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!

BEAUTIFUL YARNS, NEW WORK AND SHEILA HICKS

This new piece of I have been working on is called "Thinking out loud" and is made from tubes and a metal ring that have been wrapped in yarn, sewn together and suspended. I later decided to add the red yarn weaving in and out of the piece to represent the way connections are made in our thoughts, neural networks etc.
I had the great joy to see 'Sheila Hicks : Stones of Peace' at the Alison Jacques gallery a week or two ago and it was an absolute pleasure. I have loved Sheila's work for sometime but never managed to see an exhibition in the flesh, (or should I say fibre), before. I found it truly inspiring which you can probably tell from this new piece that I have just shown you.

AUTUMN COLOUR AND CROCHETED WIRE

This is a new piece I have been making recently by crocheting wire, called 'Grow, then let go.'

 I have been trying to capture some of the amazing vibrant autumnal colours in my garden to hang on to in the greyer winter months

MATERIAL EXPERIMENTS

I have been experimenting with ideas in fabric in my studio lately. I am still pursuing galleries to show my MedImmune residency work but I have to be making stuff as well as doing admin jobs or it will drive me crazy. I have been sketching and playing with ideas and techniques. I don't know where this is heading yet but play is the best way to find creative ideas, don't you think? So crocheting with wire and wool, cutting/folding/sewing fabric are all on the go. Where will it take me?

 

Which side is the right side? I like the effect on both. 

 Cut, folded and sewn- this makes a fabulous spine effect when rolled up in this photo.

 Again I can't decide which side is best here, the folds on the right or the ends on the left? I suppose the joy of sculptural pieces is that I don't have to chose the viewer can see both. Here's some sketchbook 'thinking' too..