Penelope as a Verb
Installation, Fantasy / Visionary, Sacred / Mythological, Interiors, Video installation, 300x300x400cm
My installation was inspired by the story of Penelope the weaver, who wove each day only to unweave her work each night, suspending herself in an autonomous space through a perpetual cycle of creation and destruction.
This work explores the dialectic of weaving and unweaving, captured in my time-lapsed films of the construction and eventual deconstruction of my room installation. Its construction (part 1) was filmed over a 6 week process, where each part was built in response to a cultural textile item from a museum collection. I responded to one individual item, and then undid my work, to change and re-make it in response to another item from the collection. As such my work similarly evolved through a cycle of simultaneous creation/destruction, which I filmed in order to bridge the gap between public and private, and emphasise the importance in the, usually hidden, process. Just like Penelope, I wove my own space around me, which I would then invite the public to enter.
Over the 6 week process, I became fascinated with the threshold between the dualities- weaving/unweaving, beginning/ending, public/private, spiritual/functional - and my work began aiming towards finding the space of transition between these dualisms. I wove a secluded centre space containing a film projection, which began to symbolise the point of threshold, the integration, between the dualities. In exploring the dialectic of beginning/ending it was clear that neither existed, but rather a cycle of regeneration.
The work embodies integration and change, and it continues to transform. ‘Part 2’ shows the eventual deconstruction of the installation, however another cycle now begins as the materials regenerate into new work, and I have included some recent digital images taken from the original piece. Also shown is the fairly rugged film designed to be projected onto the woven fibres; it depicts continuity in the weaving/unweaving- there is no End, only the rise and fall of one cycle, leading into the next.
This work explores the dialectic of weaving and unweaving, captured in my time-lapsed films of the construction and eventual deconstruction of my room installation. Its construction (part 1) was filmed over a 6 week process, where each part was built in response to a cultural textile item from a museum collection. I responded to one individual item, and then undid my work, to change and re-make it in response to another item from the collection. As such my work similarly evolved through a cycle of simultaneous creation/destruction, which I filmed in order to bridge the gap between public and private, and emphasise the importance in the, usually hidden, process. Just like Penelope, I wove my own space around me, which I would then invite the public to enter.
Over the 6 week process, I became fascinated with the threshold between the dualities- weaving/unweaving, beginning/ending, public/private, spiritual/functional - and my work began aiming towards finding the space of transition between these dualisms. I wove a secluded centre space containing a film projection, which began to symbolise the point of threshold, the integration, between the dualities. In exploring the dialectic of beginning/ending it was clear that neither existed, but rather a cycle of regeneration.
The work embodies integration and change, and it continues to transform. ‘Part 2’ shows the eventual deconstruction of the installation, however another cycle now begins as the materials regenerate into new work, and I have included some recent digital images taken from the original piece. Also shown is the fairly rugged film designed to be projected onto the woven fibres; it depicts continuity in the weaving/unweaving- there is no End, only the rise and fall of one cycle, leading into the next.
Comments 0
Say something