Decisions, An Installation in the Making, Part 2

(All images can be clicked for enlargement.)

Decisions, my installation for the annual spring arts event in downtown Columbia, is progressing nicely. I've attached more keys...framed and unframed...labeled and unlabeled...and added a meandering row of nails and screws down the length of the only wood stained door. I've still got more to do. Then, Steve and I will have to unscrew the doors from one another and move it into the atrium...just on the other side of my studio wall.

Placing these nails and screws really felt like adding French knots to an area of embroidery that needed a little texture and dimension.

The image above was shot from the top of a ladder outside my studio. The walls are really just partitions between my space and the atrium and gallery. I'm not sure much else will fit into my studio! (I've got blue macaw feathers sewn to slats from an old, wooden shutter hanging from the ceiling...I call them "spirit totems".)

I felt compelled to add the row of nails, as if by some African spirit...like the Nkondi figures in the Congo. These nail fetish figures were meant to dispel evil, prevent illness, and repel bad deeds. Running my fingers down the projections actually creates music...whimsical and high pitched, like a wind chime.

Above is one of three rusted washers stitched to a door.

I also found this assemblage in a box. I'd forgotten it; never finished it; quite a UFO...now part of the installation.

These containers are not entirely full of wrapped, rusted nails. I cheated; I filled most of the boxes with stryo-foam! The smaller one was once a drawer from a pedal sewing machine cabinet. I sawed it apart, drilled holes in it, and stitched it back together...smaller...fewer nails and more interesting!