Material Culture: Light & Volume

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Plush! setting up the loom

Eye on process

Some images taken during the making process.

Images: Kim McKechnie

sneak peek…

After, quite literally, blood, sweat and tears my finished piece emerged..

Pat about to start work on making our piece. We have dyed the silk, woven the fabric and now the piece is in its final stages!

Since December I…

… Moved into a studio in the Nicolas Building for one month to begin working on my piece. With only the beautiful view to distract me I was ready to begin.

… Was given a second knitting machine, borrowed a fine gauge knit machine and called myself the luckiest girl in the world. I also began my search for a Bulky machine.

… Sampled late into most nights and was drawn to the most seemingly simple outcomes and finishes.

‘Material Culture’ all too often suggests consumerism and status anxiety. But
the Culture of Material is rich and internationally varied.

Cloth Collage all over the floor.

I’m relating to ‘Light and Volume’ right now. Having spent a lot of time in
recovery this last 6 months the sunlight streaming onto my bed in the mornings
has been a joy. That light, and the beauty of my op shopped bedspread’s colours,
have provided lovely company and kept me for the most part deliciously in the
present. I think they’ve also been influencing this work.

Grass Geometries at Merri Creek billabong.

I guess the making of jewels from grass could be seen as the antithesis of
dominant Material Culture? Costs nothing but time!

Silk Velvet Cloth artefact

Held together by a thread.

Just Cut - left panel of the hemp/cotton cloth collar. To etch it took 1:6:44 - Patience is a virtue. The fragility of the cloth once etched is the arising issue, it emulates the notion of artefact beautifully but I may have to re-think my display options for this particular collar piece as I don’t think it can withstand being pinned to a wall.

La vie, La Mort

Inspired by a recent trip to the catacombs of Paris, my piece is exploring a unifying aspect of all cultures; life and death. My aim was to create a garment inspired by an abstracted form of the human skeleton, encompassing both the core of human life and the symbol for death. I felt the fragile nature and the organic process of constructing a knitted garment was a perfect metaphor for the fragility of life and the volatile essence of death.