BLUE WORK, RACHEL WHITEREAD AND MARGUERITE HUMEAU

I thought I'd do a quick catch up blog for some bits and pieces I had meant to share but haven't done yet...This piece is a fairly new creation from the studio that I haven't blogged about and below are some of my favourite pieces from the recent Rachel Whiteread show at Tate Britain. 

 I also discovered the work of Marguerite Humeau while visiting Tate Britain, I am now a huge fan! This piece, 'Echoes,' is beautiful, engaging, immersive and I felt almost intoxicatingly good. I love her fusion of science and art that still has a real experiential outcome and isn't cold/dead in its end result as some sciart can be. 

...and finally here is some gorgeous yarn that I am about to use for a new piece. The colour is incredible isn't it?

A COSTUME WITH FEELING

 Here is a new project I've been working on since the beginning of the year. The idea behind it is for the costume to be used in a performative dance about touch/feelings as it is made up of my interpretation of neurones, the spinal column and nerves. 

I started with these drawings...

 ....then I began to piece together the basic dress, which was a complete first for me but had been part of the reason for asking for the dressmakers dummy for christmas. From there the decoration was embroidered on to the front of the dress......

 

...followed by creating the headdress come spinal column. After making the band to go around the forehead and then hand down the back, I made clay 'vertibrae' (or my interpretation of them anyway). I had made a spine sometime ago playing with curtain hooks and heading tape this led to my design for the clay pieces. 

I worked on embroidering nerves down the centre of the spine, and crocheting wire neurones for the head band. Although it is not very clear in the images there are also very fine gold and red wires attached to the dendrites that lead over the head and then thread down the centre of the spine too. May be a little more work on the nerves on the back of the dress and possibly on the headband and it should be complete. Now I just have to find a collaborator and device the performative side of the work!