We
all do it, we pick up stuff and think, "I could make
something really interesting with that" and it goes
on a shelf or in a pile in a corner and it becomes
Clutter!
Clutter
is not merely a physical condition but also an mental state,
often a point reached when too many works exist within and
need to be "exorcised" in order for further progress
to be made.
In
2002 Sarah Nicholson created a new body of work exploring
the relationship between collection the multiple and the
miniature from a feminist/feminised perspective for exhibition
at the Alsager Gallery, in the Manchester Metropolitan Universitys
Crewe and Alsager campus. As I have been invited to exhibit
the work several times since, I started re-assessing it.
The original workshops had produced some beautiful small
dress maquetes and as an underlaying theme was the gigantic,
its opposite, the miniature, appealed to me. One of the
things that appeals to individuals who collect is the miniature
object with all its connotations of containment and control
- themes relevant to fairytales and the media also - getting
the whole set - completion, resolution of a desire. This
led me to create a range of collectable miniatures of the
gigantic dresses, multiples easily remade over and over
in a production line manner.