So after the collection of the belts came the experimentation!
I had a very trusty assistant in the lovely Level 6 Visual artist Amanda Twigg who agreed to assist me in my madness. Essentially wrap me in the belts I had so cunningly procured!
So we spent a morning experimenting.
I really wanted to understand the starting point of this enquiry about how all of these belts had come together from different histories and how it was restricting to be wrapped in these belts, no freedom of movement. It made me think about immigration and my image looks so shocking (see the following linkhttp://aa2a.biz/pg/photos/view/17577/belt-sculpture-image-2) and expression-less, that it lead me to think about themes of terrorism and also how we are restricted and disabled by our ego sometimes.
The images were very strong, and yes suggestive of the whole BDSM culture, but that was actually the last thing on my mind.
I was more concerned about how I had become 'sculpture-like' and how placing myself in different areas of the project space added to meaning.
What was interesting was how, given what I thought what little time I had to develop this idea at the time, just how instinctive my practice has become. Thats a good thing.
