Residencies in the Artists' Studios
Inside Sharon's Studio.
threads, lines pillars and flour
January 03, 2005
Friday 26th November and Monday 29th November
I began today by setting the studio up to record the drawing of the black linen dress. For this I am using a large sheet of strong paper pinned to a wall in the studio. I set up two photographic lights at 45 degrees each side this is to keep my light levels constant, as the outside light is wavering and short this time of year.
I set the video camera on tripod to maintain a constant position and record the making of the drawing by pressing the record button each time I make a line etc, so its just on off, on off for a few seconds. This however is incredibly time consuming and I am in fact taking a long time to create two or three minutes of video footage. However all the time I am drawing, I also think alot about the whole process and begin to turn over ideas of other ways of drawing using the space of the mill and other materials and of course thinking about Nicola 'drawing' as she moves through the space of the mill.........
I have taken photographs of the black linen dress and made them into acetates and have used this and acetates of the wet spinning room to create images on the computer. I scanned the two acetates together to create further possibilities and ideas - these can be used or neglected later.
It gets me thinking thought that the actual process of 'working out' ideas should be the the work itself and I begin to record my thoughts/ideas (like the recording of the drawing of the dress) by scanning each new idea straight onto the computer using a fixed line and a erasable mark. So I use the framework of the plan of the wet spinning room drawn out in permanent marker and use charcoal, which can be rubbed away to trace ideas as they form. I am also thinking about the idea of the space having those row of pillars which are like the backbone of the room - the spine and also the idea of the dress expanding out over the whole room. The result is a series of 37 drawings that were made and saved using Adobe Photoshop Image Ready. Infact I created the 37 images scanned and saved into Photoshop and will have to run them as an animation sequence when I get Image Ready on my computer! The framework and spine of the room stay constant and the image of the dress is ephemeral.