Earlier in the year, I participated, and was accepted for an
outward facing live commission opportunity with financial company, Primary
Europe. Over
the duration of my commission, I have had to quickly learn and understand new
obstacles and ways of working; working with outward facing clients and
companies (eg. framing suppliers), managing multiple deadlines alongside one
another, overcoming resizing and measurement problems, using my own judgement
to decide upon material and colour choices, working in the context of
installation, and many other minor details that I usually would not worry
about.
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| Left to right: original visualisation for commission pitch, installation space |
I initially proposed that I would create three embroidered
pieces of my drawn, circular patterns, which would replicate the calming notion
that I feel when creating the pieces, inside the busy movement of the city
centre. The hardest obstacle that I have had to face whilst creating these
pieces has been creating the repeat pattern of my work over a larger surface
scale, in comparison to my original samples. I had trouble with the temperament
of the specialist machine that I was using for these pieces; however overall
there was nothing that could not be fixed. One change that I needed to make
involved the decision from changing the company logo from hand, to machine stitching;
after trying both techniques, I felt that the machine gave a much nicer finish
to the pieces.
Something that I have never experienced before is the
installation process of my own work. Luckily, we were helped with our
installation, only needing to supply our own fittings; something that I am told
would be left solely to the artist in normal situations. Seeing the overall
finished piece in situ was a strange, yet satisfying feeling. Reflecting upon
when I had first visited the space and pitched my ideas, to then seeing it come
to life in front of me, I felt proud.
Overall, I have faced and overcome many struggles. It has
been a challenging few months, however all experiences of both managing
multiple projects and presenting/ pitching my ideas to external clients has
been enjoyable. I realise that although I work for a fashion context, my work
is versatile enough to be adapted for multiple contexts, including
installation; however, upon reflection, I am much more comfortable in the
fashion context.
