Generations & Nations

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Manoeuvring the work of eighteen people into a relatively confined space whilst endeavouring to respect an unfortunate fellow student on another course who happens to have her studio on the end of the run looked at one point like it might prove impossible! It felt like quite an achievement after an hour or so to see a body of work united around the theme of Generations and Nations.

I am struck by the diversity of approaches and the level of ambition after just a week, I suspect this is going to prove one of the benefits of being on a building-based course. I am sure we are going to push each other. We had installations, suspended work, paintings, acetate, projections, sound, and film works. Many of us went three dimensional, perhaps to our regret when it came to fit it all in the space!

I enjoyed the curatorial play aspect of the project and it was fascinating to see the difference that changing some of the pieces around made when we went into a second iteration, it was a shame we didn’t have time for a third change. Mine went from suspended from above to hung on the wall while others did the reverse, and different aspects of the work emerged. I think the labels on mine became more evident and perhaps spoke better to my intention of conceptually playing with surveillance as a result.

As much as seeing what everyone had produced, it was no surprise I was also noticing how we responded to the task as a group. Different levels of engagement, different levels of noticing what others might need, and an awareness that this is a new group still finding its feet. 

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As well as curatorial play, it felt like the creation of the piece itself was also playful.

On being given the brief we were sent into Farnham Town to find something that would be the starting point for our individual pieces. Small groups of treasure hunters criss-crossed each other to find their inspiration. Under the capable guidance of Janet, our gang of three navigated past some classic Farnham cottages to the end of the High Street. Janet was very persuasive that this would yield a charity shop no-one else would be visiting.

Once inside it was initially overwhelming, I had no idea what I was looking for, but I found a small sewing kit that reminded me of the generations of home dressmakers in my family.  ‘Trust the process,’ I tried to remind myself! As I turned with the sewing kit to head to the till, I spotted some old dress patterns and knew immediately that’s what I wanted. No sense of why or what I would do – it just told me it was the ‘thing’!

Back at the studio I marvelled at the colour and smell of the delicate papers. I was transported to my teenage days of cutting patterns on the dining room table, and trips to a local market that had great quality but cheap fabrics. Without thinking I started to cut out the pattern pieces and as I went, I decided to make them into a paper dress.

As I cut, and wrestled to stick the delicate material together I kept noticing the pattern number and given the title was Generations and Nations it made me think of nation states and how as populations we are generally identified by numbers – national insurance, passport, driving licence etc. I was slightly shamefaced, having dismissed it in the past, to recall Bentham/Foucault’s Panopticon and the nature of surveillance shifting from external to internal. This led to making three dresses with the final one being all white and bearing no marks as a metaphor for that self-surveillance. To each I added a label, one with the pattern number, the second a QR code (a new form of monitoring) and the third a quote:

Surveillance breeds conformity. Glenn Greenwald

By the end of the piece I felt elated, this was such a different piece to anything I have done before and I am excited to see what may come in the next two years. Getting straight into making was very liberating, even though it felt uncomfortable to start with. I was able not worry about judging the piece or to compare with others, in part thanks to my recent reading and the painting course I have been doing. The dresses now hang on the studio wall and I suspect will have a life beyond Generations and Nations.