I had to come up with a plan and maket for my ideas. I had the idea of something relating to the ski centre specifically the spiral of the tobagan run which can be clearly seen from various directions in Swadlincote. Along with this, I thought of an exhibition I had seen at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last year which was of a curtain made by Juame Plensa. This came to mind when we were discussing suspending things from the ceiling of the display case shown below (http://mikesm-sheffield.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/jaume-plensa-yorkshire-sculpture-park.html).
I started off doing a sketch as shown below which shows the curve i had in mind of the toboggan and the vertical lines were the influence of the steel curtain by Juame Plensa. I then made a maket using
- cling film to represent the seed of a tree
- silver "fabric" which I cut into long strips and curled using a pair of scissors as you would for ribbon - the spirals were relating to the toboggan and the way it twists
- brown sticky tape which I scrunched to make a tree
- cream canvas fabric
- chicken wire - cut off a small section and the shape that was made automatically was curved exactly like the toboggan
I put all these pieces together to try to create an image of what I envisaged as shown below
I suggested using the knitting machine to create large knitted pieces to drape over the chicken wire or to create trees with.
The other ideas that my fellow students had and had made makets for included
bin liners moulded onto chicken wire and sprayed - very effective and fitted with the idea of the mountain
perspex layers which you could look through the layers showing different maps of Swadlincote over the years
The group decision was to create a mountain with a road/path running around/through it with layers of maps and perspex !
I set about sourcing natural earthy coloured wools to run by the group and then knit with them. Emma showed me how to set up the knitting machine but this was being temperamental that day, so I thought about knitting by hand. Just as I was about to start I thought I'd go home and fetch my knitting machine which I've had for about a year but couldn't use as I'd threaded it up once and it didn't move as it should. So I brought it into college and Emma went through setting it up and mine too was not working as it should. The pins that hold the wool were not performing as they should. So it was back to the hand knitting idea. I created a sample and showed this to the group/tutors. Mark said it worked well against the bin liners. I asked what width it should be as I had created a sample piece that was about 1 foot wide and it was decided it should be about 10 cm.
I knitted 1.5 metres in one night, and then went into college the following day to meet with the rest of the group who were doing their part of the project including spraying the mountain white and sewing onto tracing paper. I knitted into the piece short strips of cream canvas to give more texture and interest to the piece. I also left sections dangling as the plan was to suspend it from a height so I felt this would add interest. I showed the 1.5 metre piece to Mark and he advised it needed to be about the same length again. I finished this but did not cast off as I knew that we had discussed embedding some bin liners to give the effect that the road had come from the mountain so I knitted 3 whole rows of bin liner only and no wool before casting off with the wool, just in time to go to Sharpe's to install it.
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| the sample of wool on the chicken wire. The initial idea was to cover the whole chicken wire with the wool but it was suggested that we actually just use the knitted piece which could then be suspended |
On arrival at Sharpe's Pottery Museum, the group set up the exhibition. We had two mountains, one 3 metre road and 6 maps of Swadlincote on tracing paper, layered and stitched into. One piece of the mountain was put inside the glass case we had to display the work in and then we set about suspending fishing wire from the top of the case. I attached two pieces of fishing wire to the end of the road to see how it would hang and the effect of having it suspended. As a group, we worked efficiently, cohesively, thoroughly and have created a visual installation that was created in one and half days.
Challenges we faced today included getting the fishing wire through the top of the case - we required something very narrow i.e. tweezers to retrieve the wire. We asked one of the museum employees and he produced a pair of long nose pliers which did the job nicely. Dan seemed to have the knack of threading the wire and he did the first few and then we all actually took a turn to do some. It was awkward, hurt the knees and arms and frustratingly slow at times. We took a decision to remove the mountain and started to hang Lotty's maps as they were going to give a bit of structure to the knitted road road. We then started to put up more wire on the route that the road was going to be. We decided that we may not suspend all the road and when we actually put in the larger mountain, we lay the road on it, draping it around the mountain, going around Lotty's maps and we all said it looked good against the mountain. It wasn't necessary to suspend it all and it wouldn't have fitted with the maps. We suspended the end of the road and one more part of it and the rest was laid on the mountain with the black bin liner end at the front.
Dan/Tom made sure no chicken wire was on show around the bottom of the mountains and they were installed in the glass case. The road was installed but we had about a foot of carpet on show at the front of the case. We added 3 more black bags but they looked like they had been stuffed in (which they had) because they were not sprayed so we took them outside, sprayed them, and putt them back.
Dan/Tom (don't know which one is which - it's like Ant and Dec - no matter how many times someone tells me who is who.....) wiped smears off the glass with wipes from the staff at the museum.
We checked all round the glass case to ensure it all looked tidy and we moved any debis we could that was left.
We tidied up the area where we had been working, throwing away rubbish and giving back tools and wipes. The museum staff gave us each a drink after we cheekily asked (well not WE but Dan/Tom asked). Very much appreciated.
We sought feedback from the Curator at the museum seemed happy with the finished exhibit. She took a photograph of the group for their Fcebook page (it's not there yet!).
I have thoroughly enjoyed this live project. It was short, and a result was needed within a day (or two). I got on with producing an idea (usual self doubt) and I presented this to the group. I feel I fed into the project with ideas and I worked with initiative to produce a sample, I tried to find a work around the college knitting machine by fetching my own, and then was happy to produce a hand knitted piece. It was suggested that rather than knit a piece we wrap wool around the chicken wire but this just looked wrong and ineffective. I knew I could knit quickly and I knew that on large pins, it wouldn't take long. I used 10mm needles and 3 strands of different colour and thickness of wool . The finished piece of knitting I didn't savage with my usual self doubt as the feedback I had previously received on knitting I have done, but very positive and complimentary.
I feel I worked well as part of the team, I enjoyed working with the team today. I asked Gracie if she would take photographs/video the installation and she has produced all the photographs and the video on this blog. Very satisfying project. Would I change anything? No.
All the photographs and videos are shown below.
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| nearly finished |
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