Jane George

Here is my proposal for the piece Then and Now. A huge thank you to all the people helping me with my research I hope you find this of interest. If you are reading this, are female and would like to take part in the research for this piece then please contact me for a simple questionnaire.

Jane George. 

Cloth is My Canvas

Then and Now

At this present time, the commission opportunity ‘Cloth is My Canvas’ resonates with deep emotion for me.  The imagery of tenterframes across a landscape spoke immediately to me of a lost community of women. I am one of these women, stretched to my limits as the cloth. Likewise I too remain exposed, stretched and desperately trying to hold onto my own outline, my own shape, my own sense of self.  

This lost community is that of invisible mothers. Why ‘invisible’? In my experience the role is so traditional and natural it is at best overlooked by a society that holds mothers in very low esteem. To become mummy has meant at times becoming forgotten and floundering with no new sense of self.

With the birth of my much-loved daughters in 2006/7 I have been stretched to extremes in many ways. Physically, as a stomach rippled with stretch marks gives testimony to, but also emotionally as I have searched for a way to hold onto myself within the passions I feel for my children. I have found myself feeling buried in the mundane and at the same time overcome with protective obsessions and love so strong it scares! Is this state of anxiety and uneasiness normal, are we all quite literally living ‘on tenterhooks’?

The 2 panel piece I propose, entitled, ‘Then and Now’ will explore these issues. What experiences do other women have of being stretched to their limits? Where do women find support within today’s society? How do women hold onto a sense of who they are within their particular role in society?  It will aim to research, represent and contrast experiences from each side of the mothering divide providing a greater understanding for all and allowing those haunted by isolation to find a unified voice.

Sewn outlines of paper dolls, in rows, holding hands will form the basis of the piece. A traditional image that conjures combined memories of childhood craft activities, gingerbread family baking and also an adult sisterhood. These female forms will take both 2d and 3d form as the calm marks of ‘then’ morph into the crazier 3d scribble maze of ‘now’. This contrast in marks represents my memories of the calm pre-child days where I had time to think a thought as apposed to the whirlwind of the toddler days I find myself in now as children scribble like maniacs on every surface they can find!

Within this mass of female forms attached text will depict the varying experiences and realities of being stretched. The final piece will allow the audience to search for their own timeline as they scan text for pre and post baby experiences that resonate with familiarity. I hope the final piece will help validate my own and other women’s experiences and allow both myself and the audience to find solidarity and in turn a deeper and more secure sense of self.

If practicalities allow I would also love to include an element of audience participation to truly create a 2-way conversation. If the 2 panels could be placed close enough I would like the embroidery from 1 panel to travel through the air to the second panel creating a wired embroidery link. This would create in essence an umbilical cord washing line between the two halves!  Below a washing basket and pegs will allow viewers to add their own experiences to the piece. Pegging up experiences being the most apt final element of a piece created in a world where escaping the mundane has been the hugest challenge of all. Thank goodness I have amazing opportunities like this to explore and am not just left with the thought, ‘Just where did all this washing come from?’

16th – 20th June 2008 saw me working in 8 schools in Wolverhampton. A truly wonderful week when i got to work with students ranging from year1 all the way through to year 9.

I had been commissioned by excellence in cities to participate in the cluster schools creativity week. the theme for the week was music and i was the only visual artist working alongside a number of musicians. My brief was a visual art piece about music that also combined all the schools artwork to create collaborative work. Oh and the challenge…each school needed a final piece to keep, meaning anything produced needed to be made 8 times, one for each school!

It just had to be a piece about disco music as for me this is a very visual musical era, with fashion and glitz playing as important a part as the music itself. prior to me going into the schools the students explored disco music and imagery, they designed disco outfits and gave individual responses to the music itself. This resulting text and their fashion drawings were printed onto acetate ready for inclusion in  the final pieces.

During the week itself i taught the students how to make mixed media paper. They created windows in paper which they filled with disco inspired sparkly elements, each school did a different colour. The very youngest children drew with disco coloured pulp to create multi-coloured disco paper and the older children created their own window shapes. All the resulting paper was combined to create a disco dance floor complete with disco ball, text and disco dancers.