May ~ Taynish Art Trail ~ The Net

Taynish Mill is now the most obvious evidence of historic human habitation in this area, at times you can pick up a fleeting feeling of the lives lived in this area. Of the human essence still caught up in the trees and set in the stones.

Original mock up image of the Net proposal

My proposal was to illustrate the catching and trapping of the memories, words, feelings and the domestic history of the area, so that it is no longer lost to the wind.  A collaborative piece with Artmap Associate member Alexander Hamilton, combining art and literature.
To link the land to the sea, the natural environment to the built environment, I wanted to create a large net-like banner with words, poems and imagined quotes & memories printed and stitched on to fabric entwining it through the ‘net’. 
​The piece would be situated in the trees at the far side of the picnic area between the mill and the sea, capturing those fleeting moments, preventing them from being swept out to sea.

The banners in progress

 Quite a lot of research was done about the area and I spent some time looking up images of adverts and newspaper articles of the era to help add to the sense of time and history, to highlight the transience of time. 

Laying out the net and the banners with some other pieces of ephemera 

We had a few difficulties with fixing the fabric banners to the net.  I had envisaged, stitching then on but it wasn't a feasible option when it came down to it.  there were several trials and errors, and many a method discussed, in the end simple saftey pins were the most effective - lots of them!!

Half way through constructing this piece I lost focus and couldn't work out how it was going to work, what it was I was aiming to achieve, how was it going to look. However, after a bit of brainstorming and dummy layouts, on a very rainy day so we had to suspend the net from the roof of the barn, it started to come together again.  
​It was exciting to see it in situ, and we were able to finish fastening things in place and adding some of the smaller items.  
It's generated a  lot of discussion and I am fascinated to hear about the various reactions to it.  Incomprehension until the explanation is read and then the understanding that follows and the sharpening of interest as the banners are read. 

This has been a very interesting project to do.  I haven't done anything as large as this before nor have I done 'concept art' before.  
I'm really pleased that I stayed up beyond dawn to get the submissions written and entered in time.  I would be being cross with myself now if I hadn't.