"Rewiring"

Working with different fibers has become a huge focus in designs. My last post introduced the idea of using wire as the structure/fiber.  Since then, I have been working on ways to incorporate lace-like patterns with wire into my furniture designs. The pattern I chose, the buttonhole stitch,  is the most common stitch in needle lace. This needle lace structure made of button hole stitches to cover and protect the functional object of my choosing. After researching different objects, I choose a table that had seen better days to protect. I felt that this table would show the fragile elements of lace and also incorporate the strength and elegance that my grandmother brought to her lace pieces. My first attempt,  lacked the balance between strength and elegance. The wire seemed to absorb the piece. I'm hoping that the next attempt will balance these aspects of my grandmother better.

"Consuming Memories"

Recently, I visited one of the jewels of my neighborhood, Counterpoint (http://www.counterpointsd.com/).  Counterpoint is a very chic wine and beer bar in Golden Hill. Their amazing "food for the people" menu has spectacular options for vegetarians and meat lovers.  Usually, I order the pastrami but something told me to try something different. So I asked the waiter to surprise me. As I tasted the sandwich, I was suddenly thrown back into memories of my childhood with my late grandmother. What was this? Turns out, this sandwich is made of what I called as a child, "poor-mans food," bologna.  The bologna sandwich plagued me growing up. We had it all the time due to its quantity & affordability.  I remember hating bologna and wanting to scream "where's the turkey!!!" But at this time, the fried bologna sandwich was a pleasant surprise.  Immediately, I knew that I wanted that feeling of nostalgia in the "Helter Shelter" project. I want to achieve that split second of happiness with this next piece.
My interest in reexamining my past has led me to crocheting and lacework. Crocheting, quilting, and lacework was a way for many women express their creativity and also provide for their family. Taught by my grandmother, I began crocheting at a very young age. Like the bologna, my patience as a child with crocheting eventually passed. So I am reteaching myself the skills that I once honed and combining it with furniture in someway.  For "shelter" and upcoming work, I will be using techniques such as lacework and crochet with wire to develop a sense of nostalgia. Its amazing that a quick taste of the familiar assure you that your initial thoughts are worth investigating. 

-ASH ROBINSON

The photographs below are works by Ruth Asawa.  

  Untitled S.158
(Hanging two sphere, three layer, interlocked forms)
circa 1996
Oxidized copper wire
20 x 19 x 19 inches

Untitled (S.512)
c. 1950s
copper wire
9 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches

Untitled (S.512) Detail
c. 1950s
copper wire
9 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches

"Helter Shelter"

As an artist, thoughts of ideas run rapid though my mind. These thoughts have always been plagued by questions of uncertainty. In the previous months, this uncertainty has co-existed with a lack of progression of making work. Suddenly, my identity had been hijacked! The work or lack there of had been halted and what I knew to be me had changed. My "shelter" had been dismantled and my comfort level went from 10 to 0.  In the next few weeks I am going to investigate this absence of comfort in a project entitled "Helter Shelter." This project will allow me to focus on aspects of my past that brought comfort on a conscious and subconscious level.  Things that I perceived as child that fed my innocence and safety from the unfamiliar. The feeling of nostalgia is what I hoping to capture in this piece by focusing on objects that bring peace or a sense of love such as jewelry, hand stitched quilts, crocheted blanket, and other heirlooms.  I am also interested in the connection that these types of object have with women.  There is a painting by German painter Gabriele Munter, Return from Shopping Trip, 1908-09, (no image) that depicts a women torso after a shopping. This painting, among other things, touches on the perception of women by the objects she possesses. The Challenge is designing an object that can inhabit the feeling of nostalgia while also raising questions about connection of women to objects.

-Ash Robinson

This pattern was my late grandmother's favorite pattern