In the project, working with found objects, I opted to work with the spiderwebs in my room when I first moved into my accommodation in Edinburgh. I found it interesting how although I was moving into a space that I haven’t seen before there was already a little resident in my space. I started associating my initial doubt and fears regarding university with the slowly growing spiderweb. An invasive presence in my room, a piece of decoration that I haven’t placed myself, infesting my safe space. It was too good of a metaphor for my increasing doubt and anxiety to not utilise for this project.
I wanted to make a sculpture/installation for this first project, my own web, where I would actively add a new piece of strand every time I had an anxious thought in university.
To further this idea, I went to visit the Fruitmarket gallery where I witness the work of the Scottish artist Karla Black. An artist who worked exclusively with found objects and explore their material potential beyond their intended use.
(Above) Karla Black’s exhibit at the Fruitmarket. Source – https://www.fruitmarket.co.uk/karla-black/
There was a piece there that had stood out to me more than any of the other experimental and beautiful work on display – a pair of outstretched tights, decorated with blobs of dried oil paint. That was my lightbulb moment, the outstretched tights, due to the synthetic nature of the material of them, it looked exactly like the way the spiderweb reflected light in the corner of my window. That’s when I decided to create the installation/sculpture with tights as the building material. In seeing this piece, it inspired me to not only explore the narrative element of this piece but as well as experiment with the material of the found object, to, just like Karla Black and her quirky, beautiful pieces, explore the potential of my found objects.
(Above) The tight piece that inspired me to use tights as my found objects along with the spiderwebs
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