My slides - commentary

This is what I am thinking of doing in relation to the slides I sent by email:-

Slide 1 - Image of tapestries.

Intro to Jane Kidd's tapestries: 'Handwork series: to the bone, in the blood, from the heart.'

• Each shows part of a forearm or hand, alongside a representation of traditional cloth.
• The detailed graphical representation of the hand shows it as an essential part of the culture represented by the woven cloth fragments.
• The insecure position of both is signified by their fragmentary nature.
• So they involve the viewer both visually and conceptually.

Slide 2 - diagram of the cyclical nature of the creative mind

• I looked at this work with reference to the cyclic model for methodology, where reflection at all stages of the process helps to set boundaries and refine focus.
• Starting with the Problem or Idea - According to Jane Kidd, 21st Century textile art has moved away from the handmade object to hybrid approaches to material and process.
• This observation generates her Research Question, which might be - Can the qualities of traditional tapestry be revived in a meaningful, contemporary way?
• This, in turn, defines the Methodology - Research into historical and worldwide traditions of woven art.  Use of traditional materials and techniques. (Defining boundaries and refining her focus)
• Leading to a Research Outcome - A series of tapestries, that are a form of what she describes as 'woven speech', linking maker to viewer and communicating across time.  A commentary on the decline of handcrafted objects, and simultaneously an attempt to reverse this decline. These are contemporary works, employing traditional processes, but making a powerful statement.
• This 'solves the problem', and sometimes poses another, leading to further work.

Slide 3 - Images of work by Norma Starszakowna and Liz Nilsson (Different outcomes from similar starting point)  Is this what's meant by 'Chance favours the prepared mind' ?

• Have similar starting points. Both deal with the concept of memory and text.
• They also use some similar techniques, including screen-printing, yet their finished work is very different.
• Starszakowna's ethereal, translucent hangings contrast with the more structured, geometric work of Liz Nilsson.
• Each made a different set of decisions, set themselves different boundaries based on previous and current experience, and refined their focus in the process of making the work.
• Starszakowna's translucent, silk organza hangings are screen-printed with heat-reactive pigment and various print media.  They could be described as ethereal, with exquisite textures and surfaces, glowing with colour.
• Liz Nilsson's work, on the other hand, is very geometric, with rectangular layers, each (again) screen-printed, but on a much more structured surface, in neutral colours, and with a series of lazer-cut circles in a regular pattern.