In my small studio I have a table by now as I mentioned some time before. It stands directly in front of the stairs that lead down to the next floor, the only exit, so that I have to crawl under the table to get in or out. But there is still the other workplace on the floor in front of the window that I used before I had the idea of putting a table there. I like to call it my non-working workplace. I still sit there to draw, try out small things, and to think.
Below you see the current state of my non-working workplace and the state ruled worlds was in until this morning:
Two boxes with things right in the centre of my workplace and thus of everything. You see there the shapes I made in the lower box some with the figures attached, and more material in the upper box. In the lower box you also see an opened book with ghastly colours painted on. Which is the reason for the stalemate I and this work are in: After I formed shapes from woven bamboo mats i.e. “the ruled worlds”, I inhabited them with small people. I had the idea that these people should have thoughts about these walls, about threat and protection, about weapons and soldiers… some of those thoughts I have written down, other still only exist in a foggy state in the nebula of my mind.
Then I had the idea of altering a math book, covering the math pages with drawings and these thoughts. That worked out well enough until that page above happened, which is so awful that I couldn’t bring myself to touch it anymore, not even to turn this page. So every time I thought of working on this project, I turned away again. But the ruled worlds had not been forgotten…
Today I started with altering a new book (I bought several, because I wanted to read some before I decided which one to use, and also because I already thought that I might have to start over at some point).
I took it all apart. Among the books I had purchased, it was the one which was in worst shape. It stank, it was damp when it reached me, and the cover is pretty much destroyed. Cutting it open, I was surprised to find that the binding itself was in perfect shape. That didn’t stop me to take out all the pages and make this:
Not quite what I initially had in mind but a fresh start. The rolled pages are supposed to replace the bamboo sticks in the old worlds. The mat above is curling due to faults I made while weaving it together. Well, I’ll see how that works out, and then I’ll talk a bit more about what else I have in mind for them.
I like the direction this is taking! Sometimes, I think, the works that seem to go through the hardest period of seeming impossible turn out, in the end, to be some of the best. I like how you share your process of struggling toward a solution.