500 words About my work
My body of work for ass5 shows the story of of the piece I find myself calling ‘crow’.
Looking back, I visualise the process as a gathering of metaphorical threads, strands of ideas woven into a solid object. I have previously been very material led. In response to an exercise I will select materials from my collection and go on a gathering mission to reclaim and reuse materials from my local environment. In this case the gathering seemed complete and the reassembling of concepts played through my mind like the solving of an equation. I am as a detective solving the mystery of my mind. Like grasping for words , only visually.
Linda Baker
‘Crow’ 2019 – iron, cotton, linen
This work is a response to ‘Crow in the cradle’ a folk song that can be traced back to the 16thCentury, that has been rewritten and performed across the years as the message questions the tipping point between personal liberty and what government might dictate as being for the common good. Pertinent. I hadn’t found myself able in a previous task to interpret the words as images, never one to give up my subconscious has been processing it and combined with elements learned from subsequent tasks, the idea came to fruition.
The iron skeleton had a military function.Discarded, it has rusted and would eventually return to earth. The flaccid strap brittle and worn hangs in a slight curve, showing slightly less tension than the heavy chain that has been drawn in slightly to form a waist.
The textile element of vintage cotton, a functional stiffener for lighter fabrics is folded ,creased and stitched with linen thread into elements that could be translated as feathers, seed pods or souls, or represent people or creatures, are different in scale but have the same form. Hanging collectively.
Crow is of the hills of my home yet reflective of the wider world. It is strongly of this place in time and yet unequivocally has come from the past.