12 Apr Outcome 7 – Ritual Cape
This piece began on making day. An exercise on form, structure, thread drawing all related to coat and pertaining to ritual and the space it occupies in practice.
The geometric lines are machined, ordered and laid out, though the hand embroidery does not follow a pattern it will be contained within each circle. There is an unknowing about the stitch and the rhythm it follows in each sitting when I draw with thread. Setting rules and breaking them.
The colour blocking appears again in the groups of colour thread that I selected for each circle. There is a concern that stitching it will be an indulgent labour intensive obsession. I think of illuminated manuscripts and how the act of decorating them became a place of virtual existence for the monks who applied the ink. Getting lost in the borders, triskels and triple spirals. The conversations they must have had in their heads. Slowing thoughts down, disappearing into the work is part of the ritual for me. Stitching the internal externally, transforming it into something less literally autobiographical.
I will provide a better photo of the whole cape with its designated colour zones in another post.