CrumpArt

Apocatastasis. What it means:
1) Restoration, re-establishment, renovation
2) Return to a previous condition
3) (Astronomy) Return to the same apparent position, completion of a period of revolution.
Think about it.

Now that the semester is almost over, I’m just getting around to talking about what I did in the mid-year break. Figures.

Anyway, I pretty much chose not to have a break. Instead, I went into uni almost every day (it helped that it was winter and the printmaking studios were much warmer than my house) and made an edition of 33 artworks for our annual graduate exchange portfolio.

The requirements were to make a piece based on 20×20cm dimensions, taking into consideration that it was to be part of a folio that people would interact with as opposed to something that simply hangs on a wall.

It also had to be a good representation of our work as a whole, as a copy of the portfolio is kept in the RMIT printmaking archive, and another copy was sent to Tyler University in Philadelphia.

I used my leftover recycled paper to make 33 woven möbius strips, each made from the equivalent of a 20×20cm piece of paper. The möbius is my phoenix, a representation of the universe, and the outer packaging is representative of a black hole. Figuring out how to package these to avoid damage and reduce bulkiness was an issue. I ended up putting a few stitches into the centre of each strip with some hand-me-down yellow cotton to assist in the flattening without completely squashing the strip. I dyed a bedsheet black (actually, after two dye attempts it ended up midnight blue, which I actually like better than a really harsh black) and sewed 33 20×20cm square pouches that the möbius emerges from.

I had some trouble with the title. How do you put a title, signature and edition number on something that is 3-d and has a single, heavily printed surface? Or a dark fabric cloth? I decided to make a tag. I realised that I wanted to use the word apocatastasis as the title, so, in line with the printed material on the möbius, I did another solvent transfer on some extra paper of the word as taken from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s wonderful graphic novel, Signal to Noise. I made it into a tag, which I signed and added the edition number to.

This is a really, really amazing portfolio. 28 different works from the staff and graduating students in my course. Which means, m1k3y, I have this and you don’t. (Although any of you can buy Jazmina’s print if you follow that link.)

And speaking of Jazmina reminds me that I really need to head into her class now…