The sculpture by Laura Ellen Bacon and Rachel Carter is complete and ready for it’s unveiling at the University of Derby on Tuesday 28th September 2010.
The journey has been a new experience for me, working in collaboration with another artist who works in the same field of willow weaving. When the university asked us both if we would consider working together it was easy to say yes straight away. I have a lot of respect for Laura and her very impressive career which I have followed with a keen interest. Her style of weaving two withies together with knots would be a great contrast to the open twisted weave of my own style.
When we both arrived on site earlier this week, it was a bit of a tentative start with lots of stops and starts attempting to find a way to unite the two weaving styles, we began by starting on opposite ends of the sculpture and working towards each other. By the following day the flow of the sculpture began to take shape as more and more willow was added. The final day saw a large change in the method of working, we had become more comfortable with each other and our different styles of weaving. To prevent the sculpture having a Laura side and a Rachel side we decided to swap over and work on each others areas. This worked incredibly well as this allowed the two styles to blend with each other, and most importantly prevent each artist in becoming too protective of each section.
The final result shows a sculpture that is truly collaborative with each artist style marrying together seamlessly to create a willow sculpture that flows through the metal panels with a fluid motion.
All that is to come is the unveiling to the Universities guests, students and press on Tuesday, it is always fascinating to hear how people perceive your work, and this will be no exception as we will hopefully get to hear what people think of a collaborative piece of work.
Watch out for sneak peeks of the sculpture and the final images to follow shortly.