Rebecca Nimmo; "Raffia;" Raffia
Raffia—that cheap, brown, grasslike craft material used to adorn jam jars and “rustic” holiday gifts. It can be purchased for a pittance at hobby and craft stores, and appears almost synthetic unless you notice the tag—“Made in Madagascar.” It’s a repeating theme—you’d be hard-pressed to find a package that doesn’t say that it was made in Madagascar (or one of the nearby Southeast African countries).
That’s because raffia, this cheap little craft adornment, is one of the giants of the rainforest.
The palm trees of the genus Raphia exist within the tropical rainforests of Madagascar and have the longest leaves of any living plants—some up to 80 feet in length. The cord in this piece, handmade of natural raffia from a craft store, represents this mind-boggling magnitude in comparison to the tiny ornamental trees so popular in America.
My favorite comments from critique:
ReplyDelete"...I think for this to be more effective, there should be more. More lengths of 80 ft? I'm not sure, but I feel like it is too minimalist."
"This sort of reminds me of something I would see in a science or natural history museum where a comparison is made against an everyday object. The twine, representing a single leaf from a tree found in nature, sort of puts these bizarre, manicured, possibly genetically modified landscape elements in their place."
"The craft of this piece is very nice and clean I like that. I do wish the string was more asthetically pleasing but I understand the piece is mostly conceptual."
The concept of this piece is very strong, and I do very much enjoy the minimalism you chose. It pushes the idea of "what is art?" and I always find that interesting. Because it is so minimal I was curious how you let your audience know the concept. Looking at it without the statement I found that I had no idea what you were alluding to, but when I read the statement that was when the piece demanded my interest. Did you have it posted or was your audience left to come up with there own conclusions?
ReplyDeleteLeslea, I did post the statement at one of the ends of the twine. In many ways at least in my mind this piece is about the process, since I made the entire length of twine by hand. I did, however, have trouble thinking of a way to communicate that without it sounding forced.
DeleteI have to agree with Leslea. You have, what I feel, is a very thoughtful and interesting concept and your statement is well written. The minimalism of the piece is fine; I just think it becomes a matter of how it is displayed. In a gallery, as an object, the twine by itself would be immediately engaging because it would be standing there and people would ask “why?” This would draw them in for investigation. It seems a challenge for this to work this as an installation, especially in this setting. It’s likely that people would see the statement first and then try to find the art, as it could appear to be there for functional reasons. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing per se, but could the piece stand as an installation without a posted statement?
ReplyDeleteOn a technical note, if you hand wove this it be cool to see some process pics or a detail close-up of the weave. I’m also wanting some context for the space it’s in, like a further away shot just of the planter.