The braiding, woven into a sheet of cardboard, sat in the lounge for a couple of weeks. We grew less fond of it. Some people disliked it intensely. It emerged that some of the artists had not been happy with the last step of our previous work, which had involved writing TOUCH in different colours on the card. This was a reversal of the PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH we see in galleries. It became more uncomfortably ambiguous as time went by.
first version
The work came back to the studio today. We voiced our concerns and looked intensively at what we had. Everyone offered suggestions to change it. We tried to find a guiding concept, and did not. We experimented with the colours and textures, and the composition. Writing was partially erased; the board was cut smaller, changing the position of the braid; the board was painted white and the paint emphasised the corrugated texture of the board.
We ended with a coherent artwork in which textures and colours echoed around, and created movement. Each decision and adjustment was deliberately and carefully made. The work refersto key ideas in contemporary art of serial repetition and the grid, and speaks to our starting points of braiding, remindings, and connections. I feel proud of the Studio Interlude group's development this year.
.