Okay, folks. I think there might be something wrong with me here. I cannot stop thinking about projections. I’ve been thinking about them all day, and it’s getting to the point of obsession. To clarify: for someone who isn’t a big fan of technology, who would rather do stop motion with a 35mm but realizes this is an unrealistic desire, the idea of having some sort of digital element to my work- to a weaving, no less- is a big step.
Here’s the thing. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how majoring in Fiber is majoring in a medium, and how that’s not entirely taken seriously. As much as I love craft, I identify as an artist, and I have no interest in designing costumes or making wearable art. Furthermore, it has come to my attention recently that weaving has not really gotten the attention it deserves, nor is it given the kind of credit that the fine arts receives; case in point, my roommate found my Ikat weaving on dislpay for the accreditors coming to MICA hanging by the bathroom only for those with weak bladders to see (I have not investigated this account, but the story is funny enough for me). Cut to the wall of oil paintings in plain view on the main hallway.
So how to make weaving more than just some cloth on the wall. How do we, as fiber artists, make people look at our art, and keep looking, regardless of how badly they have to pee (if my weaving is going to be hanging by a bathroom, it better stop someone in their tracks and make them forget where they were going). It’s a question I’ve asked before, yet I haven’t really done anything with it. I came off the wall for the Sourcing Coordinates show with a small installation. But there has to be some way to make weaving about something more than the medium and the technique.
After completing my second stop motion, I realized just how much I love moving pictures. I talked before about the possibility of combining puppetry and woven material in some way, but I think stop motion might be the way to go. To use a woven piece of cloth as a stage, as a screen for a projection, turns that cloth not only into a layer of pictoral and tactile narrative but it provides a ground for something more.
In this particular case, I’m finding the tradition of shadow puppet theatre to be especially inspiring, not only because of the literal sense that I’m dealing with shadows, but it also relates to the idea of ephemeral space and energy that I’ve been dealing with. In my last Ikat project, the idea was that the singular space I was documenting remained stationary while everything else moved about it and left its impression from moment to moment. Objects came and went, but the impression was still there, as was the energy that moved in and out of the space. For my current project, I’m treating the poems I write as temporal objects, but they all contain very abstract narratives. I see stop motion, and in particular shadow puppetry, to be a completely all-encompassing way for me to express my obsession with this kind of movement while also telling a more defined story.
How does it relate to weaving? I’m not entirely sure. But I’m a storyteller, and I want my weavings to tell stories, to be something more than just how they visually appear on the wall. I don’t even have a specific idea for a stop motion, I just know it has to be done, and it has to be done with the installation of my current weaving. Now, to clear it with my professor, and figure out where to get a projector.
Very thoughtful. I am glad to see you thinking about how digital techniques can accentuate your beautiful analog work.