'Seeing' Things

Maple Cloth 

Cedar Cloth

Arbutus Cloth

Douglas-fir Cloth
An idea i explored with this work is seeing as a gendered issue and a cultural issue.
I placed small elements from each tree under its cloth to lure the male inside the structure, knowing he focuses on details from long distance. The female eye is rewarded with the details of these elements once she is inside the structure.
The western viewer has had it ingrained in them to not touch art and to accept it's right place within a frame, behind glass, behind a barrier, or across a space. This work challenges the viewer to go inside the work for a more sensory experience, enticed into the structure by the familiarity of having been between sheets for hours most days of their lives.

"Home" is Installed

The 4 bed sheets are hung from a wooden frame suspended from a trapeze.  

On the nearby wall is the book of posts from my blog documenting  the process I went through to produce this work. My artist statement and business cards are beside it.

I laid out all of my research on the floor below this wall. Tomorrow the assessment panel will go through it all in the morning.

In the afternoon I go to the gallery to orally defend my work. This is called the Viva Voce - the telling of my life.

The Hanging Happens

The shipping box is opened. All looks good. The suitcase is full of the back-up research. 

My intrepid assistant springs into action assembling the frame.

He consults with another artist's assistant (Judy Martin's husband Ned) on the workings of the trapezes we are hanging our work from.

The bed sheets are slid on the frame before it is fully assembled.

The frame is pulled to the side to get the installation in the right place.

Done

Yes!

Installation Progress

Reluctantly, I have altered the bed sheets. Each sheet will hang from a wooden beam threaded through the top hem. The hem pocket needed to be wider to accommodate the beam.  

Also, the hem fabric is so fragile in its decayed state I doubt it would support the whole sheet for long. I opened up the hem and reinforced it with interfacing and sewed it back making it larger.

It was exciting to go to cabinet maker Chris Mead's workshop to see the frame he has made.

We got a lesson on how to assemble the frame without damaging any of the joints or fastenings.

I made a list of all of the tools I need to take to London with me. 

 

Chris holding up the assembled frame, without the bedsheets.

Trialling the Installation

My lumber jack/sailor friend helped me with a trial installation of the 4 tree cloths. 

 

Unfortunately, the wind came up and it started to rain.

But the trial supporting frame was up long enough to confirm dimensions and to work out where the structural forces would be.

We quickly lowered the frame and got the cloths inside before they were damaged.

Maple Tree Cloth Repairs

The Maple tree cloth's Battenberg lace deteriorated and was not able to support it so it came inside for repairs.

Safety pins held the lace together until I could do the repairs.

I stitched a supporting grid but I anticipated the strengthened lace insert would next tear away from equally fragile woven cloth. It just needed to hang on until I stitched in August new moon's band of weft threads. 

The repaired cloth went back outside.

Have Tree Cloth, Will travel

Here am I stitching while traveling on the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, Washington, USA.

One of the passengers, a tourist from China, travelling with her family, was fascinated watching what I was doing. We got talking and I invited her to work on the cloth. Her concentration and dexterity were way beyond what I expected from her age.

From the ferry I was able to point out an Arbutus tree slipping by and made the connection with the Arbutus cloth she was working on.

The hand stitched quilt on our bed in the Bed 'n' Breakfast we stayed in looked at home under my tree cloth. 

The colours and log cabin/ flower patterns on the quilt were sympathetic with my simple running stitch and nature based concept.

Stitching Here, Stitching There

Here are 3 cloths waiting for their 'Cold Moon' (January) band of running stitch. 

I took a cloth with me whenever I had to go out. Stitching in a coffee shop.

 

 

But this is where I did most of my stitching. When I looked outside I could see all 4 trees.