I've been gone so long

Sorry to have vanished for so long, I thought I better make a post before a whole month had gone by with no action on this blog of mine. I've been unwell for a couple of weeks and when i've not been unwell i've been somehow blocked and unable to focus long enough to make a post here, which I suppose is symptomatic of being unwell in the first place. Anyway here I am again and I thought I would share a few photos I took at the Installation Art workshop I took over two weekends in the very very rainy town of Glastonbury.

Due to having to use public transport I arrived very early on the first day to find the streets emptier than I'd ever seen them

I also discovered that I had left my phone at home, so I was pleased to see that such things as public phone boxes still exist in Glastonbury (also good for sheltering from the rain)

The workshop was lead by Melanie Thompson, a performance and installation artist who lectures at Dartington College of Art. IT was held at The Phoenix Project, an unfunded space that offered lots of interesting possibilities for working with. I took some photos of spaces on the first day that interested me

In the kitchen was this reminder for us all:

On the second day of the workshop Melanie lead us through an exercise using just a white bed sheet and a child's chair

the way we all responded to it was fascinating- I used the chair back to weave the sheet through, I am becoming increasingly interested in weaving and basket making, something that became apparent as my work progressed over the second day.

We had been asked to bring a chair with us for the second part of the workshop, and any objects that resonated with us. We were also given an image to look at and contemplate during the week, the idea being that we came to the second part with some materials but no solid ideas. For some reason I became obsessed with wrapping the chair with string. I think this was partly due to being exposed to the work of my friend Kirsty Hall, who uses a lot of string, and to the work of my friend Tish, who has an obsession with labels and hanging tags. It also reminded me of the handles of potato peelers, and the way in which saucepan lid handles might get wrapped up to protect your hands from the heat.

I decided to only wrap one side of the chair legs and back, and then I went on to wrapping the seat and back rest.

I had also taken along a box of cake forks that my grandparents had given me- they were one of the wedding gifts that they had been given and I wanted to include them in the piece some how. I started wrapping and weaving the forks and added them to the suspended chair.

Finished work- not bad going for one day I think.