There are so many things from her life I can relate to, amongst others her complex relationship to her father and her interest in psychoanalysis. If you understand French, watch this documentary shot mostly in her Brooklyn studio before her big exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1993. She explains all the "cells" she created for the exhibition telling how they explore feelings she carries since her childhood.
I have known her for a long time, as I had the chance to see her spiders in Paris a while ago. I knew her, but I never really knew who she was and what was her process. One recent evening I decided to dig in and dive into her world: what I found amazed me. There are so many things from her life I can relate to, amongst others her complex relationship to her father and her interest in psychoanalysis. If you understand French, watch this documentary shot mostly in her Brooklyn studio before her big exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1993. She explains all the "cells" she created for the exhibition telling how they explore feelings she carries since her childhood. There is also the documentary Louise Bourgeois The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine that is a must see. We get to know more on her family history and her relationship with her sons, how her anxiety impacted her social live and most importantly her art. I dug a bit more and found the book The Return of the Repressed. One of the most beautiful publication I saw recently. The first volume is a collection of essays written by psychoanalysts who explored her notes and writings. I will soon write more on this and share quotes. The books "show the enduring presence of psychoanalysis as a motivational force and a site of exploration in her life and work. Selected and edited by Philip Larratt-Smith, her literary archivist, these texts provide a comprehensive overview and re-reading covering 60 years of artistic production. The second volume in this gorgeous set also serves as an impressive and up-to-date monograph, detailing works up until the artist's death in 2010". If you are in New York City before December 14th 2014, three of her pieces are on display at the Drawing Center's Thread Lines exhibition. They explore her relationship to her mother and femininity. The way she used striped textile from clothes to create a spider wed is so simple but so strong in meaning. “Clothing is… an exercise of memory… It makes me explore the past… how did I feel when I wore that…” I will soon write more about her and share quotes from the book.
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This weekend is Open House New York and the Textile Arts Center is open to the public from 11am to 6pm. Come visit and make sure you come upstairs to see the Artists in Residence space. I will be there most of the day on Saturday.
I will show my work and answer questions! Jordana Martin, artist behind Oak Knit Studio and president of the Textile Arts Center Board of Directors, is our residency mentor. She offers us guidance and support in our exploration and creative processes. Jordana is amazing and I will write more about her soon. She suggested we listen to this On Being podcast on the artist Ann Hamilton. This conversation with Hamilton is so on point with what we are undertaking as artist with the residency. She talk about her creative process and how the body embodies the knowledge of the creative act, that it carries "embodied knowledge". The first group activity we had for the residency was a 2-day drawing marathon organized by Jordana. During those two days, we were exploring the material capacities and how they were inspiring us in a very intimate way. Towards the end of the 2 days, I realized I was constantly using the square as a starting point. I commented on that and expressed the desire to break this pattern, to break the square. Jordana then told me something very important to me. That I did not have to make a decision now concerning the use of square which is a very provocative shape/. She said during the next months I will explore so many techniques and material, that I can let myself go and not think about it. That things would emerge and take form anyways. This made me realize how creative work with textile is bound to the material and that this conversation between the body and the matter is in constant evolution. That it is good to let things come out, let things go and not ever think it, not trying to phrase it instantly, but accepting it as a journey and not judging every step. Ann Hamilton phrases this beautifully:
"When you are making something you do not know what it is for a very long time. You have to cultivate the space around you where you can trust the thing that you cannot name(...) How do you cultivate a space that allows you to dwell in that not knowing. The thread has to come out and it comes out at its own pace". Hamilton also talks about how our process impacts the piece. In textile art particularly, every gesture marks the work, every relationship with the matter affects how it looks and feel:"every act of it is in some ways transparently present in the material. Even if you can see the whole you can see the parts. You go back and forth between those." This is why I love textile art. Because they are traces of who we are anchored in space and time, and tradition. Something she also talks about is how who we are and feel affects the work. When we create,we are "making at the pace of the body" and "The body is a transparent presence in the material". I realized this last spring while weaving. The rhythm of beating the warp was influenced by how I felt, thus the textile surface was not the same. I am currently working on an embroidery project and I can feel this at every stitch. One of my goals fort he next year is to develop awareness on how I related to my creative gestures. Good news!
I was awarded a travel grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts! The grant covers the expenses for my participation to the eTextile Summer Camp 2014. Very proud to receive the support of the Council. On July 30th 2014, Celine Marcq and I conducted our workshop during the eTextile Summer Camp. We used two types of inks: CuPro-cote from Less EMF and Bare conductive. We explained how to use traditional screen printing methods and conductive ink to apply a proximity / touch sensor circuit on various paper or textile substrates.The participants created textile/paper swatches which incorporate a light or sound emitting printed circuit. The Bare conductive ink is good for creating touch sensors and the copper ink works well for circuit traces. Some participants used the inks to create a touch pad with Chibitronik parts which are ideal for paper projets.
Before starting to screen print a circuit, we need to know what parameters to work with when creating a circuit with conductive ink. Celine and I started to make some test with touch sensors. Here is the simple circuit: I painted two touch sensors, one on paper and one on muslin (woven cotton) to compare the readings. There are pretty similar. Here is the Arduino code and a short video showing how it works:
The eTextile Summer Camp organizers have paired me with Celine Marcq to organize and lead a workshop on Screen Printing Circuits. There will be 12 participants and we will use Bare Conductive ink. We will prepare a circuit for touch sensors which will work on Arduino and Lilypads. Here is the diagram of the original circuit from Bare Conductive tutorials. The circuit and the sensors will probably be screen printed on cotton canvas and will form a beautiful pattern on the textile. I will make tests on a design inspired by William Morris' tapestry designs. The circuit could be repeated to form a large tapestry. Origami Fabric will be exhibited at the World of Threads Festival in November 2014 in Oakville, Ontario, Canada! Very proud to have my work shown at this well-known international fiber arts event.
I just learned I was selected to participate to the ETextile Summer Camp 2014! Here is a description from the website:
The eTextile Summer Camp is a week-long event that brings together expert practitioners from the fields of eTextiles and Soft Circuitry. Gathering in the countryside of france, the camp offers participants space and opportunity to come together professionally and casually to exchange knowledge, share skills through hands-on workshops and engage in discourse around current topics. This year’s third edition of the eTextile Summer Camp will again be hosted by the wonderful Paillard Centre d’Art Contemporain & Résidence d’Artistes and will take place from July 27th to August 2nd in Poncé sur le Loir, France." The camp is organized by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson of Kobakant. I am thrilled to have the chance to meet them in person and participate to workshops with other etextile and soft circuitry experts. I am working on finding a solution to control the fiber pixels of Woven Signals.
I will work on building a circuit that has an array of transistor so I can have my pixels working from the same power source. Here is a link to a circuit I would modify: http://www.compendiumarcana.com/forumpics/pov_sol.png Maybe I should use this part. |
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October 2014
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