Dominika Project 3

WEEK 9

For project three I am looking at the idea of wall of names memorials. I was inspired by the image of Do Ho Suh's work 'Paratrooper' and how this resembled the idea of walls of names but in a really beautiful way.
Since I've worked with free machine embroidery in this way before I wanted to take that technique and experiment with it further, looking at different colours and different writing styles, as well as the possibility of sewing directly onto solvy then dissolving it. I also wanted to continue an exploration that I started in the last B class assignment with the idea of memorials for the mundane. Large scale memorials are generally made for people who died in significant events; wars, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, wide scale epidemics and the like, but what about memorials for people or things that might not have made the news? I'm still undecided as to what route to take with that, but I was considering the idea of going to old cemeteries and taking rubbings of gravestones that are neglected and worn away, ones that have clearly been forgotten by relatives and by the rest of the world and then translating these into sewn pieces. I'm really drawn to the idea of remembering the forgotten.
My other challenge with this work is going to be the installation. I'm planning to make a really large scale work, with a number of names, but I want to install the names in places that they might be missed, similarly to the stumbling blocks in Germany. I feel like the idea of memorialising the forgotten and placing the names in inconspicuous places are really congruent in that it draws attention to the question of whether the forgotten want to be forgotten or whether they are forgotten because society decides that they are unimportant.
I need to go out and do some research in terms of locations, as well as potential ways of incorporating the pieces into the environment.

Do Ho Suh- Paratrooper

 

WEEK 10

This week I started looking at exploring my initial ideas further. I went to the cemetery at Waverley and took some rubbings and photographs of interesting aspects of the graves. Since I am not looking at memorialising specific people, but the invisible and forgotten I chose to focus on the details of graves rather than the names. I noticed a recurring theme in the idea of flowers, whether they be placed on the grave by relatives, included in the engraving work on the grave stones, or simply growing from the midst of the grave, there were plants and flowers everywhere. It seemed to me that the flowers themselves became a memorial for the dead as they overtook gravestones and created life out of death. 

 

I was originally going to use stitched names in the work, but I haven't been able to find any relevant names that I feel would be effective. Thinking about it further I considered name wall memorials and how it's hard to feel connected to them when you don't know anyone on them. This large scale kind of name list is really just an overwhelming and impersonal testimony to death and I want the work to be something that people can connect to while at the same time challenging the fear of death of being forgotten after death.

As a result I've decided that instead of names I'm going to use flowers in the work. Specifically, forget me nots. The reason for this is the name is really fitting to the idea that Im working with, but I think the story behind the origin of their name is also really perfect.

"In a German legend, God named all the plants when a tiny unnamed one cried out, "Forget-me-not, O Lord!" God replied, "That shall be your name."

-wikipedia entry on forget me nots.

 

I think the flowers are also small and unobtrusive enough to strengthen the idea of the forgotten.

Having settled that, this week I plan to do some experimenting in terms of stitching them on different materials. My ideal would be to stitch them onto solvy and then wash the solvy away leaving just the stitched flower, but I feel that maybe the strength would be compromised and they wouldn't travel or install very well. I don't want to stitch them onto fabric, because I think that that would make them stand out too much and I want them to blend into cracks and crevices, so that's going to take a bit of experimentation in terms of execution. I'm considering the possibility of dissolving away the solvy and then strengthening the pieces with glue or wallpaper paste, but we'll see how that goes.