The architecture of a fibre is like that of the DNA this shows reflective and experiential process in tension,
Just produced a book which is an inspirational story of how creativity can help you rise above the everday problems of life. Attached is a picture of my front cover, my story is told through my hats. www.2QT.co.uk/blog or www.toneredgar.com go to the about page to purchase the book.
Thematically I think about a net as a series of connections. In death, (with which I am preoccupied at present) the material connection with the deceased is cut. The link with the person who has died feels tenuous at best. Loose ends abound.
Rachel Bickovsky
My work explores family networking. Connections that have been lost, and the ones that remain. The collage is made from four pieces of paper, and a series of small tokens.
The main image is a representation of the ‘Family Tree’. Located on this tree is a series of tokens, each marked with a family member’s name. The branches represent the passages of different connections. As the tokens expand and the connection becomes lost, the token is marked with a question mark (?).
I am trying to communicate the plight of the refugee by likening their situation to that of being lured into and entangled in a “net” of nefarious behaviour and political and bureaucratic policy in both their own and the country to which they escape.
I am using the mediums of both drawing and textiles on white muslin, while drawing on inspiration from work by child detainees. I chose muslin for its net-like quality. I am using grayish thread to convey the feeling of waves, pulling and entwining. The use of fishermen’s pants alludes to traditional culture, sea and boats
I forgot to add to my previous post, that when I went to the local butcher to buy the skin, I asked for it in metres, and after I had been in for the third time, I was being asked to pay more for the same amount and he was considerably grumpy and unwilling. So I left it for a few months, and then when I went back – I asked him for it by weight, and with a bright cheery voice he said, “no problems – as much as you like”. So I guess the moral to this story is, do not ask a non sewing male for sausage skin in metres!
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Skin has fascinated me for a long time – a two dimensional multipurpose mesh surfaced organ encapsulating an ample and capacious body. It can be slack or tight depending on age and weight. It can be oily or dry, and responds to pain and pleasure. It is a marvellous material with a network of lines especially on skin dried and damaged by the elements or in my particular case, worn with ageing. It hides in its multiple layers nerves, glands and capillaries under its inert exterior.
My work is to show a network of lines – a network of roads travelled – telling the story of the life lived – through a body that shows the wear and tear of what has been.
Here are photos I have taken of what I have done so far – manipulating sausage skin.
My ‘netwurking’ keeps coming back to family networks and paper and text and black and white. What to do with all the pieces of paper I’ve inherited and all the secrets and stories the text hints at so loudly. The dramas of births and deaths and marriages suggested – the formal certificates revealing lots and hiding lots more. I’m using paper to explore and explain what I know about some of the women I’ve ‘caught’ in these family nets. So far it’s crepe paper and it’s knitting…………..
Today (23 March), I got this email from a friend in Germany.
‘Hi Michael,
Hope everything is fine and your project is going in according to plan – somehow to plan.
I organized also “Der Spiegel” from week 38 - 9/11. When I show it to people they are really shocked, but you are right – it was never realized at that point in time.
Jürgen’
These few lines renewed my sense that the subject of my ‘Nets’ project was worthy of the attention and considerable time I have put into it – so far. From previous workshops, some people will already be familiar with the outline of my proposal. I’ll leave you to get the details on my (totally updated) ‘Advertising’ project web pages.
Jurgen works for a large automaker. Those whom he shocked are probably also employed in the German corporate world. His message also helped me to see some other variations of ‘net’ that would have been working, in those special circumstances (but would certainly have equivalents today), with the result that ‘… - it was never realized at that point in time.’
Although the main topic addresses external ‘nets’ – in this case deployed by advertising agencies, on behalf of their clients to ‘phish’ for potential consumers – other, internal, ‘nets’ create ‘blind spots’ that help sustain the existence of unethical practices.
All advertising is, to varying degrees, a fiction of selective imagery. The reflective surface of the new automobile, in a TV commercial, ‘blinds’ us to the inevitable trauma of the first scratch. Smokers and alcoholics don’t see the marketing of products they know will be harmful to their health – and may well cause their early death – as ethically problematic. The addictive condition removes the capacity to make a rational choice around the substance of addiction.
The real surprise is that the non-addicted majority doesn’t demand sanctions on the promotion of the products that are killing their relatives or friends – especially when it is society, as a whole, that has to suffer the economic and traumatic consequences. Underlying the ‘predictive analytics’ of modern marketing is the principle that fear not only sells, it silences.
