SomeBody, a family tree

 

    Families take many forms but we all understand the idea of a family tree, a network that is both emotional and physical. When it works it's great but when it is damaged or when parts are missing we are shaped by the consequences. 

     After the page that asks question about self doubt and self esteem the book turns to our roots and asks us what is important and what family means to us. Part of the trunk stands up like a pop-up book but it is a dead trunk, there are no leaves, maybe it is an old tree. On the rest of the branches the leaves grow, the colours are bright and everything seems well. Each leaf is embroidered in 'braille' with the words 'mother', 'father', 'sister', 'brother', 'grandad', 'nan' and 'friend'; you can not see the words you have to feel them.

                  

...and there are still stab wounds, here they damage the trunk and the sky. The greens are a brief respite from the reds but the red is still glimpsed through the gaps.

  

  

   I leave the metaphors open to interpretation as it is not for me to say what they mean to a troubled teenager. What is difficult to ignore though is the fact that this tree is hidden behind the guts, it is as much a part of the human body as the physical anatomy. 

next up: the cobweb

SomeBody, I AM

                   

  What do you see when you look in the mirror? Is there any positive reinforcement in your life? Many people do not hear happy words spoken about them. The work of the Circle of Compassion Prison Project both moved me and shocked me with its' statistics on crime and its roots. I followed this with  research into why and how some peoples lives go so wrong; what happens when children are deprived of touch, the problems of misandry and how teenagers can stay on a good path. 

 My research went far and wide across the internet when I began to think about how we represent the body in our (European) culture and others too. How do we engage with the body in art? How do we show empathy with the bodies of others. This was really just picking up from where I had left off with the Textile Body and the surgical residency.

  I amassed a stack of images of the body in art and went to some extremes in the concept of 'body' ending in ghost sock puppets, knitting patterns of gloves and medieval armour. What was missing was the emotional side of us and the psychological. Music and poetry cover that very well but otherwise it was hard to find many images of 'hurt' or 'loneliness' or more importantly how you can feel several emotions at once and the intersection of those states, the liminal.  

  A book of physical anatomy was not enough and this is why I chose to make this a double sided or concertina book. On the reverse of each 'page' of visceral parts there is an emotion.The first is self doubt, the root of so many problems.

  I chose to embroider a positive phrase with no negatives at all, the brain does strange things with negatives. And I thought how would it be if a young person had to sit and embroider that every day? If they had to slowly say the phrase " I am a good person" as they stitched....it takes an hour.  Then I considered the pressures of being a teenager, the need for affirmation and not getting it. I embroidered the same panel again with the words and meaning back to front and sat them side by side, mirrored, as the first page that you see as you turn the book over.

 Technically it began the real challenge of how the knife wounds related to the other side of each page and how I both disguise and integrate this emotional body into its physical counterpart. The wounds meant something different here so it meant changing how you saw them, if at all.

...and some yielded their own meaning.....

     Why the lettering??? it is from the Bayeux Tapestry and I find it a very human type face. The Tapestry is very long, very beautiful and has a complex history . It also depicts some brutal scenes and has layers of repairs and damage, all of which seem to be appropriate as a metaphor of a human body in trauma. 

    The words have the appearance of being thrown in after the main embroidery was done and so by recreating them myself I had an understanding of who made them and what it was like to make such a piece of work.  They require some skill as they are done by eye and retain an energy not usually found in embroidered letters. This makes for an interesting meditation on the history of literacy amongst women previously assumed to be unable to write...and thus begins a rabbit hole in itself.   

 I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of my sisters with the original research as they are both holistic therapists and know what they are talking about!!!! 

one sister    

two sister                      

see a circle of compassion here

next: the family tree

Breaking news!

 

'just heard! Rachel Warr and I have ben nominated in the art and science category of these awards!!!!!

  Rachel Warr is the theatre director, dramaturg and puppeteer that brings the SomeBody to life.

SomeBody, the knitted aneurysm

   In order to make the SomeBody into a much more immersive piece there are a few removable parts. It seemed to me that for a work to be relevant to as many people as possible I would have to put in more than would appear necessary. This work must perform without me and I can not dictate or even imagine the many ways it will affect the viewers so I put in everything that I can imagine.

   I am however not always able to create all that I would like so there are three collaboration within this piece, the first being with Rachael Matthews an olympic level knitter and textile artist!! She has already worked with me on the spinning of fat but here I needed her to knit an aorta with main arteries attached. 

   I presented to her my model of an aneurysm that had been used by medical students (complete with bulging and burst aneurysms) and said 'can you knit one of these?' Without hesitation she said 'yes' and over the extended periods of lockdown sourced a suitable yarn and knitted this section of human.

   The entire work was knitted in one piece, no joins and there are bifurcations and enlarged areas of aneurysm. It was knitted on three fine needles in fine yarn and is full size.

here it is all coiled up ready to be plugged into the heart......

 

..a close up of the bifurcations

...and here filled with blood

...and empty of blood......blood made of all of the offcuts from making the vascular system (featured earlier.)

NB. although they aren't relevant in the anti-knife crime context we left the aneurysms in so that the model can have another life if need be.

next: what happens when we turn the back page of the book.

SomeBody, (other organs)

 

gall bladder on the liver

  How many organs are there???? For the purposes of the model and with expert consultation as to positioning them I placed the gut on the previous 'page' .This way I could have the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas and kidneys all together as an origami like section which was simultaneously physically behind the gut but narratively following on from it . I mixed my paper folding techniques as I needed to use sturdy structures for both handling and for construction. This also gave a very different look to this page so implying a different surgical approach.

liver against the muscle layer

  I employed the Chinese thread purses, origami fortune tellers and one ornate folded napkin technique all in correct colours ( as I saw them) and layered sheer silks on top of taffetas to suggest membranes, structure and fragility.

spleen

   The softer organs as I think of them, spleen, pancreas and kidneys were eventually mounted into organza purses so that they could be folded back during an operation. This is where the triple page construction came into its own as organs could be juxtaposed against 'flesh' as well as examined more metaphorically. Each page is divided into three as in those children's books where you can swap heads, bodies and feet around. This method is found throughout the book save the first and last pages.

pancreas

  The kidneys sit inside their silk pouches, one folded back across the other but tethered by long arteries.

kidneys against the vascular layer

next: the knitted aneurysm

SomeBody, the lungs

 

  The positioning of the lungs within the pages of the book structure had to be done with some thought as there are, of course, two of them! They have to be behind the diaphragm but in front of the heart and not interfere with the stab wound scenario.Access would be needed through the model so consideration was needed regarding as to which lung was stabbed and whether the heart would be pierced too. I decided against that and created one lung with air and one without.

   The construction was the same as the heart and used the Chinese thread purse method. Layers of organza over silk, pink over pink or pink over grey suggest the state of the lungs and the vitality of them. In the breathing lung I used more of the organza honeycomb technique, layering sheer silk with metallic and lining every folding pocket section with it. The airless, stabbed lung is 'plain'.

 

They sit on top of each other, one folding back to reveal the other across the heart. The knife wound sits in the base pocket of the right hand lung and is embroidered with colours and textures chosen to say 'not good'.

next: lower abdominal organs

SomeBody, the Heart

 

   The most emotive of organs, the heart is a symbol we use every day and yet in reality it bears little resemblance to the 'like' heart we know so well. Unlike my studio practise I often revert to metaphor with the medical work and here I decided that a Chinese thread purse would do the trick. Originating in southern China the multi folded paper purses have compartments within compartments and are used to store precious and small items: threads, photos and mementos. 

    There are silk chambers to this heart, with taffeta and organza origami fortune tellers...

.....chain loops form delicate structures and the valves open and close like old camera lenses.

  The last chamber has interwoven ribbon loops in two shades of red (bright and dark ) which pass through a central folded structure .

next: lungs