I had a whole load of stuff to write on Friday after a day in the studio and came home to write it then realised that I had already done a blog post in the morning – two posts in one day looks a little too obsessed. So now I can’t remember anything that I was going to write about – typical.
So anyway today I managed to raise £141.16 for RNIB towards my target of £1500 London Marathon pledge. The lovely staff of Waitrose Rushden let me fundraise with BLUES, the noisy interactive flowers that I took to Edinburgh last year. Thankfully no actual complaints were lodged and I don’t think they were paying me to go away….
The highlight of the day was when a visually impaired girl, probably aged about 4 or 5, interacted with it and managed to see the switches which are illuminated. She also liked touching the flowers wihich are quite an interesting texture, patchwork and varied with stitching. Somehow after that it all seemed extra worthwhile.
Thank you to all who donated!
I am now reaching the ‘tricky’ stage with several projects. My GYO*BYO flowers look great but I can’t quite get the sounds to work in a way that would not have everyone running for the hills – in this case – unlike BLUES, the idea is not to sound dreadful, but good. Having spent several hours yesterday generating some appallling sounds (not just the expelitives falling from my frustrated mouth) I am no nearer a solution. The good news is that I have eliminated a lot of options. But, where do I go from here?
I have realised that I am never happier than with a pile of torm up clothing trying to fit together a reverse style jigsaw puzzle – the piece will all fit together to make what I want, I may just have to rip them to shape.
Space constraints now mean that my poor family are eating around a life-size fabric figure which CANNOT BE MOVED OR THE PIECES WILL FALL OFF. Can’t do this at the studio as it is my 6am project, and also no room at studio now too full of bags of tights and plumbing parts.
There is a solution to all this somewhere.
Today I have been preparing lots of old/discarded clothes ready to make another life-size figure.
I love it when the seasons change as it means that I get a whole new influx of materials to work with as the children grow out of things or they are just too scruffy to keep. It’s like shopping without the shopping. My children get quite cross when I start to covert a pair of jeans they are wearing with a hole in the knee – I feel like a vulture circling.
This afternoon taking the lining out of a coat – pulling the sleeve outer bit off the padded inner felt just as if I were skinning a rabbit (not that I have ever skinned an actual rabbit) but it felt incredibly old fashioned and frugal as I separated all the important bits – labels, pockets, zip, worn areas, away from the pristine fabric. Each ‘treasure’ then goes into a separate pile in my (size diminishing) studio ready for whenever the time is right. And for the pile of green clothing in the corner – today is your lucky day…..
I am trying to decide the best way to promote ReFfluxus. – How do all the movements get going – how do I find like-minded people whose work fits all my esoteric notions which are not yet completely outlined. I feel the need for a manifesto… but how does one write one?
I have started a twitter page which will just feature lines of manifesto as they occur. The problem with Twitter (or maybe I don’t just have the cutting edge technique) is that it takes a while to get followers and not sure how to get the right followers.
I know there are lots of people out there who would fit into RefFluxus but getting them together is tricky.
My manifesto so far (in reverse order):
•refFluxus reflects with recycling
•ReFFluxus is the serious application of humour
•ReFfluxus is original reinvention
•ReFfluxus is not regurgitation
•RefFluxus is balanced in an unbalanced way #ReFfluxus
•Reffluxus calls a spade a spade but might find an unusual use for it
•ReFfluxus is not conceptual but about ideas
•reFfluxus recycles with reverence
•refFluxus may refer and reinvent.
•refFluxus manifesto is pending
•reFFluxus is participatory
•reFFluxus may contain humour
•reFFluxus is an involuntary response
