Deathtrap Staircase

 

The Tears of Thynges

 

 I am no musician but nevertheless I decided about ten years ago that I was in a band, a conceptual band that made conceptual sounds. Named after the access to my studio 'we' spent over a decade collecting noises, some of them tangible and some of them that can't be heard by everyone. 

 Finally I have released them all on 78, with embroidered labels, and in the process realised that even a supposed hard format is in itself conceptual because without the means to play the disc we can only trust that there is sound. Luckily these 'recordings' are already in your head, some literally, and are therefore free to listen to and it is only the artwork that is lacking...

So hear I present my first album 'L'Aiguilles Verres'

Tensor Tympani

Purring

Pi

Internal Screaming

Embers

Bloodstain Soundwave

Velvet

The Tears of Thynges remix

L'Aiguilles Verres

Eustacian Clicks (extra track)

Tracklist:

 1.The Tears of Thynges

2.Tensor Tympani

3.Purring

4.Pi

5.Internal Screaming

6.Embers

7.Bloodstain Soundwave

8.Velvet

9.The Tears of Thynges remix

10. Eustacian Clicks (extra track)

 

Baggage packed

  

Cultural Shifts

'just a little footnote to show how the mail order emotions are all packed and ready!!

Emotional Copes

Emotional Copes

 

   These are from the Forget Me Not project from 2020 and form the second half of the mail order emotion section, they are the Emotional Copes. I didn't know how I was coping during lockdown and so these are perhaps uncomfortably personal pieces and some of the oddest I have ever made !!!

 

   A cope is a cape like garment worn mostly but not exclusively by members of the Christian church. It is a flat semi circle with a fabric tab fastening at the front and on the back often has a panel or tab which has decoration symbolic to the wearer. In some cathedrals you can still find the large semicircular chests that they were kept in.

  In order of appearance here we have :

1. 'I'm Fine'. Gold organza, gold gallon ribbon, pins and red beads. (above)

2.' Pocket Full'. Silk  gold gallon ribbon, silk fortune teller and pockets of herbs. (embroidered braille along the top edge says "ring a ring of roses".

3. 'Im Sorry'. Silver Organza on silk, silver gallon ribbon, beads and embroidery.

  4. 'Shaky Hands'. Silver metal organza, silver gallon ribbon, embroidery and fabric printouts of a benefit letter. 

5. 'Sleep'. Gold metal fabric, gold gallon ribbon, beads, gold fringe and naturally shed cat fur (it was a hot summer and he was okay with it !)

 It was the play on words that appealed to me but I also liked the idea of the symbolic embroidery on the back. Each of mine has a simple 'forget-me-not' embroidery for both the project and for my name. These are of course at twelfth scale like the Cultural Shifts ( see previous posts).

SomeBody

 

   As a rule I don't generally put my medical work on this blog as I don't want to scare off the unwary! However it has been taking up a lot of headspace and so rather than neglect things over here I will share some technical details from my most recent piece for Imperial College, 'SomeBody'.

  The work here is from a medical model which is being performed for young people in an anti knife crime initiative.The basis for the visuals is as ever historical and contemporary textile techniques used as metaphors for the anatomy.

  Buttonholes become stab wounds, rouleaux loops become blood vessels, 18th century frills are muscles, silk purses become digestive organs and origami becomes heart and lungs.

  There is a series over on the Thread Management blog (linked in the side bar) featuring it in more detail.

Spare Parts

 

 Paul Craddock has just published his book "Spare Parts: A Surprising History of Transplants". His extensive research into the history of the techniques of surgery found us both examining antique embroideries at the V&A museum and later led to filming me stitching cigarette paper. 

This post shows that film    

In the film clip above Paul discusses what is was all about.

and now you can buy the book!

Forget Me Not, pt.5.

 

'Go Out Don't Go Out'. Cultural Shift no.5.

 The last of the little mail order shifts looks at the chaos surrounding retail and lockdown restrictions. It features an embroidered Google map of central London, 'temporarily closed' shop signs and a market stall of masks made from internet memes, tweets and  cultural images. The words embroidered across the top reflect the reaction of Londoners to being berated by the PM during the summer of 2020 for not going back to work.

 

London is temporarily closed,

Marylebone High street embroidered onto a vintage silk scarf, like those made during WW2.

...that's how we felt about it,

The map being embroidered.

Forget Me Not, pt.4.

 

 'LIV. A Nightingale Sang in Barclay's Square', cultural shift 4.

Money and the NHS....homemade scrubs and inadequate PPE.....hospitals being built to impress but only treating fifty four patients....pockets and mass produced clothing....

 Cultural Shift no 4. is made from a scrap of 'scrub' cotton with a mask apron in fluid resistant fabric. The apron has 54 pockets each embroidered in 'cross' stitch roman numerals, just to make sure that most people don't understand 'the numbers'.

 

I sutured the cuffs..

 

....and didn't forget to LIV.

Forget Me Not, pt 3.

 

 This delicate paper silk shift is 'Not in Public'.

   In removing touch from my life social distancing has also removed inappropriate touch from my life. Men can no longer try and touch me on the train or in social situations, they have to keep their distance. Many women will have felt relief from this persistent menace but many will also have been subjected to increased abuse in private.

 

This shift began as an outfit to wear in the supermarket with spikes all over. As I layered the spikes down the front I realised that they also looked like medieval 'breast bags', a breast supporting modification to shifts which is still apparent in the traditional clothing of women in southern India.

I spread embroidered spikes along the hem and sleeves with 'keep-out' symbols on the sides.

 

This shift has the additional accessory of a double sided mask-mirror, one side with an embroidered black eye....

 

 ...the other with a brave pouty lipstick mouth

Forget Me Not, pt 2.

 

 Following on from the previous post on my Cultural Shifts  I present the second one of five: 'Social Distance'. 

 All the shifts have extra long sleeves to give them, if scaled up, a span of two meters and this one has that embroidered onto paper labels on each cuff. I was horrified at how quickly large corporations were trying to sell themselves as our friends at the start of the pandemic whilst profiting from their advantage over small businesses, I felt that they were feeding on us as we sat at home helpless.

 You may notice the buff and black signature colouring of this red-edged linen shift with it's smiling vampire logo. The same entomology pins as before hold the mantra in place.