* Spoiler Free For those not apprised of this term, in essence it means I will not give away the gist of the story and spoil it for others who want to read it!
**Please check out my exciting Wool blog give away at the bottom of this post!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After what seems to have been a bit of a long haul, I have completed the Sci Fi Challenge piece and the book is:
I understand in the overall realm of science fiction books, this one is considered rather a light weight but for one who has not read this genre before, it took a bit of time to tune into the storyline. However, I persevered and found it to be rather interesting. I think what triggered a light bulb when I saw the book competition rules was that one could create " a piece of artwork of any kind" and the title certainly presented itself to be interpreted in textiles.
The book is a self publishing Cinderella story in itself and you can find out more about Hugh Howey's venture into publishing and further in-depth information about the book here:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/03/hugh_howey_and_wool_how_the_self_pubbed_sci_fi_writer_relates_to_fans.single.html
I found the book to be rather dark and haunting, mysterious, suspenseful, disturbing and filled at times with tension and fears of the unknown. In that vein, my textile piece was inspired by and portrays deception, mind games, control & power, lies and secrecy. Two things that loomed largest in my mind were the dominant image of the silo, the 100+ storied underground tower in which the apocalyptic survivors dwelled and the spiral staircase that ran through the centre of it. Hence the silo is front and centre in my work, which is filled with symbolism and " hidden messages.
" Cut From a Different Cloth - a Textural Play on Wool "
The work was built up on a base fabric I created and discussed in my Feb 18th post
http://stitchingwithattitude.blogspot.ca/2013/02/post-apocalyptic-teaser.html and all the needlework, stitching and fabric manipulation is hand work. No sewing machines were touched or harmed in the making of this piece!
The silo is cut out from a man's hand knit sweater and lots of unravelling took place for extra embellishment. The hand ( in the top of the tower) has long been thought of as a conduit of power and hands with an index finger pointing down are symbolic of an entity reaching down for the soul. The metal spiral running down the centre of the tower was created from Sadi Purl,a metal thread resembling a closely wound spring, which I wound around a dowel overnight to hold the spirals in place. (For those interested further in purl threads, Mary Corbett has an indepth post on them:http://www.needlenthread.com/2008/09/goldwork-threads-specifically-sadi.html).
The windows are tiny hinged picture frames, one fogged with an old defunct negative and one showing a hazy photo of a person.
The words, Lies, Secrets and Hope are incorporated into the piece. They are not too difficult to find but obscured a little by surrounding embellishments. However, if you can't see them, a trip to your optometrist might be in order (-: The large brown eyed lentil focal bead was created by Grace Ma of Gracebeads.
The purple/black embellishment you see throughout the landscape is dried black seaweed meticulously hand stitched down and the two toned crumpled brown pieces are black funghi, also very carefully hand stitched as they were prone to crumble if pierced too hard. When I work on a project, it becomes all encompassing and when shopping in the nearby Chinese grocer, my dystopic landscape manifested itself ! The tree lampwork bead ( upper right in photo) " Winter Storm Warning" was created by Bluhealer.
The upper left hand corner features polygraph readings and a head
undergoing lie detector tests. This also depicts the " head games" and brain washing I see in the story. The large lampwork bead to the upper right of the head is " View From Another Planet" by Devil Woman Beads. Metal springs, bones, bamboo shapes, assorted beads along with torn & manipulated dyed silk carrier rods adorn the landscape.
The upper right hand corner features a pair of eyes shrouded in wool. Reference to " pulling the wool over one's eyes". It also begins to show the green creeping into the landscape that the residents see or think they see? Two green tear drops appear below the right eye and I leave that to the viewer to fathom. To the left of the eyes, ( see overall photo at top ) the green leaf leads into the word "hope"......something I think every resident of the silo holds close to their heart.
The black Wensleydale wool is direct from the highlands of Scotland along with some Drenthe Heath ( thank you Monika) which went into the underlay. It was an exercise in patience trying to manipulate that fleece just enough to indicate what I wanted to achieve without covering the eyes too much. Lots of fiddling and farting about with tweezers, stylus, and eventually a very light hair spray to hold it in place. However, it turned out better than I anticipated it would.
There are other little innuendos within the overall piece that a viewer might pick out with careful observation .
I succeeded in my initial undertaking which was to challenge myself in a completely new & unusual ( to me) format . It gave me an opportunity to expose myself to a different form of fantasy, one which offered me new variants to consider and ample food for thought. Thank you Mr. Howey for introducing me to another way of seeing and thinking.
AND for those whose interest has been piqued by my coverage of WOOL I am having a
Blog Give Away of one hard cover copy of the 2013 Random House publication of WOOL to be determined by Random Number Generator on the evening of March 11th, 2013. All you have to do to be eligible is to leave a comment in the Comments Section on this post on either my Wool competitive piece or as to why you would like a copy of Mr. Howey's exciting book. You won't be disappointed in the book! Good luck to all !
******THE WINNER OF THE BLOG GIVEAWAY IS: ANGI MULLIS******
I have contacted Angi for details in sending the book to her.
THANKS to ALL who have visited my blog and left comments and I hope you will continue
to drop by. LHH
