk to show the difference between the 'old' fabric and the new patches. The photo is really terrible at showing the different nuances in the colours and patterns on the fabric. I think the natural elements are working really well in forming a cohesive piece that isn't entirely uniform.