The creative art praxis, an analysis of my work

The following section is a detailed analysis of works I created throughout my candidature. Since traditional craft production is not part of our Australian culture, I decided to largely weave cloth, especially because the handloom production of cloth seemed to have the best potential with which to express and communicate my ideas about the interconnectedness between the craft object, tradition and the ecology. The time it takes to make cloth and to stitch into it, attention to material sensitivity and the perfection of technique and skill are all part of the process and central to my practice. As is discussed in the final section of this chapter, making is part of the aesthetic experience and technique is needed for making the object. Before I embarked on the larger projects for the exhibition, I made several small cloths using different weave techniques, such as plain, twill and double-weave pick-up. Into the cloths I wove or stitched figures, motifs, decorative patterns and text. Playing with ideas and making small samples is an important part of the process, because from play more complex ideas evolve.

Figures 1 to 7 show images of smaller works, whereas figures 8 to 18 show the work for the final project. The materials used for all objects are cotton and flax fibres and plant dyes. The objects were shown in various contexts, such as at group exhibitions, at ECU research week, and in the state gallery context, enabling me to think about different aspects of the work (c.f.

appendix 1).

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Figure 1 saumplarie, indigo and plant dye, cotton and linen fibre, 44 x 55 cm

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Figure 2 saumplarie , detail

The object shown in figures 1 and 2 is a plain weave, indigo dyed cloth. I named the work saumplarie, a medieval word for sampler, alluding to a textile craft’s historicity. Before I made this object, I had little understanding of stitch techniques. Therefore, in the non-traditional context in which we live, I learned from books about the variations of stitch, and then practiced the variations of stitch on this piece. With this work, I aim to demonstrate that techniques are needed and skills are learned and that the time invested in learning, playing and making is integral to my practice. This work was exhibited at the community art centre in Dwellingup, Western Australia in August 2011.

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Figure 3 double weave pick-up and stitch, indigo and plant dye, linen fibre, 15 x 68 cm

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Figure 3 depicts a double weave pick-up cloth, meaning that two separate layers of cloth are woven at the same time, allowing for imagery and pattern to be incorporated into the cloth during the weave process. This work is particularly slow to develop because during the weave process, threads are picked-up or lowered individually according to the intricacies of the design.

Time and technique thus are inherent elements of this process. Into this piece, I wove traditional imagery taken from my European background: the mythical tree of knowledge, the bird of Athene and stars or snowdrops, symbolising notions of transcendence and infinity. Once the weaving was complete, I over-dyed the cloth with indigo, blurring and almost cancelling the images. Then, I stitched back into the cloth, highlighting yet at the same time distorting the imagery. Beyond questioning the value of human labour, I aim to communicate that tradition has its origin in poetic-mythological understandings of the world and that stories of myth are part of Western society’s heritage too. Stories of myth are integral to all human societies. The cosmic world tree of knowledge for example finds itself in many mythical and religious stories of creation in societies across the world. This work was shown at ECU research week in August 2011.

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Figure 4 Made by craft (2009), work in progress

Figure 5 double weave pick-up, plant dye, cotton fibre, 29 x 128 cm

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Figure 6 Made by craft, detail

The object shown in figures 4, 5 and 6 is also a double weave pick-up cloth. This piece is incomplete because again I intend to over-dye the cloth with plant dye and then stitch into it. I named the work made by craft and first showed it at Ummm...the ARTiculate Practitioner as work in progress. By showing the object as work on the loom, the aim was to communicate that weaving detailed imagery into cloth is a labour-intense process, of which significance is in the experience of making and in the attention to material quality and detail. This work depicts images of a human and two animal skeletons, a horse and a lizard, and is intended as an index of socio-biological evolution, alluding to humanity’s connection to nature and to slow change over time, also alluding to a weaving craft’s primeval origins. The human skeleton makes a reference to Lucy, the oldest hominid fossil found.

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Figure 7 Weave and stitch sample, indigo and plant dye, cotton and silk fibre, 54 x 68 cm

The work depicted in figure 7 is hand-loomed cotton cloth, dyed with indigo and stitched with plant-dyed silk and cotton threads. This work also is incomplete for I intend to stitch text into the cloth. Reading and researching the text is essential to the process and waiting for the text to evolve is part of the process. It seeks to communicate that the completion of a work is not always the aim. In this piece, I reproduced another version of the mythical tree of knowledge, again referencing the poetic-mythological origins of tradition, the variations of myth and the importance of tradition’s historicity. This piece was shown on ECU’s open day in 2010.

After experimenting with the sample pieces, I thought about making a few larger objects for an exhibition. Figures 8 to 18 show the three objects made: a tablet woven band and two works of hand-loomed cloths.

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Figure 8 Continually I (2010), work in progress with weaving tablets attached

Figures 8 to 10 show images of my tablet-woven work. Tablet weaving is a technique for weaving patterned bands. The process is particularly labour intense and most likely originated in the Iron Age. The earliest known tablet weave was discovered in the Oseberg burial, a Norwegian Viking ship found in a burial mound, dating 834 AD (Ingstad, n.d.). Tablet weaving requires a fairly high level of abstract thinking and mathematical abilities. A tablet is a 7 cm (approx.) square piece of wood or cardboard with holes punched into each corner. The number of tablets needed depends on the pattern and the width of the band. I designed an alphabet, imagery of myth and a patterned border that required 55 tablets, which I cut from cardboard.

The pattern or imagery is achieved by using two contrasting coloured yarns threaded in alternate order through the four holes of each tablet. Then the warp is tensioned so that the tablets are arranged side by side. The technique requires groups of tablets to be turned forwards or backwards, causing dark and light threads to lift or lower, depending on the design. Even though the technique appears difficult, once mastered, weaving is relatively uncomplicated but time consuming.

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Figure 9 Continually I (2010), cotton fibres, plant dyes, 384 x 4.5cm

Figure 10 Continually I (2010), detail

As stated throughout my research, my concerns are with the status of the traditional textiles, with the socio-ecological problems of post-tradition, and with the understanding that economics or politics will not solve the problems. Ruskin (1907c) had lectured continually about the damaging influences of industrialisation. In Unto this last, he expressed his dismay at the hostile responses he received when suggesting to replace economic wealth with ‘real’ wealth, with real human values. For Ruskin, as for Adorno (1984), real human values help society advance towards higher levels of aesthetic, intellectual consciousness. Ruskin’s core theory is that if a

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greater focus was given to the arts and crafts, if every individual was given the opportunity to make and create art, people would develop higher levels of consciousness (p. ix). I wish to communicate that Ruskin’s concerns and suggestions have relevance today, I therefore appropriated Ruskin’s sentiments into my work because they bring to light the problems with the present condition. To show that tradition has evolved from mythological understandings of the world, I designed figures of myth and juxtaposed these with the Ruskin text, which reads:

The loneliness is very great, and the peace in which I am at present is only as if I had buried myself in a tuft of grass on a battlefield wet with blood – for the cry of the earth about me is in my ears continually, if I do not lay me head to the very ground. (p. viii)

Adorno (1984) posits that “If art works have any social influence at all”, it is “by changing consciousness in ways that are ever so difficult to pin down” (p. 344). I believe that the relevance of my research is hard to pin down, however the naming of the work might provide a pointer to help viewers interpret any implied meanings. Ruskin (1907c) provided the title for the body of work: continually. With the naming of the work, the concept and the ideas became clearer. Continually implies two core meanings. The first pertains to the continual influences of industrialisation. The threat to the ecology was already a concern in Victorian times and that threat has now become a continual global problem. The second reason for choosing the name is related to the themes of tradition, the traditional handcrafts, poetry and aestheticism. As discussed in Chapter 1, tradition infers continuity; tradere includes the passing on of craft knowledge from one generation to another. Also, one of my objectives was to transcend the techniques of a textile craft and situate the work in the context of poetry or art. Although Adorno (1984) shows that it is difficult to transcend technique, as he argues, “technical forces of production have no value by themselves. They are significant only in relation to the truth content of what is being written, composed or painted” (p. 310), he argues that technique is essential to creating art.⁹

9 The relation between technique and the ‘truth content’ of a work of art is an important point that I examine in the final section of this chapter and that further contextualises my practice.

Adorno (1977) also contends that tradition today presents an irresolvable paradox. Traditions often are not viewed as contemporary and conjure up little desire to continue. However, he cautions against obliterating traditions because eradication affects the whole of humanity (p. 315). My work therefore suggests not a return to tradition, but tradere, a continuation of tradition. It suggests that the craft skills and knowledges of previous generations must be passed on and advanced continually. Hence, I aim to communicate that the making moves beyond the restorative potential of tradition and definitely beyond personal fulfilment. Traditional handcrafts are more related to the aesthetic social relevance of work made by hand.

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Figure 11 display case for continually 1, maple wood

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Figure 12 display case for continually 1, maple wood

Figures 11 and 12 show the custom-built display case for the band. The case is handcrafted from maple wood, in keeping with my ideas regarding material quality and skill. I intend to exhibit the band under a lid, under glass to communicate and stress the poetic-aesthetic value of traditional handwork. The idea emerging from the case is that when viewers lift the lid they will contemplate the work inside in greater detail. The band is to be shown concertinaed, making the text illegible. Therefore, the Ruskin text is wood-veneered into the lid for viewers to read before lifting the lid.

Continually II & III are two hand-loomed cloths.

Figure 13 continually II (2011), hand-spun hand-woven, cotton, flax, wool, Eucalyptus Cinerea, 382 x 83cm

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Figure 14 Continually II (2011), detail

Figure 15 Continually II (2010), work in progress

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Figures 13 to 15 show my work Continually II. Continually II is a large cloth made with 16/2 linen/cotton, of which some warp and weft threads are dyed with indigo. The pattern weft is wool, which I had handspun from a raw fleece and dyed with Eucalyptus Cinerea leaves. Like the other works, this object requires labour-intense processes, an innate understanding of materials, technique and skill. To illustrate how labour-intense the work is, I give a brief outline of the process. The process begins with thinking about the weave structure and designing the pattern. It also begins with walking in nature and collecting Eucalyptus Cinerea leaves for the dyeing of the fleece. I use wool for the pattern weft because the proteins in the wool are more likely to absorb the red dye from the leaves. To extract the dye, the leaves are simmered for approximately 40 minutes. During the process the water turns from a yellowish-brown to a deep red. The fleece is immersed in the water for the simmer process, allowing it to absorb the varying colour hues. Then the fleece is left to soak in the water for a further 24 hours to allow it to absorb the maximum amount of red dye. Thereafter, the thus unevenly dyed fleece is left to dry for several days. I then spin the wool into a yarn, varying the colours as I spin. Different weave techniques, patterns and structures have specific names. The technique in this piece of work is called overshot and the pattern monksbelt. Monksbelt patterns produce small blocks of weave and when woven on a multi-shaft loom, the blocks can be applied in an asymmetrical manner. Also, when no break is introduced between the blocks, the block can be woven as lines.

Hence, in this piece, woven on an eight-shaft loom, the asymmetrical blocks take on the appearance of irregular lines. It takes approximately two to three days to design a pattern, calculate the threads, prepare the loom, wind the warp and thread the loom. Thereafter it takes approximately three to four hours to spin enough fibre and to weave one metre of cloth. Like the other work, this object alludes to the poetic expressive capacity of tradition, historicity, process, time, technique and skill.

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Figure 16 Continually III (2010), unbleached and bleached flax fibres, 500 x 28cm

Figure 17 Continually III (2010), detail

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Figure 18 Continually III, detail

Figures 16 to 18 are images of the work Continually III. Continually III is the least complicated piece of work I created in terms of process and technique, yet skill and knowledge is still a requirement for the making, as is time. Continually III is a long narrow cloth worked in plain weave and interspersed at irregular intervals with small bands of twill weaves. The materials are an assortment of 20/2 unbleached and bleached linen fibres and plant-dyed embroidery threads.

It is particularly time consuming to weave cloth with fine 20/2 threads. Using the subtle colours of nature, I stitched a fragment of a lizard-like creature into the cloth. The creature cannot be easily seen or identified; its enigma pertaining to the incomprehensibility of mythical and natural phenomena, also alluding to nature’s fragility and its vulnerability to the human impact.

The simplicity of this work alludes to my ideas of aestheticism, its length to notions of time: the time it takes to make the work and the inestimable period of time that has existed since time immemorial.

In the following, I refer to Hamilton (2004) as an artist who works reflexively and who shares similar concepts to mine, such as reading and using text, questioning, making, experiencing, time, process and historicity, relating the concepts to the aesthetic potentiality of humanity.

Hamilton’s work includes installations, photographs, videos, performances and the making of objects. Everything she does, is related to process. For example, Hamilton often incorporates prose and words into her art, reading and words then become the material for her making and the questioning and thinking about the work become part of the process. For Hamilton, language and process are entirely interrelated and interchangeable. Language is important to her because it is part of what it is to be human: “We are born into language as surely as we are born into our bodily selves” (p. 179), whereas process is important because it is part of the creative

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experience. Like other theorists who studied the corrosive effects of globalisation, Hamilton (cited in Cooke, 1994) links the scarcity “of unmediated experiences with the natural…[to]…many contemporary ills, psychological and social, ecological and environmental”. Hamilton holds responsible the lack of involvement with creative processes for the many psychological and social problems society faces today and for the threats to the ecology. In her mind, touch and manual labour has curative potential:

There's a kind of conversation and a kind of community that develops out of that [touch and manual labour], a satisfaction in touching things. Through such manual labor a bonding takes place, a feeling of collectivity that derives from the ‘mass’ production of a material artifact but which continues to resonate at the level of shared memories of mutual endeavor. Like nurturing, tending requires an engaged attentiveness that is both physical as well as mental in character. By means of such tending the viewer is brought back into contact with raw material, and, more particularly, with organic matter.

(cited online)

Essentially, Hamilton (2004) argues that creating work through involving oneself with process and manual labour and using raw materials and organic matter has restorative potential. To work manually and to use materials from nature means to re-connect. For Hamilton, the process of creation is synonymous with the notion of experience, meaning that everything she experiences, whilst she is creating, is part of the process. Reading, waiting for time to pass and for ideas to happen, making, all these belong to the experience of creating, hence to process.

Hamilton states that these are concepts that are difficult to convey to an audience, for these reasons she has been a live presence in much of her work (p. 185). Mantle is an example of a performance work that represents the artist’s experience of time and labour (c.f. Simon, 2002, pp. 203-206). Hamilton performed Mantle in 1998 in the gallery of the Miami Art Museum in Florida. The performance was set against a background of sixty thousand cut flowers, piled on a table. The flowers wilted at different rates, and so new flowers were added at regular intervals.

Buried below the flowers were speakers, from which could be heard voices and static noise.

During the performance, Hamilton sat silently with her back to the table, facing the window.

She could be seen sewing sleeves onto woollen coats, seemly oblivious to the wilting flowers (conveying the notion of time) and the noise generated by the speakers (representing the clamour of our contemporary times). Many hours of labour went into the sewing of sleeves on the coats. Hamilton (n.d. ) frequently approaches the value of making as a question, and for her, making involves the reading of texts. Reading, Hamilton explicates, is an invisible, silent and mostly solitary activity, as she notes:

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Over time, my question: “What is making?” has enlarged to consider how the act and experience of reading might form the tactile material

Over time, my question: “What is making?” has enlarged to consider how the act and experience of reading might form the tactile material