Cotton string, ink and driftwood
Width 280 cm
The work represents life during Covid-19; how the year 2020 began with great plans gradually forgotten in the face of chaos and despair.
The work is an installation hanging from the ceiling, made of 1000 meters of knotted white cotton string (diameter 4 mm). Some of the strings are dyed with black ink. Strings of various lengths are attached to 2.8-meter-long driftwood collected from the Yarra River, Melbourne.
The work begins according to the rules and with a design familiar to macramé art. In the middle is a circular “nest” that protrudes from the artwork in three dimensions. The nest depicts this moment in which we now live; we stay in the home nest, trying to keep ourselves and others safe. The work gradually transitions into a state of randomness and chaos without rules or order. The dark strings try to creep into the middle, spreading chaos around them. The organic material in the installation, cotton and wood, refers to life.
Thousands of threads are knotted in different ways, and the work of art can be viewed from all sides as you can walk around it. The labour of the work is visible. The presentation of the artwork is flexible as it can be placed differently in different spaces, thus always creating a new whole. The order of the strings and knots lying on the floor is random, depending on how it exhibits the appearance changes. Therefore, the work itself can determine the way in which it represents itself. It operates in the space between the 2- and 3-dimensional spaces and claims the surface around it. So it is making the space around it a part of the artwork.
The work is a process of intuitive, spontaneous and experimental. The installation also introduces light and shadow as one of its elements. By creating reflections and shadows, the work takes on a new dimension and speaks a new language. It represents the communication between what we see directly and what is only reflected in us. Each shadow is different, and the interpretations are unique
