ARTISTS TALKING

# 11 [26 May 2009]

David Kay, Shape of Things Director, asked me to write something on the relationship of making to my practice and my feeling about not being a ‘proper maker’, as such..!

 

‘ Weaving was already multimedia: singing , chanting, telling stories, dancing and playing games as they work, spinsters and weavers were literally networkers as well..spinning yarns, fabricating fashions, ..the textures of the woven cloth functioned as a means of communication and information storage long before anything was written down. How do we know this? From the cloth itself’

(Plant, Sadie. ‘Zeroes and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technocultur’e. New York : Doubleday, 1997).

 

I began m y life as an artist making drawings, paintings, sculpture…then fell in love with technology and designed interactive interfaces for five years. In 1999 I reached the point where I was in mourning for a more haptic relationship to my practice again. I came apon  textiles through reading Sadie Plant’s  ‘Zeros and Ones’ while visiting Iran  (my mother was a crochet designer who was raised near Tabriz – a famous rug weaving centre of excellence) and seeing the Jacquard Loom and Babbage machines at the Science Museum in London.

 

 

 Discovering textile media as a place where old school female –dominated programming (since weaving is series of numbers encoded in cloth), the feel and beauty of woven surface, and a space for the interweaving of human narratives  could co-exist was a revelation to me and I have been expanding into this space for the last five years.

 

 It seems to be limitless in its potential to enable poetic processes of engagement and to produce at the same time work that can be touched, occupied and read as an anthropological snapshot in time.

I have mainly been working with other specialists to produce large-scale installations – weavers and programmers for ‘The Loom: From Text to Textile’,  a sculptor for ‘Crafting Space’ and a  whole design production team for ‘The Bibliomancer’s Dream’.

 

As a multi-disciplinary artist working with craft media, I have often felt outside and in awe of the mainstream of specialist makers who are able to work within and master a specific form of applied or visual art. Now I realise my speciality is in ‘crafting space’ and narrative through materials, words and conceptual ideas, with the very particular skill of defining compelling arenas of audience engagement.

 

A combination of growing confidence in my own skills and a desire to be more directly involved in the actually making of my work now has a chance to develop into new work through  The Shape of Things commission. It is as if have been given permission to make again!  I am now beginning the process of collecting, archiving,  wrapping and installing what will be up to 999 objects. 

 

# 12 [26 May 2009]

The First Object

 

Object number one (001) – my (late) mother’s mobile phone sim card, wrapped in red wool and black cotton thread. What this object means to me is : frequent , caring and inquisitive communication of a mother to a daughter and the passion to pass on and share the narrative of her life openly and freely with those around her. 

# 13 [26 May 2009]

The Gift

So the interactive ‘operator’ in this new work is The Gift. Here are some thoughts I have found on The Gift while reading Lewis Hyde’ The Gift: Creativity and The Artist in the Modern World’.

 

‘The Gift is to the Giver, and comes back most to him - it cannot fail’  (Walt Whitman)

‘The Gift that is not used is lost, while one that is passed along remains abundant’

‘Gifts are a class of property whose value lies only in their use and which literally cease to exist as gifts if they are not constantly consumed’

 

‘A circulation of gifts nourishes those parts of our spirit that are not entirely personal , parts that derive from nature, the group, the race or the Gods’

 

‘…The Gifts we give at times of transformation are meant to make visible the giving up we do invisibly. And of course we hope that there will be an exchange , that something will come towards us if we abandon our old lives..The tokens we receive at times of change are meant to make visible life’s reciprocation. They are not mere compensation for what is lost. But the promise of what lies ahead . they guide us towards new life, assuring  our passage away from what is dying’

 

And most pertinently for me at this stage in the project:

 

‘..gift exchange is a companion to transformation, a sort of guardian or marker or catalyst….a gift may be the actual agent of change, the bearer of new life’  

I have been working a lot with life rituals and making pieces that mark them in some way – birth, bereavement, cultural transitions within life etc

 

What happens when I ask people I don’t know to give me things they don’t want and then think about and express what they do now want from the space the unwanted thing has left?

 

A process of transformation, which is a concept underlying all my work, is what I am seeking to offer up. Firstly in the making of the work, through transforming unwanted things into a group of artefacts with new meaning and context. Also, in the articulation by the Giver of what the gifted item represents in terms of leaving something behind and what new, emotional object can be presenced in their lives for future unwrapping?

# 14 [30 June 2009]

 

 

I have been quite silent on my blogs over the last few weeks as all my free time has been spent glued to twitter, Youtube and various news websites watching and feeling the events in Iran unfold, with a mixture of disbelief, amazement, horror and utter excitement to see a shift after so many years of repression. This was the time my mother was working towards and waiting for and I feel her spirit very closely observing in delight as shifts take place within the mindset and among the crowds on the streets of Iranian cities  that will not be lost despite the constant brutal attempts to silence the growing calls for freedom and self-expression.

As someone who is connected to Iran mainly through my mother and all she tried to transmit to me about the political landscape there, often with such great passion and rage (at the mullahs)  that she almost burst out of her body, I look now at how I can connect to this through this project and honour her at the same time.

Gifts 2 –6, then, are personal objects of my mothers and I am wrapping them in green, to connect with the Sea of Green in Iran, initially the Islamic colour denoting allegiance to the opposition candidate Mousavi, now broadening out into the colour of hope, freedom and resistance to tyranny.

I was at the press launch of the Shape of things the other week, it was a small but satisfying affair as there was a tube strike that day and getting to Flow Gallery was in itself an act of great achievement. It was the first time I had been to flow (who are a partner in The Shape of Things programme, with an exhibition planned for next autumn of all 8 artists work).  

 

I was asked to speak briefly along with Rosa, Tasmin and Chien about what being part of this programme means to me and my practice. In having to focus on this I realised how  much of the content and form of my work over the last ten years has been directly influenced and created by my Iranian heritage : the use of textile media, the desire and need to communicate and engage with large numbers of people, the aesthetics of the work itself and the core use of poetry to both inspire and interpret the work. It seems very fitting that I am working on a piece called ‘The Gifts’, that in itself will be a kind of acknowledgement of my heritage through my mother. 

 

Here is one of the most resonant and powerful forms of expression to come out of Iran in recent weeks in response to the events that have been going on:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/poetry-of-the-revolution_b_221590.html

A culture that uses poetry in this way to channel its creative self even in the darkest of times is a culture that will only grow stronger through this  most bloody and heart-achingly challenging time..

 

 

# 15 [2 July 2009]

 

 

 

 

 THE ARDABIL CARPET – RETURNING HOME

 

I was at the V+A yesterday, and visited  the Islamic Middle East section now  housed  in the Jameel Gallery. I was looking for inspiration for the layout The Gifts within the gallery and a link with Rosa’s work, which, as I understand it, will be predominantly wall work. I was looking for a personal and conceptual link, a bridge.

 

I spent some time sketching  large ottoman rug  on the wall and remembered an idea I had many years ago when I first starting thinking about wrapping objects and what the ultimate gift between nations was in ancient cultures –The Magic Carpet. The memory came of my and my brothers feet running around the outer border of one of our red, cream and violet Persian silk rugs (I can see it from my desk here, it seems so small now and so big then). We used to pretend we were flying across the globe on all kinds of adventures, for hours on end. Later on in my teens I dreamed of flying on a needle through glass palaces…

 

Anyhow, back to the Jameel Gallery. I saw a group of women in Islamic dress who were being toured around the gallery by a guide who was talking of ‘4914 knots in every 10cms…one of the worlds oldest,  finest and largest carpets in the world..’ . they drew aside and then a light change occurred and I saw  it – an enormous rug lying in the centre of the space, within glass walls and under a mirrored canopy. I sat on one of the sofas at one end and gazed down the length of it, taking in its delicate and yet monumental beauty - quite a moment.

The idea of using this as a starting point for a floor design in Bristol, where objects would be hung or placed to create the impression of a huge carpet design came back into focus. The floral borders and a concept and structure inspired by nature took me to Rosa’s work and how this could be a connection ?

I then went to the far end of the case to get some more information on the origin of the carpet, though something in me felt it even as I approached the text : ‘The Ardabil Carpet’. Ardabil was the town closest to my mother’s village, Namin, in North-West Iran where she was born. It is said to have very possibly been made for the Sufi shrine turned Mosque in Ardabil, during the Safavid Period. Visiting that place was one of the most resonant moments of my first trip to Iran in 1992. I feel a part of me has come home in this project and anticipating where it will lead me next, like a love affair woven in silk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

# 16 [22 July 2009]

 

 

This project is gathering momentum.

We had a Shape.. meeting with everyone in London the other week to discuss PR/audience development. It was at Oxford House in Betnnal green, just by Weavers Field , appropriately enough…Just being with everyone, talking ourselves into the future of our respective projects acted like a catalyst for me, it made it very real and I have begun to really enjoy the process of wrapping and also thinking about the space and the audience who will be experiencing the work. I wrapped 5 of my mothers objects – a set of keys, her wallet, her cheque book, her camera and a Persian cookery book that she and then I used so much that the pages went transparent with cooking oil.

I used green fabric, my new favourite colour, a socio-political act given what is currently unfolding in Iran, her country, right now. I then bound them in fuschia pink yarn and the finality of this act was somehow thrilling and devastating at the same time..there is now a boundary of cloth between myself and what these objects came to mean – they were key items of hers that I felt I could not throw way but I didn’t want the responsibility of keeping anymore. So now they are part of a collective legacy in cloth and I think she would have enjoyed their poetic relocation into an artwork of mine!

I then added two objects of my own – my wedding shoes,.They had broken straps but carried such strong  memories of the slowest, most delicious walk down the grassy aisle towards the river where we said our vows. Since I wore red and it was a blue moon I bound them in strips of my red silk dressing gown and blue kilim wool.

 I remember telling myself to go slowly and  take in everyone’s face as I passed, to take snapshots so that in the moments before I die, I can replay them and experience a sense of communal joy and love  that that day resonated with (is this weird??). This week it will be five years since we married, my daughter was born and my mum passed  away - in that order. 

 

# 17 [22 July 2009]

 

July Visit to Bristol Museum part 1

 So, the visit to the Museum this time round was a very different experience – ‘Banksy vs Bristol Museum’ is on at the moment (witty, irreverent, playful, I like it..) and it is a phenomenon. There were people outside queuing for up to 4 hours, and a total cross section of society. I was envious… it was like seeing people queue up to go clubbing..very refreshing!

 

So, to even get into the place I had to enter through a Secret Door, which of course I enjoyed immensely, through passages and intercoms, via the reception which is currently Banksy-ed up as a vandalised Ice Cream Van…and into the office of Kate Newnham who , together with the Textiles Conservationist Jane Taylor – Bouvier, showed me some truly beautiful Indian and Iranian textiles work, to inspire.

 

I showed them my wrapped objects and Jane talked about how we will have to freeze all the objects for a week as soon as they enter the museum (this applies to all acquired items) and I find this weirdly exciting.

 

Kate gave me a great selection of Japanese gifts she had been given , wrapped using Furoshikis, (square materials used for wrapping gifts, often very beautiful in themselves) to use in my workshop the next day..

 

I had a good chat with my brother –in-law Mark about my idea of hanging the objects in the shape of a Persian carpet.  I had started to abandon this idea in favour of a floor piece as it seemed complex and unmanageable, but we looked at examples of hanging installation and I realise that the work needs to FLY and be IMMERSIVE in some sense. We discussed ideas with Julia and Simon the 3D designer and they are looking into the logistics of hanging 999 objects so will know soon if I can go with this idea and start making models etc.

# 18 [22 July 2009]

 

July Visit to Bristol Museum Part 2

I gave my first workshop the next morning at the Museum, to The People’s Panel, a group who represent non-traditional museum audiences and have worked with the museum on interpreting work before, notable the Love exhibition that toured to the National Gallery.

 

I began by asking them to describe a gift they had been given in the last year and it was interesting to hear how many gifts  received were unwanted, but were kept – someone said she felt that she was often given things that the giver liked rather than that corresponded to who she really was. Another spoke about how she hides a gift she really dislikes behind other ornaments in her cabinet , but gets it out when the giver comes round…I wanted us to conjure images of objects in our minds as a group, as this is what the public will be doing as they browse the wrapped gifts and maybe seek to match them with descriptions in the Register Book and also on texts around the space.

 

I showed them some of my work –from a gift /exchange/ participation angle- in the context of my own life experiences of love, loss and attachment and they seem to be quickly able to access the emotional context of the project. We spent some time handling Kate’s Japanese gifts and I spoke about Furoshiki and also the use of wrapping in Pacific island divinity culture –ie to preserve the power of objects and protect the keepers .

 

I then unveiled my wrapped Gifts and asked them to guess what they might be, giving them the narrative of each object – this was a moving moment as I spoke about my mother. Finally, almost everyone had brought at least one object to donate –among them a door handle that had once been part of a sculpture, then spent 30 years on a shed door, and now  is  returning to art - and they filled in the donation form. I realised from this session that there is great value in working directly with more groups not only to contextualise the gifting of the objects, but also to engage in the wrapping process itself as a collective, creative act 

 

 

# 19 [25 August 2009]

I've been in the studio experimenting with materials, proportions, wrapping objects and generally having a great time...I spent a day out in Brighton at fabric shops sourcing fabrics, inspired by the palette of a Turkish tile i saw at the V+A which depicts the courtyard around the Kaaba in Mecca. I have also been using materials and clothing that I already had, which has a particular resonance for me. I reserve these for wrapping the first 99 objects, which are mine only and will be hung as a separate work, a kind of introduction to the main, public collection in the space. At least, that's my current thinking and hope. Deep hues of blue, whites, greens and a hint of red, with black at the centre. I have sent some a very vague sketch as a starting point for Simon, the 3D designer to start working with, more like a list of parameters for how the objects may hang in the space.

 

The Bristol team are working on the postcard invite for the donation campaign and the artwork is looking great, i got a thrill when the pdf plopped into my mailbox. Have also got my PO Box number now so come September,(next week!) we can release our request for objects to the universe and see what it provides..i enjoy being on the brink of such an uncertain but potentially abundant process that i hope will bring me unexpected parcels in the post and at the Museum, ready for transforming. They are also working on setting up some wrapping sessions so that we can generate a large section of the work directly with groups.

 

My methodology is to establish the proportion of colours based on a ground plan design, then prepare the corresponding number of furoshikis (wrapping cloths) per colour section. I will also work out the number of colours of binding i want to allow, then make available both of these at sessions for people to choose and wrap with. This gives me the security of knowing I have an overall design palette covered and those participating a certain degree of aesthetic choice. I have a day in the studio tomorow, will be wrapping the objects that the People's Panel gave me and looking at the numbering process for objects..still have to find a beautiful book for it all to be recorded into.

# 20 [21 September 2009]

I went to Bristol last week.I spent the first day at UWE being interviewed by Mathew Partington for the NEVAC archive, alongside Rosa and David Kay. This was great practice is being precise and clear about my ideas in relation to the project.

 I had sent rough sketches to the Museum designer Simon last month with some outline ideas about how the objects might be hung so that he and the model maker Nathan could start working out a structure from which they can hang. We met with Nathan who had done some small mock-ups of structures for my objects (the first 99 are going to be my own objects and hung separately, in a kind of spiral, vortex arrangement.). After some discussion we came to finding a way of having very little structure ’in the picture’ so to speak. I want the illusion, as far as possible, of objects flying through space, with very little else - apart from texts – in view. Unless you look up, where there will be a kind of grid structure from which they all hang.


I love this part of the process, where a solution is found for the physical stage of the work to become possible. Nathan suggested I do mock-ups of objects on the ground (and later from a higher place)  to see how much room they actually take up as he is concerned it may be smaller than I think. But today I realised through doing this that the variable size of objects makes for a much larger space than we thought when we were adjusting our calculations and pacing it out in the gallery. I am glad as I want it to have a certain presence, and at 7 meters long think this will be in proportion to the gallery space and to Rosa’s work which will take up a lot of the  surrounding wall space.


I also had a second workshop session with the People’s Panel this trip, which felt very satisfying somehow. They had brought objects to the first session which I had wrapped and brought some of them back to show  them. This time, after explaining where I was with the development of the work, I brought a selection of my own objects and some materials and yarns to wrap. A real gift and exchange session. I shared the stories behind the objects  and it felt good and also cathartic to do this,  like laying a part of my life to rest, with others witnessing it. Julia and also two other panel members had brought objects so they were wrapped and entered into the collection. It now feels like the gathering has begun. The postcard inviting the public has been printed and I am about to write a more personal letter to go with it to send to my own contacts. We will see what the  abundant but unpredictable universe will bring me ….