4. Proposal
This isn’t a proposal, as we weren’t required to write one at the beginning of the module. Instead, it’s a reflection on what I planned to do, what I have actually done and what I hope to do next.
In retrospect, much of the research I have done for this module has been an extension of the research I started for the Research Methodologies module in the first trimester. My essay is an exploration of the many ways that knitting can be used as a research method. I have been exploring knitting in new ways – in terms of colour, form, surface, material, installation and also as ‘sloppy craft’, with loose threads, unravelling. I’ve also used my knitting as part of my performances, and as the subject of photo shoots. I’m conscious that, in a sense, my participatory series, Wishing trees, is a form of ‘knitting together’ as well - of concepts, my audience and myself – even though there’s no actual knitting involved.
I had planned to use the workshops at Bath Spa Uni to work with other materials -metal, clay, plaster, latex, concrete, wax - and also to trial ways to combine knitting with new processes and materials. That was not to be, sadly. I also had several residencies and exhibitions planned through which to research some socially engaged work and also site responsive installations. They have all been postponed or cancelled too. I have also found it very hard to study at this level without access to the books in the library.
I would still like to pursue other materials for the next module, but it will be in very different ways, assuming we still won’t have access to the facilities at the university. I will need to find new and ingenious ways of working at home. I will carry on knitting too, naturally; I have ideas for using other materials, knitting holes, marking time and maybe installing knitted wool outside to document what happens, or subjecting it to moths, or maybe knitting and then unravelling my work. I still feel that there’s so much about knitting for me to investigate.
I plan to make more stitched, camouflaged, wearable sculptures and I’d also like to facilitate another participatory project in isolation, if I can.
Overall, I’m pleased, and surprised, with how my work has developed during lock down. The astonishing volume of responses to the Wishing trees especially have been very encouraging, and even the negative ones have been useful to my research. My Body cocoon still feels very private.
It’s been very hard at times, but having to find different ways and places to make and show my work has been a motivating challenge, as has submitting everything for a virtual assessment.
The polarisation of the private and public parts of my practice as a result of this isolation will continue, assuming lock down continues. I’m especially interested the fluid boundaries between self/other, inside/outside, private/public, order/disorder, form/formlessness and I plan to research them further. Discovering more about Kristeva and Douglas in terms of contamination anxiety, abjection and ‘matter out of place’ has also fuelled my practice and I hope to explore this further too.
I can’t help wondering what direction my work might have taken if there had been no pandemic. As it is, I’m also wondering how I would have exhibited my selected work as a more conventional exhibition in the studio, if we’d been able to do that.
Despite the very different and difficult circumstances, I do feel that I have re-established a studio practice. Now though, it feels as if the studio, and my audiences, are wherever I am - at home, in isolation, outside, in very public places, or on social media, in the wide world.
In retrospect, much of the research I have done for this module has been an extension of the research I started for the Research Methodologies module in the first trimester. My essay is an exploration of the many ways that knitting can be used as a research method. I have been exploring knitting in new ways – in terms of colour, form, surface, material, installation and also as ‘sloppy craft’, with loose threads, unravelling. I’ve also used my knitting as part of my performances, and as the subject of photo shoots. I’m conscious that, in a sense, my participatory series, Wishing trees, is a form of ‘knitting together’ as well - of concepts, my audience and myself – even though there’s no actual knitting involved.
I had planned to use the workshops at Bath Spa Uni to work with other materials -metal, clay, plaster, latex, concrete, wax - and also to trial ways to combine knitting with new processes and materials. That was not to be, sadly. I also had several residencies and exhibitions planned through which to research some socially engaged work and also site responsive installations. They have all been postponed or cancelled too. I have also found it very hard to study at this level without access to the books in the library.
I would still like to pursue other materials for the next module, but it will be in very different ways, assuming we still won’t have access to the facilities at the university. I will need to find new and ingenious ways of working at home. I will carry on knitting too, naturally; I have ideas for using other materials, knitting holes, marking time and maybe installing knitted wool outside to document what happens, or subjecting it to moths, or maybe knitting and then unravelling my work. I still feel that there’s so much about knitting for me to investigate.
I plan to make more stitched, camouflaged, wearable sculptures and I’d also like to facilitate another participatory project in isolation, if I can.
Overall, I’m pleased, and surprised, with how my work has developed during lock down. The astonishing volume of responses to the Wishing trees especially have been very encouraging, and even the negative ones have been useful to my research. My Body cocoon still feels very private.
It’s been very hard at times, but having to find different ways and places to make and show my work has been a motivating challenge, as has submitting everything for a virtual assessment.
The polarisation of the private and public parts of my practice as a result of this isolation will continue, assuming lock down continues. I’m especially interested the fluid boundaries between self/other, inside/outside, private/public, order/disorder, form/formlessness and I plan to research them further. Discovering more about Kristeva and Douglas in terms of contamination anxiety, abjection and ‘matter out of place’ has also fuelled my practice and I hope to explore this further too.
I can’t help wondering what direction my work might have taken if there had been no pandemic. As it is, I’m also wondering how I would have exhibited my selected work as a more conventional exhibition in the studio, if we’d been able to do that.
Despite the very different and difficult circumstances, I do feel that I have re-established a studio practice. Now though, it feels as if the studio, and my audiences, are wherever I am - at home, in isolation, outside, in very public places, or on social media, in the wide world.