Tuesday, April 21, 2020

More items for The Clothesline Installation!

(Above:  More items for The Clothesline Installation.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

A wonderful friend dropped by a donation of vintage household linens last week.  She knew I was creating a new installation called The Clothesline and wanted to contribute these fabulous guest towels, table runners, and Irish linen place mats.

 (Above:  The peach colored fabric is moire ... from about twenty-five years ago!)

Immediately I fused Pellon's Wonder Under to the reverse of several pieces of "found fabric".  What do I mean by that?  Well ... to me, "found fabric" is the material I find in a box lot purchased at Bill Mishoe's auction or pick up at a yard sale.  It is the fabric that other people have donated to my stash.  It is the pieces of vintage fabric from thrift stores that I've stored in a giant plastic tub ... often "found" later.  Almost all the moire fabric I've used in this installation was purchased at auction over twenty-five years ago ... because at the time I used moire fabric for shadowboxing christening gowns and other items.  I like moire but had forgotten I had so much of it!  Thus ... I "found" it in my own stash!  The installation now has a golden colored, bright yellow, and peach colored moire.  If I get more linens, I'll likely use the blue I "found"!


I especially like the sheer table runners!  They make it obvious that the fused hand prints are on both sides of these pieces.  The small pieces only have one ... and I fuse the hand print to the back of these pieces.  Thus, each pieces is meant to be seen from both sides, perfect for a clothesline!


All the hand prints were cut out while riding in the cargo van to Lander University last Friday.  My solo show, Anonymous Ancestors, has been stuck inside a closed building on a closed campus.  The thought was that retrieving it would happen as soon as the summer session started up, but summer session was recently canceled.  The gallery director made the arrangements.  He unlocked the building when we arrived.  We were alone in the space and sent a text message when we left.  The entire experience was sort of like being in a past episode of a Twilight Zone, as if we were the last people left on earth. 

2 comments:

Kelly said...

I love this series. So many connections for me.
Found this short film online today and immediately thought of your work.
https://www.folkstreams.net/film-detail.php?id=307

irene macwilliam said...

I love looking at clothes drying on a clothesline, sadly fewer and fewer of them. I love the idea of your pieces fluttering in the wind, the hands waving, very apt at this difficult time. Irene in N Ireland where I still have 2 clothes lines and they are used throughout the year. I had to warn neighbours some years ago that I was not in penury if they saw what looked like assorted rags on them ( I had dyed all my scraps)