Over the past year, largely confined to home, I have experimented and explored the possibilities of the found-object. The found-object comes with a trace of previous existence, it is indexical. Through my work I hope to share the stories of home and community.
Having started the process of making blocks for a cardboard quilt and before I pieced them together, I had to decide how I was going to install it. I had several ideas: I could cover every wall of the Container Exhibition Space at UEL, creating an immersive experience; I could cover the outside of the Container Space, re-creating the idea of a cardboard box. I could simply cover a wall and have the aluminium quilt on another wall. With another project in mind I had several old used crates – I was going to stack them and use them as ‘drawers’, or a vitrine for my ‘collection of curiosities’ (see https://joanneforrest.org/more-encaustic/), a museology piece that people could unstack and move around to reveal the treasures within. However, as my thoughts progressed, I started playing around with the crates to create an interchangeable floor piece with the quilt attached on the top. I was really keen to interrupt the floor space and encourage the audience to interact with the work, allowing them to move the crates, to stack them, to throw them in a pile. I then thought about bringing in the aluminium can quilt and suspending it above the crates with the cardboard quilt (as demonstrated by my husband above – working within the limits of lockdown and having to work from home, it was the best I could do!). The idea of this was to create tension and contrast in the two pieces – the can quilt morphing and floating above the structure and rigid nature of the cardboard quilt on crates below.
During a ‘work in progress’ seminar I was told that the materials reminded the lecturer of Townships in South Africa and everything began to make sense – this is where my work was always heading! I have always been inspired by African artists who often use the found object in their work often through necessity and often as a comment on western imports as in the case of El Anatsui. El Anatsui stitches together used bottle tops to create huge, jewel like wall hangings – he not only transforms the object, but he also elevates it’s status. The people of South Africa are often forced to use the found object to build their homes, from corrugated iron and discarded wood. I visited the Townships in and around Cape Town just before lockdown and was inspired. Whilst their shelters may be made from discarded materials, their home is much more – a home is about people, families and communities and should never be judged on appearance alone. My work centres on home and community, it takes the discarded materials from these environments and transforms them. The process is symbiotic, an investment of time and of me, with every stitch I am embedded in the work literally and metaphorically. The cans were collected from homeless shelters, where people have since been displaced and disrupted due to new building developments. Cardboard boxes are synonymous with homeless shelters and whilst I have transformed them, they are materially no different. I began to experiment with combining the cardboard quilt and the aluminium quilt to make a shelter, as shown below. It became too cluttered and the individual works got lost. It also became clear that the crates were an integral part of the installation and rather than simply using them as a structure to be covered in the quilts, it was important that their integrity as a found object was not lost or reduced in significance.
It then occurred to me that I should build 2 separate shelters. Below is the beginning of an idea to build a homeless shelter. Homeless people often use crates to sleep on to keep them off the ground. The idea here, is to build a shelter reminiscent of a cardboard box, but something much more beautiful – to elevate its status and the status of the person who might find shelter within it. The scale is relatively small, low level and could fit in a doorway. The crates will be bolted together and the cardboard quilts will cover the top, back and sides, leaving the crate exposed at the front and along the bottom. I would love to see people’s reaction if this was used in reality. I would love to give it away when I’ve finished it, just to increase the debate around homelessness.
So, having created a shelter, it was now time to create a ‘dwelling’, somewhere a little bit bigger. Again, using the crates, I built a shelter with a crate roof and then placed the aluminium quilt on top. Originally I had wanted the ‘silver’ corroded side to be on the outside, but the natural curve of the piece (caused by the shape of the cans), lent itself to being placed on top, draping over the sides, with the coloured side showing – this, to me had always been the underside, the side that I would want visitors to get a small glimpse of in order to see the materials used, but never to be on full show. The corrosion process with bleach had not revealed beautiful patterns on the outside of the cans and the faded, peeling, scrappy nature of this side of the piece works brilliantly as the top of a roof on a shelter – giving it a weathered and beaten look. When I went inside I caught a glimpse of the light shining through the slats of the crates via the holes of the quilt. I then removed the crates and just had the can quilt as the roof – the light shining through the holes of the quilt was beautiful, the piece was transformed. I have played with the idea of light shining through the holes before, but had never quite resolved how I would do it. The idea is, that visitors will view the outside of the work, appearing a little shabby and thrown together, only to walk inside the dwelling to reveal its true beauty, reminiscent of a beautiful, intimate, star lit sky, revealing the patterns, textures and reflections of the corroded aluminium cans. The dwelling will be twice the height of that shown and bolted together.
I am looking forward to installing the work for the final degree show at the University of East London (rather than in my living room). I have some more can collecting and stitching to do to ensure the roof covers the shelter.