Assemblage

Visiting a thrift shop with a mindset that turned all objects to inspiration-fodder, our chosen things launched us into an exercise in connection-building. Take on object, let it form an association or pair it with the other idea that pops into mind, see what that combination yields, modify it, add another element, tailor it in a direction. . .  all these things make me feel like a curator of associations.

It started with a plate, a square sushi plate. Asian cuisine influences my cooking so I imagined I could plate something inedible and dress it up to look like a noodles or sushi. I went with noodles. Then "hair" came to mind. Earlier that day, I made a Venn diagram of materials/things that I'm attracted to, repelled by, or a bit of both. Hair was the item that fell in the overlap. Fascination and revulsion all in one, the response is contextual. On the head, beautiful. On my bathroom floor, plastered to the shower, between my toes.... nasty.

So, a noodle nest made of hair was the natural conclusion. As I was collecting hair (unbeknownst to my roommates) I felt like a scavenging bird. And rolling the noodles together with clay made it apparent my materials were more inclined towards a muddy mess. So the "noodles" was dropped and the "nest" took over. 

Looking to my bathroom floor for more inspiration, floss presented itself to my imagination. So did a couple stray fingernail clippings with remnants of nail polish. Ceramic eggs glazed with my nail polish quickly adorned the hair nest.

Assembled together, it became like "hair" in my Venn diagram: revolting and appealing simultaneously. Somehow it gave a sense of fragility. Perhaps due to the brittle loops of clay, or the airy suspension of floss between fuzzy strands. The connotations of eggs in a nest lend a vulnerability. Especially when suspended on a wobbly welded pole outside, gently swaying with the breeze. 

The associations were tenuous. But their interplay worked towards "fragility". I can hardly take credit, I let the materials have their way. I crafted the thing, but the thing's associations controlled the process. I tried to make this an exercise in release for me. Release of control and release of self-consciousness as I was preparing to present my nastiest-to-date project as "art".