Social knitwork the installation, at Social Scaffolding, M & C0, Silver Street, Trowbridge, 21 Sept -15 Oct 2023,
Trowbridge was the fifth Swindon in Social Scaffolding's 6-venue, Arts Council-funded tour in the South West of England between April and November 2023. in 2022, before the tour, we faciliated two pilot exhibitions in Taunton and at the Emerge Showcase at Bath Spa University in Bath. We also exhibited at two other Emerge Showcases in 2023. Please visit the Social Scaffolding website for full details. Many thanks to the other Social Scaffolding artists, Alyson Minkley and Juliet Duckworth, and to the Emerge community for all their support throughout.
Social knitwork at Social Scaffolding, Trowbridge, Day 1 - Day 10:
I have found it intriguing to set up what is essentially the same installation site responsively in so many different spaces during the course of the Social Scaffolding tour....with an extra installation at the Emerge End of Year Showcase. The Social knitwork installation for Social Scaffolding in Trowbridge was quite different again. Each time, the nets have had more objects and labels attached by visitors, so each time it has been heavier and harder to manage. But it's exciting to have seen the transformation as the installation has moved from venue to venue.
Thinking about ways that I might develop this immersive concept in the future, I was very pleased that space available in the shop in Trowbridge meant that I was able to install the netting more like a labyrinth this time. It had a couple of spaces in which visitors could chill, with a number of interconnecting tunnels. Will all the additions from previous venues, the netting has become more and more dense and I especially liked the fact that, this time, I was able to make walkthrough spaces with both the insides and the outsides of it. I also found two full length mirrors in the shop, which I used withing the installation. They gave an illusion that the labyrinth was larger than it actually was. I think I need to explore the use of mirrors further.
I included my knitted, flesh coloured sculptures, Made flesh, in the Social knitwork installation, but this time, my three Parts of me 2021 were installed separately in a closed window space.
It might not have been obvious to other people, but the installation definitely felt quite different to me!