Fenced 2014

From the rabbit-proof fences to the crocheted jug covers, Australia has spent a LOT of effort controlling pests, varmits and various imported problems. Since the whole place started as a penal colony, I suppose we could include humans as one of the species Australians have tried to control. The story of the rabbits is well known, but they also imported cane toads (in an attempt to control native cane beetles), cats, feral goats and pigs. 

Fenced (28"h x 34"w) 

The materials...well, I made a fairly large piece of reddish felt, and attached that to a piece of red wool, then sewed everything else on that.  The kangaroos and emus are woolen outlines. Rabbits and sheep are phototransferred. I know - most people don't like phototransfer for art because of the shiny, plastic-y feel. But try it on burlap. Or wool. Or silk! I've ironed phototransfer material onto 2 layers of silk - most goes on the top layer, but enough comes through to the bottom layer of silk to be interesting. These rabbits and sheep are ironed on various wools, burlaps and anything else in the studio. The toads and flies are on silk. 

If you look way up in the top right corner, you can see a fly, printed on silk, on the jug cover. The jug cover is itself a type of fencing, and adds a nice white punch in the midst of all that red.

In an earlier blog (a dead end...early work) I described my efforts with lint, which were truly ugly. However, that experience actually came in handy here: I used old badminton rackets as paper-making screens through red lint, let them dry, and cut out the netting from the frames. And here - unlike my other attempts - it worked! The red lint on the red badminton webbing works as a perfect layer with the felt and the  rabbits. There are other fencing materials here, which I collect as I walk along the streets in New York, past construction projects. 

Another photo of the same piece, which shows the textures. I sometimes think that all my art should be photographed in bright sunlight - harsh, but you can SEE it all. 

 In another post - Strata and Markings - I explain how I transfer color on wool. I did that on the kangaroos and emus here. 

The next 2 posts will show a piece based on India.

Wagga Down Under 2014

While in Australia, I learned about waggas: the  roughly made quilts which used deconstructed old clothing as batting. Chris Hussey told me that her mom used to make them (and yes, there are other definitions of waggas, involving old feed sacks).

When I returned home, I decided it was time to take apart my badly sun-faded, 30-year-old, rust-colored travel vest (from Banana Republic, back when they sold funkier clothes). I had worn this one on many trips, stuffing all those pockets.. 

 I arranged the deconstructed vest sections to form a rough map of Australia - a wagga of Down Under :

  Wagga Down Under (57"h x 59"w) This is an unwieldy monster of a map: little Tasmania (in the lower right corner) just throws off the whole balance of the composition. Looking back at it, I should have made a separate map for Tasmania, and moved up the bottom border. Oh well...

Now, do you see the strange little decorative thingies along the edges? My map has so much going on, I felt some explanation was called for. I did what mapmakers (cartographers) do - I added keys, like on this map of Massachusetts:

On this modern map (well, relatively modern, since we're all moving away from paper maps to GPS) you  get a few basic keys (also called legends):  plain boxes with rudimentary explanations.  On older maps, they really dressed it all up. Highly ornate swirls, scrolls and even cherubs around the information, like these: 

I took the information I wanted to share and photoshopped it inside vintage map key frames: 

I bought a few of these jug covers at Australian markets, and a student gave me one. While I was waiting at one airport, I saw jug covers still being used! There are a few of them in the quilt.

There's the Banana Republic label from my vest. I used to love their clothes, before they went upscale-stylish. Tomorrow, the techniques and more detail pictures.