New project

The Structure Project, due on 30 November, requires us " to consider book structures, their inherent qualities and the relationships between individual bindings" - we are " to first decide on a physical space. this can be either in London or elsewhere. then develop work that explores and responds to the specific space. the work needs to consider your emotional response to the space as well as its physical attributes"; "there are no restrictions with regard to size or materials. You are to consider the meaning of materials and size although the focus for this brief is structure".

Useful links are given:

http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html
http://www.keithsmithbooks.com/

For the "practice" bit of the brief ("starting with one sheet of paper how many generations of book structures can you create thus forming an extended family tree of the book") I've been folding receipts and bits of paper found lying around, but to no great result -

One Friday morning, looking out the window at the traffic and seeing people sitting in buses all in their private reveries, going to work, gloomy, I thought it would be nice to give them something to read -

You can just about see that on the papers taped in the windows it says - smile - it's - friday.

My first thought about this project was to have the words in the windows change every day. But what three words could they be? "I love you"? "Sale now on"? Um, maybe not... However this is percolating in my subconscious.

Looking at the photo, though, I noticed the decrepit state of the window boxes, and given the link to the orgami talk, my next thought was to make orgami flowers, trying out various sorts -

The (white) rose had instructions that were beyond me, so it became a different sort of flower; the lotus needs lots of folding but works out ok in the end - both were made from sheets the same size (6").

Here are the first inhabitants of the window box -

In damp weather, the flowers lose their crisp folds and seem to close up - an unexpected effect. Of course they'll disintegrate out there in the rain, after a while - this is references Clare Twomey's unfired clay flowers at the Eden Project. My replicas are similar to real flowers, bursting into blossom/being, and then fading as their function finishes. Though of course with clay flowers or paper flowers there is no pollination, no seed pods, no next generation. However through the "growth" of flowers in the window box I hope to transfer - to those who notice it - some of the ongoing life force that the flowers herald. (Hmm, is that bit of prose just too purple?!)

To set the scene, a couple of photos of the location of the project -

Working title for this project is "let a thousand flowers bloom" - I suspect that rather than a thousand, a hundred or so blooms will be enough to fill the boxes - that works out to about 10 a day...