body casts

Using the fabric that I had dyed in the onion skins I then experimented in using my own body as the cast and using powertex fabric hardener as Sue Taylor (trainer and distributorhttp://www.powertex.com.au/sue-taylor-ipswich.html )   had shown me …to hold the fabric in shape…… ! I attended a morning workshop at Sue s house and learnt about photo transferring and using fabric hardener. 

Eventually I had to come out from the cast as it was taking over an hour to dry even with a heater on …. In fact it took over night and still wasn’t totally dry.

It was not very successful but I am glad that I tried. Why wasn't it unsuccessful ? hmmmmm perhaps because it didn't retain its shape or maybe that it retained the shape too well and was too didactic.  I would like to try more experimentation with fabric, dyeing and making casts. 

Video excerpt from Powertex workshop I attended at distributor Sue Taylor's house. 

Memory, fragmentation artist reference

Reference: Mika Nakamura-Mather

Fragments

An exhibition held at the Webb Gallery, QCA, in August also really resonated with my thoughts and themes although its focus is primarily on lived in spaces and notions of home.

Nakamura-Mather writes in her artist statement:

Memories are by definition incomplete, smaller parts of a greater whole that have become disconnected from the flow of narrative structure by passage of time. Their presence is both illuminating and confusing. Fragments brings together memories and materials that speak of my home in Japan but fail to tell the complete story, too much has already fallen through the gaps.

Again this idea of fragmentation, and the slippage between the materials evoking these memories (in this exhibition photography was the medium used also) and the loss of the actual memory due in this case to the passage of time and physical change of location. Nakamura-Mather creates physical layers by using the 3d shape of the box to layer the photographs printed on acetate to emphasise the illumination yet confusion of memories - nothing is set in stone. In this exhibitions the fragments make one unified whole exhibition ....this challenges me for my work to present it leaving something unfinished, unknowable... leaving a question mark hanging invisibly in the space between the viewer and the work. My memories of my mum seem to me more intangible than memories of my home as it is still there and when I return at the end of the year the physical building will still stand yet the presence of mum will be suggested there but never again fully realised.

Absence / presence - dying

Absence/Presence continued …

Reference: Rebecca Cross

This excerpt from Fabric of Memory [1] explores further concepts of absence presence, loss and another artists personal journey through these landscapes.

•    

"Silk, for all its incredible lightness, is pound-for-pound stronger than woven steel. Even so, Rebecca Cross stretches the fabric to its limit in her forthcoming show Presence/absence, where it is made to hold such weights as grief, memory, and celebratory love. The exhibition, opening next week at the Morgan Conservatory, is dedicated to Cross' daughter, Emma Rose Coleman, who died suddenly last November at 19.

Cross recalls walking with her daughter last fall, collecting pieces of slate the artist would later use to weigh down sections of organza to allow gravity to work the fabric into its desired shape. One piece of this type (pictured, detail) is a field of translucent white, broken by cresting peaks. Cross says the stone's weight has left a permanent impression on the fabric — a history or memory, even after the stone has been removed. She is comforted by the fact that human relationships work in a similar way.

"The actual presence has been removed, but all their information still resonates," she says. "It's about embodied memory."

The installation takes up all three walls of the Morgan Conservatory's exhibition space. It cannot be easily divided into individual pieces, only sections that place accents on any of the several themes Cross examines — musicality, grace, the power of words and objects to evoke memory, and the artist's own biography. Cross has chosen to exhibit fragments in this exhibition …. Traces. One segment of wall is devoted to the word "Emma," painted over and over again; while reading it, the reader is ushered into the world of the mourner. It is powerful and profound, especially when taken with Cross' examinations of the personal traces left on objects.

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Cross transplanted to Ohio to study at Oberlin College and Kent State, where she now teaches. Her undergraduate degrees were in English and voice, and the written word, music, and dance still inform her work.

Where many artists use fiber and paper to represent something ethereal, Cross is unique in her drawing attention to the physicality of these airy materials, and the history of their conception. Though intensely personal and biographical, the show warmly invites viewers to consider the materials of their lives, and their intersections with dear ones.

Presence/absence opens with previews on Tuesday, May 29, and a reception will be held Friday, June 1, from 7 to 9 p.m. The show continues through Saturday, July 7, at 1754 East 47th Street. Call 216-361-9255 or go to morganconservatory.org to learn more.

Like Cross I am drawn by the ephemereal qualities of fabrics like organza, cheesecloth and muslin …. Like the membrane they too are permeable, they evoke the sense of a veil, a separation, delicate yet enduring. I set about dying some fabrics with natural materials firstly with onion skins – that was a process for sure – then I just experiemented with dying with tea bags ….

Onion skin fabric  dying recipe[2]

The Recipe

onion skins (the more the better)
water to cover 
bring the water to a boil and let simmer for an 1 hour
remove the onion skins from the pot (I suggest using a colander)
soaking the dyestuff a few days before is an alternative or aid in extracting color from dyestuff
evenly soak fibers in hot water before placing them in the dyebath (this helps achieve even color)
place pre-wet fibers into the dyebath 
heat dyebath for 1 hour, using a spoon or stick to submerge fibers and free air bubbles
to achieve even color avoid crowding the dyepot 
let the fibers cool in the dyebath this will give brighter results 
most dye artist let the bath sit and cool overnight or even a few days, longer is stronger
remove the fibers from dyebath, rinse with cold water until water runs clear
hang to dry.

I also experimented with using red onion skins ….. here are the results

 

Boiling up the onionskins then simmering min. 1 hour

Leaving the organza and the cheesecloth over night

Results of onionskin dye on the cheesecloth 

Organza & cheesecloth from second dye bath which also had red onion skins - organza hardly took dye whereas cheesecloth went very dark

organza drying

Muslin dyed in tea bags 

---

[1] Clark, J 2012, Fabric of Memory, viewed 25 August 2014, http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/fabric-of-memory/Content?oid=2974551

[2] Ambrose MG, 2012, Natural Dyes – yellow onion skins viewed 25 August 2014 http://www.folkfibers.com/blogs/news/6652230-natural-dyes-yellow-onion-skins

Absence/ Presence philosophy and musings

After watching Sebastian's lecture on Absence /Presence I was struck by the potent images of Felix Gonzalex-Torres’ works – “Untitled”

Billboard works. The sense of the body’s increased potency due to its suggestion and lack of presence despite the whole work invoking this very sense of presence resonated with what I m exploring in my work – ideas of trace; loss; remnants of this person who inhabited a physical body in real time upon this earth as evidenced in photographs, memories and objects belonging to them yet now they are just not here and all we are left with are the traces.

As Sebastian[1] articulated in his lecture:

According to Roland Barthes, the represented forms such as photographic images refer to someone or something "real," but that event no longer exists, except in the photograph. Therefore, the photograph is a kind of absented presence, (SLIDE 2) which, for Barthes, still holds subjective significance, but not absolute truth. Therefore, Barthes' assessment agrees with the typical association between photography and truth, but in a way that thinks past the extreme binaries of presence = truth and absence = falsity.
Another way that philosophy complicates these notions is to draw a "fuzzy boundary" between presence and absence, if there is not absolute presence and absolute absence, but an infinite series of gradations, then sharp distinctions between X and Y are impossible, because Y may be present with X even while not being wholly present X, and X itself may be only partially present.
The boundary between you and me or X and Y operates more like a membrane, whereby the separation between these two ideas of absence and presence and the way we experience them are less oppositional.
This relates to my photography work printed on the tea bags. For me also the tea bag can act as a metaphor for the body – once the tea – spirit/soul has gone from the body all that is left is the shell – recognizable yet unrecognizable. Tea bags also evoke this fluid membrane sensibility as they operate by being permeable.
If absence and presence is more like a membrane, invoking presence is to be of a fragmentary, ‘series of gradations’ yet interestingly the viewpoint of this membrane is purely from my side – I do not have mum’s viewpoint on how/where she is …

The idea of absence/presence takes on a different nuance when the person is no longer alive as physically they as themselves; the person they were, their mannerisms, likes dislikes etc is just simply not visible anymore…. Part of the grieving process for me has been a subconscious and at times more conscious search for an event, scent, sound or intangible moment where I can sense mum again and a huge part of the ache is that there have been fleeting moments where there is a sense or reminder of her yet, like my dreams about her, she is always out of reach – no matter how far I stretch … even when I was back home in 2011/12. In fact it was quite overwhelming being at the site that was so central to her being yet in the midst of many signifiers of her presence these objects simultaneously shouted of her absence. Coming to terms with this absence and all the subsequent and ongoing tremors of loss after the initial earthquake keeps the ground of the grieving unsettled potentially for many years after the initial occurrence.

This search, my search does not intend to romanticize our relationship, as it was not a perfect one there were many turbulent times, misunderstandings and resentments. It is more a search through the murky waters of loss despite the imperfection and pain of a relationship to see the deeper tie that connected us together and to our country.  

Sebastian also writes about the billboard works:

Another important way to understand this relationship between Presence and Absence is through their connection to memory and history. An art object or art image can evoke a past memory within the viewer’s mind. The past is always out of reach to us as each moment escapes us, and yet, art can give it a presence – a form or armature in which we can access it. As seen in Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s 1991 “Untitled” billboard works where two impressions are left in a bed – both of these bodies do not physically exist within the frame of the image, but give off a particular emotive feeling of lived in presence, the present body of the gallery viewer leaning up against it further compounds the power behind the frozen scene whereby the absent figures and their indented impressions on the pillows project outwards.
Therefor artwork can give presence to an absent form which in-turn heightens our feelings towards the work even though the object or the two bodies in question do not exist within the image plane. The absence of the bodies in this image can connotes a wide range of possible meanings from feelings of loss, trauma, or bring up loving experiences from previous relationships, or impressions left in your own bed or the bed of a family member.
As an artist, hoping to use physical/sensory materials to convey this very lack of being unable physically - through the five senses, to connect with this person, challenges me to try out a variety of ways to communicate this to the viewer as well as hope that some part of my work lets the viewer feel and experience this too and perhaps help them to articulate their own losses.
Other ideas:

·      body cast – materiality - touch

·      use of sound – sensory device

·      video -  seeing yet ephemereal …

Reference : Felix Gonzalez- Torres ‘Untitled’ billboards[2]

Princeton University to Install 12 Billboards with Art by Felix Gonzalez-Torres

The Princeton University Art Museum has announced plans to install 12 billboards around the University, city and state, featuring the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres.  The selected work, Untitled (1991), features an empty, but once occupied bed, evoking powerful emotions of intimacy and loss.  “Apart from its sheer beauty, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work invites us to consider issues of love and searing loss, and to become more aware of the meaning of private emotion and public space,” says Museum director James Steward. “In an age in which the scourge of AIDS remains with us globally, Felix’s immersive vision remains essential, and is a potent reminder of how this disease ravaged the art world twenty years ago.”

via » Princeton to Install 12 Billboards with Art by Felix Gonzalez-Torres – AO Art Observed™.

---

[1] Di Mauro, S 2014, ‘Week 2 Lecture notes: Presence & Absence’, retrieved from Griffith University QCA, Learning at Griffith web site: https://bblearn.griffith.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1081180-dt-content-rid-2855250_1/courses/2347QCA_3145_SB/Week2%20LectureNotes_AbsenceAndPresence.pdf

[2] Fudgie, M 2013 Princeton University to Install 12 Billboards with Art by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, viewed 16 September 2014 http://drivensociety.com/princeton-university-to-install-12-billboards-with-art-by-felix-gonzalez-torres/