I met the group, that I am to work with, this morning and gave an introduction to the students about my work as requested by Emma. I took a piece of dissolvable fabric, a reel of sewing thread and some of my thread sculptures and briefly explained the process I use to create 3D forms in thread. I also told them about the degree course I have just completed and showed them some objects that I had produced for other projects during the course.
I then explained my proposal for the project.
Using the boards I had been given by the Firing Line, I suggested cutting them down and producing a book type arrangement, as a base for a collage. Each side would represent a different part of the WW1 story; the front would be created from the board showing the men before they went to war. Inside on the left it would show images such as the propaganda posters and photographs of women waving their men off, at the railway station. On the middle board it would include images of the war front, including the painting of the Battle of Mametz Wood and on the right, scenes from the home front. These would depict injured soldiers coming back from war and the jobs that women were doing.
I also wanted to highlight the connection with the soldiers doing their washing and the fact their wives and mothers would have been doing the same thing at home.
I left today agreeing to cut the boards to size and marking out roughly where the images would go, so that we could start painting the background next week.