Friday, September 3, 2010

T-R-A-N-S-I-T-I-O-N ...... NO - IT- ISN - ART (yet)



The August creativity prompt from A Creative Dream was "Transition...." I did a little word play and came up with a bad anagram, but it triggered an idea for me.

I've been wanting to try making some "erosion bundles" or "disintegrations" as described in the May/June issue of "Cloth, Paper, Scissors." There was a great article by Seth Apter that describes his techniques and the collaboration project that he started and called DisCo for short.  Bundles of every kind of material imaginable were hung or buried to be eroded by the elements of nature over a period of months.  When the material has decomposed to an interesting point, the bundles are brought in and the materials are used in works of art.   Doesn't this sound like fun?  And a "transition" takes place as the materials are gradually eroded by Mother Nature and then used by the artist.  ere are the bundles I put together and hung from my deck last week. 

 Included in the bundles are:  pages torn from an old dictionary and other books, magazine pages, plain cover stock and art papers, watercolor paper scraps that I had tested the paint colors on,  a paper towel that had watercolor paints on it, plain cardboard, acrylic-painted cardboard, yarn, ribbon, raffia, some metal things that will rust, e.g. nails, paper clips, a couple of black and white photographs, a couple of hardback book covers and a few other things.  On the edges of some of the pages, I smeared on some Neocolor II water soluble wax crayons. 

Midway through putting my bundles together, I misplaced the magazine with directions, so I forgot some of the steps, like putting a brad through the middle of all of the pages to hold them together.  Oops.  But I did use wire to wrap the bundles and I think they will hold together long enough without the brads.  Oh, and one of my bundles is bound with a piece of muslin cloth.  That should help it get nice and wet and probably mouldy if I leave it out long enough. 

Now if we could just get some rain.....

8 comments:

  1. These should come out great. The erosion bundle project was fun and I made several pieces from what sat in the weather for 3 months....xox Corrine

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  2. Sounds like a bundle of fun! Will be interested to see the results, by and by.

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  3. I have one of these hanging at the side of my house....its been there all summer; maybe its time to take a look (so exciting!)
    I don't think you need to worry about the rain situation.... :-)
    Linda x
    PS Thank you for your really lovely comments; I've printed on silk before - I use 'Inkjetprinting Sheets for silk' by Jacquard. They work quite well. Hope you get to see Hardwick some day - its very special.

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  4. Your anagram is so clever! :D I reeeally want to do one of these bundles! So why don't I? Well, I'm going to! Now! :)

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  5. Can't wait to see what this looks like after a few months and what you make with it. Don't forget to show us!!!

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  6. There's weather out there right now. The sun will erode the papers somewhat as well as rain and snow. I once knew a fiberartist who wrapped fabric around metal pieces and buried the bundles in the compost pile. Others she simply stuffed into a trench along with pieces of garbage and let them sit for 6 months. Then she made wall art and quilts out of it all. I hope she washed the fabric first:)

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