Final Project - Artist #5

Marie Watt

Blanket Stories: Objects

We are received in blankets, and we leave in blankets. The work in these rooms is inspired by the stories of those beginnings and endings, and the life in between. I am interested in human stories and rituals implicit in everyday objects. Currently I am exploring the history of wool blankets. I find myself attracted to the blanket’s two- and three-dimensional qualities: On a wall, a blanket functions as a tapestry, but on a body it functions as a robe and living art object. Blankets also serve a utilitarian function. As I fold and stack blankets, they begin to form columns that have references to linen closets, architectural braces, memorials (The Trajan Column), sculpture (Brancusi, for one), the great totem poles of the Northwest and the conifer trees around which I grew up. In Native American communities, blankets are given away to honor people for being witnesses to important life events – births and comings-of-age, graduations and marriages, namings and honorings. For this reason, it is considered as great a privilege to give a blanket away as it is to receive one.

Blankets hang around in our lives and families – they gain meaning through use. My work is about social and cultural histories imbedded in commonplace objects. I consciously draw from indigenous design principles, oral traditions, and personal experience to shape the inner logic of the work I make. These wool blankets come from family, friends, acquaintances and secondhand stores (I’ll buy anything under $5). As friends come over and witness my blanket project in progress, I am struck by how the blankets function as markers for their memories and stories. (artists website)

 

 

I've included this artists work Blanket Stories as I feel it shows both option a and option b from my last post. These works are all stacked in a mass but also show a sagging and precariously stacked structure as well as well lit - showroom like exhibiting.

 

Blanket Stories: Three Sisters, Cousin Rose, Four Pelts, and Sky Woman 2005

 

Again the success of these works is heavily reliant on the large number of collected objects, which may be difficult for me to replicate as each bowl, depending on size can take up to 6-8 hours to make.
I think the use of different heights for the plinths is an interesting concept as I have been thinking of using physical and intact magazines between the bowls to increase mass but also to highlight what the bowls have been made of. I think this is a practical solution but also adds a differentiating factor as it could add variety to the stacked towers.