Unit X: Installation Sub-Group

This year has been very much about trial and error. At first, I felt compelled to abandon the ways of working I had adopted in my previous foundation year, which was geared more towards textiles, and approached the course with a preconceived notion of how a fashion designer must design.  Unfortunately, what I imagined to be the ‘correct’ way of working did not translate into the correct way of working for me and I have found myself struggling to design in a way that reflects my artistic sensibilities. This is why, I was so excited to use this unit as a chance to step outside the confines of the course and begin to explore different ways of working.  I am still interested in the practical making of things which is why; when it came to thinking about the final outcome I was more inclined to work towards some form of large-scale installation. Thankfully, as a result of last week’s tutorial with Louise who gave us the option of creating more than one outcome, I was joined by Flavia and Lizzie as we formed a subgroup. Like me, the girls are interested in working with textiles and prefer a tactile and hands-on approach to making.

We came together as a sub-group today where we went through our research and talked about what sort of medium we’d be interested in working with.Whilst I enjoy working consistently on my own to develop a narrative for my work, when it comes to realising those ideas into an actual outcome I find myself a bit lost for direction. In this way, I think working with a team (though now smaller than originally intended) will benefit me as already we were bouncing off each other’s ideas.

It emerged that whilst Lizzie and Flavia had ideas of what they would want to work with in terms of the final outcome, due to having to change the direction of their research according to our turbulent group discussions, they had not defined a research concept. The general feeling was that each time we had a meeting, ideas were changed and in turn research had to be altered accommodate those changes. 

My research had the advantage here as I had stubbornly refused to change my research as I wanted to continue to develop a strong narrative on which to base our groups ideas. I guess that’s not quite being a team player but it has worked out for the best as the other two were happy to continue with my conceptual research.

The concept we have settled on is that of ‘Evil Reflected’ as illustrated in the images below taken from my sketchbook.

Collage using image of a 'Gris-Gris' talisman. Pencil, Tracing Paper.

Collage based on photograph of Horse skull.  Pen, Watercolour.

Despite the fact that this research came from looking at Voodoo, our aim is to make the final outcome more of a figurative representation of the original concept. Both illustrations show sharp forms protruding from objects, so we talked about potentially making structures that raise up from a fixed point in a space, i.e. either upwards from the ground our as a hanging installation from the ceiling. As inspiration for this, we thought about the work of artist Cornelia Parker, whose piece ‘Cold Dark Matter’ is an exploded view of a garden shed that appears to be suspended in motion. 

Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter- An Exploded View. Exhibited at Tate Modern(1991)

What we particularly liked about this was the fact that all of the individual components were concentrated at a central point and then expanded outwards into the larger gallery space. Lighting is an important component here as again its central positioning almost suggests a source of energy.

Finally, we are interested in fully utilising space by playing around with lighting to cast shadows. To achieve this we have a number of ideas that we aim to sample during this week.

• I want to continue to play around with fabric manipulation to create 3D structures
• Flavia is interested in machine embroidery onto dissolvable fabric
• Lizzie is interested in free-machine embroidery but wants to look into incorporating text within the piece. 

So the plan for the rest of the week is to Sample, Sample, Sample!