Newest works

I got into the factory in early February, for possibly the last time.  I actually felt sad to think I might not be back, I have enjoyed meeting the ex-Amann factory again much more than I thought I would.  This time, I left the factory lights off and took long exposure shots of the interior.  This also enabled me to appear, faint and ghost-like, in front of the camera.

Ormston House Spring Member's Show

Last summer I came home from a ride on my bike, parked it up in the barn where it lives, took off my helmet and turned to see this -

- the sun in the trees in the hedgerow outside coming in through the window of the barn.  As the leaves moved in the breeze, the patches of sunlight danced and then as the sun set, the whole scene faded slowly until it was just an ordinary wall in an ordinary barn again.

I had my little IXUS camera with me and managed to record 2 minutes of hand-held video which I later edited and added a soundtrack too.  I just really liked the video and the way it captured a moment that probably only occurs once or twice a year - like the solstice sun at Newgrange.  I had no idea what to do with it, like most of my personal work, but entered it into the Ormston House Spring Member's Exhibition on the off-chance.  To my amazement and delight, it was chosen as one of the works for the show by the invited curator Haizea Barcenilla.  

This is my fourth time of trying to get into the Ormston show and it is a great start to 2014 to be showing a work at this highly regarded gallery.

The full video, which is called Crepescule, can be seen on my website or on Vimeo here.

The Reckoning I

It was first semester assessment time last Wednesday.  I got a whole corridor for my prints and photographs which was much needed.  I really enjoyed hanging this work and seeing it in all in one place.

Monoprint using sewing thread

Detail of above

Ghost print of above

Digital print on monoprint

For the degree show, I MUST remember to flatten my prints!  When they're full size, every ripple shows.

Beach Plastic.com

I should be doing contextual research but I came across this wonderful website charting the activities of two people who have been removing the washed up plastic from Kehoe beach in California since 1999. 

I absolutely love these collages, they work on a couple of levels, the plastic is taken from the beach in the first place and made into objects that simultaneously look wonderful and send a message. 

A gentle reminder that serious art doesn't always have to be serious.

Here's the site and some images below. 

Fish Handles

Chroma

Pony Tales

Filly Bridge

My new website

I made me a website!

It was pretty easy - the hardest thing was getting high quality images that looked professional.

The website is here and the address is below:-

www.dawnwest.net

Monoprints, ghost prints and ink jet prints

In the last post I included a photograph of the large (full sheet of Fabriano Rosapina if you're interested) thread prints I've been making.  I ink up a large piece of acetate and lay sewing thread, strand by strand, on the plate.  I have the time taken to get the threads on the plate down to about an hour, sometimes it is boring, other times it is pleasingly meditative.  Then I take the print and a ghost print.

I am currently using the ghost prints as bases for ink jet prints of images from the factory.

Here is a selection of the work to date.

full size print

detail

 

 

 

 

 

 

ghost print

detail

 

 

inkjet prints on ghost prints

Amann analogue

I also took my analogue SLR camera into the factory with me.  (I think it is strange that we now have to specify a camera as analogue because the noun 'camera' invariably implies a digital camera).  It is a Canon Eos 300 and feels as light as a feather compared to my SLR digital camera.  It takes wonderful photographs and I love the shutter sound.  In fact I take photographs just to hear the shutter sound.  Another beauty of film is also that you often have a few frames left at the end of film that 'need to be used up' and this encourages a creative recklessness that sometime has good results. 

I develop these photographs in the college and really enjoy this process as well.  The dark room holds no fear for me thanks to  Emily Robards who held my hand through the developing of several films until I knew what I was doing.  And thanks to the hairy drying cabinet most of the negatives get little hairs and specks on them which replicates amazingly well the atmosphere in the factory which was always filled with cotton and polyester fibres flying about the place.  This is called, not unsurprisingly, 'fly'.

These films are 'push processed'.  The ISO is set much higher than the ISO rating of the film itself so the film is deliberately underexposed.  This is then compensated for during the developing of the film.  It helps in the low light levels of the factory and also gives these really evocative, high contrast, grainy results.

These cameras are available on Ebay for ridiculously low prices.  That makes me sad for some reason.

chairs in the meeting room

reception

pre-spinning

cctv (still active) in the reception

reception entrance

employee entrance and exit - the most unwelcome and welcome sight

heavy twisting

filament quality lab

spinning quality lab

entrance gate

from core yarn twisting into pre-spinning

no caption required

meeting room

employee car park

left behind

view through reception window

 

 

 

At the end of one of these films, I took a few photographs of the plate I've been using to make some large thread prints and one of the prints themselves