My installation was not consciously about my performance work, but rather was just an image of the night that came to my attention when asked to concentrate on my mind and what it chose to see. I don't know why it should have been the night, but it was. Although I didn't want to produce something literal when creating my installation, I did. My choice to attempt to create the image of a night sky, made of drawing pins which were penetrating a black bin bag, was very much a literal interpretation of my mind's wanderings. However, I believe this literal exploration left me with a final piece that was more telling than had I tried to be intentionally abstract. By concentrating on creating something that was superficially aesthetically pleasing, I neglected to notice the behaviour of the materials I was using when looking beyond their initial appearance. In making a pretty picture, I was leaving behind a scratching, jagged mismatched wall, that became of far more interest than my original concept. From the front these pins looked smooth and quite charming, yet underneath this and during their placement in the bin bag they had been ripping both the black sheet and my skin. A theme of suppression was therefore evident, and suppression in particular of penetrating, sharp obstacles. Suppressed underneath something forced, which mimicked a kind of tranquillity. | |