Shapeshifting, 2024, is part of my research during my Dreamtime Fellowship at Spike Island, Bristol. I have been developing some of the ideas behind Baker & Bliss', highly successful and ambitious Glowing and Growing, a largescale, site-responsive glow-in-the-dark project commissioned by Severn Arts for Light Night Worcester in February 2024.
(Used clothing and domestic textiles, netting, knitted and stitched sculptures, glow-in-the-dark paint and floor tape, blacklights, mirror, labels, pens)
I was very grateful to be able to trial my idea as part of Spike Island Open Studios in May 2024 and invite so many visitors to:
'Become a shapeshifting, living sculpture!
Shapeshifting / noun
the ability to change shape, form, or identity, or the act of doing this.
Please touch.
Try on the wearable sculptures.
Step into the den-like space.
How does it make you feel?
What does it make you think?
Write your thoughts on a label and add it to the installation.
Thank you for being part of #Shapeshifting
@loubakerartist @_livingsculptures'
So much JOY!
I constructed a much more intimate den in my studio space, using some of the large, neon painted panels and the glow-in-the-dark knitted sculptures I made for Glowing and Growing. This time, I exclusively used the panels made with my own used bedding. I also covered the front of the space with a dark 'skin' of my old black clothes, arranging each item of clothing carefully, almost as if they were sculpted. I made three more changes to the den- I added some glow-in-the-dark cloth tape to the floor in concentric patterns, I placed a full size mirror in the space and I made two big cushions, again using some of the painted panels. I was very pleased with the final outcome and feel that these additions increased the sense of immersion.
I also made several wearable, shapeshifting neon sculptures. One is knitted, using left over neon yarn from Glowing and Growing, the others have knitted elements which are stitched to some of my old black clothes. These were hung on two coat racks outside the den, with the invitation to visitors to try them on and enter the blacklit space.
It was wonderful to witness the different visitors' reactions to the den and to the wearable sculptures. It provokes some interesting conversations and plenty of comments were added on lables too. As ever, many people seem to move very differently when they're wearing my sculptures; the addition of the immersive den added a sense of freedom and escapism, I think.
I also think that, ideally, it would be better if the den were bigger so that the garment-sculptures could be inside and so that there is more room to move inside the psychedelic space.
This is the statement I wrote to accompany my research:
'Identity is often communicated through the clothes we wear, but, at a deeper level, the multiple selves we reveal to the world can conceal our true sense of self. Shapeshifting gives visitors the opportunity to try out various temporary identities by wearing a selection of playful, glowing garment-like sculptures. Participant/performers become living sculptures; stepping through a dark portal, they are transported into an immersive, glow-in-the-dark, den-like space. Shapeshifting explores Jung’s individuation and the balancing of multiple identities with the darker side of the Self. It’s about transformation.
Most of us made dens when we were young, with blankets and washing racks and our imagination, that gap under the hedge at the bottom of the garden or the space under the bed. It was fun, it was play. Often it was about hiding, being unseen, invisible to the eyes of supervising adults; sometimes it was about having a space of our own. Sometimes, however, there was also a frisson of fear at the prospect of being unseen or forgotten….
My den is made with second hand clothing, duvet covers and sheets. In 2023, in the UK alone, 350,000 tonnes of textile waste was dumped, incinerated or shipped elsewhere. Considering sustainability in my practice, I’m challenging myself to recycle and reuse materials wherever possible. I’ve painted numerous large, psychedelic panels, installing them site-responsively to transform the space into a dreamlike, glowing walk-through den, with an external, dark skin of clothing. I’m currently developing a new selection of knitted and stitched wearable sculptures, which will be partly camouflaged against the painted panels. The sculptures have been made with yarn left over from another project and second-hand clothing.
Thread, as cloth, is woven through our lives. It surrounds us and accompanies us from the moment we’re born till the day we die. It is like a second skin. It has clear associations with comfort, garments and the body. Touch and the tactile nature of cloth is also highly significant. Just over 10 years ago, trend forecaster, Li Edelkoort, predicted that the increased use of screens in most people’s daily lives would make us crave touch and tactility. She said, ‘super technology is going to ask for super tactility’ (2012). Edelkoort was specifically referring to interior design, and, of course, in most gallery settings, it’s forbidden to actually touch the artworks. However, for many people, there is a merging of the senses of touch and sight associated with cloth. ‘The materiality and multi-sensory nature of cloth blurs the boundaries of visual and tactile experience (Bristow, 2011, p45) ‘The eye…does not simply look. It also feels. Its response is both visual and tactile…’ the senses are ‘…each enfolded in the other’ (Barnett, 1999, p185). What happens if visitors are invited to not only touch the work but also to become the art by wearing it and being immersed, and partly camouflaged within it?'