Material research

I wrote a few memoirs to try and speak from my situation/experiences in order to establish as identity for myself. I decided I was going to screen print them onto material (the same one I used last year). From my essay:

I am not only using beads, I am using 100% organic linen in my work. This is because of its history with colonialism in New Zealand: for the Maori, flax was an important resource because it had many different uses to aid their lifestyle. “Flax was not just useful – it was a way of passing on culture. Through the patterns in woven articles, stories were told and beliefs affirmed” (Swarbrick), it was also used as a metaphor for family strength. So when the Europeans visited, the trading of flax and the knowledge of how to dress it was one of the initial points of contact between the Maori and the Europeans. In the late 1700s Europeans were taught how to make rope out of flax fibre and exchanged it for muskets. Unfortunately the trade of muskets had a huge impact on the Maori; conflicts between the tribes escalated into wars and they fought over the flax trade (as a way of controlling the musket supply). Maori and Europeans then worked in a trade of flax fibre first by hand stripping then by machines (1860s) once demand grew (Swarbrick). Even though New Zealand flax is not linen flax it started the production. Linen flax was brought to New Zealand, planted and grown in Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland so that linen could be made at the factories there and then sent back to Britain during the Second World War (Swarbrick). This built stronger ties between the two countries. It is important to note how an object or a practice can hold so much information of a culture and that is why one must be so careful when using this material or practice as to not cross a cultural boundary

I also wanted to continue to use beads.

So I decided to do a few texts and planned them out:

Making process:

1) hand writing (more personal) all the memoirs out in English and Afrikaans onto paper to prepare for printmaking:

2) prepping screens and printing onto the material:

3) I went out and bought random wire shapes to experiment with. I marked and cut out the material to fit these shapes:

4) Then I attached the shapes together for 3D forms by souldering:

5) I sewed the edges of the material so it wouldn't run and to make it slightly smaller so I could stretch them over my shapes:

6) I then put in eyelets:

7) Then I stretched the fabric over the shapes and tightened them with wire and beads:

The different shapes and what they were experimenting with:

1) Pyramid: 3D shapes and process. I learnt how to size the material, which way to put in the eyelets and how many eyelets to put in (spaces inbetween: