So, back on March 19th, Around the Frayed Edges opened at Agnes Jamieson Gallery in Minden, Ontario. Unfortunately, due to financial setbacks, I couldn’t make it to the vernissage and as a consequence I wasn’t there to spearhead the performative portion of my work that was featured in the show. Thankfully, the lovely people over in Minden managed to pull it off in my absence and it was even filmed for Internet posterity.
Here are some of my favourite stills:
From the evidence of the video, it appears like everyone had a great time! The best thing about this part of my work is seeing people interact with it in this way. It’s awkward, absurd, hilarious and light hearted. Honestly, I’m amazed all 9 people could fit inside of it!
Here’s the video in its entirety:
I think it is really great that the gallery filmed the exhibition in this manner. The video (featured below) goes over the entire exhibition looking at each work just long enough to give a taste of what the show is about. Even though I was involved in the exhibition, I wasn’t entirely aware of what other kinds of work were going to be in the show. It seem like a great mixup of contemporary textile work–I approve! I only wish I could get to Minden to see it.
So, I’ve been doing quite a bit today that is completely unrelated to what I should be doing on a Sunday. I should be doing my readings for my seminar in the morning but instead I spent the entire day doing home stuff–grocery shopping, cooking, baking, cleaning, organizing. It feels like a major weight off my shoulders to have our designated studio area in the apartment spic-and-span. It took about three hours to get it under control. My main goal was to have the longest wall free of furniture so things can be hung up in progress, as well as making as much space available in the centre of the room as possible. There is now a designated book area and a designated computer area. In the future I think the computer table will turn into a drawing table since the surface of this desk is much nicer than the other desk I normally work on. Right now though, I’m really enjoying working in a new space that isn’t the kitchen. Phew!
I’m in such a clean-up/organize-y kind of mood lately. Maybe it’s the fact that spring is here. Or maybe it’s because I have tons of other things to do that it is only natural to procrastinate by cleaning random things. Or maybe it’s totally the urge to have control over something. Who knows! I’m trying to really resist the urge to organize my studio in school because that’s a job that will take way longer than a mere three hours. I’ll have to set aside an entire day to tackle that because washing the leftover dishes and used coffee cups I have piled everywhere will probably take an hour. Yikes! I’m such a disorganized person sometimes. Every workspace is definitely a reflection of my mindset, that’s for sure.
Anyway! Let’s get into a work update:
This week I feel like I haven’t really done much. I’ve been doing a ton of reading, sketching and thinking out loud but I’ve been doing very little in the production department. I think it’s because I’ve hit a bit of a wall when it comes to thinking up new work. The hooked rugs I’ve been so obsessed with have fallen on the back burner (Right after I get the new frame, I stop hooking. Sheesh, that’s always the way!) and I’ve started thinking about other things. Mostly, I’ve been considering sculpture because right now I feel like working on such a flat image-based surface as rug hooking just isn’t doing it for me. Despite all my practical thinking, I can’t help dreaming about big installations and sculpting large scale. It’s terrible! I don’t have room for this kind of stuff! However, the more my practical mind keeps fighting against going large, the bigger and more amazing my ideas get. I am constantly setting myself up for disaster. Seriously!
Part of the large scale-ness I’ve been thinking about involves getting back on the spinning saddle to make some new yarns reminiscent of icy water. This week I spun up some single-ply bleached silk that’s pretty slubby and has already started to make itself into a fishing net.
There is something so lovely in the simplicity of silk singles. I don’t have a photograph of the net that this skein is becoming but holy moly, it’s turning into quite a beauty.
Along with the silk, I took a bundle of merino fleece I had kicking around and dyed it cram-pot-style a nice variegated blue. The result was then carded with some white icicle top (basically nylon fibres) that gave the fleece a pretty frosted appearance. I spun it into a two-ply yarn that is relatively even and pretty uniformly blue. I think I will probably card the rest of the fleece with some natural white corriedale, as well as some icicle top, so the entire skein will feel more icy.
Spinning has been a really fun exercise this week, along with being in the dye lab. It’s like easing into a swimming pool and swimming laps for the first time in years–it just feels good. However, I forgot how long it actually takes to fill a bobbin with thin, thin wool…..it is definitely not a quick procedure in the least.
See, the thing about hooking a mat is that it appeals to my obsessive side. It’s a lot like eating those free baskets of homemade potato chips at the Hotel lounge on Rue de la Montagne off Ste. Catherine: the saltiness and creepy onion taste makes you want to drink more which in turn makes you want to eat more chips. A vicious and highly dehydrating cycle that won’t stop until some outside/uncontrollable force makes it stop. In the case of those hotel lounge chips, usually the end of Happy Hour means no more chips and no more cheap drinks so everyone heads home. When it comes to hooking a mat, the only thing that has been forcing me to stop are my hands as they kink up over the stress of holding a rug hook for five hours straight.
Needless to say, I think I am becoming a hooker. Ahem. Everything about this process has been so exciting for me because it’s coming to me as easily as knitting (but with a much shorter learning curve, thank goodness!). I’ve always been able to produce exactly what I want with knitting. I get an idea, do a little sketch, and start knitting. When everything is done, it looks pretty much exactly the way I was expecting. For me, knitting is a given. What really excites me is that mat hooking is going along that same path. I think I have found another way to work (and another way to totally destroy my hands with repetitive stress injuries…sigh).
Anyway. Even though I’m so excited about hooking a mat, I’ve decided to step away from it for just a little while. I have a lot of other things to do and mat hooking has become a pretty good diversion from more pressing matters. Like working on a presentation/paper about Liza Lou and Janet Morton. One of the easy things about this presentation topic is that I did a lot of research/writing about these ladies in undergrad, I just have to come up with a more critical approach to reading the work (my biggest struggle). The fun part with that is I’m crocheting cookies for the potluck part of the presentation, continuing my pattern of bringing in food that people can’t eat. Heh.
