How do you show a 100m long piece without a 100m long plinth?

You might remember my piece '1 hours production = 1 ½ miles = 15 lengths' that a created for Lesley Millar’s show 'Cloth and Memory 2' at Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire.  The piece contains my biometric data recorded whilst running in the Spinning room at the mill as a metaphor for woollen cloth production in the 19^th century.  I made the piece specifically for the space but have been thinking how I could also show you in other venues.  Its 100 m in length and whilst I had the luxury of a plinth that long at Salts Mill I know that is unlikely to be repeated.

So I have been thinking how I could show this piece again in another venue…..one without an enormous plinth!  

This year I will be showing the piece at Festival Of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham 1^st - 4^th August.  We will hang the piece from the ceiling letting it drop from the 15m ceiling and letting it rise again before wrapping it around the stand itself.

On damage and repair

Karina Thompson's '60 Beats a Minute' (left) and Dorothy Caldwell's 'Comfort of Fog'
Photo credit: Liz Cooper

'What have I got to do to make it okay' has opened at the Crafts Study centre at UCA in Farnham.  I have yet to see the show at that venue but a couple of people who have said that it looks great it the space.  Liz Cooper sent me this photo she took of my piece ‘60 beats a minute’ alongside Dorothy Caldwell’s ‘Comfort of fog’. 

http://www.csc.ucreative.ac.uk/

As part of the exhibitions there is a symposium on the 2^nd March picking up on some of the themes within the exhibition.  I cant wait!

You can find out more details here

http://crest.ac.uk/events/uca-conference-symposium-on-damage-repair/

here it is

So here it is

This isn’t a proper photo, just one taken with my i-phone but the give a good feel as to the piece and how it looks in the space.  The figure in red is Nicky cardio technical advisor and work horse when we installed.  Big thanks.  Her being in the photo gives and indication of the scale of the piece

Let me know what you think

the giant plinth

I went up to Salts Mill on Tuesday to start the installation.

As the doors went back on the service lift and I saw the space again I was struck by one thing: the enormous run of pink plywood that was indeed the plinth for my piece.  It seemed to run the whole length of the room.  It went on and on.

As I left the lift I could see that in the distance the sides had been painted grey.  I didn’t panic.  I knew that the piece would fit……its just I hadn’t realised quite how long 100m was.

You can see the Cloth and Memory2 team in their charming white suits and the piece is wrapped up like a dismembered body.

the last stitches...for real

These are the final stitches on the piece….from a technical point of view its me joining piece 8 and piece 9, that’s the seam at 45 metres.  So what you see is the embroidered ECG being joined up.

 

And this is what 100 metres of lovely British woollen face cloth with my embroidery on looks like when its rolled up and ready to go.  It weighs about 4 stone.

the begining

Well of course its not the beginning, but I am going to blog the story of my digital embroidery that will be part of Cloth and Memory 2 at Salts Mill , Saltaire, West Yorks.19th August- 3 November 2013.

Here is an artist's impression of my proposed piece.

I am hoping to visualise my physical response to moving within the Spinning Room (or Lobby) of Salts Mill, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Saltaire by creating a 100m long, mixed media installation for the exhibition.  The room is 168m long: a tenth of a mile.  The mill, when in full production was reported to have made 1½ miles of cloth an hour; fifteen lengths of the spinning room.

I am going to run fifteen lengths representing an hour’s cloth production.  Whilst I runs I will use standard digital medical diagnostic testing to record the electrical activity (ECG)of my heart by wearing a 24 hour tape and capture my footprints by conventional running gait analysis tools.  I am hoping to do this this coming Saturday 19th Jan, although the weather might make this difficult.  This data will form the basis of the piece which will be created using cutting edge, computer programmable sewing machines (in this case a Pfaff Creative sensation, kindly lent by VSM UK Ltd) that will allow incredibly accurate surfaces to be made.    

This is a new departure for the major regional cultural venue of Salts Mill, who is looking to re-establish their link with textiles. The exhibition, 'Cloth and Memory', is curated by Professor Lesley Millar and will involve 23 emerging, established and international artists whose work engages with the history and character of the Mill. 

I am looking forward to sharing the story of this piece with you.  I hope you'll enjoy seeing it develop and hearing the trials and tribulations.  I would love to hear back from you.