presentation made for Rhod 2012 background to the imstallation that I created. It was a timed show but you will need to click the arrow to proceed through it www.researchforrhod2012.blogspot.co.uk

1. A 20 images for 20 seconds each
presentation supporting my work at
Rhôd 2012

2. I have a synaesthesia of drawing writing stitching.
I started my work at Rhôd with drawing

3. In the Brownies I refused to take the hostess & housekeeping
badges. This might come as a surprise to anyone who has seen
my work over the last 14 years

4. Keeping house in a shed. A sense of order: a place for everything,
everything in its place. The tools in Rhôd mill remind me of this

5. The Cosmic Housekeeper
Turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. A square yard is defined
by four tape measures – metric on one side, pinned together. A
small quadrant of the universe is designated for cleaning. All
manner of brushes and cloths are used.

6. The quiet ritual of the tea ceremony
Precision. The sounds of pouring, of porcelain

7. stitch, skin, surface, textile.
I have psoriasis

8. Tarantella against the wall, a dance to save my life before I am 50
skin movement stillness
Liveness – what is it? It has only existed as a concept since
Eddison made the first recording that could be played back.
What are you looking at?

9. Considering skin & surface at Rhôd. A photograph of a photograph
Is the page like skin – no longer vellum but layers of wood pulp?
but this is a screen of light
Vellum and parchment both being made from animal skin

10. Skin surface petals blossom touch
body environment time seasons
plants flora

11. N
Mapping with plants – awareness of space, of a journey via the flora.
Making an ointment, rubbing it into skin, taking away the place,
sharing with others: conversation, knowledge, touch

12. I am also showing work in Adar at Capel Y Graig, Ffwrnais
An ongoing investigation since 2001 of transformation, balance.
What is woman?

13. Blodeuwedd: made form flowers as a reward for a man. Changed
into an owl as punishment for wrong doing. Some say she needs to
be flowers again – I say she needs to be both

14. Back from an aside – which makes me think of footnotes
George Perec: The Species of Spaces
the body the text in space
[a place for everything, everything in its place?]

15. An MA in Performance Writing
Space, the feminine, the body, flight, wings, birds, textile
Including erasure versions of 3 Jane Austin novels attending to
space, movement & letters

16. Ysgwydd: of flight of space of body of wings of woman of aging, tu hwnt y deall dyn

17. Personal words torn into strips re ordered retyped. Woven to form a cradle, a
container; as a man sits against my back reading my fragmented words
Words disembodied re-embodied [through making, through speaking, through
vibration]. Words always of the body when spoken & written

18. This is text printed on woven textile.
This is digital text, typed with all my finger [touch tap tactile] tips. Ambidextrous text.
If you know me you might even be able to hear my voice as you read this, your mind’s ear at
work; perhaps if it is not how you are used to hearing me it will not sound quite right. I wonder
what voice you hear if you do not know me...your voice reading these words? What character?
Some invention that you cannot explain to me?
Of course, right this minute, right now, these words are not printed on canvas they are
appearing on a screen as I touch the letter pads. That history behind writing, behind language:
the deep collaboration of generations of people speaking and writing [English in this case]. I
could not be doing this without that – without you. The fullness of this could not be done
without you or without my intention of making this readable. Oh and the program makers,
computer makers...so many people involved in this one little bit of writing. Then the canvas...
Do you want to stand in a gallery reading words? [I could supply this text in some gallery notes
to read later, but printed on paper, on layers of fibres from wood - Paper has been made of
many different plant substances. Rag paper. I have made paper from nettles, from rhubarb;
which makes a lovely brown tracing paper like sheet. The fibres when in solution align
themselves with each other; that is why paper tears more cleanly one way than another - But of
course it wouldn’t work so I won’t].
X marks the spot, “the intersection of lines across an axis denotes intentionality, even negation;”
X is warp & weft of textile, “is the signature of the one without writing, X is a crossroads”1 It is
both negative and positive, binary bound. The point. Textile: created with/as a formal, flat,
gridding...then it folds into three dimensions, enfolds, becomes pli-able, com-pli-cated
time, place, writing, textile, authenticity, the fold, surface

19. Considering skin & textile at Rhôd
Textile: a link from two to three dimensional space; from surface to space

20. Structure, writing within given structures
creating small stutters when read

21. at Rhôd: wet & dry sych a gwlyb flour & water blawd a ddŵr
making, objects, material