cubit (animated) (2018)
resin, straps, buckles
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construct (animated) (2018)
hand-woven cotton and wire, metal hoops, carabiners, wire rope
Shown during I.D. (The Body's Still Warm), 23 – 28 October 2018,
42 Cambridge Road, Singapore
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This series of works is a continuation of my ongoing investigation into processes of weaving, and the interaction of body and material within these processes.
Previous explorations have implicated the body of the maker/artist within a performative entanglement with the weave, or weaving structures (including warp, heddles and cross-sticks, apparatus that are essential to the weaving process but were translated from a mechanised loom to a ‘primitive’, essentialised technique). See untitled (2018, performance).
This series consists of two main bodies of work: the first, an entirely hand-woven net with cotton and wire, drawing on material associations with synthetic webbing, commonly used in seatbelts, bag straps or safety straps. Sewn into a grid format, the net is suspended via a series of apparatus that allows it to be unhooked, adjusted, reclipped; but at the same time under tension and appearing to serve a function. It is ambiguous if it is functioning as a safety net, to catch objects falling from above, or a cargo net, to trap objects, or humans, which are beneath. The second body of work draws on similar materials of security and attachments - it consists of vertical loop sculptures that hang from ceiling to floor, alternating between fleshy resin loops and black webbing straps with cambuckles. The contrast between materials, together with the cubit arm length of each loop, speaks to an implicated body that is bound up within everyday materials of security and attachment.