Thursday 27 December 2007

EXPERIMENTS AND RESEARCH OR JUST MESSING AROUND?

So I finally started working. I've strung several lengths of twine from one side of the studio to the other. I had to mark them with luminous electrical tape after an accident was narrowly averted. Handy household hint number 37. I'm not exactly sure why i have done this but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe it cordons off some space, or fills some up without actually having to have much in it. Maybe it just lulls me into the sense that i have done something, i am making progress, i am on my way...wherever that is. I say twine because that's what it is. I like the word and i like the quality, not that string doesn't have its own place and virtues, but twine...... it's not just the word, it's the way it smells, the way it sounds and feels. Nothing can beat a really good quality twine. 
I have also been doing varying experiments with PVA. This ranges from the high quality to the cheap and cheerful nursery school stuff. These experiments have involved just making lots of mess and testing how it falls, sticks, peels off, that kind of thing. This needs a lot more work or just ditching. On the other hand similar efforts with acrylic inks and paints have been much more encouraging.
I seem to be slowly succeeding in filling the space. I went round the local hardware cathedral and woolies .....my first alphabet...tapes and adhesives of every variety...buying what seemed inspirational stuff.
I guess the over-riding thing has just been playing. I don't think we play enough as adults and its over all too soon for kids these days. I mean that non directive imaginative free play thing. So yeah, research or messing around. Where do you draw the line and what's the difference?

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