Beware of Embroidery

Here are the pictures from my show and a little bit about the work:

This body of work explores the affair between nature and society. Are they simbiotic or opposing forces and which is the most powerful? Societal fairness in return for great expectations versus natures flipancy, yet mistifyingly complex system.

In particular, how these phenomena affect relationships and the force of procreation. Louise has looked to biology, chemistry, literally and metaphorically, she has looked to textiles, which its array of grid and dna-like construction to find the solutions, the logic in this chaos. Discarded mattresses, the backbone of the works, for their inbuilt personal history, both corporeal and spiritual,

to create a domestic wonderland of human experience.

'Bjorn'

'Mia'

'Dewlyweds'

The inspiration for Dewlyweds came when searching for something that resembled marriage in the animal kingdom,since the design of marriage had been a societal one and may not have necessarily been what nature intended. When snails mate they shoot calcium spears into eachothers flesh to disable each other, so that fertilisation takes place without the possibility of any other 'suitors' getting involved. This seemed a good comparison.

'Family Tree'

Family Tree began from an interview with a young male gay couple planning their future with view to include children. I was interested in the force to procreate despite obstacles, ie uncomplimentary genitals. Society has overruled nature and has established the possibility of gay couples creating offspring, it is all quite fresh and new and I am yet to decide whether the problems that could arise would be of any greater magnitude to the trials heterosexual couples face. The nest is made from two sets of the molecular structure for testosterone questioning the vitalness of the simple chemistry.

The tree highlights the differences in the modern family tree, the 'nest' and 'birds' are often associated with femaleness. I was impressed with the young men. They definitely felt that there needed to be some sort of female representation in their childrens lives and the depth of their honesty and thoughtfulness with each other perhaps gave them an advantage

over couples who could 'just do it' so to speak.

from this point onwards excuse the underline, at present I cannot figure out how to switch it off

'Light Perspective'

In the words of Dolly Parton:

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

'Mother of Pearl'

There is alot of conflicting information regarding how to bring up children. Less weight is given to motherly instincts when reading information books, the language can be very extreme and it can inspire great fear. In the early times with a baby it can feel very life and death, there is this powerful feeling of nurturing, intimacy and protection, paralleled with great threat, ie cot death and the dangers of the 'family bed'. It is a very intense time, Mother of Pearl is an illustration of this, I even bought the mattress, because of this overwhelming urge to make it sterile for this brand new baby. The whiteness of everything highlights this and the saftey net and glass stalagmites give the sense of these invisible but very present forces.