Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within. -Tennyson
So a few things worked & didn’t work today. I hand cut stencils of text from the box as well as screenprinting doilies onto a long tablecloth. There are six placeholders. I like to think in pairs, so when thinking about how many, two reference a date, four feels like a family, six is like a dinner party, eight seemed too many. The doilies for me reference something sweet, proper and table etiquette. The tablecloth makes if more formal, hence this piece is an installation on the dining room table. I like the ghostly white text with white doilies on white cloth, but it’s too subtle to read. I did however, play with the idea of the accidental spill. From a glass of wine or cup of coffee that stains the cloth and reveals the text it makes sense that what we really mean to say sometimes come out as Freudian slips. The act of cleaning or wiping up seems appropriate for the content of the text. I need to think about this more…. Another thing I tried was embroidering white cloth napkins with white text. I might try hand towels next. It’s my first attempt at embroidering anything so it looked pretty sloppy. I feel like yesterday was my f-up day and now I need another week to refine my techniques and get better materials such as a tablecloth with a subtle design on it so I can integrate the text into the actual fabric. I need to practice printing and embroidery. I was really hoping to have something more finalized after the two I SAID I MEANT variations but now I know I want to continue this exploration with the tablecloth. It’ll just have to be post-Ox-Bow.
08/27/2009 at 7:58 am |
Great photo documentation