January 2021 – kayswancutt

‘Culture and nature are intimately tied in the making of textiles. When sun-dried fibers are spun by hand, the spinsters’ fingers and the spinning wheels follow a trend set by the way plants have already curled and died.
When weavers interlace their threads, they do more than mimic the techniques witnessed in nature among tangled lianas, interwoven leaves, twisted stems, bacterial mats, birds’ nests, and spiders’ webs.’ (The Object of Labour Art,Cloth and Cultural Production)

Hand dyed with plant materials and hand spun

This quote resonates with me as I have noted in previous posts, my intention is to try and work from earth to finished piece and all the steps along the way to consider this connection. This makes for a very slow process and even sometimes not finished pieces at all. This is fine by me as I believe that for me the process and a somewhat aimless approach produces more creative ideas than if I had to focus on a finished piece.

I woke up early this morning whilst it was still dark and for some reason began thinking about the nature table at my primary school. (It was a long time ago)

How excited I was every day to see what was new on the table – bits of bark, bundles of moss,the odd dead thing, leaves, twigs all to be identified by our very clever teacher who at the end of term gave us all a beautiful blue hyacinth in a pot. I loved all the individual pieces and also loved how they came together as a collective display. I have always loved small things that make up a whole.

It made me think of an exhibition that might work like this. For a long time now my friend Susi and I have discussed the possibility of an exhibition that might focus on process; viewers coming to an exhibition often only see the end product of a long research and experimentation programme to bring that piece to the wall. I think viewers miss out if the selecting, reviewing, experimenting and decision making isn’t seen at all. Sometimes this is seen in an artists sketchbook but I don’t use a sketchbook in that way.

This exhibition is in the planning and Susi, together with my sister Jean are planning an exhibition for 2022.

I have begun some new stitched work using my already plant dyed materials both cloth and thread and have given myself permission to make small pieces and allow them to be themselves and see what happens if or when ………

Month: January 2021

Connections

New Year