More preparations

On arriving at the exhibition space yesterday, I found my mock-up was living up to the title of my show, and had already started "making a disintegration" -

After discussion with the tutors - and explaining what was going to go where - I changed the height of the box for the Blue Distance piece ... with some reservations. The idea is to put brighter LED lights behind the blue pieces, so the light can shine through - and the more compact box will make the smaller space more filled with light. I've bought some lights to try it out, as soon as the Resident Carpenter rejigs one of the boxes he has so carefully built.

They also advised me to try "the long piece" with black showing at the top and without black -

The end of the scroll will rest on a low plinth, and I'd like there to be more of a roll (with those nice pointy bits) - so, while the piece is hanging up for assessment, I'll be starting a new section to add inside the roll. This gets round the problem of not having my morning stitching - it's truly addictive. I love that quiet time in the studio.

These are the bones of the display - minus low plinth, but with person on seat as part of the display. The shelves need to be a little lower, to take into account the person's head height while she sits, winding wool.

Big Red

About the winding of the wool. It started as one of my "balls of words" (which in turn arose from the use of one-syllable words in the sonnets I was memorising) - and because a red thread can signal connection (as in the chinese story of people who are fated to meet being connected by "a red thread"), I thought to use the red thread to hold the names of people I'd known throughout my life.

The big cone of red wool gave me something to do while watching tv - simple finger crochet soon made a sizeable ball. After fortuitously making a memory ball including names and events at the CQ summer school, I decided that the Big Red Memory Ball would be a good place to assemble not just any old words, but the names of all the people I've been connected to in my life ... the ones I can remember, that is....

So the core of the Big Red One is now my family, and the inner layer, people known during school days, is wound up in the finger crochet. I've been doing finger crochet at odd moments - including this much during travel to college (about 45 minutes on tube and bus) -

Now there's probably enough of the thicker strand for winding in everyone I can remember knowing when living with my parents. After that, I'll stop the finger crochet, as it takes quite a long time -- and I have lots of names yet to add. These will be wound with one-ply wool. First a layer of people known at the various universities I attended, then work connections, then textile friends - and finally, thanks to being able to print out my email contact list, everyone I've been "connected" to - via the invisible threads of the internet - in the past ten years. Is this do-able over the few days of the show? 

To-do list

First, all the books for the "little library of disintegration" must be ready - and this part of the show needs a title ... hmm, it may just have become "the little library of forgetting"...

Then, text for labels (titles, statements) needs sorting urgently - they are being printed centrally at college and will be ready to pick up on Friday. This afternoon the shelves (one of which is being modified) will leave my living room

and be put up at college. Next deadline is 6pm Friday, when the displays are to be finished and all the assessment material ready, before college closes for the bank holiday weekend. The next week gives a chance to make the books for the shop, and in my case to write out all the names that are to be included in Big Red. And catch up with a few exhibitions.

Or - and I hope not! - to sit and mope, anticipating the end of studenthood and dreading The Great Unknown beyond? I've been lucky to have two years of being a student, most of it without having to work to support myself. I'll miss the structure, the deadlines, the reviews toward assessment - and being around lots of people who like to see, make, and talk about art. Which of those things are the most important to continue with, and how can that be done?