I’ve had a busy early summer making work for not just making work for Hen Fest but also a commission for Refugee week, a school workshop, Art Park Space as part of Dorset Arts Week and helping out with Colour Fest.

The work I wrote about previously developed well. The act of sewing by hand took time, each stitch becoming part of the work and making up the whole. The use of fabric (with some water proofing) something familiar became the organic piece that I’d intended from the start.  The solution to the stability of the work, helped by the need to install it outside in the landscape and to be tamper proof for the festival led to the extension of the work into the ground using washing line. The idea of the addition of lights initially from a practical health and safety perspective grew to the thoughts of the sculputure pulsating and therefore breathing. Again this work was inspired by the theme of the festival, fund raising for cystic fibrosis, the possibilities of renewal and new life through transplant. Using recycled clothes and hand stitching it echoes the generosity of others, the complexities and time given to create new things from old.

I seem to be continuing with my use of fabric and the initial proposal for ‘Clothe’ was to use cloth, clothes and materials from around the world, (as a representation of different cultural backgrounds  stories and histories).  By working with this diverse range of materials to create a new scultptural piece  combing and creating a new work from our different pasts into a something new.  The idea of Clothe for me resonates with both a celebration of the individual but also the idea of enveloping, protecting and something very human. It can also mean something to inhabit and can reflect the journey a person has made.  I started the work on site and over the 3 days of the project I would say I just started the creative journey.  Thanks to the British Red Cross I had lots of material to use and am still using it.   This project has become the basis of me moving forward to a new series of work for the autumn.

These are a selection of images of the work – Henfest, Colour Fest, Clothe (Welcome Project) and Art Park Space