Celebrations

When Ingrid and I returned to the flat after nerve wracking Viva Voces, our assistants produced champagne to toast our achievement.

Next day, during a group meeting, before the Private View, we toasted ourselves with champagne. What we had achieved was beginning to sink in.
The paper cups had to do because the caterers hadn't arrived with the glasses.

We went walk-about, visiting each installation while each artist talked about her work.
It was a moving and emotional time - a release.

'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!

The Hanging Begins

The pre-hanging briefing meeting.

Listening intently

Our assistants poised to jump into action when required.

Panel installation begins.

Painting the boards. 

The Day of the Hanging

Finally the day arrived when my graduation exhibition work was to be hung.
The 1st challenge was to get the work from our Kensington flat to the university.
Here is the big box of work on the over-ground train....

...on the bus....

... then carried to the campus by my wonderful assistant. 

The box of work and bag full of back-up research arrived safely at the Atrium Gallery in the new, 'green' Grove Building of Middlesex  University's Hendon campus.
Now to install the work.

London Views 1

I am in London - having fun while suffering from jet lag.
These views of London show my disturbed senses.

I felt vertigo looking up through this building on the South Bank.

I didn't know what I was looking at in this Saatchi Gallery

But I knew I was looking at something because I could smell it. My senses are mixed up.

Richard Wilson's room filled with smelly used sump oil.
I think I need to go back to the flat for a nap.

Getting Ready For London

Sorting through my workbooks to decide which ones I'll take to London to support my work during my assessment.

Meanwhile the new goslings in the garden are growing rapidly. 

 

I don't know how significant it is but I have to defend my work in front of the assessment board on the day of June's new moon. I won't be able to see the trees' colours so I have started working June's band of stitching in white threads.

Back to Buchart Again

We had more company so were back at the Butchart Gardens. Our annual membership was a good move.
The old quarry pit was a little disappointing because the gardens had been replanted only a day or 2 before our visit.

They need a few weeks to fill in. 

But the irises were magnificent.

The day was overcast - perfect for taking photographs.