Small success

Jump to Comments

I have been whingeing about writing my dissertation but last night l had a minor breakthrough which should help a lot. Namely I have sort of understood what my work is about. I am exploring recreating the stick chairs in different ways : ink, stitch, plywood. Attempting to translate what I consider to be the ’spirit’ of the neat staccato stick drawings into the 3 different media. To reproduce them in different forms while maintaining the original ‘essence’ of the stick drawing. To maintain that simplicity, that simple ‘chairness’; the minute I had done the first tiny drawing of the chair I knew that it was a theme, symbol, thing I could work with and reproduce; it was obviously a chair, yet it is not ‘right’: the seat and back are outlines, the seat is not there but the back legs cannot be seen through it. It was only when I had finished my first drawing of the chairs that the impact of so many empty chairs struck me: The chairs say – alone – empty – waiting – separate – single – abandoned; curiously the single stick people didn’t say anything

I love the simple stop and start of the ink line made with a mapping pen nib (it has no spring at all, there is no trailing off, difficult to ‘flourish’ with a mapping pen). Then I allowed my love of textiles and stitching to resurface. Although we did some digital workshops last year (poor) and many people on the course moved on to video and photography I am clinging on to the physicality of doing it myself, placing each mark, considering each stroke. I have not moved away from holding the mark making implement in my hand, I love marks and making them. I wonder if this is because I have come to this art business late and old and am too traditional (discuss-later). ANYWAY re-inspired after attending a local Embroiderers Guild workshop (and more of that later) I started stitching the chairs; the same staccato, stop, start, perfect. Glasses off, head down, engrossed.

Then I wanted to breakout. I loved the plywood version of the racing track drawing (rejected by Mr & Mrs Jerwood) (to see it go here ) http://drawinglady.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/printing-not-drawing
I really like the creation of a 3d drawing, how it just hangs on the wall, casting a slight shadow (how on earth could Jerwood and Sons reject it, unbelievable). So I have started doing cut out plywood chairs. The first was on 18mm thick, I kept the proportions – line to size – sort of ok but on reflection I decided it was too large (65 x 40 cms oa). Now I have a batch on the go approx 40 x 30 cms oa. I got the local timber merchant to cut up an 8 x 4 ft sheet of 12mm shuttering ply into 24 pieces 30 x 40. This makes it much more manageable; I can get a small, albeit slow, production line going. And I need a production line because I have decided, for the final show, to do the ink drawing and the stitched piece but larger. Although both of these have around 4,000 and 2,000 respectively, I am only going to do about 100 plywood ones

What I found about the larger chair was that its size did not allow it to be wobbly or inaccurate as the tiny ink or stitch chairs could be/are. The uneven quality in the tiny chairs becomes too magnified; the eyes have to move round the chair to see it, trying to make sense of it, while at the same time being conscious all the time of the wrongness of it as a chair, it was too lumpen. Scaling them down they are now ‘eye’ size; they can be taken in instantly, in one bite/glance – CHAIR.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tags: plywood chairs, stitched chairs, tiny chair