I'm going to be starting Unit 3 with a 4-week residency at the Wilson Road site. I would like to approach this as a formal residency; taking an ambitious approach to make work that is site-responsive.
The first week will consist of taking photographs, making drawings and creating collages inspired by aspects of the Wilson Road building and surrounding area. Informed by these drawings and collages, I'm going to create the designs for three-four possible designs, and in week two I will decide on the final form, and start to build the framework whilst preparing fabric. In week three I will focus on preparing fabric, as this is a time-sensitive task, and in week four I will be applying the fabric to the structure, making sure I leave two days drying time, and an extra day to fill in gaps that form due to shrinkage when the fabric dries.
This is a chance to do something in a public space that is an intensive study into a space, and will start to form the two main forms of my Unit 3 research, which is bodies in space and drawing in space.
Wilson Road Residency
One thing I've started to enjoy is incorporating drawing into the preparatory stage of making, and these drawings have really been helping me work through different forms, ideas and I've also found mark-making has helped me visualise the textures of the fabric pulp. The drawings I've been focusing on so far have been just forms against a plain white background, so I'd like to develop these drawings by starting to think about the space and environment in which these sculptures will exist.
Going forward I'm going to start to incorporate photography, drawing and collage in order to start to build more layers of environment and understand the sculptures in space more. Not only will these help as I develop the 3D work, but I'm interested in how these elements could be exhibited alongside the sculptures and installations, and how they could enrich and enhance layers of understanding in the work.
2D exploration
With my focus on labour, and the physicality of making and producing objects, I think it is important that for my next stage of research I explore some kind of factory-based making in the form of first-hand research. With clothing being the primary material I work with, I think it would make sense for this research to take place in the textile industry, and I'd like to think about what that would look like and how that could then be applied to the forms in my work.
Using film and photography, I would like to look at the hand-interactions in these production lines, as well as the bodily interactions with the machinery. The textile industry will be interesting for me to explore because it has evaded complete automation like other industries, and I'm interested in a slower form of making and the limitations of the human body.
making in industry
Bring together my extended research from Unit 2, working with ceramics, I am going to be working out how to bring together these two elements; the new textiles material I have developed with the ceramic components, and the dialogue that is created between these two opposing elements.
Inspired by temporary and responsive structures, the clamps really play into my interest of having different, constituent parts that come together and can be broken down again with the intention of longevity of material and a recycling of forms. I think the ceramic elements have the potential to break up the uniformity of the re-formed clothing, and these will create moments of tension in the work, as the materials represent opposing characteristics. When brought together I think that it's going to elevate the work.