unmakings

Portland-- right now I feel like there is too much going on with my ideas for this show. Waiting for it all to congeal...i have so many ideas and different pieces, yet I want it to be more installational/experiential. Trying to figure out what to bring and what to leave here. Hoping that the thoughts will jump into position once I get a new change of scenery.

I want to experiment with plastering/painting the mutant sculptures. using gouache or something to paint lines where the seams are on the clothes. My dad gave me some plaster to experiment with—I’m imaging putting more epoxy on the pieces and then just sprinkling the plaster on; even doing some paper mache, covering the pieces in paper pulp/trash and plaster. The lines could be black on white or maybe even blue on white. I wonder if this whole yearning to switch materials up is out of line. Maybe I’ll let myself do this tomorrow.

Today I went to the library and got some books on tape from the library for the road trip ‘grapes of wrath’ and ‘the sound and the fury’. I think I’m going to document a garment somehow moving through the landscape up north. I like the idea of creating backstory for a garment in actual reality (and showing evidence of it through photographs), and juxtaposing that with an invented sentimental fantasy (that I would record as sound). Questions, though:

-would i be wearing this garment or is it lying on the ground? hanging on a tree?

-what garment is it? should it be something iconic (a black dress?) or more quirky?

for some reason i keep thinking about my green cashmere sweater that i got at the barn. i just feel like it must have a crazy old and classy story because it is cashmere and from the '50s but in perfect condition.

{photos: manuel neri kneeling figure (1960), abandoned sweater photo from this flickr)}