Have you ever tried to write an Artist’s Statement? I usually find it enough trouble just trying to read and understand somebody else’s! It is so hard not to make it sound pompous, twee or just plain stupid. Here’s the one I came up with. Laugh if you will. It’s still subject to change, which of course will probably make it even worse.
Papyrine (Tree-Hugger)
I think my passion for fibre was born with me. I learned to knit as a little girl and have never stopped making things using all the many techniques I’ve absorbed over the years. When challenged to create a piece using paper, I took up my knitting needles and turned the thin continuous strip back into a tree, complete with roots and leaves. Painting the plain white shape with fibre-reactive dyes gave it colours to blend into the forest. Now it is capable of wrapping around and bestowing a hug.
Are you rolling around on the floor busting a gut yet? Note that I absolutely hate “artspeak” so I was trying for straightforward simplicity. I had an even harder time with the CV that’s also required to submit my piece. Too much happening over too long a time span with nothing really standing out as worth boasting about. Told you I wasn’t really an artist. Craftspeople don’t have to justify their work. It speaks for itself. However if I want this piece to get in the show, I have to fake it somehow!
For those who live close enough or will be visiting Vancouver, here is some of the information on the exhibit:
BC – Jeonju Hanji Culture Festival – 2009
Fibre, Naturally
Paper Like You Have Never Seen it Before
The exhibit, Fibre, Naturally, will take place at Emily Carr University, Granville Island, in the Concourse Gallery from August 10 through 16, 2009. Pieces from the exhibit will then travel to the Port Coquitlam Visual Arts Centre for 3 weeks, and to Fibre Works Gallery on the Sunshine Coast also for 3 weeks, through to Sept 13, 2009.
The Craft Council of BC will host a Gala Fundraiser in the Concourse Gallery on Tuesday evening, August 11. On the Wednesday evening the Canadian Society for Asian Arts will present a free lecture on Hanji paper, given by Sang Jae Nam, and there will be demonstrations of the joomchi paper making process in the foyer of the Concourse Gallery. There will also be a fashion show featuring extraordinary paper garments, including many specially brought from Korea, at Emily Carr Theatre on Granville Island, Thursday, August 13 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $20.00 and will go on sale to the general public in June.
We are exhorted to go to the Crafts Council of BC website for more information but it seems not to be up-to-date. The link for the Hanji exhibit is broken. And there is no information on the Emily Carr University website either. What is going on? Don’t they want anyone to know about this? Bug them, will ya? If Papyrine gets in, I want somebody to go see it!
3 comments:
this is gorgeous Louisa! so inventive! we're proud of you! I will go see the exhibit for sure. The dyeing is really subtle, mossy barky...
yes--THAT'S the way an artists' statement should read. i like the piece and envy seeing the exhibit. good luck to getting it in.
Thank you, my dears, for the votes of confidence! The submission is in and all I can do now is wait to find out the final verdict. The suspense is killing me!
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