I’d put the book aside for a while as I really needed to think about how to finish it. I’d been experimenting with layers of teabags – finding out how strong they could be. How much could they stretch or bend without ripping?
With this information, I made straps and buttons, which were quite effective.
Other works with teabags…
My recent work came about while absent mindedly putting teabags to one side, ready to bin or compost them. When trying to work something out, I make tea.
Realising it was such a huge part of my working life, I wanted to incorporate it into my work.
The first attempts were simply glueing them together and painting on them, but ideas are developing, the more I work.
I had already experimented with making pages of a book, but I wanted to take it further – making the covers and bindings completely out of the tea bag material.
For the last few months, I have been making new work in the studio.
I’m still thinking about the insecurity of housing, whether it be for financial reasons, or the instability of climate. Can we work more with the environment and build our houses in the forests? Can our habitats be made more mobile to move us away from danger?
My work will be shown in the Searching:Unexpected treasures exhibition at The Bridewell, Liverpool.
More images of my book (shown on the exhibition poster ) can be seen on the ‘Books‘ page on this site.
The book is made from Rubber and contains pages made from tea bags, paper and textiles. Keys once lost, are nestled between the pages.
While I move away ; A small mixed media installation
When I was making this installation, I was thinking about how secure (or not) our individual accommodation was. I found that more and more people that I knew were now struggling with paying their rent or mortgages and a few had to give up their homes.
Showing in ‘Not my beautiful house’, Tate Liverpool until 15 August 2014
Title taken from the song ‘ Move Away’ by The Killers
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Factory is an installation I made for the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield : http://www.barnabyfestival.org.uk/events/factory
The theme of the festival is ‘Industry’ and my work depicts the children working in the textile factories during Victorian times. The boots are made from used packaging materials.
‘Memorial’ is a large paper installation, showing at the Dykeman Young gallery in Jamestown NY . It is a continuation of my work about the 1944 aircrash, culminating in this memorial for the 24 US airmen that lost their lives in the crash.
Exhibition can be viewed here..
For the last few months, I have been working towards the Colonize exhibition which will be shown in Jamestown NY at The 3rd on 3rd and Dykeman Young Galleries.
My work is based on the tragic 1944 Liberator plane crash that happened close to where I live. It was only by chance that I found the monument to the 24 airmen that lost their lives in the crash and it made me want to find out more.
From where I live, I can see the vast area of bright yellow rape seed flowers that surround the crash site. Until recently I had no idea what lay below.
I found a map of the site and took a walk up there. Its very quiet. There are deep gouges in the earth, still visible after all of these years. Remnants of animal life remain – wool caught on a barbed wire fence, a skull from a sheep, bones lying peacefully in a brook.
The triangular monuments are collages of what remains. Symbols on maps, fading flowers plant and animal life…
Further reading on the tragedy can be found here Many thanks to Colin Schroeder, aviation historian, for sending me information
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This gallery contains 8 photos.
New collages and drawings using manipulated paper. I very rarely make work that is for sale, but I am donating these works towards our crowdfunding bid. This is to raise enough cash so that we can exhibit our work and take … Continue reading
The paper houses are from an installation I made last year and I wanted to recycle them in some way.
Still thinking about the journey the paper has made before it reached my hands, I wanted to incorporate not only the elements of travelling, but also the feeling of safely we experience when we arrive home from our journeys.
‘Safe House’ to me, sums up that feeling of security. (Showing in The Warrington Museum & Art Gallery as part of the Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival)
Trailers were made for the Clandestine exhibition in the Williamson tunnels.
Reading about Joseph Williamson, I found out that as well as the tunnels, he also built a lot of the houses on Mason Street and in adjoining streets. I found it fascinating that he ‘was constantly changing the houses he owned – knocking down walls, putting in bigger and bigger windows, extending cellars’ etc.
This installation represents not only the link between the tunnels and the houses by the transportation of the building materials from one place to another, but of the reinvention of an object.
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Wendy Williams 