Tethering our thoughts, 2019 was a site responsive, participatory installation made with red string and fruit nets. It was installed at SVA in Stroud from 6th -10th Feb. 2019 as part of Incendiary, a multi-site exhibition responding to the firing of industrial-incinerators & combustion fallout on human & more than human ecosystems. The other exhibitions were at Lansdown Gallery, as well as the University of Gloucestershire’s Hardwick Campus, Cheltenham. It was curated by Patricia Brien.
Setting it up was like drawing in space or stitching the room! It took 6 hours. It’s participatory; the viewer is invited to become an active participant by adding fruit nets to the structure and by writing their thoughts about waste on a label and tying that to the installation too. With each interaction the space is changed. Fruit nets are curious objects as they retain a sculptural form even when they’re empty – a ghost-like trace of their former shape, a memory. They become oddly alluring when hung, but in fact are a big part of the plastic problem. They cannot be recycled. They’re ubiquitous and insidious.
Image 1: Mike Garlick
Image 8: Clare Thatcher
I installed it by the door into the gallery so unexpectedly, and rather delightfully, the whole installation danced with every breeze.
As the days went by, the installation was transformed as more fruit nets and labels were added by visitors