Unit 4- Landscape: Small Works #2

November 06, 2017

For my second small work of this unit I chose to make work responding to the Euphemia city in the Calvino reading. The city was a trading city that was very prosperous and populated. But other than it obviously being a trade city, it was a city where stories were shared among the merchants and travelers. They shared memories other than goods and money. So I wanted to incorporate that idea into my four pieces.
The first piece was the sacks of memory. I sewed three sacks out of burlap each; each sack representing a part of the brain that we use for memory (frontal lobe for decision making and remembering, temporal lobe for auditory context and hearing, and occipital lobe for visual processing). The large burlap sacks are very commonly used for carrying several goods.
The second piece was woven stepping mat of ignored memories. We step over mats almost every day, whether at a store, our house, school. Almost everyone wipes their feet on stepping mats. in the Calvino writing one of the goods that is sold in that city is carpets and mats. So I thought about weaving a mat of memories I have stepped over, and the purpose is for others to step over it too. I wrote about my mother's alcoholism. Even though I am opening up about the hidden memories, some parts are still hidden under each other due to the woven pieces.
The third piece is a market set up of goods in little bags. I wanted to create a market set up of my own personal memories with certain people I shared. Just like seeds, fruits and vegetables are labeled and categorized, I did the same with objects that reminded me of experiences with this people. I made the little bags out of a large market onion bag. I gave context of some of the memories with text and photographs. The four bags were my grandma, mother, childhood best friend, and my boyfriend. The set up was meant to resemble a bazaar/market set up with a table cloth and arrangement of several choices.
The fourth piece was the 2D drawing with flame. One of the ways memories were exchanged were by the campfire at night. I experimented with making marks with actual flame. I was very interested with the outcome of the mark when I noticed that if I touched it my fingerprint marked in a light ashy tone. The marks are faint like floating conversations of people by the campfire.