Treble Trunk

100cm by 100cm crocheted  blanket around trunk of tree
University.

This piece of work proved to be very interesting in that it highlighted a tree which even though beautiful in the grounds of University, was not noticed amidst the other trees there. It made one look specifically at it and question the viewer as to the reasoning of how art can change the whole concept of an object. The Jafagirls are a group of artists who have challenged the use of displaying brightly coloured  wool either in installations or with objects in sculpture in the environment. They originate from Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Janet Morton is another Canadian knitting artist, who has produced knitted sculptures around trees. An example of her work is Frosted Tree,2004.White intricate crochet covers a large section of tree which totally changes the whole original object. Please see below.

'Follow the Violet Brick Road...'

Knitted shoes  30cm long by 12 cm wide. Violet uppers with green edging and black
seams .Heels 5cm high in black wool. Inside  frame made of paper mache and
heel made of wood.

These sculptured shoes caused a lot of attention due to their bright colour.

Colleagues stated that the simplistic style with bold violet hue, projected some similarity to Patrick Caulfield's prints.(pop artist).  

I had other ideas,however believing they appeared somewhat like Dorothy's shoes(even though a different colour!), from The Wizard of Oz film. 

Citrusituation

Knitted floorlamp 180cm high in bright orange and green
wool, fully workable. Fluorescent green, yellow and
green wool knitted chair.  

Both these pieces serve as an installation in the White

Room, but can be presented separately as sculptures.

I think the lamp is the most successful because it creates an arresting representation of a metal lamp in another context. The chair took the longest to complete and is really comfortable to sit on. There is a large orange cushion to cover the Lacanian(Lacan Jacques , "Out of the Blue", Time and Image, translated by Parveen Adams, Manchester University Press 2000) hole to the side of the piece, creating an interest of what is visible through it, normally ignored. There is also an element of play, with the desire to be tactile with the suggestive yellow and orange knitted soft forms.

I like my work to project happiness and fun.It's also important to me that my sculptures can continue to be of valuable function after making them.

Luminous Loops

These lamps are smooth, simplistic and give a Swedish design in appearance.

Floor lamp 180cm high, knitted in orange and green wool.
Fully functional.

Table Lamp knitted in yellow and green wool.
52cm high.Fully functional.

Knitted glow

I received a second-hand, 1980, manual, Bond Knitting machine  at the
end of March,2011. It took me over 7 days to be able to work it. This is
me  making my next project. The two knitted lamps, one an orange and
green floor lamp and the other, a yellow table lamp with wool. Both lamps
are in full use in my conservatory below.

The intriguing part of these lamps is that they appear  switched 'on'  even when not, due to their dynamic fluorescent quality of their colour.

Lamps in my conservatory at home.May 2011

Hypertextural Link

Knitted Installation using long (180cm) needles with
turquoise knitted piece 180cm long by 80cm wide.
Linen box 65cm long, 35cm wide and 35cm deep. In
white room.

I was inspired to choose the turquoise coloured wool

 after researching and being totally overwhelmed and interested in the works of artist Sophie Horton.The disparity with a normal sized box next to a huge piece of knitting, carrying enormous stitches held on hanging needles, created an interesting concept related to how a change in sizing of objects,either by themselves or with others, alters our perception to form a totally  refreshing viewpoint.

Julia Hopson of Penzance, Cornwall holds the Guinness Book of Records for the largest Knitting needles in the world. She knitted a tension of 10 stitches and 10 rows in stocking stitch using the needles that were 6.5 cm in diameter and 3.5cm long!

The yarn was rope with a diameter of 1.2cm.Please See below.

Hypertextural Link

End of large gold sprayed Knitting needle 180cm long by2.5cm wide.
Tip of needle made of wood below.

These are shots of one of two  long

knitting needles I made. The wool I used was the chunky type and the stitch used is stocking stitch. The turquoise colour  of wool, worked in harmony with the gold sprayed needles.

The difficulty lay in the actual awkwardness of holding the needles, due to the weight and length of them and the transferring of one stitch from one needle onto the other needle.

The sizing of the needles was inspired by Claes Oldenburg who giganticizes  every day objects. Julia Hopson holds the Guinness Book of Records record for knitting with the largest needles in the world.                                                                              

However after 3 weeks of sore hands and perseverance I managed to complete a knitted piece the size of a standard door!

Front Door Window

                                                                                                              

Coloured Stained Glass Window with lead trimming, from Font Door.60cm

by 40cm.

Front Door Window

Your front door with the window remembers,

Remembers the hand that pushed it open.

Why is it the grate of your daily embers?

The plug that stops the gurgling water when

Torrents flood tsunamic worries each day.

You lean your dreams and future against it,

Carrying woodworm to gnaw heart's dismay.

No reek of damp, but confrontation stains,

CLOSED SHUT! It severs the tail of the day.

Turn the handle. Locked. Safe. In from the out,

Peace, calm, let the robotic key unwind.

Kick sore boots off, loudly whisper the shout,

An inner peace; an inner world to find.

Your life opens. Closes again, again.

Like that front door with the window pane.

A sonnet I wrote in March, 2011.

Surfing the Net

Acrylic canvas painting on 125cm wide and 92cm long wood frame

This painting represents a crisis period I experienced during my course. I would sit and look at it, able to reflect upon the work I had completed and think how I could move forward in my work. In fact, I think I became 'married'  to the piece as it gave me positive encouraging thoughts when viewed. Maybe it was because it projected  an escape of some sort, to the claustrophobic  studio setting.

Locked in Time

Painted Canvas Frame 86cm wide by 60cm long, under a
three pane old-fashioned window pane.French knitted lengths
of grey wool hang from the window to mimic the old pulley
system once used  to  open and shut them.
The pane, missing a piece of glass, sadly broke into pieces
after this photograph.

Web Frame

This is  a chopped down twig, painted in green
acrylic paint,joined to form a square with knitted
and crocheted pieces stitched on.120cm by 120cm.

My fascination with windows led me to make this

piece one wet and windy afternoon. It is important to me because it was made so quickly and the outcome was a result of limited materials and imagination. I  then began to research work of Mariele Neudecker related to a window installed at Belsay Hall, April 2010.

Arachnophobic

Soft knitted and black voile fabric soft sculpture with wire in legs(8).
90cm long,50cm wide and 40cm deep. Sculpture suspended on
movable pulley to assist ascension and descent.



Following the Elusive Elevation installation, I experienced a desire to produce a spider. Just like Louise Bourgeois' Maman 1999 was a representation of the figure of her mother. I constructed the black knitted piece, but this process was hidden under black with silver dotted translucent  material.This sculpture is  serving to represent the inner torment(the internal id)  which is the 'true' unconscious  source derived from the instinctual needs of oneself  (the knitted inside). This is covered by the 'false' outer external egocentric  or selfish' skin' which when high up near the ceiling appears to be of accurate material making. It is only when the spider is lowered does one see the real truth of the sculpture,which is the knitted form   instantly  covered and disguised.

Elusive Elevation

Wood Frame 62cm by 82cm covered in knitted
beige wool with beige wool knitted face glued over it.


This image suggests a face of some kind . Maybe it supports the idea of being a skull, a symbolic representation of death and mortality. It  procures also in some societies a visible sign of 'life' and the  embodiment of consciousness. It has a similarity to the Turin Shroud, particularly as it is placed in an installation with a knitted skull,large needles, black wool, spiderweb of wool and a closet.(Please see below).The installation evokes a religious tone to the viewer suggestive of the feelings of being faced with life and death.When does the physical presence of being here, trapped, transform into the emotional one?Maybe it has the emotional, physical,psychological elements of pain similar to  the
Cells series 1991-1996 of Louise Bourgeois.

Elusive Elevation

Knitting needle 180cm long by 2.5cm wide, sprayed gold with gold attachment
on end, suspended by stretched lengths of black wool in white room.

 2D Hand- knitted face on 4mm needle, missing
cranium,35cm by 25cm,suspended on stretched
black wool.

The large knitting needle hanging is part of an installation involved in  some communicative role with the knitted 2d skull, creating an eerie
sense of claustrophobia.The feeling
of entrapment, loss of control whilst being inside the lines of stretched
black wool suggest a presence of
being caught in a spider's web.
The stark presence of seeing the 2D
face with head missing, gives the
viewer an uneasy atmosphere of
something that is abnormal.    

Elusive Elevation

Installation in white room 5 meters by 8 meters using hemp
closet 1.75 meters wide by 1.66 meters high. Gold knitted
skull and stretched black wool in closet and from walls to
floor.

Spacial awareness and use of objects to create an installation inspire me to explore my feelings previously related to items in their intentional state and readdress them either in a site specific area  and alter their

original context. My intention is to use the material, wool in my work and reproduce a dynamic representation

of how intervention can excite the viewer and enhance a new thought-provoking situation.

The web Link above, gives me a sense of Louise Bourgeois's Cell series. Maybe, it is the colour used, being

black and beige, in addition to the intention of this piece, which suggests a confrontation with one's life, with inferences of 'loss' or maybe suffering.The closet denotes a reflection of me being there,procuring a rebounding response of my being; like a confrontation with myself. The spider-web of black wool, suggest an eerie response to my 'reckoning'. The  pale gold sprayed knitted skull lying on the cold,barren floor again support some likeness to Bourgeois's  Oedipus work. It echoes similarities in that it is tactile like hers,but her work uses fabric material and I use hand-knitted wool material. The installation using black wool gives a blatant contrast to the white room's colouring.