Project / Play

This autumn I am involved in a a new project!  It's called Project / Play (blog here) and is a research project with 2 companies from Japan.  So far I have attended the first 2 workshops and have started to understand more about myself as some one who likes to play (I have a collection of toys, childrens books etc, also I like to play within my own practice) and started to think more deeply about my ideal toy and the qualities I would like it to have.

These images are from the first workshop:

We were exploring different ways to explore space.  A variety of ideas came up including using ear trumpets to block/scoop noise from in front of you or behind you, finger extensions and masks which block parts of your vision.  We also looked at narrative of objects, and creating a narrative for objects.

These images are from the 2nd workshop:

We were given a kit of ingredients with which to make a series of objects, each utilising the elements of the previous object.  Each new object had to have a moving part.  I made some more complicated pieces than this but ended up pairing it down to just these components.

Wondersite Exhibition at the Japanese Embassy

                                             

The group show that I am part of opens at the Japanese Embassy, Piccadilly, London (Green Park station) today.  It includes responses from 10 artists to a shared trip & residency to Tokyo for the month of March this year.  My work is pictured below responds to a fireman's helmet and gloves I saw at the Folk Craft Museum in Tokyo, and also to the use of double stitches which I encountered a lot.  The uniform was actually quilted cloth, hence the marks on the helmet I have made referencing the stitching on the original.  I was very interested by the knotting and other thread/rope/textile based ideas I saw there, both in a historic context and everyday.  Also in the use of dyes, colour and pattern.  The smaller blue arm piece references a pattern used in the wood work of a window, the larger arm piece looks at the bamboo fencing I saw in a lot of places.