After deciding on a memory as a sample for a complete installation piece (which I would have made if I had had more time), I made a miniature of what I wanted the installation to look like. I started by taping three Pieces of card together to make a section of a room.
Then I make the arms and legs that represent my grandmother’s arms and legs in my memory of learning how to knit. I thought making them out of willow twig would be appropriate as she is quite a thin woman, this also accentuates this fact and almost caricatures it, playing on the malleable nature of memory and how it emphasizes parts of a memory and changes it around. Making body parts out of found materials also feeds into this idea, shedding light on your memories. I snapped the twigs partially to creates the bends of the knees and ankles.For the arms I only snaped them nce for the elbow. Then wrapped them in twine to flesh them out a little and create the shape of legs. In the sample I made them too thick but in the actually installation I will make them notably thinner.
I left some of the twig bare on all of the limbs I made so that I could attach them to the wall by sticking them through institutions that I made on it. I’m not so sure the collage will actually let me do this, even to their board walls so I will probably have to find another way. I was thinking about Velcro or blue tack but neither sound particularly stable, especially if I and going to make this a somewhat interactive piece. Maybe glue would be better but it might also ruin the finishing of the wall when I try to take it off again.
After this I made a model piece of knitting place in the hands of the limbs. I think that giant knitting will add to the surrealism of this piece but, like with the limbs to the wall) I have had problems thinking of ways to fix the knitting to the arms. I could go down the really surreal route and just not give the arms hands. This way I could just bind the needles to the arms like in the model. Or I could possibly get a pair of styrofoam hands and puncture the needles into place at the bottom of the hands so it is less visible. I made this knitting with some left over willow twig and twine, using a standard cast on and knit procedure
