Here we are already: 2014, and the final month of my Reside Residency. Soon it will be time for someone else to take up writing here. I am both excited and a little nervous about finding the next artist. Excited to see who will apply from the diversity of artistic practice out there. The nervousness comes from wanting to find someone who will enjoy this space as I have done. I’ve really appreciated the chance to think out loud, experiment and see how my ideas have developed from post to post. Because I haven’t felt the need to be too precious Reside has given me the opportunity to be freer, to try things out and just see what happens.
Now, I think it is time for me to move from exploration to consolidation. I mentioned in my last post that I hoped to finish a work in which I was melding a painted canvas drawing I did in Berlin with another piece of fabric, abstracting the painted image. I finished the re-sewn section before New Year, so here it is: a painting of weeds on elderberry-dyed canvas, with a section of saffron-dyed linen sewn into it (the same linen fabric which I was working with when I started this blog back in August). Then I was sewing it into unprimed cotton duck and was concerned with how the formal qualities of the two fabrics would change on being fused. Here I am interested in that, but also in how the original image fragments, breaks down and diffuses as it is first disrupted and then repaired.
Now, I think it is time for me to move from exploration to consolidation. I mentioned in my last post that I hoped to finish a work in which I was melding a painted canvas drawing I did in Berlin with another piece of fabric, abstracting the painted image. I finished the re-sewn section before New Year, so here it is: a painting of weeds on elderberry-dyed canvas, with a section of saffron-dyed linen sewn into it (the same linen fabric which I was working with when I started this blog back in August). Then I was sewing it into unprimed cotton duck and was concerned with how the formal qualities of the two fabrics would change on being fused. Here I am interested in that, but also in how the original image fragments, breaks down and diffuses as it is first disrupted and then repaired.
Berlin (weeds, fusion); egg tempera, ink and make-up on unpicked and resewn elderberry dyed canvas and saffron-dyed linen. Photograph: Bridget H Jackson
Detail from Berlin (weeds, fusion). Photograph: Bridget H Jackson
The initial painted image before it was unpicked and resewn. Photograph: Bridget H Jackson
I could, of course, have gone further; unpicking and re-sewing the majority or whole of the painted image, shifting the work further into abstract territory. I think there will always be a balance to be struck with how far to destroy, something I think all artists working in this area have to contend with. By nature I lean towards caution, so in the next piece I shall try to be bold, and take it right up to the edge of destruction before starting the process of repairing, to see what happens. While I was re-sewing this work I was also concerned that the traces of image weren’t strong enough in the section that has been unpicked - I think they come out stronger in the photographs than in reality - and I would like to unpick an image with a more developed initial painting using the tempera technique I learnt in Florence. I am also not sure how to frame or otherwise present the canvases; I see the embroidery hoop as something temporary which I will one day replace. The one thing I am sure about, is that this really isn’t where I saw my work going when I started in August, but I am pleased with where I have got to and excited about where I might end up. January will be a month spent needle in hand, reweaving canvas threads. Happy New Year!
Today marks the beginning of my final month with Reside. If you are interested in being the next artist in residence please take a look at the application information and send your submission via the contact form on this site. The deadline for application is 5pm on Sunday 26 January.
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