Toshiko MacAdam

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

Toshiko macadams is a Japanese artist based in Nova scotia, canada. she is known for her large sculptural textile work and brightly coloured crochet work.

she speaks of coming from a long line of physicians and intends to carry on the wishes of her family before her. However she chose to go down that path of art as she feels creating her work is her own way of impacting people. Just by taking a first glance at the work you can tell it was made for human interaction, the vibrant colours and off shapes are so tempting and invite the viewer to explore through touch. Her work discusses how “textiles were made for the human body” as second skin and something everyone has a relationship with.

She created a series of “net play works” starting in 1979, large scale nets crocheted out of heaps of nylon rope by a team of the artists assistants; commissioned by museums and galleries as a work of public art that children can interact with. In this work there are holes and surfaces begging to be explored, touched, clambered over. it invokes the childlike sense of play most adults can relate to and provides an exciting sensory experience for young children. It was intended as a children’s playground , to provide something unique for them to get completely lost in. She felt that children were not learning from just seeing art or history in a gallery and needed something a lot more immersive and engaging.

I found it really interesting to see such unique shapes and textures be so obviously related to childs play. The soft and stretchy netting reminded me of the plasticity of a young mind and the importance of enrichment. I think using wool to weave or crochet could be really relevant to my theme if i want to relate back to a child experience. i want to invoke a similar sort of response with my work by having a tactillity to it and also being something that is recognisable as a source of care, calm and intrigue.

Mid Project Reflection

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

When I started this project, my original aim was to explore the dichotomy between Nurture and lack of it; and how the presence of one can make you feel the other more severely. I planned to use my home environment for a rich source of visual and conceptual inspiration and I hoped to utilise my experiences to guide me through this topic. I also wanted to look at this project as a stepping stone instead of an opportunity to dwell; I liked the idea of looking at things from a childlike perspective with the knowledge I have gained in my adult life. To do this I have been exploring the craft materials I would typically play with as a child with my parents help, such as weaving. I found inspiration in Eva Hesse and Toshiko Macadam’s work due to their sculptural use of textiles and the techniques they use to adapt the materials intended use. Aiden Koch has also been important for me to look at because of the way she explores sequential art and writing; I found myself writing memories that I could translate into visual stories. Moving through this project I have not explored the two sides of the dichotomy as strictly as I intended to. My approach has been a lot looser as I have reflected more on my own experience. This complicated the theme a bit because its hard to look at things objectively and it feels against my instinct to talk critically about the relationship I have with my parents and my experience with receiving nurture. I have struggled to produce as much work as I hoped. I feel that when I make work related to my experiences, I complicate it so much that it can’t be understood by a viewer and when I make work that is distanced from my experience it feels too obvious and lacking depth.

I would like to have created a lot more work but have found it difficult to know where to channel my focus. I think my strongest work so far has been my weaving experiments, I think that they look the most interesting whilst staying relevant to the theme. This is largely due to being told that I need to concentrate on examining every possibility within one area of exploration. However, I can see lots of points that they could develop further perhaps incorporating them into my video experiments and also look into how I can use the imagery of milk and my disgust of it, as I can see lots more opportunities for a strong link to the theme. During the Mid project crit we discussed the idea of sewing the weavings together to make a blanket and also how far I could take this strand on the theme of nurture. I think this is important to consider and continues my question of how I want to handle the balance between visual and conceptual focus. Alongside enjoying the visual aspect of the weavings is there a way to strengthen the concept by bringing my writing into it? The general advice from the crit was to diversify my approach whilst continuing my main focus in parallel. I agree that broadening my research and churning out more experiments will benefit me and also help me to feel like my final work is based on something more solid.

After the crit I felt mostly confused and lost interest in what I was doing, I couldn’t tell between what was good or bad. It has taken me a couple of weeks of thinking to actually recognise what advice I need to take from the it. The feedback has helped me to realise that I need to clarify what I want to achieve with my work, It has also allowed me to step back and see what others feel is most interesting. I think by doing this I can see that my intentions are a bit lost currently but I now know that broadening my theme to be an exploration into what nurture itself means could be a lot less restrictive and naturally will bring more possibilities. Realising that a person’s experience of nurture is rarely black and white will allow me to explore the contradictions within it. Using the feedback from the crit, I want to find a variety of areas that can offer more opportunity to support what I have already done. I can see my work evolving to have something sculptural at the core and presented alongside and supported by my written work; maybe this collection of different focusses will be relevant for the nuances of the theme.

Aidan Koch

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

born in seattle 1988, aidan koch is a contemporary artist exploring sequential art. she attended the pacific NW college of art in Portland, oregon from which she received her BFA. she is the author of three books known for their subtle approach to storytelling. she finds ways of exploring a narrative whilst still challenging the viewer. Using limited text and unconventional layout, there is plenty of space for the viewer to interpret her work in many ways. leaving intentional gaps and uncompleted illustrations, she finds a way of creating a narrative providing as little obvious information as possible.



There is something very therapeutic about her work, the drawings are paced slowly and capture a small moment in time. the lines and colours are soft and delicate creating an atmosphere of calm drawing attention to things you might not have noticed in a typical comic. The subject matter is mostly people or selected parts of them, along with lots of natural setting i think this ties back to a moment of thought or pause. Alongside this, her use or language is complementary to the setting and creates a back and forth relationship between text and image.



she talks about how instead of single image based illustrations she uses multiple scenes in a composition as it opens up the opportunity for suspense, tension, and contradictions. I think that this kind of approach could be really useful for me when talking about a dichotomy, i am aiming to discuss both sides of receiving nurture and lacking it. when talking about parent child experiences there are also many varied feelings towards it, so using this kind of process would allow me to contain multiple truths instead of present one portrayal. Something i also like about koch’s work is that they often present a question instead of trying to directly provide an obvious story. This pondering of thought is something i would like to incorporate into my work.

Mid Project Crit

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

NOTES:

-relationship between drawings and weaving is strong
-the connection its has to the line of women in my family and utilising raft material is relevant and something to look into more.
-Look at artist josh riley- roots and fruits make out of sparkles and gems
-Could you stitch the patches together? create a larger blanket
-Do you see the video moving forward from where it is?
-How about weaving soaked in milk?
-There’s a good translation of drawings to weavings but how far can that strand carry on the nurture idea?
-What about the visceral qualities of milk? – how taste and smell changes as it sours
– Was interested in the fact i find milk disgusting – in that it’s such an important part of nurture and nature- Where can i go with this?
-look into the taboo/disgust with breastfeeding- there must be a logical reason for that?

THOUGHTS/NEXT STEPS:
-I need to diversify my approach whilst continuing the weaving explorations in parallel.
-i want to continue with the video exploring movement of material and how it could combine with milk exploration
-start to bring in writing work- perhaps use what was learnt with sequential workshop
– should i use myself in the work, wrapping myself in blanket, bathing in milk, washing words away?

Studio Practice 2- Writing and Video

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

During this project i have spent lots of time writing, mostly exploring ways i can use my own experience and memories in relation to this project. After using the imagery of milk bottles in my previous drawings i wanted to see how this could look in a video setting. I’ve also been thinking about memories and how they can be altered or forgotten, after speaking with my dad about my childhood i realised there is a lot that i don’t remember or things that i have sugar coated. i visualised this with written memories on cloth and washed them away with milk (the most recognised source of nurture).

I think that this has strong links to the theme and can be explored a lot more. i particularly like the idea of washing away of something and leaching into the milk, perhaps I could look at washing the weaving to connect it to some other work. i think the softness and subtlety of the words through milk looks really interesting but is perhaps just me trying to find another was to hide my writing. i love the way that words look but maybe if i lack confidence in my writing i could just pick specific and significant words to explore the visual aspect of them. I have written up a few bits of writing in word to see how presenting them as something by themselves gives me any ideas.

I played around with spacing and line, to see how it could affect the words. Something about a solid bit of writing feels too obvious or not very thought through. Although, i love reading other people’s writings, poems, stories because of the intimacy you can feel from it, i don’t enjoy reading these bits of writing. I think instead of over analysing the content of it, i need to look at them from a more visual perspective. After joining Neil Nodzaks sequential art workshop, i am beginning to consider how i could look at exploring the visual aspects of it. i also am starting to see a link that could happen between video and sequential work, i will start by creating work out of the writing and then see how it translates into video.

Studio Practice 2- Weaving + Drawing

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

Moving on from the 1-1s, i was told that i need to do more material exploration to help me to get the most out of each idea. We talked about how i could use drawing to test shape and colour before doing the weaving as it is very time consuming. it also doesn’t leave much room for mistakes and happy accidents which are what im in need of at the moment. I went back and forth between drawing and weaving, continuing on the parts that i liked.

These black and white drawings allowed me to look at texture, i like the look i achieved with varying pencils and direction of line. This is something that i want to translate into the weaving as i am enjoying manipulating the typical horizontal lines you get from a loom. the part in particular that i like from my first weave was the gaps i created, so ive focussed on how to forward this with drawing.

I feel like i haven’t been as experimental with colours because i feel the ones i’ve been looking at seem most fitting. the baby pinks, blues, light greens are all colours i associate with nurture; similar to ones you would see in a nursery or new plant growth. i could probably look more into the significance of each one but im quite happy with how they come together and are a good starting point to move onto the weaving.

Overall, this has been my favourite area of development and i feel it is quite a strong place to move on from. i an envision these as a blanket, possibly patch working them together or making a large scale one. The thing i like the most in them is the gaps, it feels contradictory to the purpose of a bit of weaving/blanket. i think that its a strong way to explore they idea of gaps within my own experience of nurture, and exploring the tactility of feeling and lacking nurture. Touch is such an important part of nurture so i think that it would help to keep thinking about how a viewer could interact with it; feeling the soft wool will remind people of comfort, it would be interesting to see what material i could use to achieve the opposite of that. I also think this development has helped me to focus on the aesthetic of what im making instead of just the concept. i plan to continue this practice alongside my next work to see what i could bring to it; possibly written work or video.

Vanessa Barragao

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

Vanessa barragao is a contemporary textiles artists working in Porto, portugal not far from where she was born. she grew up in a seaside village surrounded by countryside, something that has clearly inspired much of her work. she found crochet and drawing to be her first experience with expressive art, learning both as crafts from a young age. She completed her undergraduate and masters in lisbon studying fashion design where she learned about her interest in ecological issue and connected them to her work. She left to continue on her focus in textiles working as a designer and gradually came to find her own projects, eventually opening her own studio.

She approaches each project without a strict plan, allowing the material and her feelings guide her; this results in a very organic looking outcome. She uses a wide variety of techniques such as latch hook crochet, weaving, embroidery and felt creating an interesting array of textures that couldn’t be achieved with just one process. These techniques are also ones taught to her by her grandmothers and through her work she wants to carry the traditions forward so that they don’t get forgotten in time. It is important to her that all the materials she uses are waste from portuguese factories, her work tackles themes of environment so her practice has to be sustainable.

Her work abstractly replicates coral reefs with layers of varying textures and crocheted structures. It doesn’t follow the typical form of a wall hanging because of the irregular shapes, i like how it spreads out differently and avoids any strict structure. she uses mostly bright colours to replicate an ocean floor but also blanks out areas with beiges and whites to represent the bleaching of coral. i find these parts particularly interesting as it reminds me of skin or body like shapes and crevasses and it allows the viewer to see what her techniques can achieve. I am also inspired by what she can achieve with only wool, i would like to try and utilize some of her techniques to enhance some of the textures in my weaving. When reading about textiles artists ive noticed that most often their first encounters with those materials are from female figures in the family, this reminds me of the connotations around this material and i would like to delve further into this to tie it back to my theme. I feel that when you look at her work you can see the hours that went into it, i think that tapestries relate closely to storytelling. Im thinking that this also relates to the idea that someone’s experience of nurture can be a long path that is very rarely steady, i like the idea of creating something that provides a feeling of nurture whilst also telling a story.

Small Group Tutorial 1

| AbigailYeatsHNDCAP

NOTES FROM DISCUSSION:
– Look at more other typically ‘feminine crafts’- knitting, sewing etc. + research the historical and cultural context behind weaving.
– Touch on feminist theory- role of mother in comparison to father ( did that differ from typical- looking at parents parents)
– Lots of scope for playing with materials; KEEP EXPERIMENTING
– Could look at different caring activities for research .
– Continue with writing as its providing useful insight and also could be a good way to get thoughts out to the surface to work from.
– Explore sense of realisation/ feeling of being safe
– Explore the link between texture and comfort/feeling
-Research mothering techniques how they vary and contradict each other.- leaving a baby to cry, cradleboard
-Imagery to continue/ look at- ‘mothers milk’, objects of childhood, first ever braces, mothers teeth, self building objects, fragmentary memories.

Studio Practice 2- Experimentation

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Continuing on from my initial weaving experiments, i started to think about filling in the gaps i had left and exploring some writing work. i like the combination of materials and there are also lots of other ways i could explore this. i think that i can start looking at wool to draw into the weave and practice blocking colours in other ways.

-Feeling like my responses are limited, i decided that i could use drawing as a way to explore more imagery. im really enjoying the look of the teeth and the ties to growth/loss/nourishment. i think i might bring them back into sculpture and explore what kind of materials will be interesting- felt, paper, clay, wire? i also like contrast of soft/hard with the fabric underneath- could relate to the idea of tough love and link softness to comfort.
-The blind drawings of milk bottles- it ties into the idea of ‘mothers milk’ which is something i want to go into more. Mothers milk is a source of nutrients but when i relate it to my experience or the idea of receiving care i can imagine it being spoiled/toxic. i think this could also link back to teeth/bones and how their growth requires calcium.
– i am thinking lots about new leaves- i think this imagery supplies the idea of hope or something new but i dont think it looks that interesting.

erasure of memories something missing