Contiuum: Val Cross

Val Cross, a BA(Hons) Embroidered Textiles graduate from Westbury, Wiltshire, UK, exhibited in Contiuum during the World of Threads Festival.
Her work is about displaying treasured collections.

Like Ingrid, she put her work in a glass display case which I wasn't able to photograph very well.

The acrylic covered plinths worked well for her work in that they referenced  traditional museum display methods.

 

 

Good Design

Everyone loves to be near moving water.

While taking a morning walk I saw these collapsible bags.

A great way for people to get waste off their property.

I don't know how they are picked up.

Good Design: Seats

Wherever I go I observe where people chose to sit in public to see if the design and location of the seats and space work. 

These large bean bags are scattered around a small inner city green space.

Some people sat on them while they looked at an art work - a tall, rectangular screen with changing colours.

These two people chose to sit on the bean bags while they had their coffee rather than sit in the classic Adirondack chairs.

People put their feet up on the bags and on foot stools, a sign they felt comfortable sitting in the space.

They dragged the bean bags around the space to create their own temporary environments.

I decided this seating area is successful.

Good Design: Road Barriers

Good design can be applied to all aspects of life - even temporary road barriers.

This design has interlocking units with hand holds and can be stacked.

This barrier has a high visibility orange colour by day and reflector strips that can be seen at night. Additional warnings can be threaded through the top loops.

This is a more substantial barrier, with an interlocking connection and compact, manageable unit size.

Through a hole in the top, covered with a rubber flap, the barrier can be filled with water (or sand?) to give it more weight insitu.

William Morris and his cronies would have been interested in these road barriers even though they are not hand made. They were all about well functioning design  in all aspects of one's life.

Design: Building Facades

Old building with ornate wooden facade.

 

Old building newly painted with an oxidising paint to make it look older.

New building with a sculptural graphic facade.

Good Design

A children's play area in a bank.

A plastic cover on a metal stake.

It marks the path and covers sharp metal edges.

 A simple design means a minimum amount of wood needs to be carried up the steep track.

The support posts can be adjusted to suit any terrain.

New Design Wall - Whoopie!

For a couple of years I have put up with a major problem with my design wall.
The foam core panels have warped and pulled out from the wall where they weren't attached to a wall stud.

My resident carpenter installed 3 sheets of fibre board.

I covered the boards with pieces of leftover blackout drapery fabric.

I love my new design wall.
Now to get some work up on it.

Foam Art

Ingrid Lincoln, 'Continuum' in Oakville

 

An important element of Ingrid's work is light. She had a challenge installing her work on a dark brick wall and chose to mount the resin encased silk fabric on black.

The work was dramatically changed. 

The 3D resin cubes had to be stacked in a display case some distance from the wall piece.

The added reflective surface of the display case glass pushed the graphic silk elements further back into the cubes. It made the viewer look closely and search.

'Home' Installed With 'Continuum' in Oakville

With this 2nd installation of my graduation work 'Home' I was unable to suspend the frame from the ceiling. I had to modify the work to fit the challenging space in the Oakville Town Hall.

I used 2 of the 4 sheets to make a bed.

And added a plain pillow with a treat.

This installation was also different in that the stitching on both sheets is complete. One year of each tree's biological processes has been recorded chromatically on cloth.

I put the book documenting the process on a chair beside the bed.

Two different installations of the same work responding to two different spaces.

Continuum Installed in Oakville Town hall

Denise Jones installing her work with Rena, the Oakville public art installer looking on. 

Monika Brueckner installing her work, with a World of Threads Festival volunteer, June, looking on.

Judy and Ned Martin installing Judy's large work.

The beginning of my installation.