The Village

An installation of woven nests

September 2nd – 19th 2015

These small vessels have been woven from rope washed up from boats and ships onto the breakwater at Newport, from farmers and fishermen in Harlosa, collected from a school destroyed in the Tsunami in Japan, picked up from the side of the road or passed onto me from friends. Each rope holds a story, each story rewoven.
Individual stories gathered create a communal story.

There is fragility and loss that resonates from these empty nests, but also strength and mystery. The audience is invited to walk into The Village and become entangled in the threads of other people’s stories.

I started weaving nests on returning from a community arts project in Northern Queensland and have continued to explore this form. Most of the nests are woven into a closed shape, creating a secure and safe container that is protected from the elements – a nurturing space. The form resonates with notions of migration and hope, home and nurture, and therefore loss, fragility, and a desire for safety.

The concept for The Village was consolidated while in residence at ‘Bird Lab’ in Harlsoa, Sweden, April 2014. Harlosa is near a sanctuary for migratory birds; small songbirds, waders, larger water birds and storks, all travelling from the north to the south and back again. I sat weaving nests for the 4 weeks I was in residence, reflecting on the materials I had been given, the fragility of the birds who migrate, their dependence on the environment and our role as humans in this. Human migration and our parallel needs – food, shelter, safety, and the hope that travels with us.’

The Village follows Forest, an installation in Synergy Gallery in 2013. Nests that hung as individual pieces among a forest of paper in 2013 are now hung together as a Village. More nests have been woven, new materials have been added, the story continues…

A BIG thank you to Paul Blackman, who guided me through the installation of the work

And a special thanks to Dean Lombard for helping with the flier design and carrying the shipping rope up the stairs!

Such beautiful fragile little homes hanging on threads of existence ready to become a safe and warm home.
Thanks you Stef … I will be thinking about this long after leaving the Village. Home is where the heart is.

…So full of shadows and movement!

Beautiful, Looks lovely from the front, feels lovely to be inside “The Village” So may gorgeous spaces