Dec. 18th, 2020
Here and now:
This week, in preparation for the final critique of our capstone projects for the semester, I was led to reflect on my initial concept alongside all the physical work I’ve made until now. Back in July, my interest in honeybees led to wanting to learn about native, wild bees around Toronto. Finding the work of Resonating Bodies in High Park and talking to artist Sarah Peebles helped in my research decision and I began accumulating many resources connected to information and protection of native bees!
I am consistently drawn to basket making and dimensional textiles. Since the summer until now, I have been finding more information on the variety of structures and materials that people use to make them in traditional and contemporary contexts. I’ve tried to make connections between these and what I am making now. Throughout, I’ve appreciated the importance and creative challenge of repurposing materials in what I’ve made and the possibilities that some fabric and many plants can offer me.
I continue to learn more about artists and problem-solvers working with themes of climate change, community, and environmental and pollinator conservation thanks to suggestions from teachers and classmates. It has been helpful to renew my motivation and strength in the making journey knowing there are so many people out there with similar intentions: to integrate the presence of nature more into art/craft/design, and bringing this into the world overall.
Materials and Process:
Since the mid-term, I’ve been considering the strength and flexibility in building woven structures. While weaving on a basic loom frame with plant stems inspired by cavity nesting bees and repurposed fabric, I’ve appreciated what the limits of material and technique can provide for the structure.
Here are my two most recent woven samples:
a) made to be “rigid” with a circle of wrapped grapevine and sunflower stems, polyester, cotton twine, cotton fabric strips, and wool yarn.
b) twining and plain-weave, made to be a flexible structure with sunflower stems, cotton warp, nettle cordage (I made), and cotton and canvas strips.
I am still curious to work off the tapestry loom too, to see what I can weave directly onto, like fencing grids, tree branches, etc. I will research more traditional basket making techniques and plants, and other natural materials that I may be able to access locally and which resonate with me.
I want to continue using techniques like:
• plain weave and twining –in basket forms and on the loom
• other ancient techniques to explore further with plant fibre, stems, wood and tree bark, etc.
• structures inspired by specific native bee species and greenspaces around Toronto
Challenges and next steps:
My intentions moving forwards involve collecting and connecting together as many of the things that have made me passionate so far in the project. And this includes what I feel challenged by.
After my final critique of this season, I feel challenged by where I can bring in community awareness. I want to try my best to put energy into brainstorming this more so it may inform what I make over the winter.
Here are the ideas and questions I gained from the final critique:
· What could I offer to the world? How can I make work that tends to (i.e. bring attention to) bee-human relationships and that may not have been made before?
· What’s important for me to communicate in my making based on the foundations of my project?
Also, I have been thinking about the structures I make being noticed versus blending in in the city- what can I learn from how bees and other animals camouflage or show themselves in the wild?
The process of weaving has let me reflect on the non-linear experience of grief and how this connects to my work and experience with grief so far in my life. The way I approach the experience and feeling of ecological grief and solastalgia can take many forms.
I could emphasize this grief with the material and making in my process- possibly becoming part of what I offer community. I think the anxiety and emotions we feel related to environmental change isn’t openly acknowledged enough. The creation of objects in my project could be opened to others as an important step of community engagement and expressing the experience grief many of us share in some capacity.
While moving through the fall season, I have strengthened and reaffirmed the connection I hold between urban nature and community engagement through art, bringing it to the foreground of my awareness.
I want my work to offer this form of nature connection to people living in the city, and I hope the results of what I make for April will show this.
Thanks for reading!
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