In Spring 2022 Lemmy, age 6, proposed that Artlink host a Lego show and even went on a research trip to Manchester Discovery Centre in the summer to get ideas. He wanted everyone to have a place to exhibit their best lego and invited the public to display their creations. He gathered all of his Lego and Duplo bricks together for a making area so visitors could create pieces on site.
The exhibition included a Lego animation station where visitors could create stop motion animation from their creations and a Lego printing station where lego dots could be used to print patterns. There was also a Lego character design and a yellow Lego brick cake.
Lemmy set up a treasure hunt where participants had to locate twelve special lego figures throughout the show. The prize for finding all of the figures was a hand cast chocolate Lego person.
How are the fabrics dyed?
The fabric is linen, I submerge them, often multiple times, in large buckets and paddling pools filled with water and natural dyes. Allowing the material to dry or not, between dipping greatly affects my results, as does what I choose to drape them on or what i set on them as they dry.
I use various natural dying substances from vegetables to wild foliage. Some examples that I used for Afterlight works include; seaweeds, spinach, red cabbage, turmeric, yellow onion, red onion, sea rocks and their minerals, beetroot, elderberry, blueberries, wild berries, weeds. The interactions between the different layers and dyes can produce nice surprises and personality to the work. As the pieces near an end I have also chosen to only paint on a particular section. Over time I have developed little tricks to have some control in the effects of the dying but the process mostly has a mind of its own.
Where do the images come from?
My images are taken from my personal photos and also from collective imagery. The work for Afterlight has focused on personal photos from the time I had my daughter.
Why do you use a grid/pixilation?
I use pixilation as a way of distorting the memory in the image. As time passes we remember something or someone from a particular perspective or moment, not quite as it was in the moment. While spending time with these memories and transferring them through a grid with embroidery the work develops the fond moment in a new way. My actions and the colours I use are what I hope embody the memory.
While in this process I’m intuitively am quite selective with which sections I include or don’t, as am I while choosing to brighten/ darken areas in comparison to my starting image. I play games with myself while making the work for example allowing myself just a few oddly patched squares or alternating in directions, with the rare diagonally embroidered or by having varying sizes.
Why do you show the reverse side of the work?
I show the back of the work because it makes the way I worked easier to trace for the viewer, I trying to decode this when I look at artists work. I think there’s a beauty in their imperfection too.
Where did the idea for the huge drawing come from?
The mark making is much like the thread work actions I make, it’s also reminds me of marking time off while waiting or counting something. I began with smaller ones and just thought a larger wallpaper like version would be interesting as a backing to some of the work. All the work is concerned with the passing of time and life chapters, the materials and how I make continuously consider time, mark making, embroidering, repeatedly dipping fabric, wrapping, tying. Whether considering reconnections to the past or now as I transitioned in my path to a mother and watch my daughter begin her journey in life.
