Goldsmiths Design Fest

knotting~works

Goldsmiths design festival was part of London Design week (which it turns out is London Design -fortnight- not week, but that is great because it means more cool events!). We (MA students) curated and installed a show for the festival, which was a chance to share the work we have been exploring over the past year.

setting-up joy.

catalogue for the show looking mighty fine

symbols of youth culture in Piedad’s rug and visual responses

detail of Piedad’s symbols of youth

Ulla, Erica and Inigo with their revolving weed ritual

Fuen and her making process

I decided to share the explorations into materialities I made over the past few months. I chose to share this work (rather than my independent research project) because it is very visual and tangible. Making knots seemed like a tangible way to communicate some of the concepts in feminist epistemologies that I have been exploring this year. My independent project on the other hand is a lot more detailed (12,000 words), and in the time we had I felt that I could not communicated the ideas it properly in a gallery space.

Inspiration for the show -a knotting taxonomy

Thank you Bristol Rope and Twine company for helping me source all this lovely rope!

knotting~works

knotting~works

some of the knots: anchor, bow tie, slip, alpine butterfly, Australian, tom fool.

This is the first time I have presented something like this, and in this way. Usually I would try to steer clear of white wall type places. However, through this process I learned a lot about how gallery spaces can be a platform in which to share, communicate and start discussions around complex ideas. The gallery format also forces you to boil down concepts to key points (you talk briefly to lots of people about the project), and in that sense they become inclusive space. As long as they are approached in way that is to include, and not confuse.

all that is left: some knot names!

More pictures of the show opening are on the Design facebook page. And more info about Goldsmiths Design Fest is up on their website.