Exploring resolution

Resonating with me are the ideas around the ephemeral, the temporary. I like the idea of hand making a piece of work that will then not exist to link to the futility in the thought experiment. I like the idea that this is a hand made and delicate and intricate, that it has been made by human endeavor; the human trace, but that through a deliberate act it will cease to be, leaving no trace. This seems like a suitable resolution to the text as I have understood it. As a textile artist the material of choice seems to be obvious; that of dissolvable fabric and thread. So it is to decide on the object, the artefact.

I thought about a manmade object. Given textile fabric and thread ideas around handmade lace collar or stitched detail, may be even 1940s scalloped peter pan collar. But that is too fixed in a period of time and history.

I thought about a mass, a mesh of threads, impossibly knotted and entangled in on itself and shaped into something; can only be of human touch, a cube, something geometric, not organic.

Then it seemed appropriate a pair of lungs. It references all of humanity, all efforts, all distruction, all beauty. There is also a poignancy, given the respiratory disease ripping through the world. The structure of the lungs reminds us of trees, the life giving, oxygenating  without whom we would not exist at all. The structure of the lungs also brings to my mind birds wings. Linking back to my first initial thoughts which brought me flashbacks to the first few days of lockdown, the profound silence but the contradictory deafening birdsong, each individual sound amplified, but masked previously by the background hum of human existence. 

Sampler

The practicalities of making a test film, dissecting the process. 

Considerations; 

1. Background: darkened to expose the object. 

2. Filming equipment, iphone is all there is to hand, equipped with time-lapse or slow mo so a range of speeds. 

3. How to apply water to dissolve object. Into a receptical (will be able to see it, therefore object doesn't disappear without a trace)... Onto a sheet of thick glass, pour water onto glass allow object to soak and disappear.

Opted for the later; black paper under thick glass, pool of water, object soak and disappear.

Issues:

1. Glass reflects everything. It is so hard to get rid of any references to human endeavor, reflections of lights, pictures, fixtures, fittings, then you, the film-maker. To produce a film of strictly that object in space and time without human influence... when made by a human ina. human made house is a little tricky... I think of the line ' a mere biological accident' from the chosen text... ironic.

2. The thread dissolved but not the fabric. 10 minutes of filming and I am left with a glutenous mass of arterial glue. Hilarious. What I am left with a sticky clear, man made, object, that on closer inspection with the zoom lense resembles an iceberg, albeit a sticky one.

3. Agitating the water didn't help. I wonder what a stream of water would do however; shower head? Hose?

Successes:

1. Zooming in there were some fab shots of this object come substance, an evolution of sorts. I got mildly obsessed for a moment.

2.The thread disappeared easier. I wonder therefore about another idea that has been brewing... about stitching the words from the text 'vileness' 'filth' and dropping them in a pool of water to dissolve.

Thoughts / Reflections

1. Machine Stitch the tubular lungs onto the dissolvable fabric, disappear into pool of water. Thread disappears more effectively.

2. Hand / Machine stitch words onto dissolvable fabric, into pool of water

3. Edit all together, object & words

4. Use the ink films as backdrop?