Part of the frustrations from week one was working out how to give structure to anything created. Without any framework everything I was trying struggled to hold the shape I wanted it to. We started looking at how wood and wire could provide something to build onto or create around.
Initially I started playing with the wire to see what I could do, how flexible it was, how strong it was, how could you attach material and other items to it? As per usual I started to doodle with my hands, just exploring possibilities of the material. I de-constructed a few things, cut up some material and then tried combinations of items to see how they would work. These were relatively small but occupied a three dimensional space.
I also started to see what would happen by using the tights to cover and contain items. Initially I used one of my plaster cast latex glove hands and by stretching tight you could define the shape of the hand but wasn't sure if this created enough intrigue. I started to look at what else I could do with the tights.
Tights are weird things. They resemble the body, especially when taken off as they still have the memory of the person's legs in. They twist turn, stretch and knot up when washed or drying on the line. They have the pant area, the gusset, they might be washed but you know where they've been, the contact they've had. The legs stretch, long, thick and thin, they cling, they catch, they snag.
Pauline Bunny, Sarah Lucas (1997). https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sarah-lucas-2643
NUD Cycladic, Sarah Lucas (2010). https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/667860
As much I admire the work of Sarah Lucas and how she creates ambiguous works that relate to the body, especially with her stuffed tights (hosiery), creating intestine-like forms, limbs and amorphous shapes I didn't want to mimic her work and I also wanted to abstract the tights further from their origin. Difficult as tights still have 'tightness', the material and form difficult to lose.
I started to see what would happen if I used the tights to contain other items and to distort the shape of the tube, making it less cylindrical, less leg shaped. Initially I placed some off cuts of wood in to see how they would work and then by playing around with the position found it created an interesting shape when suspended. The weight of the wood meant the tights naturally lengthened, creating a new form.
My concerns were with the length, they weren't long enough and by keeping the tights whole and still attached to the pant area they still resembled legs and were too familiar, I need to play some more. Perhaps wire could work and also attaching different lengths of tights. Things to ponder...