When I first started the Walter Benjamin ‘Destructive Character’ piece, I thought I would do something around deconstructed stitching, which went through a bit of a vogue in the 1990s. Basically it’s a piling up of stitches which you then cut into, and sometimes put some gesso or paint over. This is the three stages demonstrated on this piece:
In this example, I have used a really thick thread, and on the cut stitches on the extreme right I have put on one of the specialist artists pastes, this one with pumice in it. There are a few colonial knots thrown in.
It is another piece where I work with rubbish. The strawberry panel is made with layers of cheap tissue that you get when they wrap up something in a shop with a photocopy underneath the final layer. It is all put together with dilute pva glue. The photocopy was tinted with coloured pencils before the final layer was glued on. That’s why it is slightly glossy.
I am not that thrilled with this piece. It does demonstrate the technique, but the elements don’t go together. The pumice part has nothing to do with the strawberry. I might add in some more strawberry elements when I get home, but at least the technique part at the bottom works.
