Tuesday 13 April 2010

KNITTING AT RELLA THE TEST BED PROJECT.

There was a treat in store for me Friday last. My friend Lucy Gunning asked if I could come and mark time with some knitting/ knitters at her and Michael's residency,'Rella the Test Bed Project' at the Beaconsfield Gallery.Test Bed Project is the continuation of a conversation that Lucy and Michael had about time and space. The project is to have no concrete outcome whatsoever, instead embarking on a series of experiments, working together and alongside each other. The gallery is their studio and they are in and out of process.They explain their conversation about time....
"In conversing, both Lucy and Michael find in common, unease with the speed of life, feeling a strong desire to still it's aggressive velocity. They speak haltingly, cautiously, even embarrassedly of a backwards forwards movement - like a nostalgia for the past oscillating with constant anticipation for the future. It seems there is not enough time just to be there. Together they want to elasticize things into the long now. They just need to stretch out, to let something happen - to feel a sense of all times. Past Present Future. Let stuff in. It's always ready if you let it. Isn't there a giant snake that eats inself; an Ourobous or is it Urobous; the time devouring snake, the cyclical serpent bringing itself into being anew?"
I was lying in the bath on the morning of going to visit Lucy and thought,"Dam...I haven't sorted anything for this.... She asked me to bring knitters to mark time......I didn't e-mail anyone....I didn't have time....It's fine....being around Lucy, it will all just happen..."

Going to Lucy's place would be a lovely day off. I packed my current knitting and got dressed.
Just as I was leaving Anna Maltz rocked up. She was bored of sewing her knitting up at home and wanted to hang out. Off we went together and little did I know, she was knitting a 'time line' with the school she is working with. The Beaconsfield Gallery used to be a school, so the piece really fitted. We had good chats and she had amazingly baked chocolate muffins which we devoured with many cups of tea.


I got out my explosion. To my suprise, they were projecting film of explosions on the back wall, and Lucy had made a time bomb thing.
My explosion is - or course - taking ages. It's in DK and spindrift on 3.75mm, and I'm making it up as I go along, which means a lot of stopping and starting. People, as always, ask me how long it has taken, and I don't really know. I think that's quite funny for an explosion. I've also taken to wearing this fabric clock with leather hands, which also doesn't know what time it is. I didn't want to leave the Test Bed project, because time had stood still, and I was getting lots of knitting done. Nothing was rushed, and I was having a lovely time...
I'm knitting an explosion, because being a creative person, my life seems to be a series of explosions, so I thought I should wear one. You have to have a lot of energy to do this job, to make things happen, and make an impact. Up until now I'd been rushing the explosion, because I want to wear it. At Test Bed project, I found it funny, that the explosion can became a space where time could go at what ever pace I wanted. I was simultaneously relaxed and excited, and the knitting was the pace that it always is, which is my pace.There is much more to discover about Rella the Test Bed Project, there's loads on Jane Fonda and Barbarella. I suggest you check it out, there's some wonderful ideas. I've only told you what happened to me, and now it is time for lunch.