Part 1 Stage 4 (2)

Selecting designs for a specified outcome (2)

India is a country of contrasts; wealth and abject poverty, city chaos and mountain tranquillity, openness and corruption, vibrancy and drabness.  It has a social order and has perfected bureaucracy.

When a rich heritage and a strong sense of identity are thrown into the equation the complexity that is India begins to emerge.

In my sketchbook I have developed an image I want to pursue in fabric.  I want to create something that will express some of the contradictions. 

Chaos and tranquillity

The chaos dominates the tranquillity as in life. 

I've cut out the shapes so the colour shows through the mountain picture, a bit like reverse applique.
I'm going to try to do just that; reverse applique for the major shapes and some phulkari embroidery for the smaller shapes.

First I need to represent the tranquillity of the mountains and these are the fabrics I've chosen. Except for the lace they are all from the bag of bits I was given in Sanganer.

I like the way the creases look like folds in the mountains.  This is how it turned out:

I was reluctant to hide the lovely lace and the mountains are a bit too prominent.

Trying the larger shapes (possible applique)

It's decision time.  Do I try to alter the prominence of the mountains or not?  Additionally I'm getting cold feet about the reverse applique and how fiddly it will be.

I woke this morning with an idea and it made the applique redundant.

I thought I could knit chaos in .2 wire and weave through it - I couldn't wait to start.  Take it from me that knitting with wire is not like knitting with wool.  I did 12 rows with 20 stitches and it was just what I wanted; fine, open and pliable.  Whilst I intended  the wire knitting and subsequently the sari silk, to be  samples they both looked so right I used them as they were. 

I selected a range of  yarns to thread though but only used two; a blue novelty yarn and some yellow linen.

I  tried sari silk but it was too thick but I wanted to use it very much - it is so appropriate.  I decided to knit some of it in a messy, chaotic way. Once again chaos reigned.  I added some copper mesh because it offers a more controlled, regular mess and put jute (an Indian staple) round a mount. The mount is part of the work.  It seemed important to contain the work; I don't deal well with chaos!

Although I didn't stick with the original plan (and it's there to pick up later if I want to) I'm pleased with the outcome and I enjoyed doing it.  I've tried to show two conflicting aspects of India that impressed me - the calm and the chaos.  The background is calm but the chaos takes over and comes from every direction and in many forms.  It is interconnected with the rest of life and dependent  on everyone obeying unwritten rules to avoid danger (the copper mesh).  

This work has coincided with the study visit to The Cloth and Memory exhibition at Salts' Mill. Prior to the visit I'd done some reading and it seemed very relevant to my work.  More so after the seminar. My photos were themselves a prompt for memories of my trip to India. 

I used fabrics that provoked memories, the wire made me remember my course with Helen Meakin and now the finished piece holds memories of its own.  How did I never think of this before?

This seems a very cursory mention of an exhibition that will probably change my work for ever.

Probably tied up with the idea of memory I noticed an emotional involvement that I've not been aware of before.  It has meaning.

Unfortunately I got so into what I was doing I didn't take any photos. This however, is the result.

The reflective bit...
I think this is a very busy piece of work and my artistic feeling is that the mountain background should have been more subtle; less undulations and texture and more muted blues and greys.  Less obvious perhaps.  The initial work was done with another intention (the applique) so the "chaos" sort of inherited it.  That said I also feel that each component, calm and chaos, should have equal prominence and if the result is over busy that's how it is, just like India.

I don't think it's an accident that the careful planning of my applique chaos was abandoned in favour of something more impetuous; it seems very fitting that the work should make its own demands.

Chaos is what makes India exciting.