Material Cultures - Assignment 2

The assignment for this term is all based upon archives and how they are important to society with how they present a way for us (the public) to be able to look back at the past and to see how things have changed; such as the fashions and to be able to see how they come back around over the years.

As part of this terms assignment we were asked to visit a couple of talks on various different archives that were mainly situated within the university campus. I chose to visit the special collections archive in the MMU All Saints library and the Design Council Slide Collection in the Holden Gallery. I particularly found the latter archive more interesting out of the two.

Here are a couple of photos displaying a selection of slides from the Design Council's Slide Collection;

Irma Frijlink - Textiles Artist

Irma Frijlink is a textiles artist that works primarily using machine stitch. She attended a school for a 'first degree' in textile teaching. This is where she was encouraged to approach art in a non-conformist way. Following this she attended many workshops with well regarded artists for many years. 

The majority of her work is created with a sewing machine. Using painting with acrylic paint and finally embroidering the parts that need most attention. This is what initially attracted me to her work. I love using acrylic paint as a basis for a sample or piece; working on a rigid surface gives a sample some strength behind it. Although, however this is not what is always necessary in a sample.

'Alzheimer 0'

This piece pictured above is the work of Irma's that I found originally. I wasn't necessarily the colours that i was drawn to about this piece, it was the way it has been broken up into different shaped fragments. For me this reminded me of a map with the different fragments as though they were roads and paths crossing over one another. This therefore influenced me to move into looking into maps and mapping further.

Here are a few other pieces of her work where this idea of fragmentation has too been introduced.

'Alzheimer 5'

'Zelfportret 5'

On looking into her way of working more, it made me more interested to further investigate her work. The media she uses really appeals to me and I'd love to work in that way more in the future when returning to embroidery. This piece above I found quite fascinating as it looks like a spin-off of the two others above this one. I particularly love the use of subtle colour that doesn't take the attention away from these interesting jigsaw fragments.

Sampling - data project

Having been given this word ‘data’ as a starting point before Christmas, in groups of 6 we were to mind map out our ideas; such as what we thought the brief meant and how we were to interpret it. First doing this as a group and then we were to use these collective ideas as a starting point to our own discoveries. I found that through playing around with a few ideas, I really liked the randomness and uncontrollability of different coloured inks when blown with a straw.

I found the brief to start with quite confusing as it is a broad topic and can include a multitude of different ideas. However, I felt that I really found my own after thinking about different things related to this idea of ‘data’ and focusing on what my thoughts were on this; as well as experimenting with different media.

Initially I had been looking to work with the idea of maps and mapping, which would have carried on quite nicely from the two weeks of work we did before the Christmas holidays. However, after starting with this idea I found myself drawn to using ink as my primary source of media, in the hope of possibly returning to the use of maps further along in the project.

Below you can see some of the work I have started on in relation to the brief:

Black Windsor & Newton ink blown with straw onto A4 cartridge paper

           Blue Parker ink blown with straw onto A3 cartridge paper