2. Sonia Delaunay
Sheila Hicks
Fast and slow do more than just describe a rate
of change. They are shorthand for ways of
being, or philosophies of life. Fast is
busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical
, stressed, superficial, impatient, active, quanti
ty-over-quality. Slow is the opposite:
calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurrie
d, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity.
Honore, 2005
Alexander Calder
'We feel that several criteria determine
whether a work can be called a
femmage. Not all of them appear in a
single object. However, the appearance
of at least half of them should allow the
work to be appreciated as femmage.’
Meyer & Schapiro 1977/78
9. mending
Exhibition following residency in
Cambridge, April 2013
Residency undertaken at
Anglia Ruskin University
with the
Global Sustainability Institute
10. GAME : Momotaro
dice roll each part
+1 extra +1 body part +colour/texture
1 : CHARACTOR
1 – dog (rectangle, brown)
2 – bird (triangle, teal)
3 – monkey (double oval, grey&red)
4 – momotaro (oval, cream)
5 – parents (teardrops, lavender)
6 – oni (chevron, red)
3 : MATERIAL
1 – wood
2 – metal
3 – fibre
4 – stone
5 – ready-made/other
6 - beads
2 : LANDSCAPE
1 – river (waves, blue)
2 – bamboo (bamboo, yellow&green)
3 – peach (peach, peach)
4 – dumplings (round, yellow)
5 – boat (boat, cream)
6 – home (home, orange?)
4 : JOINT
1 – bind (thread, stitch)
2 – pierce (nail, rivet, screw, wedge)
3 – string (knot, tie)
4 – grip (wrap, enclose, claw)
5 – joint (joints)
6 – any/other
11.
12.
13. now what…
• Mapping out what I mean by mending
• Looking at who else works in this field and
other influences etc
• Working on application for registration
• Working through original proposal to unpick
and rewrite
• Making some things to process some ideas
Editor's Notes
Originally intended to imrpove my understanding of my practice and my theory, and of myself as a maker and as a researcher – my practice was making jewellery and larger scale adornments within the slow framework I had created for myself and I was interested in investigating a more social, outward facing element as well as developing my ideas for adornments I was also working freelance making props for shop windows and working for other makersInterested in time and slowness – Henri Bergson’s ideas about duration, appropriate time –allowing oneself time to think about choices and decisionsI had trouble seeing the different areas of my practice as one thing, concurrent paths exploring the same ideas.
soniadelaunay, born in russia, ended up in france, textile and costume designer and paintersheila hicks, American fibre/textile artist – large scale weavings and knottings, architectural installationsalexander calder, american sculptor but I like his jewellery a lotManifesto for Femmages:The criteria which are most important to me from their list are1. It is a work by a woman2. The activities of saving and collecting are important ingredients3. Scraps are essential to the process and are recycled in the work4. The theme has a women-life context5. The work has elements of covert imagery6. The theme of the work addresses itself to an audience of intimates7. It celebrates a private or public event8. A diarist's point of view is reflected in the work9. There is drawing and/or handwriting sewn into the work10. It contains silhouetted images which are fixed on other materials11. Recognizable images appear in narrative sequence12. Abstract forms create a pattern13. The work contains photographs or other printed matter14. The work has a functional as well as an aesthetic life'we have evaluated a selection of women's art and looked for similar elements which appeared most frequently. As we recorded them, we discovered with pleasure that they presented a form in many guises - a form we call femmage' (Meyer Schapiro, from Waste Not Want Not: An inquiry into what women saved and assembled – Femmage read in Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art 1996 University of California Press p154)Criteria as put by Meyer & Schapiro (p153 as above)ALREADY MADE WORKSTHESE OBSERVATIONS/CRITERIA ARE BASED ON A POST-MAKING VIEW - LOOKING AT PRE-MADE/READY-MADE/ALREADY-MADE OBJECTS BY WOMEN HAS CREATED THIS CRITERIA. THIS IS INTERESTING AS IT NOW ATTEMPTS TO FRAME THESE OBSERVATIONS IN A FORWARD FACING WAY - YOU CAN NOW CREATE A FEMMAGE IF YOU USE HALF OF THESE CRITERIA OR MORE - WHEN THE CRITERIA ACTUALLY CAME FROM A (SUBJECTIVE) OBSERVATION OF THE (ALREADY-MADE) PAST.
Always used making as my way of thinking so I make a lot of small samples and tried out a lot of things that had been in my brain waiting for probably the first 6 months of studyingLooking at materials, re use recycling and post consumer life
Then I went to Japan for a month with 9 other students, we lived with other artists there.Gave me time and space to think about what I wanted to make and look at other made objects in detail, as well as a lot of discussions about practice with other artists.Exhibition in Japan was a collaborative piece of work, exploring communication with a playful element. Made up of multiples of balloons, with scent and sound added in. No shoes no talking was the rule. Visitors interacted with each other by playing with the balloons which reacted in different waysThen the pieces I made for the interim show and the J embassy show that followed were explorations of the addition of multiples of elements within my own practice and aesthetic.
This is the piece that I made for the interim show
Running workshops with Meghan and JackDiscourse, interacting with people and seeing how our ideas translate outside of our personal studio practice to others Similarly when jack, Meghan and I started to challenge each other to make things, which resulted in us all taking part in the Getting making project – I could see, understand and explore my work from the perspective of other people – discourse element really important to meSocial furniture – This was a workshop which I participated in. That day a lot more of my thoughts started to make sense, again through conversation and interactionProject play – This was a project that Karen organised and invited me to be part of. It sparked my understanding of play within my practice and inspired me to research it in a more formal way.
Wrote research paper on play and slowness – this is my original framework for slownessPiaget and also Loose Parts (although disagree with some of the loose parts essay – doesnt seem to see people as loose parts, loose parts seem to have to be quite specific)Mastery, make believe and rules – these relate to play but also to practice, and can be used to facilitate play in practiceEssay research really helped me examine and clarify my practice and gain better understanding of myself and my workRealised I had always been quite playful within work, I like interactivity and repetitiveness
This map shows how I feel all my ideas currently come togetherThe venn diagram maps how I see my work and where the crossovers are, and the words down the sides are important elements within my practiceBlue are fundamental parts and green are the ideas which underpin them
Now see mending as a key word, action, idea and metaphor within my practice, See the route and identity of my work, undersatnd its narrativeMending theoretically, mending practically, Material choices could be seen as mending. Ecological mending through material choices, Mending objects through reuse Mending methods, joining materials (back) together Mending of community & of decreasing skills through workshopsMending of self through action of making, when I feel lost or I can’t work something out I turn to making to help meUnderstand my practice and myself as a maker now
Final projectMomotaro is Japanese folktale of a boy who was found in a peach (according to one version of it), and his adventure. I have taken this story as the inspiration for my final collection and have made this game for it to make the decisions about the jewellery I will make
