Malaysia - Things Textiley

At the end of 2015, our annual family holiday was spent in Malaysia.

Malaysia has lots of things textiley to interest those who are interested in fibres and textiles.

Here am I standing beside one of the king's guards inside his guard house, where it was in the shade and breezy (hence the flying hair) while it was 34 degrees and body dripping humid in the sun.

The king's guard is wearing an impossibly clean white uniform trimmed with gold braid and epaulettes. Wrapped over the top of his uniform is a length of cloth secured with a gold belt. It is the traditional Malay men's garment akin to a sarong and called a sampin. The shimmering cloth is handwoven from either cotton or silk (I didn't risk bending down to confirm the fibre with that bayonet so close by) with a supplementary weft of gold to make the elaborate traditional pattern. His songkok hat completes the traditional Malay man's ensemble.

I took this pic to capture the line up of buses that look like colourful ants with their antenna-like mirrors. It was only when looking at the image later I saw I had also caught a sampling of the typical dress worn by people of different races and beliefs.

Left and wearing blue are Muslim Malay women with their body garments covering their whole body except for their hands and head. Their heads are covered with hejab scarves tied and pinned in place.

In the middle are 2 Indian Malays, the left one wearing a Punjabi suit with its full trousers pulled tightly around the waist with a draw string and the pant leg pulled in by a cuff around the ankle. A long, loose fitting simply-shaped shirt is worn over the top.

The other Indian Malay woman is wearing a sari outfit, a 5 to 9 yard length of cloth skilfully wrapped around her body and secured by folding and a tight fitting short-sleeved choli blouse. 

Both of them have finished off their outfits with matching baseball caps which may be compulsory wearing for their tour party. 

The 2 other people in the image are dressed in the international style found in most countries.

Many of the religious and sacred sights we visited had sumptuous old embroideries.

A banner hung outside a Chinese ancestral worship centre.

A detail of the above banner shows the traditional Chinese gold and silk embroidery on a silk ground.

These fire men's jackets caught my eye. Firstly I wondered why firemen would wear camouflage and I noticed the high intensity colour of the camouflage. Are there two oxymorons at work here?

Every city in Malaysia has its 'Silk Centre' where the fabric stores are found side by side. Each one is an Aladdin's Cave (for the Textiley Person) with the regular shop-front opening up as one is lured back into it's depths, with fabrics stacked floor to ceiling down every narrow aisle. Digging and persistence will lead to the discovery of treasures.

Real-time Update, March 16th

With the first day of spring only days away some of the plants are ready to burst.

The first lot of bulbs in the studio beds are flowering.

Much excitement - the deer fence construction has begun.

Once it is finished we will be able to begin planting.

The irrigation lines are being put in around the new garden beds.

While in the studio, I am working with leaf skeletons.

Pattern Language - # 106 Positive Outdoor Space

Pattern Language # 106 Positive Outdoor Space

Problem - Outdoor spaces which are merely "left over" between buildings will, in general, not be used.

Apart from not having any other buildings on the property, there was a problem with there not being any desirable places to walk to or to spend some time in. With the house just sitting on a high spot on the lot the outdoors was all negative space - "the residue left behind when buildings - which are generally viewed as positive - are placed on the land," p.518 Pattern Language.

Tom is clearing the area behind the garage where a much-needed tool shed/potting area will be built. This building will help define the shape of the outdoor space down the side of the house and partly enclose it, turning it into an appealing positive space.

Tom hit bedrock while leveling the ground. He was able to break up some of the more weathered granite with the excavator bucket but the rest will have to be broken up using another method.

Tom said it is a quite rare 'salt and pepper' granite. I took a piece to my studio.

Looking north to the levelled site of the tool/potting shed with a track on the left and a garden bed on the right, both between the house and the forest and needing to be made into a positive outdoor space.

Tom worked backwards down the track as he constructed a rock wall to contain and define the garden bed running parallel to the west side of the house.

Solution to #106 Positive Outdoor Space

"Make all outdoor spaces which surround and lie between your buildings positive. Give each one some degree of enclosure: surround each space with wings of buildings, trees, hedges, fences, arcades and trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with a positive quality and does not spill out indefinitely around the corners." p. 522 Pattern Language.

At this stage, with just the earthworks and some structures in place, it is hard to see these outdoor spaces as positive design elements. I will come back to this pattern as work progresses and the space evolves.

Pathways are a very important element in outdoor spaces. They can help define a room or move people through a space. A pathway's course can cause you to pause or linger or encourage you to move towards a goal or focal point. Pathways link rooms, connect spaces, shift us through hierarchies of space, and influence our sensation of time.

Both Ron and I were excited by a pathway Tom built. We asked for steps to link the upper and lower levels but I had no idea Tom could make such a beautiful pathway. 

Here is Tom standing on the partly constructed rising pathway while Ron stands at the top of it.

Just by the careful selection and placement of rocks with a flat plane, Tom was able to construct a most elegant stairway one can walk up and down with a natural gait.

When I saw it I realised it was a key element in the Backyard Project's design.

In my mind, I can see it all planted and its looks so inviting.

New Work in Small Expressions and South Shore Gallery

'Currency'

I have a series of new small works currently out there in CACSP's Tulista Gallery exhibition 'Small Expressions' and VISDA's 'Current Threads: Garden Tapestry' at South Shore Gallery.

'Currency'

'Currency' is about how many early tribes first used shells for money when trading commodities. 

The most common shell was the cowry, (Cypraea moneta) but other types were recognised and used in trade.

'Currency'

One of the most influential commodities that drove early trade and established the first trade routes caused wars and stimulated government laws was textiles.

I put the shells on silk, one of the most highly prized textiles.

The silk used in 'Currency ' is hand spun, hand woven wild silk I bought back from a textile tour of NW India.

The horn frames reference the on-going illegal commodity trade of rhinoceros horn with China leading to the near extinction of the animal.

'Currency'

These cowry shells are on a silk textile with a gold coloured frame.

Gold is a commodity many are familiar with and it was probably the first international currency.

These two exhibitions gave me the opportunity to explore an idea. What is the simplest way I could tell a story? I challenged myself to take a complex story and to pare it down to the minimum of elements needed to tell the story.

'Small Expressions' Opens in Tulista Gallery, Sidney BC

The Community Arts Council of Saanich Peninsula is hosting its annual 'Small Expressions' exhibition in the Community Arts Centre at Tulista Park, Sidney BC, March 4 - 30, Tuesdays to Sundays, 10:00 to 4:00 pm.

A team of us spent 9 hours the first-day accepting work and hanging the show.

One of the challenges with hanging the show is all of the works are small. 

Artists were challenged to work within a 12" x 12" x 12" framework. This is not always easy when one is used to expressing ideas in a much larger format.

It is interesting to see how many of the artists take the opportunity to explore a new technique or medium. They take more risks and they make discoveries. I wonder if for some this Small Expressions exhibition works as a catalyst or a jumping off point to head in a new direction.

When planning the hanging we had to forget about going for contrast in size and focus more on themes, colour contrasts and compatibility and how different works influenced each other. 

With all the works being small we hung them close together and in groupings ensuring each work sit comfortably with the others.

That is why it took 9 hours the first day and more hours the next day to straighten, adjust, fine tune, tweak, and add labels. I wasn't able to help the second day because I was out at Sooke hanging the VISDA 'Current Threads: Garden Tapestry' exhibition I posted about here 

One of this exhibition's charms is how it makes the viewer  physically get up close to the works. Each work enters the viewer's personal space creating a feeling of intimacy. Having to look at one work at a time slows the viewer down and encourages contemplation. Long distant scanning of the walls is unsatisfying. There is an absence of the usual back-and-forward dance in front of the wall. Instead, the viewer moves along the wall with their nose nearly touching the works.

'Current Threads 2015: Garden Tapestry' Has Been Installed

Current Threads 2015: Garden Tapestry has been installed at South Shore Gallery, Sooke.

Here is the view as you walk into the Back Gallery.

The back wall

The lights haven't been adjusted yet but it was time to leave after spending all day installing the work.

The artists worked with the size restriction of 12" wide x 60" or 72" long.

The idea was to give a picket fence feel to the installation.

It appears to be currently a popular format to work in.

The artists also worked with a garden theme which they interpreted freely and widely.

There's my triptych on the left. 

Forest Flowers is about fungal flowering and fruiting bodies found in the forest.

It will be fun to meet up with lots of the artists at the opening reception, tomorrow, Saturday, March 5th, 1 - 3 pm,

Exhibition: Current Threads by Vancouver Island Surface Design Association

The annual Vancouver Island Surface Design Association exhibition Current Threads 2015 is travelling after its showing in Duncan last year.

Jessie Taylor-Dodds' gallery South Shore Gallery, in Sooke, is hosting the exhibition.

This is a great chance to view this juried collection of recent work by VISDA members.

Many of the artists will be at the Opening Reception.

Do hope you can make it.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - How she came about.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - Artists Statement

Women menstruate.

If women did not menstruate, you and I would not be on this earth. We would not be alive.

Menstruation is a necessary part in our chain of life.

This artwork celebrates the humanity and acceptance of this monthly visitor. Aunt Flow comes to visit, sits on a tomato, and can’t go swimming on certain days. Strawberries, rabbits, Maggie the Red Bird is flying her colours. Speak about it, share words and stories, celebrate women, and this part of womanhood that just is, that makes life possible. We are enough, we are OK.

Menstruation Euphemisms penned by Kirsten Horel, website, artist and lettering artist.

After reading 'Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation' by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim, I had a strong urge to stimulate a conversation about this hidden subject.

It was time my collection of perfectly laundered handkerchiefs got to work.

I rubbed the centre of each handkerchief with red ochre to represent the blood.

I contacted Kirsten and asked if she wanted to work with me on the project. I was so pleased when she agreed to. She went to work researching and collecting more euphemisms and tested different ways of working the lettering with different inks and different pens. She also lettered the signs inviting the viewer to touch the handkerchiefs and to write their menstruation words and experiences in the red book. 

Together we worked on the artist statement where Kirsten's wonderful sense of humour lighted my rather heavy expression of indignation at yet another social injustice.

Each saying was printed on cloth and torn into a strip then a cotton thread was attached to the bottom.

Each handkerchief was nailed to the wall with its euphemism mostly hidden by the natural fold of the handkerchief hung on point.

I trialed different arrangements for hanging the handkerchiefs.

I wanted to give the feeling of lots, as though the installation could go on and on if there was enough room - to make the viewer ask why there were so many of these sayings.

I decided on this staggered arrangement then made a template out of gridded interfacing to show where each nail needed to go.

Satisfied I packed everything into a box and went looking for places to show 'Aunt Flow Speaks Out'.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' Has Been Installed

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out,' Kirsten Horel & Lesley Turner; size variable; cotton, silk, linen women's handkerchiefs, cotton thread, earth pigment, nails, notebook, pen; thrifting, laundering, ironing, lettering, painting.

This is Aunt Flow's official photograph.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' has been installed.

The Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria (CACGV) is commemorating International Women's Day with the art exhibition "Women Hold Up Half the Sky." It is in the Bay Centre, downtown Victoria, on the 3rd floor, next to Club Monaco.

The exhibition is on from February 25th until March 13th.

The Installation

The curators, Stepanie and Brin, have given Aunt Flow 8 feet. The ceilings must be 12 feet high so this is going to be the largest Aunt Flow has ever been. The bigger the better for Aunt Flow.

Step 1. The Template

Pin up the template and mark the wall through the holes.

The template is made from an on-point interfacing. The red dots are around holes in the template where I can make a pencil marks on the wall.

Step 2. Nail a handkerchief with a tag over each pencil mark.

Step 3. Place the plinth in the centre with the book and pen on top.

Complete.

Backyard Project: Shoe-design Garden Beds

The next garden room Tom is going to construct is made up of raised rock beds. I showed him a print made from the sole of my shoe and said it was the type of shape I wanted for the beds.

He said, "OK" and away he went to work.

He removed the existing rocks and dug out the soil.

He placed the large rocks to make a meandering curving raised edge.

The 2 lines of smaller rocks in the front of this image define the gravel bed garden.

Tom placed the rocks following the pattern of the shoe sole. He placed decomposing logs in the bottom of each growing area then filled the spaces with the soil mix. 

This garden bed shape is known as a key-hole design. 

It has many benefits including increasing the area available to plant, reducing the amount of real estate given to non-productive paths, increasing the amount of 'edge' where plant growth is most prolific and making ergonomically efficient areas to work in.

 The large rocks act as heat sinks which will warm the soil and extend at each end the length of the growing season. 

The beds are aligned north-to-south to capture the maximum amount of sun. They have been built in this particular spot because a sun-shade analysis of the back yard area showed this area receives up to 11 hours of sunshine each day at the height of summer. 

The raised beds mean we can work beside them while standing, saving our backs. The beds are at a maximum of 8 feet wide which means all of the growing area can be reached by my outstretched hand. There is no need to walk on the soil and compact it.

This image gives a better idea of the different levels that now cover what was a vast expanse of level lawn. Design wise, changing levels and curving lines are visually much more interesting.