quick before the sun goes down

i worked today on putting my fabricated apples into context and i thought the best way to do this would be to photograph them in situe, so off i went to do so. Unfortunately i only had access to experimental apple designs, so when my exhibitions over i would like to re-shoot an build up an array of photographs. These photographs, especially the ones of the apple treated with dye i believe are asthetically beautiful and fitting to the trees so i would like to, if i could, either propose a small exhibition to a local garden center where i would be able to hang all of my apples, or speak to my local wild flower center at court hey and see if i oculd exhibit inside there center in one of their trees. Il keep you updated on what happens.

As you can see, i played around as much as i could with the apples in context in relation to plants as i looked at trees in parks, aswell as house plants and plants in back yards etc. I believe that the apples int he trees work best as that is where you would expect to find apples, but photographs such as the apple in the vines are equally exciting, just in different ways. Instead of being excited because of how cohesive the works are together, i was instead excited by how juxtaposing the works were, textile with vines,but because of the colours use, one cohesive piece is still achieved i believe.

This one is my favourite image of the day. The pinks and reds of the apple are complemented with the pale yellows and browns of the surrounding leaves, especially when the hanging leaves are hit by the deminishing sun, acting as stained glass and almost tinting the photograph. It evokes warm and homely feelings for me at least of brisk autumn days.

Today was the final day for hanging our mid-year exhibition at manchester met uni and so as you can imagine i have endured a very stressful week in preperation for it and today was no exception as i struggled to trandsport and insert my colour ice cubes which i mentioned as a current experiment in my blog, into their blank textile apple casing. For this exhibition i had discussed and interpreted the theme of nature versus nurture. I juxtaposed the two by creating what could be thought the epitamy of nature its self - the apple, with the knowledge of context that the apple form are man made to our specifications and there a factor of nurture.

I explored this theme through two pieces of work which althought somewhat different in medium, come together int he exploration of a mutual theme. The first of the works was a play on nature through the juxtapositioning of nature and material. Naturalistic form with a tree (upon which apples grow) transformed by man into an everyday commodity - paper. I tried to do this quite litterly by placing on inside the other:




At the same time as developing the previous work i was developing my blankapples and dyes, including man made and natural dyes. Choosing man made dyes against the apple form it evoked a more rapid and vibrant response, emphmasising the evoking question within the theme and all its aspects ( such as of which are these we a product?)

I particularly liked the way the man made dyes conjoined within the apples core and penetraited the surface with distorted boundaries of colour.

To emphasise the man made queslities within a further dimention in this work i crocheted the apple inserting rows of sequins where asthetically appropriate. This for me is a crafgt which truely represents the makings of man. I particularly liked the organic quality i seemed to recieve from this piece.

Now back to the fabric apples. In order to hang them i had to have made an mdf frame which affixed to a ceiling - only problem was the cieling was a hexigan shape which means i have to give special thanks to our technician paul. With his help i was then able to affix my hooks upon which the apples would dangle. These apples i must mention also represent another theme which i am currently exploring, a much wider theme of narrative upon textile and i think the concept of theme apples represents narrative upon textile very appropriately. As the coloured ice cubes inside the plain cottoned apple melts, the story of the colours penetrait the surface, telling a narrative of that moment in time when the ink reaches the surface.

After alot of hard work and alot of man hours, including a few saviours with sewing needles i was able to create the collectively cohesive piece of work that i wanted which i believe demonstraited my theme and evocation of the thoughts behing nature versus nurture. I hope you enjoyed looking at the work, as i enjoyed making it.