Interior Practices: Design Project

I am very pleased to present my final artefact, P.A.I.R. (Performance, Atmosphere, Impact, Representation), P.A.I.R. is a sister project to my previous project S.A.H.R. P.A.I.R. is an unconventional reuse of discarded fabric and an abstract representation of Wymering Manors history, and the impact and atmosphere of the manor through kinetic fabric art. P.A.I.R. is a combination of kinetic art, kinetic movement art, mark making, lino printing and sewing in the form of an installation piece for Wymering Manor, following on from my previous project S.A.H.R. where I developed Wymering Manor into a museum inspired by the 14 Henrietta Street Museum . Made from lino printing and hand sewing, P.A.I.R. focuses on creating nostalgia and familiarity through the patterns. Similar to Amy Hiley's lino prints, P.A.I.R.'s patterns focuses on simplicity of form, bold design, and transforming experiences, impact, and atmosphere into a single image. They create a sense of nostalgia as the pattern...

Thankfully, the printing ink dried enough for me to work back into the curtain with hand sewing. I decided to use different types of stitches on the curtain for different parts;  The stitching gives the curtain depth and more texture, making it more inviting to touch and interact with. It also adds a pop of colour and more detail to the representational images, to help further produce a sense of familiarity and nostalgia. I decided to sew around the last two dates on the curtain, 2013 and 5th May 2013, as they are when Wymering Manor Trust gained ownership of the Manor and when the first community open day was. I chose to do this so that they stand out as they are - in my opinion - very important dates in the manors history, as this is a very pivotal moment in time; this is when the manor has finally had a chance of repair, care, adaptation and reuse. It is also the moment where, in turn, the opportunity for myself and others to be apart of Wymering Manor, to interact with, to deve...

Using a combination of lino printing and hand painting with printing ink, I have finished printing Wymering Manor's history and owners onto the curtain. I am very pleased with the outcome and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I am considering working back into the curtain by stitching, but I am unsure as of yet as printing ink can take a few days to dry when used on fabric.  Here are some photos of parts of the curtain; Initially, I found it difficult to chose what parts to represent on the curtain, but I ended up having enough room to include all of my research on to it. I decided to do some parts in blue and red for key moments in time, and for important numbers or information, so that they stood out against the brown. I chose to use brown for the majority of the prints as it gave a softer tone to the black pattern prints, as well as allowing the coloured prints to still stand out. It may not be noticeable, but I hand mixed the brown ink to match the wooden banisters in the Great H...

Below are photos of my previous performance piece after reworking into it when doing lino printing; As mentioned in my previous blog post, the use of these patterns that I pulled out from my performance piece and mark making, inspired by Heather Hansen, Trisha Brown, and Suna Imre, creates a sense of nostalgia and familiarity as the patterns are unique and recognisable. The patterns are made up from my mark making when listening to the birds around Wymering and from my performance piece. Both represent the atmosphere and impact of the manor. The partial lino prints create a vintage look due to the fabric markings left in the ink and the faded, patchiness of the prints. This builds upon the idea of old vs. new as the prints have a vintage, traditional look to them, which stand out against the abstract, new age performance piece, similar to how Wymering stands out against the modern housing that surrounds it. I decided to name this performance piece The old vs. new butterfly as it repres...

Following on from my research into kinetic fabric art and lino printing, I have decided to combine both together and draw inspiration from the previous work I have done so far.  I started of by visiting multiple different charity shops for different fabrics, rather than buying a large amount of new fabric, I initially was looking at what sort of material would be best to do lino printing on, and found in one shop a roll of fabric; Although the fabric was ideal for printing, I decided to not buy it as my project - and S.A.H.R. - has a focus on unconventional reuse, adaptive reuse, and new materialist thinking, and by buying this roll of fabric to use for lino printing it would go against my project; a roll of fabric like this was very much an invitation for lino printing. After refocusing back onto my project, I ended up finding some second hand bedsheets, a duvet cover and pillow cases, and a sheer curtain. Thinking about how I want this artefact to be a part of Wymering Manor and ...

Following on from my exploration and development of art inspired by movement / kinetic art, and as mentioned in my exploration of ideas, I have decided to explore lino printing. The heavy deliberate movements of ink pressing relates back to the folding fence that I was initially inspired by;  The folding fence inspired me to explore the idea of heavy deliberate movements, such as ink pressing and movement art, as well as the idea of 'snapshots' from the movement of the fence; the idea of 'what if..?' and the idea of a glimpse into the past / future, and 'restoration to perfection'. These ideas is what also helped me to chose Wymering Manor to be my site as they coincided with my S.A.H.R. project.   Amy Hiley Amy Hiley is a printmaker who makes contemporary linocut prints about philosophy, motherhood and the human experience, as well as interdisciplinary work exploring memory and ritual. Amy Hiley is interested in simplicity of form, bold design, and the practice...

Following on from my performance art and my markmaking at Wymering Manor, I have decided to pull out different patterns and shapes from my works to later experiment and work with;  I started off by picking marks that stood out to me, using photoshop to isolate them, and then presenting them together; I also did the same for my performance piece; I enjoyed doing this as it gave me the chance to sit, and deeply study and look at the work I have produced, I noticed a lot of details in my performance piece that I initially missed, for example, I didn't notice that the charcoal had left very soft and subtle markings of my finger prints.  (All images taken by me.)