Lola's World

(Above:  Lola's World, a site specific installation inside Gatehouse # 3 along Heyward Street, outside the former Granby and Olympia Textile Mills.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

I'm excited to reveal my newest installation, Lola's World.  It started several months ago with a RFQ (request for qualifications) that included a Zoom meeting and lengthy application which was submitted to 701 CCA's selection committee for their Mill District Public Art Trail. After making it through this round, I was allowed to submit my proposal and eventually selected to transform Gatehouse # 3.  

(Above: Gatehouse # 3 with the Olympia Mill in the background.)

The five gatehouses were once the access points to the former Granby and Olympia Textile Mills.  The mills are now rental apartments, most for USC (University of South Carolina) students.  Each gatehouse is a 10' x 10' exterior, brick structures with a door on the back side.  Some of the gatehouses had only front windows; some only on two sides. Only Gatehouse # 3 had windows on three sides.  I was so pleased to have been assigned to this particular place.

 

(Above:  Installing wooden textile pirns inside Gatehouse # 3).

My proposal included this paragraph: 

The interior of the gatehouse will be transformed with hundreds of suspended, authentic, textile pirns (commonly ... though incorrectly ... known as "spindles"); a mass of unraveled sewing thread (floor); a life-size, quilted image of textile worker Lola Derrick Byars; and a framed quotation.

Like my recent Pirn Installation at the Cambria Hotel, I attached twine in different lengths to the individual pirns. On one end of the twine, a screw was held by a firm knot.  The twine was then wrapped around the pern and safety pinned in place.  This was done so that the perns didn't become impossibly tangled.  Seven boxes were used ... for different lengths ... from 1' to 7'.  One at a time, the perns were unpinned and screwed into the wooden ceiling.  Approximately 180 were suspended.

 

(Above:  The provided image of Lola Derrick Byars.)

Before doing all this, I had to create the life-sized art quilt.  A friend had the image of young Lola and sent me a high resolution scan.  Using Photoshop, I removed the background, uploaded my image to Spoonflower, and waited for the cotton fabric to come in the mail.

 

(Above:  Ernie the Cat helping to baste the fabric to synthetic felt.)

I ironed the fabric and basted it to a substrata of felt.  Ernie the Cat wanted to help. 

The piece was free-motion stitched in my studio.  (Ernie the Cat was nearby but camera shy!)

The entire background was stitched in small circles.  Black thread outlined and defined much of Lola's dress but not her face.  The shrinkage from the densely stitched areas can cause the foreground to pucker ... but I like this!  I know just what to do!

 (Above:  The reverse side of the art quilt showing the stuffing technique known as trapunto.)

I made careful slits in the felt and inserted additional pieces of felt ... effectively "stuffing" the area.  This technique is called trapunto.  It results in a 3D effect which increases the realism of Lola.

 

There was one other, important stitched addition to the art quilt ... an accreditation to the owner of the original photo. My friend promised Merelene H. Byars-Klutzow that any future use of the image would acknowledge her ownership.  Though Merelene died a year or so ago, it was only appropriate to thank her once again. 

(Above:  A stretcher bar with acid-free foam-centered board glued and stapled to the front.)

After stitching and "stuffing", the art quilt was stapled to a stretcher bar over which a piece of acid-free foam-centered board was stapled and glued. 

(Above:  Lola, an art quilt stretched and ready to be framed.)

Once on the stretcher bar, the piece was put into an ornate silver frame.  Also, Lola's words were printed on a professional sign and framed similarly.

(Above:  The top of the art quilt with Lola's quotation on the signage above the Gatehouse door.)

Lola's quotation came from a document called 'The Industrial Revolution Comes to Columbia: Red Brick Beacons of Hope". In it, Lola recalls her childhood:

 We lived on a farm so poor it would grow nothing but rocks. My daddy cut cord
wood on the side to buy food. He heard about the mills opening in Columbia and
one day he just decided to load up all our belongings and us onto the wagon and
come to Columbia. He drove that old wagon onto the ferry at the Broad River and
crossed. We went straight to the Granby Mill Village in 1898 and he went to the
mill to get a job. I was eight years old and worked in the Granby Mill until the
Olympia Mill opened and then went to work there. We got one of those nice houses
on Fifth Street. I was an experienced worker when I reached twelve years of age and
could run eight sides. I had two new dresses and plenty of good food.

(Above:  The signage above the door in Gatehouse #3.)

I used only the one sentence from the fuller quotation. Why?  Well, the Gatehouse is actually locked.  Viewing for the coming year will only be through the windows. I wanted the words to be large enough to read.  By the way, my camera didn't capture the same coloration for the sign and the background of the art quilt.  They are actually the same!

(Above:  Found objects on the east facing window sill.)

Knowing that people would peer into the space from the windows, I decided to add a few found objects on the east facing window sill.  There are two miniature books, square cut nails, a crochet hook, scissors, a lid from a can of vintage silver cleaner, a lock with key, and a sewing machine drawer filled with WWII ration stamps, a salt & pepper shaker set, and a candy tin.

(Above:  Found objects on the west facing window ledge.)

On the west facing window was a narrow ledge. I placed a vintage crochet runner on it and then added several found objects ... including a vintage cloth tape measure, two embroidered handkerchiefs, a broken silver-plated serving spoon, an old pin cushion, a blue porcelain plate, another sewing machine drawer filled with clothespins and hanks of silk embroidery floss, etc.  

(Above:  Gatehouse # 3 after the pirns were suspended and before the rest of the interior was arranged.)

Putting the interior together was a challenge.  Why?  Well, the pirns obviously had to be suspended first.  There isn't room inside for "the stuff" plus the ladder!  I had to do all the "ladder work" first.  Then, I had to crawl around under the suspended perns in order to finish the installation.

 

(Above:  Looking upward to the suspended pirns.)

Wisely, I didn't suspend longer pirns near the doorway.  Directly inside the door, I placed an old shelving unit to which I screwed one half of an aluminum Z-clip French hanging strip.  The other half was on the back of the art quilt's frame.  The effect really works.  Lola is prouding standing in her own world.

(Above:  The northeast corner of Lola's World.)

The last thing done for this installation was to spread miles and miles of unraveled sewing thread over the floor.  This thread was first used in an earlier (2014) installation, Threads: Gathering My Thoughts. It's been in three other locations before now ... once at the Mesa Contemporary Art Museum in Arizona as that year's proposal winner ... once at ArtFields, a competition in Lake City, SC ... and once at the South Carolina State library.  Some of the thread was used for Exposed Threads, a 5' x 9' 2D artwork now at the Cambria Hotel here in Columbia.  Otherwise, all this thread has been stored in three giant leaf bags in a closet.  Lots and lots of people contributed to this stash of thread!  Thank you to all of them!
 

(Above:  Lola's World.)

In front of the art quilt, I also placed two vintage baskets.  A crocheted bedspread and a vintage quilt top were piled inside them.  These objects, certainly things that easily could have been part of Lola's life, hid most of the shelving unit's base.  I am very pleased with this installation.  My statement for the installation is:

Lola's World. Eight year old Lola Derrick Byars started working in Granby Mill shortly after her family relocated to Columbia in 1898. They came in search of steady pay, secure employment, and a better way of life than farming had provided. When Olympia Mill opened, Lola went to work there. By twelve, Lola was an experienced textile worker living in a nice Fifth Street house where plenty of home-cooked meals were served. The intimate scale of a gatehouse will bring to life the focus and concentration Lola needed for her daily tasks, one of which was the constant replacement of textile spindles.

I'm excited to see what goes in the other four gatehouses!