VACMA: Clare Gee

"Since pulling the tools together I have spent the majority of the year playing - making lengths of cloth, using firstly 4 shafts and simple patterns, up to 8 shafts and more complex patterns, mixing yarn types to see what would happen. Going with mistakes, seeing what results when you don’t replace a broken warp (or many), watching the fabric grow in a totally arbitrary manner so that only when it is cut off the loom do you have any idea what you have made.

The aim was to produce a large enough stash of home-woven cloth to begin to use in a set of textile collages created using predominantly home-made cloth, taking previous work one step further from work shown in 2021.

This I have done, but another strand which developed over the year was the use of important (personal historical) but damaged, fragile cloth, carefully and visibly repaired as a balance/counter to the woven cloth. As with previous work, the need to re-use, create using others’ cast offs or materials - in this case primarily my own - couldn’t be thwarted! and I loved the balance of such brittle fine cloth against the clunky, chunky but very solid newly woven cloth (which itself was all woven using old/donated yarn).

It has taken longer to get to the point of making work with the woven cloth - I got totally hooked on the act of weaving - but I have now got to that and the ideas for the work and the work itself is starting to take shape.

Scarily, as someone who has always failed miserably to work in 3D, they appear to becoming sculptural in nature. I haven’t quite squared how to move it from 2D to 3D yet, but I know where I want it to go. I have this idea that I want to make pieces that are almost like dolls. Not literally, but I want to create objects that can then be ‘dressed’ or ‘undressed’ with a number of pieces of textile, depending on the mood and choice of the owner of the work. I’m struggling a wee bit with the how - how does it stand up? how to make it work from the back, the bottom, the top as well as the front - how to display - how to make sure the additional pieces are kept with the piece etc. etc. but I am really excited about the process of trying to get there.

The award has had a fundamental and surprising impact. Firstly, the commitment to me and my work shown by the panel has been hugely appreciated and has given me a confidence boost and a level of pride that I wasn’t expecting to feel. Secondly, the funding has, on a very practical level, allowed me to purchase the tools that have enabled me to develop my work in a much more concentrated way than if I had not had the bursary. Thirdly, the award gave me a kick up the backside to make myself and my work more public through a website, and finally, I have started down a creative path that excites and challenges me in equal measure.

Thank you."