felted hand knitting, a series of 6 sculptures
Parts of me 2018, installed in a decommissioned cell for 'Subversive Surfaces' at Trowbridge Town Hall Arts, 9 June - 14 July 2018
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Parts of me 2018 were installed for the first time all together in a decommissioned cell for 'Subversive Surfaces' at Trowbridge Town Hall Arts, 9 June - 14 July 2018. It was a joint exhibition with Gina Baum.
Parts of me 2018, installed at 'disquiet', Walcot Chapel, Bath, 18 -23 Sept 2018
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They have also been installed at 'disquiet', Walcot Chapel, Bath, 18 -23 Sept 2018. This was a joint exhibition with Clare Thatcher:
Parts of me 2018 is a series of six hand knitted sculptures which have subsequently been felted. Each knitted piece is an exploration of the relationship between inside and outside, both physically and metaphorically; what is seen and what is unseen, the public and the private. I have knitted each of these sculptures partly in public and partly in private. The first, deep red, half tends to be knitted more publicly. As it gets to a size that is harder to carry around I start a new sculpture to knit 'out and about' and then finish the first sculpture more privately. The second half, knitted in private, is made up of paler colours, the colours of my flesh.
It means that I'm sometimes knitting several sculptures simultaneously, depending on where I am and what I'm doing. If I have to carry my knitting, I often start a new sculpture, to minimise the weight...
Three Parts of me as works in progress. (Click for full image)
I decided to knit multiples for a number of reasons, some aesthetic and some highly practical, and also to try something new. I enjoy multiples that are essentially the same but where each one is subtly different. I think it's visually interesting. I do knit whenever and wherever I can so the size of my knitting is important. I often find that I knit something out and about, my ‘public’ knitting, until it becomes unwieldy. Then I knit it more privately, at home. The public knitting tends to be done in the company of other people, in the pub, over lunch with a friend, on the beach. Obviously with the private knitting, I’m more often alone, or with my family. When I’m alone I very quickly enter that addictive state of meditative timelessness, Csiksenthimalyi's state of flow….
Knitting Part of me 4 on Giltar Point, Pembrokeshire overlooking Caldey Island, 16.2.18
I am always interested in finding ways to make self-sustaining sculptures with knitting and stitch. Although in some of my work I use a stand to provide support for my sculptures, for example in Other 3 and Other 4, I find it more pleasing when a sculpture doesn’t need any extra support. All my hanging sculptures, Nobodies, The Others, Heart of darkness and All the babies I might have had I are examples of this. I use various devices in addition to felting, like combinations of materials of differing rigidities, quilting, tension and gravity to give form to my work.
Part of me 3, before felting
Part of me 3, after felting (Click for full image)
Each Part of me is knitted in pure wool in one piece, in the round. The first half of each I knit in a range of reds as a stream of consciousness. I start with double pointed needles, increasing as I work to sculpt a cone-like structure, knitting random protrusions and using bobbles and loop stitch to add texture. As the circumference increases, I move on to a circular needle and then several circular needles until I reach what I decide is the centre point when I start to decrease. Then I begin to introduce whites and flesh colours and also continue to decrease so that the second part is like a warped mirror image of the first half. Each Part of me is a different size, and, inevitably, each has its own idiosyncratic identity.
Part of me 3, 2018, detail demonstrating the transformation that occurs when knitting is felted
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Felting produces a disquieting change in control, transforming the familiar, comforting, recognisable knitted fabric into something ‘other’, body-like and strange. Sometimes it seems like a form of madness; months of slow, meditative work culminate in a relatively short, unpredictable process of alchemy which dictates the outcome. I felt my work using a domestic washing machine and often felt it more than once to reach the required texture. Each piece shrinks by between a third and a half in every direction, depending on certain parameters. Its unpredictability is part of the appeal, but can be very nerve racking!
I really like the fact that, before too long, I won’t be able tell the Parts of me apart....
These images show the development of Part of me 1:
Part of me 2:
Part of me 3:
