TENSION

Installation 2006

Tension is an installation that explores ideas around both traditional and reinterpreted fairy tales and their leading female characters. In order to take the viewer on a theatrical journey I have worked with colour, texture, light, motion and sound. The symbol of the red curtain and its reference to theatrical storytelling is used repeatedly throughout the show. To create strong character studies I have drawn models from direct observation using a sewing machine.

The use of female models as active participants brings another layer of interpretation to the work. Models are invited to dress and pose according to their personal version of female characters from classic fairy tales and stories. I believe that drawing from life brings characters into existence much in a similar manner as actors on a stage. The live process is important to the aesthetic quality of the work, and links to wider processes of making and meaning. I am interested in the link between women’s making and female expression and empowerment, both contemporary and historically.

Crafts such as needlework are traditionally viewed by Western society as a domestic activity taken up by women. Gendered stereotypes of women’s gossip and ‘idle chit-chat’ are often associated with domestic art forms. Storytelling has many linguistic associations with thread such as ‘spinning a yarn’ and ‘weaving a plot’; demonstrating a reciprocal relationship between - words and process.