The project ‘Time and Stitch’ brought for me the missing aspect of working with other people into my work.Through posting on Facebook, emailing friends but also talking to people, friends etc. my work suddenly has become public: I encountered a wide range of responses, some people thought it was an event, and they had to go somewhere, other blanked it first, through ‘overload’ on Facebook, but became interested through a more personal approach as in messages, etc. The response “sorry, but I don’t have time” features quite frequently, was then often dropped, when an explanation of a rather small task followed.
..,, The project ‘Time and Stitch’ is an exploration about how we perceive time when we create something with out hands, on the example of stitch / embroidery.
The purpose of My embroidery in this work is to experience the effect of a very slow and time consuming activity. The objects, the embroidered cloth are a physical documentation of time spend, mostly alone and some times in company.
The videos and photos are the documentation of the journey, of the process.
Why Stitch and Music?
My personal experience come into play; as I enjoy the activity of needlecraft, and knitting and crocheting, I tend to take it with me to most place I know. In Penzance I am known as “the woman who knits”. I love live music; a wide range from my local Folk group, the blues my man played, to orchestral concerts and chamber music and the knitting comes along. While the hands are engaged I listen with greater intend. This bore the idea to explore the interaction between a musician and a stitcher. In my experience the dialog is tangible , a gentle much more internal communication .
I talked with Bill about the tutorial with Gillian yesterday; the base line is to move on and take the activity “Stitching” on a journey.
It means leaving the church behind for the time being.
I might want to film in some of the small country churches; the spiritual environment, the quiet and the time factor,
particularly here in the South-West of Cornwall echoes with search of a point- place-moment-sequence meets in the stillness that is interwoven with a place and its sounds.
It means going outside, on beaches, rocks, moors. Gillian suggested going out for a day on a journey, for example Dartmoor, spend time stitching and later on writing about the experience.
Also it became very clear, that the video and stills act as documentation and are not the work itself.
The Work is the activity, the act of being in a place while finding the place inside, through a moving activity, the Stitching.
The Stitching becomes a “real” time documentation, tangible memory of the time spend. Each stitch holds the memory of a moment, a breath.
So much comes together for me in this work;
⇒⇒ my search and longing for beauty (reference Satish Kumar on Beauty),
⇒⇒ my love for the handmade activity, ⇒⇒ my search in using material which are kind to the environment. (Here hemp and British Wool)
⇒⇒ working with music and sound
In talking with Bill it became clearer what I am looking for:
> in the visuals > Images in the landscape, working in the landscape
> in the sound > ambient sound of the filming
> under laying with sound from close up recordings of stitching, needle through the fabric, breathing, moving of cloth.
Also I became aware that I could only think of one “mode” at a time, which is interesting in itself.
Gillian suggests “Contrast” work as in a setting of stitching at Piccadilly Circus.
First I rejected her idea, as something I was not looking for; in the conversation with Bill,
I thought, it would be interesting to explore the idea, with the freedom to abandon it, if it doesn’t feel right.
At the moment I am concentrating on the “Calm” mode.
Working with sound and music is an integral part, as music is such a powerful tool for expression of moods and feeling and plays an important part in my life.
A moment of being out in the elements, the wind, the sounds, the feel of the rocks under my body: sitting still, taking it all in, stitching the experience into the fabric in my hands.
It was my first outing with my Embroidery into the landscape. it was a new experience to in the wind, to hear the sea crashing and the gulls crying above; stitching in my awareness of place, a place close to my home. The embroidery, the act of stitching is the inner place, space I long for. The Frame and the fabric become the space, to journey into. – filming requires collaboration, a dialoge with the person behind the camera (Thank you so much Bill!!) , it requires communication, taking out of my head my vision of what I am looking for. I enter a process with the person I am working with, there is a give and take, a exchange of ideas. – Music – the music is guitare improvisation by Bill Goodyear (thank you again for your time and input). It was recorded late in his flat during another filming session. Bill’s music becomes a audio anchor for my mind, my hands are moving and I am listing, entering a place of calm.
Ian Whitford, from DPN (http://www.digitalpeninsula.com) Digital Peninsular Network and CAZ (http://www.cazart.org.uk/) Cornwall Autonomous Zone supported me with a technical issue, he kindly created this combined image and prepared images so that they can be printed in the Design Centre at Falmouth University.
One Stitch at Time 