Exposed Threads and the Pirn Installation

(Above:  Exposed Threads, artwork behind the reception desk of the new, Cambria Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I've been anticipating this blog post for more than a year.  It is so exciting to finally see the results of an amazing opportunity through NINEdot Arts, an art consultancy company that contracted for two, large commissions for Columbia's new Cambria Hotel.  From a proposal to negotiations on materials to the actual making of the artwork to presentation/installation, this has been an adventure that I just didn't feel quite right about sharing until it all worked out so very, very well.  Yesterday was INSTALLATION DAY!  Success!

So ... a team of professional installers arrived with a rental truck!  They carefully bubble wrapped the top and the bottom and carried the 105 pound piece to the truck.

At the hotel (which is slated for a June 1st Grand Opening), they carefully measured so that the piece would hang higher than the backs of the receptionists' chairs.  The metal hanging strip (also known as a French cleat or Z-clamp) was screwed into the wall's studs.  In the image above, this narrow, aluminum strip can be seen on the wall and also on the back side of the artwork.  As a professional picture framer, I had this all worked out well in advance.  I also had a careful plan for making this piece ... because ... seriously ... when asked if I could do something that measured 5' x 9' with exposed threads meant to hang vertically ... well ... I had to experiment before taking on such a project.  My experiment was shared on this blog.  ( I just didn't know if my proposal was going to be accepted and thus didn't mention why I was experimenting!  To read this post, CLICK HERE.)

I also shared the giant frame ... but didn't exactly say what it was for!  It's big!

Building the frame was only the first step.  Next, a white floater frame was built to fit inside the frame.  This was done in order to have "a ledge" on which the three, interior frames could "sit" and to which the three, interior frames could be permanently attached.  For these three frames, Plexiglas was cut and caulked into place.  Steve and I also sat each one on a flat surface and poured a little water into the shallow depth ... to make sure nothing leaked!  This was seriously important!  Why?  Well ...

The next step was to pour UV filtering/non-yellowing epoxy.  We couldn't risk this expensive material leaking out.  One by one, we worked mixing the solution ...

... pouring it into the frame ...

... and kneading piles of unraveled thread into the epoxy until the surface was covered.

Steve and I did this in the later afternoon, after our business Mouse House closed.  By the next day, the epoxy had dried and had attached the thread to the Plexiglas. This allowed a vertical presentation with no visible means of supporting all the exposed threads.  In the photo above, Steve is showing the reverse side on the left and the front side on the right.  All three sections were then put into the large, ornate gold frame with its white floater.  

Attaching the three interior frames and the French cleat was tricky because this had to be done on the back side.  At 105 pounds and with the three sections liable to fall out if tilted downward until attached, Steve and I had our work cut out for ourselves.  The piece was finished a couple months ago and has simply been waiting for INSTALLATION DAY! 

(Above:  The Pirn Installation at the Columbia Cambria Hotel.)

Although I wasn't the installer for Exposed Threads, part of the contract for the other lobby artwork specified that I would install my Pirn Installation.  Now ... many people refer to these textile mill objects as "spindles" but according to my rudimentary research, these are "pirns".  (Here's a Wikipedia definition with an image.)

 

I was asked if I could come up with an original idea for an installation that would link two interior columns and provide a "view" from the main entrance to the reception desk.  Thankfully, I already owned a box of blue dyed, wooden pirns.  I bought them at an auction despite having no real plan for their use.  I had 343 of them.  These were supplemented by another opportunity to acquire more than 1000 wooden ones.  This worked out very well because one of the interior designer's choice for wrapped wool was the same shade as the blue pirns.  Thus, the brown/wooden ones were used for the blue yarn.  (No ... I didn't select the colors.  This was part of the process of working with a design team, construction people, hotel management, and an arts consultancy!)  Yet, the idea and the working plan were mine.

 

My action plan was to first wrap the pirns with yarn.  There were two shades of turquoise, two of rose, and two daffodil yellow.  I wrapped them last September while at Guadalupe Mountains National Park as their artist-in-residence.  Next came attaching the twine and knotting a screw to the end of the twine.  Ten different lengths were used ... and put into ten different, marked boxes.  Because the twine would impossibly tangle, the twine was wrapped around the yarn and safety pinned in place.

 

Most of this work was done while watching television.  (Ernie the Cat is actually inside one of the boxes when Steve took this photo!)  Like the Exposed Thread, this work was completed more than a month ago ... and just waiting for INSTALLATION DAY!

Steve and I arrived at 7:30 AM.  In my mind, I hoped that we would be able to finish before the construction crew closed the building at 5:00 PM.  With a total of 500 pirns, I knew that if we managed one per minute, we'd be working for just over eight hours ... and that calculation didn't include bathroom breaks or lunch!  Yes ... we were both a little nervous!  (Okay ... I had permission to return today but that was "Plan B"; I really wanted to stick with "Plan A!")

I started in the center with the shortest pirns.  Then, I went to the ends and (going back and forth from end to end) worked toward the middle.  Steve and I unwrapped six to twelve pirns at a time.  Steve stood on the shorter ladder and handed them, one at a time, up to me.  I used an awl to start each hole.  It took a few attempts to figure out how NOT to let the twine twist around the electric screwdriver but soon we had a nice system going.  It also took a bit of planning as to how best to deal with the light fixture and the air in-take!  Thankfully, Steve and I work well together.

By 4:00 PM WE WERE FINISHED!

There is a perfectly beautiful, meandering and organic feel to this installation.  Even the hotel manager was impressed.  All the artwork has labels too!  I'm very, very proud of this project.  Below are two detail shots!