Chaplaincy Pitch

Although I currently consider myself a practitioner working towards a fashion fabrics context I wanted to work towards making my work fit within a different context. The brief was to create a piece of work to sit within the quiet room in St Peters church just off the Oxford road. When briefed we were asked not to make our work figurative as people of all faiths would visit the quiet room to worship or just spend time in the space, this was taken into consideration when I began sampling. I decided that seeing as the space was a place people perhaps came to be reflective or worship that the piece of work I was to sample and design should be calming and unobtrusive. I wanted to continue along similar lines of inquiry that I had already been investigating in particular I wanted to look at my research into coral reefs. The reason being that within a coral reef exists as separate eco system from our own, the dynamic within this setting is different yet this place could still be perceived as a community. To me a reef looks very and peaceful due to it being a place that is largely undisturbed. I also took inspiration from the sky and the peaceful qualities that can be seen in the different coulors  and formation seen when you look up at the sky each day, this was largely why I decided to hang my installation from the ceiling encouraging the visitors to the chaplaincy to look up. I took inspiration from a book named Contemporary Japanese Textiles, especially the work by Eiji Miyamoto I was drawn to the ethereal quality this work had. I continued with my cut and fold technique adapting it to make long ‘tendrils’ that could be suspended on mas from the chaplaincy ceiling.

Eiji Miyamoto, silk scarf, 1991, http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=2176

For me the pitch was a learning curve where I learnt that perhaps in order to sell my work I must think more practically about the logistics such as pricing my work. This was something I hadn’t properly considered and was not prepared for the question asked on this matter. Often the reason I don’t think so logically about practicality’s involving my work is that I become very caught up in the making. Yet if I am to make something of my work I must learn to balance the making and the organisation of how it will work in the context I am aiming for. The panel seemed to like my work and were interested in the techniques I had used for the samples I had made to show them, however it was agreed that it would not be a practical installation for the chaplaincy.